Web servers have been designed to collect various requests anonymously from unauthenticated web hosts on the Internet. Web servers deliver the information in an effective and expeditious way. Because of this, they provide portals into your computer that be used by friends or enemies.

There is no software that is immune from this security risk . Web servers are complex programs.  Businesses use Web Servers with source code that is free and available over the Internet.  Source codes are available for perusal, but it also means that hackers can scan the same code while seeking weaknesses.

What complicates CGI script security is the ability to add functions to Web Servers. The CGI script can easily add new features to Web Servers, and it can bring about its own security problems. A prime example are Web Servers  that are configured to only access files stored in a directory on a computer, but the user might accidentally install a CGI script that allows outsiders to read the files on the computer.

Because different users do not contain the skill of writing secure programs, it proves possible that local-written CGI scripts will have “bugs” that enable anyone to execute commands on the system.

Because of the various programming languages, ability of different people being able to log in at the same time from remote websites over networks and the richness of its tools, the UNIX OS (Operating System) is a terrible choice for running a secure Web Server. 

Many PC-based operating systems share these characteristics. This proves they are not appropriate choices. The most reliable Web Servers are computers that run on a Web Server with no applications that have accessible scripting languages, and do not support remote logins.

On the other hand, there are various advantages to running Web Servers on a UNIX computer instead of MAC’s. UNIX typically runs faster in comparison to a MAC when comparing hardware. UNIX is capable of hardware platforms that run faster than PowerPC-based computers. It proves easier for businesses to integrate UNIX-based Web Servers with their original information-infrastructure. 

This creates an abundance of opportunities for Web offerings. Currently, more MIS professionals than ever before are familiar with building UNIX-based Internet servers in comparison to building MACOS-based servers. It is highly suggested that business administrators try out the MAC-based servers.

In order to create a Web Server that proves secure on any platform, you must ensure different things:

• CGI scripts must return an error message or achieve the expected function. The scripts should be able to handle any malicious input.
• Users must not be allowed to execute shell commands or arbitrary programs on the server.
• If the server becomes compromised, the hacker should not be able to use the server for future attacks against your business or organization.

Keep your scripts classified

You must restrict access to source codes. It proves too easy to make mistakes when creating a CGI program which is why it is recommended to keep the programs and scripts classified. This does not always guarantee tight-security for scripts with bugs for a hacker can still find flaws in the system; it highly depends on how motivated the hacker is.

Keeping these things confidential, does increase the amount of work involved. Expert hackers will be able to get through, but casual hackers may get bored and move on to other easier systems to hack.

You must prevent users from reading contents of the CGI scripts. This will help in not allowing hackers to analyze the scripts searching for flaws.

This proves especially helpful for scripts that originate from your business. Scripts may not be subjected to the same certification and checking as scripts that have been written for redistribution or publication.

Miscellaneous issues

There are other things that you can do in making your Web Server more secure. You can control the number of users on the computer. This will make it difficult for hackers to break into the server and if the hacker proves successful, it decreases the amount of damage that can be done.

If you want to make a server a stand-alone computer, there are some tips that can be used to isolate your computer from the network, which will make the computer more secure while making it difficult for hackers to exploit.

• Do not export directories or NFS mount
• Delete unnecessary accounts
• Delete utility programs that are not used when booting or by the Web Server
• Delete compilers
• Do not ever run a mail server
• Provide the least amount of network services possible

Image Credit: NJB Security

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How to Secure your Scripts on Web Servers

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LIMITED TIME OFFER – 50 % Discount on all HostGator Hosting Plans

My hosting provider HostGator is fighting against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and offering a 50% Discount Coupon on all hosting plans, the coupon is applicable on every hosting plan for any time period that you choose. This code is valid for Shared, Reseller Unlimited hosting and also for VPS hosting ( for VPS hosting the 50 % discount is valid only for the first month ).

It’s the holiday season and make the best of the 50% Discount Coupon from HostGator.

How to available the 50% Discount Coupon on your Hosting Plan:

Go to HostGator and choose any hosting plan.

Step 1: Enter the domain name (if you already have one) or register for a new one at HostGator.

In the coupon code input box below enter coupon code NOSOPA and click continue to proceed button.

Step 2 : Create your account

In the screen your chosen plan and the 50% discount code will be automatically applied to your price. This is the biggest discount offering from HostGator since Black Friday and it does not come often, so make the best of it right now.

