Bob had a successful auto accessories retailing business in Michigan. It was when he wished to expand the customer base, he received advice about going online. After two months of discussion and market survey, he found a startling fact. For all the support his customers showed for online shopping, many had reservations about parting with confidential credit card information. Adding a credit card payment gateway would bring him several benefits, but he had to find a way to ensure protection of his customer’s sensitive identity details.

Credit card frauds and identity theft have been rising of late. This means online stores and electronic commerce sites should include security procedures in their payment processes to protect the customers. The most trusted methods are digital security authentication and encryption. The industry standard for e-commerce sites is a 128- or 256-bit encryption protocol along with digital SSL certification.

When Bob was scouting for the right security-enabling product, he chanced upon Comodo. It is an advanced security authentication product with 128-bit encryption and other standard features. It is compatible with almost 99% of the browsers. It has excellent warranty and reissue coverage and an attractive money-back guarantee. Comodo is definitely the most affordable and cost-effective security solution.

Isabel Rodrigues - Works for Apollo Hosting
www.apollohosting.com

Nothing tempers the strong desire to forge out on the web then the installation instructions that accompany that cool blog, forum or gallery software you just downloaded. Sure, it was free, but where's that cool ".exe" file that makes the "magic" happen on all your other programs? Sadly, looking for that file will, generally, be a fruitless endeavour. It's not that anyone is trying to make it hard on you; it's just the circumstances are little different than installing a program from a disc to your hard drive.

I'll cover one aspect of many web application installations that can make the novice shake their head and wonder what use "instructions" are for if they don't tell you how to do something. That would be the creation of the database that is a core component of many web apps, most notably blogs, forums, galleries. Databases are where the posts, images, and comments that come together to make your application shine are stored. They aren't the hamsters running the show, they're more like the hamster food.

I should note this advice may be unnecessary in many cases. I say that because many popular website hosting control panels do provide "one-click" installation of many popular open-source web applications. Our own trusty Plesk control panel features an Application Vault absolutely brimming with blogs, galleries, forums, and far more esoteric fare that requires you only answer a few questions and you're good to go. For many, this will suffice. Even our Application Vault doesn't hold everything the Internet has to offer. It will also take some time for the latest versions of those applications to enter the Vault. Those who crave the latest-greatest will have to apply a little elbow grease to get their hands on it.

Even if you've graduated to being a wiz at uploading your files via FTP, you might not be absolutely comfortable with creating databases. Though it can cause some trepidation, creating databases is a relatively simple process from within most website hosting control panels, including our own Plesk and HSPc systems.

Just a quick note to say I'll be looking at a very wide overview of the process and this is hardly meant to be a substitute for whatever the specific steps your particular web application will be providing you. This is primarily to focus on the slightly more "vague" parts of the instructions that just tell you to "create a database" and then feed that information to the installation script. The instructions are vague because they don't know what tools you have available to create databases, they just know you need one.

Fortunately, both our control panels make this pretty easy.

Basic Database Creation Steps - Plesk

• 1. Log into your control panel
• 2. Click "Databases" under Services in your domain section.
• 3. Select "Add New Database" (If you have used Application Vault installations before, there may be some databases there already, just leave those alone).
• 4. Give the database a name, which you'll need to remember. Leave the other options as their default choices, click "OK".
• 5. Once the next screen is loaded, click "Add New Database User".
• 6. Enter a "Database user name". Enter and confirm a password for this user and click "OK" This information is also important, so make sure to jot it down.

That's it, you're done.

Basic Database Creation Steps - HSPc

• 1. Log into your control panel.
• 2. Click the "System" tab.
• 3. Under "Databases Management" click "Databases"
• 4. Click "Add Database"
• 5. Enter a name.
• 6. You'll be given an option to use an existing user or to create a new user for the database. Generally speaking, it's best to create a new user, so click the radio button beside "Create a new database user" then enter the requested information and click "Save."

Your database is ready to go.

The central things to remember in either case are the:

• 1. Database name.
• 2. Database user name.
• 3. Database password.

Generally speaking, this is all you will need to provide your web application's setup program (in terms of database information, at least) in order for its installation scripts to work. You've done the "easy" part and created an empty box for the application to configure. The script will go in and populate the database with all the tables it requires to run, basically the "heavy lifting" of the process, while you sit back and relax.

Oh, and in closing, apologies about the post title. The Clever Machine was broken so I just had to settle for the Straightforward Dispenser.

In keeping with the oft-disregarded subtitle of this blog, I thought it might be a refreshing change of pace to talk about hosting websites, or even "website hosting," which is, in no way shape or form, a cheap keyword gimmick. What I'll rattle on about today is how what you're hosting will have some bearing on the kind of account you need, and not just simple raw numbers about visitors and transfer. Those numbers are important, but even moreso when you consider what the individuals represented by those numbers are doing when they visit your site.

