What is Root Access, Can I Live Without It?
In the world of web hosting, there are a lot of web hosting providers who compete with each other with long lists of features and benefits. On many of these lists you will see the term “Root Access”. To be honest, many of the people with websites today will never need Root Access, and many of them do not even know what it is.
In the world of UNIX and Linux, security is based on permissions. This extends to both the file system and access permissions. This security system is very flexible, and allows a system administrator to set up unique security access constraints to only allow certain users to see certain areas and access certain files and applications.
In order to administrate something like this, a “master” account is needed. This account, the “root” account, has full access to the machine at “root” level meaning the lowest level of access you can have (or, in other words, the best access). Having “root access”, you can do many things the typical user account cannot do. This includes full manipulation of the file system, as well as administrating the current running processes. There is a danger here. Someone who is not a seasoned administrator can do a lot of damage to a machine, due merely to the amount of power that is available at their fingertips.
Do you need this kind of access? That depends. To be honest, unless you have your own server, either dedicated or collocated, chances are that you will not need (or receive) root access. Root is something required for server maintenance, and if you are having your website hosted by a hosting company on a machine with twenty other websites, it’s a safe bet that your hosting provider is not going to give up root access to the box. It would be the hosting provider’s job to administer the server to keep it running smoothly.
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What is Root Access, Can I Live Without It?
IP Addresses : Static vs. Shared
One term that is familiar to anyone who has their own website, is the phrase “IP Address”. But what is an IP address, and how does it affect your website? And what is the difference between a static and a shared IP Address?
To start with, an IP address is a 32-bit numeric address written as four numbers separated by periods. Each of the four numbers can be from 0 to 255, an example would be 192.168.0.5 . The IP address identifies a sender or receiver of information across the Internet. When you request an HTML page or send e-mail the Internet Protocol part of TCP/IP includes your IP address in the message (actually, in each of the packets if more than one is required) and sends it to the IP address of the server to which you wish to communicate. The recipient can see the IP address of the Web page requestor or the e-mail sender and can respond by sending another message using the IP address it received. Each machine on the Internet is assigned a unique IP Address for the purposes of communication.
Based on this definition, we can establish that an IP Address is analogous to one’s home address. If someone is to send you mail, they put your address on the front of the envelope, and the mailman delivers it right to your door. IP Addresses work precisely the same way.
There are typically two types of IP Address that can be used in web hosting, Shared or Static. While there is no difference in the IP Address itself, there are some configuration changes on the servers they rest on.
A static IP Address is when a website has their very own IP Address. This means that whether you type in your URL or the IP address of your website, both will bring you to the same page.
A shared IP Address is when multiple websites all share the same IP Address. In this case, the web server does a little bit of extra work when it receives your web request, and passes you to the correct website. Typing in the IP Address will not bring you to your desired website, under most conditions. Why do we need this? I’m sure you noticed that, based on the above definition of an IP Address, that there is a finite number of IP Addresses available before we run out completely. If every single website on the internet had it’s own IP Address, there would be no room for any new ones.
Back to our home address analogy, you might consider a static IP Address to be a stand-alone home. There is only one house who gets mail at that address. You might then consider a shared IP Address to be an apartment building. Many different households get their mail at the same location, and in turn it is distributed to the correct location.
How does this affect you? In most cases, it wont. A static IP Address may be required if you need to have some sort of special access to your website, like SSL or Anonymous FTP. If you have no special requirements, then a shared IP will work under most conditions.
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IP Addresses : Static vs. Shared
Which Web Host Should I Choose To Host My Personal Site?
