Monday 28 September 2020

DNS, Web Hosting, Compare Web Hosting, Web Hosting Reviews

DNS is an application layer protocol. All application layer protocols use one of the two transport layer protocols, UDP and TCP. TCP is reliable and UDP is not reliable. DNS is supposed to be reliable, but it uses UDP, why?

There are following interesting facts about TCP and UDP on the transport layer that justify the above.

1) UDP is much faster. TCP is slow as it requires 3-way handshake. The load on DNS servers is also an important factor. DNS servers (since they use UDP) don’t have to keep connections.

2) DNS requests are generally very small and fit well within UDP segments.

2) UDP is not reliable, but reliability can added on application layer. An application can use UDP and can be reliable by using a timeout and resend at the application layer.

Actually, DNS primarily uses the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) on port number 53 to serve requests. DNS queries consist of a single UDP request from the client followed by a single UDP reply from the server. When the length of the answer exceeds 512 bytes and both client and server support EDNS, larger UDP packets are used. Otherwise, the query is sent again using the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). TCP is also used for tasks such as zone transfers. Some resolver implementations use TCP for all queries.

Monday 21 September 2020

Cloud Server, Dedicated Server, Web Hosting, Hosting Review

Confused about your options when it comes to cloud computing and dedicated hosting for your application or website? Below, you’ll find a definition of each followed by an overview of their differences.

Cloud Servers


Cloud servers can be configured to provide levels of performance, security and control similar to those of a dedicated server. But instead of being hosted on physical hardware that’s solely used by you, they reside in a shared “virtualized” environment that’s managed by your cloud hosting provider. You benefit from the economies of scale of sharing hardware with other customers. And, you only pay for the exact amount of server space used. Cloud servers also allow you to scale resources up or down, depending on demand, so that you're not paying for idle infrastructure costs when demand is low.

With cloud servers, you can optimize IT performance without the huge costs associated with purchasing and managing fully dedicated infrastructure. Businesses with variable demands and workloads often find that cloud servers are an ideal fit.

Dedicated Servers


A dedicated server is a physical server that is purchased or rented entirely for your own business needs. Dedicated servers are typically used by large businesses and organizations that require exceptionally high levels of data security, or organizations that have steady, high demands for server capacity.

With dedicated servers, businesses still need the IT capacity and expertise to manage ongoing maintenance, patches and upgrades. Businesses using I/O-heavy applications, such as databases and big data platforms, find significant value in bare metal dedicated hardware.

Thursday 17 September 2020

Generally, a Server is a high-end network computer managing connected devices (“clients”) and their access to multiple applications as a central resource, whereas a Database is a repository that supports an application’s back-end data processing.

Web Hoting Reviews, Compare Web Hosting, Hosting Guides, Hosting Database, Hosting Server

What is a Server?


Depending on an organization’s network size, number of users, accessibility requirements, storage capacity etc., servers can be configured to manage one or more functions on the network.  Examples of different servers include:

◉ Database Server is a computer hosting one or several databases and manages the accessibility between client and data over a network.

◉ Web Server hosting web applications and managing accessibility, e.g. Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Server) or Apache.

◉ Mail Server that manages the email exchange for a business and is responsible for sending/receiving emails promptly.

◉ FTP Server stores files and facilitates easier file transfer (uploads and downloads) between connected devices over a local area network or remotely via an internet connection.

◉ A single server is also capable of managing several functions at once, as long as the hardware specifications meet the demands of the network.

◉ For large enterprise companies and data centers, servers are rack-mounted, and designed for a specific server function. Rack-mounted server are thin, using less space and advanced capabilities to hot-swop hard drives without disrupting the network.

Web Hoting Reviews, Compare Web Hosting, Hosting Guides, Hosting Database, Hosting Server

What is a Database?


◉ Database were initially “flat files” displaying simple columns and rows to store data, but today, databases are relational, allowing complex queries across multiple database tables and database sets.