How Many and How Much They Do

Those numbers, however you want to qualify them (visitors, pageviews, even the ubiquitous 'hits') are, essentially, the baseline, and your site can act as a kind of multiplier. A "multiplier" in this case is something that increases the impact of those numbers; "multiplies" them by a certain value. The more complex a site, the higher the multiplier. It takes more of a web server's "energy" to host a site with forms, databases, forums, scripts, and media, than one lacking any or all those things.

For argument's sake, let's consider a simple, text HTML site, the essential "building block" of the World Wide Web, as a "1". One of the few math-related facts my Liberal Art's educated mind remembers is that numbers multiplied by "1" remain the same. So a site like that will scale well, no matter how many users attempt to access it. If the site is wildly popular, amassing thousands of simultaneous visitors an hour, the web server may not be taxed much at all. The bandwidth bill will remain low, as that text doesn't take up a lot of space as it is transmitted to and fro.

Even "weak" servers could handle serving a page like this to a large number of users without breaking the proverbial digital "sweat." Plain old black-and-white text is what a lot of the web looked like waaaAAAaaay back in the early 90's, when I (shamefully, I admit) was first introduced to the "Internet" via AOL.

It's the mid... "Noughts?" Wow, really need to come up with a better name for this decade.

Anyway, it's the mid-First-Decade-of-the-21st-Century, and we have a lot of new toys to play with on the web. First came images, but the flood gates opened to scripts, databases, server-side programming languages, and full-fledged media, streaming and otherwise. There's really no practical limit to the amount of these elements one can shoehorn onto a web page. All these elements, alone or in some combination, add weight to the page and increase your "multiplier."

Practically speaking, it means the guy running a busy web forum will need more powerful hardware to support the same amount of people as the guy running that text only-web page. There is some scaling involved, of course. If we're talking about 10 people in both cases, then the difference would be negligible. If we're talking about 1,000, or 10,000? Then the difference is acute, and far greater.

Putting Enough Horses Before the Cart

The introduction of shopping carts and similar database driven applications to the web greatly increased its functionality, but it also greatly increased the amount of horsepower required to handle sites employing that technology. Ecommerce hosting is a big culprit, as shopping carts are one of the more complex web apps out there. If your store is sluggish and not responding as quickly as you'd like, then it might be time to reconsider your choice of the smallest budget hosting plan you could find.

Amazon.com does not run off a shared hosting plan, for instance. Even if your ecommerce ambitions are not quite so lofty, you should be prepared to stake out a fully dedicated hosting solution when circumstances demand it. When is that? That's the hard question. It's not the same for everyone, or every website. Some people purposefully build out simple, "light" websites to help it scale as they grow. If you've got a big, media rich site surrounding your shopping cart or forum, then you'll be on the upgrade trail a lot sooner.

Consider the presentation on Google. Very clean, very light, and not a lot of obvious visual bells and whistles keep the site's presentation from becoming a massive hog of system resources. Now, obviously all the background action is a different story. Google's algorithm and applications require enormous power to run and keep all those web pages hitting your screen without any noticeable delay.

Google has different datacenters to better distribute that massive sever load. Sometimes these datacenters are used for testing or have yet to be updated with the latest algorithm changes, which is why you could get different results on the same search in a very short amount of time.

Consider this in terms of our theoretical ecommerce site. The shopping cart is already taxing on the server, it's the big "back end app" that runs the show, kind of like Google's algorithm. You can toss on a rich media presentation to your cart and add the extra weight, just be prepared to deal with the consequences in terms of how well your site will be able handle growth.

Growth Is Good, Just Be Ready to Deal With It

Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying always "go minimalist" if you have a big, app-driven site, be it a cart, forum, or anything else. I'm simply saying that making the choice to have intensive presentation entails a willingness to accept that choice has distinct ramifications in terms of how much power your site requires. It's all about the multiplier. Each element adds to the multiplier. Cart, media, scripts, and anything else over and above that simple text is another addition, large or small.

Listen to your users, test your site. If you think things have "slowed down" recently, see if all that marketing mojo you're working is paying off and your visitors are increasing. If that's the case, then think hard about the upgrade. Despite what a lot of "one-plan-wonder" hosting company's marketing departments will have you believe, a single shared hosting account (no matter what ridiculous amount of resources it provides) will not suffice for every conceivable kind of website.

Lot of blogs about Microsoft products recently. I mean I've written a lot of blogs about Microsoft products, not to say that are "a lot of blogs" about Microsoft. Well, I'm sure there are a lot of blogs about Microsoft, I suppose. There's even one from the people who are making Internet Explorer. What I find most amusing about that blog is comments on certain posts, deemed "sensitive issues", are simply never allowed. Granted, there's really not much constructive criticism to be found in an Greek chorus of "I told you so's" and "You suck's".

