Web Hosting Blog

Windows Web Hosting is one of the most preferred web hosting options present in the Web Hosting Industry. The Windows web hosting services offers access to control panels in order to manage the web hosting account. With a control panel managing the account becomes simple, there is no need to contact the administrator everytime for resolving simple tasks such as creating a new mail account under a domain, deleting an account etc. There has been an increase in the number of users opting for control panel access for a web hosting account.

Windows web hosting control panel’s are few as Windows isn’t an open source operating system, hence lot of knowledge of programming in order to be able to produce an application that is able to fully function with a Windows server. Windows web hosting services are becoming more and more popular in terms of control panels too due to the growing demand for Windows web hosting services and customers.

There are various control panels offered by web hosting companies. Three control panels that are mainly offered by web hosting firm’s are Plesk, DotNetPanel and Hosting Controller.

Out of these three Plesk is more widely used and it has been in the market since a long time. Plesk is considered to be the most reliable and stable control panel. Hosting controller is classed by many web hosting providers as unreliable but DotNetPanel has yet to gain exposure. These three control panels satisfy the core purpose of managing the Windows web hosting accounts hosted on the Windows servers.

Below are few Advantages offered by the three control panels:

A] DotNetPanel : DotNetPanel doesn’t only emphasize on standard shared Windows Web Hosting services but on advanced Microsoft service hosting too to support web hosting service providers increase the range of Windows based web hosting products. Cheap Hyper V based VPS hosting solutions as well as Microsoft Server 2007 e-mail hosting solutions can be provided by web hosts with this control panel. Web hosting services can be offered with a cheap cost by using DotNetPanel hence offering cheaper web hosting solution.

B] Hosting Controller : Hosting controller is the biggest rival of Plesk provisioning characteristics. But, yet Hosting Controller has many other features to offer web hosting providers like built-in back-up and restore feature to ensure that if any data gets lost due to a software or hardware failure then there will be back-ups which can be relied on. control panel due to its focus on offering shared Windows web hosting services. Hosting Controller does not include any advanced management and

C] Plesk : Plesk has the ability to offer the web hosting service provider as server administrators as well as the customers as easy way to use interface which one can use to configure the different settings related to both Plesk and one’s server as well as to create web hosting accounts for the customers front end. Plesk proves to be useful for those who are hosted on the server and wish to manage the account successfully and effectively. Plesk is more

user friendly compared to others hence a newbie too can easily use Plesk.

Similar to Plesk, cPanel has proved to be the most popular control panel for Linux web hosting.

cPanel 11 and Plesk 9 are the latest control panels available for the web hosting service providers. These panels enable them to provide their web hosting services to their clients. With the help of these control panels provided by the hosting firms, clients can manage different tasks involved in the web hosting accounts, these panels simplifies the tasks for the support staff as clients are able to carry out majority of the tasks themselves. There are many different tasks that can be simplified with the use of these control panels, it involves the management of web services, E-mail, DNS and Database on both half’s i.e. client and administrator. Normally most of the web hosting service providers provide control panel access as a standard feature for the web hosting accounts. These control panels are simple to use, a person with no knowledge of web hosting too can operate it and hence this is one of the major reasons why these control panels have gained popularity in the web hosting industry.

Until now cPanel is compatible with Linux Servers only. Which means cPanel can be provided by web hosting firms only to the clients that choose Linux Servers for hosting their web sites. Which is not the case with Plesk, Plesk control panel is compatible with Linux as well as with Windows web hosting platforms. Plesk is majorly used by web hosts due to its stability.

cPanel and Plesk have their own advantages when used by customers and administrators of Web hosting services. Usually Plesk is provided with Windows Web Hosting service and cPanel with Linux Web Hosting solutions.

Below one can find the advantages of Plesk control panel.

>> Windows Support : Plesk works on Windows Web hosting service allowing web hosting service providers to provide Windows based web hosting packages to the customers. Customers ASP and ASP.NET websites can only work on Windows servers, so Windows Web Hosting service needs to be opted. Customers usually prefer Plesk with Windows Web Hosting.

>> Windows Service Support : As Plesk can be used on Windows based servers it has the capability to integrate to integrate with multiple Windows based programs. It has an advanced feature support for some Windows programs such as Microsoft SQL Server which can be managed by Plesk 9.0 by server administrators and clients with their own databases which makes it an ideal control panel solution for Windows.

>> Cross Platform Compatibility : From a system administrator’s point of view,  one may find it more beneficial having a single control panel on all the servers. Mastering a single control panel is much simpler than mastering two. As a customer one may find it easy since it means that one should be able to get the same sort of features from both Linux as well as from Windows web hosting solutions.

