David's Web Hosting Blog
David Walsh is an editor and music enthusiast that loves everything technological. He maintains his personal blog and admits to be somewhat of a besserwisser - but only sometimes. David is also very much into web related stuff like web development and hosting.
June 23rd, 2008
Some people claim to make a fortune from Reseller Web Hosting without any effort. Even though this sounds good I for one don’t believe it. Of course, there’s money to be made but just because you’ve invested money in the web hosting business it doesn’t equal that you’ll see any return on it.
“Get rich quick” schemes are nothing but just schemes but if you invest some time and effort on marketing and run your Reseller Web Hosting business the correct way the chances are there. With this blogpost I would like to terminate two myths about Reseller Web Hosting.
The first one that I wish to terminate is the myth that one doesn’t have to have any knowledge about the hardware. It simply isn’t correct – understanding the hardware is a must if one wishes to be really successful. If you don’t have this knowledge you won’t be able to provide your clients with quality web hosting services.
The other myth that has to go away is the one that says that this type of business is all about clicking a few buttons. Nothing could be further from the truth. Again, if you want to provide good services to your clients you have to know more about web hosting than just how to click buttons in cPanel. You should be able to fix issues that arises (sooner or later they will) without all too much effort. Become knowledgeable before thinking that you can make a killing from this business and don’t believe all the myths that are out there.
Posted in Control Panels, Blogroll | 1 Comment »
June 12th, 2008
I guess that you’ve already read thousands of articles and blog posts about this issue. Nevertheless I still find it important to say something about green hosting. Most other major industries have a game plan when it comes to the environment and why shouldn’t web hosts also have it? It’s an industry that’s constantly on the rise and it affects many peoples life. We should all do what we can to keep our earth healthy.
I think that it’s partially up to the web hosting providers and partially up to the consumers to act when it comes to green hosting. Hosting providers should, of course, already have some kind of a plan when it comes to this. One example of things to do is to have a paper free work place. If they haven’t a plan for the environment it’s up to the consumers to put some pressure on these companies. I think that you would be surprised over how much influence the “little person” has over the big companies. After all, without the consumers the web hosting industry wouldn’t do as well as it’s doing right now. So everybody unite and let’s make the best for this planet’s future!
Posted in Blogroll, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
January 18th, 2008
The latest statistical figures released by the state-owned China Internet Network Information Center reveals that China is due to surpass the United States as the nation with the most Internet users, some time this year.
The figure reported by the Chinese government institution was a 53 percent jump from 137 million Chinese Internet users reported at this time last year. The Sydney Morning Herald reports: China says number of Internet users rises to 210 million, could overtake US this year
“Currently China’s online population is about 50 million less than that of the United States and is the world’s second-largest,” the agency, also known as CNNIC, said on its Web site. “CNNIC forecasts that (China) will become the largest online country in 2008,” it said.
The U.S. Census Bureau said last year that about 218 million of the country’s 310 million people used the Internet.
China promotes Internet use for education and business but tries to block the public from seeing material deemed pornographic or that opposes communist rule.
This latest figure only consolidates the fact that China is a very ripe market for web hosting. With a population of 1,323,128,240 [over 1.3 billion], China currently ranks as the most populous country in the world with the USA coming 3rd after India. China’s current population is 19.83% of the world’s total population whilst that of the USA is 4.55%. Economists are predicting that China and India would be the world’s next super-powers in as soon as ten years time, going by the strong annual economic growth the two countries have been marking over the years.
Having realised all the above-stated points, many of the leading dot-com companies have opened shop in China to reap from the economic windfall: Google, Paypal, ebay, Microsoft, Yahoo etc
Now, China is not exactly a virgin market if the figures by WebHosting.info are anything to go by. Chinese web hosts share 2,735,314 domains amongst themselves whilst Chinese ICANN-accredited registrars have registered 3,275,345 generic domain names.
My point is simple: web hosting firms in other parts of the world that can target a section of their marketing website at the Chinese population stand to reap economic benefits from China’s fast-growing Internet population. A website with a Chinese language version would be a first step though its important to point that many educated Chinese individuals can handle the English language fairly well. Read my previous post for some more ideas about how to go about this: SEO Web Hosting and how its good for you
Posted in Hosting News, Blogroll | 7 Comments »
November 29th, 2007
If there is a phenomenon that is making waves in the web hosting industry in recent times, it would be SEO Web Hosting. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Web Hosting basically encompasses all the strategies involved in ranking well for a particular country-specific version of a popular search engine.
Leading search engines especially Google and Yahoo have country-specific versions for several countries across the globe. The mere fact that one’s website would necessarily rank better if hosted in the target country has given birth to the new genre - SEO Web Hosting.
According to Travis aka “The Farmer“:
SEO Web Hosting is the art of hosting your marketing efforts across multiple IP ranges using multiple name servers. By doing so you are ensuring the true success of your online business.
What web hosts do is to provide multiple IP addresses and multiple nameservers spread across different countries such that the website appears to be hosted in these different countries and thus have the chance of ranking better in the respective countries. The specialized SEO packages typically have the following range of specifications: [20 IPs / 10 class C; 2 IPs per Class C; 10 Nameservers] and [120 IPs / 60 class C; 2 IPs per Class C; 60 Nameservers].