The IE Blog recently updated with a list of CSS fixes in IE7. The comments on the CSS fixes ran from a few obligatory pats on the back quite quickly to a standard assortment of "Took you long enough", "Great. What about...?", and "Why do keep ignoring...?" In a way, I'm sympathetic, as it's probably tough for those guys to feel love.

Yes, IE7 is not going to be fully standards compliant. (As I mentioned in my last blog, Firefox isn't either). It's a step in the right direction, but it's not there, and probably will never be. It's more likely, if it ever happens, you'll be looking at 8 or even 9 before that kind of "success" is achieved.

Windows Hosting- The Really Basic FAQ

Which brings us, in a round-about way, to one of the reasons I've been focused on MS products recently. We have our own MS product now, namely Windows Server 2003, and all that that implies.... (Hey, a movie quote from the last 7 years, I'm rapidly getting more "current"). Well, it implies we have Windows Hosting, and we do. What is Windows Hosting? That name sounds familiar for some reason... Do you need it? I will endeavor to answer a few of these questions and, with any luck, help you make this grave, weighty decision.

What is Windows Hosting?
That one is both easy and hard. The "easy" answer is that is it website hosting on a server run by Windows Server, using the IIS web server program. That answer is only "easy" if you have any clue what Windows Server and IIS are. If you do, then that answer is also fairly pointless, as it's pretty obvious. If you don't know what those things are, but are vaguely aware you're sitting in front of a computer with "Windows" installed on it (and odds are, you are), then think of it this way...

"Windows Server" is just another version of the operating system you're using now. You're probably using Windows XP (again, odds are in my favor here). Windows Server 2003 is another "flavor" of Windows that is purpose-built to be installed and run on machines called "servers". Servers are kind of like the machine you're using now, only they generally look a lot different on the outside. Inside, they have a lot of the same stuff, just stuff that is optimized for the express purpose of "serving" up websites.

Do I Need It?
Here's another "easy" answer: If you have to ask, probably not. This brings us to the most common misconception about Windows Hosting, namely that little fact that, again, you're probably reading this on a Windows machine. Windows machine, Windows hosting... A match made in heaven, right? Well, not necessarily. In fact, it's a match that does not need to be made at all, except under certain limited circumstances.

The majority of websites on the Net, and the one you're looking at now, with your very Windows machine, are not run on Windows servers. Yet your Windows machine and its Windows-based browser get along just fine. Until you read this, the thought may never even have crossed your mind, in fact. One of the reasons the Internet is so popular, and powerful, is that it is built using platform independent technology. This technology means that a website running on a "Linux" server can be seen without incident on a browser running on a Windows machine half a world away.

So... Why Would I Need It?
That's a very thoughtful question, congratulations. People who "need" Windows servers are those who wish to develop websites using a specific type of server technology, usually ASP.NET. ASP.NET is a kind of programming language that allows developers to create scripts that provide a wide variety of interactivity on a website. Most websites are just static HTML, but when you start looking at things like forums, polls, surveys, online banking, or anything else that requires interactivity between the end user and the website, you will need some kind of server scripting language to do the "work".

ASP.NET is one such language, provided by Microsoft, that will only function on a machine running Windows Server. If you're suddenly worried about that "platform independency" I touted earlier, fear not. Though ASP.NET requires a Windows server to run, it, like any other server scripting language, outputs the same HTML that all browsers, no matter their operating system, can view. That is the key to "server side" scripting- all the work is done on the server, and what is transmitted is the same HTML that all browsers know and love.

I Don't Need ASP.NET or any of This "Server Side Scripting" of which You Speak, Can I Still Use Windows Hosting?
Wow, that one was a bit longer than the other ones, but no less focused and intuitive. The answer is "yes". Windows servers will function just as well as any other server when providing basic HTML websites with no fancy "bells" and/or "whistles." They can display Flash, JavaScript, and many other common platform-independent technologies. They can even run PHP, a common open-source alternative to ASP.NET. If you don't think you'll need ASP.NET now, but perhaps later, then getting started with Windows Hosting early won't have any adverse effect on your website.

Is ASP.NET Better Than PHP or Any of those "Other" Languages?
Sorry, not going to drag me into this debate. I'm sure, like any debate fostered by the Internet, there are people on both sides who will make staggering claims about the efficacy of their side, whilst decrying the heretics on the other side of some non-existent "line." The "line" here is the bottom one: ASP.NET is one way of doing things, PHP is another. Both are two paths to a similar solution, and what one chooses is based more on personal preference than anything else. If you've learned PHP, you're probably going to use it, likewise if you've learned ASP.NET. Go with what you know, and you'll be fine.

Is Unlimited Database cool?
Yes, yes it is.

