SSL or Secure Socket Layer is the security technology for establishing an encrypted link between a web server and a browser. This ensures that all data passed between the web server and browser remain private and integral.  This is important because the information you send on the internet is passed from computer to computer to get to the destination server.

Why do I need a SSL certificate?

When a SSL certificate is used, the information becomes unreadable to everyone except for the server you are sending the information to. This protects you from hackers and identity thieves who try and seek credit card numbers, usernames, passwords and other sensitive information.

Typically these certificates contain your domain name, your company name, your address, your city, your state and your country. It will also contain the expiration date of the certificate and the details of the Certification Authority responsible for the issuance of the Certificate.

As an individual or a company/organization a SSL certificate is important to have. It makes you gain customer and user trust, it’s secure and it makes you a responsible website owner.

With SpexHost we offer a wide variety of SSL Certificates to protect you and your site’s visitors.

People are often very simple creatures – they struggle to remember things that may be a little confusing or contain ambiguity. This is why it is essential that before you even start your community site, you spend a good amount of time choosing a suitable domain name. The following is what I personally think is the key to a perfect domain name for individual or business use.

Keep it simple

Always keep your domain name as simple and as short as possible. The longer your domain name, the larger the chance of a visitor entering a typo and not being able to find your site. Longer domain names are often more difficult to remember, too.
Use simple words in your domain name – don’t use long, hard to understand words. People should be able to remember your domain name easily and be able to type it into their browser quickly and without error. You should also hold off on putting characters in your domain such as a dash ( – ).

Keep it relevant

Always ensure your domain name is relevant to your community. I would always recommend you try to include a keyword in your chosen domain name. If your site is about goldfish, get that word in your domain name.
Irrelevant domain names can sometimes work thanks to strong branding techniques. When starting a community from scratch though, why make things harder for yourself?
Keep your domain relevant – people should be able to guess what your site will be about from the domain name alone.

Keep it memorable

Keeping a domain name simple and relevant will help visitors remember it. Visitor retention is the key to a successful online community.
You should also consider what ‘Top-Level Domain’ to register. If your site has a strong UK focus, then you should register the ‘.co.uk’ version, but perhaps also register the ‘.com’ and redirect it to your site in order to secure your brand name.
If you are aiming for direct type-in traffic, then you will want to go for the ‘.com’ wherever possible. I will always argue that your choice of top-level domain has little overall significance compared to the overall domain name you choose, though.

A poor choice in domain name can result in failure

All of these are legitimate companies that didn’t spend quite enough time considering how their online names might appear…and be misread.

1. Who Represents is where you can find the name of the agent that represents any celebrity. Their web site is www.whorepresents.com.
2. Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange advice and views at www.expertsexchange.com.
3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at www.penisland.net.
4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at www.therapistfinder.com.
5. There’s the Italian Power Generator company, www.powergenitalia.com.
6. And don’t forget the Mole Station Native Nursery in New South Wales, www.molestationnursery.com. (This one has been changed…and thankfully so.)
7. If you’re looking for IP computer software, there’s always www.ipanywhere.com.
8. The First Cumming Methodist Church Web site is www.cummingfirst.com.
9. And the designers at Speed of Art await you at their wacky web site, www.speedofart.com.

These are all legit! (Except number six…they got wise!)

Keep your domain name short, relevant and easy to remember and you already have a head-start over many of the new sites starting up today.

Get your domain and website through SpexHost where we make sure to take care of you.

A virtual private server (VPS, also referred to as Virtual Dedicated Server or VDS) is a method of splitting a server. Each virtual server can run its own full-functional operating system, and each server can be independently rebooted.

The physical server typically runs a hypervisor which is tasked with creating, destroying, and managing the resources of “guest” operating systems, or virtual machines. These guest operating systems are allocated a share of resources of the physical server, typically in a manner in which the guest is not aware of any other physical resources save for those allocated to it by the hypervisor.

The Guest system may be fully virtualized, paravirtualized, or a hybrid of the two.

In a fully virtualized environment, the guest is presented with an emulated or virtualized set of hardware and is unaware that this hardware is not strictly physical. The hypervisor in this case must translate, map, and convert requests from the guest system into the appropriate resource requests on the host, resulting in significant overhead. Almost all systems can be virtualized using this method, as it requires no modification of the operating system, however a CPU supporting virtualization is required for most hypervisors that perform full virtualization.

In a paravirtualized environment, the guest is aware of the hypervisor and interfaces directly with the host system’s resources, with the hypervisor implementing real-time access control and resource allocation. This results in near-native performance since the guest sees the same hardware as the host and can thus communicate with it natively. UNIX-like systems, such as Linux, some variants of BSD, Plan9, and OpenSolaris are currently known to support this method of virtualization. However, installing operating systems as paravirtualized guests tends to require more knowledge about the operating system in order to have it use special hypervisor-aware kernels and devices.