Flat 50% Discount on Shared/Reseller and VPS Hosting Plans

In the above screen you’ll see the 50% discount applied to a 12 month hosting plan. Actual hosting plan cost $119.40 ( 12 month cycle ), after 50% discount coupon its $59.70 ( 12 month cycle)

HostGator prices are already among the lowest in the industry, but with this coupon, you can start a new blog for as low as $2.48 a month.

LIMITED TIME OFFER – 50 % Discount on all HostGator Hosting Plans

Apart from getting hosting at a low price, you’ll also get $100 of Google AdWords and $25 Bing credit that you can use to promote your new blog or website.

I am not sure when HostGator will pull off this discount. If the code becomes invalid, you can get a 25 % Discount on your hosting plans with the coupon code webtrafficroi. If you are getting ready to start blogging in the 2012, then order your web hosting plan from HostGator at 50% Discount.

After the Black Friday offer in November this is your golden chance to avail quality hosting at such a discounted price.

Check out the 50% Discount from HostGator

Merry Christmas and have a great 2012 ahead

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Merry Christmas: Get 50% Discount on all Hosting Plans from Hostgator

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Lately, some of you, especially if you work in businesses close to technology Clouding’ve heard of. But what’s with the Cloud hosting? For the less initiated a revolution is starting to reach businesses and will soon be moved to households. Clouding or cloud computing as it is also called, is based on having a web space where they are lodged applications that are accessed regularly and so from any computer connected to the Internet and once we passed the security policy could adequately run our application or document or whatever you have stored there.

The fact that some of our documents or applications are hosted on a remote server provides some advantages and some disadvantages.

Cloud hosting advantages:

• As we mentioned a great advantage is the accessibility from virtually anywhere. We are not bound to use your PC and from almost any device with Internet access can view our documents.
• Cost savings in companies to begin work in many cases, servers were needed to mount Intranets, or host databases and because of this we only need that network PCs to access Internet.
• Reduced risk of data loss , companies usually offer these services are better equipped than domestic infrastructure with many small and even medium-sized enterprises as an accident to have backups.
• No more worrying about software upgrades , that takes the data center where you stay our service, you only have to worry about using it.

• Energy savings as being hosted on a server, applications or documents from more than one company per bit performance is considerably larger than it would on a local installation.

Drawbacks of Cloud hosting:

• The key in my opinion is the vulnerability of data . By not having completely controlled the data to a local installation of your business you can be more susceptible to being stolen.
• The saturation of access to the service. When looking for a technology provider if your infrastructure is not as healthy and successful service, we can find access problems.

• Implement complex tools can be very specific and much slower than what would be on a local server.

But domestic level. What do we have?

As the picture is much better because in most cases we will use this service as a repository of data, ie a place to store relatively secure those documents that are important, or those family photos that we fear that the hard disk failure loses some day.

The great pioneers in this have been Google and its applications, either Picasa or Google Docs where not only can save documents, plus we can create them without needing to install on our PC just a browser. 
I guess you will have you all tried Google Docs but if one has not done so yet I recommend you do so immediately. The ability to create, modify a presentation, a spreadsheet or text on any computer with any operating system with only the requirement that Internet access is the least curious.

But besides the access to these services there are other more complex than being just simple satisfaction we offer are services limited space where you can upload whatever you want (files, documents, images, videos, etc. ..) and share it with anyone or use as backup staff.

Image Credit: Akakumo

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What is Cloud Hosting? Advantages and Disadvantages

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Today we begin a series of posts dedicated to Virtual Private Servers ( VPS ) , which is to explain from what practical applications of use and configuration. Many Internet companies offer the possibility for any user contracts a server. But often their use will give the person is not required to have a complete machine available, and you do not need many resources.

That is why dedicated servers (physical servers connected to the network) is subdivided into VPS, which for all purposes have the same characteristics as a normal server except that individual is not physically . Each would have its operating system, its resources, traffic available … Not being individual servers, the contract price is much cheaper and you can find deals at a reasonable price. In my case, I use usually only costs 7.90 euros per month.

Why would you use a VPS?

Really a VPS has unlimited uses , since the end of the day is like having another computer available in a data center with an internet connection astronomical when compared with rates seen in Spain.Anyway, and for instance, we will discuss typical uses to which they can give these VPS:

• Web Hosting: To some people it falls short of shared hosting plans offered by some companies as either because they need more space, because they need more because a web transfer or consume too many resources. The VPS often give a lot of freedom in this respect, as they tend to give far more space and boundaries often do not have monthly data transfer.

