In the past we have been asked what DNS settings are put in place for our clients domains when we add their sites to our servers, hopefully the information below will provide the answers for you. If not, please do not hesitate to contact our support department about any questions you might have prior to transferring your domain regarding your DNS zone files.
Occasionally our clients will have their own mail servers, such as Microsoft Exchange that they prefer to run in tandem with their websites in which we host for them. We can accommodate these needs for clients without any problems, in fact through the PLESK control panel, our clients have the ability to edit their own zone files, or we can handle it for them.
yourwebsite.com. NS ns.yourwebsite.com.
mail.yourwebsite.com. A 70.86.194.00
ns.yourwebsite.com. A 70.86.194.00
yourwebsite.com. A 70.86.194.00
webmail.yourwebsite.com. A 70.86.194.00
ftp.yourwebsite.com. CNAME yourwebsite.com.
www.yourwebsite.com. CNAME yourwebsite.com.
yourwebsite.com. MX (10) mail.yourwebsite.com.
70.86.194.00 / 24 PTR yourwebsite.com.
Showing posts with label Web Hosting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Web Hosting. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
Avoiding SQL Injections
Since it first saw success as a powerful web development platform, PHP has suffered from the ease of use that bred that success. Inexperienced developers can all too easily build applications that are vulnerable to attack, and one of the most common vulnerabilities is the SQL injection.
From Kees Kodde of Qrios Web Design: “In most security related articles about web development, the threat of SQL injections is mentioned, and there seem to be a lot of ways to defend against this. What is, in your opinion, the most simple and effective way to filter possible SQL injections out of user input?”
The biggest challenge of defending against SQL injection attacks is understanding them, so let’s start with a simple example in PHP. This script fragment determines the price of a product given its ID as submitted by the browser:
The problem here, as in most scripts vulnerable to SQL injection attacks, is that an assumption has been made about a value that is being received from the browser. The code assumes that the ‘id’ value sent by the browser will be a number, and can be placed into a string to form an SQL query like this:
But what if the ‘id’ value contains a maliciously-crafted string instead? When the value is placed into the string, it could instead form a query like this:
That’s an SQL injection. In this example, it will fool the script into fetching a price less than 10 (assuming there is another product with such a price in the database) instead of the actual price. In other cases, SQL injections can be used to bypass password checks when logging into a site, and in some rare cases even modify the data stored in the database.
In general, the solution to SQL injection attacks is to enforce every assumption you make about any value that you insert into an SQL query. You can either do this manually, or use a pre-built library to do it for you. The above example could be modified to force the ‘id’ value to be interpreted as an integer:
For numbers like this, you can force the language to convert values to numbers. For strings to be included in SQL queries, you need to use tools like PHP’s mysqli_escape_string function to convert special characters like quotes into a form that will not interfere with the query’s operation.But relying on yourself and your fellow developers to remember to enforce these rules for all browser-submitted data is problematic. Instead, you should use some library that will do it for you.
PHP5.1’s PHP Data Objects (PDO) API allows you to place values into SQL queries safely, specifying the expected data type.
So to answer your question, the simplest way to defend against SQL injection attacks is to avoid building your own SQL queries, and instead to use an API like PDO that will do it for you, safely. Indeed, PHP is one of the few languages where building SQL queries by combining strings is a common practice, and I’d say the prevalence of SQL injection attacks on PHP-based applications can be largely attributed to this.
From Kees Kodde of Qrios Web Design: “In most security related articles about web development, the threat of SQL injections is mentioned, and there seem to be a lot of ways to defend against this. What is, in your opinion, the most simple and effective way to filter possible SQL injections out of user input?”
The biggest challenge of defending against SQL injection attacks is understanding them, so let’s start with a simple example in PHP. This script fragment determines the price of a product given its ID as submitted by the browser:
$id = $_POST['id'];$sql = "SELECT price FROM
products WHERE id = $id";$result = mysqli_query($db, $sql);$row =
mysqli_fetch_row($result);$price = $row[0];
The problem here, as in most scripts vulnerable to SQL injection attacks, is that an assumption has been made about a value that is being received from the browser. The code assumes that the ‘id’ value sent by the browser will be a number, and can be placed into a string to form an SQL query like this:
SELECT price FROM products WHERE id = 123
But what if the ‘id’ value contains a maliciously-crafted string instead? When the value is placed into the string, it could instead form a query like this:
SELECT price FROM products WHERE id = 123 OR price
<>
That’s an SQL injection. In this example, it will fool the script into fetching a price less than 10 (assuming there is another product with such a price in the database) instead of the actual price. In other cases, SQL injections can be used to bypass password checks when logging into a site, and in some rare cases even modify the data stored in the database.
In general, the solution to SQL injection attacks is to enforce every assumption you make about any value that you insert into an SQL query. You can either do this manually, or use a pre-built library to do it for you. The above example could be modified to force the ‘id’ value to be interpreted as an integer:
$id = (int) $_POST['id'];
For numbers like this, you can force the language to convert values to numbers. For strings to be included in SQL queries, you need to use tools like PHP’s mysqli_escape_string function to convert special characters like quotes into a form that will not interfere with the query’s operation.But relying on yourself and your fellow developers to remember to enforce these rules for all browser-submitted data is problematic. Instead, you should use some library that will do it for you.
PHP5.1’s PHP Data Objects (PDO) API allows you to place values into SQL queries safely, specifying the expected data type.
$stmt = $db->prepare('SELECT price FROM products
WHERE id = :id');$stmt->bindValue(':id', $_POST['id'],
PDO::PARAM_INT);
So to answer your question, the simplest way to defend against SQL injection attacks is to avoid building your own SQL queries, and instead to use an API like PDO that will do it for you, safely. Indeed, PHP is one of the few languages where building SQL queries by combining strings is a common practice, and I’d say the prevalence of SQL injection attacks on PHP-based applications can be largely attributed to this.
