The credit crunch is here to stay, for the next year at least, so its time to start tightening belts and stretching the pennies to last that little bit longer. Lots of places are giving more information on how to keep the wallet heavier and so here is some information on web hosting that may help you through these times.

Designing your website is something that you may not think will matter on the cost of your site, but it matters more than you may think. Designing a website that uses PHP, ASP, MySQL, MSSQL and other dynamic generating scripting languages help create nice websites, but you need to pay for these languages to be installed on the server. As a hosting company it takes much longer for us to manage and maintain a server that deals with multiple scripting languages. Therefore if you designed your site using static HTML, with some AJAX/jQuery can give both a great website with the added benefit of being able to go for a hosting package that doesn’t come with all the bells and whistles.

Do you need a dedicated server at the moment? If you designed your site to use lower resources and fewer technologies then your server doesn’t need to be as powerful so a Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) will give you the same benefits of a dedicated server but with less cost.

That is not to say that all sites will be capable of being cut down as some sites depend on dynamic content such as e-Shops, so its always best to discuss with CWCS Managed Hosting what package would be best for you to develop your website on, and did you know that CWCS Managed Hosting can even help script and design your websites?

Give us a call on 0845 203 1000 for further information.

Some may argue the Internet is making people lazy, others think the Internet has opened an entire new revolutionary method of communicating information. The Internet has many uses from a strong educational tool to many businesses actually trading online.

Dedicated servers are where the processing takes place; essentially a server is programmed and configured to automate tasks. A dedicated server can perform multiple tasks simultaneously within a split second, which could take a person a considerably lot longer to achieve the same result.

The old filling system is a straightforward example of where a dedicated server performs much more efficiently to store and retrieve information. Storing data within a database boasts the following advantages over the old method of storing files.
Speed – a few clicks will store data
Space – old filing cabinets take up so much space
Search – retrieval of data is so much quicker with a search function
Environment – just think of the paper being saved
Cost – a considerable amount saved on manual labour
Management – tools make it more efficient to perform many tasks.
The list goes on…

Having a dedicated server serve a company website with a database and custom applications is the future for most businesses. The Internet reaches out to everybody and a good use of database integration will allow your business to collate information from customers unlike ever before.

The impossible has now become a reality with the advances in technology; dedicated servers are now affordable to the majority of businesses. Windows and Linux dedicated servers are available pre-configured with a web interface to ensure the management of the server is kept simple yet effective.

Managed Web Hosting providers offer the facilities to make your ideas a reality; dedicated servers are available from just £99.99 a month. Such a low cost for a machine programmed that could automate a majority of day-to-day tasks. Interested? Want to know more?
CWCS Managed Hosting knows exactly what you need, speak to a friendly sales representative about your potential ideas.

Tel: 0845 203 1000
Web: http://www.cwcs.co.uk/
Email: Sales@cwcs.co.uk

Here are the CWCS recommended steps in choosing your E-Commerce hosting site.

1. Choose a domain name

Arguably one of the most important parts of setting up a web shop is choosing the name for it. Ensure that the domain name matches your company name and is easy to type in and remember. Make sure it fits in with your marketing material and is not already taken or easily confused with another company or website.

Most companies on the web these days however already have a domain name, in which case you can simply use www.mydomain.com/shop or shop.mydomain.com or whichever you feel best suits your needs.

2. Choose the software you want to use

There are a huge number of shopping cart solutions out there. Some are free and others not. It is important when choosing your software to make sure it has all the functionality you need including things like:

User interface
Easy to update product information
User statistics
Encrypted storage of sensitive information

3. Once you have chosen your software, you need to make sure you choose the right hosting package to match it. All software providers will give you a list of server requirements. These will normally be based around 1 of 3 hosting technologies. ASP, PHP or CGI (perl).

If you are using an ASP or ASP.NET based solution, you will almost definitely want a windows hosting environment. Linux hosting environments tend to offer less functionality for the ASP technology then windows.

If you are using PHP or CGI, you can usually use either windows or linux, however as a rule these are usually designed to work with linux servers and MySQL databases. Linux also tends to be a slightly cheaper option as it has no license fees.

4. Lastly you need to select the right package for your needs. This depends on many factors. Usually you want to take into account the amount of customers you expect to have, how many products you have and if you need an SSL encryption on your site. If you use a 3rd party provider to take payments (like paypal for example) then you do not usually need SSL encryption. If you are taking payment details on your site however you should use either a full or shared SSL certificate provided by your host.

