What is Managed Hosting?

There was a time when hosting companies offered dedicated servers where for the most part, the hosting company did not manage the hosting services that their clients were receiving through the use of the dedicated servers. Businesses and other hosting clients were maintaining and managing the operations of their own servers. This was often difficult and expensive for the hosting clients. A demand arose for hosting providers that would offer a variety of technical and other services with the dedicated servers. This demand brought about the start of managed hosting services. Managed hosting is a form of dedicated server hosting.
The first step in deciding if managed hosting would you is to decide if you need dedicated hosting. Dedicated hosting is often used for websites with a high volume of traffic. Websites that use very large amounts of disk space often need or can benefit from dedicated hosting. Some websites require custom applications and advanced e-commerce features and can therefore benefit from dedicated hosting. These are a few reasons as to why you might need managed hosting for your website. If you come to realize you need dedicated hosting, then you can decide if you will need managed hosting.
Consider the services that you want to be provided by your web hosting company. Do you want them to back up your data for you on a regular basis? Does your website need firewalls and other security measures that you want to be set up by your hosting provider? Do you want your web host to monitor your server for you? If the answer to these questions is yet, you will want to think about using managed hosting services.
Managed hosting can be beneficial for companies. They are able to have their websites hosted and servers maintained by their hosting provider. This can save a business money n the long run. They are paying for the managed hosting services, but will not have the cost of hiring IT people to handle the hosting aspect of their business website. Having people on staff that are able to mange the hosting end of the websites can be costly and time consuming. Allowing the web host to handle these tasks can therefore save a company time and money.
It is important to know that managed hosting does not mean the same thing to every hosting company. Some hosting providers will offer more services than others. For this reason you should look carefully at the managed hosting services provided by any web hosts you are considering to host your website. Make certain you know what services are included with your managed hosting plan. There are several services you are likely to want for certain with your managed hosting package. You will probably be looking for a company that offers server management and monitoring, security measures to protect your data, data backups, hardware and software updates and excellent customer support. As with any form of web hosting, you should shop around to find the host that offers all the services you need and want for your website. Source
There are lot of  Faqs available on managed hosting
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How to prevent SQL Injection with MySQL and PHP

Most new web developers have heard of SQL injection attacks, but not very many know that it is fairly easy to prevent an attacker from gaining access to your data by filtering out the vulnerabilities using MySQL extensions found in PHP.
An SQL injection attack occurs when a hacker or cracker (a malicious hacker) attempts to dump the data in a database table in a database-driven web site. In an unprotected and vulnerable site, this is pretty easy to do.
In order for an SQL injection attack to work, the site must use an unprotected SQL query that utilizes data submitted by a user to lookup something in a database table. The data could be from a search box, a login form or any type of query used to look up data using data input by user. It also means that querystring data used to query a database can create vulnerabilities. Read More

latest Wordpress 3.0.4 Important Security Update

There is  a news for wordpress about a security update, Version 3.0.4 of WordPress, available immediately through the update page in your dashboard or for download here, is a very important update to apply to your sites as soon as possible because it fixes a core security bug in our HTML sanitation library, called KSES. I would rate this release as “critical.”
Official link : http://wordpress.org/news/2010/12/3-0-4-update/
source
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installation of ioncube on cpanel dedicated server

ionCube is an encoder (encryption method) used to help protect the php files from software piracy. It is normally used by software vendors to deliver their php software(s) in some sort of encoded format to help protect their copyrights and licensing distribution.

The ionCube version of Ultimate Locator is meant for Linux, Unix and FreeBSD platform servers. ionCube can also be run on a Windows server though.

Outsource support

Here are the installation steps for ionCube loader:

Download link: http://www.ioncube.com/loaders.php

wget http://downloads2.ioncube.com/loader_downloads/ioncube_loaders_lin_x86.tar.gz

tar -zxvf ioncube_loaders.tar.gz

cd ioncube

mv ioncube /usr/local/

You can check the path of the php.ini file with the below command:

php -i | grep php.ini

Edit the php.ini file with the following command:

nano php.ini

Then, add the below line in the php.ini

zend_extension=/usr/local/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_5.2.so

So, now determine if ionCube is on your dedicated web server, do the following:

Add the below code in you a php file, usually in case of cPanel server it is under your public_html directory



And, access the file in your favourite browser.