Friday, September 1, 2006
Pleth, LLC Launches EzCya
EZCYA.com, a Division of PLETH Networks, LLC has launched their website and service. At this time the EZCYA.com website offers a simple description of EZCYA’s services and outlines their current pricing structure.
“In the very near future we plan to add total automation to our offsite data warehousing business,” said Cotton Rohrscheib, Partner of PLETH Networks, LLC. “We plan to allow visitors to EZCYA.com the ability to purchase storage space online, and then access their products and services online instantly using the credentials they provide.”
It has been rumored that PLETH Networks, LLC will soon be announcing a strategic partnership with Modernbill, a totally automated accounting solution geared toward Web Hosting Providers. No specific date has been named as the target date for this announcement.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Pleth Meets with Planet CEO
In this month's Telemetry Newsletter from the Planet,
which goes out to all of their clients and probably released to countless media
outlets that serve the technology industry there is a photo of Doug Erwin, the
new Planet CEO, discussing future plans and answering feedbacks from leaders in
the hosting industry. You guessed it, the guys from Pleth made the
photo...
CEO Doug Erwin is focusing on getting to know you, our customers. He recently said, “Listening to our customers is absolutely a priority for me. Our success depends on being in tune with our customers’ needs.”
Since joining the company in July, Erwin visited with our clients at HostingCon as part of an open-forum session. Customers asked questions about the company and provided us with valuable feedback. He has also made personal phone calls to many of you, soliciting your opinions on the challenges and benefits of being our customer.
Continuing his open dialogue, Erwin conducted a candid online chat with our customers on September 9th. He plans to continue this conversation with you several times a year.
Erwin has also pored over your ideas and suggestions from the recent customer survey and products are launching in response to those results.
Highlights from the recent customer survey include:
- 1,309 customers completed the survey
- More than 80% have been with us for over a year.
- 70% of you work for a start-up or a small business.
- Most of you are very interested in security audits and hourly system administration support, with a tech staff that is a scalable, on-demand extension to your team.
- Only 5% of you maintain servers with both Houston and Dallas.
- We are integrating our order systems, making it easier for customers to access the best services we have to offer.
- 85% of respondents expect growth in the coming year
- 75% plan to order new servers or upgrades from us.
Wednesday, August 9, 2006
Press Release: Pleth Updates Control Panel
08/09/2006 04:04:58 AM - DALLAS, TX: While locating their Server Farm to the PLANET NOC in Dallas, Texas, PLETH Networks, LLC made the switch from Ensim to PLESK as their primary Control Panel Software Solution. PLETH and their 300 licensed clients have utilized the PLESK Control Panel Solution on both Microsoft and Linux Hosting Platforms with great success since the migration.
On April 3rd, SWSOFT, Inc. announced the release of PLESK 8.0. The PLETH Team implemented the upgrade to 8.0 from 7.5.4 on April 4. During the upgrade only isolated accounts of interruption was experienced by PLETH and it’s clients. During the installation, the PLETH team was assisted by the Award Winning Support Team at the PLANET NOC.
On April 3rd, SWSOFT, Inc. announced the release of PLESK 8.0. The PLETH Team implemented the upgrade to 8.0 from 7.5.4 on April 4. During the upgrade only isolated accounts of interruption was experienced by PLETH and it’s clients. During the installation, the PLETH team was assisted by the Award Winning Support Team at the PLANET NOC.
Friday, August 4, 2006
Managed -vs- Unmanaged Hosting
One of the core aspects of our business model here at Pleth, LLC is Managed Hosting. We have found that many of our new (potential) customers have a difficult time differentiating between Managed vs. Unmanaged hosting. I recently ran across an article at The Whir that did a good job of explaining the benefits of Managed Hosting. We also offer Unmanaged services through Pleth Plus if this is a service that may interest you.
Operating a Web presence can become very involved once a company’s hosting requirements progress beyond simply needing a dedicated server. Managed services are therefore geared toward organizations that don’t have the time or capital to invest in server administration.
Managed services normally provide equipment procurement, provisioning and installation, and network monitoring and management backed by Service Level Agreement. Managed services also provide end-to-end network management and maintenance support for locations around the world.
Think of a managed server as a server armed with extended features and support. A managed server will come equipped with the features one would expect from a dedicated provider, including choice of OS, routing equipment, network connectivity and complete administrative control. However, instead of leaving most of the administrative tasks to the customer, a managed provider will typically handle that as well. Many companies will often assign you a dedicated service representative who will cater only to you and a handful of other accounts.
This support also comes in the form of proprietary control panel technology that enables the inexperienced administrator to easily set up and maintain sites on a server. This is achieved through an intuitive and user friendly point and click method rather than by typing complicated commands at a prompt line.
Many hosting companies offer a supplementary suite of features and services that related to managed hosting, including application and database management, high-availability services and load balancing.
Most reputable Web hosting firms will offer managed Web hosting services, and will back up their services with performance guarantees and Service Level Agreements. (At Pleth, LLC we focus primarily on fostering and maintaining managed hosting relationships)
Unmanaged services, on the other hand, give the customer complete remote server administration capability and freedom. The downside to this is that unmanaged servers require a large amount of time and technical expertise, as the customer is ultimately responsible for the instillation and management of the server - not the Web host. For this reason, unmanaged servers are only recommended for individuals and companies with extensive server administration resources or expertise, as well as a significant amount of time available to take care of the server.
If you’re unsure about which service to choose, give serious consideration to choosing a managed server. While taking the managed route is more expensive, it is also much more reassuring for the inexperienced administrator.
