Round Tale

You would be amazed at the amount of social networking and community software tools that are on the market today.  The immense popularity of MySpace, Facebook and YouTube has encouraged many people to create their own online community.  Community sites are expansive in topics, ranging from sites such as dating and video sharing to pets and video games.   Below are just a few of the many options that exist for online communities:

Social networking sites

Social media sites

News publishing sites

Dating sites

Blog sites

Video sharing sites

Photo sharing sites

What Type of Hosting Do You Need?

Web hosting plays a huge role in the creation of these types of community sites.  Such a website requires an added dose of power in comparison to the typical website.  However, what it requires the most is a scalable environment that supports the growth of the community.  As your site increases in popularity, it will attract more users, which means it will be populated with more pictures, videos and possibly other interactive features.   This tremendous growth means that the average shared hosting package may not suitable for the needs of your community.  You have to consider critical resources such as disk space, bandwidth, RAM and CPU, all of which impact the overall performance of your website.  While you might be able to pull this off on a shared hosting platform from a technical aspect, your community could be the one to suffer from slow loading pages and sluggish performance.

A dedicated server makes for one of the most reliable ways to host an online community.  This type of hosting will give you the scalability you need and dramatically reduce the occurrence of performance issues you would endure on a shared server.  The problem is that maintaining a dedicated server can be very complex and expensive.  Leasing the server can run you upwards of $100 per month – and this is just for an unmanaged service.  If you choose to run your community on a dedicated server, keep in mind that you will be responsible for updating the operating system and web server software in addition to managing all the applications and security mechanisms it requires.   This is something many people simply are not equipped to deal with.  For this reason, you should strongly consider looking into a service provider that specializes in community hosting as they are more likely to have the unqiue environment you require.

Conclusion

A community site can be very beneficial, but only when choosing the right web hosting solution.  Before heading out to look for a service, take both the present and future growth into account when factoring in your requirements.   Think about the features you need, the type of content and media you plan to host, and the volume of traffic you anticipate.  If you truly want your community site to be a success, don’t hesitate to ask prospective web hosts questions and find out exactly how they can suit your needs.  This will make it much easier to find the ideal solution for your online community.

Having a dedicated server is one of the true signs that you have made it as a small to medium sized business owner.  Unfortunately, it also makes you a likely target of hacking and other security threats.  Securing any machine equipped with a web or application server is a huge challenge, one you may not be able to overcome alone.  You need to worry about everything from your email and FTP communications to OS and kernel patches.  And let’s not forget about those web technologies that can bring you so much functionality along with a lot of grief when not properly secured.  This web-based world we live in can be very hazardous to any business so if you want to protect your server, we suggest paying close attention to the contents of this article.

Must-Have Defenses

Securing a dedicated server begins with creating a two-layer bullet proof vest to deflect the attempts of the enemy.  Two of the most effective weapons to carry into battle: firewall and intrusion protection technology.  With a firewall, your server will be able to fight off common exploits such as DDoS (distributed denial of service) and brute force attacks.  Usually originating from multiple unsecured, enslaved machines, the dreaded DDoS attack will slam your dedicated server with awful amounts of insignificant traffic, overwhelming critical resources and rendering the hardware inaccessible to legitimate users.  A quality firewall with good configurations will enforce rules that filters access and blocks malicious traffic while allowing legitimate traffic to pass.  This is all done in a way that reduces latency and slow moving processes, so it all appears transparent to the end-user.

Though similar in a nature, intrusion detection and prevention takes a more advanced approach towards server security.  This technology blocks malicious traffic right at the source, locking compromised hosts in a quarantine area all while routing genuine user traffic in a quick and efficient manner.  If a firewall represents your first line of defense, then intrusion protection serves as your behind enemy lines mechanism.  This powerful combination allows you to shift security measures from a reactive to proactive aspect.

Don’t Stop There

While the implementation of firewalls and intrusion protection make good first steps, one should keep in might that this isn’t the set it and forget it type of deal.  In order to stay ahead of the hackers, malware coders and corporate saboteurs you must consistently employ vigilance as well as frequent updates of your patches, blacklists, filters and other vital elements.  Purchasing and installing a few security devices and applications can be viewed as the easy part.  Managing them with efficiency is an entirely different story.

Because properly securing a dedicated server is cost prohibitive for most small and medium sized organizations, you may want to consider a managed service to help keep the intruders away.   Managed hosting is the often overlooked aspect of a dedicated server that could spell the difference between running a successful business, or going down because of a major security breach.  If you are not sure where you stand on server security, consult your IT team or speak with a professional firm for guidance.

The more popular the web hosting business becomes, the most difficult it becomes to distinguish a quality provider from an inferior imposter.  It takes far more than a few testimonials and a professional website design to identify a reliable host.  The search becomes even more difficult when running across companies that offer “unlimited” domain hosting plans.  Unlike the multiple variation, this form doesn’t limit you to a measly two or three domains – you have the freedom to run as many websites as your heart desires.  With these capabilities you can scratch that expensive dedicated server off your list.  Virtualization is no longer worth looking into, right?  Hold on before you put off your plans.  There is a lot you should know about unlimited domain hosting.

Uncovering the Truth

As a customer, it is important to understand that web hosting is a major industry with a terminology all its own.  What a particular term means to you can have an entirely different meaning in this environment, as is the case with unlimited in regard to domains.  Although several companies will lead you to believe that you can launch websites until your heart is content, you can probably host up to 5 domains before things go haywire.  Anything more increases the likelihood of draining critical resources such as bandwidth, memory and CPU.  When this happens, you might not have a single website available let alone 5 of them.  Therefore, you should look at unlimited domain hosting as another clever tactic similar to the incredible disk space and transfer offerings used to entice unknowing customers.

Instead of allowing you to broaden your web presence, an unlimited domain hosting solution could end up creating unlimited ways to get your sites shut down.  Despite the advertisements, some of these plans come attached with complex stipulations and restrictions that typically don’t work in your favor.  Beneath the technical jargon and fine print you will discover limitations on CPU and RAM usage, file size, FTP uploads and the list goes on.  All these complications in an arrangement that is supposed to offer the freedom of unlimited.  Go out of bounds and you could find yourself trapped at the mercy of an unruly web host.

Save Yourself

It may not be fair, but it is pretty easy to understand why companies heavily promote unlimited domain hosting packages.  It is just another way to sell a service to customers who simply don’t know enough about how the technology works to realize the ploy.  In most cases, no harm, no foul.  Others however, turn out be disastrous.  The truth is that some of the industry’s leading providers are making their names off of these misleading yet ingenuous marketing gimmicks.  It is up to you to know the game and read between the lines.  There is a great chance that unlimited domain hosting will continue or eventually be replaced by offerings promising even more irresistible capabilities.  While you can’t change the hosting market, you can prevent yourself from getting stuck in a jam.