The best developer-friendly web hosting services

It is fascinating to note how web hosting services have evolved so rapidly in the last few years to cope with web applications that are always on the look out for more resource allocations, faster processing speed and scalability. While shared, managed or VPS hosting services are still popular choices, it is now more common for developers to opt for developer-friendly web hosting, platform as a service (PaaS) or CMS-specific web hosting services.

These trending web hosting services allow developers to easily create, deploy and fine-tune their web applications without dealing with much sys-admin. They come preinstalled with a variety of developer-friendly tools like one-click staging, versioning, full shell access and some would even offer coding environments. Some hosting company will even allow you to choose your own software stack whereby which you can easily deploy your development environment like Python, Ruby, Django, Node.js and more.

This article takes a look at some of these services including the tools they provide and their base pricing.

DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean provides cloud hosting services especially tailored for web developers. You can deploy your own SSD cloud server in less than a minute by choosing your own Linux distribution. DigitalOcean also provides you to choose from a selection of data centers and comes with a simplified control panel with one-click install for popular applications. Finally, it has a very robust API that gives you total control over your virtual private server.

Pricing starts at $5/mo for 512MB, 1 Core Processor, 20GB SSD Disk and 1TB transfer.

Thexyz

Thexyz is a premium Node.js application hosting platform. It enables you to go from code to live application in minutes. Never worry about how your application is going to scale again. Integrated modules means you can have your entire technology stack under one roof. Finally, know exactly how your application is performing by using the built in performance statistics.

GearHost

GearHost is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) cloud built for .NET, PHP and Node.js developers who need to launch and scale applications quickly. GearHost offers free account that you can use during your development and then upgrade to their paid plan when you’re ready to go live. Pricing for paid account is flexible and starts at $5/month.

Kodingen

Kodingen is a cloud development environment combining an online code editor, cloud hosting along with both web based access to file-system and FTP. It is free and provides developers with a feature-rich collaboration and social coding tools along with integration with a wide variety of existing frameworks and third party APIs. Kodingen also offers one-click installs for popular open source scripts like Drupal, Joomla and WordPress – great for testing something in a safe sanbox.

Modulus.io

Modulus is a premier Node.js application hosting platform. It enables you to go from code to live application in minutes. Never worry about how your application is going to scale again. Integrated MongoDB hosting means you can have your entire technology stack under one roof. Finally, know exactly how your application is performing by using the built in performance statistics.

Windows Azure

Windows Azure is Microsoft’s cloud services operating system that provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale and manage web application through Microsoft’s datacenters. The Windows Azure platform supports multiple languages including ASP.NET, Java, PHP and Ruby along with standards and protocols like SOAP, REST and XML. Other than its scalable hosting environment, Windows Azure also provides durable storage in the cloud and a content delivery network (CND).

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a collection of different web services platform in the cloud. With AWS, developers can requisition computer power, networking, storage and other services. AWS provides the flexibility to choose whichever development platform or programming model you want to use. Amazon Web Services’ offerings are accessed over HTTP, using REST and SOAP protocols. All are billed on usage, with the exact form of usage varying from service to service.

Google App Engine

Google App Engine enables you to build and host web apps on the same systems that power Google applications. App Engine offers fast development and deployment; simple administration, with no need to worry about hardware, patches or backups; and effortless scalability.With App Engine you write your application code, test it on your local machine and upload it to Google with a simple click of a button or command line script.

Database.com

Database.com from SalesForce is an enterprise cloud based database service designed for developers who build online applications regardless of the language, platform or device they use. Developers will also be able to use Database.com plug and play storage with other cloud based services like Amazon EC2, Windows Azure or Google AppEngine. Some of its features include user management, row-level security, triggers, authentication, API and stored procedures. Databases are also automatically tuned, upgraded, replicated and backup to other remote data centers.

GridGain

GridGain is a cloud application platform that enables development of highly scalable SaaS based or traditional enterprise applications that work on any managed infrastructure. You can develop with GridGain using Java or Scala programming languages – both of which are supported natively.