Operating a Web presence can become very involved once a company’s hosting requirements progress beyond simply needing a dedicated server. Managed services are therefore geared toward organizations that don’t have the time or capital to invest in server administration.
Managed services normally provide equipment procurement, provisioning and installation, and network monitoring and management backed by Service Level Agreement. Managed services also provide end-to-end network management and maintenance support for locations around the world.
Think of a managed server as a server armed with extended features and support. A managed server will come equipped with the features one would expect from a dedicated provider, including choice of OS, routing equipment, network connectivity and complete administrative control. However, instead of leaving most of the administrative tasks to the customer, a managed provider will typically handle that as well. Many companies will often assign you a dedicated service representative who will cater only to you and a handful of other accounts.
This support also comes in the form of proprietary control panel technology that enables the inexperienced administrator to easily set up and maintain sites on a server. This is achieved through an intuitive and user friendly point and click method rather than by typing complicated commands at a prompt line.
Many hosting companies offer a supplementary suite of features and services that related to managed hosting, including application and database management, high-availability services and load balancing.
Most reputable Web hosting firms will offer managed Web hosting services, and will back up their services with performance guarantees and Service Level Agreements. (At Pleth, LLC we focus primarily on fostering and maintaining managed hosting relationships)
Unmanaged services, on the other hand, give the customer complete remote server administration capability and freedom. The downside to this is that unmanaged servers require a large amount of time and technical expertise, as the customer is ultimately responsible for the instillation and management of the server - not the Web host. For this reason, unmanaged servers are only recommended for individuals and companies with extensive server administration resources or expertise, as well as a significant amount of time available to take care of the server.
If you’re unsure about which service to choose, give serious consideration to choosing a managed server. While taking the managed route is more expensive, it is also much more reassuring for the inexperienced administrator.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Planet Announces New CEO
Attending HostingCon 2006 this year in Las Vegas, will be the new CEO of the Planet / EV1Servers. While we are there we plan to hopefully have an opportunity to shake hands and meet with him. More later as things start to come together closer to the Conference.
———— NEWS RELEASE FROM THE PLANET ——————
The best just got better.We are pleased to announce that EV1Servers and The Planet have merged. Combined, we are now the largest dedicated web hosting provider in the world, providing customers with access to even greater resources, knowledge and technology.
Customers will continue to enjoy the same industry-leading products and service they have come to expect from our companies, but will now be able to tap into a larger network of resources, for even better service and reliability.
Leading the joint effort is newly appointed Chairman and CEO, Douglas J. Erwin, who brings extensive leadership experience and industry intelligence to the companies.
“With EV1Servers and The Planet already representing the upper echelon of Web hosting companies, our merger creates a powerhouse of resources for our customers,” said Erwin. “We have the scope, scale, and financial strength to deliver unmatched service levels and ground-breaking product offerings to existing and new customers.”
Erwin brings more than 30 years of leadership experience to the companies, with a track record of funding, building, acquiring and integrating technology companies. Most recently he was chairman and CEO of blade server pioneer RLX Technologies. Under Erwin’s leadership, RLX’s Control Tower blade management software became an industry standard, leading to the company’s October 2005 acquisition by Hewlett Packard. Prior to RLX, Erwin was chairman, co-founder and CEO of PentaSafe Technologies, a startup that became recognized as a leader in integrated security management solutions. PentaSafe was acquired by NetIQ in October 2002.
Erwin in 2000 was runner up for the Ernst and Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” in Houston. In 2001 he was voted one of the top ten most influential in Texas in the high tech industry.
———— NEWS RELEASE FROM THE PLANET ——————
The best just got better.We are pleased to announce that EV1Servers and The Planet have merged. Combined, we are now the largest dedicated web hosting provider in the world, providing customers with access to even greater resources, knowledge and technology.
Customers will continue to enjoy the same industry-leading products and service they have come to expect from our companies, but will now be able to tap into a larger network of resources, for even better service and reliability.
Leading the joint effort is newly appointed Chairman and CEO, Douglas J. Erwin, who brings extensive leadership experience and industry intelligence to the companies.
“With EV1Servers and The Planet already representing the upper echelon of Web hosting companies, our merger creates a powerhouse of resources for our customers,” said Erwin. “We have the scope, scale, and financial strength to deliver unmatched service levels and ground-breaking product offerings to existing and new customers.”
Erwin brings more than 30 years of leadership experience to the companies, with a track record of funding, building, acquiring and integrating technology companies. Most recently he was chairman and CEO of blade server pioneer RLX Technologies. Under Erwin’s leadership, RLX’s Control Tower blade management software became an industry standard, leading to the company’s October 2005 acquisition by Hewlett Packard. Prior to RLX, Erwin was chairman, co-founder and CEO of PentaSafe Technologies, a startup that became recognized as a leader in integrated security management solutions. PentaSafe was acquired by NetIQ in October 2002.
Erwin in 2000 was runner up for the Ernst and Young “Entrepreneur of the Year” in Houston. In 2001 he was voted one of the top ten most influential in Texas in the high tech industry.
Friday, July 21, 2006
HostingCon 2006 - 07/18/06: SaaS (Software as a Service) on Demand
Don Best, from JamCracker.com was the guest speaker for this informative seminar highlighting one of the most popular buzzwords of the entire HostingCon 2006 Conference, SaaS. SaaS, an acronym for software as a service, is basically the wave of the future for hosting providers. For many years the hosting industry and development community have taken two seperate paths, but w/ the advent of websites like jamcracker.com, the roads have converged. Many hosting companies are now going to be offering specific software applications to their clients based on individual needs and not feeling the urge to hire out custom application work to development firms for various vertical applications. For instance, a development firm like PLETH, that has a particular application that is valuable to widget manufacturers, can really benefit by posting their software into the ecosystem of applications that are available and a hosting company w/out a design department or another development firm might have a client who manufactures widgets who could benefit from this product. In a sense PLETH has already been a part of the ecosystem, providing everything from Intranet solutions to Real Estate MLS IDX to clients across the United States, but I think that since the industry has decided to follow the PLETH business model, things will only be getting better.