Understandably, these SEO Web Hosting packages come at a relatively high cost since immense effort is put into sourcing this different IP ranges. This makes it feasible for companies with deep pockets, who are specifically targetting web users in specific countries.
It is important to point out however that aside web hosting that provides local IP addresses, successful search optimization for international markets may require professional translation of web pages, registration of a domain name with a top level domain in the target market.
If SEO Web Hosting is not for you and you still want to rank better in specific countries, you want to consider registering your domains under the Country code Top-Level Domains (cc-TLDs) for your target countries. You would then have to put up localized content for maximum effect.
Posted in Hosting News, Blogroll, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
November 21st, 2007
Not too long ago, 2Checkout added Paypal Express Checkout to their checkout process “by popular demand“. The essence of this blog post is to examine the impact of this on the web hosting industry.
Online payment systems are very popular with web hosting [and domain name registration] companies. Paying online speeds-up the order process for getting a new web hosting account and leading the pack of online wallets is Paypal. Aside Visa and Mastercard credit/debit cards, online wallets like Paypal have become increasingly popular online. What makes Paypal even better is that it can function as a 3rd-party credit card payment processor. Paypal has thus been enabling several Small-Office-Home-Office [SOHO] businesses worldwide to accept payment online.
That said, Paypal is not available in every country and available in some countries on a “Send money only” basis. This makes accepting payment online via Paypal very difficult for online merchants in such countries where Paypal is not fully functional or not available at all. The fact that 2Checkout now includes Paypal as a checkout option empowers millions of online merchants [web hosts included] to accept payment from Paypal’s over 130 million users. Several leading global brands have increasingly been adding Paypal as payment option on their respective websites, in recent times.
According to 2Checkout’s blog post on this issue:
This will allow customers to pay for products and services with the funds in their PayPal account, even if the supplier does not have their own PayPal account and only uses 2Checkout.
The PayPal payment option will be available for all non-recurring orders in the following currencies:
- Australian Dollar (AUD)
- Canadian Dollar (CAD)
- Euro (EUR)
- British Pound (GBP)
- Japanese Yen (JPY)
- U.S. Dollar (USD)
2Checkout is much easier to join and use though they would verify your information if they have any reason to suspect you/your business.
In case you’re a web host helping your clients with e-commerce solutions, the e-commerces scripts under Fantastico (if you’re using CPanel) have modules that allow merchants to accept payment via 2Checkout. CubeCart, OSCommerce and Zen Cart are all available for installation via Fantastico and there are several other equally good e-commerce shopping scripts out there that integrate well with 2Checkout.
Do you run a web hosting business? How do you accept payments online? Has the addition of Paypal to 2Checkout’s checkout process had an positive/negative impact on your web hosting business or online store? Share your thoughts here and now.
Posted in Platforms, Hosting News, Linux, Blogroll | No Comments »
October 18th, 2007
Cpanel, one of the leading providers of control panels for Linux and FreeBSD web hosting servers has announced that it would be releasing a beta version of a new Cpanel Server Suite that would be its first Microsoft Windows Server® 2008-based product line.
A Slashbot job advert seems to suggest that Cpanel is recruiting Windows application developers for this new venture.
Cpanel has been working on this Windows version for some time now. The only difference this time is that they are re-staffing and commiting more time and resources to it. Cpanel is expecting to release the beta version of the product on December 15th 2007 and have the production release available by March 30th 2008.
A press release by Microsoft quotes cPanel CEO J. Nick Koston as saying:
“Microsoft has shown a strong commitment to the hosting industry over the past several years. cPanel’s Windows development team feels that IIS7 offers a robust, high-performance Web server with increased security that the industry will quickly adopt. Microsoft Server 2008 and IIS7 with its modern architecture and support for legacy products was the natural starting point for our expanded product offering.”
Posted in Platforms, Hosting News, Control Panels, Windows | 1 Comment »
October 9th, 2007
I have had the opportunity to use Cpanel 11 from September, and my ranking of the Linux/Apache hosting control panel is quite high. I had to wait this long on the advice of my server management company, to upgrade to the most stable version of Cpanel 11.
The first and most striking impression is the new looks. The entire user interface of Cpanel has been overhauled and its now much more visually-appealing. The icons that link to the main controls have also been re-arranged into more relevant groups and same goes with a new Notice panel that displays on the top left corner of the Cpanel first screen. The Notice panel displays vital warnings about the hosting account in red, and also carries News from the web host or server administrator.
Some controls hitherto placed a few clicks into the panel have been brought to the homepage making such controls more accessible. Even better, cPanel shortcuts have been introduced. These links can be added to your desktop or your browser’s bookmarks toolbar. They are an easy way to access your cPanel.
What makes the several panels better is that they can actually be moved to suit the preference of the user. All a user has to do is drag-and-drop. The overall theme of Cpanel can be changed as well. Thats not new, but whats new are the several other more visually-appealing themes that have been added.
