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.

Content management tools can do a lot these days, but few are able to match up to the exceptional default capabilities of IntelBuilder.  This software acts as a CMS and social media platform, offering users the best of both worlds when it comes to content publishing and serving as a viable web application framework environment.  Here is an overview and a little more on what IntelBuilder has to offer.

The Content Management Aspect

The IntelBuilder content management system is developed and maintained by software creator Vesta Digital.  Like most CMS products, the software has the ability to create and manage basic content.  IntelBuilder is geared more towards the inexperienced user, designed to be easy to use and managed.  It makes it simple for administrators to add and edit existing content, delete content and add an unlimited number of pages to a website.  Some of the most notable benefits IntelBuilder offers include:

- Built for search engine optimization with SEO-friendly URLs and meta data management.

- Cross web browser compatibility

- Automatic submission to major search engines.

- Built-in support for Google Analytics

- Integrated reporting and web statistics.

In comparison to other proprietary commercial CMS products, IntelBuilder distinguishes itself through ease of use, a rich set of features and a high level of global compatibility.  Being a new solution, it is uncertain whether IntelBuilder will evolve into the award-winning content management solution its developers think it will be, but so far, it appears to be simple and powerful enough to suit the needs of most users.

The Social Media Aspect

IntelBuilder offers a social media platform that enables users to achieve a goal that is becoming increasingly popular on the web: being able to effectively distribute content.  Once your content has been published, the platform lets you distribute it over popular social networking sites like FaceBook and Twitter as well as social bookmarking sites such as Delicious and Digg.  It also allows you to send out content to major guns such as Google News and other prominent news and media outlets.  IntelBuilder gives you the ability to effectively manage your audience of readers and subscribers along with tools for monitoring your website traffic and statistics.

Price and Availability

In all honesty, the features and capabilities mentioned in this article can be obtained from a number of CMS products through various add-ons for free.  However, when going with a proprietary solution such as IntelBuilder, they will cost you some real money.  The software is available in a variety of pricing plans with the most affordable coming at $49.95 per month with a one-time setup fee of $295.  The platform is module heavy and very extensible, but the default installation comes with features such as a text editor, site map, RSS news, search functionality and Google Maps among others.  IntelBuilder could turn out to be worth every penny but before making an investment, we recommend examining the product a little closer to determine if it can suit all of your content management and social media needs.

Webmasters are increasingly integrating SMM (social media marketing) right alongside their SEM campaigns.  This has become a very feasible practice due to the prevalence of next generation web technologies and social networking.  Let’s take a closer look to find out how an SMM campaign can be effectively incorporated into your search engine marketing strategy.

SEO Outside of the Box

Search engine optimization has long been viewed as the most affordable way to boost rankings, increase traffic and sales.  However, this crucial SEM technique has been heavily underrated in its ability to aid in traditional public relations efforts.  This method can be used to harness the power of press releases, online news rooms and article syndication to encourage organic search engine rankings.  For example, by incorporating URLs or tracking codes into a press release, an SEO campaign can be easily transferred into a vehicle that prompts direct responses while optimizing at the same time.

SMM Avenues

Though SMM is still coming into its own, it is quickly evolving into a popular method and effective component worthy of SEM.  With MySpace and Facebook pages now showing up frequently in search engine results, SEM experts can no longer deny the impact of social media and social networking platforms.  SMM can deliver a wealth of benefits when integrated correctly, including branding.  In addition, popular content syndication sites such as YouTube and Flickr provide opportunities for distributing an organization’s media assets to a larger and much more diverse audience.  The same can be done with traditional content through blog and micro-blogging platforms such as Plurk and Twitter. SMM extends its benefits in so many ways as social networking sites are quite effective for ORM (online reputation management) at the very least.

A Measure of Success

Choosing the right metrics tool is key for measuring the overall efficiency of integrating SMM into your marketing scheme.  The vehicle you choose will help you more precisely gauge your audience and set benchmarks as well.  Traditional media often depends on surveys and focus groups to gather insight on the effectiveness of an add or campaign.  For online marketing, web analytics tools and services have proven to be far more accurate and affordable.  The market for online measurement solutions is growing rapidly, now offering common services that include comprehensive details of search engine visibility, PPC impressions, and most importantly, conversions.  In this model, conversions may consist of sign ups, downloads, lead generation and sales.  It may also include offline activities such as leads tracked via toll-free phone, website address or promotional code.

