Most operating servers have to be available 24/7. If they are running for such a period but not always being utilised, then it’s a waste of computing resources and operational costs. A possible solution could be to own a virtual server environment to reduce the amount of physical servers actually needed, thus greatly reducing overall costs.

Virtual dedicated server hosting is a product that is designed to allow the creation of multiple virtual servers on a single Windows server. Each of these virtual servers is stored as a hard drive image file and functions as an independent computer running its own operating system and individual set of applications. Virtual dedicated server hosting can be ideal for numerous reasons. Primarily, though, they are used in development environments and are used for server consolidation. The reason why the virtual dedicated server works so well in development environments is because it allows developers to test potentially ‘buggy’ software on a variety of different operating systems without having to worry about crashing the system.

Imagine an old Windows NT Server running an application that won’t run under any other version of Windows. If the hardware the application is running on stops running, a possible solution might be to create a Windows NT virtual machine on an existing dedicated server and run the application from there.

Should a crash occur and, heaven forbid, a virtual machine destroyed then it would be a matter of recovering a single file. Virtualisation ultimately saves money and space.

CWCS provides a selection of virtual dedicated servers at highly competitive prices.

One question for someone new to web hosting may be what platform their server should operate around. There are a number of choices available and it can steal away many of hours of the day doing research on the topic. The crux of the matter is, there are two main web servers: Linux and Windows.

Microsoft developed and owns the Windows operating system. Linux is generally free. The cost of running a server does not affect the overall cost of a web hosting package. Buying a Windows hosting package can prove to be just as cheap as or even cheaper than a Linux web hosting package. It just depends what is available from the providing host.

A lot of people automatically assume that because a PC comes with Windows that a Windows website hosting package is the obvious choice. Not so. The web account will most likely be accessed through FTP or a control panel that both platforms support, even though some of the FTP commands differ slightly for each.

The debate over reliability and stability seems to find favour with Linux. The main reason being that Windows is the most widely-used operating system for the PC so hackers tend to go for the larger target. Linux is reported to perform faster because it is not bogged down with tons of extras. At the end of the day, web hosting will partly dictate goods speeds and reliability.

CWCS provide website hosting options for both Windows and Linux at competitive rates.

There may come a time when the decision migrate to a new web host will be made. Maybe the current web hosting isn’t providing adequate enough management or technical support is just not up to scratch. Most web hosting promises support on a 24/7 basis, but not all have the experience to back it up.

So the decision has been made to move, but there are concerns in the camp that problems could occur. One of the issues is the possible change of IP address. If the IP is static then the transition between old and new is relatively hassle free, providing that there are not major concerns about leaving the web site down for a day or two. If the process involves dynamic sites with databases, it can prove to be a little bit more difficult, but it is the same principle.

Firstly, find good web hosting and sign up for an account. Secondly, make a back-up of the site at the new website hosting server by copying over the whole structure. Thirdly, the crucial part involves changing the DNS to point to whichever of the new web hosts has been chosen. After this, it would be a logical step to wait until the DNS change has filtered through the net. If Google is relevant to your plan and they are fetching from the new webhost/IP address, then it’s all been a great success.

We at CWCS provide a range of website hosting packages to suit anyone wishing to change to a new improved system.

Every server on the internet is assigned a unique number – an IP (Internet Protocol) address. Think of the number as a telephone number which allows other computers to find and gain access to files no matter where they are. An IP address is 4 bytes, and each byte is an octet which can have a value between 0 and 255. There are billions of possible addresses.

There are plans to expand the number of IP addresses with the introduction of version 6 of the Internet Protocol. IPv6 has IP addresses which are 128 bits wide. This provides the potential for an unlimited number of unique addresses. It will, however, take several years to implement because of the heavy cost of upgrading the i infrastructure.

In the web hosting industry there are two types of IP address:

- Dedicated IP address (also called static IP) means that a website has its own IP address

- Shared IP address means that multiple websites share the same address

Due to the rapid increase of the number of registered domain names and the finite number of IP addresses, web hosting providers are forced to use shared addresses where it is possible. In fact, hundreds of websites quite often share the same address. Static IP website hosting is no longer the norm and usually is less cost effective in this age of increasing users.

CWCS provides three different web hosting plans for both Windows and Linux at very competitive prices. Visit our site to see our range of website hosting packages that we offer.

We have had another successful year. Our efforts and enthusiasm has lead to many new features we are able to offer today. All our hard work has benefited customers with higher network speeds, redundancy and scalability. A whole new data centre has been refurbished and we have even more future plans to better our service for our customers we value.

Our customers are always put first and we have been actively researching for new technologies we can introduce for next year. It’s been a good year for us and we hope everybody has a safe and Happy Holiday Season and Prosperous New Year.

All the best,

CWCS Managed Hosting

Choosing between a Windows and a Linux Dedicated Server Part 3.

If you have chosen a Dedicated Server as your choice of hosting platform, the next stage is to decide what version of operating system to use on your server. The options can be divided into 2 main rivals and then further into different versions of these rivals.

In part 1 and 2 we discussed the advantages and disadvantages of each of the different operating system types. To decide which one is best for you, it depends on which of the following criteria are of the most importance to your company or your customers.

