Few points to improve shared hosting Security

• Operating System – unless other wise very demanding do not go for Windows hosting. A well known fact billion dollar anti virus business is based on not so protected Windows environment
• Do not use Web hosting and email hosting from same server. Email is a popular medium to spread infections. Separate email and web hosting server increases service redundancy. It helps on saving server load too
• Use SMTP for system/CMS/application emails. Avoid scripts to send/receive emails
• Be careful when you upload files to server
  • Hosting panel mode of uploading file is preferable
  • Do not use web browser as FTP client
  • Do not save your FTP user name and password
  • Use gftp instead of FTP
  • protect your files with md5 hash and tar/compress/zip it unzip/untar/decompress it in server
• Implement password policy and change frequently
• Check your web hosting server IP before you take up the service
• Check twice before you add external scripts to your web site
• Check twice before you add iframe tags to your site

Securing your web hosting doesn’t stop with above mentioned points. A lot have to be done including log tracking, access tracking, web site usage tracking. Webmaster tools will help in grater extent about site security.

Happy Hosting!

Original Article in Hexahost Official Blog

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There are about 50,000 web hosting providers to serve 50 Million registered domain names. Almost half of them are resellers, and web site developers. Rather than searching for the Best one choosing a right one to host your web site is a smart deal. Big providers like Godaddy, Blue host, hostgator, host monster, uk2webhost and etc do business in big volumes. Identifying the best from them understanding about how they work is so easy. Simple search on “hosting provider+review” will fetch enough results to follow. They will confuse you with both +ve and -ve results.

Follow my advice to choose a provider based merits and your need.

1. If you are new to web hosting, all you need is personalized support. Can big players offer this ? Will they get in to your site after few months and provide suggestions like features x,y,z will give better appeal. Ask yourself.
2. If you are a Blogger concentrate on writing than maintaining. Choose new entrants who can help you with personalized support. Who can suggest a platform, Theme, widget, plug-in and most importantly SEO.
3. Do they have one click application installer utilities like fantastico ? A new entrant will have tough time without this.
4. Do they have proper control panel to support your hosting, domain names, sub-domain, email, database, backup. Cpanel is the best.
5. Do they have a easy site building tool, This will be very useful for people who do not want to use CMS. RV site builder and RVskins will be handy to have.
6. Test the speed of a host’s network to your location by clicking start > run > type in “command” enter, and then type “ping hostdomainname.com” wait for it to finish and look for the average ping. The lower the number the better, and chances are the faster your site will load. Any number averaging around an 80 would be good. Anything over 100 is very bad except, of course, if the host is based in another country.
7. Get e-mail through the domain name of your website. It’s best to go with a host that provides unlimited auto responders, pop mailboxes, email aliases etc. These services are needed to stay in touch with your visitors, potential customers and indeed your past customers in the hope of back end sales. Using your_name@your_website_name.com also looks more professional and official.
8. Reliability. How reliable is a web hosting company? Most claim 99.9% uptime, but due to the nature of computers and communications equipment, outages will and do occur occasionally. You can contact a company and ask, but they will tell you they’re very reliable. Instead, ask for a couple of sites they currently host, that you can check out for yourself.
   Not only will you see that the site is available, it gives you the opportunity to see how well they perform during peak periods too.
9. Make transactions with a secure server with https:// capability because your potential customers will expect it. Security is of paramount importance to your customer. Visitors who are concerned about the insecurity to their plastic will never become customers.
10. Read TOS, and other policies. Look for assurances like 30 Day Money back guarantee, Uptime guarantee, resolution time

NOTE: Do not get in to Reseller hosting and suffer. Go to a proper hosting provider who talks about his infrastructure.

In my view use 30 Day money back guarantee offered by hosting providers. Test as much as youcan before deciding upton the long term relation. Do take plans for more than 1 Year. hosting is all about short tem option. look before you leap. I trust Hexahost.

Hosting provider i suggest are Hexahost, Godaddy, hostgator and blue host.

HAPPY HOSTING!

OTHER ARTICLES YOU MUST READ:

http://hexablogs.com/hosting/where-is-my-webhosting-provider/

http://hexablogs.com/internet/internet-speed-is-not-a-rocket-science/

http://hexablogs.com/hosting/your-web-presence-need-more-than-freebies/

http://www.hexahost.com/blog_hosting.htm

http://www.hexahost.com/hexablogs.htm

http://www.webhost2go.com/

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Identify where your hosting provider is ? A very important point to check out before choosing your hosting account. Address in contact us page is just the registered office address. What matter is the place in which your domain is placed. i.e in which server your domain related contents are stored, a server from which your contents are served from, a server which is pointed by nslookup output.

Do “nslookup yourdomain.com” in your dos prompt or shell. it will through a ip. That is the ip of your web server i.e A server which serves the content ffor your htt:///yourdomain.com/ query.

To get the visual feel of your hosting provider presence with detailed analysis on number of hop, latency use http://visualroute.visualware.com/

Investigate your domain and ipaddress using domain dossier from central ops. http://centralops.net/co/ use network who is and tracerroute.

Why should you do this ?

your hosting provider presence is your presence, that reflects the source from your content will be served. good hosting is the one which provides good coverage across the globe to serve your global clients. These checkups will avoid incidents where in a cheap, home pc acting as your hosting provider.

Sample records for hexahost.com

Network Whois record

Queried whois.arin.net with “208.43.115.238“…

OrgName:    SoftLayer Technologies Inc.
OrgID:      SOFTL
Address:    1950 N Stemmons Freeway
City:       Dallas
StateProv:  TX
PostalCode: 75207
Country:    US

ReferralServer: rwhois://rwhois.softlayer.com:4321 Reflects the details related to the Data center

Traceroute

Tracing route to hexahost.com [208.43.115.238]…

Network reach to your hosting provider No of Hop, Latency will be critical factors to note

These activities have to be carried out periodically. Many of the hosting providers change their server just by changing ip pointed by your ns records. Hosting clients may not even know about the changes.

Quality hosting provider is the one who expresses actual location, Datacenter, and Network infrastructure details to the clients.

HAPPY HOSTING!

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