Marketing Wrap-up

As it relates to SEM and SMM, integrated marketing calls for a company to take advantage of its existing assets and enhance its web presence through increased exposure, leads and sales.   There are many benefits to be reaped when grabbing hold of the two methods and utilizing them effectively.  In the end, this could be the one merger your business needs to climb to the top of the pile and stay there.

McLean, Virginia – (The Hosting News) – July 22, 2009 – Provider of high-reliability web hosting for businesses worldwide, ServInt, has appointed Eric Morales as its new Business Intelligence Manager.

Mr. Morales will be responsible for market research, competitive analysis, company evangelism, customer communications, social networking programs and other areas related to the development and marketing of ServInt’s high-performance web-hosting services.

Christian Dawson, Vice President of Operations at ServInt explained, “Our efforts to create competitive, valuable services depend upon securing current data on customer requirements and industry developments. Eric will ensure that we always have up-to-the-minute industry data and will communicate the importance of new ServInt programs to our customers and other stakeholders.”

Mr. Morales will monitor and gather strategic information from sources related to the web-hosting industry and the vertical markets of ServInt customers. He will be regularly engaged in ServInt customer forums to secure critical feedback and evangelize ServInt’s products and services both off and online. He will also serve as an editor for The ServInt Source blog and spearhead ServInt’s presence in social-networking sites including Facebook and Twitter.

Prior to joining ServInt, Mr. Morales served two years in small/medium business development and management in Apple Inc’s retail division. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications from Temple University.

ServInt is a pioneering provider of high-reliability web hosting for businesses worldwide. ServInt’s commitment to Green IT services is demonstrated by its popular Virtual Private Server (VPS) solutions. ServInt was founded in Northern Virginia in 1995 as one of the world’s first web-hosting companies to offer a Managed Dedicated Server solution. From multiple world-class data centers, ServInt now provides its scalable suite of VPS and Managed Enterprise Server packages to thousands of customers in more than 60 countries.

To learn more, please visit: www.servint.net.

McLean, Virginia – (The Hosting News) – July 22, 2009 – Provider of high-reliability web hosting for businesses worldwide, ServInt, has appointed Eric Morales as its new Business Intelligence Manager.

Mr. Morales will be responsible for market research, competitive analysis, company evangelism, customer communications, social networking programs and other areas related to the development and marketing of ServInt’s high-performance web-hosting services.

Christian Dawson, Vice President of Operations at ServInt explained, “Our efforts to create competitive, valuable services depend upon securing current data on customer requirements and industry developments. Eric will ensure that we always have up-to-the-minute industry data and will communicate the importance of new ServInt programs to our customers and other stakeholders.”

Mr. Morales will monitor and gather strategic information from sources related to the web-hosting industry and the vertical markets of ServInt customers. He will be regularly engaged in ServInt customer forums to secure critical feedback and evangelize ServInt’s products and services both off and online. He will also serve as an editor for The ServInt Source blog and spearhead ServInt’s presence in social-networking sites including Facebook and Twitter.

Prior to joining ServInt, Mr. Morales served two years in small/medium business development and management in Apple Inc’s retail division. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications from Temple University.

ServInt is a pioneering provider of high-reliability web hosting for businesses worldwide. ServInt’s commitment to Green IT services is demonstrated by its popular Virtual Private Server (VPS) solutions. ServInt was founded in Northern Virginia in 1995 as one of the world’s first web-hosting companies to offer a Managed Dedicated Server solution. From multiple world-class data centers, ServInt now provides its scalable suite of VPS and Managed Enterprise Server packages to thousands of customers in more than 60 countries.

To learn more, please visit: www.servint.net.

Plano, Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 15, 2009 – Dedicated server solution provider, SoftLayer, recently supported the live Internet broadcast of the Michael Jackson Memorial Service, as an on-demand data center services provider, selected by multi-platform IP services and content delivery provider, Highwinds.

As a trusted partner to support high-quality live streaming of the global event, it is believed that the memorial service’s viewership was second only to the inauguration of President Barack Obama, also streamed by SoftLayer and Highwinds.

