What’s happening today in the world of the IT industry?

The brand “Tucows” have decided to rebrand, now calling themselves “OpenSRS”.

For many of us within the web hosting industry this may not come as much of a surprise, Tucows were using the alias “OpenSRS” for many years, although this time its official.

The change in branding only applies to the reseller sector, with the launch a fresh new website it seems the new brand “OpenSRS” will be now be known to all existing resellers.

In this week’s Blog, I will touch upon the different types of domains and how each different part of a domain, is grouped by a domain level.

I will also introduce the whois search, and look into the reasons how this powerful tool is used to gather useful information.

Confused already? Read on to find out more…

Domain level

Firstly, it’s important to understand the reasons why we use domain names. Domain names give a unique identity given to a particular webspace or server.

This identity is usually chosen carefully as it represents the content of the website or even an entire company.

A typical example of a domain name could be: www.cwcs.co.uk

The domain name is split up into these sections the “www”, “cwcs” and “.co.uk”. The end of the domain name “.uk” is always considered as the TLD (Top Level Domain).

Although in this case the domain extension is specific to a country “.uk”. County code specific domains are called ccTLD (Country Code Top Level Domain).

Different examples of country specific domains are .uk .us .ca .in
Try and guess what country these domains are specific to; the first two should be obvious.

A full list of this type of domain can be found here.

What happens with a domain name that does not represent a country? Lets take a .com domain for example.

As this TLD is not part of a country we consider it as a generic type, therefore it is given the name gTLD (Generic Top Level Domain). Other generic types include .org .net .biz.

So this covers TLD… but wait, is there a second level domain?

In fact there is, the SLD (Second Level Domain) is the part before the TLD. Using the same example as before “CWCS” is referred to as the second level domain.

So, what else is there to know about domains? How could you find out who owns a domain?

Lets take a look at the whois database…

A Whois search is a listing that contains information about a particular domain name; this includes its creation and expiration dates. Also included on the .com registrar is a record of various contacts, administrative and technical.

The data is collected when a domain name is registered and is considered as public information.

The information is displayed whenever a person conducts a Whois search on a particular domain.

Now lets search! Point your browser over to the CWCS Domain Availability Checker.

Type in cwcs.co.uk and see what it brings up:-
Domain name: – well, that’s self explanatory
Registrant: – legal owner of the domain
Trading as: what’s your trading name?
Registrant type: – are you a company or an individual
Registrant’s address:- again, obvious, but it needs to be correct.
Registrar: – this is the company it’s registered through
[Tag = CWCS]: – IPSTAG shows who the domain is currently being managed by.
Relevant dates:- when it was created and when it expires
Registration status: has it expired? Is it still in date?
Nameservers – this tells you who it’s hosted with.

That wasn’t too hard was it? You will get used to it. Looking up a .com .org .net .biz address is the same but the information looks a bit different.

If you have a domain ending .uk you can now “opt out” if you are a non-trading individual.

This means that your address can be kept hidden from public view and can only be seen by the company who registered it for you. Domains that end with .com .info .biz .org are different, there is no “opt out” option, your details will be seen on the public database. You can get round it though by using a PO Box address.

Your name can consist of letters, the digits 0-9 and the hyphen character. The name may not start or end with a hyphen. It must consist of at least 2 and at most 63 characters.

I hope we haven’t confused you too much, just remember it’s important to get it right whether you are creating a website for your holiday photo’s or it’s your business, that needs a lot of traffic.

Passwords…well, we have all had them now in one way or another for some time, whether it’s for our online banking, our emails or even logging into our own computers.

Did you know that losing passwords makes up about 40% of helpdesk tickets? Passwords protect us from those people who want to get at our money and personal information.

So, what can we do to protect ourselves from those types of people? Well, for starters you need to create a strong password that you can remember. Now that sounds easy, but you’d be surprised.

When you create your password keep in mind the following dont’s:

• Don’t use only letters or only numbers.
• Don’t use names of spouses, children, girlfriends/boyfriends or pets.
• Don’t use phone numbers, Social Security numbers or birthdates.
• Don’t use the same word as your log-in, or any variation of it.
• Don’t use passwords with double letters or numbers.
• Don’t use the same password for everything.

An example of a good and easy password is “p@S$w0rd” preferably not using the word “password”, but you get what I mean.

When you sign up online for anything, you will need a password. Most companies or software will allow you to make your own password up, but sometimes they will give you a random string of numbers and letters which, once you have logged in you are then free to change to something more suited to you, remembering the simple rules above.

It may seem obvious, but one golden rule is, don’t write down your password, especially with your username; this can lead to trouble if you lose the bit of paper. Changing your password regularly will keep those hackers at bay, also, don’t tell anyone your password, you wouldn’t give out your PIN number and passwords should be treated just as importantly. If you have to use public computers, make sure that they do not retain your password once you have logged in.

So, now you know the rules you can be safe on the net. Your password is your property and if created and kept properly will unlock all kinds of wonderful worlds on the Internet; otherwise you will be in for a whole heap of trouble and hassle. Passwords are just one way of being secure on the net, there are many other ways of protecting yourself from rogues.

