Category Archives: SSL Certificate

When Do We Need MySQL Databases With Our Web Hosting?

Whenever you buy web hosting, your hosting provider is sure to include an option called “Databases” in his price quotation or package details. But not many of us know what are databases and why we need them when setting up a website. This article aims to explain a couple of reasons why we use databases and when we need them for our website.

The database systems we usually get with our web hosting accounts are all relational database systems or RDBMS. If we take a Windows hosting server we usually get Microsoft SQL aka MSSQL and if we take a Unix based system we usually get MySQL. Both these systems put your website data into tabular layouts for fast and easy retrieval.

Databases are a collection of rows and columns, where each row or column is related to the others in some way. Due to this relation, information from this database can be retrieved quickly and efficiently as compared to if the data was stored in any other unstructured format. You can consider a database as a collection of multiple spreadsheets which are all related to each other in some way or the other.

Security

A major advantage of having your data stored in a database is the ability to protect the database from unauthorized access, or the ability to protect a database record from being tampered with. A simple example would be the storage of login credentials. In a simple way, login credentials can be stored in a simple text file and be read by your script which does the authentication. However, your file will always save the password stored in plan text, making it vulnerable to anyone who has access to it. Databases have the ability to encrypt the entries using a hashing algorithm to obscure them. Further, to read or write to the database, you need to specify login details, something which is not easily possible with an ordinary text file or spreadsheet.

Efficiency

Due to the manner in which data is stored in the database, retrieval and storage is most efficient. Unlike a spreadsheet, where anything and everything can be stored in any cell, SQL restricts the type of information stored in each row or column based on certain conditions. This validation is inherent in the properties of SQL and is an added advantage for a programmer or developer. Due to the various inbuilt mechanisms that are present in RDBMS systems, they are the most preferred method of storage and retrieval of data.

An article on the DatabaseJournal Blog explains this in a lucid way:

“…The problem with text files is during a read, if the text file is large, it can take quite a bite of time to open and scan the contents of the file looking for what we want. Also, if we wanted to see all the sales to a specific customer, the entire text file would have to be read, and every line occurrence of the customer name would need to be saved in some temporary place until we had them all. If we saved to a spreadsheet instead of a text file, we would have a Sort feature built in. So we may be able to find all the sales to a specific customer quicker, but again, if the file was large, opening the spreadsheet could take a great deal of time.”

Administrative Control

Database systems also have various control mechanisms which allow easy administration of the database and tables within it. The most important part is user management. Each user can be given specific rights to the database, thereby allowing limitation in access so as to secure the data from being tampered, modified or altered. Database Administrator’s can tweak many settings of the database thereby restricting the flow of data, the connection speeds, maximum number of connections to the server and even adjust what hardware resources should be allocated for performing a task.

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.

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.

Common Myths About SSL Certificates And Their Security

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Common Myths About SSL Certificates And Their Security - HostingXtreme

SSL Certificates are becoming a popular trend for popular websites and blogs. Although there is more ignorance and hype being circulated about the whole web encryption system, webmasters and visitors feel psychologically more secure when they have an HTTPS URL. You may call it the placebo effect or overzealous security, but all in all, SSL does no harm even if it is not required. Encrypting URLs and internet traffic goes a long way in making the internet feel safer and deter the bad guys. This article explains some common myths about the magic or misconceptions attached to having a secure HTTPS URL.

SSL Certificates are expensive

SSL Certificates are available in different varieties for different prices. There is a type which is sure to fit each type of person and each organizations requirement. After Facebook made it compulsory to use an https:// URL to setup Facebook Apps, SSL certificate sales got a boost. A basic SSL Certificate with Domain validation costs a couple of dollars a year. An extended validation one will cost a few hundred dollars a year. This cost excludes the cost of a Dedicated IP Address and the hosting space of course. The Dedicated IP Address can cost anywhere between $20 to $100 per year. While the cost of an SSL Certificate directly may not be expensive, you must factor in overheads like Bandwidth, CPU / Memory Resources and Web Server limitations to

SSL Certificates will prevent hacking

SSL Certificates will not prevent or deter a hacker from exploiting weak code or vulnerable software on your website. SSL Certificates simply act as a secure pipe or secure tunnel through which data flows, preventing any middle-man to intercept the traffic and identify what is being sent. SSL does not keep a check on both the ends of the pipe or tunnel and does not cover protection of a browser at the client end or database at the server end. Hence, if your passwords are stored in an un-encrypted manner in your MySQL database, and for some reason your database is compromised, then having SSL will have no effect in protecting your database information.