Ric Moseley, Vice President of Engineering at SoftLayer noted, ”It would be enough of an accomplishment just to handle an event of this scale. But being able to handle it without any interruption to regular operations really proves the robustness of our architecture and network. We are proud to have been a part of such a historic occasion, and that customers like Highwinds keep coming back to us for our expertise.”

SoftLayer provisioned more than 400 servers for the one-day netcast, demonstrating the service providers’ massive and dynamic scalability. SoftLayer streamed more than 45Gb of event coverage for the day, leading to a one-day high of 100Gb total traffic between its three data centers, with no reported outages or performance issues.

More and more people are turning to the Internet instead of television as their video source for important live events. After media and social networking sites experienced outages and overloading on the day of Jackson’s passing, it was expected his memorial service would generate record levels of attention.

George Antoniou, Vice President of Operations at Highwinds explained, ”We knew from our mutual success streaming the Obama Inauguration that SoftLayer was the ideal partner for this event.”

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer delivers world-class, on-demand virtual data center services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC. SoftLayer integrates all facets of IT to innovate industry-leading solutions that are fully automated. This empowers customers with complete control, security, scalability, and ease-of-management for their IT environment.

For more information, please visit: www.softlayer.com.

Plano, Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 15, 2009 – Dedicated server solution provider, SoftLayer, recently supported the live Internet broadcast of the Michael Jackson Memorial Service, as an on-demand data center services provider, selected by multi-platform IP services and content delivery provider, Highwinds.

As a trusted partner to support high-quality live streaming of the global event, it is believed that the memorial service’s viewership was second only to the inauguration of President Barack Obama, also streamed by SoftLayer and Highwinds.

Ric Moseley, Vice President of Engineering at SoftLayer noted, ”It would be enough of an accomplishment just to handle an event of this scale. But being able to handle it without any interruption to regular operations really proves the robustness of our architecture and network. We are proud to have been a part of such a historic occasion, and that customers like Highwinds keep coming back to us for our expertise.”

SoftLayer provisioned more than 400 servers for the one-day netcast, demonstrating the service providers’ massive and dynamic scalability. SoftLayer streamed more than 45Gb of event coverage for the day, leading to a one-day high of 100Gb total traffic between its three data centers, with no reported outages or performance issues.

More and more people are turning to the Internet instead of television as their video source for important live events. After media and social networking sites experienced outages and overloading on the day of Jackson’s passing, it was expected his memorial service would generate record levels of attention.

George Antoniou, Vice President of Operations at Highwinds explained, ”We knew from our mutual success streaming the Obama Inauguration that SoftLayer was the ideal partner for this event.”

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer delivers world-class, on-demand virtual data center services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC. SoftLayer integrates all facets of IT to innovate industry-leading solutions that are fully automated. This empowers customers with complete control, security, scalability, and ease-of-management for their IT environment.

For more information, please visit: www.softlayer.com.

Plano, Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 15, 2009 – Dedicated server solution provider, SoftLayer, recently supported the live Internet broadcast of the Michael Jackson Memorial Service, as an on-demand data center services provider, selected by multi-platform IP services and content delivery provider, Highwinds.

As a trusted partner to support high-quality live streaming of the global event, it is believed that the memorial service’s viewership was second only to the inauguration of President Barack Obama, also streamed by SoftLayer and Highwinds.

Ric Moseley, Vice President of Engineering at SoftLayer noted, ”It would be enough of an accomplishment just to handle an event of this scale. But being able to handle it without any interruption to regular operations really proves the robustness of our architecture and network. We are proud to have been a part of such a historic occasion, and that customers like Highwinds keep coming back to us for our expertise.”

SoftLayer provisioned more than 400 servers for the one-day netcast, demonstrating the service providers’ massive and dynamic scalability. SoftLayer streamed more than 45Gb of event coverage for the day, leading to a one-day high of 100Gb total traffic between its three data centers, with no reported outages or performance issues.

More and more people are turning to the Internet instead of television as their video source for important live events. After media and social networking sites experienced outages and overloading on the day of Jackson’s passing, it was expected his memorial service would generate record levels of attention.

George Antoniou, Vice President of Operations at Highwinds explained, ”We knew from our mutual success streaming the Obama Inauguration that SoftLayer was the ideal partner for this event.”

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer delivers world-class, on-demand virtual data center services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC. SoftLayer integrates all facets of IT to innovate industry-leading solutions that are fully automated. This empowers customers with complete control, security, scalability, and ease-of-management for their IT environment.

