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When you configure email service you probably have noticed there're two options, POP3 and IMAP. In normal case, both solutions will work properly unless your email service provider got something wrong. What would be their difference? Should you choose POP3 or IMAP on your email client? Here we have compared the two options side by side and help you find the best email service provider.

POP3 Introduction

Post Office Protocol (POP) is basic internet protocol for email transition. POP3 is the third and most current version that's supported by all email service providers. This protocol supports simple download-and-delete requirements for access to remote mailboxes. Means once emails downloaded to client end storage, server end copy will be deleted. POP3 protocol works on port 110. More explanation of pop3 could be found on this wiki page.

Pros of POP3

Inbox storage saving. Once you have configured your email account via POP3 from outlook or any other email client, it will start downloading all emails to local device and delete the copy on server end. Thus you don't have to worry about your inbox size allocation and any incoming message will be received. Senders won't encounter some common issues like "user inbox full, message failed".

Secure choice. Because all your messages will be downloaded to local device, your server end box will be empty. In case there's some security issue for your email server, hackers will get nothing about your sensitive data. Your busiess communication is kept in safe hand.

Cons of POP3

The only cons of pop3 service would be it's inconvenience if you have to use different computers to access your email box. Since all messages have been downloaded to local storage, you have to use the same computer to check your email box for any period message view. Once you have configured pop3 account from another device, it will download all incoming mails to that device. It's absolutely inconvenient to get all information together.

IMAP Introduction

IMAP stands for Internet Message Access Protocol. It is an Application Layer Internet protocol that allows an e-mail client to access e-mail on a remote mail server. It will just copy over messages from server to local storage but not to delete the original ones. IMAP has the most current version 4 and works on port 143. More details of IMAP can be found on this wiki page.

Pros of IMAP

Easy access. You can configure imap account anywhere as long as you have internet access. It will download all messages to your local device no matter if you have downloaded before. Thus you can always read the email history and check how things going.Especially when you have to read some critical business mails from different locations, imap is the perfect solution.

Synchronization. Unlike pop3 account, imap will synchronize all your email folders but not just inbox. Just in case you have an important business mail got into junk folder you won't find it hard to track down.

Cons of IMAP

As we learnt from above, imap will not delete messages on email server. If you have large size emails and you don't clear often from server end, once the inbox size limit exceeded, you won't get any new incoming mails and senders will get bounced notice. It's highly suggested backup your online messages often and clear out the inbox to ensure all incoming mails can be received. Also, since imap protocol will synchronize all folders to local drive, it might take long time to download the data depends your internet connection speed. It might not be good choice if you have bad internet access.

POP3 vs IMAP, which is better?

Based above side by side comparison, we know it really depends your actual needs for email service. When you don't have to check emails from different devices, pop3 is good enough and it will ensure you have sufficient inbox storage to accept new incoming messages. But if you do business trip often with frequent email communication, imap will be perfect choice since it will leave a copy on server end. But you just need to remember to check server end box size and make sure it's not full.

What if I don't use either option? Well, we highly recommend webmail option in case you don't use any email client. Webmail is the origional and most powerful email interface where you have full access to all mail functions. Smartermail is the best choice if you're in need of high performance and reliable webmail solution.

In cloud computing industry, there're two popular and confusing terms called desktop cloud and cloud desktop. More and more cloud service providers announce to provide support for both. But what would be their relationship and difference? How will we benefit from such service? We'll compare the two services side by side in this article and find out which service you will need.

Cloud Desktop

In short, it's a computing technology that allows users be able to connect to cloud service via desktop computer. All services/data are stored in remote cloud storage for central management. In this way company be able to reduce costs on equipments and maintenance.

Desktop Cloud

It's also a kind of computing technologies that's firstly announced by Intel group. The purpose of desktop cloud is to simplify the management over multiple computers. Via desktop cloud you can manage multiple desktops from the same window without leaving your computer. The modern desktop cloud is completely created from data center for enterprise deployment.

As we see, they are both cloud based services. Cloud desktop is more about a desktop management for cloud services and desktop cloud is more about desktop management over multiple virtual machines from cloud. Let's see their respective advantages side by side

Cloud desktop advantages

Data security
All data is stored in cloud platform, local users do not have have direct access to copy and take away. Each users can be assigned different permissions in using the service for best protection.

Easy maintenance
Because all applications and data are stored in cloud environment, technicians be able to maintain all tasks centrally like installation, virus scanning, updating and backup etc. They no longer need to work on each independent computers and repeat the same work again and again.

Energy Saving
All applications are running on cloud terminals, we just need a displayer and connector to cloud engine. No host computer needed at all. This will reduce the power consumption up to 80%.

Fast deployment
When you need to give new user access, he just needs a terminal unit, keyboard and mouse to work with. You don't have to spend hours and start from cratch in preparing a working computer.