SSL will not have any effect on SEO

You must note that SSL may make the website marginally slower especially when loading a page for the first time. This may exponentially be a problem and may require the tweaking of settings on your web server. However, Google recently announced that it will give preference to URLs starting with HTTPS, in its search results, in an endeavor to make the internet a safer and secure place and encourage online merchants to secure the flow of data and sensitive information. If you consider giving both these factors equal weightage, then they both cancel out each other, leaving the impact on Search Engine Rankings (either positive or negative) to be negligible.

You need a separate IP Address for every https subdomain

SSL Certificates are of many types and with many different features to suit your budget. Usually an SSL Certificate will cover only 1 fixed URL i.e. https://your_domain.com. The normal SSL Certificates will not even cover https://www.your_domain.com . To encrypt a sub domain or even a URL with www. you will need to take an additional certificate and register that URL with the Certificate issuing company (Certifying Authority). The problem arises when you have multiple sub-domains and want to encrypt the traffic on all of them. Well, in that case you will need to take a WildCard Certificate. The Wildcard certificate, as the name suggests, will encrypt all traffic for the primary domain and also traffic on every sub-domain of that primary domain i.e. *.your_domain.com. It is called a WildCard certificate, because it represents the wildcard character * which indicates anything and everything.

SSL Certificates are difficult to manage or migrate

SSL Certificates may be a tad bit confusing to install at first, but most web hosting control panels have a GUI interface to allow you to generate and import new public and private keys with ease. Change of your web hosting server or change of your dedicated IP Address invalidates your certificate. You can always request a re-issue of the certificate by visiting the Certifying Authority’s website and completing their online form. Most providers instantly issue a fresh certificate which you can put in to your new server and resume business as normal.

Do You Need An SSL Certificate For Your WordPress Website?

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Do You Need An SSL Certificate For Your WordPress Website?

SSL Certificates have been in vogue in the recent past, partially due to the high level of education on website security and PCI Compliance and also due to the fact that many people are ignorant about what it is and just want to go with the flow. Even webmasters who own a simple blog want to sport the https:// in their URL without any other reason. However, having an SSL certificate even if you don’t need it, doesn’t do any harm to your website. This article explains the hype about the SSL Certificate and whether you need one for your WordPress website. We will also take a look at how the SSL Certificate can be helpful in building your online reputation.

The Hype About SSL Certificates

in May 2014, we had a couple of clients asking us whether we provide SSL Certificates and how we could implement it on their websites. You also need to take a dedicated IP Address for your SSL Certificate, so that your website can be uniquely identified on the internet. This can be a bit expensive, especially if you don’t need it. When we visited the client’s website, we noticed that they were running nothing more than static HTML pages on their website. They had an order form page, for which they specifically wanted the SSL Certificate. We did explain to them that the SSL Certificate will encrypt data being sent from the users browser to our server, so that it cannot be intercepted in between. However, since there was no critical information like credit card numbers or passwords being transmitted, having an SSL Certificate would not achieve much. The cost of the SSL Certificate and Dedicated IP Address would cost much more than the average amount of payment orders that they were receiving from the form.

Where an SSL certificate is really required

An SSL Certificate is highly recommended when you are carrying on financial transactions and storing personal / sensitive information which if leaked or intercepted could cause financial loss or personal injury. The SSL Certificate is just a Proof of Identification which groups the domain name with the server name or hostname. It allows cross-verification and lets your computer know that you have reached the correct server, which has been verified by a certifying authority.

Does your WordPress website or blog need one?

Generally, a personal blog or website does not benefit significantly by having an SSL Certificate. It does not prevent hack attempts or brute force attempts on your web server. An SSL Certificate cannot shield a weak password or bad coding. It will not prevent a vulnerability in the WordPress system from being exploited, neither will it protect an obsolete software from security bugs.

Along with an SSL Certificate you need to take a dedicated IP Address, and may also need to take professional help to install the certificate. If you are doing it just for fun or to show off, it’s just not worth it.