For more information, please visit: www.softlayer.com.

Plano, Texas – (The Hosting News) – July 15, 2009 – Dedicated server solution provider, SoftLayer, recently supported the live Internet broadcast of the Michael Jackson Memorial Service, as an on-demand data center services provider, selected by multi-platform IP services and content delivery provider, Highwinds.

As a trusted partner to support high-quality live streaming of the global event, it is believed that the memorial service’s viewership was second only to the inauguration of President Barack Obama, also streamed by SoftLayer and Highwinds.

Ric Moseley, Vice President of Engineering at SoftLayer noted, ”It would be enough of an accomplishment just to handle an event of this scale. But being able to handle it without any interruption to regular operations really proves the robustness of our architecture and network. We are proud to have been a part of such a historic occasion, and that customers like Highwinds keep coming back to us for our expertise.”

SoftLayer provisioned more than 400 servers for the one-day netcast, demonstrating the service providers’ massive and dynamic scalability. SoftLayer streamed more than 45Gb of event coverage for the day, leading to a one-day high of 100Gb total traffic between its three data centers, with no reported outages or performance issues.

More and more people are turning to the Internet instead of television as their video source for important live events. After media and social networking sites experienced outages and overloading on the day of Jackson’s passing, it was expected his memorial service would generate record levels of attention.

George Antoniou, Vice President of Operations at Highwinds explained, ”We knew from our mutual success streaming the Obama Inauguration that SoftLayer was the ideal partner for this event.”

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, SoftLayer delivers world-class, on-demand virtual data center services on a global basis from facilities located in Dallas, TX; Seattle, WA; and Washington, DC. SoftLayer integrates all facets of IT to innovate industry-leading solutions that are fully automated. This empowers customers with complete control, security, scalability, and ease-of-management for their IT environment.

For more information, please visit: www.softlayer.com.

Convenience aside, allowing anonymous visitors to upload files to your site is pretty much like opening the gates and telling malicious users it is okay to compromise your server.  This puts you, the website owner, in a very tough position when considering that such permissions have become a commonality on today’s internet and has proven to increase business efficiency.

Having the ability to upload files is a regular occurrence on social networking sites such as FaceBook, MySpace and Twitter as well blogs, forums and online banking sites.  This feature is also prevalent in corporate portals as it allows end-users to share files with business employees.  In these environments, users are permitted to upload documents, pictures, music, videos and several other types of files.  The more functionality an end-user is provided with, the greater the probability of creating a vulnerable web application.  It is a known fact that many internet users abuse their privileges to gain access to a specific site or compromise a web server.

During recent tests, security experts have discovered that an alarming number of widely used web applications are not making use of secure upload forms.   According to their findings, many of these vulnerabilities were easily detected and exploited, allowing experts to gain full access to the file system on the web server hosting those applications.   Most of these vulnerabilities were the direct result of improper security configurations, essentially permitting intruders to roll right in.

Viable Solutions

Below is a list of practices you or your system administrator should enforce when file uploads are allowed to your website or web applications:

- Create an .htaccess file that only permits access to files with allowed extensions

- Do not the put the .htaccess file in the same directory where the files uploaded by users will be stored.  This file should be stored in the parent directory that your visitors do not have access to.

- The average .htaccess file that only allows files such as jpg, jpeg, gif and png files should include the following lines:

“deny from all

<Files ~ “^\w+\.(gif|jpe?g|png)$”>

order deny,allow

allow from all

</Files>”

These lines can be adjusted to suit your own personal needs.  Editing the .htaccess file in this manner will not only assure that only these file types are allowed, but also protect you from double extension attacks.

- If at all possible, make sure the files uploaded by users are placed in a directory outside of the server root.

- Do not allow existing files to be overwritten.  This will prevent exploits such as the .hataccess overwrite attack.

- Do not rely solely on client-side validation.  This is simply not enough to ensure an adequate level of security.  It is advisable to implement both client-side and server-side validation.

Conclusion

There are several ways a malicious user can bypass the security configurations applied to a file upload form.  When incorporating such a feature into your web applications, you should make it a priority to follow the best security practices and put them to the test on a regular basis.  While this requires a considerable amount of security expertise, it is worth every bit of time to make sure your website is protected.