Category Archives: Reseller Hosting

Will Webmail Be The Future Of Email Storage?

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Will Webmail Be The Future Of Email Storage?

Will Webmail Be The Future Of Email Storage?

With email being a primary mode of formal and official communication around the world, an important question that should be asked is that how and where will users store their data. As data storage evolved and modes of storage cross conventional limitations, innovations in Information technology has taken thing to the next level. People have stopped using their desktops for storing their email and prefer to have webmail storage which allows them to access their mail from any location at any time without dependence on any hardware. This article discusses the factors which may influence a users decision in using webmail for storing email.

Mobile Devices

Mobile devices have a lesser capacity to store as compared to our desktops and laptops. Mobile devices are used more for storing entertainment material like movies, games and music rather than emails and office work. Hence, people using mobile devices are more likely to keep their emails on their mail server rather than downloading them

Cheap Disk Space

As hardware prices reduce, so does the price of disk space. Both physical hard disk drives and even virtual storage space costs lesser and lesser day by day. Due to economies of scale, online storage space works out far cheaper (per GB) as compared to a hard disk. This encourages email users to outsource their email storage to an online solution rather than to have the headache of managing and storing the emails on their local computer.

Cloud Storage

A major reason why people will not download mails on their phones or computers is because of lack of accessibility. We all want a single location for managing our mail and documents. Earlier people would use multiple devices to download their mail and were virtually locked in to that device to manage their emailing. This meant that any hardware failure would lead to work disruption. Similarly backups were also tougher to make on a specific device. Your entire online life depended on that one device. If you bought a new device or upgraded it, you would need to carefully migrate your data. Today’s world is platform independent. You are not locked in to one type of device or one specific device. With web mail and online storage you can access your mails from any device. Your mail client only becomes a viewing tool and not a storage tool. It doesnt matter how you access your mail when it is online. You can use a laptop, desktop, mobile phone or even a browser enabled device to see your mails.

Profile Personalization

Another important feature after storage is singularity of your customization and profile. Many of us have our email signature stored with our email clients. If we use our mobile phone, we have to reset our email signature. If we use a separate webmail client, we need to reconfigure our entire signature and email preferences all over again. With webmail, any device you are on will have the same settings as other devices which access your mail. You don’t need to bother about the consistency of your email preferences or personal customization to your profile or email interface as it is always consistent.

Why Are Website Templates Preferred Over Custom Web Design?

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Why Are Website Templates Preferred Over Custom Web Design?

Why Are Website Templates Preferred Over Custom Web Design?

Template based website systems are overtaking the requirement for a custom made personalized website. Even web designers are constantly finding ways in which to package their products and manufacture them in bulk. But what are the reasons for people buying template based websites and avoiding custom built websites? This articles aims to highlight the major factors which influence the purchase of a template based website design over a customized one.

Turn Around Time

The crux of setting up a new website is having it up and running quickly. The main objective is to put the website out and keep improving it. Most design firms take ages to put out the first version of a website. They have lengthy procedures and sometimes have long and cumbersome processes to be followed before any work can be made live. This often leads to delays and long timelines, which cause disinterest in the client and also demotivate the design team. This is remedied by ready made template based options which allow a certain level of customization to personalize the template for the clients business.

Seeing Is Believing

Just like ready made clothes, templates allow you to see a live working of the website and allow you to preview and simulate the website’s functioning before you actually purchase it. This means that you can see a fully functional sample website with dummy text and images and actually visualize how it would suit your website design. While tailor-made clothes will definitely fit you better, there is always a time-lag and also a risk of the tailor getting it wrong.

Cheaper

A ready made website will definitely work out cheaper than a custom made one, especially due to its re-usability and lack of personal touch. This maybe very crucial for a business which is newly launched and wants to atleast have a placeholder website to show to customers. This is also a crucial factor in determining the long term goal of the website and how you would like to keep evolving your online strategy.

