4

Feb

2013

Softaculous Unveils AMPPS 2.0

News

amppsOn Friday scripting library provider Softaculous announced the availability of version 2.0 of AMPPS – the company’s application deployment solution.

The new version of AMPPS features updated editions of Softaculous, PHP, Apache and MySQL, among others.

Discussing the matter in a press release, AMPPS Senior Developer Jigar Dhulla expressed excitement, noting the company would follow up by adding even more things.

Softaculous has grown since its initial debut, adding more and more apps to a platform that includes the likes of Drupal, Joomla, phpBB, Moodle and more.

A complete list of changes:

1) The current version of AMPPS for Windows include:

Softaculous AMPPS 2.3(Softaculous 4.1.8)
Apache 2.4.3
PHP 5.4.11, 5.3.21 and 5.2.17
PERL 5.10.1
Python 2.7.2 with mod_wsgi 3.4 module
MySQL 5.5.29
phpMyAdmin 3.5.6
SQLite Manager 1.2.4
MongoDB 2.2.2(Only 64-bit)
RockMongo 1.1.5
FileZilla FTP Server 0.9.41

The current version of AMPPS for Mac include:

Softaculous AMPPS 2.3(Softaculous 4.1.8)
Apache 2.2.23
PHP 5.4.11, 5.3.21 and 5.2.17
PERL 5.14.1
Python 2.7.2 with mod_wsgi 3.4 module
MySQL 5.5.29
phpMyAdmin 3.5.6
SQLite Manager 1.2.4
MongoDB 2.2.2(Only 64-bit)
RockMongo 1.1.5
Pure-FTPd Server 1.0.35

2) PHP 5.4 now for Mac too.

3) Added Task Manager for Endusers.

4) Added Error Logging system of Softaculous AMPPS which can be accessed from Softaculous Admin Panel.

5) Apache Modules can be configured from Enduser Panel now.

6) Basic PHP Configuration can be configured from Enduser Panel now.

7) Autoindexing in httpd.conf is now shifted in httpd-autoindex.conf

8 ) SSL Configuration is now shifted in httpd-ssl.conf from httpd-vhosts.conf

9) In case of port conflict, along with port 80, sensing of port 443 is also now enabled(Windows only).

10) Now users can take a backup before upgrading the script to newer version.

11) Now libpq.dll is loaded by default for pgsql support(Windows only).

12) Admin can now set default Username or Password suggested on script install form as Empty.

13) Turn off update available notification for script installations.

14) Now while adding FTP User from Enduser Panel, Home directory of User is not restricted to Ampps Path.

15) Improved the Softaculous packaging API.

16) Bug Fix : AMPPS will now sense only its own Apache, MySQL Server. Before it used to sense others too.

17) Bug Fix : Classes were not displayed in chrome due to SSL issue. This is fixed now.

18) Bug Fix : In case of failure during Restore process the exact error which caused failure was not displayed. This is fixed now.

NOTE : This version of AMPPS in WINDOWS is not upgradable from previous versions.

From The Softaculous AMPPS Team

18

Jan

2013

End of Year cPanel Maintenance Tips

News

The end of the year is a great time to perform some basic server maintenance with your hosting automation system. As the system administrator, cPanel’s WHM will make it easy for you to complete a few routine tasks that should keep things running efficiently.

1. Remove old unused user accounts – Over time you have probably suspended users who have never returned. If you have unused websites or users on your server, it is a good idea to remove them now before they can become a security risk later.

Home >> Server Status

2. Test backups – Assuming you have been a good system administrator, you have been backing up your server all year long. What you might not have done is test any of those backups. Now is a good time to make sure your backups are actually working.

Home >> Backup

3. Fine Tune Services – The need for certain system services may come and go. With WHM you can enable or disable system services (or daemons) that start at boot and run in the background. Disabling the ones you do not need can reduce unnecessary memory and CPU usage. You can also select the services you want to monitor on the cPanel Service Status screen.

Home >> Service Configuration >> Service Manager

4. Server Status Check – WHM includes a set of tools that can help you keep an eye on your server’s health and performance. These include:
• Apache Status – information about the system’s web server
• Daily Process Log – information about daily CPU and memory consumption
• Server information – mostly containing information about server hardware configuration
• Service Status – a list of services that you are monitoring based on your selections in the aforementioned Service Manager.