Well, hopefully that clears up a few questions you might have about the whole Windows Hosting "thing." The core points to take away here are that you don't need Windows Hosting just because you have a Windows machine. You do need Windows Hosting if you're going to develop using ASP.NET. And, finally, Windows won't be any better or worse for your plain old HTML site, so don't sweat the choice unless you think you'll need ASP.NET in the future. In fact, since PHP runs on Windows as well, you could start with Windows Hosting and keep your options open, right from the beginning.

Perhaps you've noticed the free domain offer on the website. I would certainly hope so, since it was, quite by design, made entirely difficult to ignore. It's the real deal, an actual domain name that you own. We're not registering it in our name or anything. Granted, you have to stick out the entire term of your hosting account, but that's sorta the point, isn't it? You host with us for a year or two, and you get a free domain, very simple. Then again, I'm not a lawyer, I can just photoshop them.

Speaking of which, Adobe's lawyers just reminded me they "discourage" the use of "Photoshop" as a verb, adverb, participle, and past-pluperfect subjunctive preposition.

I have already blogged a bit about domains, a "long time" ago. It was the first of the more "conversational" blog entries, after a few attempts at a more classic "essay" form in the beginning. I realized writing an essay every two weeks was a lot like being in college again, even if I was getting paid for it. Having double majored in two very writing intensive subjects, I really didn't care to think in terms of research vs. deadlines once more. Besides, it's a lot easier to just crack wise about these geeks instead of actually doing research on topical subjects.

Those Domains...

Anyway, you can get a free domain now with 1 and 2 year signups on hosting plans. That statement is familiar to me because I've recently finished writing it in a few different places on our website. The question that now grips us...? What should this domain name be... Choice in domain name is important, as I've mentioned before. Primarily its one of those "you're stuck with it" situations. Yes, you can change your domain name, but if you have any stake in search engine optimization (SEO), you're in for a rough ride. Search engines like a lot of change in terms of content, but changing a domain name is one they might still choke on.

If you don't care about SEO, then you really only need to consider some basic factors that are applicable to any domain. Ideally you need something that isn't overly long, directly identifies yourself, your company, or what you do, and is easy to remember. Unfortunately, this might not be as easy as it was back in, say, 1994. There are a lot more domains registered today, and the likelihood your first choice is available is pretty slim. If it is, you probably had a bad first choice anyway.

Depending on your luck, you might find some other company with same name or product has your domain, or you might just find somebody squatting on it. "Squatting" is easily identified by finding the page that says "thisdomain.com is for sale" when you type it in. Whether that constitutes good luck or bad luck is in the eye of the beholder, and of course, in the virtual price tag dangling from that piece of virtual real estate.

You can try other TLDs (Top Level Domains). In terms of recognition and acceptance into the "everyday lexicon", .com is the way to go, but if you have to settle for .net, so be it. It starts getting a little more tricky the further afield you wonder. Off the top of my head I can't name a single .info domain I remember. Still, there's probably a lot more domains left in .info, or .ca, or .us, than in .com or .net. In terms of search engines, there doesn't appear to be any conclusive evidence that the lack of a .com will hurt your rankings.

Then again, the term "conclusive evidence" and "search engine algorithm" are rarely uttered in the same breath.

Those of you looking for SEO in your domain name need to consider just what keywords you'll be targeting. Having a target keyword in your domain isn't going to immediately shoot you to the top of the rankings, unless it happens to be a really, really uncompetitive term. It's not going to hurt you, either. Note I said "a" keyword. I didn't say, "every single keyword you want separated by hyphens." Domains like "keyword01-keyword02-keyword03-keyphrase04-keyphrase05.com" are going to start sending up red flags.

Maybe your ideal domain has a hyphen in it. Not to worry. One, possibly two, aren't going to kill you. Everyone might have a slightly different opinion on how many are actually "safe", but erring on the side of caution is always a good idea. It's just those ten word long, hyphenated monstrosities that start giving search engine spiders reason to stop and think, "Hey, this might just be spammy..."

There's always something to be said for a good compromise. Having part of a targeted keyphrase in your domain name can be helpful. More likely than not, your business name may, in fact, include some keywords for which you'd be optimizing. Spacely Space Sprockets is probably going to try to clench that coveted "sprockets" SREPs, and spacelysprockets.com will probably not hurt that effort.

Our own success with some keywords has been helped along by our domain name. It is still just one factor among many, though. As I pointed out before, age is part of it as well. Don't labor under the impression that just nailing down that perfect keyworded domain name is going to solve all your SEO worries.

So there's some info on getting that right domain. Even if you don't have a "right" domain, get one anyway, because sooner or later they'll all be gone, even the really stupid ones. Really, you don't want to have to tell all your friends to find you at "ahahg325ve532and1155dg1vwa4ds.com"

That's just... complicated.