With every good… there’s always bad…

With the Internet a growing community, millions of transactions are constantly being made from many major businesses.

Would you believe, some businesses are entirely Internet based. So, how important is security over the World Wide Web?

Well… using a real life example could help Internet users understand the importance of being security conscious. Would you leave your car unlocked in a busy shopping centre? Or, even your house unlocked with the doors wide open.
The Internet is now used everywhere you go, even in banks and hospitals, keeping safe in the virtual world is equally important as in real life.

So, how do you ensure you’re considered “secure”?

The following pointers are some of the necessary steps required to ensure you remain hacker safe and risk free from any potential threats.

• Firewall – The firewall monitors all activity accessing data on your computer. A properly configured firewall is now considered an essential tool while browsing the Internet. Hardware firewalls are always recommended.
• Anti-virus – Harmful files do not always access your computer via the Internet, anti virus products are used to detect and remove any potential harmful files lurking around your computer.
• Updates – Security patching is important to secure vulnerabilities with your operating system. Operating systems are constantly being updated with enhanced security, don’t be too late… get the update.
• Spyware software – Spyware is often overlooked and not considered a threat, what is spyware? Often hidden marketing files that send personal information out. Would you want personal details being shared in real life?
• Passwords – keep it strong, keep it private.

All these tools are useful and are available to you to help protect your computer. Common sense is always used in real life situations to protect you from potential threats, so why not use this in the virtual world?

Be sensible about where you go, and always be suspicious of any offers that appear too good to be true.

Always be aware, there could be a virus attached to a file you are downloading, and always use trusted websites.

Security is important and should never be overlooked on the Internet, you can’t see the thief’s but it doesn’t mean they don’t exist. The Internet is an enjoyable place, be secure and help others become security conscious.

Contact forms are a great way for visitors of your site to contact you.

They can be customized to fit in with the theme of your site, providing continuity and a richer user experience. Another advantage is that your email address is never visible as all the processing is done behind the scenes. This article will explain how to create a simple PHP contact form.

The contact form will span two pages. The first page will contain the HTML based form, while the second page will contain the PHP code responsible for organising the data from the first, into a standard email.

The HTML Page

First we will create the basic HTML page that contains the elements of the contact form. Just call it contact.html for now and insert the following code.

<html>

<head>
<title>My Contact Form</title>
</head>

<body>
<form method=”post” action=”mailer.php“>
<input type=”text” name=”name”
size=”20″><br>
<input type=”text” name=”email”
size=”20″><br>
<textarea rows=”9″
name=”message” cols=”30″></textarea><br>
<input type=”submit” value=”Submit”
name=”submit”>
</form>
</body>

</html>

The above code should create a very simple HTML page consisting of a few input fields and a button. When the submit button is clicked, all the data will be ‘posted’ over to file called mailer.php as specified in the form’s properties. Below is the code for mailer.php.

<?php
if (isset($_POST['submit']))
{
$to = “your@email.com“;
$subject = “PHP Contact Form”;
$name_field = $_POST['name'];
$email_field = $_POST['email'];
$message = $_POST['message'];

$body = “From: $name_field\n
E-Mail: $email_field\n Message:\n

$message”;

mail($to, %subject, $body);
echo “Email has been sent!”;
}
else
{
echo “No data available!”;
}
?>

Copy the above code into mailer.php and replace your@email.com with your own email address. Upload both contact.html and mailer.php to the same directory on your website. Open contact.html in your browser and fill out all the fields then click submit. If everything working out, you should receive an email to the address you specified in mailer.php.

The Code

<form method=”post” action=”mailer.php“>

This line tells the form where to send the data, which in this case is mailer.php. The rest of the code is standard HTML. The important parts to note are the names given to the fields.

<input type=”text” name=”name” size=”20″><br>
<input type=”text” name=”email” size=”20″><br>
<textarea rows=”9″ name=”message” cols=”30″></textarea><br>
<input type=”submit” value=”Submit” name=”submit”>

They have no effect on how the form looks, they simply help to categorize the data, which is very useful when dealing with larger forms. It is best practice to call your fields something relevant to the information that will be entered into them.

Now for the PHP code.

if (isset($_POST['submit']))

This is a useful piece of code to check if the user actually pressed the submit button on contact.html. If not, the ’submit’ variable would not be set and the page would display the error message instead.

$to = “your@email.com“;
$subject = “PHP Contact Form”;

These next two lines create two variables that store your email address and the subject.

$name_field = $_POST['name'];
$email_field = $_POST['email'];
$message = $_POST['message'];

These three line create variables that extract and store the data sent over from contact.html. The data is collected in an array called $_POST.

The data is accessed by specifying the form field name from contact.html. It should now become apparent why careful naming on HTML form’s can make things a lot easier.

$body = “From: $name_field\n E-Mail: $email_field\n Message:\n
$message”;

The $body variable simply combines all the previous variables into a single one, which can be used with PHP mailing function.

mail($to, %subject, $body);

This is where the actual mail gets sent. The mail function of PHP takes three arguments. The first is simply the email address that the email should be sent to. The second specifies the subject of the email, and the third is the body of the email. This is why it was necessary to combine all the previous variables into a single one called $body.

echo “Email has been sent!”;

This will simply print a message letting you know the email has been sent.

