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
  • what did you disallow
• how long do you know about the problem [to estimate a time-frame]
• what control panel you are on
• what operating system you are on
• what php version you are using
• what mysql version you are using
• other software and version you are using [only relevant...]
• what technology the web site is build on [it’s a CMS, php site, html site etc.]
• try to be descriptive and do not mix your thoughts with the supplied data to make it easy to read

I know web site problems are not the only ones, but they are common. This small guide can be used as a template for any other server service you might think of like Database server, mail Server, DNS Server etc. It is always about the information you give – more information = a higher probability someone will help you out!

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I tried to make this one a very easy and quick guide to help you start searching for help related to web hosting and your web site online Have a nice day and see you next time here at Icethunder.net

PS: Some reason why your web site might not show up:

• DNS is still propagating
• Your domain name does not point to the right directory
• Your database is down or has a problem
• Your home IP is blocked on the hosting server
• The port is blocked by your ISP
• and many more…

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.

Many web hosting companies do offer not only web hosting, but also mail hosting services and thus you can choose one of the offers and leave the mail problem to them. As I said in my articles about DNS it is a very good idea to divide some of the server roles between at least two companies. I know it can cost you more. It could cost you more money and more time to set-up, but if you think your business needs to feel secure than it is a very good solution to put at least the DNS and MAIL server to some other location than your web hosting. Well, we covered DNS in the previous three articles now let’s cover the MAIL server.

Why is it important…?

I think many people like to have all the things they need in one place. It is perfectly fine, because it is more organized and it takes less time to manage the whole “thing”. There are times when this “all in one place” strategy turns to be a big mistake. It is when the web host is hit by some kind of trouble. Shared hosting and VPS [dedicated. etc.] are affected but each type is affected only to a certain degree thus not everything mentioned here applies to each case

With email you need to be sure it runs the whole time. It’s because it is the main point how your visitors or customers are able to talk to you online. And if your email server gets compromised than you are really in big trouble. I don’t say this happens all the time, but there are times when a mail server gets compromised or a web host gets compromised. These are times when it is of a big advantage to divide some of the services to more then just one provider.

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Shared hosting…

While on a shared hosting platform the email service is handled by the web host, but it depends on their reputation, experience, knowledge and measures they use how good you are protected. While on a shared hosting paltform it is OK to use the same host for web hosting and mail hosting, but it would be better to move it somewhere else just in case. There are some services out there which can make this a great shift and one you will never regret.

VPS, dedicated…

Shared hosting is about sharing resources and the server. The webhost controls pretty everything and you as a customer are not able to change anything. But as a VPS or dedicated customer you are pretty much getting the level of control which can make you the hero or destroy everything… . The web host only takes care of you and that you do not brake their rules, bu the security thing is your responsibility. And thus be very careful with running too many server services on only one machine

Conclusion

This should serve only as an introduction into this topic an I will discuss the possible solution in my next articles. Until than have a nice day and see you next time!

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.

It is always a matter of luck and experince, but you can always change this by carefully preparing yourself for the decision what service to choose. Up until now I have been using only namecheap.com although I have been thinking about using one of the more DNS concentrated services. The reason I stayed with namecheap.com is their reputation and experience [and I have  few domains with them already ] .

DNS resources

I think it is very easy to write key words like “dns service” or “free dns service” into your favourite web search tool and many pages of results will just present you with the right offer. The only thing you will have to do is to perform the search and choose the right offer for you. I will present you with some of them, but they will not be ordered in any special way

• www.dyndns.com [offers free and paid service]
• www.zoneedit.com [offers free service for the first  5 domains]
• www.everydns.com [now this has been bought by dyndns.com]
• web.easydns.com [a paid service]
• www.dnsmadeeasy.com [a paid service]
• freedns.afraid.org [this service is free and it looks very promising, but be careful as other are able to use your domain as their subdomain e.g. your name is icethunder.net and someone could create a great.icethunder.net and use it for their own site -you can screen them before they can use it though ]
• www.dnsexit.com [this is a free service and I wanted to use it before actually going elsewhere]
• www.namecheap.com [they offer a free service not only to their customers, but also to people who registered their domain somewhere else and need a redundant DNS solution. I would highly recommend them, but take into account I have not used the others and it is very likely the others can offer even better service for your case]

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At the end of this article I would like to mention this web site www.thefreecountry.com/webmaster where you can find even more information about the before mentioned services. There are some useful info and links there, but never solely rely on one source of information and always perform your own research before signing up with anyone

Hopefully this article helped you. Have a nice day and see you next time!