• VPN: Another very popular use is Virtual Private Networks riding, so the user can connect to the VPN and browse through it. The advantage is that the connection between user and server is encrypted, so if you are using an unsecure connection no one can see that the user traffic exchanged with the rest of the Internet.

• P2P: Because of the characteristics of the VPS , the connection speed, these are widely used for sharing files using P2P traffic, as we will explain below.

VPS vs. Seedbox

One use that many people give to the VPS is sharing files via P2P . On the Internet there are many Bittorrent private trackers, which accounted for what the user shares with other users and also to lower them. One of the unique requirements of these pages is to keep the ratio (ratio between the downloaded and shared) over a certain number, and this is not particularly easy to get as loose connections as we have in our country.

For this reason, many people turn to VPS and similar services, as these machines tend to be far superior connections and therefore is even easier to share and stay in these trackers. But a VPS is not the only way to achieve this. Many users do not have the necessary expertise to handle such a server, so time for some companies offer something similar but simpler and easier to handle: theseedbox .

A seedbox is, after all, a virtual private server but whose sole mission is to download and share files. While the VPS can do many different things, with a seedbox only thing you can do is use it for P2P traffic. They usually come with a pre-installed BitTorrent client, which the user can easily access via the web. Then, to download the files to your computer, the user uses a client FTP .

In some cases, some companies offer more limited seedbox that reach even to set a maximum number of file sharing and downloading at the same time, or even set a traffic limit spent. Others include other extra programs but with the same purpose as the jDownloader. The seedbox are more “neutered”, but with few exceptions tend to be cheaper than VPS . In summary …

VPS:

• More freedom.
• Many functions.
• They require more technical knowledge.
• The user configures and installs what you want to taste.

• They are usually more expensive.

Seedbox:

• More limited.
• Oriented to download.
• Easier to use.
• It comes complete with factory installed programs.

• They tend to be cheaper.

Benefits of using a VPS and Seedbox for P2P traffic

• More speed in sharing . The main advantage is clear, in many cases we are talking about server connections 100 Mbps or 1000 Mbps This is vital, and even more when Spain upload speeds offered by operators are so low.

• Operate 24 hours . No longer must the user’s personal computer is on all day at home. The VPSand Seedbox always remain lit.

• Avoids problems with ISPs . With the proliferation of laws antidescargas, the VPS and seedbox are the perfect example for the three strikes laws and the like are not very inefficient. The same goes for Internet connections are limited to transfer of monthly traffic. With a VPS traffic only be spent when transferring a file from within the VPS user’s computer, but do not spend their own traffic user’s connection to share.

• Avoiding the possible filters or censorship . Now you’re talking about the possible measures to combat P2P, whether a particular government or ISP decides not to allow traffic to certain websites, the VPS would avoid passing through this filter, which acts as an intermediary. The user connects to the VPS and VPS goes directly to the page above.

Image Credit: Eltalearning

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What are Virtual Private Servers and why they are used ?

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CRAZY Cyber Monday Sale – 50 % Discount on all HostGator Hosting Plans only for the next 24 Hours

If you missed the Black Friday hosting sale from Hostgator, here is your last chance to grab the 50% Discount sale on Cyber Monday.

The HOSTING SALE starts Monday, November 28th, 2011 at 12:00 (Midnight) AM Central Standard Time(-6 GMT) until 11:59 PM Central Standard Time Monday, November 28th, 2011.

HostGator’s CYBER MONDAY SALE is applicable on all their web hosting packages. This includes shared hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, Dedicated servers and Windows hosting.

HostGator has such low rate sale only once a year during this time, its the best time to grab the hosting package at a 50% discount if you are planning to start a blog now or in the next 2-3 months, its a good idea to grab the hosting plans at such a low rate.

If you already have a website and want to move from your present hosting firm, you can still get it at a 50% discount for the next 24 hours. The offer is also available if you are looking for an additional hosting plan with HostGator.

This blog is hosted on HostGator, I also host a number websites and blogs on HostGator. I can vouch for their superior customer assistance and their super fast server capacity.

CRAZY Cyber Monday Sale – 50 % Discount on all HostGator Hosting Plans only for the next 24 Hours

You get a 50% off on every web hosting plan from HostGator

- Shared Hosting – $4.95/month NOW ONLY $2.48/month
- Reseller Hosting – $24.95/month NOW ONLY $12.48/month
- VPS Hosting – $19.95/month NOW ONLY $9.98 First Month
- Dedicated Servers – $174/month NOW ONLY $87 First Month

What is the best hosting Plan for you ?
- The 50% Discount for shared and reseller hosting applies for the first invoice, so ensure that you take a 3 year hosting plan to maximize the discount offer. The shared hosting option is best for bloggers and small to medium size websites.