Low replacement frequncy
You might need a new computer after 3-4 years because hardware limits. However, there's almost no limits for cloud because you just need to add new devices and all old ones are still working fine. In general, the life cycle of cloud engine is 8-10 years.

Convenience
You can connect to cloud desktop by most mobile devices like iPad, smart phones. As long as you're able to connect to internet you can use cloud desktop.

Desktop Cloud advantages

Central desktop management
IT professionals be able to complete all maintenance work from data center. Most tasks can be done automatically like software deployment/update, security updates etc. It greatly reduced human operation on independent devices.

Remotely hosted data
All data is stored in remote cloud devices, it is just a displayer from end user side. All changes are stored on remotely device not local so data security is mostly guaranteed.

Multi-desktops from one window
You can switch to different desktops easily from an explorer interface. It's extremely helpful when you need to handle different tasks on different system. It will reduce time and improve work efficiency.

Fast recovery
All desktop cloud data is centrally stored in data center with screenshot backup. When there's a disaster, it can be recovered fastly and ensure your business abilities.

Till present, most cloud service providers be able to offer cloud desktop only, the desktop cloud is still some kind new and mainly provided by IBM. You can find more about this service on this IBM business desktop cloud page.

Being an enterprise solution, desktop cloud is expensive to deal with. Unless you're running a big group and has pretty high requirement to data security and like to reduce investment as more as possible for large deployment, you don't have to consider this service. On the other hand, cloud desktop is pretty flexible for single user service. You can sign up easily from cloud service providers. You don't need to pay server renting fees and software license etc. You just need to purchase the exact service you needed in the cloud and you will get desktop connection to it.

DELL, a leading brand in computer industry. DELL server has been standard choice by over half web hosting providers. Most companies actually highlight the point to gain better business. So why dell server is important to hosting industry? How does it help service providers to reach success? Let's read below.

On the server market, there're 3 most well known brands, IBM, DELL and HP. IBM is absolutely the best server platform for its historical performance and hardware configurations. IBM works closely with state of the art technologies to provide the highest server solutions. If you're providing enterprise solutions to clients, IBM server will give you the best user experience and performance. Well, with the high performance server, it also comes with pretty high price. IBM is the best rated server from side by side hardware configuration but also has the highest price.

HP & DELL servers are actually no much difference from hardware specifications and HP actually provides better price. For small business that has tight budget, HP is pretty good choice. However, you can't expect 24×7 tech support all the time with the low price. Means after their warranty period you might have to responsible for any problem by yourself.

While you need to spend a lot to use IBM and can't bear with less support for HP product, DELL will give you fresh breath among all competitors. Up to 5 years' 24×7 onsite support and no question asked replacement. That's the DELL advantage you can not find anywhere else. With reasonable cost and high performance, you simply get the best support to keep your business in safe hands. Just think some day your server crashed but there're lots of sensitive data with frequent online accessing requirement. What should you do? Fixing problems from scratch? Absolutely not the best solution unless you understand where the exact problem is.

DELL server is best choice for web hosting by following advantages

High performance. DELL server has the cutting edge performance by using the best hardware production. They provide multiple server solutions including tower and blade types that you can install easily from data center space. All servers come with high scalability where you can add/remove additional server resources on the fly. That's how hosting providers be able to offer guaranteed performance on DELL.

Ease of deployment. The operation of DELL server has no more difference than personal computer. You can configure DISK RAID, Cluster and server farm easily using the provided tools when purchasing the server. DELL server has lots of optimization and security tools from default installation so you don't have to deal with lots of third party solutions for production server purpose.

Onsite tech support. Support wins everything in this modern society, support is also the main difference for DELL comparing to all their competitors. The DELL group setup thousands of support centers on each country where you can call for 24×7. Their genius will fly to your place with most possible fast speed. In case you're experiencing hardware failure, their support service can reduce the downtime in most degrees.

Less cost. Web hosting is a mature business with lots of competition. Every hosting provider is trying to offer lower price than ever but still remain the same performance, thus a reliable and low cost server solution is important in their plans. DELL is 100% designed to meet up this chanllenging requirement and liked by over half hosting providers. For newly created hosting brands, DELL server is a MUST for reliable and high performance server for less cost.

From DELL group official report and idc market sharing charts, DELL server got the best selling in Q1 2013 with about 14% increase comparing to the last year. DELL is also the only server provider who has increased its sales ratio among all providers.

Best DELL Server Hosting Provider

DELL servers are popularly used by many hosting providers, but not every company be able offer the guaranteed service as advertised. Many cheap hosting plans announced to have DELL powered but they either build a large server then host thousands of customer accounts or simply rent a VPS server to start their business. Searching out a reputable and reliable web hosting plan is your primary task for future success. After reviewed more than 50+ popular DELL server hosting brands with editorial experience, we highly recommend from the top 3 hosting below

Website creation is not dedicated to programmers any more because of the technology fast improvements. You have various options to get your website live in short time. Instead of seeking for web development company to program your business site, you can make use lots of existing solutions like the drag and drop sitebuilder wizard or powerful cms softwares like wordpress. Should you use sitebuilder service or install cms software to start with? This article compares the two solutions side by side and help with your final choice.