Some examples of paravirtualization-capable hypervisors are Xen, Virtuozzo, and OpenVZ (which is what SpexHost‘s VPS packages currently run on).

Hybrid or partial paravirtualization, is full virtualization, but in which the guest uses paravirtualized drivers for key components such as Networking and Disk I/O, resulting in greatly increased I/O performance. As such, it is a common solution for operating systems which cannot be modified (for various reasons) to support paravirtualiztion.

 

This is a question we at SpexHost often recieve. Do I need a VPS? Will Shared Hosting be enough for my business? I have these needs what is best for me, a VPS or Shared Hosting? All are great questions so let us explain.

What is a VPS?

Definition: A Virtual Private Server provides the features of a dedicated server on a machine that is shared by other hosting customers. Customers therefore get hosting services that are similar to that of dedicated hosting without sacrificing privacy or performance.

A Virtual Private Server (VPS), also referred to as Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) is a method of splitting or sharing a physical server. Each virtual server can run its own full-fledged operating system, with it’s own resources and start and stop independently of other server. It’s a great way to run isolated environments. Read more on our VPS offerings here.

What is Shared Hosting?

Shared hosting is the method of sharing resources of a single server between all users and their attached domain services.

This is the most economical of hosting methods as it allows users to have a interface to manage their services (such as cPanel). This allows for a simple and secure way to host any web sites needed. Accounts are provisioned resources of the server such as CPU, RAM and Disk Space.

 So… VPS vs Shared Hosting?

A lot of SpexHost customers struggle to find out which one fits their needs. Read the five biggest advantages below:

1. Reliability

With the use of a VPS you will experience reliability at its best. With extensive technical knowledge and experience you can expect reliable VPS’s with industry leading uptime.

2. Flexibility

VPS allows for the ability to customize system configuration, install any applications and server wide software to fit your sites needs. Full root level access and almost complete control over the system configuration brings hosting to next level without the dedicated servers’ price tag

3. Performance

With custom built servers you will benefit from Enterprise class hardware with RAID-10 storage for redundancy. No factory built servers here! Consistent performance to the specifications you choose.

4. Easy-to-use GUI

When using a VPS vs Shared Hosting with SpexHost both have fully functional Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs).

A browser based GUI tool which allows you to restart, troubleshoot, and restore your own VPS without the help of your provider. You can also restart the core server components such as Apache, FTP, and DNS; even deploy a fresh OS with your former VPS account’s data mounted to the new OS. Restore a backup on the fly if you need to reinstall due to some sort of attack.

Shared Hosting delivers the control you need without the hassle of managing the underlying services. Through the custom GUI tool (cPanel) you can maintain Mail, Webspace, Databases, FTP and even back up and restore your account.

5. Dynamic

When using a VPS vs Shared Hosting, you have the ease of mind to know your performance will never be lacking. As you grow along with your web traffic, the VPS will adapt as needed with the use of the OpenVZ technology. Upgrading to a higher resource VPS is simple with no downtime what so ever.

We have Shared Hosting accounts for all shapes and sizes. If you’re looking for a specific need but we don’t have it listed let us know. We’re always working on our packages to deliver the best value we can to all our customers.

If you still want more help contact us today!

What exactly is a DDoS attack?
DDoS stands for Distributed Denial of Service. A DDoS attack is an attempt by a malicious user deny people the ability to use a web site or service by means of a distributed and coordinated attack. The end goal of the attack is to overwhelm a system or service so that normal users are not able to use it anymore.

To put this in other terms, imagine yourself going out for lunch at your favorite restaurant. Just as you are about to enter and place your order, another person cuts in front of you. As this person leaves, another rushes in and cuts in front of you, forcing you to keep waiting. This process can continue for minutes, hours or even days, preventing you (and every other customer) from doing what you came to do.

How does SpexHost prevent this?
We have partnered with OVH to provide you with the best DDoS protection. When a DDoS attack is detected, automated DDoS mitigation is activated. This mitigation involves filtering bad traffic and allowing good traffic to pass along. Our mitigation consists of multiple devices, each with a specific function to block one or more types of attacks.

By default all of our Shared and Reseller Web Hosting and our VPS Hosting come with DDoS protection. We have a total mitigation capacity of 480Gbps. All DDoS attacks are blocked without any duration or any other type of limit. Our standard protection is automated, and can take between 15 seconds and 120 seconds to activate. We also allow for the DDoS protection to always be activated on your IP(s) so there is no delay. This requires a dedicated IP address, which must be purchased for Shared and Reseller Hosting. VPS Hosting customers can request this be turned on in a support ticket, or by turning it on under “IP Management” in our billing and support system.

If you have any questions, or you are in need of DDoS protection please do not hesitate to contact our sales department with your requirements.