February 15, 2008
Dos Attack And Digg Traffic On Web Servers
Everyone loves it when lots of traffic comes through their website. In fact, many do whatever they can to achieve that traffic in hopes that someone will find what is on their site interesting and will make a purchase from the site. That’s the idea, right? Of course it is, but it is a fact that traffic of all types may not be very beneficial if it isn’t targeted traffic. However, there are ways in which traffic is brought to sites and two of these are DOS Attack and Digg Traffic. There are actual differences between the two as far as how they bring traffic to websites. Let’s just say that one is more vicious than the other.
DOS Attack
Dos Attack makes the web server beg for mercy because it is flooded with traffic that can actually be considered useless. There are different kinds of DOS Attacks such as Teardrop and Ping of Death. What these do is exploit the limitations of the TCP/IP protocols. However, there are software fixes that administrators administer to their systems to reduce the damage that is done by DOS Attacks. But just like computer viruses, there are always new attacks being created by hackers. What these attacks do is keep the website from functioning properly and usually target large sites such as those of banks and credit card sites. The Teardrop attack sends IP fragments with huge payloads that are overlapping to the machine that they are targeting. Many operating systems are vulnerable to this type of attack and can crash the entire system.
There is also an attack called the Smurf Attack in which it floods the internet by sending packets of information to be sent to the computer hosts on a certain network. This is one of those methods in which it appears a website is receiving a lot of traffic, but none of the traffic is legitimate. SYN Flood is another that floods the servers to appear as legitimate traffic.
Digg Traffic
Digg is actually a legitimate way to generate traffic to websites. It is community-based and uses articles to gain traffic. It combines blogging, social bookmarking, and syndication with editorial control by the users. Websites and news stories are submitted by the users and a user-based ranking system is used to promote the website. It can happen that the web server is not prepared to manage that high incoming traffic and ultimately crashes the site for a short time. However, Digg has met some controversy because it is said the users have entirely too much control over the content. There are even users who have been accused of operating what is called a “Bury Brigade” in which users mark articles as SPAM, which can bury these legitimate stories under the ones that users want to promote, whether they are legitimate or not.
The differences
The differences are rather clean in that DOS attacks are a way in which hackers maliciously flood systems with fake traffic and can actually disable use of a website. It is not a legitimate way to gain traffic, whereas Digg is a legitimate method. However, even Digg has met its controversy in which traffic can be directed away from legitimate articles due to “Bury Brigades,” which can hinder one’s ability to promote through Digg’s system. Yet as with any system on the internet, there are always ways to compromise its original intent and Digg is not an exception. DOS Attacks, on the other hand, still do what they are intended to do and that is to maliciously attack the web.
Filed under Web Hosting by Amy Nutt
February 9, 2008
Tips To Choose The Suitable Hardware For Your Dedicated Server
Acquiring a dedicated hosting server is a great step toward getting the most out of your website. First of all, you increase the amount of traffic to your site, you can create a more impressive site than ever before, there is more disk space, and there is more bandwidth to work with. Second of all, the return on investment is considerably better than that of a shared server and credibility amongst browsers is enhanced.
The benefits of having a dedicated server are rather extensive in that the company can avoid many of the variables that interfere with the reliability of the server. Things such as overload, bad scripts, and bad codes are not really too much of an issue. The dependency on the web host is alleviated as is the lack of services and hardware that can be used to enhance the website.
In terms of hardware, it is important to choose suitable hardware that will enable the site to run efficiently. When choosing suitable hardware, consider these tips when doing so:
Do research on what is a suitable processor to get the job done. How the processor is chosen is based on the amount of memory that is desired, what firewall options are required, and how big the hard drive needs to be. In other words, the choice of processor is going to be what controls the amount of space and protection that is provided to the website. Doing research on the internet to see which processor others are saying is best will ensure a good choice.
Keep in mind that a Pentium 4 processor will perform better than a Celeron if hosting a number of powerful applications. The reason behind this is that the Pentium has a larger cache. However, Xeons may be the best bet because they actually perform better than the Pentium. Then again, choosing the AMD option may outperform Xeons by 30%, depending on the applications being powered. In other words, it is best to stay away from Celeron processors when choosing a processor.
As for hard disks, keep in mind that hard disks do fail at some point. That is why it is good to have a second hard disk available for backup and even contact the hosting company regarding the costs associated with off-site backup. If your company decides to invest in a secondary backup system, try going with a SCSI because they have a lower failure rate. But it is inevitable that a hard disk will eventually fail. Again, do research on the internet to find the best hardware.
The processor and the hard disk are going to be the most important pieces of hardware acquired, aside from the actual computers. As for the actual computers, dedicated servers allow customers to choose their operating systems, so deciding which computer to purchase is not too difficult.
The dedicated hosting services also allow the customer to choose their own hardware, so it is important to do all the necessary research to find the best fit for your particular business. Every site requires different amounts of memory and different speeds, so base the decision upon what is best and what it is you require.
Tags: domain name registration, asp hosting, domain name renewals
Filed under Web Hosting by Amy Nutt
February 1, 2008
Exchange Hosting: Welcome To The World Of Exchange Hosting
The world is growing by leaps and bounds, and the technological world is growing even faster. A short twenty years ago, only select few owned computers, and the internet was a slow dinosaur of a beast that took so long to load up that you could make a full seven course meal before you were hooked online. Now, however, high speed internet access is everywhere, from our wireless laptops to our personal computers and Blackberries. People in other countries can have a video conference with split second delays and you can buy almost anything you’d like online. In this strange and new technological world, exchange hosting is becoming the best thing since motherboards were invented.
What Is Exchange Hosting? In simple terms, exchange hosting is putting your company’s online business in the hands of a server run by a specialized company. Exchange mail hosting is the most popular form of exchange hosting, allowing businesses, both large and small, the ability to have their e-mail address hosted and watched.
Doing It Yourself Some businesses don’t believe in exchange hosting and believe that they can have an exchange server in-house for cheaper than it would cost to do a hosted exchange. When you look at the prices, however, it is evident immediately that it is much more expensive to have your hosting in-house than it is to have exchange hosting. For starters, it costs around $3,000 just for the hardware you’d need to set up your hosting. After you factor in the installation, maintenance, and software, you’ll be easily paying over $22,000 just to have your e-mail and Microsoft Exchange 2007 set up. Can your business afford to spend $22,000?
Benefits of Technicians One of the biggest benefits of exchange hosting is the support. When you have your own hosting in-house, you have to find an IT technologist that knows what they’re doing. Unfortunately the computer business is littered with people who call themselves experts but who have no idea what Microsoft Exchange is, much less SharePoint. These so called “experts” usually got their training by fiddling around with their computers during their high school years. When you choose exchange hosting, you’re getting technicians that not only have years of training in the computer and internet field, they are also trained by the company to help serve the needs of those using the exchange hosting. Not only do you get the experience of experts, you get it whenever you need it. A normal IT would not appreciate being woken up at 3 a.m., but an exchange hosting IT is already awake and ready to serve.
In the business world, there are a lot of decisions that have to be made. One of these decisions got much easier when exchange hosting became available a few years ago. No longer do you have to worry about having hosting on your property. Instead, you can pay a small fee and have a company take care of everything for you.
Tags: best web hosting, purchase domain name, dedicated hosting
Filed under Web Hosting by JD Theis
