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Kenny is owner of webhostpark and has been working in hosting industry since 2006. We provide unbiased hosting reviews and release the latest promo news. Follow me on Google plus

Open Xchange Email Hosting

Open-Xchange email hosting

In this article posting we will introduce Open-Xchange — A new but might become one of the most popular Email solutions. if you're new, it's necessary to learn about it because many web hosting providers start to integrate with this product. If you heard about it and looking for the actual service provider, let's find out who might be the best.

Open-Xchange overview

Open-Xchange Server is an open source project sponsored by Open-Xchange, Inc., developing collaboration software; i.e. email, calendaring, address book, etc. The company was established in 2000 to provide a Linux-based, open source alternative to Microsoft Exchange. From the last year's stats, the product users are over 42 million and is growing fast.

What's good of Open-Xchange?

The OX is Java backend, it can be deployed as a single-instance server or as a scalable, fault-tolerant cluster providing up to several million virtual instances of Open-Xchange Server for many tenants concurrently. Users be able to access email accounts via the popular mail clients such as outlook, thunderbird, mobiles or the Ajax based web UI.

Open-Xchange is available as 4 options from the free community edition to advanced server edition. There will always a suitable one to fulfill your business requirements.

OX Editions Advanced Server Edition Server Edition Hosting Edition Community Edition
Description A completely self-contained "out-of-the-box" email and Smart Collaboration™ solution and a multi-tier, small footprint solution that integrates seamlessly into customers architectures enabling smooth start of operation based on flexible services with Enterprise Linux distribution, identity management and Infrastructure management. It is a multi-tier, small footprint solution that integrates seamlessly into customers architectures enabling smooth start of operation based on flexible services. It is a multi-tier, small footprint solution that integrates seamlessly into software service providers’ architectures enabling delivery of a Smart Collaboration™ SaaS Open-Xchange offers a Community Edition for free download and full functional evaluation versions of all supported Open-Xchange products.

Top Open-Xchange Hosting Providers?

1&1 is the first group who integrated OX for email hosting solution. The service is known as 1&1 MailXchange on their official website. The recent industry news shows the big name endurance International Group (EIG) will offer OX email service to their clients as well. That means a long list of hosting brands will be offering this service such as powweb, ipower, ipage, fatcow etc. almost one hundred names there. Some other popular names are Network solutions, Namecheap and NetArt.

If you're keen on open-xchange and looking for a decent hosting provider, ipage (http://www.ipage.com)is the best choice today bsed their price, hosting features and tech support. Their price $1.99/mo is simply unbeatable over all competitors. iPage open-xchange hosting plan features:

  • FREE domain name
  • Unlimited websites /databases support
  • Unlimited email accounts /ftp accounts support
  • 99% uptime guarantee
  • Any time money back guarantee
  • Only $1.99/mo!

Open-Xchange vs Smartermail vs MailEnable vs cpanel email

Is Open-Xchange better than smartermail or other mail softwares? Well, that all depends. OX is gaining popularity only in recent peirods while the other names have been leading the industry for a long time. But all of them have independent advantages and be able to get their own business.

Smartermail is perfect choice for windows mail server solution, light weight but never disappoint us with the powerful management over all email related services. It's developed via the latest MS asp.net technologies and only available for windows version.

MailEnable is similar to smartermail which is more affordable solution, it's mainly designed for small business purpose.

The Cpanel add-on email services are Squirrel mail, Horde and Roundcube, They would be the main competitors to OX because they're all Linux based. While we need to pay a bit money for OX service, the cPanel mail is completely free. Unless the OX will be developed to integrate with Cpanel directly with more attractive features, it's hard to gain cpanel business. As we see, the main users of OX are not cpanel based.

Web Hosting Hacking Events

web hosting hacking

Hackers are very active at the moment. Many popular services have or being attacked which caused huge loss to both service providers and clients. In any case, the online security protection should be treated seriously for every operators.

Hacking issue in web hosting

All recent hacking events are related to the UGNazi group. The team cracked the popular web hosting billing software WHMCS and hacked into the system database. they gave WHMCS' web hosting provider admin credentials, and was able to gain access to its hosting account, change the email and then request a mailing of the access details. Some sensitive materials like credit card information are in high risk. It's said there might be up to 500,000 client records have been leaked.

