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Web Hosting, Web Hosting UK, Dedicated Servers, Managed Hosting, Dedicated Server | CWCS
Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Internet, today called for free access to the internet for everyone on a global scale.
Speaking at the Nokia World conference in London he said, “I would like to see people enrolled in a cheap data plan by default. I would like them to get it (the internet) for free.”
At the moment, only one-fifth of the world’s population has access to the web.
Sir Tim said the increasing number of mobile networks around the world meant that it could now be possible to connect everyone.
He said that if everyone had a chance to access the Internet it could allow people to “create their own communities and share their own information” about health, agriculture and business.
“Not being a part of the information society is a really important thing.”
He said that he even a low-bandwidth connection offered for free via a mobile phone could make a difference.
At the moment, he said, connections were too expensive and were often taxed by governments.
Sir Tim also suggested that mobile network providers could offer the free connections on the basis that people would become more familiar with the technology and would then be wiling to pay for more expensive, higher-bandwidth mobile services in the future.
He admitted that when he first created the web, it would have been “hubris” to suggest that everyone had access to it. But, he said, there was now a compelling argument for its benefits.
People often assume that, with the advances in recent years in the security of Microsoft’s desktop operating systems (and we really like Windows 7 !), server security is equally well developed. Of course, on linux dedicated servers, by the nature of it being open source, there’s less of a security issue anyway, but you can’t assume it’ll be secure out of the box. With Windows dedicated servers, people tend to be more cautious but can still make some glaring assumptions.
As standard, we by default place all our dedicated server customers behind at least one firewall with a standard rule set on it, with only commonly-used ports open – we can make changes for individual customers requirements. As a result, some people ask us if we routinely log access via our firewalls and how often we analyse those logs. The fact is, a firewall log effectively tells you what traffic it has allowed in and out, as well as what traffic it has denied. It makes these decisions based on the ruleset you defined when you configured it, so the logs are a direct reflection of the ruleset – In other words, other than in extremely specific cases where security is paramount (and, for those customers, we’d always suggest their own dedicated firewall), analysing firewall logs is pretty pointless.
What we also do to add to our customers’ security is we have deployed network-based Intrusion Detection Systems in our data centres, which alert us if someone is attacking one of our customers on a commonly-used port (eg a buffer overflow exploit). We do this because we’re super hot on security !
In the past decade, web hosting in the UK has become a highly competitive and exciting industry, offering opportunities to entrepreneurs and serious IT professionals alike.
Inevitably, however, this upsurge has attracted some ‘fly by night’ companies, who lure customers with impossibly cheap deals and end up letting them down.
Here are some tips for steering clear of these upstart companies.
* Start by consulting with other site owners, who may be your friends, or members of an online forum, as word-of-mouth tips help give you a feel for the market.
* Next, read reviews of web hosting sites, sticking to the informative in-depth, professional reviews.
* Visiting web site hosting company websites is also vital. Check the quality of the English on a site. Spelling mistakes reveal a hasty approach which does not bode well. A site low on informative content and high on wild promises is another dead giveaway. One ruse is to promise users 100% uptime, which is not feasible or realistic.
* Finally, establish what sort of technical support is on offer. Many companies skimp on support by offering email-only. Email support is fine in some circumstances, but for a real emergency only a real human being will suffice.
Here at CWCS Managed Hosting, we don’t make these mistakes. We have been in the web hosting business for over a decade, and offer a fantastic range of packages at affordable, but not unrealistic, prices. Finally we offer 24/7 technical support by both phone and email, and are passionate about giving you the best possible service.
Finding a web hosting package and setting up your site can seem daunting, but here at CWCS Managed Hosting we are here to help. We do our best to guide you through the process, from directing you to the most suitable, cost-effective web hosting package to giving you speedy and thorough 24/7 technical support.
Integral to customer support is the user-friendly “control panel” that is provided as part of every web hosting package.
The ‘Plesk’ control panel is software that you can access conveniently via your web browser. It is something of a ‘jack of all trades’, giving you the ability to manage such diverse components as file transfer (known as ‘ftp’ and enabling you to add and replace content), email account setup, and backup.
Here are two key features of the control panel in more detail.
* Backing up and Restoring Files: it is a top priority, for data protection reasons, that you should set up regular backups of your site. The “Backup Manager” icon on the control panel enables you to manage, and schedule a regular backup of your site.
* Changing your ftp account credentials: you should change these frequently (at least once a month) to optimise site security. You can do this via the ‘Web Hosting Settings’ icon. Enter a new ftp login name and password and click OK to save.
These are just two aspects of the control panel, a versatile tool that is worth familiarising yourself with. Online Plesk tutorials are provided via the client support pages.
Today, video giants YouTube have launched a Live steaming test.
The test, which will take part over the next two days, will give four of its partners a chance to stream their live programmes. Partners Rocketboom, Howcast, Next New Networks and Young Hollywood will all take part in the test.
In the past, YouTube have streamed one-off live events, but this experiment will truly test their current streaming technology which, if successful, will be used when their streaming service is launched.
Before now, the live streaming of video featured on YouTube includes President Obama’s first State of the Union address, Indian Premier League cricket matches and a U2 concert.
All these events however, have been on a one-off bases, where as the technology that is being tested will help its partners steam a continuous service.