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 concept and decide whether you will be using it or not. It could save you  lots of money, time and nerves and your customers could like it too.

Today we will cover the first one and many times the most important one from possible solutions and it is DNS hosting.

DNS – why not to rely solely on the defaults.

A DNS server is a server as  is MAIL, WEB or DATABASE servers, but they have all very different duties. the duty of the DNS server is to make sure they point the visitor to the right IP address. It is very often described as “Yellow pages”of the Internet. DNS client [your PC] ask DNS servers if they know where e.g. google.com can be found. Network routers and devices do not know where google.com is, because they only understand the language of IP address. They would be able to tell you where 74.125.43.104 is and get a web page from this IP address if a web server would run on it

You could use your own DNS servers and set up a VPS to function as one. It can be a cheap way of managing your domain names, but be carefull as DNS server is  services and it can get compromised. You nee to secure it and look after  it the whole time. I would personally only use such a solution as back up option and leave the DNS responsibility to a bigger and mroe professional company.

The DNS shift options

You can shift the DNS responsibility to a third party service and it can be both easy and for free at the same time. Free DNS providers do provide you with mixed service and it depends on the service itself and the company behind it what level of experience you will get. Another option is to use a paid service and pay monthly or yearly fees to a DNS host. The company takes care of anything and you can rest assured.

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I will dedicate the next article to reviewing some of the most known DNS solution out there. There will be paid and free alternatives reviewed so there is no place for to worry

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:

1. 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. It is for redundancy purposes. Imagine your host has some technical problems and your clients can not access your web pages… Well, they could email you, but they can not as the host has problems and thus the email stays undelivered! If you would use a third party email solution in the form of Google Aps you would have a way of communicating with your clients despite the problems
     
2. You find a service [a third party] who takes care [it can be free or for money...]
   • This option does not need to cost you a lot of money. There are even some of these services provided for free. Not all services are for free, but even those paid ones have free accounts with limited options. Go and use them, sometimes it is worth the risk!
     

I think the advantages can be clearly seen. More free time for you and your e.g. blog, web site development, design, reviews and much more. You just do not need to care anymore and just check the service once in a while to see how it works and controls the whole thing

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What opportunities are there?

Frankly, I could say there are opportunities and services for any need. You can find a service for he majority of tasks you need to perform online. There are DNS services, back up services, video and audio streaming services, website up-time monitoring services and even services able to provide you with content for your web site. The only thing you need to do is to go out on the web and look for them. This mini series will try to introduce to you some of them and maybe I will cover some of the most important ones in more detail in  a standalone article.

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 :)

Fedora uses YUM as it’s download and update manager and I have to say it is a very good system. I have used Fedora myself for a couple of years and I was very satisfied. The YUM package manager is able to search for packages, find dependencies and install them online and offline as well.

The very basic format of the command is yum [options] and if you want to know a lot more about the command just type man yum and you will be presented with a detailed manual page with information how to use it and what advanced options you can use.

The basic command to update your system would be yum update and it is used to update your whole system. All packages will be checked and if there are some obsolete ones they will be updated appropriately. From my experience Yum is an all in one solution and it is able to download a package from a repository and install it or you can upload a .rpm to your server and install it locally. this is not done so easily in Debian where you need to run another install command to install something from a local file, but at the end of the day it is only a matter of preference.

One importan thing I should have mentioned at the beginning is that Fedora packages end with .rpm in contrast Debian packages end with .deb. There is one more option – you can still download a source code of the software you want to install and compile it yourself without the need to use yum or apt-get at all

Where is the Gentoo?

Well I will cover the basics of Gentoo the next time here at Icethunder.net with some more configuration infos Until than have a nice day and see you next time!

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.

Not so far ago [1year] I came across this great web site and from that moment I keep coming back to it every time I am trying to set up a web site on an unmanaged VPS. i know the majority of steps, but to stay secure I am always trying to read a little bit and then go and set it all up.

The start point for all my VPS configurations

The web site is called www.usefuljaja.com and it is the ultimate resource for anyone trying to set a web server on his own. It explains how to secure a VPS, how to install and configure LITESPEED server or APACHE and a lot more! I

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If you would ask me to recommend you only one web site I would most definitely point you to this address. Screenshots and great comments in the article make it the start point for most newbies. It might look as it is not up to date, but it is! If you are trying to find something more you can still move to the authors new web site and start [or continue] there

Hopefully this has been helpful for you Have a nice day and see you next time!