Though Plesk seems to be perfect for Windows web hosting packages, it can also be used for Linux packages.

cPanel is a preferred control panel for Linux web hosting services. Benefits of cPanel are as follows.

>> More Features of Linux : cPanel encompasses more features for Linux web hosting solutions than Plesk control panel. cPanel can be used in combination with different add-ons such as Fantastico script installer and CFS firewall to provide customers a wide range of services which can be used from their web hosting accounts control panel, such features can’t be used on Plesk Linux Web Hosting servers.

>> Reseller Support : Apart from Plesk 9.0 version, other versions does not provide support for reseller web hosting accounts whereas cPanel offers good support for resellers. cPanel is available with the Web Host Manager (WHM) panel which allows resellers to control all different aspects of their reseller accounts including the configuring of their own packages and the setting up of client web hosting accounts.

>> Faster Loading : cPanel’s internal pages load more faster than those of Plesk and certain tasks are carried out quicker than they would be with the Plesk control panel. cPanel does not rely on external databases in much cases, this is one of the reasons of the smooth functioning. cPanel has proven to be more reliable than Plesk on Linux.

To sum it up, both the control panels cPanel and Plesk provide web hosting service provider firms a reliable control panel service but come with their own advantages and disadvantages. But, Plesk for Windows and cPanel for Linux is the perfect solution offered by web hosting firms.

If a user has hosted their website with a Web Hosting Company with a certain web hosting package, then the company offers a control panel depending on the Operating system. The control panel helps to manage server well. It is not mandatory to take a control panel with the server, but users should have the control panel with the server as it simplifies the task and saves a lot of time in managing the server.

Most of the Web Hosting service providers, offer Plesk with Windows Web Hosting packages and cPanel with Linux Web Hosting packages. Both the control panels help in effectively managing the servers. Both the control panels that are offered by the Web Hosting companies offer good performance, but there are few differences between them. cPanel and Plesk are reliable, fast and secure. But, the major difference between them is the user interface. If a user plans to switch to another web hosting account then it is recommended to use the same control panel that was used with the old Web Hosting provider.

Below are few Differences Between cPanel and Plesk

cPanel Features

Basic Advantages of cPanel control panel :

• If a user opt’s for cPanel for a year then the amount charged is less as compared to Plesk.
• Most of the software’s are supported with cPanel.
• cPanel usage is easier if compared with Plesk control panel. This is the main reason that many clients prefer cPanel interface.

Disadvantages of cPanel:

• cPanel does not support SuSE Linux as the Plesk does.
• XML or similar interfaces are not provided with cPanel.

Plesk Features

Advantages of Plesk control panel:

• If the price is considered then Plesk is cheaper than cPanel for unlimited domain license.
• With Plesk users can receive good support for automation including XML-RPC interface allowing PHP or Perl scripts to call functions from remote computer.
• Plesk supports SuSE Linux.
• Users get large variety of Plug-ins which is beneficial with the features that already included in Plesk control panel.

Disadvantage

• Plesk user interface is a little harder in comparison to cPanel interface, yet most users prefer Plesk.

Web Hosting service providers offer both the control panels depending upon the operating system which helps in managing the servers efficiently.

Clustered web hosting is designed to eliminate the problems inherited from the typical shared web hosting technology. This type of hosting provides customers with a clustered handling of security, load balancing and necessary resources.

Human interference is not required in clustered hosting as the clustered hosting platform is data driven. The resources are virtualized beyond the limits of a single physical server which removes the limitation of the website to be present on a single server. The processing power and application resources are shared in Cluster web hosting. Incase of any changes done to a customer’s account then it gets propagated to each server present in the cluster. Whereas in shared web hosting changes to a configuration file takes effect after the server is re-booted. In clustered hosting multiple layers of security are integrated into the platform whereas in other types of web hosting the security layers are not integrated in the platform. The Clustered hosting network layer protection require intelligent routing, built in firewalls and proxy technology. It comprises of redundant switching fabric.

Shared web hosting service refers to the hosting service in which many websites are hosted on a single server. Each website is assigned a particular limited space (Depends on the Shared Hosting Package) in which the web server resources are shared between many web-sites hosted on the same server. Shared web hosting is the most economical type of web hosting service available. Shared web hosting requires web based control panel such as cPanel, Plesk, Direct Admin etc. The servers might have Windows or Linux operating systems installed on them. Both have similar interfaces and functionality with only difference in the operating system. As the resources offered by a single server are used by each website optimum performance cannot be expected which is not the case with dedicated web hosting service. The secure websites are not properly supported in shared web hosting platforms. All the websites share the same IP address and the same domain name. Improper configuration of file permissions with shared files might lend access of file to other users present on the same server.

