Popular, Best and Cheap Domain Names Registration Service Providers Comparison

Popular, Best and Cheap Domain Names Registration Service Providers Comparison

Registering a domain is very easy today. There are a lot of domain registrar which provide you the facility of registering and hosting your desired domain in very convenient way. Following is the comparison of popular and best online domain name registration service providers like GoDaddy, 1&1, Namecheap, Name, Gandi, Bluehost, Register.com, iWantMyName, HoverHove, DreamHost etc. These all popular domain name registration service providers claim that they provide cheap and best domains in the market. So, I will suggest you to try all of them and compare before purchasing, registering and hosting your desired domain name online.

1. GoDaddy

Go Daddy has built a customer base by offering cheap package deals (combining domain registration and web hosting) as well as frequent specials on domain registration. GoDaddy registrations include what amounts to a free mini-hosting plan. You get a five-page web site based on one of their templates, a photo album, blogging tools, and an email account with 1GB of storage. Although Go Daddy doesn't offer free private registration, if you register five or more domains, it's free for all of them. 

2. 1&1

All 1&1 domain registrations include a simple five-page starter website (consider it a "super" domain parking package), an email account with 2GB of storage, and free private domain registration to shield your personal information. 1&1 also offers free domain transfer. 

3. Namecheap

Domain registration at Namecheap is economical, as their name implies, but Namecheap hasn't built a name for itself just by offering the absolute cheapest deals in town. Namecheap's reputation rests on fantastic customer service and value-added packages. You get solid customer service, free email and URL forwarding, free and customizable domain parking, free domain transfers, dynamic DNS services if you want to redirect a domain to your home server, and more. 

4. Name

Name.com goes beyond simple domain name searches and offers alternative suggestions including domain names that are currently held but up for auction. While the majority of us are looking to register domains cheaply and quickly, it's good to know that the domain other services would simply flag as "Unavailable" is actually up for auction. Name.com also has a service called Domain Grabber. If you really want a domain but it's unavailable, you can pay Name.com (typically between $20-50) to pounce on the domain should it become available.

5. Gandi

Gandi's mission as a registrar and host is to offer clean, simple, no bullshit service. Every registration includes two free SiteMaker pages, one free DotClear2 blog, private domain registration, a free 1-year SSL certificate, and a personal email. If you manage a large number of domains, Gandi also offers a user-friendly dashboard with tag-based organization and search. 

6. BlueHost

Founded in 1996, Bluehost is one of the most well respected domain hosting services in the industry. They provide everything you need to register and host your domain, and they offer noteworthy extras to assist with site creation and maintenance. Additionally, Bluehost is best known for their outstanding customer service, which includes 24/7 phone support. Whether you’re looking for domain service basics or a domain hosting company that provides a boatload of extras, Bluehost stands as one of the best domain hosting services available. 

7. Register.com

Register.com began strictly as a provider of domain hosting services only, but in recent years, the company has expanded its offerings to include additional website-related services such as website design and creation services and website hosting. Lauded for its quality domains, Register.com is recommended for personal and small businesses only, as the services, are great, are not large enough for bigger sites. 

Register.com specializes in registering domains, making it the best place to go if you’re looking to register a specialized domain. It offers premium.com domains as well as every extension under the sun, including the increasingly popular.co domain (short for company), with many site names still available. The company also provides bulk domain registration, domain transfers and website forwarding, which lets you point a domain name to an existing site.

8. iWantMyName

IWMN takes a super minimalist approach when it comes to their domain name registrar services. The company made a point to cut down on clutter and make registering a domain as painless as possible. Upon arrival at the site, you’ll find a mostly white page with very few buttons and links — but they’re the important ones. IWMN also makes it easy to add various web services to your domain at the point of registration. 

9. HoverHove

Hover is another clean and simple registration site that I like for it’s top-notch domain management tools. In addition to a great control panel, each domain you buy comes with unlimited domain forwarding and free private domain registration to keep your personal info hidden. Email accounts are available for an additional fee. 

10. DreamHost

DreamHost is built on the ‘stack it high, sell it cheap’ philosophy. By using their own control panel, they retain a certain amount of control over what customers can do with their domains. In addition, by offering extremely limited support options, the company don’t expose themselves to high after-sales costs, helping them achieve more competitive pricing.

If you want an easy, low-cost way to get a few websites online, DreamHost provides most of the features you’ll need for a good price, particularly on their shared hosting plan. If you don’t get along with their control panel, you can simply cancel the contract within that 97-day period and get your money back.