Codeita

Codeita is a powerful, easy to use, cloud-based, web development environment. It’s a powerful code editor, an advanced svg image editor, and an out of this world project management and collaboration tool. It allows users to code, develop, brainstorm, communicate and then publish projects and files to your web server. No more hassles with backups and syncing your laptop with your desktop. Or your personal laptop with your business laptop. Complete with code highlighting, local/live editing, project sharing, image editing and more.

CodeRun

CodeRun Studio is a cross-platform Integrated Development Environment (IDE), designed for the cloud. It enables you to easily develop, debug and deploy web applications using your browser. CodeRun features native support for C#/.NET (3.5), PHP (5.1), JavaScript, HTML and CSS. C# support includes ASP.NET, WCF, Silverlight and WPF browser application development and deployment. Database support includes SQL Server 2005 and Amazon SimpleDB.

Heroku

Heroku is a cloud application platform for Ruby. It provides a new way of building and deploying web applications by allowing developers spend 100% of their time on their application code, not managing servers, deployments, ongoing operations or scaling. One of the most powerful features of Heroku is its support of addons that allows you to add functionality to your apps with ease.

Engine Yard AppCloud

Engine Yard AppCloud is an ideal Platform-as-a-Service for a range of Rails applications, from smaller-scale web applications that run within a single compute instance, to production applications that require the elasticity, scalability and reliability of a Rails Application Cloud. With Engine Yard AppCloud you only pay for what you use—there are no setup or environment fees, and you don’t need your own Amazon account.

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Do I need a dedicated IP address?

Of the numerous hosting features and extras available from just about every hosting provider out there, the dedicated IP may just be the one that gives Web publishers the most pause. Is it necessary? Does it have any benefit? Do I really need one if I’m using a dedicated server? Do I really need one at all?

The debate rages on. Ultimately, whether you spring for a dedicated IP address or not is your decision, but knowing a few facts, and then throwing in a bit of opinion, may help you make an educated decision. Let’s start with the basics.

What Is An IP Address?

This is completely separate from your domain name or the URL of your site. The IP (Internet Protocol) address is a sequence of numbers assigned to every device that accesses the Internet. Whereas your domain is essentially your website’s address—the location where it can be found on the Internet—your computer’s IP address is a unique label that allows the Internet, websites, (and let’s be honest, probably the NSA) to identify your specific device when it accesses a website.

In addition to computers and mobile devices, servers also have their own unique IP addresses.

Shared IPs Vs. Dedicated IPs

Most data centers and website technology providers offer variations on two different types of hosting – shared hosting and dedicated hosting. With shared hosting, all of a server’s resources are pooled together to host many sites without regard for who owns the site, how much traffic a site receives, etc. With dedicated hosting, all of a server’s resources are still applied to a specific set of sites and applications, but the way those resources are allocated is at the discretion of the person renting the server space – not the hosting provider.

So, in the case of shared hosting, there are often hundreds, sometimes thousands of sites that all reside on the same server – therefore, they all have the same IP address. In the case of dedicated hosting, sites may share the same hosting provider, but do not all have the same IP address.

Shared IPs and Dedicated IPs operate in the same way. While each hosting account has the same IP in a shared hosting scenario, a dedicated IP is an exclusive address that is unique to your hosted server. While a dedicated IP address is exclusively yours, you might choose to serve different sites from that IP address. Ultimately, you are in control of who’s using it.

This normally isn’t a problem in any way, whether you’re considering hosting or search engine optimization (SEO) factors. But in some cases, a dedicated IP can be helpful, and in others, it’s necessary.

What Is A Dedicated IP And What Does It Actually Do?

To truly understand dedicated IPs, we need to understand how IP addresses work.

IP addresses route internet traffic to the right place, much like a zip code or post code. Like postal codes, different people can share the same IP.

If you have a shared hosting account, you probably share your site IP address with dozens of other people. In some cases, you might share it with hundreds of other sites. Sharing is not a problem. The host has software to interpret requests for different sites on the same IP, ensuring that it can serve the right content to each person, and it takes milliseconds.

A dedicated IP address is exclusively yours. You might choose to serve different sites from that IP address, but you’re ultimately in control of who’s using it.

You would think that a dedicated IP was better, right? Let’s look at some of the benefits we associate with them.

When Do I Need a Dedicated IP Address?