In a seperate lunch conversation with Don Best, we shared our business model with him and how we service our clients and he immediately understood where we were coming from. That wasn’t a common thing at HostingCon in talking with service providers from other parts of the United States, in fact I would go as far as to say that most of the ones we talked to probably do not know their clients. The hosting industry as a whole is an inpersonal type of industry that strives to obtain quantity moreso than to provide quality of service. I have to also admit that prior to PLETH I was guilty of having this mindset, but I have seen that Hosting clients that are also development clients that trust 100% of their online presence to us are willing to outsource the technical aspects of managing servers, configuring dns, managing email configurations, etc. to a firm like PLETH than they are to try to hire a full time IT department. These clients also aren’t concerned in the least that they are paying a little bit more for web hosting since it also comes with support that is fanatical and around the clock. I can see many of todays larger firms eventually getting this and transferring the management of their web presence entirely to an outside firm as opposed to an internal staff of IT professionals who clock out each day at 6pm.
A couple of suggestions that we did hear that we will likely be incorporating over the next few months were:
- Offering Hosted Microsoft Exchange as a Service
- Providing a Disaster Recovery and Offsite Backup Solution
- Offering more Services geared toward Mobile Messaging / Applications
One of the other sessions we attended was for recognizing the trends that are growing in todays marketplace and one that I was a little surprised by but shouldn’t have been was mobile messaging. In fact, I was text messaging a friend as the speaker pulled up his powerpoint slide displaying a graph that showed many business’s today are using Mobile Messaging as well as bundled Mobile Applications in tandem with their regular management software. I was impressed that we had thought of this about 6 months earlier when we added SMS to our already robust PLETHWARE Groupware / Webmail solution.
In a seperate lunch conversation with Don Best, we shared our business model with him and how we service our clients and he immediately understood where we were coming from. That wasn’t a common thing at HostingCon in talking with service providers from other parts of the United States, in fact I would go as far as to say that most of the ones we talked to probably do not know their clients. The hosting industry as a whole is an inpersonal type of industry that strives to obtain quantity moreso than to provide quality of service. I have to also admit that prior to PLETH I was guilty of having this mindset, but I have seen that Hosting clients that are also development clients that trust 100% of their online presence to us are willing to outsource the technical aspects of managing servers, configuring dns, managing email configurations, etc. to a firm like PLETH than they are to try to hire a full time IT department. These clients also aren’t concerned in the least that they are paying a little bit more for web hosting since it also comes with support that is fanatical and around the clock. I can see many of todays larger firms eventually getting this and transferring the management of their web presence entirely to an outside firm as opposed to an internal staff of IT professionals who clock out each day at 6pm.
A couple of suggestions that we did hear that we will likely be incorporating over the next few months were:
- Offering Hosted Microsoft Exchange as a Service
- Providing a Disaster Recovery and Offsite Backup Solution
- Offering more Services geared toward Mobile Messaging / Applications
One of the other sessions we attended was for recognizing the trends that are growing in todays marketplace and one that I was a little surprised by but shouldn’t have been was mobile messaging. In fact, I was text messaging a friend as the speaker pulled up his powerpoint slide displaying a graph that showed many business’s today are using Mobile Messaging as well as bundled Mobile Applications in tandem with their regular management software. I was impressed that we had thought of this about 6 months earlier when we added SMS to our already robust PLETHWARE Groupware / Webmail solution.
HostingCon 2006 - 07/19/06: Growing Trends in Today’s Business’s
Another very informative session at the conference for me was the Growing Trends session that was put on by a top representative from Hostway, Inc. They had spent a considerable amount of money this past year surveying their clients and identifying the top trends among todays businesses. I was surprised to learn that 43% of small businesses today still have servers and try to host their websites internally. This figure drops every year but is still surprising to me to learn this. I don’t think that this figure is completely accurate, but that’s my opinion. I find that a lot of the clients we see that have hosted their websites elsewhere have predominately all been in another data warehouse or hosting provider and very few try to manage their own servers, etc. I guess a few of the larger clietns we see today that have a full time IT department might still be hosting internally but I bet that they are likely looking to outsource to cut costs and reduce the workload of their already overworked IT departments.
Another trend that couldn’t be ignored was that Text messaging had become a vital part of a lot of todays operations. There was a lot of talk about how email was still considered by many to be the killer app, but there was no real email solution providers in attendance, other than Microsoft, that I could see. We felt pretty good in learning that messaging was earning it’s place in the service offerings arena because we had already been there for over 6 months with our PLETHWARE product.