With a recent announcement by Google, that having an SSL Certificate does give you preference in the Search Engine Rankings, many people are rushing to buy them. However, you may want to weigh the costs and benefits before you do it. Although there no harm in having an https website, it may be expensive to maintain.

Why are SSL Certificates becoming more popular?

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If you are planning on launching your online business or have an online business already in place, there is the need to ensure that your online website or business is safe and also gains maximum respect from all clients. Well, there are so many reasons why SSL certificates are becoming very popular and one of them has to do with the fact that, they make an online business look very professional and gives clients the impression that, the online business is very safe to do business with or to transact business on. For many years, businesses that claim to be professionals have fell because; other businesses considered safety to be a very important part of being in the online business world.

With so many bad things happening today online, it is only normal that various customers have the aim of working with businesses who can assure their safety even as they offer them with quality. Benefiting from the growth of technology, your business website needs to be very safe and look as well as feel presentable. This is the only way you can attract as many customers as needed and maintain or keep existing customers.

When your website has an SSL certificate, the person who is viewing your website is able to have the assurance and also know that, your website is very safe. Today, there are so many SSL certificates available or present on many web pages. It is true you might not have considered it to be important. However; whenever a client sees an SSL certificate on your website, you should know that he or she will want to do business with you. Apart from having the SSL certificate on the website, there are other signs that make it very clear to customers who know what is new in the world of technology to feel safe with your website. When the padlock figure or symbol or the http prefix with your website name has an “s” in the form of “https”, you can always be assured that your SSL certification is authentic.

Being a business (online), there is no way you should take SSL certification for granted. This is because; many websites are been created to educate people on what SSL certificates stand for and why it is important for online consumers to do business with only companies that have such protection. This means, if your website does not have a SSL certificate or certification to back its services, there is no way you can have people coming to your online business. This is because; there is no client who will trust your business if you are not SSL certified. With so many credit card thefts and important information of clients and businesses being stolen, there is no way a reasonable and well meaning business owner will not want to be secured and also make sure his or her clients are secured. Buying an SSL certificate does not cost so much. This means, buying it will only benefit you.

What is an SSL Certificate? Does my website need one? Pros and Cons

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Making sure information sent over the internet is safe has been an issue to worry about for some years now. However; the internet is still used and considered the best way to transact business. Before you decide if your small business needs SSL certificate, knowing exactly what it is and means is important.

What is an SSL Certificate?

Basically, an SSL Certificate is a small information file or document that is dispersed by companies that are made available or posted into websites. This means, when these websites are accessed by individuals, cryptographic keys are instigated which ensures that, all information processed across servers are very safe. An SSL Certificate ensures that, you are not robbed of very important information being transmitted over the website at the point in time by third parties. When a website is safe, people know by looking to spot some telltale signs. Every website that is secure with SSL Certificate has its HTTP changed into HTTPS in its browser. Also, the website will have a visible padlock that is locked on the browser bar to make it known to users of its safety. When you are about to use an unsecure website, some browsers have been designed to make you know.

When is SSL Certificate Important?

Whenever there will be a transmission or processing of very vital customer or company information, SSL Certificates are needed. This is very important where online merchants and their credit cards are concerned. Also, a small company can use it to show its customers how secure and safe they are to do business with by having the SSL Certificate. Seasoned online shoppers know the signs of secured websites so, they will not want to do business with you if they find out you are not secured.

It is mostly important for retail businesses and online ecommerce stores to have SSL Certificate. This is the only way they can be assured about the safety of their loved ones and family. No matter the size of your business, make sure you are SSL certified before any business transaction with clients is made. If you have a website where you ask people to sign up which means providing their websites and others, you need to be SSL certified.

Pros and Cons of SSL Certificates;

You do not have to always make payment for the security you get. However; free SSL Certificates can never be trusted.
All information is safe which means, there are no third parties to steal and leak out information.
When SSL Certificates are not obtained the right way, it can affect the efficiency of the security and fraudsters can break through.
When there are issues with the service, getting into contact with the providers on time is paramount or else, there can be so much damage caused before they get back to you.
Check the price of SSL Certificate from the provider and read reviews before you sign up with any of them to ensure security.