Google holds hosting conference
Posted on April 20, 2010
Filed Under VPS Hosting | Leave a Comment
Google held its first Atmosphere conference this week at its Googleplex HQ.
The event was billed as a chance for businesses and developers to meet and debate the future implications and potential power of the cloud. Talks were held by many featured guests, including author Geoffrey Moore and Morgan Stanley MD Mary Meeker.
Scientist Janine Benyus was also on hand to discuss the outside implications of virtual hosting in a talk titled ‘Beyond IT‘.
The day was rounded off with a joint speech and chat with Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Forbes National editor Quentin Hardy. See their talk here along with the other Atmosphere speeches at Google Events’ YouTube page.
70% of firms planning on extending their cloud or virtual hosting presence
Posted on February 4, 2010
Filed Under Linux VPS, Miscellaneous, VPS Hosting, VPS Misc | Leave a Comment
By Fred Jones
IT decision makers are planning on extending their cloud or virualised presence, according to reports.
Interestingly, the fears that many executives had over adopting cloud services for their online backup and hosting needs are beginning to wane, with 62% of respondents who did not already use SaaS (software as a service) or virtualised hosting solutions having considered taking the plunge.
Analysts have argued that, as well due to increased media coverage of the business, time-management and green credentials of adopting virtualised hosting, that the reason behind the change of heart is that several of the IT big boys (Google, Amazon, Microsoft) were embracing the cloud openly.
However, despite the security concerns and wishes for better integration with existing systems that many firms seemed to have, a report (http://www.mimecast.com/events-press/press-releases/article/view/70-percent-of-companies-using-cloud-based-services-plan-to-move-additional-applications-to-the-cloud/396/) from US email management service Mimecast found that, of the ones who did take the plunge, 70% were planning on extending their SaaS usage, moving additional data and information onto the cloud and virualised environements.
As the representatives from Mimecast put it: “This shows that respondents that have used cloud-based solutions have seen their business and operational value and want to expand that success to other application areas.”
The top three sectors that the study found were embracing virtualised computing were also interesting, as they were also among those most sceptical about the merits of hosted solutions.
The report found that 76% of firms in financial services were wary of SaaS due to security fears, but the industry was the second biggest adopter of the cloud, with 40% having moved data onto online backup services.
In addition, 68% of those financial firms who had already adopted hosted solutions were among those who were planning on migrating additional data to the service.
The legal sector represented the third biggest investment in SaaS, with 37% of companies utilising the technology.
However, while this represented a lower overall stake in moving data online, a whopping 81% of those legal firms who took up cloud solutions were increasing their budgets for it.
Interestingly, the biggest adoption rate for cloud computing solutions came from the IT sector, with 53% of techies jumping onto the hosted bandwagon and three quarters of those increasing their connections to SaaS.
Host in the most secure data centre in the UK with <a href=”http://www.bytehouse.co.uk/about_us/our-hosting-facility.php”>ByteHouse’s high standard physical and network security</a>
Scalability of VPS platforms
Posted on July 28, 2009
Filed Under Linux VPS, Miscellaneous, VPS Hosting, VPS Misc, Web Hosting Misc, Windows VPS | Leave a Comment
Growing with VPS
We find that VPS web hosting provides an ideal framework for the majority of growing client’s hosting needs and rapid scalability before switching over to a dedicated environment. Of course there are occasional times when VPS hosting is not the ideal hosting environment but on the whole this is an ideal hosting platform for most clients.
The medical screening company, a medical insurance screening provider was a client that started off life on a Linux VPS platform and migrated on to ever more powerful VPS hosting platforms until finally migrated over to a dedicated system as their marketing, brand awareness and traffic numbers rapidly increased.
At the appropriate time we were able to quickly and seemlessly migrate them over to their own dedicated envrionment.
Arsenal Insider, an Arsenal online fan blog, was another similar client who initially started off on our VPS hosting platform, moved to another provider when they came up against the VPS constraints to reduce their costs, but came back to host with us on our dedicated servers thanks to our attention to detail excellent infrastructure and connectivity and award winning customer service.
We find that Virtual Private Servers are an excellent way for clients to move away from shared hosting and grow their business before migrating over to the costlier dedicated hosting needs.