No need for any coupon code to receive the special offer. The correct coupon code will automatically be inserted on all orders placed on Cyber Monday.

CRAZY Cyber Monday Sale – 50 % Discount on all HostGator Hosting Plans only for the next 24 Hours

The 50% HOSTING SALE runs only for the next 24 hours, it starts Monday, November 28th, 2011 at 12:00 (Midnight) AM Central Standard Time(-6 GMT) until 11:59 PM Central Standard Time Monday, November 28th, 2011.

Get 50 % discount on all HostGator plans before it expires.

Also check out 25 % off on all StudioPress WordPress Themes. Great deals to start your blogging journey.

Post from: WebTrafficROI.com

HostGator Cyber Monday Sale – 50% off on all Hosting Plans

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CRAZY Black Friday Sale – 50 % Discount on all HostGator Hosting Plans only for the next 24 Hours

HostGator’s BLACK FRIDAY SALE is on and its applicable on all their web hosting packages. This includes shared hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, Dedicated servers and Windows hosting.

The hosting deals are awesome and you can get this great offer at a low rate only for the next 24 hours. Hostgator does not offer such a low discounted rate around the year, I recommend you grab the 50% discount offer before time runs out.

This blog is hosted on HostGator, I also host a number websites and blogs on HostGator. I can vouch for their superior custpmer assistance and their super fast server capacity.

CRAZY Black Friday Sale – 50 % Discount on all HostGator Hosting Plans only for the next 24 Hours

What’s on 50% Discount on HostGator

- Shared Hosting – $4.95/month NOW ONLY $2.48/month
- Reseller Hosting – $24.95/month NOW ONLY $12.48/month
- VPS Hosting – $19.95/month NOW ONLY $9.98 First Month
- Dedicated Servers – $174/month NOW ONLY $87 First Month

What is the best hosting Plan for you ?The — 50% Discount for shared and reseller hosting applies for the first invoice, so ensure that you take a 3 year hosting plan to maximise the discount offer. The shared hosting option is best for bloggers and small to medium size websites.

You do NOT need to insert a coupon code to receive the special offer. The correct coupon code will automatically be inserted on all orders placed on Black Friday.

CRAZY Black Friday Sale – 50 % Discount on all HostGator Hosting Plans only for the next 24 Hours

This offer runs only for the next 24 hours from Friday, November 25th, 2011 Central Standard Time (-6 GMT)until 11:59PM CST Friday, November 25th, 2011.

Get 50 % discount on all HostGator plans before it expires.

Also check out 25 % off on all StudioPress WordPress Themes. Great deals to start your blogging journey.

Post from: WebTrafficROI.com

HostGator Black Friday Sale – 50% off on all Hosting Plans

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Hosting is an integral part when you have an online business – be a blog or a website. You need to have a trusted and credible hosting firm to ensure that your site is always up and running. I’ve been using HostGator for my blogs and websites, this blog is hosted on HostGator. My blog has had the best uptime ever and I am extremely happy with their services.

HostGator Dedicated Server Hosting Coupon Code
- HostGator is running a promotion where they are offering a $100 off on their Windows Dedicated Servers for the first month. You can avail this discount when you purchase a dedicated hosting from Hostgator. All you need to do is enter the coupon code SERVERSALE and the discount will automatically be applied to your shopping cart account before you check out.

Click here for a $100 discount

HostGator Shared Webhosting Coupon Code
- You can also get a maximum of 25% discount on shared webhosting plans on your billing cycle, you can choose upto three years or 36 months for the discount. All you need to do is enter coupon code WEBTRAFFICROI to avail the discount.

Click here for a 25% discount

Contact us if you are looking for discounts on any other hosting plans from HostGator

Post from: WebTrafficROI.com

HostGator Dedicated Server Hosting Coupon Code December – $100 Off

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HostGator is giving away one of the largest discount offers ONLY for today. A Mega 40 % discount on every shared hosting plan, this is a special 4 th July Independence Day offer. This is the MAXIMUM DISCOUNT that you can get on Hostgator.

The 40 % discount offer is available to all users worldwide on shared hosting, dedicated hosting, VPS hosting and resellers hosting. The discount will apply for the first invoice.