◉ Relational databases provide users with greater use and flexibility to manage the data in the repository, using database programs such as Microsoft SQL and MySQL.

◉ A database comprises three elements to form a database management system (DMBS). The physical database is the repository, the database engine is the software allowing access to the data, and the database schema is the specified structure of the data.

◉ Databases can store most file types, including numeric, text, and multimedia and has a data structure to organize the stored information.

For example, in a company, an employee database table would have the relevant columns for personal details (Name, Surname, Address, etc) and a profile picture could also be stored for each employee, all residing the database.

Similarities

◉ Virtualization is fast-becoming a popular option for larger organizations, where databases and servers can operate as virtual instances, in virtual environments.

◉ Resource intensive applications and tasks perform better with virtualization as multiple simulated environments are created.

◉ A Server can be virtualized providing multiple instances of the Server and a virtual Database can be be configured on a physical server or virtual server.

◉ Using entry-level databases and servers require a degree of computer literacy, the trend in graphical interfaces, specifically web-based, is making it more user-friendly to manage servers and databases without having to interfere with any hardware.

◉ In organizations, databases are usually managed by database administrators, database developers, and other database specialists, and servers are managed by network administrators and other network specialists.

◉ Servers and Databases are able to manage concurrent processing by multiple users, and have security features managing user rights and access.

◉ Both have backup, recovery, and redundancy capabilities.

◉ Based on software licensed options, upgrading a database version or server operating software is fairly simple with the latest systems providing user-friendly wizards that guide users through a version upgrade of the software.

The Main Difference Between a Server and Database

◉ Related information is collected, stored, and maintained in a Database and is primarily the data repository.

◉ A Server is a hardware unit managing multiple or specific functions for a network and connected clients.

Primary Functions

◉ Databases are used for storing data and organizations that transact and store large amounts of data, need powerful database software to manage the data, like Oracle or MS SQL.

◉ Databases provide more control over data and allow users to transform and enrich the data for all aspects of business reporting purposes and manage back-end transacting.

◉ Servers connected to a high-volume network, managing multiple and simultaneous transactions need to have the appropriate technical make-up to support the network efficiently.

Database Types

◉ Databases are implemented according to the current and expected volume of data. For individuals and home office users, desktop databases, like Microsoft Access, are suitable, but for larger, enterprise organizations, database systems are installed on servers or built on dedicated database servers.
◉ The type of database depends on the use requirements of the users, network, and organization. Database types include:

     ◉ A Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)
     ◉ An Operational Database allows users to transform the data in real-time, such as modify, delete, add, etc.
     ◉ NoSQL and Object-oriented databases follow a different approach to the table, row, column of the RDBMS, and stores data in chunks and simplifies the data manipulation and search functionalities.
     ◉ A Cloud Database is hosted typically in a remote data center, and access to the database is provided through a service with the cloud host.
     ◉ Big Data are databases that manage massive, complex data sets that goes beyond the capabilities of standard database software applications.

Server Types

◉ A Server is typically defined by its’ configuration and allocation as a dedicated resource, such as the following:

     ◉ A Database Server is a computer hosting one or several databases and manages the accessibility between client and data over a network.
     ◉ A Web Server, like Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Server) or Apache, hosts web applications and manages accessibility and interaction with the web content.
     ◉ A Mail Server manages the email exchange for a business and is responsible for sending/receiving emails promptly.
     ◉ A File Server is dedicated to storing all users’ file and network data files.
     ◉ A Print Server co-ordinates all connected printers, and manages user printing.
     ◉ A Domain Server manages the authentication and accessibility of connected devices on the network, physically and remotely.
     ◉ An FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Server stores files and facilitates easier file transfer (uploads and downloads) between connected devices which are on a local area network or remotely via an internet connection.

◉ A single server is also capable of managing several functions at once, as long as the hardware specifications are suited to the demands of the network.