As far as hosting goes, you’ll encounter as many as four major reasons why a dedicated IP will either be helpful or necessary to the success of your site.

 

• You need to maintain a secure site via SSL certificate.
• Your site is high traffic and needs dedicated resources to maintain performance.
• You need to access your website via file transfer protocol (FTP) on a regular basis
• You need to view your website via IP address

 

Many of these reasons would also signal that it is a good time to upgrade your hosting platform from shared to dedicated, as well! With that said, dedicated IPs are not dependent upon dedicated hosting to function correctly. You can have shared IPs on a dedicated server if you host multiple sites on one server, and you can have dedicated IPs pointing to sites on a shared hosting server (if an online store uses shared hosting and SSL, it likely has a dedicated IP).

Of the reasons listed above, the most common reason that signals you will need a dedicated IP is if you plan to attach a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate to your site.

Why You Need A Dedicated IP For SSL Certificates

Say you’re building an e-commerce site. If you expect customers to enter their credit card and other personal information, you want to offer them the security of protecting that information with an SSL. You must have a dedicated IP in order to get an SSL certificate on your site. Most hosts will charge an additional fee both for the dedicated IP and the SSL certificate, but some may include the dedicated IP with the purchase of the SSL certificate. Check with your preferred hosting provider to be sure.

Why You Need A Dedicated IP For High-Volume Traffic

Specifically purchasing a dedicated IP just for a high traffic site is not as necessary as securing dedicated hosting for a high traffic site. E-commerce sites that purchase an SSL certificate will likely already have a dedicated IP and will probably also have dedicated hosting. Whether it’s an e-commerce site or not, if your website sees a large volume of traffic on a daily basis, you may want to consider getting a dedicated IP. With dedicated hosting (and a dedicated IP), your website is more likely to increase or at least maintain your speed and performance your visitors are accustomed to while accommodating so many visitors. It will also reduce the likelihood of your site crashing under the strain of so much traffic – a far more common problem for high traffic sites that use shared hosting.

A Brief History Of Dedicated IP Addresses As An SEO Strategy

Much of the debate over whether to incur the extra expense of a dedicated IP address comes from the question of whether or not the dedicated IP offers any sort of SEO benefit. The answer has changed over the years, but there’s a good reason why that’s happened.

It’s all Matt Cutts’s fault.

OK, not really. But sort of. Matt Cutts is the head of Google’s Webspam team. He communicates regularly with many members of the digital marketing and search industry, and often speaks at industry conferences. He also releases videos on a regular basis where he answers questions people send to him, and discusses Google updates and functions.

In a November 2006 blog post, Cutts addressed the dedicated IP address question, saying at the time that it was not a ranking factor.

In August 2010, Cutts released a video in response to a question about whether shared hosting negatively affects a site’s ranking. The question and response dealt specifically with the presence of spammy websites on the same server as “normal” websites. However, a lot of people took Cutts’s response to mean dedicated IP addresses were not necessary to “protect” those regular sites, and would not offer any SEO benefit.

However (You knew there was a “however” coming, right?), 2006 was a long time ago, and by Internet standards, so was 2010. Things have changed since then, including Google’s algorithm, and how rankings are determined. One of the factors Google now looks at when ranking sites is page load speed.

Fast forward to an August 2013 video, where Cutts explains that page load speed is a ranking factor, and that this is true across the board, whether sites are accessed via mobile or desktop. He also says Google will “…continue to look at ways to improve the ways that we [Google] find out how fast a site is, the page speed for a particular page, and then try to figure out whether it makes sense. OK, if we want users to be less frustrated, then maybe it does make sense to incorporate that more into our rankings…”

Now, let’s apply some logic…

 

• A dedicated IP can help increase your site’s speed.
• Google considers page load speed to be a ranking factor.

 

Therefore, a dedicated IP address may be a factor to improve the SEO value of your site.

That said, a dedicated IP address is not going to magically transport your site to the number one position in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). But here’s the thing—if you’re trying to help your site rank well, don’t you want to give it every advantage possible? If there are 15 things you can do that may help your site do better in the SERPs, why would you only do 12 of them if you can do them all?

