Icethunder – Your place for webhosting stuff!
Help! My web site is not working!!!
Aug 27th
Well, if you want to get attention you do have it 
But it would be very nice if you would be able to describe your problem in more detail while trying to find help on a forum. It’s because you do have the attention, but with no relevant data to start with no one will be able to help you.
Include as many information as you only can when trying to find help in web hosting. People are willing to help but they need info to get started.
When searching for help try to append these information:
- your domain name so others can check if they can see your web site or the Error message
- what have you done before this problem started to show up
- what did you install
- what did you uninstall
- what did you allow Read the rest of this entry »
The art of shifting responsibility in web hosting [IV.]
Jul 3rd
Yeasterday we talked about the first server service I would suggest you should “outsource” to a third party and do not run it yourself. It was DNS and as stated it’s easy to set it up when you read a few tutorials, but the security risks involved and the knowledge required are just too risky and it’s good to leave it to someone with more time and experience.
Mail server
Today I will continue in this discussion and introduce another kind of service I think would be a prime candidate for outsourcing. It is the email service and the mail server itself. I have run across many articles on the Internet suggesting leaving mail services to big companies with resources and knowledge. And I think it is even a better idea then leaving DNS to be managed by a third party. The one reason is the volume of spam rising each year. If you are thinking about setting up and using your own mail server than spam will find you sooner or later and thus I think it is very important to really think about leaving email server services to someone else. By “someone else” I mean someone with the resources and know-how. Read the rest of this entry »
The art of shifting responsibility in web hosting [III.]
Jul 2nd
Previously I mentioned I will leave the list of free and paid DNS services for another article and do not include it into the article about DNS in general. Well, it is now the time to introduce you to the world of DNS service you can find online. I must admit it is not very hard to find some kind of DNS service online, but it is very important to choose the right one as the sole fate f your website and domain name lies on the DNS server. The DNS server is down -> your website is not accessible... Well, it is accessible if you have a back up DNS server in place, but in general it is true… 
Free DNS versus paid DNS
I think that many of you who read the headline just think free in DNS hosting is a bad thing and you do not get a good level of service, but it is not true. I would say it is many times absolutely wrong!!! The reason is, that many reputable providers exist and they do not ask anything for their service. One of such companies is namecheap.com and their main focus is on selling domain name and web hosting, but they also offer [not only] their customers an option to manage DNS settings for their domain. Read the rest of this entry »
The art of shifting responsibility in web hosting [II.]
Jul 2nd
Last here at Icethunder.net we talked about how we can make our days even more effective and less stressful in web hosting. I think there is no one out there who did not need to solve some kind of problem with his/her web hosting. It does not need to be a problem with the whole hosting, but only a small problem with one of the many server services possible. A server is many times regarded as the whole big black box. No one really knows how it works, but if it does not work, than the customer gets very angry. But there are ways we [customers] can make our web hosting life much easier. It is called “shifting responsibility” or better “dividing responsibility” between more then one company.
The main theory behind this is, that while using multiple services provider by multiple companies there is only a limited chance they will all be affected by the same kind of problem at the same time. You web server at company X might get into problems, but if you are hosting your email at company Y it does not hit your emails and they still get delivered. There is a loss of course, but it is not a huge one. Thus it is always a good thing to know this Read the rest of this entry »
The art of shifting responsibility in Webhosting [I.]
Jul 2nd
I think I have been talking about this topic in a more general form in previous articles, but today I would like to summarize it as much as it only gets. I am talking about shifting your responsibilities and duties to some third party or service. The result is you will have less work to do, less things to worry about and more time for accomplishing your primary goals.