Scalability

◉ Based on licensed options, increasing the size of a database is fairly simple if using a DBMS like MS SQL, where the size of the log and data files can be increased, with limits from 2TB.

◉ To extend a server’s manufactured technical capability, an additional investment in hardware and memory would be required.

Migration

◉ Migration can be a complex task that requires careful planning when moving an entire server configuration or database system to a new platform, such as a new hardware unit to replace an old server, or moving a database system to the cloud.

◉ For server migration, it is practical to recreate the old (required parts) of the server configuration on a new hardware unit, and requires thorough testing and generally some tweaking.

◉ Database migrations to a new software platform have many challenges with new and different features, compatible data formats, and schemas, etc.

◉ A lock down on changes to the database would be required before migration to avoid having different versions of the same database, and once the new database has been implemented, it is then released into the production environment.

Monday 14 September 2020

Domain, Email hosting, Web hosting, Compare Web Hosting, Web Hosting Reviews

Since there’s a lot of confusion around the topic of domains, web hosting and email hosting, we’ll quickly review these three types of online hosting.

Domain Hosting and Registration


Domain hosts store domain names and facilitate their registration. First, you register a domain like yourdomain.com with a domain registrar, and just like a street address, the URL directs people to your website's location. If you’re using a domain registered through a third-party provider, that company is your domain host.

For your website to appear online, you need actual file hosting. You’ll often find domain and web hosting offered as a package, with most companies offering domain, email, and web hosting as a bundle.

Web Hosting


Web Hosting is a service that provides computer resources such as server space, memory, and bandwidth needed for your website files to live on the internet. Users can create and store website content on a web hosts servers so it can be viewed online via a web browser.

If you imagine a website plus all its content as a store, a web host simply provides the physical space to display the store’s products—in this case, the website content including the text, images, videos and anything else that make up the site's content.

There are different styles of hosting available to reflect the needs of different websites. Web hosting plans range from shared hosting with multiple sites sharing a single server to dedicated hosting, in which one customer uses an entire server’s space and bandwidth.

Email Hosting


Email hosting is a service in which your email messages and associated files are all stored on a server. When you receive an email to your website’s domain address, the email is routed across the internet and stored on the recipient server. At this point, the server administrators will determine which action to take (reply or ignore) bearing in mind any spam filters, re-routing requests and if the sender is on any blacklists.

The server hosting email can be the same server that’s hosting your website content, a server managed by another host, or two different servers managed by the same hosting company. Email hosting providers might specialize in offering only email hosting services, but it’s more typical for companies to offer bundled emails and web hosting packages these days.

Friday 11 September 2020

Free Web-hosting, Email Web Hosting, Web Hosting Reviews, Hosting Guides

Web-hosting email services allow you to send and receive mail and manage email accounts through webmail (POP) and email clients (IMAP). Free email account include Gmail and Yahoo, to name a few. There’s an abundance of free email hosting options that you are probably already familiar with: Google’s Gmail, Microsoft’s Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL are household names.

Pros:


◉ Free with no commitment or contract

◉ Free email services typically include enough file storage to meet the needs of small businesses and individuals

Cons:


◉ Might have irritating banners, or on/off page advertisements

◉ Weaker security measures

◉ Redundant help and customer support options

◉ Visitors doubt your authenticity

◉ Less cloud storage space

◉ No personalized domain name (your.name@yourbusinessname.com) leading to difficult to remember, long and unbranded email addresses.

Wednesday 9 September 2020

ASP Web Hosting, Web Hosting, Web Hosting Reviews, Compare Web Hosting

ASP web hosting refers to web hosting companies who provide support for ASP, or Active Server Page.

What is ASP?


ASP/Active Server Pages are HTML pages with embedded ASP scripts. ASP scripts are processed on the server before the page is sent to the visitor's browser. ASP allows you to create dynamic database driven pages, a visitor can access data in a database and interact with page objects such as Active X or Java components.

How does ASP work?