So along with creating high-quality content, ensuring that content isn’t over-optimized, building a solid site architecture, and the numerous other things you can do to make Google like your site just a little more, paying a little extra for a dedicated IP can be a good investment in your site’s future.

Do Professional SEOs Believe A Dedicated IP Can Really Help Your Site Rank Better?

There are two aspects to the SEO argument for dedicated IPs: ranking and spam.

Some search engine optimization (SEO) professionals believe search engines are more likely to trust a site on a dedicated IP address and give it a higher search engine ranking. There is a lot of debate about that theory, and almost no evidence to back it up.

Google does use IP addresses in some of its calculations, but mostly to determine how much to trust an inbound link. Links from similar IPs are usually trusted less. But the odds of being impacted by this are slim, even on a shared server.

In terms of spam, Google may distrust sites that share an IP range with spammers, junk blogs and other violators of their ‘best practices’. On a shared server, the unethical behavior of someone on your shared IP could result in a penalty for everyone – in theory.

But it’s not really clear cut. Google obviously understands that millions of websites use shared hosting, so blanket penalties would be counter productive.

Page Load Speed And Dedicated IPs

Can a dedicated IP address help your site load more quickly?

In some ways, you’d expect so. After all, there’s less traffic flowing to that IP.

But look at it another way. Every server has to inspect a packet, examine the request and deliver it to the correct domain. This holds true if there is one site on an IP or one thousand sites. Every server has to go through this process; the number of possible destinations doesn’t really matter.

As such, the difference in processing time is so small as to be imperceptible.

So Then What’s The Big Benefit Of Having A Dedicated IP?

There is one clear benefit of owning a dedicated IP. It allows you to do more with your server.

You need a dedicated IP address to host your own SSL certificate, for example. You can also run an FTP server off the IP address. You could run a gaming server or some other IP-based server (with your host’s permission).

Most Web hosts offer shared SSL certificates at will be good enough for the vast majority of sites, and very few people will ever need to run an IP-based FTP server. But in some cases, the benefits are clear.

Should You Bother With a Dedicated IP?

A dedicated IP is preferable, but you’ll get by just fine without one.

The benefits are quite specialized, and the SEO angle is now largely discredited.

The only thing to watch out for is spam. Subscribe to Google Webmaster Tools and stay on top of what Google thinks about your site. If it seems to be located in a ‘bad neighborhood’, migrate to a new host, and don’t rely on a dedicated IP to solve the problem.

Should You Buy A Dedicated IP?

There’s a lot of debate around dedicated IPs and the pros and cons of using one. Let’s look at the arguments both for and against using a dedicated IP:

Pros:

• Dedicated IPs are an essential feature to improving the security of your site through SSL certificates.
• You can access your site via FTP and also load it in a browser via IP address.
• High-traffic domains are less likely to experience downtime when they are being loaded through dedicated resources.

 

Cons:

• Despite alleged SEO benefits, there is no definitive positive correlation between hosting
  your website with a dedicated IP and better search optimization.
• A dedicated IP addition to your hosting package is NOT the same thing as a dedicated server or virtual dedicated hosting.
• While a dedicated IP may benefit your page load speed, the impact will be not be significant enough to greatly improve your rankings in the search engine results.

 

If you need to secure your website, then buying a dedicated IP as part of your SSL package is a good investment. However, it probably makes sense to avoid simply buying a dedicated IP as a standalone addition to your hosting package if you are staying on a shared hosting server. Instead, upgrade to dedicated hosting and lock in your dedicated IP as part of the upgrade from a shared to a dedicated plan.

Originally posted on whoishostingthis.com. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

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NetFirms

NetFirms Hosting Review

NetFirms is one of the oldest web hosting service providing company which was founded in 1998. Netfirms is regarded as the leaders in the field of website and domain hosting. Netfirms provide both the services separately such as the domain registrar and web hosting service. It provides the global web hosting solutions and technology to individuals, small, medium and large businesses.

Hosting Plans

Netfirms gives individual plans in different sub types. The lowest and cheapest ‘Plus Plan’ gives one free domain, the ‘Advantage’ plan gives two free domains and the ‘Business’ plan gives five free domains. Each of these plans gives $100 worth of Adwords credit, a free $25 credit to Yahoo, Bing search engine along with unlimited bandwidth and disk space.