Home >> Server Status

17

Dec

2012

A Few Common Issues with Shared Hosting Security

News

Shared hosting is a form of virtual hosting that requires its users to share the same server and often the same IP address. This is the most economical form of hosting as it is quite inexpensive and usually sufficient for small to medium sized websites. Even though the websites on a shared hosting server have separate domains and separate content, they are still linked by the server that they share. While it is still the most affordable hosting option, there are still some issues you may face. This is why we do not offer shared hosting for SEO Hosting purposes.

Shared IPShared IPs

Unless you have an e-commerce site and need a dedicated IP for SSL, you will share an IP address with other users when using shared hosting. This is normally fine, but you should know that some of the things your neighbors do can affect your IP address. For example, if your neighbor gets put on a spam blacklist, anyone else who shares that IP will be on it to – including you.

CPU and MemoryShared CPU and Memory

With shared hosting you will have a guaranteed amount of disk space assigned to your account but you will still have to share CPU power and RAM with your neighbors. So if one of them ends up takes more than his or her fair share, it can adversely affect the other users.

HackingYou have been hacked!

It can be quite an unfortunate event when one of your neighbors has his site hacked and you just had better hope the security breach is not serious enough to cause the whole server to be affected. if that is the case then your site could be in jeopardy as well.

Despite the above three issues, shared hosting has plenty of benefits for traditional hosting but for SEO Hosting we still recommend using either a VPS or Dedicated Server for hosting your valuable websites as it is a much more suitable environment.

14

Dec

2012

Does Your Blog have Search Engine Friendly URLs?

CMS, News, Services

With the ever increasing usage of dynamic content management systems (CMS) to power websites, webmasters have been looking for ways to make their URLs look better. We refer to these type of URL’s as “search engine friendly” URLs, but they are also user friendly as well since they give an indication of what the page/post is about. Search engines prefer static URLs to dynamic URLs, but why? The fact is that the way that dynamic URLs are created they can sometimes create nightmares in the area of SEO. Search engines do not like to index dynamic URLs and there are various reasons for this, one of them being the non-standard characters like ?, &, %, =, and such in the URL.

A standard dynamic URL that is produced from PHP, a server-side scripting language, may look like this, seohosting.co.uk/index.php?category=name&234845345u4-this-one-274763. This format however is not very user or SE friendly but by using technology like Apache’s mod_rewrite module, your page/post can have a URL that looks more like, seohosting.co.uk/seohosting-co-uk-gets-a-new-look-and-feel. This is now quite easy to achieve, especially with blogging platforms such as WordPress.

There are several reason why this should be important for you to implement these SEO friendly URLs:

People Want To Link To A Certain Page On Your Site

SEO Friendly URLs

Sometimes when people may want to link to your website and they will use the URL as the anchor text in that link. For that reason alone you should be using SEO friendly URLs since most likely you have placed your keywords in your SEO friendly URL like below:

http://www.seohosting.co.uk/most-popular-seo-hosting-plans



Look and Feel of the URLs

SEO Friendly URls

When you have not so nice looking URLs it can cause visitors to be weary of your site as it may throw up red flags in some peoples eyes as it may look like a “bad” site to visit. People may even think “hummm I wonder if I will get a virus if I visit this site?” I can only assume that many people probably feel this way about seeing such “ugly” URLs, so don’t scare away your visitors just change the way you

Copy And Pasting

Copy and Paste URLs

Finally, we have all seen what can happen to URLs that are too long. Someone tries copy and paste the URL but for whatever reason, the URL gets broken during the transmission or formatting process, and it’s basically a dead link. So don’t limit your exposure with URLs that can “break down” and are hard to



So in order to effectively use this technology, you need to make sure that your website has mod_rewrite enabled. If you do not currently have a hosting provider or if you are looking for a new one then you should make sure to find a hosting provider that has experience with blog hosting and that has mod_rewrite and other important features like it enabled by default.

11

Dec

2012

Tips for Better VPS Security

News ,

So you just got yourself a new SEO Hosting VPS but now the question is, “How do I make it more secure?”. When running a VPS you need to protect your server against various security attacks which may harm or even destroy your data.

Here are a few basic VPS security tips:

1. Keep Your Software Up-To-Date – This is one of the most important tasks of securing your server. Everyday, numerous vulnerabilities are found in various applications, services and scripts so installing the latest updates on your server is crucial and strongly recommended.