Joomla is a free open source Content Management System. Joomla can be used to publish data on the intranets and World Wide Web. The system includes page caching to improve performance, language internationalization, printable versions of pages, RSS feeds, blogs, polls, forums, news flashes. Joomla is licensed under GPL.

Joomla is written in PHP programming language and uses MySQL as a default database.

The Joomla package consists of many different parts. It allows modular extensions and integrations. Plugins provide new functionality to Joomla. Plugins are the background extensions. WikiBot allows users of Joomla to use Wikitags which automatically creates dynamic hyperlinks to Wikipedia articles. Over 3,500 extensions for Joomla are available via extension directory.

In addition to Plugins more wide-ranged extensions are available such as Components. It allows web masters to build a community by expanding user features, create a back up of web site, translate content and create URL’s which are more friendly to search engines. Modules perform the task of displaying calendar or allow custom code such as Google AdSense to be inserted in the base code of Joomla.

Joomla allows administrators to set global configuration parameters which effects every article.

Web Hosting Package details as per Users Requirements.

Personal Web Hosting : Personal Web Hosting is cheap, reliable and affordable.

Who should go for such web hosting package?

• New WebMasters.
• Users that intend to build a web site using few simple steps.
• Users that want to host multiple domains.
• Users who want to migrate to a better web hosting service provider.

In this kind of a web hosting package the website building tools are provided free of cost.

Business Web Hosting : The business web hosting package is hosted on powerful shared hosting platform. Business hosting can be suggested for users who already own a website but because of increase in the sites web traffic require maximum stability, performance and best uptime is essential.

Who should go for Business Web Hosting Package?

• Users who are Business owners.
• Owners of E-commerce web sites.
• Programmers and Webmasters.

Windows Web Hosting : Users have an option to opt between two control panels : Plesk and Hosting controller. Windows hosting can be chosen if users require special server side scripting support for .ASP, .Net, MS SQL and MS access based applications.

Who should opt for Windows Web Hosting?

• Users that require Windows 2003 environment.
• Users who are Webmasters and Programmers.
• Users that require support for .ASP, .NET, MS SQL, MS Access.

Reseller Web Hosting : This type of web hosting provides both cPanel hosting and Windows reseller hosting. Reseller hosting can be opted for either Linux (cPanel) and Windows (Plesk) platforms. Reseller hosting is suitable for the users who want to start their small web hosting service, web designers or for the users who intend to manage many websites with separate control panels. This type of web hosting is also known as affordable web hosting.

Who should select a Reseller Web Hosting Package?

• Web hosting resellers.
• Web designers.
• The users who want to manage multiple domains in an affordable manner.

VPS Web Hosting : VPS means Virtual Private Servers. VPS hosting includes Windows VPS and Linux VPS hosting services. Such hosting service is ideal for the web sites that has heavy traffic may it be in the form of downloading or number of visitors. The VPS web hosting is a cheaper alternative to dedicated web hosting with the same server resources as that of the dedicated server hosting.

Who should select a VPS web hosting service?

• Web hosting resellers and designers
• Websites that have heavy traffic.

Dedicated Server Hosting : Dedicated server hosting is best suited for the users that require full power, control and complete accessibility. In this type of web hosting web server can be customized to its complete power.

Who should opt for Dedicated Server Hosting?

• Online stores and e-Commerce companies.
• Large and heavily loaded websites.
• ISP’s and web hosting service providers.
• Mid to large sized companies.

Plesk and cPanel are the most common control panels provided to users by the web hosting services. Using the control panels users can create and modify the websites. Plesk can be availed with Linux as well as Windows operating systems, whereas cPanel can be available with Linux only. But the engineers are working on cPanel to be made available with Windows as well.

Users need to decide the between the control panels at the time of obtaining a web hosting account. The control panel should be easy to use and should have better built-in utilities. Depending on the users requirements the selection of control panel should be done. Though Plesk and cPanel offer similar basic features, which is the reason they are so popular. Using any one of the control panels users can create, modify or delete e-mail accounts, manage them, maintain domain or sub-domains and upload files and manage them as well. Add-on’s too are available with both Plesk and cPanel which helps creating and managing websites.

Plesk

As stated earlier, now-a-days Plesk is the highly preferred control panel. The reason is because it is highly reliable if compared with any other control panel. Its compatibility with Windows operating system (OS) makes it so popular amongst web hosting service providers. Plesk includes various versions for Linux and Windows OS’s. Plesk can be very easily learned. Due to which user’s time and money are saved.