Its domain registrar services boast lowest domain price and it just charges an initial $9.99 per domain name. Netfirms also charge an additional $5.99 a year for the domain privacy. It also provides premium customer support and a dedicated SSL certificate which would helpful for the users with E-commerce websites.

Reliability

NetFirms gives a guarantee of 99.9% uptime which means your website would be accessible to your prospective audience all throughout the day. Netfirms would also provide you with password protected directories as well as .htaccess and even shared and dedicated SSL certificates. NetFirms had successfully hosted over 1.2 million websites which is an example of its reliable services. It provides 24*7 customer support system for its users which help them in all the matters pertaining to the web hosting with distinction.

Ease of Use

NetFirms hosting plans provide access to a web-based control and administration panel which lets the user to access their account from anywhere in the world. Its systems are extremely user friendly and allow the users to make the changes in swift and quick manner. You can easily upload and delete the file, make changes in the web pages, examine the logs before making any marketing decisions in order to change the campaigns, all of it a simple and quick way.

Pricing

NetFirms provides an excellent value for the customer’s money. It provides unlimited bandwidth and disk space to the users even at the introductory hosting plans. It comes up with the top-notch services with additional features at just $3.49 per month.

NetFirms provides excellent web hosting services complemented with additional features which happens to be worth each penny. Its hosting plans could help you in achieving your online goals without going over your budget.

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JustHost

JustHost Hosting Review

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Jushost is a web hosting service provider which has provided promising services across the years. Justhost also operates under Endurance International Group which is a very large web hosting service provider and has more than 60 hosting companies under it which operates under their original name. Justhost has been attracting clients with their quality service and competitive rates. The speed in their service and their free instant setup policy is well appreciated in the market.

Features and supports

The basic plans for web hosting with the usual privileges include free domain, free site builderalong with unlimited email account and file transfer. It offers unlimited disk storage, free drag and drop site builders, supports international domain names and for a proper mailing protocol it has IMAP –mail support. They have special support for e-commerce like SSL Secure Server and password protection directories for safe money transfer. Other online money transfer like Zen Kart Shopping cart and Cube Kart are also provided for e-commerce transactions. The websites can have multimedia features like steaming video and audio support along with MIDI file support.

When it comes to opening a website, strong traffic inflow is a very essential thing in order to uphold the commercial viability of the venture. This is why, Justhost is a preferable choice as it offers free advertising support o Google. For web designing also it has WordPress support and various other useful apps and programs will be provided to develop and design the website. These may include Drupal, concrete 5, Joomla etc.

Reliability

Jsuthost provides a 24/7 customer support service, that is if any problem arises you are just a call away to clarify it. You can directly speak to the representatives who can understand and deliver to our problem promptly. They also promise any time money back guarantee. If you want to walk out in between a billing cycle, they will pay back the money for the remaining period of time.

Pricing and plans

On their website there are mainly three hosting plans and they are presently upholding an introductory offer of $2.50 per month. This is for the starter package which includes a 100 GB website space and many more beneficial features. The Plus Plan comes at $4.50/month with an unlimited storage space. It also offers $200 for marketing. The best is the Business Pro which is tagged with a $9.95/month price tag and offers 2 spam experts, 1 dedicated IP and a backup protection.

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Customer Reviews

This is what our users think of JustHost

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Hostmonster

Hostmonster Hosting Review

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Hostmonster is a quality web host for both personal or e-commerce site and also serves well for small businesses. They always attend to their customer’s problems and customers are quite satisfied with the service with respect to what they charge.

Features

Unlimited domain hosting and email accounts and you can get web designing support from WordPress and for images and templates, they will provide you with their own gallery. You can use their free drag and drop site builder to develop your website and you will get a cPanel Account control panel to work on also. You can hold on to your domain name for one year.

The starter plan has certain restrictions on privileges. The website space offered is 100GB and includes one Domain, 5 Parked Domains and 25 sub-domains and 100 email account. There is no CDN and spam prevention support under this plan. This plan doesn’t provide any SSL Certificates or dedicated IPs.