Using SSH you can check it with the command:

php –v
source
Knowledge base web hosting guide, world best web hosting guide magazine  webhostingmatters.com

why-do-i-need-24×7-hosting-support-for-my-web-hosting-company?

Now a days web hosting
is a global business, and to help your customer you need hosting support services which have to be available 24×7 i.e. during all time zones which would definitely get their problems fixed within time.
In a case, if you have an existing customer who is a owner of a web design company and is in a meeting with their potential client and giving him a online presentation/demo and is facing some technical problems which has to be fixed by the web host. This is an embarrassing situation for them – especially if your hosting company doesn’t have access to the support staff 24×7, this customer will have to wait for you to come online during your working hours and get their issue fixed.
Now, think if you have a 24×7 support team – this client will come on your website and contact you by the support channels you have i.e. live chat and help desk support. And, your technical support staff available on duty is notified about the issue by the support channels you have and gets the problem fixed within no time. This is what a customer expects from your company, and I bet they would spread the name of your company across the web or known ones, which would give you more business.
Whether you’re a web hosting reseller, VPS hardware node/container owner or a dedicated server owner – it’s mandatory to have a 24×7 support online presence to help your clients. Source
knowledge base web hosting website
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Best Ways to Utilize the Google Keyword Tool

We all have an amazing free tool at our disposal which instantly shows us demand.  It's called the Google Keyword Tool.

To use this tool, simply enter a word or phrase, and click on the search button. The Google Keyword Tool will then show you the term you entered, along with several other related terms.  Google can effectively show you demand as they publish the Global Monthly searches for the respective term in the Google search engine. We like to compare this data to free Gold!   Here below are 4 ways to take advantage of the Google Keyword Tool:

1)  Identify the Phrases that Users Use

This tool shows you what is on a customer’s mind.  So, you can find out for example, when someone wants a credit card, what specific keyword they enter into Google.  This tool can help when writing marketing copy or slogans as you can see the popular terms on someone’s mind in regards to a given keyword.  The tool allows you to make marketing decisions more easily as you can see what users are thinking about when they are looking for a given product or service.

2)  Compare The Demand Between Two Terms

You often may not know which of two terms will make more of an impact with users.  When comparing the search volume for two keywords, you can instantly see which one has more popularity and demand on the web.  Are people more interested in blue baseball caps or red baseball caps?  Google can tell us in 5 seconds!

3)  See Related Terms For Any Term

When you enter in “credit card”, Google will show you tons of related terms.  You can see, for example, several other terms that users search for which include the keyword credit card.  This of course is valuable data as you can drill down deeper into a given term to learn more specific things users are looking for which include that given term.

4)  Find New Terms And Ideas Which Have Demand Behind Them

The Google Keyword Tool is an amazing research tool to help identify new terms, which you may not have previously realized, have demand behind them.   For example, you can type in a slew of keywords, and find related terms, and then quickly export all of the data to a CSV format, to see a list of keywords and the demand behind them.  In doing this, you will probably notice new keywords and new areas of interest in your niche that you may not have known previosuly existed. 

Deferred mail when sending to Yahoo ?

Issue: Mail sent to Yahoo-based addresses, particularly from mailing lists or forms, results in a deferred mail report, as in this example:

SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection: host b.mx.mail.yahoo.com [66.196.97.250]: 421 4.7.0 [TS02] Messages from (IPADDRESS) temporarily deferred due to user complaints - 4.16.56.1; see http://postmaster.yahoo.com/421-ts02.html

Despite the claims in the deferral message, there are no user complaints regarding either mail from the server or from the domain from which the mail is being sent. A review of the relevant newgroups, operator mailing lists, and spam filtering/blacklists show no complaints regarding mail from the server or from the client domain.

Solution: At this time, there is no solution. Deferred mail will return to the queue for periodic retry, as is the case with other mail that cannot be immediately delivered for any reason. Depending on which of Yahoo's mail servers receives the next connection, the mail may be delivered, or may be deferred once more. This is only controlled by Yahoo, and is not an issue we can address.

Further notes: We, like others, have been unable to receive any answer from Yahoo as to what conditions exist that cause them to defer mail in this manner. Deferrals have occurred on servers where mail activity is minimal at best, and where no automated mailings or forms exist, and on servers where there is high mail traffic, both in- and outbound. When contacted via their form, Yahoo often sends back (days later) a request for information that has already been provided to them, rendering the process useless and unnecessarily time-consuming. The following thread from an operator's group to which we subscribe is an excellent indication of the issues that many people are experiencing at this time with delivery to Yahoo-based mailboxes: http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg07305.html
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Why Cannot send email: No valid recipient error?