What is this Virtual hosting all about?

Welcome to a new era in hosting technology, the VDS is a halfway house between shared and dedicated hosting solutions… but what’s so special about it?

Tell me more…

The VDS (Virtual Dedicated Server) is, as the name suggests virtually a dedicated server; introduced to offer all the advantages of a dedicated solution at a fraction of the cost…not bad eh?!

With this in mind, VDS plans come with full root access allowing users to install their own software, giving total control over their hosting environment and it doesn’t stop there…

The new technology allows each environment to have its own allocated amount of system resources. You can actually choose between different specifications of hosting package, take a look at the VDS plans.

So it all sounds good so far, but is it really suitable for my business?

Well… one of the major advantages of VDS technology is the scalability the package has to offer. You can upgrade seamlessly to other VDS packages, say you start on the minimal package and find in time that you really need something a bit beefier you can upgrade with no work for you and no downtime, simply give us a call and we’ll upgrade you within an hour or so… that’s it!

Businesses can benefit from a VDS plan as a starting point before the big leap to a full dedicated server.

What’s more… VDS are usually installed with the Plesk control panel, this is an easy to use interface with a great migration tool, and means the move to a compatible dedicated server will be easier than you thought possible.

If you’re wondering when is the right time to move to a dedicated solution let us clarify. Usually you would need a dedicated server if your site and traffic to it has grown making it mission critical. A dedicated server is used solely by the owner of the server, meaning you will not share the resources of the machine with any one else so it can handle more simultaneous processes; this is why with most dedicated servers you will be covered by a service level agreement detailing the guaranteed level of service offered to you.

So why isn’t a VDS plan considered as shared hosting? I hear you ask…

It is true you will share the machine with other users, however, the main reasons Virtual hosting is not considered “shared” hosting are as follows:

Control
The constraints of shared hosting are now just a distant memory, you have full root access so you can install any software and applications you need to run your site; without having to purchase a dedicated server also negating the need to hire IT staff to manage it for you.

Security
Having your own space on a virtual server is unlike a shared plan, as you are not sharing the operating system including all configuration files. Some might suggest this one of the major advantages of a VDS, as you are less vulnerable to hackers.

Flexibility
You have access to manage your own configuration and settings on the server. Having total control is important to ensure your website is operating exactly as desired, and not sacrificing usability due to the limitations on your hosting account.

Management
With administrator access on the Plesk control panel, Virtual hosting allows the creation of individual client accounts with the ability to restrict access to specific resources and features.

In a Nutshell
VDS packages offer a cost effective solution for web designers seeking a feature rich, fully manageable hosting package.

The setup time on a VDS plan is exceptionally quick, as there no hardware setup is required.

In fact, the lead-time on setting up a virtual server is within 2 hours. Order a VDS package today!

With so many hosting products available on the market it’s not so easy to determine the best hosting solution for your site; it is important you get this right as your web sites presence depends on having a reliable host and package.

What is Shared Web Hosting?

Imagine you have booked a room in a hotel; you don’t own the building but you have sole use of your room for the duration of your stay. You also have access to all shared facilities available to you as a customer, but you can’t change the décor or dodge the queue for your continental breakfast. Just like real life, if your hotel is choc-a-block you’ll find it takes longer to get around and get served.

Shared hosting is pretty similar, you will rent space on our server and will have access to all the standard account features, other customers will do the same; so you will share the machine with them.

Shared hosting is a cost effective way of getting your site online, especially when it is in its infancy. You will find as your site and business grows your requirements and priorities change, and another hosting solution may be better for you. At CWCS we will look after you from day one, and ensure you are always on the right package as your business grows.

Why choose Shared Web Hosting?

• A cost effective solution, ideal for company websites with low to medium traffic.
• Feature rich hosting without large software licensing costs.
• Short term hosting with no minimum contract length, ideal for newcomers, seasonal advertising or one-off events.
• Personal/non-profit or charity website hosting, shared hosting is usually ideal.

Sound like this is what you need? Then go for it. View our shared web hosting packages!

What is Dedicated Hosting?

Is sharing not for you? Perhaps you would like full control over your space and would prefer a bit of privacy? So you buy your own house, you can decorate it how you want, manage it how you want and do what you like when you like. Freedom!

A dedicated server is pretty much the same, you rent your own machine from us of which you have full control and full use of its resources, no annoying people to share with. So you’ll know exactly what’s going on in your manor. .

Why choose dedicated hosting?

• A dedicated solution is ideal for business critical hosting.
• Flexibility, you may have strict requirements as your website design is unique or dynamic.
• Performance, a smooth browsing experience is essential to your customers. Information needs to be displayed instantly when it’s requested.
• Your website needs to operate smoothly whilst a high number of simultaneous users are browsing the website.
• Website uptime is critical – please take a look at our dedicated servers service level agreement.

Without hosting your site and business wouldn’t be online, so it is important to invest comparatively as your business grows. Keep us updated as your business and requirements change so we can ensure you are always making the best of your site.

Check out our dedicated server packages.