Disaster Recovery and Offsite Data Backups also were popular buzzwords during the conference, and PLETH is already in talks with a software firm to create the ultimate CYA (Cover Your Assets) type of software application that will completely automate the tasks of backing up critical and sensitive data such as Quickbooks, Microsoft Money, and Microsoft Outlook contacts as well as a host of other software applications popular to todays small businesses and entrepreneurs. Offsite Data Backups for personal use also make a lot of sense to us. Take for example the fire-proofed safe that weighs 600 pounds that our parents use to house important documents and family photos inside their homes. Since most of the photos taken today are digital, it only makes sense to have digital safes to store these items in. A computers hard drive can fill up pretty quick w/ digital photos. Many of todays digital cameras will default to approximately 4mb or higher resolution per image, with the higher the resolution the higher the quality of the picture. This is a sharp contrast to the size of digital images even just a year or so ago, most of which were in the 2mb range with some defaulted to even smaller file sizes. In the event of a fire, or even a stolen computer system, an entire lifetime of digital photos would be lost forever, but with the offsite data backup solution in place, digital photos can be stored a mouseclick away…
Another trend in todays hosting industry that doesn’t really fit into the PLETH portfolio of business offerings was game hosting. Game hosting is extremely popular, probably moreso than any of us had really imagined. It wasn’t until I heard the new CEO from the PLANET, Doug Erwin mention that Insomnia365 was one of their popular offerings that it really sank in for me. In further talks with Julia Morgan, VP of Sales and Marketing for the PLANET, we learned that our network center was equipped with one of the most state of the art centers for game hosting in the world. Cortex, a gaming control panel, is already in place and available for our use should we decide to offer gaming as a service in the near future. We have been considering this pretty hard for the last few days and expect to have an announcement regarding gameserver offerings in the very near future…
Another trend that couldn’t be ignored was that Text messaging had become a vital part of a lot of todays operations. There was a lot of talk about how email was still considered by many to be the killer app, but there was no real email solution providers in attendance, other than Microsoft, that I could see. We felt pretty good in learning that messaging was earning it’s place in the service offerings arena because we had already been there for over 6 months with our PLETHWARE product.
Disaster Recovery and Offsite Data Backups also were popular buzzwords during the conference, and PLETH is already in talks with a software firm to create the ultimate CYA (Cover Your Assets) type of software application that will completely automate the tasks of backing up critical and sensitive data such as Quickbooks, Microsoft Money, and Microsoft Outlook contacts as well as a host of other software applications popular to todays small businesses and entrepreneurs. Offsite Data Backups for personal use also make a lot of sense to us. Take for example the fire-proofed safe that weighs 600 pounds that our parents use to house important documents and family photos inside their homes. Since most of the photos taken today are digital, it only makes sense to have digital safes to store these items in. A computers hard drive can fill up pretty quick w/ digital photos. Many of todays digital cameras will default to approximately 4mb or higher resolution per image, with the higher the resolution the higher the quality of the picture. This is a sharp contrast to the size of digital images even just a year or so ago, most of which were in the 2mb range with some defaulted to even smaller file sizes. In the event of a fire, or even a stolen computer system, an entire lifetime of digital photos would be lost forever, but with the offsite data backup solution in place, digital photos can be stored a mouseclick away…
Another trend in todays hosting industry that doesn’t really fit into the PLETH portfolio of business offerings was game hosting. Game hosting is extremely popular, probably moreso than any of us had really imagined. It wasn’t until I heard the new CEO from the PLANET, Doug Erwin mention that Insomnia365 was one of their popular offerings that it really sank in for me. In further talks with Julia Morgan, VP of Sales and Marketing for the PLANET, we learned that our network center was equipped with one of the most state of the art centers for game hosting in the world. Cortex, a gaming control panel, is already in place and available for our use should we decide to offer gaming as a service in the near future. We have been considering this pretty hard for the last few days and expect to have an announcement regarding gameserver offerings in the very near future…
Tuesday, June 6, 2006
Pleth, LLC Joins SWDN
PLETH, LLC is pleased to announce that they have joined the SWsoft Developer Network (SWDN). The SWDN is a resource and community center behind SWsoft’s OPEN FUSION Initiative. SWSOFT manufactures PLESK Control Panel Software that is currently used by PLETH, LLC hosting clients. The SWDN was created specifically for hosting service providers. SWDN provides API documentation and SDK’s needed for in-house customizations and integration with SWsoft software. Some of the many benefits of SWDN:
- Development Licenses: for all SWsoft products.
- Software Developer Kits (SDKs) including API specs, & tech manuals.
- Product Betas: early access to products before the general public.
- Forums and Support: to interact and share information with SWsoft engineers
The PLETH, LLC Management Team met with Representatives from SWSOFT, Inc. this year during HostingCon 2006 in Las Vegas.
Thursday, June 1, 2006
What is Web Hosting?
I recently ran across an article at The Whir that did a good job of explaining the basic principles of webhosting.Web hosting is a service that allows users to post Web pages to the Internet.
A Web host, or hosting service provider (HSP), is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for Web sites to be viewed on the Web.
Web hosting is a primary service that consumers can utilize after obtaining either dial-up or broadband access to the Internet. It allows users to disseminate their own information resources to any Internet user that is interested in accessing them. Web hosting utilizes the server/client model to distribute content. A Web hosting provider will offer its clients access to a Web server that will push that client’s content to recipients on request. Recipients use clients, or Web browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator to request content from the Web over their own Internet connection.
Web sites are hosted, or stored, on a special computer called a server. The server, or host computer, allows Internet users connected anywhere to reach your site when they put in your domain address, for example: www.yourcompany.com.
The host computers are set up so that when someone types in your domain name (your Web address), the address will follow a route from computer to computer until it reaches your host computer and your web site. Then the Internet user will be able to browse through your Web site. Hosting companies usually require that you own your own domain name in order to host with them. If you don’t have a domain name, most hosting companies will help you purchase one.
To have a Web site on the Internet you first need to have a Web server. Unfortunately, owning and operating a Web server can be very costly and requires technical expertise that most businesses do not possess. This is where “Web hosts” come in. Web hosts provide the equipment and other technical resources that are required to provide a consumer with their own customized Web site. Hosting companies charge a rental fee for the service of storing your Web site and allowing Web site visitor traffic flow to through their computers to get to the information on your site.
Web hosting services are more advantageous because they are outsourced, meaning that the physical location of the Web server does not reside at the consumer’s premises. Outsourcing your Web presence effectively transfers the responsibility for maintaining your Web site infrastructure from yourself to an organization that is more competent to do so.