Independence

A very major factor in deciding your design option is whom you are dealing with. Many designers consider themselves to be at par with Picasso and Michelangelo. This means that you may have a tough time in getting them to do things in a time-bound or disciplined way. Almost all design firms that we have dealt with have overshot their promised timeline and taken more than double the time to do the work correctly. While a bit of creativity should be left to the discretion of the design studio, it should also be clearly agreed that time is of essence and that a delay in work can be costly. Some businesses have taken years on end just to get the first glimpse of their website live. By that time their funds were drained and they had lost a considerable amount of revenue from online sources. On the other hand, templates allow you to go to any designer or coder to alter the design. Some websites even offer their own customization service. The bottom line being that your design source is with you and you are not locked into the services of a particular firm of developers.

Customization

Although a template can hardly be tweaked to suit your corporate branding, you can make a lot of changes to make it look more personalized. Just like you can get a ready-made shirt altered to suit your size, you can get a ready website also tweaked and twisted to give it a better look. It may look clumsy and a bit out of place, it may even look very cliche and standard, but for the price it is definitely a good deal.

Will You Lose Your Domain Name If Your Vendor Shuts Down?

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Will You Lose Your Domain Name If Your Vendor Shuts Down?

Will You Lose Your Domain Name If Your Vendor Shuts Down?

Many businesses buy domains from various sources. Some buy them from their Web Designers as a package with their designing fees, some people buy from their hosting vendors, some people buy it themselves online. There are also those who buy it from their hardware vendor or maybe even a yellow pages directory service. But what happens if any of these resellers or companies shut down? Who will process your domain renewal? Will you lose your domain if the company shuts down or becomes unresponsive? This article attempts to explain how you can avoid losing your domain when your vendor or domain reseller shuts down.

Keep your WHOIS information uptodate

The most important factor in determining a domain’s ownership is the WHOIS information stored with the Registrar of the Domain Name. We often buy domain’s from middle-men or resellers of the Domain Registrar. While resellers can give you an exceptionally good price, they may not give you control of your domain name. This means that you are at their mercy for everything to do with your domain. One thing you must ensure, whomever you are buying the name from, that the domain must be registered on the name of the true owner or the person authorized by the true owner. This authorized person could include an officer or agent of a company, the CEO or even an IT manager. But this should definitely not be the web designer, a middle-man or even an employee of the vendor. This will ensure that when you want to control your domain name or transfer it out at anytime, if you send a mail from your registered email address and have control of it, the registrar will help you take control of your domain name. If you do not have control of your domain name and your vendor shuts down, you will have quite a tough time in proving that you are the owner of the domain name.

Keep the domain control in your hands

As soon as your domain is registered, or shortly after that, you should insist on having the Domain Name Control Panel details. This should include the login name, password and URL from where you can login. As soon as you receive these details, you should try them out and check to see if your domain can be managed with those login details. You should also change your password for that control panel and only share the details with those you trust. The domain control panel access need not be given to the web designer or hosting company, unless you would like them to manage the account. If they would like to make changes to the DNS entries or pointers of your domain name, they can always guide you on how to do it. You can also take the help of your domain name vendor to guide you on how to make the changes.

Domain Registrar to the rescue

If you do end up clueless about your vendor, or if your vendor becomes unresponsive or has shut shop, there is still hope. You can always contact a higher authority i.e. the Domain Registrar. The Domain Registrar is given a license by ICANN (internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to sell domain names. These Registrars in turn appoint resellers or vendors, from whom you may have bought the names in retail. In the rare case of a Registrar going out of business or shutting shop, all her domains are automatically shifted to a new registrar and all the domain owners are informed about it. This means that your domain will always be under a Registrar no matter what. The Registrar is bound to follow some rules and standards and will cooperate with you if you can show that you are the real domain owner. Usually, if you want to make changes to the domain name WHOIS records, but have lost access to the control panel, you can always fax your identity proof to the registrar and get access to the domain control after a few formalities. If the Domain Registrar becomes difficult or unresponsive, you can escalate the matter in the form of a complaint to ICANN. This way, you know for a fact that your domain name will never be lost, if you take timely action.