Best Linux and Windows Dedicated Web Server Hosting Service Providers

Best Linux and Windows Dedicated Web Server Hosting Service Providers

Below is the list of best Linux and Windows dedicated web server hosting service providers. List includes 100TB, InMotion, HostV, Single Hop, Cirtex Hosting, SiteGround, Arvixe, BlueHost, iPage, A2 Hosting, Media Temple, JustHost, Site5, WebHostingBuzz and GoDaddy. All of these web hosting providers claim to provide best Linux and Windows dedicated web server hosting services. While choosing best web hosing service provider you must take care of various factors like up time,  hosting space, support, tools, easy to use and configure etc. Following is the list of best Linux and Windows Dedicated Web Server Hosting Service Providers.

1. 100TB

100TB will give you a high power dedicated server hosting option that performs exceptionally at an exceptionally affordable price. All of their servers are fully automated, and as such give you a reliable, fast network.

Enjoy the 1Gbit dedicated port, 100TB bandwidth, and 2 X 1TB hard drive. They have a reputation for providing the latest in technology which adds up to amazing performance. Whether Windows- or Linux-based, 100TB has you covered. cPanel is used for Linux, and PLESK for Windows.

Customer service is high quality, and they offer their clients free installation or re-installation of your OS and control panel, as well as free transfer from one host to another.

2. InMotion

InMotion web hosting company is rated number one when it comes to providing dedicated server hosting services. Founded in 2001, it has fast become the industry leader in reliable and affordable hosting solutions. Their outstanding customer tech support and uptime stats of 99.9% set them apart from the rest, offering their clients feature-rich hosting services they just don’t want to part with.

InMotion relies on only Dell servers. Data is backed up on a daily basis. If problems arise and you decide to back out, InMotion offers a 90 day money back guarantee. It isn't likely you’ll find this the case, as their customer service is second to none.

Count on unlimited My SQL databases, RAID 1 High-Performance data storage exclusive to elite plans, unlimited FTP accounts, Linux Cent OS for those who prefer it, unlimited email accounts, and unlimited individual c Panel sub-accounts.

3. HostV

Some of the stand-out features of their dedicated server hosting: allows for SSH root access; uses c Panel; Red 5; Fantastico ready-to-go upon installation; supports FFMpeg, PHP5, and My SQL5.

Customer service is quick to respond to any requests around the clock, providing technical support where necessary. Enjoy free firewall protection and back ups as well.

4. Single Hop

Relying on Intel processors, Kingston memory, Western Digital, and Seagate hard drives, Chicago, IL-based Single Hop specializes in Linux or Windows dedicated servers. Whether cloud or cluster hosting, it’s easy to see why this is one of the top web hosting companies.

Single Hop gives customers their own server control panel, called LEAP, requiring no tech support at all. It is essentially an Ajax platform that give the customers the power to control new tasks like checking bandwidth or restarting the servers.

They rely on the following processors in their dedicated servers:

The Core i3 540 processor (2 cores x 3.06GHz, 10TB bandwidth, 500Gb disk space, up to 4GB of DDR3 RAM);

Xeon E3-1230 processor (4 cores x 3.2GHz, 10TB bandwidth, 500GB disk space, 8GP DDR3 RAM);

Xeon 5410 processor (4 cores x 2.33GHz, 1TB disk space, 10TB bandwidth, and 8GB DDR2);

& Xeon 5506 processor (4 cores x 2.13GHz, 10TB bandwidth, 500GB disk space, and 8GB DDR3.)

5. Cirtex Hosting

Coming in at number two, Houston, TX-based Cirtex Hosting brings powerful features that set them apart from the rest of the dedicated server hosting companies. They bring a 99.99% uptime guarantee to the table and have their technicians monitoring the system of 12,000 servers for issues.

The Linux option gives you full root access support for PHP, Perl, Apache Web Server, Ruby on Rails, FFMpeg, and Python MySQL.

6. SiteGround

SiteGround web hosting plans are carefully tailored. On top of the standard features like free domain names, 24/7 technical support, 99.9% uptime, etc., SiteGround enables you to add your own custom-made solutions to make your website faster, safer, and better supported than anywhere else.

7. Arvixe

Arvixe has received numerous web hosting awards featuring their dedication to excellence in the web hosting field. Start by registering a domain, or check their low cost plans in the areas of Linux hosting, asp .net hosting, reseller hosting, business hosting, VPS hosting, or managed dedicated servers.