When you type in a URL in the Address Box of your browser, you are asking the web server to send the file to your computer. If the file is standard HTML, then the file that your web browser receives will look exactly the same as it did on the web server. However, if an ASP file is sent to your computer from the server, it first runs the HTML code, then the ASP code. The ASP code could be anything such as the current time, date, or other such information.

How to find an ASP web host?


You will need to find a web host who will host your website on a Windows server. It is safer to host your ASP pages on a Windows server as they are more stable and most ASP components work specific to Windows. You also need to consider if your website uses a database, such as SQL and Access. Make sure your web host provides support for the type of database your website requires.

Monday 7 September 2020

Server Hosting, Web Hosting, Web Hosting Reviews, Compare Web Hosting

Individuals and businesses contract server hosting from web hosting service providers to provide them the virtual real estate where their websites, email systems, and other Internet characteristics can be stored and delivered. The web hosting service provider is responsible for maintaining the server and keep it working and connected to the Internet so that requests and content can communicate to and from end-user computers. By paying a monthly fee to a hosting service, businesses can get the benefits of holding complete IT support without the cost compared with equipment maintenance, facilities, training, and the latest updates.

Other primary responsibilities of server hosting providers are as follows:

◉ Managing servers and bypassing from overheating, which is a possible risk for hardware during use 24/7.

◉ Replacing hardware whenever needed.

◉ Get customer support.

Types of server hosting


◉ Cloud hosting

Cloud has become the buzzword today. It refers to either the Internet or an intranet in association with several types of service or application offerings. Knowing the benefits of hosting, today many companies have started using Cloud hosting solutions for their business.

Cloud hosting is the most advanced form of hosting and has become incredibly popular. In cloud hosting, the resources which are necessary for the maintenance of your website are spread across more than one web server and are used as per the requirement basis.

Owing to this the chances of any downtimes in case of a server malfunction get reduced greatly.

Further, cloud hosting allows you to manage peak loads very easily without facing any bandwidth issues. This is because you have another server that can provide additional resources in case of any necessity.

◉ Dedicated Hosting

Dedicated hosting indicates your website is hosted on a separate server that is assigned specifically to your website. This skips the competition of resources linked with shared hosting and results in more sturdy website performance.

Dedicated servers are for those who have outgrown shared hosting or virtualized hosting platform and require complete control and access over the resources for their websites, applications, or databases.

◉ Shared hosting

Shared hosting serves by hosting multiple websites on a single server. Some have related shared hosting to a public bus system, because it is inexpensive to use, and includes sharing resources with other users. Thousands of websites can be hosted on a single server, which creates benefits and drawbacks as well.

Shared hosting is perfect for new website owners looking for a beginner-friendly, and cost-efficient option. Individual projects, small businesses, and even medium-sized firms can serve from the benefits of shared hosting.

◉ Managed hosting

With managed hosting, the service leases the hardware with including storage space to you. The hosting service takes care of monitoring and maintenance. Managed hosting can protect companies on expenses associated with personnel and maintenance of IT infrastructure. It is amongst the more expensive choice.

◉ Virtual private servers

A VPS hosts the data of various clients on a single physical machine. But unlike shared hosting, it uses a hypervisor to segregate tenants.

The VPS is known as a Virtual Private Server as all clients on the server seem as if they were on a separate dedicated machine. The VPS resembles this environment, cutting down on resources and expenses.

Virtual private servers vary from shared servers for software and their availability of resources. Although, the structure of both is actually similar.

The main reason VPS hosting is considered excellent is that it gives significantly more resources (memory, computing power, running CPU or graphics-intensive software, etc.) compare to shared server hosting. A VPS server also provides a guarantee for resources that a client may apply, while shared hosting does not.

Wednesday 2 September 2020

FTP (File Transfer Protocol), Web Hosting, Compare Web Hosting, Web Hosting Reviews

Evolved in 1971, the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) emerged as the standard network protocol which is used for the transfer of files between server and clients on a network. FTP is put up on a server-client model and uses separate control and data connections.