This article focuses on the differences between ‘free’ hosts and ‘budget’ hosts, and helps the reader identify some important criteria in choosing a hosting provider for their personal web site. A personal web site could consist of a site for your family, a hobby, an online resume, but not for commercial purposes.Usually personal web hosting ranges anywhere from free to $10-$25.00 per month. You might be asking yourself why you would consider paying $25.00 per month versus free. You can’t go wrong with free, can you? Well, that depends whether free is TRUELY free. Most hosting companies or services that offer free hosting will plaster ads on your own personal web site, some of which can be quite aggravating (blinking and moving across your screen come to mind). Also free hosting generally entails many very restrictive policies on how much you can upload to your site (if you have a lot of family photos or any video clips this could be a problem). Free hosting also almost always comes with very low bandwidth allocations which if you have a large family that likes to visit your web site, or a lot of recruiters visiting your online resume, your site may be shut down if it exceeds bandwidth restrictions. As with most things in life, hosting is no different, you get what you pay for. That is why it is my recommendation to find a cheap/budget hosting company that will allow you the freedom of running your own web site without nasty little ads everywhere, or tons of restrictions which hinder you from building the kind of site you want. Your best bet when searching for this kind of hosting is to check out our Budget/Cheap category: http://www.itsallnet.com/budgethosting.php and sift through the many companies that are listed there. Some of the particulars you will want to note are as follows: 1. What are the bandwidth restrictions on traffic going to your site 2. What are the FTP restrictions (ie how much can you upload to your site) 3. Can you pay month to month or do you need to enter into a contract 4. How long have they been in business 5. How does technical support work (do you get to call someone or is the only technical support they offer available online or via email) If the hosting company you are considering offers a money back guarantee or at a minimum does not force you into a contract, if you are unhappy with their services you can always find another host. Moving your site is pretty easy, simply download everything to your computer and upload it to your new hosting company.
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Which Web Host Should I Choose To Host My Personal Site?
Which Web Host Should I Choose To Host My Business Site?
This article focuses on the differences between various business hosting services, and helps the reader identify some important criteria in choosing a hosting provider for their business (for instance, do you require a dedicated server, a managed server, or a shared server). A business web site could range anywhere from a simple ecommerce site which sells one product, to a very complex pay per click engine with real time statistics and payment functionality.
Even with all of the consolidation going on in the web hosting industry, there are still thousands upon thousands of hosting companies to choose from. If you visit some of their sites, you will see that each of them tout some features you may or may not of even heard of before (Miva Scripting, Co-Location services, Virtual Private Servers, Redundant backbone connections, etc). The very first question you must ask yourself is not which hosting company to choose but rather, WHY do you need a hosting company?
Your particular needs are crucial in determining the kind of hosting you need. Web Hosting comes in many different flavors and sizes, (not to mention prices!) so its key that you shop for only the services you require or you will be paying for a lot of services that you don’t need. When trying to decide which hosting company will best suit your needs be sure to ask yourself a few questions first. Here are some important ones:
| 1. | What kind of functionality will you require (ie Database, secure server for processing credit cards, etc.) |
| 2. | What will your traffic needs require (do you anticipate your site having small, moderate, or significant traffic) |
| 3. | How important are load times (if a majority of your visitors are global you might want to consider a hosting company that has a presence overseas as well as the U.S. – also you may want to consider a dedicated server as opposed to sharing a server with several other businesses) |
A business site can range in price anywhere from the low end of $40-$50.00 all the way up into the thousands of dollars per month. Features that usually catapult the price range are things like dedicated servers (especially if they are on the high end hardware wise), and bandwidth capacity.
Choosing a web host for your business needs is absolutely one of the most important decisions you can make. If your site is down, your business is down, end of story. Below is a list of some of the important questions you will want to make sure you ask any prospective hosting company before signing on the dotted line.
| 1. | Do they offer a money back, no questions asked guarantee? |
| 2. | Do they offer an uptime guarantee? (as in, if there is a outage, are you compensated?) |
| 3. | What types of backups do they offer (tape back ups, CD rom storage) |
| 4. | Do they have redundant backbone connections to the internet (are they connected to the internet by more than one provider, and are those providers major backbone providers) |
| 5. | Do they offer 24-7 technical support (including phone support, or is it only via email) |
| 6. | How long have they been in business for and can they provide some business references of other sites that they currently host? |
| 7. | Can you pay month to month or do they require an annual contract? |
| 8. | Is it easy for you to upgrade/downgrade services you may or may not require as time passes? |
Happy hunting!
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Which Web Host Should I Choose To Host My Business Site?