Another hacking from UGNazi is to the popular CDN service cloudflare. Facebook seems also included in the hacking list. The FBI has got into the urgent research and arrested one of their members, but the hacking never stopped! The events simply showed us how insecure the internet is. In order to protect our privacy, it's always recommended to set good surfing policy to ourselves.

How to protect account privacy?

No matter if it's for web hosting account or other login account, since it includes our sensitive information, we should always secure it as possible as we can. Generally speaking we can deploy the following to protect it.

  • Set a strong password and change it often.
  • Keep the password at a safe place where you have access to only.
  • Restrict the login to your account, we can apply IP restriction and number of login attempts to avoid potential hacking.
  • Do not login from a public computer and always scan your computer virus.

if we can follow above strictly, our accounts would be pretty safe. Of course there're many more methods to secure our online accounts, just do everything you can to protect it.

How to secure your website?

Website hacking would be the most well known issue on the web. How to protect the sensitive info on our website? We can apply all above rules for account protection, plus we can add the following for website purpose.

  • Contact web developer and optimize the coding and fix potential security leak.
  • Secure the site using SSL if you're operating an Ecommerce site.
  • Password the directory where contains your private data

For nowadays web development, we always use some popular CMS software like joomla, wordpress and drupal etc. For this concern, it's always recommended to sign up their official website newsletter so we can get the security update in time. For wordpress, we have prepared following especially.

  • Replace the default secret keys in wp-config.php file. We can get a set of random unique keys by visiting this URL directly.
  • Change the default admin user to something else other than "admin". The methods and related tips can be found on this wordpress sql queries article.
  • Configure wordpress firewall. There's a plugin called "wordpress firewall 2" developed by Matthew Pavkov. When someone trying to hack into your wordpress site, it will send your email notification so we can take actions!
  • Add the limit login attempts plugin. The purpose of this plugin is to lock out the person from login trying if they have typed wrong id/password for several times.
  • Keep the wordpress core and plugins up to date.

Is that enough? Absolutely no. Because no matter how we secure the site, it's acually being served on hosting server. That means the hosting server security is the most important. We should always keep in touch with the hosting support for any security leak. At the meanwhile, get a quality and secure web hosting is pretty essential to block any potential attacking or hacking.

Dot CN domain Reopened for Personal Registration

Dot CN domain registration

Our topic turns to China again in this article. Just two days before, the CNNIC announced to open dot cn domain name registration to everybody. After two years' restriction over this type domain, it's finally re-opened.

Dot CN domain name introduction

Dot cn domain is managed by CNNIC. The cn domain name is opened for public registration in 2007 and becomes very popular because of the cheap price (only one CN yuan, about $0.2 USD). The positive effect is more people be able to launch their personal websites with low costs. From the ICANN stats, dot cn domain has the second largest registration after dot com. Just like a coin with two sides, the negative effect of the price is many people make buck registration and doing spam over the domains. During 2008 – 2009 there're over one million spam sites on cn domain names.

Maybe because of this, the CNNIC stopped it's registration to personal, only registered companies be able to with some signed materials. Since from then, the ICP license is strictly applied to every websites that hosted on China hosting servers.

How will it affect the market for the re-open?

Definitely, lots of new registration is expected. Since from the previous restriction policy, many people can not register their wished domains with cn tail. There're many unregistered popular names under dot cn so there's huge business. But since the price is turned to the same as other popular domain extensions like .com or .net, The growth would be in good control. The current price is 55 cn yuan under net.cn(about $9 USD)

Is it worth to register the cn domain?

Technically speaking, the cn domain name has no difference to .com or .net etc. If you have a good name in mind, it's recommended to register quickly if it's available. Also, if you have or going to have a business setup in China, the cn domain has some part advantages. The only concern would be the domain security. Because of the past experience over many people, we have to worry if our domains will be locked or removed for any reason. But if we're doing right on the domains for website purpose, I think it's a good chance now to get the wished domains.

Top level dot cn domain registrar: only the net.cn and xinnet.cn are recommended if you're going to register those domains. They're available with .cn and .com.cn. As for international registrars, Godaddy would be the primary consideration in near future, because it has the closest co-operation with CNNIC. You can also check out this best domain registrar for more brands.

IIS 8 Hosting

iis 8 hosting

The world is fast going as well as the IT industry. While something was popularly used yesterday, it's no longer suitable for today's requirements. Take the windows server for instance, the Microsoft group releases new generation OS very effectively recent years. In this posting let's check out the coming soon IIS8 and iis8 hosting service.

