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Managed Virtual Private Server for E-Commerce Site Owners

August 26th, 2011

Virtual Private Server is always referred as high-end server hosting service as the users are usually IT-savvy people who prefer to maintain the server at their end and have full access to the server to perform server configurations.

Today, websites and web hosting no longer belong to the group of IT-savvy but to the general public too as many web hosting providers had started to offer services which assist customers to maintain their servers on their own. While this scenario has initiated the mushrooming of E-Commerce websites and online shopping carts, many people had chosen to start with shared hosting instead of VPS.

Starting up your E-Commerce websites and shopping carts with shared hosting is nothing wrong however it is not the most suitable.

 Virtual Private Server, Private Server

Why Do I Need VPS Instead Of Shared Hosting?

Your E-Commerce website traffic is ever increasing once you started your effort in marketing and promoting your site. Its growth is rather equivalent to the growth of a toddler. When your toddler’s shoes size or clothes size gets bigger, you will need to change them from S to M or M to L. The same goes to your websites. When your website is growing and your web traffic keeps increasing, it is necessary to upgrade your hosting to a bigger one to ensure website stability and better website experience. In the end, after all the effort and sweat in promoting your E-Commerce site, you certainly do not want to see your visitors got turned away by website slowness and instability.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) is in fact a much better choice for E-Commerce sites. In addition, owners can opt for a managed VPS plan so that the technical team of the web hosting company can assist them in managing their servers. On a side note, server migration and maintenance are required when changing your hosting plans from shared hosting to VPS.

 

What Are The Services?

  1. Like our personal computers, the operating system of a server needs regular updates. Our technical team will monitor and advise from time to time whether there is a need to update your operating system.
  2. Server security is the biggest concern of a website owner. Apart from installing an antivirus software, server hardening is another effective way to protect the server.
  3. We have Ping Monitoring System to check your servers every 60 seconds to verify that your servers are available online.
  4. Our technical support provides 24x7x365, round-the-clock helpdesk support to our clients. Our response time is within 2 hours.

To know when to upgrade your hosting plans, owners can periodically check their website traffic from the control panel statistics. They could also request from their hosting providers an accurate hosting report and decide when to upgrade.

Exabytes Network’s rule of thumb is Customer First and it is our pleasure to clear whatever hosting doubts you have in your mind. Visit us at exabytes.com for more information.

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Why do I need a domain name?

July 2nd, 2011

Domain names and hosting are the basics for people who wish to own their websites. There are free and paid domains and hosting. Free domains are usually third party domains, or sub-domains. For instance, exabytes.blogspot.com, is an example of Exabytes using blogspot.com to create a sub-domain for itself. An example of free hosting is blogspot.com but this article will focus on merely Domain Names.

However, since Blogspot.com is giving away free domain names, why do I need a paid domain? This is indeed a frequently asked question. Having a paid domain is to protect your brand name. Your paid domain name tells your site visitors about your website. Let your domain name speaks for your website. This is extremely important to retain your visitors to your website. In addition, a sub-domain name is very long while your paid domain name can be very short and meaningful for your visitors to remember you or your company better and subsequently enhance your web ranking.

Some people prefer to register their domain names based on their Company Names. This is a good practice as people know your company name and they tend to key in your company name while searching for you on the web. For example, Exabytes Network Pte. Ltd. has domains identical to its company names such as exabytes.com, exabytes.sg, exabytes.in, etc. The reason behind registering a domain name based on your company name is to protect your brand name. There are hundreds of domain extensions available, from Top-Level-Domain to Country Level domain extensions. If budget allows, it is recommended that you register all the domain extensions that are available. For instance, although exabytes.co has already been taken, it was not registered by Exabytes Network Pte Ltd itself. Someone else has registered exabytes.co before they even realized it. More often than not, we also receive emails from anonymous saying that a particular domain extension of your company is still available and suggest that you register the domain with them. These are opportunists who register your domain names before you do and resell it to you at a higher price. Besides, it might also be a scam in which they collect the money from you but ends up fleeing after payment is made.