Many individuals and small businesses take advantage of Web hosts in order to free themselves from pre-occupying their scarce human and financial resources on Web host issues. Individuals and companies who outsource their Web presence do so in order to achieve the following objectives: reduce and control operating costs; improve their own company focus; gain access to in-depth expertise; free internal resources for core competencies; and obtain access to world-class capabilities to control IT functions which are difficult to manage.
The best Web hosting services will provide relatively seamless access to IT functions that will allow you to self-publish your Web site. It is important to note that “Web hosting” strictly refers to providing the consumer with the capacity to upload content to a server for immediate transmission for those that request it. Web hosting does not include the authoring of a Web site or the development of database-driven components or code. It is incumbent upon the consumer of Web hosting services to develop this material or have it developed on his or her behalf.
Web hosting is offered to the consumer in multiple formats based upon the user’s requirements. These requirements are incumbent upon cost and infrastructure provided.
Web hosting can be obtained free of cost from content portal sites such as Yahoo! GeoCities. Such content sites invite individual users to establish Web sites on their domain in order to create a critical mass of core content on their online property. The user does not pay for service because it is subsidized by banner advertising. Because such sites do not charge, they offer limited service depth and quality of service. For example, free services will not provide customized hosting services where domain names are personalized (i.e., www.yourdomain.com).
The “paid” class of Web hosting services however does provide such services. Paid services are normally offered by Internet service providers (ISPs) or by hosting service providers (HSPs). Paid services provide a reliable set of offerings that ensure domain name personalization, service depth and high levels of quality of service. The paid class of Web hosting includes shared, dedicated and managed services. Shared is the most basic level of hosting. With shared hosting, numerous Web sites are shared on one server. While an economic solution, they typically cannot handle large amounts of storage or traffic.
If a consumer’s needs are more sophisticated, then they might opt for either dedicated or managed services.
Dedicated hosting allots a Web site its own server. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as webmasters typically have full control over the back end of the server, including choice of OS.
Managed hosting, on the other hand is a dedicated server that is accompanied by a full suite of technical support, maintenance and monitoring services. This differs from dedicated Web hosting, where customers are provided with their own servers but are still responsible for virtually all administrative and maintenance duties.
A Web host, or hosting service provider (HSP), is a business that provides the technologies and services needed for Web sites to be viewed on the Web.
Web hosting is a primary service that consumers can utilize after obtaining either dial-up or broadband access to the Internet. It allows users to disseminate their own information resources to any Internet user that is interested in accessing them. Web hosting utilizes the server/client model to distribute content. A Web hosting provider will offer its clients access to a Web server that will push that client’s content to recipients on request. Recipients use clients, or Web browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator to request content from the Web over their own Internet connection.
Web sites are hosted, or stored, on a special computer called a server. The server, or host computer, allows Internet users connected anywhere to reach your site when they put in your domain address, for example: www.yourcompany.com.
The host computers are set up so that when someone types in your domain name (your Web address), the address will follow a route from computer to computer until it reaches your host computer and your web site. Then the Internet user will be able to browse through your Web site. Hosting companies usually require that you own your own domain name in order to host with them. If you don’t have a domain name, most hosting companies will help you purchase one.
To have a Web site on the Internet you first need to have a Web server. Unfortunately, owning and operating a Web server can be very costly and requires technical expertise that most businesses do not possess. This is where “Web hosts” come in. Web hosts provide the equipment and other technical resources that are required to provide a consumer with their own customized Web site. Hosting companies charge a rental fee for the service of storing your Web site and allowing Web site visitor traffic flow to through their computers to get to the information on your site.
Web hosting services are more advantageous because they are outsourced, meaning that the physical location of the Web server does not reside at the consumer’s premises. Outsourcing your Web presence effectively transfers the responsibility for maintaining your Web site infrastructure from yourself to an organization that is more competent to do so.
Many individuals and small businesses take advantage of Web hosts in order to free themselves from pre-occupying their scarce human and financial resources on Web host issues. Individuals and companies who outsource their Web presence do so in order to achieve the following objectives: reduce and control operating costs; improve their own company focus; gain access to in-depth expertise; free internal resources for core competencies; and obtain access to world-class capabilities to control IT functions which are difficult to manage.
The best Web hosting services will provide relatively seamless access to IT functions that will allow you to self-publish your Web site. It is important to note that “Web hosting” strictly refers to providing the consumer with the capacity to upload content to a server for immediate transmission for those that request it. Web hosting does not include the authoring of a Web site or the development of database-driven components or code. It is incumbent upon the consumer of Web hosting services to develop this material or have it developed on his or her behalf.
Web hosting is offered to the consumer in multiple formats based upon the user’s requirements. These requirements are incumbent upon cost and infrastructure provided.
Web hosting can be obtained free of cost from content portal sites such as Yahoo! GeoCities. Such content sites invite individual users to establish Web sites on their domain in order to create a critical mass of core content on their online property. The user does not pay for service because it is subsidized by banner advertising. Because such sites do not charge, they offer limited service depth and quality of service. For example, free services will not provide customized hosting services where domain names are personalized (i.e., www.yourdomain.com).
The “paid” class of Web hosting services however does provide such services. Paid services are normally offered by Internet service providers (ISPs) or by hosting service providers (HSPs). Paid services provide a reliable set of offerings that ensure domain name personalization, service depth and high levels of quality of service. The paid class of Web hosting includes shared, dedicated and managed services. Shared is the most basic level of hosting. With shared hosting, numerous Web sites are shared on one server. While an economic solution, they typically cannot handle large amounts of storage or traffic.
