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Archives for February 2010

How to make an Alias in httpd.conf

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Assuming on your Linux Apache server you have created 2 websites. You have setup everything in appropriate folders in your /home/ directory structure.

/home/account_A/public_html/ -> domain_A.com
/home/account_B/public_html/ -> domain_B.com

Now you want to have /home/account_B/public_html/ to be the alias of /home/account_A/public_html/ so that both domains serve exactly the same pages, images and scripts.

So, for a case like this you need to make a ServerAlias entry into httpd.conf for each domain involved.

Here are the entries you would have to make:

ServerAlias domain_A.com
ServerAlias domain_B.com

To round it all up you need to make sure that these configuration changes are applied and that Apache knows what is going on. Run the following command via SSH.

/usr/local/cpanel/bin/apache_conf_distiller –update

Are you “lost in translation” when it comes to the more complicated pieces with Linux and Apache? Why not consider a fully managed web server instead and spend your time on things you know better?! Web Hosting Resource Kit highly recommends LiquidWeb web hosting. LiquidWeb offers fully managed dedicated servers for low prices. Their managed services are standard, not an expensive web hosting add-on.

Check out LiquidWeb here

Web Hosting Coupon – Save 10% on Web Hosting

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Web Hosting Resource Kit has secured an exclusive coupon code for visitors to my website. This Web Hosting Coupon will allow you to cut 10% off your web hosting cost if you use IX Web Hosting as your web hosting company. IX Web Hosting already has very low prices and definitely fits the category “Cheap Web Hosting”. However, I have found that IX Web Hosting does not only offer low prices for web hosting, but they also offer great customer support and superb web hosting packages. So, if you want to give IX Web Hosting a try, please take a look at this video where I will reveal an exclusive web hosting coupon code for IX Web Hosting.

Visit IX Web Hosting Now to save 10% of your web hosting

Thank you for watching this brief video about IX Web Hosting and how to use my exclusive web hosting coupon to shave 10% off your web hosting fees at IX Web Hosting.

Can’t wait to sign up? Here is the web hosting coupon for you: WHRKIT10OFF

About IX Web Hosting

IX Web Hosting is a large web hosting provider offering large volume hosting for consumers and businesses. Their web hosting prices do start below $4 and their web hosting accounts include free domain name registrations, huge amounts of disk storage and unlimited data transfer. IX Hosting is a Top 10 web host in my listing of great web hosting providers. Consumers looking for a place to host their websites, blogs, pictures or videos should consider IX as their choice for hosting as IX Hosting has a proven track record and is a well established web hosting company.

Visit IX Web Hosting Now to save 10% of your web hosting

JustHost.com Web Hosting Review – Cpanel Part I

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So, I was recently introduced to a new (new for me) web hosting company called JustHost.com. Since web hosting is the mantra of this website, I decided to provide a review about this web hosting provider. Now, keep in mind that I receive a lot of requests and recommendations for new web hosts and that I just do not have the time to look at every web host out there. Before I spent time reviewing a web host I make myself familiar with their website, do some research and then decide if I want to review them or not. JustHost.com passed my initial test and the result is a series of postings about this web host. I also want to point out that this is the first web host, where I created some video web hosting reviews.

Let’s get started reviewing this web host. JustHost.com was founded in 2008 and currently employs roughly 110 highly skilled folks. The company is home to approx. 280,000 domain names at the time of this writing. What I liked was that they are using brand name servers to offer cheap web hosting services. They are using Dell branded servers. I have been working with Dell servers myself for over 11 years now and really like them. So, this already scored some brownie points with me. 😉

Once my account for one of my test sites was setup I logged into the cpanel of my domain. Cpanel is a web control panel for hosting customers. It provides an easy to use interface and allows customers to self-serve many web hosting related functions without the need for customer support to help. I use Cpanel on ALL of my domains no matter where they are hosted. I love it. So, instead of writing down what I saw first inside my JustHost web hosting account, I created a video (see video in the upper right). Please take a look and check it out (it’s a short video – I promise).

Now that you have watched the video, I want to highlight a few points. Most of the items inside the video I liked. Instead of causing confusion for customers before they sign up, JustHost.com went a different route. They actually make it a great approach to a) educate a customer about available upgrades without really being pushy and b) it is very straight forward. The one thing I did not like are the 2 options for the search engine submissions. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) has become very complicated and I think that this type of work should be a more controlled process. But that is the only thing I did not like. The other options are reasonably priced and compare easy to other web hosts. So, if I would be a regular Joe looking for cheap web hosting, this would be a great way to a) buy cheap web hosting and b) still have options available to grow a website.

This posting is part of a series of postings about JustHost.com – for me a top web hosting company.

Please Note: In the video I mentioned that I do not know how long these upgrades are available. The seem to be available at all times. So, if you want to sign up with JustHost, this should not hold you back. Check out the JustHost.com Homepage here.

JustHost Web Hosting Review Announcement

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This is just a preliminary posting, but I will provide a detailed review about a different web hosting company (JustHost.com)here shortly. I am currently “test driving” their hosting with one of my test domains and will report back over the next few days or the course of a week with my findings. I am also planning on adding a video review to spice things up a little bit. So, stay tuned.

If you do not know JustHost.com – they are a 2 year old company that already employs over 110 highly skilled folks. Hosting starts at $3.45 per month and comes with a free domain for life (as long as you are a justhost.com customer).