The 40% discount is ONLY for today – 4th July ( ends 11.59 pm CST ), if you are planning to start blogging in the coming days I suggest you take advantage of this offer today. Hostgator is the number one hosting firm offering the best hosting platforms and plans for wordpress blogs and websites.

You don’t have to enter any coupon code to avail this discount, the coupon code JULY4 is already applied to your shopping cart. ( You can see the applied coupon and the 40 % discount when you check out )

If you already have a Hostgator account you can still take advantage of this offer. You will be required to add a new/additional hosting account and keep both the non-discounted plan (current/old plan) + this new, discounted plan active for the length of the term selected on the new plan in order to continue to receive the discounted rate.

The offer is only for today – 4 th July ( ends 11.59 pm CST )

Have a Happy and Safe 4 th July

Click here to avail 40 % Disocunt on Hosting

If you’ve missed the above 40% discount offer, you can still avail a 25% discount on hosting by using coupon code webtrafficroi.

Post from: WebTrafficROI.com

Get 40 % Discount on HostGator Hosting Plans – Only Today ( 4th July Special )

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The selection of a reliable hosting company is one of the most important decisions while starting a blog or website for your business. A fast and reliable webhost improves the user experience for the site. It offers considerable SEO advantage as the search engines will be able to crawl and index more pages of your site. With Google including site speed as one of the ranking parameters, the importance has gone up significantly.

The solution cannot be moving to a more expensive host. Anyone, who has tried his hand with niche marketing, knows that the hosting costs add up faster than the income from the sites. Even if you happen to run multiple blogs, the hosting cost can take away a significant part of the income.

If you take a look at Web Hosting Hub, they offer loads of interesting stuff all packed into one package. It offers unlimited disk space and bandwidth and an ability to host any number of websites at a price of USD 4.95 per month.

But you should never select a host for your website based on price and feature alone. That is because when the server does not behave the way it should, which will happen at some point of time irrespective of the quality of hosting, you need to be able to talk to the technical support immediately and not at a convenient time of the day. Web Hosting Hub scores greatly on that parameter as it provides 24 hour technical support.

Web Hosting Hub offers a number of applications for free to make your website better. Migrating a live site from one server to a new one is a real challenge due to the down time during the migration. Web Hosting Hub offers a no downtime offer to solve this particular problem.

If you are not a technically savvy person, then you are going to love the blog hosting feature provided by it. It allows you to install the blog with a single click. All the technical details are taken care by the software.

Web Hosting Comparison:
Below is a comparison of web hosting hub with a number of other top hosting providers.

The above chart shows the hosting comparison v/s other big hosting firms. While others offer a FULL 30 day money back guarantee, Web Hosting Hub offers a money back guarantee for a FULL 90 day period.

Get a FREE Domain:
You can get a FREE Domain with any hosting package from Web Hosting Hub, they will register any available domain that you choose (.com, .net, .info. .biz, .org, .us ).

Check out Web Hosting Hub

Post from: WebTrafficROI.com

Get a FREE Domain with Web Hosting Hub

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Virtual Servers become increasingly popular among web hosting services users. Many website owners, whose projects are constantly developing, look into virtual servers as into the most optimal upgrade solution. There are, however, nuances that should be kept in mind while making the purchase.

The thing is that unlike a shared or a dedicated server, a VPS has several ways of resource provision that depend on the virtualization type in use. This factor prompts dependencies for other aspects of hosting in turn. Thus, if you are intended to get a virtual server as a hosting platform for your web project, have a look at the tips below.

What Are You Going to Host?

No matter whether you are upgrading to a VPS or want to start a new project on such a server, you have a concept of your website in mind. Therefore it would be more logical to start analyzing those dependencies in the reverse order.

The first thing to stick to is the framework type. If your website is built with the help of html and standards scripts (php, perl etc.), a Linux-based server is going to suit your needs. If you use ASP .NET, MSSQL databases and some other specific Windows software, you will need Windows to operate your VPS.

Apart from the framework, it is vital to consider hosted software before making your choice. Depending on the script in use and visitors’ activity, hosting of blogs and forums may require more resources, than hosting of a simple ecommerce site. On the other hand, some ecommerce scripts may require more resources due to numerous modules applied.

Another point to consider is the purpose of service usage. Using a VPS for email/ftp transfer and hosting of a simple website is going to use hard drive resources mostly. In case of intensive scripts usage you will also need to take care of databases to be processed properly. This may require additional physical memory (RAM).

Which Platform Are You Going to Host Your Project at?