If price, reliability, security and speed are important, then the linux operating system can offer you those strengths. The cost is almost always less than an equivalent windows system and it has become the industry standard for web hosting servers, combining with apache (web server) Mysql (database server) and PHP (coding language) it makes the acronym LAMP which you may come across numerous times when investigating web servers.

If reliability, power, familiarity (for windows PC users) and scalability are more important, then windows might be the operating system of choice. The amount of capital behind the developer of windows (Microsoft) means that they are able to create powerful applications for almost any purpose that could be useful.

One of the main deciding points though is if you are familiar with either operating system, almost all companies will chose the system which their system administrators are most familiar and comfortable with or that the software they need to use will work on best.

If you need any assistance in making the choice for the operating system for your dedicated servers, give our sales team a call on 0845 203 1000.

Reseller hosting is a particular form of web hosting that has grown in popularity over the past few years. The owner of a reseller account has the ability to split their hard drive space or available bandwidth to host websites on behalf of third parties. The reseller will purchases the host’s services at wholesale prices and then sell them on to customers for a profit. This type of web hosting is especially popular among web designers and developers as it is a great way to offer clients a complete package which incorporates the entire finished product.

The typical web hosting reseller might be a web design firm, web developer or systems integrator who offers web site hosting as an add-on service. Reseller hosting is also an inexpensive way for website hosting entrepreneurs to start a company. Most reseller hosting plans allow resellers to create their own service plans and choose their specific individual pricing structure. Many web hosting resellers are able to establish their own brand name by simply customising the control panels and the name servers.

The owner of the reseller hosting is usually not responsible for the maintenance of the web server. This is often the work of the web host. The reseller will normally communicate directly with the customer, but any hardware, software or connectivity issues are forwarded to the server provider.

CWCS provides reseller packages for both Windows and Linux at competitive rates. We also offer 24/7 expert first-class technical support by both telephone and email.

Choosing between a Windows and a Linux Dedicated Server Part 2.

If you have chosen a Dedicated Server as your choice of hosting platform, the next stage is to decide what version of operating system to use on your server. The options can be divided into 2 main rivals and then further into different versions of these rivals.

Linux dedicated servers have the main advantage of being cheaper than their windows equivalents due to no license costs. The difference for the same specification hardware can range from 20% to 50%. The reason for this is that the Linux distributions rely heavily on their “communities” to maintain their operating systems. This can be a double edged sword, with the possibility some operating systems may cease to be supplied if their community disbands however it usually also means any technical issues can be resolved through the communities free resources rather than expensive support contracts.

The main three distributions of Linux which we recommend are Ubuntu, Debian and CentOS. The first two of these are based on the same architecture and use almost identical commands for much of their functionality, so moving from using Debian to Ubuntu or vice versa is fairly straight forward. The main points to note are that new versions of Ubuntu tend to be fairly frequent however many have shorter support lifetimes. Debian versions are less frequent but their versions support 5 year life cycles. CentOS is based heavily on RedHat Enterprise, a subscription Linux distribution. It tends to have long life cycles, however the version of software like PHP, Apache and MySQL will not change over the course of these life cycles so you could be stuck with an old version for some time.

Most server Linux installs tend to come without a GUI (graphical user interface) unlike windows so it can seem daunting to manage and use which is why it is less popular with users who are used to Microsoft operating systems on their own PCs.

Next week, Part 3.

Anyone who has had a bad experience with a virus, worms or any other malicious software will really appreciate the potential importance of a firewall. More so if the person or company is running a server which provides a service to internet clients (not Virtual Private Networks), which could potentially support over one million users per month via the web. The firewall is used in conjunction with a web server purely as a security measure. The function of the firewall is to accept or deny the transfer of data to and from external sources.

The dedicated server firewall is established and operates around a particular set of rules or criteria that forces the data being transferred to adhere to them. If the criteria are not met then the data does not pass through. The ‘trust level’ of the internet is generally regarded as extremely low, due to the fact that worms and viruses can be easily sent over the internet through emails or websites visited. These worms or viruses can be extremely harmful to a computer and dedicated server hosting, and may even render it inoperable.

There are two types of firewall – software and hardware. The software firewall, although effective, can use up a lot of resources if the dedicated server is hosting a busy website. The hardware firewall takes a lot of stress off the work, allowing the dedicated server to use its own resources and thus not compromising performance.

CWCS provides high-quality dedicated server hosting with dependable firewalls.

Anyone requiring to host more than one domain name on a single computer will quite often use the option of virtual web hosting, sometimes on the same IP address. Virtual web hosting is one of the most popular options available for hosting at the moment. This is mainly due to it being one of the most reasonable forms of web hosting available in today’s market.




Virtual web site hosting is also known as shared web hosting and it allows the owner of a website to host his/her site on a web server that will be shared with other websites. In other words, the server of the virtual web site hosting company will allocate its services and bandwidth to more than one website. This makes the costs slightly cheaper than that of a dedicated server and thus an ideal solution for the small to medium sized website;, especially if they don’t experience heavy traffic on their site.




Many small-to-medium sized businesses opt for virtual servers for internal purposes, where there is a technological or administrative reason to keep several separate websites, such as customer extranet website, employee extranet, internal intranet or intranets for different departments. If no security concerns are present in the website architectures, they can be merged into one complete server using virtual hosting technology, which can reduce the management and administrative overheads and the number of individual servers required to support the business.




At CWCS we offer a range of packages to suit the budgets of small and large businesses at very competitive rates.