Common VPS web hosting FAQs
Posted on April 1, 2009
Filed Under Linux VPS, Miscellaneous, Plesk Control Panel, Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting, VPS Misc, Windows VPS | 1 Comment
Bandwidth
The amount of data that can be transferred to and from your hosting space, the higher the number of visitors you expect to receive to your site, the higher the amount of bandwidth you will use. There are multiple ways in which bandwidth is calculated by your hosting provider.
Burstable memory
The amount of memory that can be used by your virtual machine should you run out of your “guaranteed memory”. Burstable memory is only available if there is available free memory on the virtual private server node.
Control panel
A control panel is a web based interface that allows you to administor your server through a GUI (Graphic User Interface) rather than through the command line.
Command line
This is a blank screen with a prompt similar to DOS or a command line interpreter or shell that allows the administrator to directly type in line commands to allow the system to run. Most users user and prefer GUI Control panels like Plesk and cPanel as there is less chance of an error.
File System
A system for storing files on the hard drive in such a way that only your hosting package(s) can utilise/ have access to your files. This is superior and more secure than shared hosting where everyone is on the same file system and theoretically go into areas where they should not.
Apache
Apache or Appache HTTP Server is an open source web server program that in 2009 was the first powers in excess of 100 million, and serves almost half of all websites and the majority of linux servers. Apache is often used because of its excellent performance, reliability, security features and that it is free.
Plesk Control Panel
Plesk is both a Linux and Windows GUI web hosting contrl panel that provides you the control and responsibility of managing your web site and all aspects of your email, backups, files, FTP, and a raft of other Plesk specific applications such as the web application vault.
cPanel Control Panel
cPanel is a linux based web hosting GUI control panel that provides you most of the control and responsibility of managing your web site and all aspects of your email, CGI scripts, backups, files, FTP and web site statistics.
Setting up email through Plesk
Posted on January 14, 2009
Filed Under Plesk Control Panel | 3 Comments
How quickly can I create my POP3 email accounts?
After you have transfered your domain sucessfuly to your hosting providers servers it will take between 15 minutes and 24 hours to propagate around the world (may take upto 48 hours in same extreme instances). During the propagation period your newly transferred domain is being updated by the various Internet providers around the world.
Whilst waiting for your site to proporgate you can log in to your Plesk account through the log in details you received from your hosting provider and begin creating your POP3 accounts. Even though you may have setup your mail service, your new accounts will not be detected until your domain has been fully propegated. Mail servers sometimes take up to 24 hours longer than HTTP services. So even if your website’s domain name is visible on the web, your mail server may not be fully propegated.
Creating your POP3 email accounts?
- Log in to your Plesk Control Panel using the details provided through email by your hosting provider
- Click on your domain name.
- Click the Mail icon
- Click the Add New Mail Name icon
- Enter the account name and password, then click the
OK
How do I setup my POP3 email accounts in my Mail client such as Outlook?
Once you’ve created your POP3 account within Plesk, you can then set up the account in your preferred Mail Client, or you can read your Mail using the WebMail service provided by most hosting providers. To set up your account in a Mail client like Outlook, use the following settings:
1. usernameYour Username is the full email address, including the domain name, of the account you created. E.g. info@yourdomainname.com
2. passwordYour Password is the password you entered when you created the account in Plesk
3. Incoming Mail server (POP3)Your Incoming Mail server (POP3)is mail.domainname.com where domainname.com is your actual website domain name
4. Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP)
Your Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) is the same as your ISP’s outgoing mail server. Use the same setting provided by your Internet service provider to avoid problems delivering email. Most Virus and SPAM conscious ISPs now require you to use their outgoing Mail server to help reduce the proliferation of viruses and eliminate SPAM.
Using WebMail to read and send email online
You must make sure WebMail is enabled within your Plesk Mail Preferences. To enable WebMail :
- Log in to your Plesk Control Panel using the details provided in the receipt sent to you via email.
- Click on your domain name.
- Click the Mail icon
- Click the Preferences icon
- Ensure WebMail is checked, then click the
OK
To send or read email using WebMail :
- Log in to your Plesk Control Panel using the details provided in the receipt sent to you via email.
- Click on your domain name.