8. BlueHost

BlueHost provides outstanding support, speed and flexibility. Following are the features of BlueHost:

1. 24/7 US-based Support

2. SimpleScripts 1-Click installs

3. Chosen To Support Millions Of Sites

4. SSH Secure Shell Access

5. True Resource Management (more info)

6. Proven Track Record

7. Blazing Fast Servers

9. iPage

Your iPage control panel gives you access to tools for creating and enhancing your website; you'll also get free advertising credits on top search engines, search-engine optimization tools, PC backup, malware scanning, security applications and more.

iPage has partnerships with leaders in online services, so you'll receive great deals and free offerings from Google, VeriSign, ShopSite, Yahoo! and more.

10. A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting's has 10+ years of expertise in web server hosting services. A2 Hosting provides the ultra-reliable, high-performance hosting solution to help you succeed. Host on their SSDs for page load speeds up to 300% faster than standard drives! 

11. Media Temple

From its inception in 1998, (mt) Media Temple has been on a mission to help people and businesses succeed online.

Over 125,000 customers in 100 countries now rely on Media Temple's simple tools for domain registration, web hosting, business applications, virtual servers, and other cloud services to power more than 1.5 million websites. Media Temple takes offers a premium service at a competitive price, along with exemplary 24/7 customer support. Media Temple's customers range from everyday people to top bloggers, creative professionals, and small businesses, as well as large enterprises like Starbucks, Adidas, Samsung, and Toyota.

With 200 dedicated, U.S.-based employees, Media Temple has been repeatedly recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in North America—and one of the best places to work. 

12. WebHostingBuzz

WebHostingBuzz believes in helping you achieve long-term success with your website, application or project. WebHostingBuzz  provides the platform and support to help you achieve success. And whether that platform is a regular shared hosting account, or a multi-server dedicated cluster, WebHostingBuzz team is there to help and support you along the way.

WebHostingBuzz regularly wins awards for the level of hosting service they deliver. Their unbeatable customer service, modern and reliable technology and desire to deliver hosting excellence is unmatched. 

13. JustHost

Just Host is dedicated to providing their customers with the most reliable web hosting service possible. Fast, reliable, web hosting at an affordable price with secure servers, and 24/7 technical support make hosting your website with Just Host the obvious choice.

14. Site5

Site5's current hosting philosophy is based on guaranteed performance. While other hosts may try to cram as many accounts as possible on shared servers, Site5 has used their years of experience and the technical analysis performed by their technical gurus to determine exactly how many accounts they should be putting on any given server. In addition, Site5 is continually upgrading their hardware platforms to be among the best in the industry.

15. GoDaddy

GoDaddy is used by million of website owners in the world. GoDaddy provides a lot of excellent features to its customers.

1. Build a site you can be proud of

2. Easy-to-use tools – no technical skills required

3. Hundreds of customizable designs

4. Includes free domain, hosting & marketing tools

5. 24/7 support for help whenever you need it

6. No technical skills required

Linux Server Monitoring and Networking Commands for Linux Server Administrators - Part 2

Linux Server Monitoring and Networking Commands for Linux Server Administrators - Part 2

I have complied a list Linux server monitoring and networking commands for Linux server administrators. These are the very basic monitoring and networking commands which each Linux server administrator should know. I had also compiled a list of basic Linux Networking and Monitoring commands in my previous article. I will talk about iostat, meminfo, free, mpstat, netstat, nmon, pmap, ps, pstree, sar, strace, tcpdump, top, uptime, vmstat, wireshark Linux server monitoring and networking commands for Linux server administrators. These networking and monitoring Linux server commands helps Linux server administrators to identify input/output problems on your Linux server, memory management of Linux server, performance of Linux server, CPU usage, socket usage, routing, interface, protocol, network statistics and lot more.

1. iostat

The iostat command shows in detail what your storage subsystem is up to. You usually use iostat to monitor how well your storage sub-systems are working in general and to spot slow input/output problems before your clients notice that the server is running slowly. 

2. meminfo and free

Meminfo gives you a detailed list of what's going on in memory. Typically you access meminfo's data by using another program such as cat or grep. For example,

cat /proc/meminfo

gives you the details of what's going on in your server’s memory at any given moment.

For a quick “just the facts” look at memory, you can use the free command. In short, free gives you the overview; meminfo gives you the details.

3. mpstat

The mpstat command reports on the activities of each of the available CPUs on a multi-processor server. These days, thanks to multi-core processors, that’s almost all servers. mpstat also reports on the average activities of all your server's CPUs. It enables you to display overall CPU statistics per system or per processor. This overview can alert you to possible application problems before they get to the point of annoying users.