Why is this so important? Well, there is only a limited amount of time at your disposal and you need to divide it between numerous tasks in web hosting. You need to take back-ups, set-up and control DNS records, secure your server, check your mail against spam and much more. These all tasks can be done in two basic ways:
- You do it all by yourself
- This is the most costly option. Not because you have to pay huge sums of money, but because it costs the most time. You need to learn lots of things and trust me, if you are not an IT profesional than this is not the way to go. Shared hosting helps you with this, but even while on a shared hosting platform it is a big advantage to move some services to a third party like e.g. moving email services to Google Apps etc. Read the rest of this entry »
My basic VPS guide [3.]
Jun 17th
Last time here I have talked about how to keep Debian Linux up to date and thus tighten the security of your VPS operating system. Today we will mention one more possible scenario. Although Debian is a very common operating system on servers it is not the only Linux distro found there. Another very poplar distribution is build on the Fedora core and it’s CentOS and all flavours of Fedora.
The Fedora core…
Although both Debian and Fedora are build on the Linux kernel they are not identical. The most part of the commands are the same, but there are some differences. And one such difference is in the update process. You should be already familiar with Debian’s update process and in this article I will tell you how to update your Fedora box to make it safer :) Read the rest of this entry »
The start point for all my VPS configurations ;)
Jun 5th
I think all of you who own a VPS server know the great feeling after you have secured it. You updated the operating system, you installed anti-virus software, root-kit checker is installed as well and you are just on the start of your journey. You have the foundation laid and if you need to move on to make your web site dream a reality. And as we know the start is many times really very hard. It’s even harder if you do not know where to look or you do not know where to search for some great help… .
Many people went trough the same journey, but only a few shared their knowledge as many regard this knowledge as their personal “know-how” and are reluctant to share it with the masses. Today I would like to share with you something I have learned over the course of time and I am using it every time I am trying to set up a running web site on a server. If you are a newbie like me to VPS this will be of great importance to you and it will help you a lot. Read the rest of this entry »
Is it worth it to have a web site on shared hosting?
May 26th
The headline is a really good one and it’s a very practical question anyone who is trying to put his web site online should ask himself. You should ask it, because the answer gives you the much needed information whether it does pay off to put your web site on a paid service, or you could be perfectly fine with a free web hosting alternative. It is very important if you are on a small budget, or you are not absolutely sure what to do – what direction to take.
What should decide?
What way you will go – the free or the paid one – depends absolutely on the nature of your project. It depends on your expectations and projections. You need to have a plan in place for your online project. The plan should hold basic information about your web site and what do you want to use it for. Does it matter if you have a few days downtime per year? Does the speed matter to you? Does the features and their availability matter to you? Could you need support from the company during your stay? These are the basic questions you should ask. These questions also answer the question what is better for your case. They give you the answer what direction to take and do not get lost Read the rest of this entry »
Do you procrastinate your hosting tasks???
May 24th
Well, not a very good headline for a web hosting blog, but it is very descriptive. It asks you if you procrastinate your every day tasks and among them is are also tasks like: researching your future web host, monitoring your web site’s uptime, looking for ways to improve design, speed ranking of your web site and much more.
You should not underestimate any part of your web hosting life, because it could backfire in a very bad way. You should be always the one who manages every aspect of your online project and thus no problem should surprise you. As long as you do have a back up strategy everything is great. But procrastination of your every day hosting tasks is a very bad habit. One day you wake up and find out, that your web site is down for several days. You would have noticed thisa lot sooner if you only would monitor it regularly Read the rest of this entry »
Four bad habits while searching for a web host…
May 22nd
I mentioned a short list of “best tips” yesterday and today I will expand on this topic a little more. I will not k about the “best tips”, but about the bad habits people use to have while searching for a web host. The list will not be complete and you are welcome to add your own thoughts under the article with your own list of bad habits
- Buying in a rush. It’s never very good and clever to buy in a rush. You should always leave enough time for exploration and comparison, else you could make bad decision based on too little information.
- Buying more than you need. This is closely related to the fact, that people do not know how much they really need. How much bandwidth they may need, or how much web space they need for their web site. But it’s very essential to know these facts before buying anything. Read the rest of this entry »