If a consumer’s needs are more sophisticated, then they might opt for either dedicated or managed services.
Dedicated hosting allots a Web site its own server. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as webmasters typically have full control over the back end of the server, including choice of OS.
Managed hosting, on the other hand is a dedicated server that is accompanied by a full suite of technical support, maintenance and monitoring services. This differs from dedicated Web hosting, where customers are provided with their own servers but are still responsible for virtually all administrative and maintenance duties.
PCI Compliance & Credit Card Acceptance
I guess that Credit Card Fraud, Chargebacks, etc. finally is getting the best of Credit Card Companies… We learned while we were out in Vegas that PCI compliance would soon become a requirement from any online vendor that is accepting credit cards online by both MasterCard and Visa. I have to say that I am not surprised and sort of glad to see it. It will help to weed through the fly-by-nights that are out there…
What does PCI compliance do? Well, basically it is peace of mind to a shopper that their information is not going to be compromised. Keep in mind that within the last 6 months, the federal government and a branch of the armed forces have both had their information compromised and sensitive information about members of the military and the government were leaked to the general public. In a nutshell, if an online business is a fly-by-night business and do not have their website installed properly on a secure server w/ ssl, pci compliance, etc. they are putting their customers information at risk from being hacked.
At PLETH we have always strived to have the best intrusion detection methods in place at all times for our clients. In fact, we have some big-time clients that will do some heavy sales numbers this year. In our efforts we have learned that you just can’t be on top of everything at all times but you really need to be! With this in mind, we have contracted out with the top Security Auditing Firm in the United States, ScanAlert.
ScanAlert’s signature Hacker-Safe Certification can be found on over 55% of the top 400 e-Commerce websites in the world! We are bringing them to our clients and sparing no expense in doing so. In fact, with our new partnership arrangement that was formed at our meeting in Las Vegas, it is expected that our clients will receive a larger discount than firms that work directly with ScanAlert!
Pleth will soon be launching a co-branded website with ScanAlert that promotes the Hacker Safe Certification program that will ensure that websites meet the criteria for the following:
ScanAlert’s services monitors a websites vulnerabilities 24hrs a day, 7 days a week and watches for vulnerabilities, port scanning, and network fingerprinting services that are patent pending.
HackerSafe certification is currently being sought out by the United States Government, FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, and the Marine Corps. We feel that if providing our clients with peace of mind is our number one priority. In doing so, no other security auditing firm in the United States could be brought in as a partner other than ScanAlert, they are simply the best!
If you have questions regarding PCI compliance please contact a member of our team to discuss your immediate needs. Also, stay tuned to our blog for important announcement regarding the co-branded PLETH / ScanAlert Website that will be available for one stop certification shopping.
Thanks,
Cotton Rohrscheib, Partner
PLETH Networks, LLC
What does PCI compliance do? Well, basically it is peace of mind to a shopper that their information is not going to be compromised. Keep in mind that within the last 6 months, the federal government and a branch of the armed forces have both had their information compromised and sensitive information about members of the military and the government were leaked to the general public. In a nutshell, if an online business is a fly-by-night business and do not have their website installed properly on a secure server w/ ssl, pci compliance, etc. they are putting their customers information at risk from being hacked.
At PLETH we have always strived to have the best intrusion detection methods in place at all times for our clients. In fact, we have some big-time clients that will do some heavy sales numbers this year. In our efforts we have learned that you just can’t be on top of everything at all times but you really need to be! With this in mind, we have contracted out with the top Security Auditing Firm in the United States, ScanAlert.
ScanAlert’s signature Hacker-Safe Certification can be found on over 55% of the top 400 e-Commerce websites in the world! We are bringing them to our clients and sparing no expense in doing so. In fact, with our new partnership arrangement that was formed at our meeting in Las Vegas, it is expected that our clients will receive a larger discount than firms that work directly with ScanAlert!
Pleth will soon be launching a co-branded website with ScanAlert that promotes the Hacker Safe Certification program that will ensure that websites meet the criteria for the following:
- HIPAA Compliance
- PCI Compliance
ScanAlert’s services monitors a websites vulnerabilities 24hrs a day, 7 days a week and watches for vulnerabilities, port scanning, and network fingerprinting services that are patent pending.
HackerSafe certification is currently being sought out by the United States Government, FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, and the Marine Corps. We feel that if providing our clients with peace of mind is our number one priority. In doing so, no other security auditing firm in the United States could be brought in as a partner other than ScanAlert, they are simply the best!
If you have questions regarding PCI compliance please contact a member of our team to discuss your immediate needs. Also, stay tuned to our blog for important announcement regarding the co-branded PLETH / ScanAlert Website that will be available for one stop certification shopping.
Thanks,
Cotton Rohrscheib, Partner
PLETH Networks, LLC
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Planet / EV1 Planning Merger
May 10, 2006 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — With a couple of quick announcements this week, the balance of power in the dedicated Web hosting market shifted, or rather coalesced, into the hands of one new, and very big, organization.
On Saturday, it was reported that investment firm GI Partners (gipartners.com) had acquired controlling interests in two of the dedicated hosting space’s most prominent players, Everyone’s Internet (ev1.net) and The Planet (theplanet.com).
Shortly thereafter, the two companies announced that they had merged, creating the largest dedicated Web hosting provider in the market, with more than 20,000 clients and 50,000 dedicated servers under management.
Executives from both companies say they don’t see the deal ushering in any big changes in the dedicated hosting market. But the significant resources, scale and stability of the new organization will likely enable the two brands, already leaders in the dedicated hosting field, to set the tone for that particular segment of the Web hosting business.
The companies have said they intend for EV1Servers and The Planet to continue to operate as separate brands, but the new potential for the sharing of intellectual property and business practices has obvious benefits for both sides.