Virtual Hosting versus Dedicated Hosting: Which is Right for You
Virtual Hosting versus Dedicated Hosting: Which is Right for You
So you’re starting a website, and one of the first things you’ll need to do is to find a web host. After searching all of the hosting possibilities, you find there is more than just one type of hosting. So what do you do?A successful web site depends on a good web host, but it’s just as important to select the right kind of hosting account. Most web hosting companies offer a choice between virtual shared hosting and dedicated hosting. The basic difference between the two types of accounts is whether a site has its own server or shares one with other web sites, which determines whether that site has its own IP address or shares one with other sites. With a virtual host, many websites are sharing a single machine with a single IP address. In a dedicated hosting situation, a single machine is “dedicated” to a single customer.
In this article, I wanted to show you the major differences in the two types of hosting: virtual versus dedicated, and when you can determine it’s right to choose a dedicated server, time to move to a dedicated server from a virtual server, or stay with the shared hosting.
The Virtual Hosting Benefits and Risks
Virtual hosting has both its benefits and its risks. The most obvious benefit of a virtual hosting account is price: it is low. You can pay anywhere between $2.00 and $20.00 per month for shared hosting, depending upon the features of the host. If you are just starting a website or don’t get a lot of traffic, or are concerned with price, then you’ll probably start with virtual hosting. There are even free virtual host accounts available, although you’ll most likely have to put up with the advertising on the site from the host. (Hey, they have to pay for the servers and your bandwidth somehow.)
One of the disadvantages of having your website hosted on a shared server is going to be server response time, or server load. A server receives requests for files and serves up those files in the order the requests are received. It’s like waiting on hold with your computer customer support company: if you’re second in the queue, then you get served pretty quickly; but if you’re the 20th customer on hold in the queue, you’ll have to wait a lot longer.
How many sites reside on each server and how much traffic those sites get will also determine a server’s response time. While it isn’t necessarily due to the number of sites on a server, it will also depend upon those sites’ traffic. Response time may be slower if you share a server with 50 busy sites than if you share a server with 100 sites that only get a few hits per day. A good idea is to ask the web host how many sites they allow on a shared server, and what the maximum traffic and transfer allowed for each site.
Virtual Hosting versus Dedicated Hosting: Which is Right for You – Virtual Hosting IP Risks
Finding out the IP address of a shared server ahead of time can allow you to use tools to find out the server response time of the virtual host. It doesn’t do you any good to have a great website if your site visitors can’t access it due to slow server response time. They’ll either get frustrated or go elsewhere. You may also find that you are getting quite a bit of downtime based on server load. NetMechanics.com has a good tool you can use to test this out, as long as you don’t try to use it during peak hours.
Another drawback to virtual hosting is having to share your IP address with bad neighbors. A web host is not going to tell you what other sites share your IP address; you take the risk of sharing your address with an adult site, a spam site, or other site you wouldn’t want to otherwise associate with. Some search engines see red flags with some spam or adult sites, and other search engines have been known to ban IP addresses altogether, like AltaVista and it is rumored that even Google crawls by IP for efficiency, skipping those that it doesn’t like. Make sure you know what kind of sites your web host allows in order for you to make an informed decision before you sign up. You can usually find this information in their terms of service.
Another risk you run with sharing an IP address with other sites on a virtual server is the likelihood of more server crashes. Most web hosts don’t allow certain kinds of scripts that may crash the servers, while others don’t monitor this type of behavior. Scripts that are written poorly, with built-in loops, for example, can overload a server’s resources. This can slow the server as well as it could cause the server to crash. Some web hosts allow unfettered shell access, whereas other require you to have some kind of identification on file in their office, and monitor all shell access behaviors. You want to make sure that your web host at least has some sort of shell access guidelines in place, and that it is well protected.
I know it seems that these disadvantages far outweigh the advantages of virtual hosting; however, while I wanted you to be aware of the issues, for most sites out there though, virtual hosting does just fine. Millions of websites use shared hosting options and most don’t have problems.