 

When Should I Shift From Shared Hosting To A VPS?

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When Should I Shift From Shared Hosting To A VPS?

With storage and data processing moving online, web hosting is becoming more advanced by the day. but the overwhelming set of options leaves the end user spoilt for choice and also confused at the variety of options. A frequently asked question that we often hear is when should a customer shift from Shared Hosting to a VIrtual Private Server or VPS.

Root Access

A major concern for people on shared hosting is that they want to have all the control. They want to know what’s going on with the box that is hosting their website, what is the system status, what version of each software there is, what software should be there, who has access to the box, what hardware should be attached to it and so on. Some software or web applications genuinely require you to have root access to install certain add-ons or to configure some server-wide settings. These settings are such that they would not be permitted on a Shared Host due to its adverse impact on other websites sharing the same server and being affected by the configuration change. Shared Hosts need to keep a check and balance of all the software that will affect their system’s, because they are answerable to all their customers.

Isolation and Testing

Another important reason for switching to a VPS is to have your entire application, file system and maybe even network isolated from others. This maybe due to the sensitive nature of the application or the information stored on the server or may simply be to conduct some tests or experiments. Penetration testing on websites is done by creating a VPS with a mirrored version of the website, so that the actual website is not affected. Even firewalls and protection systems need to be tested in isolation. Testing the Operating System Kernel or making a change in the core files of an OS can be quite risky. No host will allow you to play around with their live servers.

Customized Requirements

When the software developer needs a specific set of requirements, like a specific Operating System or a specific Database Management System, then the conventional shared hosting may just not be the right option. Many a time the right combinations are also not available for developers. A specific database (DBMS) variant may not be available with any hosting company because it isn’t popular. Similarly no host will support a customized Linux version. This means that you will have to install and manage it yourself. If you don’t need to control the hardware of the box, then it makes no sense going in for a Dedicated Server - a VPS would be the ideal choice.

Selling a Service

If you are selling a hosted service, like a web application or an online software or an ecommerce platform, it’s best for you to take a VPS, if not a Dedicated Server itself. The VPS helps you to have full control and flexibility in managing the system and monitoring all aspects of your IT infrastructure. Those selling a “Software as a Service” are sure to need either a VPS or a Dedicated Server. Infact they should not use Shared Hosting which can be affected by various external factors as well as by other users on the same system. VPS systems can be easily migrated to a Dedicated Server and can be put into a production environment easily.

The decisive factor in choosing a VPS over a Dedicated Server is usually the price. A VPS is not a physical machine and hence shares the physical resources with other VPS systems. Whereas a Dedicated Server gives you ultimate control of even the hardware that is running your systems.

The Advantages Of Buying Domain Names From A Reseller

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All those of us who have a website, have gone through the process of booking the domain name and hosting space. While some of us got the name and space as a bundle, the more adventurous of us lot bought the name and space from separate providers. Many of us didn’t even know what the vendor options are when purchasing a domain name. Domain names can be bought directly from an ICANN authorized registrar or from a reseller of an authorized registrar. The reseller maybe your hosting company or hardware vendor or software vendor or just about anyone. This article lists out a couple of points why it maybe more beneficial to buy your domain names from a trusted reseller rather than buying it directly from the Registrar.

Pricing

Price is a paramount factor in determining from where you should buy the domain name. Usually Registrars offer the domain name for sale at very high prices compared to Resellers, as they would like to discourage people from buying from them due to the added support burden. Resellers commit a certain number of domain sales to the Registrar and hence can get the domain names at a cheaper rate, which they may pass on to the clients. Some Registrars charge between $29-$40 for a .com domain per year, while their own Resellers offer the domain name for $9-$15 per year. This could mean a huge saving for businesses with a large number of domain names, or businesses which have several group companies.