For a new Cpanel user, there are free Video Tutorials that would guide them through all the basics of using Cpanel 11. Similar videos have been made available before now by other companies, for a fee. Not to forget the “Getting Started Wizard”, a 7-page basic guide that takes new Cpanel users through the rudiments of setting-up their new hosting account.
The Cpanel interface loads faster as well. In some cases, processes are carried-out using AJAX thus the entire page needs not be re-loaded, to complete a process. Some back-end processes now run faster as well. Example? SpamAssasin. It now requires less server resources.
These are a few amongst the several CPanel improvements that make an upgrade a must. What has been your experience with using Cpanel 11? Share your thoughts here and now.
Posted in Control Panels, Linux, Blogroll | No Comments »
July 26th, 2007
A solid 3 years after PHP5 was released, The PHP Group has finally announced that support for PHP4 will henceforth be discontinued.
In those three years it has seen many improvements over PHP 4. PHP 5 is fast, stable & production-ready and as PHP 6 is on the way, PHP 4 will be discontinued.
The PHP development team hereby announces that support for PHP 4 will continue until the end of this year only. After 2007-12-31 there will be no more releases of PHP 4.4. We will continue to make critical security fixes available on a case-by-case basis until 2008-08-08. Please use the rest of this year to make your application suitable to run on PHP 5.
Already, several web projects using PHP have announced their intention to switch to PHP5 soon. These include: The Symfony, Typo3, phpMyAdmin, Drupal, Propel, and Doctrine project.
With this new announcement, it is expected that many more web hosts will upgrade their Linux server currently using PH4, to PHP5.
Posted in Platforms, Scripting, Hosting News, PHP, Linux | No Comments »
July 11th, 2007
This vicious circle has been going on for sometime now but its about to stop, come 5th February 2008.
PHP5, a successor of PHP4 was launched about 3 years ago but has not witnessed widespread use mostly due to its incompatibility with PHP4. Most scripts and software today are written in PHP4 even though PHP5 comes with vast improvements including better security and improved functionality. The PHP Group has thus been forced to continue offering support to users still on PHP4.
This is about to change though. An organization was formed, exlcusively for that:GoPHP5.org The objective is simple, gather more support for PHP5, and make sure most software required PHP5, by February 5th 2008. In their words:
It is a dangerous cycle, and one that needs to be broken. The PHP developer community has decided that it is indeed now time to move forward, together. Therefore, the listed software projects have all agreed that effective February 5th, 2008, any new feature releases will have a minimum version requirement of at least PHP 5.2.0. Furthermore, the listed web hosts have agreed that effective February 5th, 2008, they will include PHP 5.2 (or a more recent version) in their service offer.
The news this week though, is that some leading PHP software have joined the massive effort to switch to the latest PHP upgrade. The Symfony, Typo3, phpMyAdmin, Drupal, Propel, and Doctrine projects have all announced that their next release after February 5, 2008 will require PHP version 5.2 as part of a coordinated effort at GoPHP5.org, and have issued an open invitation to any other PHP projects and applications, both open source and proprietary, that want to participate in the effort.
According to phpMyAdmin’s project lead, Marc Delisle: “The phpMyAdmin project is very enthusiastic to join the GoPHP5 initiative. We see GoPHP5 as a way both to improve our product’s new versions — not always having to add workarounds to remain PHP4compatible — and improve the experience of our users — by projecting the correct message about the PHP system itself and its evolution.”
The first-ever version of PHP appeared on 8th June 1995 and as of October 2006, PHP6 is under-development.
Posted in Platforms, Scripting, Hosting News, PHP, Linux | 4 Comments »
June 28th, 2007
There was some speculation in the media earlier last year that Microsoft was going to acquire Yahoo! Inc. Now, what would happen if the world’s software giant Microsoft bought the world’s number one online portal Yahoo!? I am not blogging about search engine issues here though there would be an angle to that too. Well, on the search engine front, they would simply find a way to merge the search algorithms as well as search index, of both Windows Live Search and Yahoo! Search.
Can you hazard what they would change the name of the Yahoo portal to? Perhaps they would not change it at all. Yahoo! has evolved over the years to become a leading brand on the Internet. Scrapping the brand will not be a smart idea, in my opinion.
The area I want to concentrate on is the programming language Yahoo! has used on much of its online estate. Many sections of Yahoo.com (I don’t know what percentage) are coded using PHP. At least, some are obviously PHP.
PHP is an open-source programming language popular used for server-side scripting in developing dynamic websites/applications. It is popular among many leading websites and open source geeks.
Microsoft on the other hand, developed rival language, ASP.NET. According to Wikipedia:
ASP.NET is a web application framework marketed by Microsoft that programmers can use to build dynamic web sites, web applications and XML web services. It is part of Microsoft’s .NET platform and is the successor to Microsoft’s Active Server Pages (ASP) technology.
Now this is where it gets interesting. Will Microsoft get rid of all the millions of Yahoo pages scripted in PHP and replace same with ASP.NET? Will they maintain the PHP scripts?
What do you think? Share your thoughts here and now! 
Posted in PHP | 1 Comment »