Depending on the income you expect to receive from the shop, you should spend on your hosting and software accordingly. Cheap packages will all the features you want will not always offer the same speed and uptime as a more dedicated solution. We usually recommend investing between 1 and 5 % of your expected revenue into your hosting solution. This should ensure you get value for money for the smaller shop and the full redundancy and backup solutions for the more business critical web merchant.

Web Hosting packages range from starter plans for the small business users to complex setups consisting of multiple Dedicated Web Hosting platforms.

Have you ever wondered how each package is setup? How is some web hosting packages setup instantly? How are disasters and failures prevented?

From placing an order to receiving the login details a number of tasks happen behind the scenes. Specific packages are automated using various scripts and tools with a complex system in place. Dedicated servers are being assigned to racks and provisioned with strict lead-times on setup, software installs happen on an individual customer basis with support working around the clock to ensure customers requirements are met. Managed Hosting meets customers expectations by offering a full service.

The data centre is the facility where your web space or dedicated server is located. The entire environment is protected with various systems in place to ensure all possible disaster eventualities are covered. Fire, water, heat and security are just some of the areas that could potentially turn into a disaster. A strict infrastructure has to be implemented to ensure services are delivered without any interruption.

Maintaining an environment for web hosting services requires much time and dedication from a team of professionals who are devoted to delivering the best possible service. Immediate responses to emergencies, system testing, auditing and customer contact are only a few of the day-to-day tasks of a Managed Hosting provider.

Because we care…

It doesn’t matter what type of customer you are, each and every customer is important to us and we do our best to deliver the service you deserve. Whether you are a starter plan customer or dedicated server customer we will always take the time to listen to feedback and ensure you remain happy with the service to create a strong lasting business relationship.

If you have a website idea or tired of your current providers slow speeds and lousy attitude to helping the customer. Contact us to evaluate your requirements and recommend a web hosting solution tailored to your needs. Choose Managed Hosting now to receive the service and support you deserve.

Before you choose your domain name or name your website, you might want to consider the following:

1.Your Domain Name Should Be Your Website Name

This may seem an obvious point to make but having a business name that is different from your domain name can cause confusion or marketing issues with potential customers.What if you cannot get the domain name of your choice? It really depends on how committed you are to that particular name. If you have an existing brand name that you’re known for, you’ll probably not want to ditch that name just because you couldn’t get the domain name. After all, it took you a lot of time and money to establish that name. If so, you might simply want to try to buy over the domain name from the current owner. Check up the WHOIS (www.coolwhois.com) information for the domain, and contact that person listed to see if they’re willing to sell it. You should be aware that they are likely to want to charge a higher fee than you’ll normally get when buying new domains (assuming they want to sell it in the first place)

On the other hand, if you’re just starting out, you might prefer the cheaper alternative of trying to obtain a domain name first, and then naming your website (or business) after the domain that you’ve acquired.

2. Generic/Brand names

These are unlikely to ever become available, for example cinema.com. They are also, as the title suggests, generic and not specific to you so choosing something related is the best way to go about it. For example Beeston-cinema.co.uk gives you the area and the service.Established brand names or similar names to them should really be avoided as this can lead to legal action as an obvious example registering new–york–yankees.com will only lead one way.

3. Long or Short Domain Names or Hyphenated Names?

Shorter names are preferable however as most of these are now taken a well thought out business related domain can be useful for example comparethemarket.com . There is no right or wrong way but it must be business related and hopefully hint at what your website represents. Hyphenated names are a useful way of getting the domain you are after however more than one hyphen can be awkward to type and in most cases can just lead to people remembering the sites without the hyphen leading them to a different/competitors website.

4. COM, ORG, NET, etc?

One common question I encounter is from people who can’t get the “.com” domain of their choice, but find the “.net”, “.org” or other country-specific top level domains (TLDs) available (like .de, .nu, .sg, etc). Should they try for these?

The general rule of thumb is for local business or a country specific business country specific domains are advised for example the uk use .co.uk .For a international audience or US a .com is advised

Another school of thought finds that “.net” and “.org” extensions are actually quite acceptable domain names. For some, the “.org” extension actually describes the non-profit nature of their organisation. So, for example, the famous Apache web server can be found at “apache.org”.

5. In conclusion…

The ideal scenario in the current climate would be to obtain the domain first before deciding on your business name as most short or generic names are taken. Retrofitting your domain to your business can be a hassle and become expensive when chasing down a specific domain.Having your country specific domain is advised and for those attempting to reach a broader audience a .com domain as well.