Support and DNS Management

Another important feature which only Domain Resellers can offer is personalized support. This means that if you have an issue with your domain name configuration or billing, you can reach out to your local reseller and get a quick resolution without having to go through a long drawn process. Some resellers may also offer phone based support and may provide remote assistance for configuration as well. Although there will rarely be any changes required to a domain name, when switching a hosting provider or setting up a new domain account you may need some configuration assistance. DNS changes and Name Server configuration can be considered critical support, because your entire website and related services depend on it. This means that if you misconfigure your domain name, your website may become inaccessible or may not be reachable from some parts of the world. This can be quite damaging if your business depends on online sales. This is one area where a Resellers support maybe crucial.

Freebies and Premium Features

Some Resellers provide Freebies and Premium Features with a domain name, which others may not be able to provide. They may offer Free WHOIS ID Protection or even a free hosting account. Others offer an email address or even a free one page website to advertise your business before you start planning for a real website. Bigger Domain Name Providers cannot afford to give these freebies, because their business model does not permit them to micro-manage their clients accounts. They are more into bulk selling and do not cater to the retail market per se.

Easy Integration

The Advantages Of Buying Domain Names From A Reseller

Another important feature which a reseller may offer, is easy integration. Domain Names are never used in isolation and always have a service or system attached to them. These services could be anything, ranging from website hosting to email addresses or even a vendor-hosted eCommerce portal. Many software and hardware vendors offer domain names as a bundle with their other services, so that the customer is not hassled in configuring the domain name with those services. The vendor himself integrates the domain or sets up a system to easily integrate the domain name with the service in a single click. An apt example would be a hosting company which bundles a domain name and automatically configures the domain name with the hosting account. This eases the burden from the client’s shoulder, of cross-linking the 2 services.

Readers must also note that buying a domain name from an unreliable or unscrupulous Reseller can also cause problems and may also lead to bad service. However, these cases are rare and have many legal remedies. Apart from that, an important thing to remember is to have full control of your domain name at all times.

Why Is A Self-Hosted eCommerce Website A Better Bet?

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Why Is A Self-Hosted eCommerce Website A Better Bet?

eCommerce Platforms are available by the dozen for all types of businesses. But identifying which one is ideal for your business can be quite a challenging task. The foremost question that you would need to brainstorm over is: Should I use an outsourced service or should I self-host my eCommerce Website? Outsourced eCommerce portals offer “Software as a service” to businesses, which basically means that the software will reside on their systems and you will be allowed to use their service or be hosted on their systems. This article takes a look at why having your own hosting space and putting your eCommerce site on it is a better option than outsourcing the eCommerce portal hosting to the vendor.

Security and Confidentiality

The most important factor which you need to keep in mind is that when outsourcing the hosting of your portal, all your data and your business information is going to be stored on an external server. This could be a security concern for your clients and even vendors, if you are dealing with sensitive personal information or information which contains business or trade secrets. Even banking information and financial transactions done through your portal can be leaked or be compromised. Some clients may not even transact through your portal if you are not in control of your own hosting account, as that may lead to multiple security concerns which they may not want to risk. It becomes difficult to audit the security level and the safety measures taken by third party providers, and you have to take their word for it. In the event of a security breach, obtaining logs and other related information may also be quite difficult to obtain. Upgrading of the underlying software, templates, themes and plugins is also done haphazardly and in an arbitrary manner, without due regard to the business of the client. This can lead to your customers being irritated or even repelled from accessing your website.

Lock In

Vendor hosted eCommerce platforms usually have a lock in period which can extend from 1 year to 3 years or in some cases even upto 5 years. The payment for this lock-in period is taken in advance and is not refundable. Some vendors also prevent data in the eCommerce platform from being exported or downloaded in any format during this lock in period. This can be quite a set back for a small or medium business, especially if they realize mid-way through the contract that they tools they are being offered are either under developed or too overwhelming. As mentioned earlier, your vendor has complete control of your data and can turn off your services or terminate your account in a single click. You are basically at the mercy of the service provider. Even payment gateways, shipping API’s and other 3rd party vendor services will be limited to what the vendor has the ability to integrate with. For example, if they don’t have the Fed Ex Plugin, you will not be able to use Fed Ex to automatically calculate shipping and delivery charges. In the same way, you may be able to use only certain payment gateway services, with which the vendor has a tie up with or from which he maybe getting a commission on the sales.