Virtual Hosting versus Dedicated Hosting: Which is Right for You – Dedicated Hosting Advantages and Disadvantages
Dedicated Hosting Advantages and Disadvantages
One of the best features of having a dedicated server at your disposal is not having to worry what other sites out there are doing to increase your risk. There are no other sites on your server to deal with, and you don’t have to think about cgi scripts gone awry thanks to someone else.
Dedicated servers can be built to handle higher traffic loads, and you only have to be concerned with the traffic from your own site, instead of everyone else’s too. Because of this, there are usually no bandwidth limitations on dedicated servers.
The major disadvantage to going with a dedicated server for your hosting needs is going to be the cost involved. Many of these start at about $70 per month for the bare minimums, and after that, the sky’s the limit on price, depending upon features the web host offers. Many small to medium companies simply cannot justify the expense, especially if they are startup companies, not making money with their site, or not having been online very long.
While it may seem that the advantages to having a dedicated server may be worth the price, it really can be a waste of your monetary resources to have one when you really don’t need a dedicated server.
There are a few guidelines you can follow to determine whether you really need a dedicated server over using a virtual host. If your traffic is so much so that it is overwhelming the server for others, then it’ll be a good indication that it’s time to make the jump. A slow server isn’t pretty for the website owner or for visitors, and it is a nightmare for web hosts.
Virtual Hosting versus Dedicated Hosting: Which is Right for You – Do You Really Need Dedicated Hosting?
If you are exceeding your monthly bandwidth limits on a continual basis, you may actually not have to decide at all how much traffic is too much. You may get a nice email from your web host telling you that you need to stay under your limitations, or there will be consequences: added cost most likely, but there are even more extreme measures the web host may take on repeated offenses. It is in your web host’s (and their customers’) best interest to determine which sites are bogging down their servers, and take appropriate action. This may mean additional cost, moving the “offending” site to its own server, or booting it altogether. While this kind of action may not be seen favorably by a web site owner who is the target of such action, a host has to weigh the cost of losing dozens of other customers due to overwhelmed server resources, or the cost of upgrading versus keeping the business of a single customer. Bandwidth is expensive; not just for you, but also for your web host. Even they have allocations provided by their ISP, and they need to make sure the expense of bandwidth is going to outweigh the revenues that are coming in.
Regardless, you should already be aware of the symptoms of the need for your site to have its own machine. So how much traffic is too much traffic? Well, normally if you ask me this question, I would say this: there is no such thing. But in this case, it really is up to your web host to determine what too much traffic and transfer is. Just ask them. I’m sure they’ll tell you.
Another guideline to use to determine your need for a dedicated server is the purpose for which it will be used. If you are simply moving your site to a dedicated server to “escape” the risks of virtual hosting, then this may not be a good enough reason. Don’t misunderstand me, there is nothing “wrong” with going with a dedicated server for this reason, but it may just be a waste. But if your purpose for having your site on a dedicated server is for functionality of the site, then there is good reason to assume that this is a good reason.
Another good reason for you have a dedicated server is the ability to customize both the hardware and the software. With a virtual host, you don’t get to choose which CPU or how much RAM is in the machine; on the same token you usually don’t get to decide what software is going to be installed on it either. If your company requires that you use Novell Networks as your email client, and you need to customize it to the needs of the company or you require a fast, customer service live support console that has to have minimal downtime, chances are good that you’ll need a dedicated server. There are multiple examples of why a company would want a dedicated server, but ultimately they fall into three categories: customizable hardware, customizable software, and unlimited bandwidth without server load issues on or from other sites.
So what if you decide you don’t necessarily need your own whole machine to host your website on, but don’t wish to take the risks of sharing your IP address with bad neighbors? You may not be ready to switch from a virtual host to a dedicated server, but you may need your own IP address, especially if you are using your own SSL certificate or running an ecommerce store, or for SEO purposes. Most virtual hosts allow you to pay for a dedicated IP address, which may serve to keep your site protected from some of the other risks associated with virtual hosting.
Hopefully this article can help you make an informed decision about which type of hosting you really need for your website, and which type is really right for you.
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Virtual Hosting versus Dedicated Hosting: Which is Right for You