Hosting

[Webzcas]

In the light of what has happened recently, I thought it would be interesting to find out the hosting requirements of webmasters. Do you use shared hosting services or hire a dedicated server?

Do you opt for the cheapest option available or do you have to have the best dedicated hosting package money can buy?

What are the features such as managed hosting do you look for and require before making your decision?

As for myself I have been using a dedicated server/s for the last five years, from just a few months before I became an affiliate full time.

My main requirements are response time of server, response time of technical support, ability to upgrade services within a short time frame and future scaleability.

I also hire my server with who I do, due to their network capacity and their physical location - important for google.

The overall cost is certainly a lot dearer than other dedicated hosting options, but the price is worth every penny imo.

[Shyguy]

Am having trouble getting on your forum today - hope everything is ok?

[Webzcas]

Am having trouble getting on your forum today - hope everything is ok?

We are having a firewall installed. Currently it is doing it's job and blocking everyone and everything

Hopefully will be back up shortly, once the firewall has been configured. I did have a software firewall lfd - which is free and very effective. Although it became self aware and started blocking me - It was like Skynet in Terminator 2 LOL

Hence I have opted for a more practical but more expensive option of having a dedicated hardware firewall installed.

[Shyguy]

Do you mean a firewall installed on your host to protect the website? Can you provide a ball park figure on the cost of that!

[Webzcas]

A firewall that sits in front of your dedicated server, whereby all traffic to your sites hosted on your server has to pass through the firewall before reaching your server.

If you use shared hosting, you have to rely on the protection if any provided by your hosting company. As a shared server can host hundreds if not thousands of websites for clients, then the protection offered is minimal. Meaning ftp ports are accessible to all, same for ssh and a multitude of other ports.

If you hire a dedicated server from a webhost, only you decide which sites to host on it. This gives you greater options. You can install software firewalls such as cfs, lfd and ossec, which are free and to an extent do a great job. You can also use iptables to restrict access to parts of the server you want to protect - such as ssh access.

A hardware firewall which is what I have gone for and implemented yesterday is a standalone box that sits in front of my server, this option is not cheap, but is cleaner and just as effective if not more than one of the software options I mentioned above.

Depending on your hosting company and the firewall you have implemented, the cost could range from as little as £40 - £50 a month to several hundreds of pounds a month.

If you are looking at hosting solutions I can recommend a few to you, who are top notch. But like anything you get what you pay for.