Ease of Use

They have sufficient database support for storing information and content of the website. They provide MYSQL Databases and PostgreSQL Databases. For programing and CGI purpose, they provide Javascript and HTML support to develop the webpage and other high level languages like Python and Ruby on Rails.

They have Message Forums like PHPBB, Form-mail Scripts, social networking scripts, Blog Support and to make it easy for you to take poll or reviews from your customers they also have Poll and Survey Software. Other apps that you can embed on your webpages like Moodle, Tikiwiki, and Drupal are also made available for free. For a proper CMS, you can use Joomla also.

Support for e-commerce sites included in Business Pro plan

If you are planning to build an online shopping site or e-commerce website where you can sell services and products, you will get full assistance from Hostmonster. You can get free generated certificate and for money transaction you can get support from Zen Cart Shopping Cart, Cube Cart Shopping Cart and many more such service providers. For customer account security, you can also avail the Password protected directories.

Plans and Pricing

The three packages are Starter, Plus and Business Pro. They are all under sale now and for the Starter you have to pay $3.95 per month. For the plus plan, the price tag is $6.95 per month and for the Business Pro it is $14.95 per month. As far as marketing plans are concerned, the Starter comes with a $50 of free advertisement while the Plus and Business Pro includes a $200 worth of free advertisement.

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This is what our users think of Hostmonster

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A Quick and Easy Guide to FTP Hosting

Are you wondering, “What is an FTP hosting service?” For that matter, what exactly is provided by an FTP host? File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a crucial mechanism for copying files to and from a Web server. In fact, many of the world’s Web-hosting solutions utilize FTP as the primary way for customers to upload their websites. The following explores FTP, its applications, and common options provided by FTP hosting providers.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) in a Nutshell

You are probably aware that all website URLs begin with “http://.” This is referred to as the “protocol”—the mechanism in which the client computer communicates with the Web server. In this case, “http” stands for hypertext transfer protocol, and is used to request Web pages (i.e., hypertext). FTP therefore is the protocol used to request and upload items between the client machine and FTP host, and is relegated strictly to files.

Using FTP

As mentioned previously, FTP is predominantly used for data transfer. Common use cases include copying images, videos, music, application files, and a plethora of other media types for access via the Web. Website development is commonly done on a user’s local computer, with the site (images, HTML files, scripts) uploaded in bulk to the server once complete. Some text editors used to create and modify HTML files also use FTP to copy files back and forth between the Web server and the user’s local computer. With these editors, users open and save files as if they were stored locally, with the FTPing occurring as a background process. To get an idea of what companies may offer Web hosting—including free FTP hosting—check our breakdown of Web hosting solutions.

 

If you have used Dropbox or Box, an FTP hosting service provides similar functionality. The latter offers cloud storage in a Software as a Service (SaaS) offering, while FTP hosting requires the use of special software—an FTP client—to upload and download files. Often, FTP hosting providers will give their customers a special Web interface to easily drag and drop items to be uploaded and downloaded. Hardcore users can also utilize FTP through the command line.

By far the most common way to copy and download files from your FTP host is with FTP client software. This desktop software allows for easy, explorer-like file manipulation. Using an FTP client enables easy operations of common file actions like uploading/downloading, modifying file permissions, and moving entire directory structures. Popular and free FTP client applications include Filezilla, SmartFTP, and CoreFTP, among others.

About Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)

SFTP is a version of FTP that offers advanced security mechanisms to ensure that the files transferred are encrypted during uploading or downloading. This offers stronger security, as regular FTP transmits data in clear text and is readily viewable by anyone. Many are moving toward SFTP as a replacement for standard FTP, as today’s threat landscape calls for more stringent security controls to reduce exposure to cyber-attacks. SFTP requires the use of SSH—or secure shell—to transmit encrypted uploads and downloads over a protected channel.

Getting Started with FTP Hosting

FTP hosting usually comes standard with Web-hosting plans, but check with specific vendors for their range of options. For example, some may not offer SFTP in certain plans, while others have strict file quotes limiting server space, file size(s), and daily upload limits.

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Guide to a Successful cPanel Migration

Performing a cPanel server migration may seem intimidating. If you have Linux-based Web hosting, chances are you are using the popular tool to manage your hosting services. Perhaps you are moving to a new server and need to configure cPanel to reflect the new changes.