PS: I would like to thank the author of www.usefuljaja.com as it is a very good web page and it really makes everyone’s life easier. Thank You.

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

One more question – it should be the one about revenue. Do you think your web site will be able to generate some revenue from ad’s? If the answer is YES, then will the web site generate enough to cover the costs of a paid hosting plan? This and the previously mentioned questions are very basic and they should help any one starting their web site and thus their online presence.

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You do not need to start on a paid service if the web site really does not need it. If your web site could be perfectly fine on a free web host, than do not hesitate and use it. It could be better than waisting money on a project not needing it or do not generating enough in return!

Conclusion

Do not try to run to paid web hosting every time you are starting a web site. Maybe your web site does not even need a paid web host. If you do not expect the web site to get heavy traffic, generate huge revenue, or being a linchpin [according to Seth Godin], than there is only a small need to put it on a paid hosting plan. Certainly, you can put even less important web sites on a  paid hosting plan, but always think about this move if it is smart and really necessary

Have a nice day and see you next time here at icethunder.net by a discussion about web hosting and tips and tricks

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

I would say, that some of the basic tasks you should perform every day if you really mean it with your hosting life, are:

1. Daily back ups of your web sites as they help to minimize the risk and problems if a web site goes down.
2. Daily monitoring, because there is nothing better, than to know everything is up and running. You could use a free online monitoring service like monitorus
3. Subscribe to your web hosts RSS and forum FEEDS to be notified about any problems, or special offers. You would be surprised how many great info you an get this way

These are only the basic steps for you to think about and come up with your own strategies and steps to use. You can shared them with the rest of the world in the comment area under this article I will be happy to repsond to any questions related to this topic Have a nice day and see you next time

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. Do not asking questions.People tend to complain pretty quickly and loudly if something is not going their way, but never try to communicate before they buy something! It’s better to communicate with your future host before you buy something and ask questions And the next level of this is, that if you have  a problem aways contact your web  host and leave him time to react and only than go to forums and cry…
4. Don’t reading reviews on forums, but relying purely on review web sites… I think, there is nothing more stupid, than to fully rely on only one resource. A web site can be operated by anyone and do you really trust “anyone,” or do you trust “someone you know, or the community knows”? I think the second option is much better. In a forum there are people with reputation. They are known by other members and you can always check what they said in the past and compare their stand points

Hopefully I gave you something to think about in this article. I know there could be many more things listed in this list, but I just wanted to cover the most visible ones. Have a nice day and see you next time!

• Definitely make some estimation beforehand. You need to know how much bandwidth and web space you will need!

This comes very handy in the beginning and during your search as it helps you to decide which hosts and package just do not offer what you need… .

• Decide what operating system & database type you need.
• Decide your annual budget.

Yo should know how much you are wiling to spend on web hosting beforehand.

• Decide between “Good image & slightly higher price” vs. “Cheap and mainstream.”
• Forget about unlimited and look for unmettered…Although they are mostly the same
• Buy a domain name and decide how many email accounts you will need.
• Don’t buy the domain name from the same company. It could get you into trouble if the company would experience some problems. Try not to put all your eggs into one basket!!!

This is only a basic list and it’s not complete – and it never really could be as there are so many things to think about when searching for a good web host. Many times it’s about experience and patience in searching, but sometimes even luck helps you a lot.

You can spend months by searching and find the worst host ever, or you can go out. Try to make up some decision points and choose your new host with confidence. Choose the host with confidence, that if something bad happens you will be able to react in an appropriate manner and not over-react!

Have a nice day and a great weekend!

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It’s from webhostingtalk.com and they have one really great tutorial on their forum. [click for the link]

It’s not great because it’s from this forum, but because it’s provided by people like you and me. It’s from people for people and there are lots of great things in there! One more reason to start your search for a web host on a forum instead of on a review web site

For those of you who do not like to blindly click on links I will post a few preview quotes from the guide, but you will get much more as soon as you visit this forum. there you can ask questions about your specific needs

Restrict SSH Access
To restrict and secure SSH access, bind sshd to a single IP that is different than the main IP to the server, and on a different port than port 22.

SSH into server and login as root.
Note: You can download Putty by Clicking Here (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~s…/download.html). It’s a clean running application that will not require installation on Windows-boxes.