4. netstat

Netstat, like ps, is a Linux tool that administrators use every day. It displays a lot of network related information, such as socket usage, routing, interface, protocol, network statistics, and more. Some of the most commonly used options are:

-a Show all socket information

-r Show routing information

-i Show network interface statistics

-s Show network protocol statistics

5. nmon

Nmon, short for Nigel's Monitor, is a popular open-source tool to monitor Linux systems performance. Nmon watches the performance information for several subsystems, such as processor utilization, memory utilization, run queue information, disk I/O statistics, network I/O statistics, paging activity, and process metrics. You can then view nmon's real-time system measurements via its curses “graphical” interface.

To run nmon, you start the tool from the shell. Once up, you select the subsystems to monitor by typing in its one-key commands. For example, to get CPU, memory, and disk statistics, you type c, m, and d. You can also use nmon with the -f flag to save performance statistics to a CSV file for later analysis.

For day to day server monitoring I find nmon to be the single most useful program in my Linux system management tool-kit.

6. pmap

The pmap command reports the amount of memory that your server's processes are using. You can use this tool to determine which processes on the server are being allocated memory and whether any of these processes are being piggy with RAM.

7. ps and pstree

The ps and pstree commands are two of the Linux administrator’s best friends. They both provide a list of all currently running processes. Ps tells you how much memory and processor time the server’s programs are using. Pstree shows less information, but highlights which processes are the children of other processes. Armed with this information, you can spot out–of-control processes and kill them off with Linux's “take no prisoners” kill command.

8. sar

The sar program is a Swiss-army knife of a system monitoring tool. The sar command is actually made up of three programs: sar, which displays the data, and sa1 and sa2, which collect and store it. Once installed, sar creates a detailed overview of CPU utilization, memory paging, network I/O and transfer statistics, process creation activity, and storage device activity. The big difference between sar and nmon is that the former is better at long-term system monitoring, while I find nmon to be better at giving me a quick read on my server's status.

9. strace

strace is often thought of a programmer's debugging tool, but it's more than that. It intercepts and records the system calls that are called by a process. This makes it a useful diagnostic, instructional, and debugging tool. For example, you can use strace to find out which configuration file a program is actually using when it starts up.

Strace does have one flaw though. When it's checking out a specific process, that process' performance will fall through the floor. Thus, I only use strace when I already have a darned good reason to think that that program is causing trouble.

10. tcpdump

Tcpdump is a simple, robust network monitoring utility. Its basic protocol analyzing capability enables you to get a rough view of what is happening on your network. To really dig into what's going on with your network however, you'll want to use Wireshark.

11. top

The top command shows what's going on with your active processes. By default, it displays the most CPU-intensive tasks running on the server and updates the list every five seconds. You can sort the processes by PID (Process ID); age, newest first; time, by cumulative time; and resident memory usage and total time it's been using the CPU since startup. I find this a fast and easy way to see if any process is starting to go out of control and about to get into trouble.

12. uptime

Use uptime to see how long the server has been running and how many users are logged on. It also gives you an overview of the average server load. The optimal value of the load is 1 or less, which means that each process has immediate access to the CPU and there are no CPU cycles lost.

14. vmstat

For the most part, you use vmstat to monitor what's going on with virtual memory. Linux constantly uses virtual memory to get the best possible storage performance.

If your applications are taking up too much memory you get excessive page-outs — programs moving from RAM to your system's swap space, which is on the hard drive. Your server can reach a point where it's spending more time managing memory paging than running your applications, a condition called thrashing. When your computer is thrashing, its performance falls through the floor. 

Vmstat, which can display either average data or actual samples, can help you spot memory pig programs and processes before they bring your server to a crawl.

15. Wireshark

Wireshark, formerly known as Ethereal (and still often referred to that way), is tcpdump's big brother, though it is more sophisticated and with far more advanced protocol analyzing and reporting. Wireshark has both a GUI interface and a shell interface. 

If you can master these commands, you'll be well on your way to being a good Linux system administrator.

10 Basic Linux Networking and Monitoring Commands You Should Know

10 Basic Linux Networking and Monitoring Commands You Should Know

I have listed down 10 basic Linux networking and monitoring commands which each Linux user should know. These Linux basic networking and monitoring commands like hostname, ping, ifconfig, iwconfig, netstat, nslookup, traceroute, finger, telnet, ethtool are used for viewing the IP address of the Linux server, managing Linux server network adapter configuration, making network connections among Linux servers over telnet and ethernet, Linux server information etc. Lets have a look on the following Linux networking and monitoring commands.

1. hostname

hostname with no options displays the machines host name

hostname –d displays the domain name the machine belongs to

hostname –f displays the fully qualified host and domain name

hostname –i displays the IP address for the current machine

2. ping

ping sends packets of information to the user-defined source. If the packets are received, the destination device sends packets back. ping can be used for two purposes

1. To ensure that a network connection can be established.

2. Timing information as to the speed of the connection.

If you do ping www.yahoo.com it will display its IP address. Use ctrl+C to stop the test. 