The following covers the basics on how to perform a cPanel migration, tools you will need as you go along, and some helpful tips and advice. The cPanel’s graphical user interface (GUI) allows users to easily perform most administrative tasks like adding and removing FTP accounts, file/folder and email account management—among others—without using the command line. Fortunately, migrating cPanel accounts is also mostly a point-and-click affair. It is a bit involved, though, so be sure to have technical assistance in case of a need for urgent help.

Web Hosting Preparation

You will need the FTP information for your new cPanel Web hosting account, as well as an FTP client application for uploading and downloading files. Many free options exist such as FileZilla and CyberDuck. It’s also advisable to ensure that your original Web host’s version of cPanel matches that of the new hosting provider. This can be confirmed by logging into cPanel and checking “cPanel version” under “Stats” in the left-hand column. If both versions are the same, you’ll be less likely to encounter problems.

 

Backup and Download of Existing Site

After logging into cPanel, navigate to a section called “Backup.” Under “Partial Backups,” you will see two options: “Download a Home Directory Backup” and “Download a MySQL Database Backup.” Click the “Download” button under “Download a Home Directory Backup” and save the file somewhere on your local computer.

Backup and Download of Existing MySQL Databases

Under “Download a MySQL Database Backup” you will see a list of current MySQL databases installed on the server. Clicking on each link will download the backup file for that particular database instance. As in the previous step, the downloaded files will be used in restoring the website to the new server.

It’s worth noting that both files may be quite large and are compressed for easier manipulation and faster uploading and downloading. These files must remain in their compressed format. Upon downloading, some utilities such as WinZip may prompt you to unzip or decompress the files. Do not select this option, as the destination Web host requires the files to be in their downloaded format. Simply download and save the files as they are.

Uploading Site and MySQL Databases to New Web Host

After logging into cPanel on the old site, navigate to the “Backup” section. You will see options to “Restore a Home Directory Backup” and “Restore a MySQL Database.” Under “Restore a Home Directory Backup,” select “Browse” to navigate to the location of the website backup file. Clicking “Upload” will copy your old site’s file to the new server, keeping intact all folders and file locations.

The last step is to restore any MySQL databases associated with your website. Under “Restore a MySQL Database,” select the “Browse” button and navigate to the location where the website’s MySQL database backup was saved. Clicking “Upload” will restore the database—you will need to do this for each MySQL database that was saved (and needs to be restored on the new server).

In short, cPanel to cPanel migration is mostly painless with the provided migration tools. For cPanel to Plesk migrations, similar tools such as the Parallels Plesk Migration and Transfer Manager tool can also aid in easy, error-free migrations of your website.

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RAID

What is RAID? What are the benefits of a RAID-equipped server?

Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a way of saving content on several hard disks at the same time. A RAID can be software or hardware depending on the drives which are used – physical or logical ones, however what’s common between them is the fact that they all operate as just a single unit where information is saved. The top advantage of employing a RAID is redundancy as the data on all of the drives will be identical all of the time, so even in the event that some drive fails for some reason, the information will still be available on the other drives. The general performance is also better as the reading and writing processes can be split between different drives, so a single one won’t be overloaded. There’re different sorts of RAIDs where the capabilities and fault tolerance may differ depending on the exact setup – whether info is written on all drives in real time or it is written on one drive and after that mirrored on another, what amount of drives are used for the RAID, etcetera.

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Memcached

What is Memcached?

Memcached is an object caching system, which is used to increase the overall performance of database-driven sites by caching the queries and the responses between the visitor and the server. In other words, anytime a given page on such a site is accessed, the script sends a query to its database to request the information that should be shown to the visitor. If the latter clicks on a link to go to another page, the entire operation is performed again and this results in plenty of database requests and high server load, even more so if the site has lots of simultaneous visitors. Memcached “memorizes” this exchange of information, so if any of these web pages is requested again, the script no longer has to call any information from the database, since everything is delivered by the Memcached platform. Thus, the overall speed of your site will “soar” and you’ll enjoy more gratified visitors and they will be able to navigate through your site faster. At the same time, the Memcached platform “refreshes” its cache whenever any info in the database is changed, so the website users will never see old content.

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