As yet, there is no official release date for YouTube’s live streaming service will be ready or when it will be available for its partners, but when it is launched it will further enhance users experience of YouTube and will rival current websites such as Livestream.com, Ustream.tv, Justin.tv and stickam.com.
Within the last weeks, both Microsoft (on their BPOS platform, which provides a cloud-based service of Exchange, SharePoint and DynamicsCRM) and Google (on their Gmail platform) have suffered potentially embarrassing outages or glitches. Earlier this year, the darling of the cloud-based services market, salesforce.com, suffered a total outage as well.
Cloud services are great when they work and are a really effective means of saving money on a hosted service but, if your requirement is for high availability or supreme performance, you will always be better off with dedicated servers in a specialist data centre.
The services offered by companies like CWCS around windows dedicated servers and linux dedicated servers are so much more robust, configurable and reliable than what is essentially a shared service, particularly when its one that’s supplied by huge organisations like Google or Microsoft – the fact is, that the service you’re buying from them is one of a huge amount of things they’re dipping their toe into, whereas running a successful hosting business is all that we do.
If you are managing a busy website then providing a discussion forum seems like a very attractive option. There are, however, both advantages and pitfalls from using forums. It will also prove to be more difficult than necessary if you opt to operate a forum on an inadequate web hosting server.
First, the pros, which essentially support the point that a forum is a great way to attract new users. Word of mouth remains your best marketing tool, with new users being sent links to the forum by existing users.
Furthermore, a forum can be a great way to keep abreast market trends. For example, if your site trades in antiquarian books you can find out from the forum “what’s hot” at the moment.
A forum can also help create new business. Customers are far more likely to buy products based on positive remarks from other customers on the forum.
But there are cons too. First, there is nothing more counter-productive than a near-empty forum, which would simply be bad PR.
Second, a forum can be a “double-edged sword”: customers can post negative comments. You need to have a strategy in mind for handling hostile or negative feedback on products.
Forums also need moderation by the site managers, and this can be labour-intensive.
Finally, your forum needs to be available to users 24/7 and for this you need a top-quality web hosting provider. At CWCS Managed Hosting we’ve been in the website hosting business for a decade and have lots of experience to help you with running your site. First class technical support is our top priority, so if you have any issues keeping your forum open to users, we’re here to help.
Today, Google have launched ‘Google Instant’, which is a new search feature which shows real-time results as you type. The results appear before your eyes, which will open up new levels of exposure to sites appearing on the first page of the search engine rankings.
The purpose of this enhancement is to deliver the right content at a much faster rate. According to Google, the average user takes more than 9 seconds to type their chosen search term, with Google Instant, this should save up to 5 seconds per search. Google have estimated that if Google Instant is being used globally, then it will save more than 3.5 billion seconds every day, which is 11 hours saved every second.
Currently, Google Instant is available on Google Domains in the US and most of Europe. Users on domains other than Google.com can still use Google Instant if they are signed into a Google account.
Reaching and keeping the target audience for your website is certainly challenging. But there are some initial undemanding steps you can take to set you on the right path.
First, since you have are now the owner of a brand new site, consider adding its URL to your email signature. This is a zero-cost and friendly way of introducing your new creation to the world. Not only will your immediate email contacts be in the loop, your site will crop in any of your emails they choose to forward to others down the line.
If you are a small business hoping to capture a key audience, your site should be “optimised” for the search engines. SEO (or search engine optimisation) is a mini-industry all of its own, and also covers investing in “adwords” or search keywords that will retrieve your site as a sponsored link.
You should also consider setting up lively accounts on social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, related to the business of your site.
Furthermore, it helps to keep your content fresh, engaging and up to date. A News page, covering new developments in your particular industry, is a great help, as indeed is regular blogging.
Finally, your site should be available to its new audience 24/7. Here at CWCS Managed Hosting, a professional website hosting company with over a decade’s experience in the web hosting business, we are expert at keeping sites up and running, providing a 99.99% operational guarantee.
For many years now, probably since around the late ‘90s, IT and Telecoms gurus have been telling us that the whole world will be using voice over IP (VOIP) imminently or that ISPs will be giving away bandwidth free or that the mobile phone/PDA/device in your pocket will do everything your PC or TV does now.
Wait, what ? One of those statements is pretty much almost true already; clearly the latter one ! As content moves out into the cloud, rather than being stored locally (eg BBC iPlayer, who records BBC programmes anymore ?), the most important things in the chain are now the environment the data is kept in and the means of getting it to the phone/PDA. This is where CWCS Managed Hosting come in…
Sure, we already kind of mentioned this in our recent blog but its subtly different with regard to how the market is in a massive state of flux. A couple years ago when the fledgling iPhone came out, all of a sudden the mobile network operators around the world were swamped but of course the end-user experience was that they couldn’t get satisfactory or usable access to the content they were trying to access, so their perception was that it was all just hype and not really that good.
The point of this is that managed hosting (like us) or colocation hosting companies have to be sure that their part of the equation is absolutely perfect; that their network is bullet-proof, reliable and super fast else their customers perception will be that their overall service isn’t that good. That’s why its important to choose specialist companies who control their own service environments, rather than ones who try to be everything to everyone and make unsubstantiated claims about their performance to cover this up.
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