A domain name signifies your organization or company. Furthermore, domain registrations are based on first-come first-served basis. A domain does not belong to anyone until someone registers it. Thus if you have a preferred domain name for your website, register it as soon as possible before someone else does. Apart from this, your preferred domain name may also clash with the domain of others who have similar names as yours. For instance, NGC is the acronym to Northern Group of Composer, a non-profit organization. It is also a full name of a private company, NGC Systems Pte. Ltd. It is such a coincidence that both organizations use ‘NGC’ for their domain names but with different domain extensions. Since domain registrations are based on first-come first-served basis, no one can register for the same domain if it is already taken. Thus register your preferred domain name while it is still available or else your will have to think of another name.

The existence of your domain name represents the existence of your company/organization and your brand in this new era. Your sales and the image of your company will be adversely affected if someone has taken your brand name in advance and use it for other purposes. In short, your domain speaks for your organization or company. Have you already registered one for yourself? Seize your domain now before others do!

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Avoid being the easy target for hackers, Act against Hacking!

June 21st, 2011

Hacking incidents are rampant these days, and have we, your preferred web host done enough to protect you from malicious attacks? Exabytes understands that data privacy and security are of utmost importance to any organization or individual, and is always upgrading to strengthen our level of security and protection to protect our clients. However, cooperation of our clients also plays an important role in achieving this important goal.

Website Security for hosting is basically divided into 4 main layers:

1) Network Layers (Taken care by your web host Exabytes)

  • We have segmented our networks, and are using multiple redundant service providers.
  • We monitor our network traffic 24×7.
  • Network Firewalls

2) Server Layers (Taken care by your web host Exabytes)

  • We have hardened our servers, and keep our servers’ operating system and software up to date.
  • We also monitor our servers closely for any abnormal traffic.
  • Firewalls in front of the server layers

3) Web Application Layers (Need Clients’ Cooperation)
This is the open source or custom web applications users installed on their hosting accounts.

  • Users need to ensure that the softwares installed are up-to-date and patched accordingly.
  • Users must ensure their web folders are not exposed to “public write-able”.
  • If users are using open source Content Management System like Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, etc, make sure they are running the latest versions.
  • Disable unused plugins / software for their websites. Or update from time to time.

4) Users Layers (Need Clients’ Attention)

  • Make sure the notebook/PC used by users or even local office server is free from virus/Trojans.
  • Use a secure password. A secure password is made up of a combination of alphabets, numbers and special characters and has at least 8 characters the minimum.
  • Make sure your passwords are changed at least once every 3 months.
  • And most importantly, make sure your passwords are stored in a secure place. Do not save your passwords in Address Book or Excel File. They must be stored in a Password Manager where they are encrypted.
  • All the above apply for all your passwords including passwords for your hosting control panel, domain name manager, FTP, mailboxes, content management system and user name for other online portals.

Each year, hacking attacks caused many organizations and individuals great losses and huge amounts of money. By putting in a little more effort to enhance your site security, you too can prevent these unlawful malicious attacks!

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How to: Make your own profile picture for wordpress and other blogsite?

April 12th, 2010

Hi Guys, some of you might know and some might not aware that there is a profile image show up whenever you reply in wordpress or other blogsite.

For those who are not sure what it is and where to get it, now we may provide you with a simple procedure to make your own one :)

It is called Gravatar. When you replying the comments in blog, it will recognise your email address and furthe show the image you have previously setup.

Let’s see how easy to create one!



Step 1: Go to http://en.gravatar.com/


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Step 2: Enter your email address


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Step 3: Proceed validation from confirmation email


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Step 4: Log in, and go to “Add an image


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Step 5: Select the source to get your nice picture :)


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Step 6: Performing some adjustment for best fit…


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Step 7: Rate it!


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Step 8: If you have more than 1 email accounts, this step will request you to choose which email address will responsive to your new Gravatar image


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Step 9: Done! :D


It is very simple isn’t it?

Now, please reply and share with us about your handsome and pretty new Gravatar picture! :)

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