The only drawback of Plesk is, the web developers and web designers do not have the privilege of creating their own add-ons and applications. Plesk has some security issues too, which means hackers can easily drop into the control panel no matter if the user changes its username and password.

Yet, if the user wants a control panel which is compatible with both Linux and Windows, Plesk can be the one. But if the user needs to install any programs and wants more easier control panel, then cPanel would be preferred.

cPanel

cPanel or Control Panel is another much preferred graphical web hosting control panel which is simple and easy for administering the websites. cPanel is supplied by cPanel Inc. cPanel is majorly used by commercial web hosting services. It requires monthly licensing as it is a proprietary product.

Most of the web-developers and web designers prefer cPanel. cPanel was designed for Speed hosting, its based on Perl scripts and mostly do not require access to databases. cPanel is helpful for designing and development of attractive websites as it is an excellent Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Few of many features of cPanel are database management, domain and sub-domain control, FTP, back-up facility, e-mail management etc. Loading is a very quick task with the use of cPanel. Fantastico and RVSkins can be installed using cPanel. cPanel provides each and every detail of the web-site due to its statistics sidebar. Web Host Manager (WHM) is available with cPanel. Reseller web hosting can be simplified with the use of WHM. WHM can also be used to set up reselling account and resell web hosting service.

With the use of site migration module in cPanel, websites and web hosting accounts can be easily migrated to other web hosting service.

Both the control panels have excellent graphical user interface. But cPanel has a better GUI than Plesk. It is more user friendly. Most of the web hosting service providers provides cPanel. Fantastico Deluxe installer is included in cPanel, which has many web utilities and powerful scripts. Installation of blogs, forums, content management systems (CMS), community boards, e-Commerce shopping carts, e-mail accounts and many other web tools can be easily done with the use of Fantastico. Users need not be a web programmer neither s/he should have knowledge of databases coding. One can install utilities and scripts easily. Plesk too provides an application pack but cPanels Fantastico cannot be compared.

With the use of latest web technology, Windows Web Hosting can be very easily achieved. As the name suggests Microsoft Windows which is the most popular operating system till date is used for Windows Web Hosting. Windows if used in such a way can prove to be fruitful for many businesses as well as individuals purposes. Windows not only provides an Operating system but also a web hosting server which is used for Windows web hosting services.

Windows has developed many standard tools which are now-a-days used by users across the globe to design and develop different web-sites. Windows OS is a useful highly web compatible operating system(OS) . No matter if you have a Linux operating system installed at our local computer, yet one can opt for hosting your website on a Windows web hosting server. Users usually prefer a Windows web hosting, incase they intend to build the website for personal purposes or for the purpose of their small businesses. Internet Information Server is a built-in technology by the Windows Web hosting service. Internet Information Server (IIS) has its own server which sends out that provides web-pages to web browsers, it also supports Windows NT operating.

REASONS TO CHOOSE WINDOWS WEB HOSTING

Users are assigned a new e-mail account and web tools as a part of Windows Web hosting package/service provided by the web host. The web host provides a control panel, with the help of which a windows web hosting server can be setup. The simplest control panel well suited for Windows is Plesk designed by Sw-Soft. It is more user friendly because of its GUI (Graphical User Interface) which simplifies designing and developing the websites. The scripts supported by Windows are HTML, CGI and PHP which can be used in developing websites. Many of the software’s and programs are offered free of cost.

As Windows have developed many easy to access tools, it has become one of the most preferred web hosting services and also Windows being the oldest player has developed efficient end effective technology and support.

TIPS TO CHOOSE A SERVICE PROVIDER

There are many web hosting providers active in the market, but to chose between them one simple method is searching Google and chose from the ones on the first page itself. The web hosting provider should have excellent customer and technical facility. The provider should have highly trained professional staff who are available on a 24×7 basis for the purpose of getting instant solutions. The web hosting provider should have all the three mediums of communications: Over the phone, Chat and E-mail. Reputation of the service provider too is very important.

If you are not able to restart apache successfully on your linux server , Please check the error with apache error logs

tail -f /usr/local/apache/log/error_log

if you are getting

pid file /usr/local/apache/logs/httpd.pid overwritten —
Unclean shutdown of previous Apache run?
semget: No space left on device

you can get it resolved with following steps:

The error specifies that there is no more space left in Semaphore Arrays for Apache. You can check the semaphore are with

#ipcs -s

The result will be as

—— Semaphore Arrays ——–
key semid owner perms nsems
0×00000000 9601024 nobody 600 1
0×00000000 9633793 nobody 600 1

So you need to remove nobody

#for i in `ipcs -s | awk ‘{print $2}’`; do ipcrm -s $i;done

then restart apache services

#service httpd restart