What's new in windows server 2012?

Windows 8 and windows server 2012 are currently in beta version. From official press release, it'll be available later in the year. Before the final product comes out, let's take a quick view about the new features.

  • A new interface – Being the next generation OS, windows server 8 loads a very clean screen comparing to any old windows system. The biggest change is the start menu got hided and the common tasks in start menu are completely redesigned. At the first look, you would not think it's windows but some sort of Linux.
  • Server manager – The windows server 2012 server manager be able to configure/manage multiple servers at the same place. More over, the layout and operations are simplified greatly.
  • Task manager – There's revolutionary changes in server 8's task manager. The tasks are categorized and processes using high CPU/RAM will be highlited.

There're many more changes comparing to older windows edition such as management of programs. Simple get the beta version installed and find out more! Windows server 8 download page: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/evaluate/trial-software.aspx

What's new in IIS 8?

There's no much change from the IIS8 layouts, the main improvement is about service optimization. For example it introduced into Real CPU Throttling and dynamic IP restriction techniques. If you would like to more, the Scott's blog is a good place to check about: http://weblogs.asp.net/owscott/archive/2012/03/01/what-s-new-in-iis-8.aspx. The IIS.net official site is also good resource.

Best iis 8 Web Hosting

IIS 8 is offered by most major windows hosting today for its leading technology and management for websites.  based our editorial experience and live user comments,the following brands are working the best for IIS 8 hosting choice:

  • www.Arvixe.com – Leading windows hosting with standard IIS features plus various outstanding features. Highly recommended for medium size website and especially for developers who need different tech supports. Use "mvchosting" for 20% discount when signing up!
  • www.Winhost.com – High quality windows hosting provider who is dedicated for windows server. Clients always receive the latest .net technologies support with more than enough server features. Hosting plan starts as cheap as $4.95/mo
  • www.Discountasp.net – Microsoft gold partner with different classes platform supports. The people behind are from asp.net official development group. It's always the first one who updates with the newest MS products

All above brands have introduced windows server 2012 with IIS 8.0 support for every clients. You can take full advantages of iis 8 hosting service via remote iis manager and powerful hosting control panels.

For fast and affordable windows server 2012 hosting, Arvixe is the best choice. Users get standard windows server support and more than expected service. No matter if you're running a small personal website or enterprise portal, arvixe have multi class hosting solutions to support your website requirements.

Visit arvixe for windows hosting plans! http://www.Arvixe.com

Top China Web Hosting

Top China Web Hosting

China has the world's largest population and also the largest potential E-market. After thirty years' open policy, China has turned from the world's factory to consumer market. With it's internet development, more and more business being set online. If you're going to make business in that area, it's pretty essential to have an China local web hosting provider to host your business website.

The limitation of China web hosting

ICP license registration would be the main problem to put your website online in China, no matter if you're enterprise or personal websites you have to apply the license and follow it's rules to operate your website content. Another effect for running live site is webmaster will have to shutdown it for license issuer review, it takes up to 7 days which is not acceptable for most ecommerce websites.

China web hosting industry Overview

Just the same as US, there're tons of hosting companies in China, however, most of them do not have their own datacenters and servers, their business is mainly reseller based. Because it's very expensive to running this business, especially the cost of bandwidth in CN. Only those big groups have financial abilities to purchase the real equipments.

Comparing to US or other popular districts' web hosting service, the China web hosting plans are relatively expensive because of the costly equipments. If you find some cheap hosting plans with similar features from US hosting, they're probably resellers of US hosting.

Top China web hosting providers

It's expensive to run hosting business in China, there're still some good service providers who have long history from the industry. To have a quick look over their service features, here's a basic table list.

Website Net.cn Xinnet.cn Sudu.cn West263.com Now.cn Edong.com
Pricing ￥580/yr ￥580/yr ￥235.2/yr ￥148/yr ￥379/yr ￥298/yr
Server OS Windows/Linux Windows/Linux Windows/Linux Windows/Linux Windows/Linux Windows/Linux
Disk/Bandwidth 150MB | 20GB/mo 1GB | 10GB 1GB | 10GB 100MB | 1-GB 150MB | Unlimited 200MB | Unlimited
Support 24 x 7 24 x 7 24 x 7 24 x 7 24 x 7 24 x 7
Support Domains 10 10 1 15 3 4
English site www.hichina.com X X X www.eranet.com X

Among the list, net.cn and xinnet are the largest China web hosting providers. Their market share in that area already passed 80% from general analysis, they're recognized as safe and reliable hosting provider, and of course their price is relatively high comparing to all their competitors.