Customization

A vendor-hosted portal does not have the flexibility and customization capabilities of a self-hosted portal. This means that you are locked into the themes or layouts that your vendor has provided. Although your vendor may have a variety of layouts, you would still be limited to something ready-made which has not been customized for your own business. While this can be trivial for a small business, it can be quite a limiting factor for a larger business which is constantly growing. Upgrades of themes and templates are also usually controlled by the service provider and cannot be stopped or customized. If you avoid or prevent them from happening completely, you risk running a vulnerable software or broken portal.

Price and Cost

Although most self-hosted eCommerce platforms are Open Source and freely available, they are mostly a basic or standard edition, which do not have Enterprise features for a large business. However, the hidden costs or additional costs that you may have to bear when buying a vendor hosted portal as a service, will add up to way more than what you would have ended up paying had you done everything in-house.

Using Social Media To Make Official Communication Informal

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Using Social Media To Make Official Communication Informal

Social Media is a buzz word that everyone wants the opportunity of being a part. But many people are very skeptical on the impression it may have on a serious customer about the positioning and image of a business. Social Media Websites are often seen as informal and unofficial hangouts for people and businesses alike. In the recent past more businesses are seeing social media as a tool to reach out to their target market where they are most likely to be noticed. This article highlights some ways in which businesses use social media in an official capacity, yet maintaining a friendly and informal approach.

Customer Support

We know many businesses who use Twitter and Facebook to provide customers with constant updates about their service. A world famous DNS and Proxy service uses Twitter to Report Service Outages across their global data centers. The company posts frequent tweets about maintenance and migration activities and also posts brief updates on server faults and restoration. Some Hardware and Laptop manufacturers now offer technical support on Social Media websites. They handle customer grievances and also provide contact details of their nearest service centers through tweets or posts. Many banks and financial institutions constantly provide safety tips and security reminders to their customers. While these reminders can be annoying for some, the constant nagging may really help people to take security of their account seriously. Although this type of support maybe limited only to forwarding the complaint to the concerned technical team, it offers the customer a quick and easy way to get support by short circuiting a lengthy support process. This can be pleasing for the customer, but can be quite a task for the company to manage.

New Product Launches

A famous Automobile Manufacturer has started posting inside updates and a sneak preview of their latest designer cars. In past years they used to “leak” this information only to a few car magazines which demanded a high price which only a few could afford. Running a teaser campaign for a new product can be done best on social networks, especially due to their brevity and instant nature. You can slowly release bit by bit of the campaign and let it unfold instantly. The beauty of it is that you will be able to get instant feedback about the response and how well it has been received so that you can plan your next campaign or next revelation accordingly. This can also be detrimental to your image if you run a lousy campaign or do a shabby job. You will immediately know whether your campaign was a success or a failure. This is something only possible with social media. In the past many companies have successfully created a pre-launch hype on social media to attract the attention of potential customers.

Informal Banter

Many companies indulge in small talk and entertain inquisitive visitors to their pages or feeds to keep their page active and buzzing. While a bit of such informal talk is fine, when businesses go on a tangent on Social Media, it can get quite intolerable for the people following or subscribing to their updates. Sharing a joke or running a riddle campaign can be quite interesting and may generate a lot of publicity for your business if done well.

Educative Material

Pushing out educative material or academically interesting content can give your business a well needed boost. It not only creates more content for search engines to index, but it also shows your customers and prospective clients how much of relevant knowledge you have about your business. Almost all large corporations either have a YouTube Channel, or Blog or Facebook Page or Twitter Feed constantly buzzing with useful information which is aimed at catching the eye of a potential customer.