As far as you can see, even such a brief analysis of hosted content has already provided several options for hosting platform selection. By platform we do not mean the operating system only, but the hosting control panel, too. If you choose Windows, this will require installation of some of the following panels: Helm, Parallels (Ensim) or Hosting Controller. There are some other panels also, but those are the most popular ones.

A point to make here is that both Windows and all related hosting software has rather strict system requirements and uses significantly more resources than Linux. Additionally, those products are rather costly.

Choosing Linux sets you free from many nuances. First of all you do not pay for the operating system and you may choose between licensed and open-source software. Since Linux is more widely used in hosting, there are more types of software applied for server administration.

Therefore you can choose of a wider range of control panels: cPanel, DirectAdmin, Parallels (Ensim) – those that are paid – and WebMin, VHCS, WebCP and Xpanel – free web hosting control panels. Another aspect is server resource usage. Linux OS and its software usually consume less RAM and CPU time. You should, however distinguish types of software and especially control panels. The more feature-rich and automated the panel is, the more resources it consumes. cPanel for instance needs 256MB at least, while DirectAdmin or Webmin – only 64 MB of RAM.

Which Virtualization Type Should You Choose?

We are finally ready to discuss this most important aspect. Before we start helping you choose the type of virtualization, let us find out what it actually is. In a nutshell, it is a technology that allows creating multiple virtualized environments within one physical server (carrier) or vice versa – grouping several machines into one environment. If the latter technology is applied for clustered systems creation and cloud hosting provision, the former one is exactly what they use to create virtual servers.

Virtualization can be performed on two levels – on hardware level (paravirtualization) and on the level of operating system (OS-level virtualization). This is what is actually meant by type. The current trend in hosting, however, is to distinguish virtualization types by systems used – XEN for paravirtualization and OpenVZ for OS-level virtualization – since those platforms are the most popular and widely used in VPS hosting.

The main difference between those is that XEN supports full virtualization, letting its users operate an absolutely isolated OS with fixed dedicated amount of resources. Environments, created with OpenVZ are less independent – those are containers of a host system, installed on a carrier. Unlike XEN, that is able to support different operating systems, OpenVZ limits the user in choice of operating systems, narrowing it to OS Linux distros only (both XEN and OpenVZ systems are based on *nix). This difference explains the pricing – a more complicated technical solution delivered by paravirtualization makes XEN servers more expensive.

Last but not least – resource provision and sharing. This mostly concerns RAM. The thing is that, owing to full virtualization, XEN servers have a set amount of RAM, backed by a swap file – just like on a standalone server. An OpenVZ-based VPS does not have a fixed RAM limit – it only has a guaranteed amount of RAM that is supposed to be available all the time and burstable RAM (free carrier memory) amount for short time memory overuse peaks.

On the one hand, this way of resource sharing is rather useful since it lets the server operate faster. On the other hand, however, you cannot rely on constant availability of burstable RAM and sometimes (depending on resource sharing policy and limitations) you cannot even get all your guaranteed RAM, if it’s locked by another VPS, that uses it as burstable.

I believe, this explanation makes your choice more obvious. If you need to have your project hosted on Windows – you should get a XEN-based VPS. This server should have 768 MB RAM at least, however, since such “mid” specifications are not popular and taking into account the further growth of your project it is advisable to look into a VPS with 1 GB RAM at once.

Choosing Linux hosting gives you more solutions. You can get an OpenVZ server with minimal amount of RAM (usually 256 MB) to host small websites and carry out email/ftp transfers. This server will need the simplest control panel though, which means some manual administrative work. Thus, for maximum automation it is advisable to look into a VPS with 512 MB guaranteed memory limit.

If you are going to host some resource intensive software or expect your website to have many visitors, you should get a server with 768 MB – 1 GB RAM, since it’s risky to rely on burstable memory. You may also need a XEN-based VPS – those are mostly needed for projects that need all its memory constantly available.

For instance if you are sure, that whatever the load spikes may be the entire memory use is not going to exceed the 512 MB limit. Then it is better to get a XEN VPS with 512 MB or RAM, to support the system, services, your control panel and software, while all the other random short-time processes will get swapped and then released when they get executed and die.

Summary

If you are searching for a powerful, reliable and at the same time affordable hosting solution, you are most likely to be searching for a VPS. This type of hosting perfectly fits any needs and now you should be able to define which VPS you need exactly. I sincerely hope this article comes in handy when you decide to switch to a virtual server.

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