Here's a graphic view of China top hosting companies by webhostinginfo site

top china web hosting

The above web hosts share over 90% hosting business in China. They have support or servers in every popular datacenters in the country. Except for the mainland servers, they also co-operate with HongKong DCs and global CDN service. In the list, the HICHINA group is operating almost half of the total service, it's the largest hosting company in China. No matter compare it in CN or world wide, it's very huge group.

Best China Web Hosting Alternative choice?

For 100% China mainland based web hosting, the above names should be good enough. However, based the complex to host your website there, you might choose the best nearby server locations like Hongkong. If Hongkong is included then I still recommend the webweb.com service which is discoussed in our previous webhost4life new business article. If you just need Chinese support but do not want to host your website on China server, you can check out the Ixwebhosting China posting for further details.

Web Hosting Affiliate Contest

web hosting affiliate contest

Affiliate program is playing an important role in almost every online business. Because of such program we got to know many competitor brands for the service we're looking for. In this post I would like to discuss about the affiliate contest in web hosting industry and reveal who is actually doing the honest business.

Recently I received multiple email letters about hosting affiliate invitation. Their programs announced to offer pretty attractive commission for each verified orders(monthly or yearly order). In order to get their name ranked, they even willed to offer a life time free hosting account. Many brands are newly setup so it's not surprise to see such marketing tricks, but some popular names are also doing the same thing which surprised me a lot. Because of this, I did lots of research to see how their names being promoted on affiliate sites. Here I would like to introduce several of the most active hosting brands with high commission rate.

Hostgator – The most active hosting who cares about affiliate business. Their CEO revealed in long time ago that their success is because of the affiliates and resellers. The hostgator people designed a pretty nice affiliate program where their affiliates be able to create coupon codes by their own(25% discount). In order to courage people to advertise more about HG hosting, they launch affiliate contests every few months. During the contest periods if you can make the amount of orders, there's extra $300 rewards beside up to $125 per sale commission.

Is hostgator any good? The answer is yes because it's verified by lots of people. What I would like to say is, because of their successful affiliate marketing, the hostgator service is almost advertised everywhere on the web, this reduced the group lots of Ads fees. So don't you think the HG is a smart group? HG official site: www.hostgator.com

iPage – Another big name in hosting industry, no much to say about their service. Cheap and honest are probably the two words for short conclusion. iPage is also running a successful affiliate program. Unlike many hosts who set a high price for their hosting plan and give out some percentage for affiliate commission, the ipage affiliate is almost unprofitable to the group. Just about $3/mo service and you can earn $105 per sale! They're even planning to increase the commission to $120.

iPage is one of the very few quality brands under EIG. No matter if you want to be their hosting user or affiliate, you'll be satisfied. iPage official site: www.ipage.com

Siteground – One of the olddest web hosting companies who provide cheap and reliable hosting solutions. Siteground also has the mostly SEO designed website. Their page rank and overall search ranking is the best one among all competitors' websites. Because of their very cheap hosting plan, their affiliate commission is only paid via part of the sales.

But just few days ago, everything changed with their grogram. The upgraded their hosting plan fees as well as the affiliate commission. Affiliates now get $80 – $150 per sale if they can introduce the amount of orders. But we might not be able to claim their old promotional price any more(As cheap as $9.95/yr). Siteground official site: www.siteground.com

Ixwebhosting  –  The first one who can give affiliates up to $150 per sale commission. It's well known for it's cheap hosting plan and dedicated IP bonus. Almost every advertisement on the web will mention this. Because of the cheap service and attractive affiliate commission, ix is rated in top 10 list among the most famous brands.

I can't say ix service is the best but definitely the most suitable one for those who like to host multiple websites especially ecommerce websites, you won't pay extra for ssl installation while other companies will charge the static ip fees(about $2/mo per ip). Ix official site: www.ixwebhosting.com

For page limtis, I just list out the above popular names with recent updates. Feel free to post the names in comment section if you found great with this topic.