Now that you are into the new year of 2009, January has past and you are ready to plan the year ahead and make more important decisions.

Web hosting is becoming more popular, and Web Hosting companies are competing to offer the most amounts of features with the best support for the lowest possible cost.

Hardware suppliers are improving the hardware and offering more power efficient servers. This allows the web hosting providers to keep cutting the costs and offer better hardware and more resources.

Right now, 2009 has brought us Firefox 3.1 and Internet Explorer 8. With more new software developments and upgrades being introduced, the reliability and functionality of all web hosting packages are being improved. The Internet is getting quicker. With broadband providers giving high speed access to the average user, your website will need to be super quick to ensure the potential customer don’t loose interest.

Dynamic websites allowing users to interact enhances the accessibility of information and allows orders to be placed over a website. People now trust the internet and are happy to submit credit card payments online without worrying about fraud. CMS systems and Ecommerce packages have allowed the average web builder to introduce such dynamic content within their work. Web hosting companies recognise the demand for dynamic websites. This year we integrated installs for external applications within the control panel to allow customers to create dynamic content. Take a look at some of the popular CMS, blogging and ecommerce packages:
http://www.joomla.org/
http://wordpress.org/
http://www.zen-cart.com/

Understanding the customer’s requirements allows us and other web hosting companies to improve our systems each year and 2009 is no exception. Scalability across packages has proved to be a common requirement where companies are expanding rapidly. Migration techniques and quick server installs have been improved this year to ensure migrations happen without an interruption to service.

Support is the biggest requirement for the majority of businesses; customers need support 24/7 with a quick response to emergency queries. Staff are been trained as new technologies are introduced and support techniques are always being reviewed to ensure immediate action to every different circumstance can be achieved. Technical support in 2009 is second to none and will continue to improve throughout the year.

We are all worried about security in today’s society. Trust is a hard thing to come by and even the smallest leak in information about yourself or your company can lead to major losses in time and money.

Security wise, web hosting is not much different than owning a room in a house. You keep important things in it, preferably locked up in a safe or hidden in various places. People can go into your room and view things but they are unable to break into your safe and are unaware of the hidden items. When hosting a web site you can never rely on hiding important things in a plethora of folders. The best way is to lock sensitive data up and only allow access to it from your web application.

In a shared hosting environment there are many other websites hosted on the same server (or cluster of servers). Each website’s space is assigned a specific username and that username is only able to access that specific’s website data. This prevents other users from viewing or editing the website’s of other users. There are very rarely any problems with this system, the main threat does not come from people within the same server as you, but from users accessing your website from the Internet.

When a user accesses your website, the pages (images, html files etc) are accessed via the specific username assigned assigned to that website. A very important thing to remember is that even if a weakness or exploit is found in your website, it is highly unlikely that anything could be changed or deleted as long as the website’s user is only allowed ‘Read’ permissions. Some specific packages such as blog software or forum software require the website username to have additional permissions, such as ‘Write’ permissions. This is to enable them to write configuration files during the install process. Some hosting control panels allow you to specify additional permissions for the website username, other times you may need to contact your hosting provider directly to request the changes. Regardless of the method used, it is important to get the changes reverted back to ‘Read’ only as soon as the ‘Write’ permissions are not required any more. If they are left with additional permissions, any weakness in a script could be exploited to write or delete any number of files inside your website. The implications of this are obvious.

Most websites gather their data to and from a database. Very common issues with databases are SQL injection attacks. These attacks go beyond the scope of this article but can easily be researched using Google. Every scripting language and the database engines themselves have functions and methods in minimising the risk of these attacks. I digress. If you are using a physical file database such as an access database it is highly advised to store it in a folder outside of the main website folder. This is usually called ‘Private’ or something similar and is at the same level as main website folder. This will ensure that the physical database file cannot be accessed directly and copied, which would compromise company data.

If you do have any scripts that need to create and write specific files, it is best to create this inside subfolders and set ‘Write’ permissions to those subfolders only. If an exploit is found, only that subfolder will be affected and your website will remain functional.

There are also the obvious ones, such as keeping the website access details (FTP, control panel) secure and changing the passwords regularly. Keep passwords long and use a combination of alpha-numeric characters, case changes and special characters. Never set your password to something simple, like the website name or (as has been witnessed in the past) the actual word ‘password’.

Nothing is 100% secure but following those tips and using common sense can up the percentage into the high 90’s. And of course the best thing you can do is take full and regular backups of your own website yourself. In the event of any problem a full backup of recent data can restore a site back to full working order within a very short time-frame.