Jeff Lowenberg, vice president of operations at EV1, and his counterpart at The Planet, chief operating officer Will Charnock, have begun discussing the ways in which the companies can share resources and ideas.
“The way that I look at it,” says Lowenberg, “we will certainly share technologies that the two companies have developed, and Will and I will be looking at different ways that each company does things, and whoever does it best we’ll start adopting that technology to the other company. But the two companies will continue to have their own identities and their own brands.”
And, in addition to sharing technologies the companies have developed, or are developing, the new organization will benefit from the potential to combine technology resources.
“There is that opportunity,” says Charnock. “And some of the things that we’re kicking around internally are some products that kind of leverage the two different physical locales for some products and things like that.”
The doubling up of engineering staff and resources has the potential to immediately impact the speed and confidence with which the post-merger organization can develop new products and bring them to market. Rather than fundamentally changing anything about the dedicated hosting market, the merger, say its participants, will have its most immediate and most profound effects on the way they do business, and their ability to do so. The significant boost in financial solidity, for instance, could be of considerable interest to customers.
“From my perspective,” says Charnock, “if there are going to be any changes, they’re going to be for the better. I think for the customer, as a whole, combined we’re a very strong company. We’ve seen some of our competitors disappear overnight. And when you look at us now, you have to know that we’re going to be around for the long haul. And you can feel secure when you take your services to us.”
There is plenty of overlap in the partnerships held by the two companies, and while the deal may not immediately create any new vendor relationships for either company, it may have the potential to change their existing relationships.
“We share many of our vendors,” says Charnock. “So it’s hard to pick Microsoft and say ‘that’s an immediate benefit,’ because we already have essentially the same relationship with Microsoft that EV1 does, I believe. So in that respect, I think the benefit is that we’re now a much larger entity, and we can leverage that into maybe having a little more input into features going forward, helping them develop some of their products to suit what our customers are asking for and things like that.”
Interestingly, given the nature of the Web hosting business, the similarity of the two companies in terms of their products and general approach to the business make it very easy for them to slip into a collaborative relationship. It is no big surprise that two companies succeeding in dedicated hosting are operating very similarly.
“We didn’t have a working relationship [prior to the acquisitions and merger],” says Lowenberg, “but it was good competition between us, as it was two of the biggest, if not the biggest in this particular section of the market. We drove each other to improve our service offerings, and we’ll continue to do so. Only now it won’t be so much one against the other. We’ll be forcing the rest of the market to keep up with us.”
On Saturday, it was reported that investment firm GI Partners (gipartners.com) had acquired controlling interests in two of the dedicated hosting space’s most prominent players, Everyone’s Internet (ev1.net) and The Planet (theplanet.com).
Shortly thereafter, the two companies announced that they had merged, creating the largest dedicated Web hosting provider in the market, with more than 20,000 clients and 50,000 dedicated servers under management.
Executives from both companies say they don’t see the deal ushering in any big changes in the dedicated hosting market. But the significant resources, scale and stability of the new organization will likely enable the two brands, already leaders in the dedicated hosting field, to set the tone for that particular segment of the Web hosting business.
The companies have said they intend for EV1Servers and The Planet to continue to operate as separate brands, but the new potential for the sharing of intellectual property and business practices has obvious benefits for both sides.
Jeff Lowenberg, vice president of operations at EV1, and his counterpart at The Planet, chief operating officer Will Charnock, have begun discussing the ways in which the companies can share resources and ideas.
“The way that I look at it,” says Lowenberg, “we will certainly share technologies that the two companies have developed, and Will and I will be looking at different ways that each company does things, and whoever does it best we’ll start adopting that technology to the other company. But the two companies will continue to have their own identities and their own brands.”
And, in addition to sharing technologies the companies have developed, or are developing, the new organization will benefit from the potential to combine technology resources.
“There is that opportunity,” says Charnock. “And some of the things that we’re kicking around internally are some products that kind of leverage the two different physical locales for some products and things like that.”
The doubling up of engineering staff and resources has the potential to immediately impact the speed and confidence with which the post-merger organization can develop new products and bring them to market. Rather than fundamentally changing anything about the dedicated hosting market, the merger, say its participants, will have its most immediate and most profound effects on the way they do business, and their ability to do so. The significant boost in financial solidity, for instance, could be of considerable interest to customers.
“From my perspective,” says Charnock, “if there are going to be any changes, they’re going to be for the better. I think for the customer, as a whole, combined we’re a very strong company. We’ve seen some of our competitors disappear overnight. And when you look at us now, you have to know that we’re going to be around for the long haul. And you can feel secure when you take your services to us.”
There is plenty of overlap in the partnerships held by the two companies, and while the deal may not immediately create any new vendor relationships for either company, it may have the potential to change their existing relationships.
“We share many of our vendors,” says Charnock. “So it’s hard to pick Microsoft and say ‘that’s an immediate benefit,’ because we already have essentially the same relationship with Microsoft that EV1 does, I believe. So in that respect, I think the benefit is that we’re now a much larger entity, and we can leverage that into maybe having a little more input into features going forward, helping them develop some of their products to suit what our customers are asking for and things like that.”
Interestingly, given the nature of the Web hosting business, the similarity of the two companies in terms of their products and general approach to the business make it very easy for them to slip into a collaborative relationship. It is no big surprise that two companies succeeding in dedicated hosting are operating very similarly.
“We didn’t have a working relationship [prior to the acquisitions and merger],” says Lowenberg, “but it was good competition between us, as it was two of the biggest, if not the biggest in this particular section of the market. We drove each other to improve our service offerings, and we’ll continue to do so. Only now it won’t be so much one against the other. We’ll be forcing the rest of the market to keep up with us.”
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