- Click the Mail icon
- Click the
icon and log in using the POP3 email account’s Username and Password.If you see a 
icon instead, you must enable WebMail
You have now created a seperate email administration panel within Plesk to enter it, visit the URL https://your-domain.com:8443 type the email address into the login box, and the password for that particular mail box in the password box and click login. You now are able to utilise your webmail.
Gordon Brown Saving the World gaffe
Posted on December 11, 2008
Filed Under Miscellaneous | 2 Comments
Gordon Brown’s Blunder — AKA The benefits of blogging
Not only did Gordon Brown save the world, but he managed to give every blogger out there the mother of all reasons to publish Brown’s blunder and faux pas!
But, one must not complain, our erstwhile leader provides great cannon fodder and ammunition! Thanks Gordon!
VPS and Blogging
Posted on November 28, 2008
Filed Under Linux VPS, Plesk Control Panel, Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting | Leave a Comment
VPS and Blogging
You’re out there on the blogosphere and have outgrown a shared hosting environment for your blog and want to move onto your very own server but are not sure whether to spec your dedicated sever for today’s needs or at the rate your growing where you think you should be.
Writing a blog is now a growing popular pursuit whether it is the blog attached to your corporate or personal site, or one that is more personal to you and your interests. By hosting your own blog it allows you to create your very own professional customised look, and we’ve outlined some useful tips to be aware of when hosting your blog on a VPS platform.
Plesk control panel
By using a Plesk control panel you have an icon based user friendly GUI interface that requires no prior knowledge about the working of hosting control panels. You have an inbuilt regional web statistics as well as an easy to use backup facility.
Use WordPress for your blog
WordPress is an easy to use powerful Linux based open source blogging software that is easy to install and has a wide and extensive open source online community that provide free applications, addons, plugins and general software.
Some of the more sophisticated control panels (Plesk included) and web hosting companies (bytehouse included) provide a preinstalled WordPress scripts and addons package on their blog hosting packages.
Look for good uptime and equipment
Your blog is an interactive 24/7/365 slice of the world wide web, you’ve spent time energy and effort in finding that niche where you are interacting and exchanging ideas with the wider community, it is articulate, thoughtful and providing information that is of interest to the wider community; in short your reaching that elusive holy grail a sticky blog.
So while you are thinking of expanding your hosting space and moving onto a more powerful hosting environment then it is worth bearing in mind that you want reliable connections (preferably BGP routing where there are multiple concurrent tier 1 connections), good reliable equipment with minimal downtime, and compassionate, knowledgeable and helpful support for when you need it.
Why host your blog on a VPS platform
VPS hosting environments provide scalable web space that is easy to use and offers most of the advantages of a dedicated server but at a fraction of the cost. By hosting on a VPS platform, you can benefit from using dedicated resources that are scalable when you need to grow without committing in advance to a dedicated hosting contract. You have your own secure and separate hosting space that can grow with your needs.
Click here to learn about the advantages of VPS hosting
Editing Crontab in Plesk
Posted on November 17, 2008
Filed Under Plesk Control Panel, Web Hosting Misc | Leave a Comment
What is Plesk Crontab?
Crontab allows you to automatically run scheduled tasks on your server with the possibility of receiving emails showing the results.
How do you go about setting up Crontab
Well, once you are logged onto Plesk, and have clicked onto the domain whose Crontab settings you wish to edit, click on crontab.
Within Crontab, you will notice a list of system users within the preferences section, select the name of the user for whom you wish to manage the crontab settings, and have, should you choose edit the email settings and have the crontab messages sent to the specified email address.
Now click on the schedule task/ add new task icon and enter the specific parameters to set the frequency of the task or enter * (star) to select all;
Minute: 0 to 59
Hour: 0 to 23
Day of the month 1 to 31
Month of the month 1 to 12
Day of the week 0 to 6 (0 being Sunday)
Again, remember the * entry on the parameter selects all the entries (e.g. all the days)
Finally enter the path to the file that will execute Crontab within the command line and click OK.
You have now successfully set up a new crontab, you may always return here to setup a new crontab or modify or delete an existing one.
My site is down! Help what can I do!
Posted on November 10, 2008
Filed Under Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting, Web Hosting Misc | Leave a Comment
Site is down: what can you do?
You sit down go online to your site, and nothing happens! You stop for a sec, refresh the site and still nothing happens! Sweat starts pouring down as you wonder about all those people trying to access your site and can’t place an order. You start think how much money are you losing :-(!