3. ifconfig

View network configuration, it displays the current network adapter configuration. It is handy to determine if you are getting transmit (TX) or receive (RX) errors.

4. iwconfig

The iwconfig tool is like ifconfig and ethtool for wireless cards. You can view and set the basic Wi-Fi network details, such as the SSID, channel, and encryption. There's also many advanced settings you can view and change, including receive sensitivity, RTS/CTS, fragmentation, and retries.

5. nslookup

If you know the IP address it will display hostname. To find all the IP addresses for a given domain name, the command nslookup is used. You must have a connection to the internet for this utility to be useful.

e.g. nslookup blogger.com

You can also use nslookup to convert hostname to IP Address and from IP Address from hostname.

6. traceroute

A handy utility to view the number of hops and response time to get to a remote system or web site is traceroute. Again you need an internet connection to make use of this tool.

7. finger

View user information, displays a user’s login name, real name, terminal name and write status. this is pretty old unix command and rarely used now days.

8. telnet

Connects destination host via telnet protocol, if telnet connection establish on any port means connectivity between two hosts is working fine.

telnet hostname port - will telnet hostname with the port specified. Normally it is used to see whether host is alive and network connection is fine or not.

9. ethtool

Ethtool lets you view and change many different settings for ethernet adapters (which does not include Wi-Fi cards). You can manage many different advanced settings, including tx/rx, checksumming, and wake-on-LAN settings. However, here are more basic commands you might be interested in:

Display the driver information for a specific network adapter, great when checking for software compatibility.

ethtool -i

Initiate an adapter-specific action, usually blinking the LED lights on the adapter, to help you identify between multiple adapters or interface names:

ethtool -p

Display network statistics:

ethtool -s

Set the connection speed of the adapter in Mbps:

ethtool speed <10|100|1000>

10. netstat

Most useful and very versatile Linux command for finding connection to and from the host. You can find out all the multicast groups (network) subscribed by this host by issuing "netstat -g"

netstat -nap | grep port will display process id of application which is using that port

netstat -a  or netstat –all will display all connections including TCP  and UDP  

netstat --tcp  or netstat –t will display only TCP  connection

netstat --udp or netstat –u will display only UDP  connection

netstat -g will display all multicast network subscribed by this host.

Security and Privacy Issues in eCommerce Website Development and Designing

Security and Privacy Issues in eCommerce Website Development and Designing

If you are thinking of eCommerce website development and designing, do consider the customer security and privacy issues first. Your eCommerce website should be developed and designed in such a way that it should be secure enough to handle the processing of your customer's credit card and sensitive information. You should use SSL encryption algorithms, secure and reliable payment gateways in your eCommerce website to carry customer credit card transactions online. A lot of online credit card frauds happen everyday, so as an eCommerce website owner, you should consider following measures to avoid security and privacy issues. 

1. Use Secure Socket Layer Encryption Algorithms

While development of your eCommerce website, the developers should use SSL Secure Socket Layer encryption algorithms to encrypt sensitive customer data, credit card information etc. Web pages that are encrypted with SSL layers will show a "padlock" at the bottom right of the web browser if you are using Internet Explorer.

2. Use Payment Gateways

Do not store customer's credit card information on the server. While development of your eCommerce website, make sure that your developers are using secure and reliable payment gateway. Your eCommerce website should process transactions through your payment gateway (such as Authorize.net or Verisign) and let your payment gateway vendor be responsible for the credit card security. You may also store half of the customer's credit card number on the server and have half of the number emailed to you if you wish to manually process the order.

Complete list of Secure Payment Gateways

 

3. Collect the Card Verification Value of the credit card (3 digit number located on the back of the card) for further card verification.

4. Use your credit card processor's Address Verification System to verify the correct billing address (street and zip) of the credit card. If the address does not match it may be best to cancel the order. Using this method along with #5 will prevent 99% of your fraudulent orders.

 

5. Do not ship to an address other than the billing address of the credit card. 

6. You may wish to collect the issuing bank name and issuing bank phone # of the credit card. If the transaction looks suspicious you can call the bank to make sure it is not a stolen credit card.

 

7. Use common sense, if the order looks suspicious, do not process it, or wait until the next day. Often if the card is stolen the card will be reported as stolen the next day and you will avoid the fraudulent transaction.

8. For foreign country orders you may want to only take money orders or cashiers checks. Foreign banks, sometimes, do not have address verification systems and the transactions are riskier.

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Complete list of Secure Payment Gateways

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