2. Disable Remote Root Logins – Your service provider will most likely give you a root account to start but you do not need to login as root every time you access your server. You should, instead, create a separate user account that can escalate to root when necessary. Disable root logins in your SSH settings to add security.

3. Enforce and Use Strong Secure Passwords – Passwords are the first line of defense for your server but they are often the weakest links in server security. You should require any users to use secure passwords and change them regularly as well as create strong passwords.

4. Use a Secure File Transfer Method – If you think FTP is secure then you would be wrong, FTP is not secure. If you have sensitive data or even if you just want to protect your password, you should use your encrypted SSH login. SFTP is one method you can use.

5. Use Correct File and Directory Permissions – There are 3 types of access permissions: read, write and execute and they are available for three different categories of users: owner, group and others. With these permissions you can determine who can access or modify the files. You should ensure that all files and directories have the correct permissions since this is important for server security

6. Backup Everything – If there is any chance that you will need something, you should have a backup for it. Routine, off-site, automated backups will ensure that if something ever goes wrong with your VPS, you can easily recover.

7. Remove Inactive Accounts – If certain user accounts are no longer being used or have not been used for a long time then they are potential security risks for your server. Since no one is using them they can be compromised and possibly used to harm your server or other servers on the network.

6

Dec

2012

Crystone’s WINTER Web Hosting Sale-$.99

News, Packages, Services

Crystone.com is having a WINTER sale on their Mini Shared Hosting Plan, ONLY $.99 a month for:

UNLIMITED Disk Space
UNLIMITED Bandwidth
UNLIMITED E-mail Accounts
$100 Google AdWords Credits

This is a limited time offer and you must enter the promo code “WINTER” in order to get this great deal.

6

Dec

2012

Important: cPanel & WHM 11.30 Security Release

News

cPanel has released new builds for all public update tiers. These updates provide targeted changes to address security concerns with the cPanel & WHM product. These builds are currently available to all customers via the standard update system.

cPanel has rated this update as having important security impact. Information on security ratings is available at http://go.cpanel.net/securitylevels.

If your deployed cPanel & WHM servers are configured to automatically update when new releases are available, then no action is required. Your systems will update automatically. If you have disabled automatic updates, then you are highly encouraged to update your cPanel & WHM installs at your earliest convenience.

Releases

Version 11.30.7.4 of cPanel & WHM addresses all known vulnerabilities. The latest public releases of cPanel & WHM for all update tiers are published at http://httpupdate.cpanel.net.

Security Issue Information

The resolved security issues were identified by various members of the development and quality assurance teams at cPanel. There is no reason to believe that these vulnerabilities are known to the public. As such, cPanel will only release limited information regarding the vulnerabilities.

Once sufficient time has passed to allow cPanel & WHM systems to automatically update their installed software to the new versions, cPanel will release additional information regarding the nature of the security issue. This Targeted Security Release addresses five vulnerabilities. Additional information is scheduled to be released December 6, 2012, via email.

This information is provide by cPanel.net

21

Nov

2012

SEOhosting goes Mustache Movember

News

In honor of Mustache Movember, which raises vital awareness and funds for men’s health issues, specifically prostate and testicular cancer initiatives, SEOhosting is now sporting one as well!

To participate just go and register at www.movember.com, then men will start Movember 1st clean shaven. For the rest of the month, these men, known as Mo Bros, groom, trim and wax their way into the annals of fine moustachery. Supported by the women in their lives, Mo Sistas, Movember Mo Bros raise funds by seeking out sponsorship for their Mo-growing efforts.

Mo Bros basically become walking, talking billboards for the 30 days of November. By supporting this cause they raise awareness by prompting private and public conversation around issue of men’s health.

At the end of the month, Mo Bros and Mo Sistas celebrate their achievements by either throwing their own Movember party or attending one of the infamous Galas held around the world.

SEOhosting goes Mustache Movember

21

Nov

2012

SEOhosting.co.uk Gets a New Look and Feel!

News

Come by and check out our new site design! It has been months in the making and many hours spent trying to get it “just” right but finally we are here and it is now fully launched and functional.

There is a new feature on the site that allows for you to check the price of a VPS and various amounts of IPs. All you need to do is simply click on one of the IP amounts and then you will see the total of the VPS and the correlating IP displayed underneath.

Here is a snapshot of our newly redone homepage:

seo hosting

So surf on by and give it a whirl!!