Until the review is ready, check out cheap web hosting at justhost.com. Or sign up on your mailing list to receive notification when the review is online.

Hyper-V for Web Hosting?

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Are you planning on using Hyper-V for web hosting as a host server or to offer Hyper-V host servers to your customers? I have been working with Hyper-V a little bit and I am not too impressed with it at the moment. I am a friend of streamlining my environment, to automate stuff, and to reduce any need for support as much as possible by being pro-active and cautious how and what I roll out.

While Hyper-V is a virtualization product that – once it is running and configured – seems to do a good job, I do see it as a potential problem, too. For one, if you are not experienced with Server 2008 Core, MS Clustering, and Hyper-V itself, the learning curve is quite challenging. The setup is fairly complex and I also see it from a maintenance and support perspective that this could draw resource away from your core web hosting business.

So, if you plan on using Hyper-V for Web hosting, make sure to put enough research into the project. Automate as much as possible and set clear expectations and a framework – especially if you are offering Hyper-V servers to customers.

Personally I do prefer VMWare ESX over Hyper-V. It is a little more expensive, but the ROI is definitely there + the software is mature and easier to setup and to maintain compared to Hyper-V. I see it as one of those “You get what you pay for” situations. Yes, Hyper-V allows you to do virtualization, but it is still way behind the offerings of VMWare.

PS: Check out ThePlanet.com for your dedicated server needs. Great prices and great support.

HostDime Review

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I was browsing around at Webhostingtalk.com the other day and found a user review about the Web Host “HostDime”. HostDime is a privately owned website hosting provider that offers managed hosting services on the Internet. HostDime was founded in 2001 and apparently managed things well as otherwise they would not be around today = good!!!

The overall user review was very positive. The user (Jacob Wall) reported that no downtime or whatsoever was experienced by him. The support experience for him was top notch. Whenever he had a support ticket open, the issues were addressed within in an hour (1 hours). A less critical issue was addresses in less than 4 hours at one point.  This is the data you should rely when looking for a new web host. Web Hosting companies are sometimes hard to separate from each other as everyone offers the same package and almost the same pricing.

Here is a quote from the user’s review that should give you a great impression about what to expect when signing up with HostDime for cheap web hosting:

They have been impressive, I honestly can give them a ten out of ten and I don’t believe that in any of my gosh knows how many reviews I have written on WHT over the last eighteen months I have ever given a ten out of ten. That really does show how much I love Hostdime. (Source: Webhostingtalk.com)

Impressive in my opinion and well worth to give HostDime a try if you are in need of a web host.

Check out the HostDime Website here.

How to kick an unauthorized user off a SSH session and Linux server?

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You are logged into your server and notice an unauthorized user (ex-employee) on your Linux server. For whatever reason the original removal of his user account apparently failed. Since this now poses a critical security risk, how do you get rid of a) the SSH session of this user and b) how do you remove his user account from the system.

First you need to identify the user session ID and then kill it.

ps -auxf
grep “pts/0” (Replace “0” with the value you retrieved from the ps –auxf command)
xargs kill -9

Another option is to kill anything related to his user name:

Killall –u username

You can then manually remove him from the following files:

/etc/passwd and /etc/group

Another way to do this is to run the following linux command:

Userdel –rf username

In general this situation should have been prevented by removing the user account the moment the employee did leave the company. It is also recommended that you do an user account audit to make sure the user did not create a different user ID to login. You should also look for backdoors to the system. Depending on how critical this server in question is you might want to involve an external security professional or consider a server rebuild.

If you are having difficulties managing your dedicated server, I highly recommend to consider a switch to LiquidWeb. Their servers come fully managed. All you would have to do is to submit a support ticket and they will take care of it for you. Visit LiquidWeb here to see the entire list of features for their cheap dedicated servers.

Web Hosting Comparison – Part 1

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A Web Hosting Comparison is not easy to accomplish in today’s market. Almost all web hosts are looking alike and their offers do not separate them from each other. The websites to a certain look alike, it is just boring to go through and to compare web hosts. It is a tiring process and that often leads to “consumer blindness” – meaning in the due to the “dull factor” a decision is made to sign up with a certain web host just because the website looked right at the moment when you were either overwhelmed by the information you saw or you “lost” in the choices with nothing to separate a host from.

Let’s take a closer look at a few web hosts and I tell you what I think is important. I am an industry veteran so to speak, and even though I am not working at a web hosting company right now I still deal with many issues related to web hosting.

One important criteria for me when looking for an additional web hosting account is for how much time do I have to pay in advance. Everyone of us has different preferences. I personally do not like to pay in advance for more than a month. I run a business and even though I can save quite some money by paying in advance for a longer term(= lower prices), it also ties up money I might need somewhere else. If you are a consumer customer this might not matter to you as much as it matters to me as a business owner. If you are Ok with spending a lump sum now, but in the end have huge savings, I would like you to take a look at Hostgator Web Hosting. You can sign up for a plan and prepay for 36 months (3 years!) and pretty much lower your monthly cost by 50%. And even better – if you pay for 36 months in advance, it still does not set you back dramatically – due to the super high web hosting savings. Check current Host Gator pricing here.

If you want to do a web hosting comparison and a long-term contract is not for you, please read Part 2 of our articles series in regards to “Web Hosting Comparison”. (Please note that this article is published soon)