Your hand shoots for the phone receiver and your blood simmers thinking of all those expletives you are going to be telling your web hosting company for committing the cardinal sin of letting your site go down! You call, politely at first, not quite sure what’s wrong and ask them why is my site down, the support guy at the other end hears the tension in your voice, whilst he is looking into what’s wrong and running through their checklist, you start strumming your fingers on the desk and out of the corner of your eye you notice that your network cable seems unplugged, before you can say anything to the support techie, you get the “everything is fine at our end”, and you tell your good byes and hang up.
Well, it’s probably useful to go over a few things that are worth doing before picking up the phone and calling the support team of your web hosting company.
First things first, it probably easiest to try and visit another website on your browser. If you can’t get to any other site try closing your browser and reopening it, if you still can’t get through is a good indication that the problem is at your end and not with your web hosting provider.
Secondly, it is always working making sure you are a physically connected onto the internet, check both the physical cables, and the connection/ lights on your router or modem, as well as checking the icon on your computer’s internet connection.
If you are having problems, your cables are connected but the icon on your computer says you are not connected onto the internet then it is worth checking your cable modem or router and rebooting it. This is done simply by unplugging and replugging your cable modem, switching it off, and then doing the same to your router. The re-initialisation can be seen by the lights flashing, and then stabilising on the on position. At this stage if your connections seem to be ok, it is worth restarting your PC if things are still not working.
If after all that you are still having problems then it is worth giving your ISP a call, and telling them that you’ve gone through the basic checks, and get them to run some checks at their end.
Now, if everything else checks out, it is worth waiting a little time – a few minutes should be enough – before calling your hosting provider as devices can take a little time whilst rebooting.
If you do need to call your ISP or hosting company, have all your details and account information close to hand, since for your security they may not be able to deal with you.
Data backup through Plesk
Posted on November 3, 2008
Filed Under Plesk Control Panel, Shared Hosting, VPS Hosting | 2 Comments
Backing up through Plesk
Backing up data is possible through the Plesk control panel. You are able to configure the backup settings for all the files you have on your Plesk hosting account.
Backup automated scheduling
Using Plesk you are able to either schedule an automated backup via FTP to an external FTP or backup server, your existing hosting space, or just create and download a manual backup that you simply store on your local PC for simple piece of mind for those unlikely times when you believe you’ve incorrectly configured something or have accidentally deleted your data.
Why should I backup, doesn’t my Web Hosting Provider do that?
Firstly, even though your web hosting provider might backup all your site’s data on a daily basis, it is always a good idea to backup your own data either by automation or manually to ensure your own piece of mind at the very least. Like insurance policies you only know if the backup is effective if it works when you need it!
Not all hosting providers backup
It is important to note that not all hosting providers backup, some hosting providers do not automatically backup your server, charge extra, or simply charge you to restore the backup especially if it is your fault – after all it does take time to find and restore, and as we all know time is money!
Reseller/ Shared Accounts
Some hosting providers may not even allow you to restore off of their backup tapes for shared and reseller hosting accounts as it might affect other domains or accounts hosted on the same server.
So why backup yourself?
At the end of the day the reasons for backup are many and varied it could be as simple as you doing something wrong, and you wish to correct it or as malicious as hackers targeting your site, getting through and deleting/ modifying your data. At the end of the data, it doesn’t take that long, and it is a worthwhile tool for ease of mind!
So backup, backup often, automate your backup protocols using Plesk’s FTP backup if you have access to an external backup/ FTP server over FTP. If you don’t then remember to regularly — whenever you have a major change to your site — access your site and backup the data onto your PC.
keep looking »-
Permalinks
- 10 easy steps to switch your web hosting provider without your site going down
- UNIX/ Linux web hosting versus Windows web hosting
- Advantages of VPS
- Plesk Shared Hosting
- What is a Virtual Private Server?
- Difference between VPS and VDS?
- The Disadvantages of VPS hosting
- VPS Hosting Rules and guidelines
- VPS Usage rules for bytehouse
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About our Virtual Private Server Blog
Welcome to our UK VPS Hosting Blog! Where we aim to share, teach and learn with you all about the exciting world of VPS Hosting!
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