At command prompt type:
pico /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Scroll down to the section of the file that looks like this:
#Port 22
#Protocol 2, 1
#ListenAddress 0.0.0.0
#ListenAddress ::

Uncomment and change
#Port 22
to look like
Port 5678 (choose your own 4 to 5 digit port number (49151 is the highest port number AND do not use 5678  lol )

Uncomment and change
#Protocol 2, 1
to look like
Protocol 2

Uncomment and change
#ListenAddress 0.0.0.0
to look like
ListenAddress 123.123.123.15 (use one of your own IP Addresses that has been assigned to your server)

Note 1: If you would like to disable direct Root Login, scroll down until you find
#PermitRootLogin yes
and uncomment it and make it look like
PermitRootLogin no

As you can see even a task like securing your SSH is an important thing and it’s covered on this forum! Have a nice day and try to ask questions to use the advantages of the  forum to it’s maximum

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I know this my template at Icthunder.net is not the best optimized and it would not pass a code validation, but it works and it is not that crucial as it’s only the look of the web site. And the look is still pretty good even it did not pass the validation. It’s not that the code is badly written, but the plug-ins make the whole validation process and it’s not valid at the end

Code optimization matters?

Well, YES and it’s a big YES. It’s always great to have a very well optimized web site. If you are using your own engine and not a content management system or a blog platform, than  it’s very important to have a very well written application. It helps you with your life at your host as you are not in the middle of your hosts attention for system resources over-usage You need to be able to code the app in such a way, that it does not consume too much of anything else you will need to think about a VPS or a dedicated server.

The shared hosting environment is not build to accommodate one  heavy application on one server with hundreds of web sites. You could get into trouble very quickly. Be warned! And always try to check with your host if they are happy with your application and the resources it is using!

Ask before to limit problems

That’s the golden rule of this article. It’s always better to ask your host before you actually deploy an own app. You will save a lot headache and possible money by asking beforehand

Image: Francesco Marino / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Own code optimization

If you are really trying to make a break-trough with your own coded web site, than it’s not enough to just a build it. You need to do much more. It’s because many people are able to code a web site with database support, but only a small percentage is also aware of how the whole web site affects the system. And this is a very important factor. It’s not so crucial if you are on your own web server, but it’s very important if you are on a shared server!!! While on a share server you are sharing all the resources with other web sites hosted on it. And thus if your web site is not optimized well, than you will most likely get into some problems sooner or later

It’s always worth to think about optimization before putting a web site online. Mostly the owners of web site focus on SEO optimization, but if your code is not well written and the web host shuts your web site down, than your well created SEO strategy is wasted!!

Code optimization is key to your success and only than should you focus on search engine optimization, because even search engines do not like badly written web site And people hate them as well

Conclusion

Code optimization is king. And it’s even more important if you are trying to utilize a database heavy demand application. You need to code the whole web site in the most effective way instead of coding it in the shortest time. It pays off a lot in the long run!

Have a nice day and see you next time here at Icethunder.net! Don’t hesitate to leave your comment to this topic or give some own experience back

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Use Content Management Systems [CMS]

When you are starting to build your online web site you are standing before a decision. You need to decide whether you will code the whole thing yourself and use plain html/css/php for your web site. But this route is not very funny. It’s because you are not able to use the advantages of databases and the data stored in them!

It is good, if you are trying to only host a static web site, but if you are trying to host a real web site. A web site with dynamic content. A web site with users and their input, than you need to find a solution which best fits your needs. You could build your own database driven solution, or you could use an already existing system. You might think, that this costs a lot of money, bu the opposite is true! you can use  a CMS and only then you will see the difference.

CMS systems are a very popular choice, because they make the administration of content, whole web sites, users and data  very easy. They give you a back-end and you are able to manage the whol eweb site from it with ease! All you need is to install the chosen CMS on your server and start to feel the difference. One thing to note here is, that you will need to follow the developpers and their “security” announcement as CMS [as all database driven systems] are less secure, than a static html and thus they are a good goal for hackers and crackers and security updates are release now and then.

To use a CMS is a great thing as you are not limited only by static web pages, but you can make your web site very creative and full of life. You can use widgets, add-ons or other extensions offered with your CMS

Free and paid CMS’s

If you think, that the CMS way is the way to go, than you should know, that there are two options. You can either go the free route and enjoy the free life, or you can buy a CMS solution, but the pure fact, that it’s paid does not mean it’s better [!!!]. Many free CMS systems are far better then the majority of paid solutions and the only advantage is, that you might get support from the company which developed the product and you bought it from, but there are huge communities behind free projects And a big community is sometimes better then a company support!!!

Do your homework and decide what better fits your bill! Have a nice day and see you next time!