For transfer purpose, FTP users may validate themselves by a sign-in protocol, generally with the help of credentials using a username and a password. There are times when the server is configured to allow users to connect anonymously. FTP being a secure transmission protocol encrypts the content and also protects the username and password. FTP is found to be secure as it is layered by a security protocol named SSL/TLS (FTPS).

FTP is known for consuming fewer resources than the typical HTTP protocol while downloading and uploading. There is one need to prefix the directory which would be used for storing downloaded files while setting up an FTP download. Any directory can be selected for FTP downloads, either it may be out of your account’s web root or can even be directly accessed through the Internet. Once the directory is finalized for staring downloads you can move ahead for setting FTP account.

FTP users have ‘read-write’ access for the specifically selected directory, they can also overwrite the directory which already exists. One of the great utility of FTP is it can resume the previously lost connection and start the uploading or downloading from where it broke previously. A user can set a specific order of data which is to be uploaded and downloaded in a particular order. FTP users also have scripting abilities when used through the command line. One can restrict the number of users by creating limited FTP logins for them.

These were a few good things about FTP but on the other side, there are also few limitations it has with it. If a user uses FTP being anonymous then possibly the access of that particular directory can be granted to any person from that particular web hosting account. Important and confidential factors like usernames, passwords and files are transferred in text format. Filtration of an active FTP connection is a critical task, especially on a local machine.

Let’s look at an application of FTP first. A lot of us use FTP but we aren’t aware ‘where’ we use it. Do you know that when you open Gmail and download an attachment, you are actually using two protocols, first one is the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) for emails and another one is FTP for downloading files?

Now, let’s have a deep insight into the advantages and disadvantages of FTP.

Advantages -


◉ One of the biggest advantages of using an FTP is the ability to not only transfer more than one files but you can also transfer multiple directories at one time. FTP also permits multitasking — you can upload whatever task you have completed and at the same time download the files which you are planning to start working on.

◉ Another advantage is the ability to continue transferring files even if the connection is lost. In case you accidentally lose your connection or have to reboot your system, you don’t have to worry about starting right from the beginning. You can pick up right from where you left off.

◉ There is a lot of FTP client software that enables you to schedule a file/directory transfer allowing file sharing in your own way rather than forcing you to alter your work patterns.

◉ Automatic backup is the most important feature of FTP which works well for businesses such as medical practices which cannot afford to lose patients’ data under any case.

◉ If file sharing is a compulsion in your business then the speed at which files are transferred becomes currency in terms of a business and that is the biggest advantage of FTP. With the ability to multi-task and the lightning-fast transfer, the speed at which the file is transferred is no longer something you have to worry about.

Disadvantages -


◉ A coin has two sides and same is the case of FTP as well. It is a standard requirement of the industry that all FTP transmissions should be encrypted. Unfortunately, not all FTP providers are equal and not all providers offer encryption as a technology which is supported by FTP. So, in such cases, you will have to look out for providers that offer encryption to get the level of protection each type of data would need.

◉ FTP is much hyped for being the best option for businesses as it basically serves two operations viz., to send and receive large files on a network. However, the service has a size limit of 2 GB of files you can send. Also, the protocol wouldn’t allow you to run simultaneous transfers to multiple receivers.

◉ If a hacker tries a brute force attack by trying a possible set of password combinations repeatedly, he can easily gain access to your FTP if your password is weak. So it is quite possible for attackers to carry out a brute force attack by trying to guess your FTP password.

◉ FTP doesn’t support an important operation like scheduling transfer across multiple FTP servers. As mentioned earlier, you are unable to run simultaneous transfers using FTP.

◉ The FTP uses its own security vendor which lacks complete security and it could lead your business to pay the non-compliance penalties. If your company follows compliances like PCI-DSS, HIPAA, ITAR, etc. then you will have to seek an FTP provider which can support your compliances.

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