Symptom: Client using Outlook reports that sending mail fails with an undeliverable notice. The error message in the undeliverable notice indicates a 503 (No valid recipient/recipient must precede data) error.

Cause: Outlook settings must be modified to authenticate when sending.

Resolution: Select Tools -> Email Accounts -> View or change existing email accounts -> Select the affected account -> Change. On the account properties screen, choose More Settings -> Outgoing server. Enable the option "My outgoing (SMTP) server requires authentication". Generally, if the client is checking mail and sending it from a created POP account, leaving the first option ("Use the same settings as my incoming mail server") is sufficient. If the user wishes to send mail under a different login, change to the "Log on using" option and input the appropriate username and password. Note that for all secondary email users, the login name is the full email address of the user. Source

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how Can my domain registration information be made private?

ICANN rules require the use of valid information for domain registrations. However, the Hosting Matters contact information can be used by any client who wishes to remain more anonymous than public WHOIS data will allow. To have the Hosting Matters data appear for domains registered on behalf of clients, please contact support via the web or via email to request the modification of the domain WHOIS data.

Parallels Plesk Panel Adds Open-Xchange

pen-Xchange announced today tighter integration with the latest industry-standard control panel Parallels Plesk Panel 10.1, enabling hosting customers and resellers to choose their favorite WebMail application.

Open-Xchange will be available as an option that can be selected in the e-mail setup screen of Parallels Plesk Panel — making it easy for hosting and SaaS providers to replace the Standard Plesk Webmail in existing shared hosting environments with the feature-rich AJAX interface of Open-Xchange and deliver true business-class e-mail features.

“With Open-Xchange’s new availability with Parallels Plesk Panel in addition to Parallels Automation, Partners of all sizes can now easily deliver business class e-mail and communication solutions,” said John Zanni, vice president of alliances at Parallels. “This new capability delivers on what we have heard service providers want: make it easy to get started and the ability to upsell advanced features.” Read More

How do I transfer my domain to Hosting Matters for management?

To transfer a domain to Hosting Matters for management, please begin by ensuring the domain is unlocked at the current registrar, and that the authorization code/EPP key has been retrieved from the current registrar. Domains that are locked will fail the transfer process even if approval is given to the notices sent out from the registrars to proceed. Domains that are already expired, domains that have been transferred to a new registrar or registered within the past 60 days, and domains that have been expired and renewed within the past 60 days cannot be immediately transferred. Expired domains must be renewed, and in all other cases, the transfer request cannot be submitted until the 60 day waiting period window has passed.

The transfer request itself can be submitted via the automated transfer request ordering system at https://secure.hostmatters.com/cart.php?a=add&domain=transfer to begin processing. During the process, the system will prompt for the authorization code and for the nameservers to be used for the domain. The nameservers should be those already in use by other domains attached to the account. If unsure about the nameservers to enter, please contact support for assistance.

At the end of the transfer request processing, the system will prompt for either new billing/contact information to be used for the order, or for a login to an existing profile. To tie the transferring domain to an existing client area profile, choose the login option, and enter the email address and password for the profile to add this new domain.

The cost of domain transfer for the most common extensions is $12, and will extend the registration period by one year past the current expiry of the domain. Subsequent renewals are processed at the standard fees for each domain extension. Please note that not all domain extensions can be transferred. If unsure whether a particular extension can be transferred in for management, please contact support to determine eligibility.

Source hostingmatters.com

2010 Annual SEO & PPC Competition Awards – Winners Announced

topseos.com, an independent authority on search vendors has recently announced the winners of 2010 in SEO & PPC categories as part of their Annual SEO & PPC Competition Awards. The Annual SEO & PPC Competition is the first and only category-based internet award competition dedicated exclusively to online providers over 30 countries worldwide. Companies or agencies wishing to register for competition may do so before the extended deadline on 31st of March 2011.

Companies joining this competition will reap numerous benefits as companies are able to leverage against competitors, get their name in front of Fortune 500 CIOs, attract better quality customers and employees, be recognized as a leading firm and show off their achievements. This competition is geared to help represent the excellence, achievement, and passion towards satisfied clients and aid online companies to further leverage their unique position and breakthrough competitive clutter. Read More