About Sitebuilder Wizard

Sitebuilder wizard is one of the earliest solutions to help people launch website in quick time. Most sitebuilder softwares are setup by step by step guidance where you can choose website templates, create pages and final publishment. You don't need programming skills in order to use this solution, each element is editable so you can make the layout/navigation etc as you like. A leading sitebuilder solution comes with hundreds of templates to choose from and you can always find a design that works with your needs. Some popular sitebuilder service like plesk sitebuilder and RV sitebuilder are all good choice.

About CMS Software

CMS(content management system) is a complete website creation platform. You will get all source codes and database scripts after installation. Because you have full access to each code behind, you can fully customize it based your real needs. Many web development companies nowadays make use of the leading cms solutions like joomla & drupal because of the advanced code structure.

Sitebuilder vs CMS – Ease of use

Sitebuilder wins for start users based its simple design and straight guidance. You don't have to touch a single code from behind but just navigate through a powerful GUI interface. The entire process is just like to fill out a form then you can publish to get a complete website.

On the other hand, you need to get some basic knowleges about database and html etc in order to use a cms software in right direction. Sometimes you also need to search solutions from official communities or hosting support in using it. Although all cms vendors are trying to make their products easier to use, you still have to deal with lots of technical stuff because of various modules/plugins in the gallary.

Sitebuilder vs CMS – Scalability

CMS wins for this round. For sitebuilder you have to edit everything from the sitebuilder wizard account and you have to publish the entire website again for a single change. Once there's a problem with the software or your internet connection, the publishing will fail and your website might be destroyed. Also, sitebuilder is featured for simple only. If you would like to add some dynamic contents like a blog or forum etc, it's either impossible or it will slow down your site a lot. Because most sitebuilder does not include a database. If it does, it's mostly ms access but not other engines. Ms access database is definitely not suitable for blog/forum for the modern requirements.

But all cms softwares are dynamic languages based with either mysql or sql server database powered behind. No matter if you want to edit existing pages or add new modules to your site, you can do it easily from admin panel without having to publish the entire site. The leading cms solutions like joomla and wordpress are all modulbe/plugin based where you can make customization on the fly.

Sitebuilder vs CMS – Web Server Requirements

Most web pages published by sitebuilder softwares are plaint html that has almost no requirements for hosting servers because you don't need a web server at all to open it. What you really need is a reliable hosting servers to ensure your website is always online.

CMS is different, they're either php/mysql based or .net/sql server based. You will need different server technologies to host your website. You might have been familiar with various cms platforms and be able to create a professional site with your skills. But most of the time you have to research a lot in order to get the right hosting provider.

Conclusion

Sitebuilder is great solution if you just need to create a simple enterprise website and don't plan to edit it frequently. But if you need a dynamic website with frequent updates, cms is perfect choice. You don't have to be a programmer in order to use the platform but just need basic html and database skills. When you have to completely rely on hosting provider for sitebuilder service, you have full control over cms system. You can migrate your cms site easily to other servers but you can't migrate the sitebuilder site sometimes because many sitebuilder service will not give your the actual files as everything is central managed in their system.

If you're running an ecommerce store or photo gallery site, image optimization is a MUST. Either to attract user eyeballs or increase your picture search traffic or improve your website loading speed, image optimization is playing an important role. We're not talking about the traditional SEO tactics for picture optimization on ALT description or image compression etc, that's not all enough, this article provides us an in-depth review for picture optimization.

Use Structure Data for Product image ALT

Most of the time we use default image number for picture names, especially when we have lots of pictures to upload. This is absolutely bad because search engine can not recognize the picture content so we lost the traffic from picture search. Instead, we need to provide structured description to it. For example if you're selling black iPhone 5S. How might people search? They might just search iphone 5s or black iphone directly. You can take a look at the google analysis suggestions for different keywords search data. Basically, people prefer to search "brand + product + series", so your picture ALT tag can be this format: alt="{brand name}-{product series}-{product number}". But please keep in mind, you just need to give rich description to the picture, you should not do keywords stuffing.

Different Angle Pictures

What about if I have taken several pictures to the same product? Should I use the same description? Yes and no, you just need to add direction in the end for example:

• black iphone 5s-front view
• black iphone 5s-side view
• black iphone 5s-back view

About picture large view

If you would like to provide large picture view for users, you must be careful. It's not suggested to put the large picture on your page and resize it via css. Although the picture is small, the actural size is still there and it will affect website loading speed. On the other hand, you can put a small picture directly then hyperlink to the large one. If you have too many pictures with big size, it's highly suggested use dedicated picture hosting service for guaranteed performance.

Compress your pictures

Look the following analysis first:

Most desktop computer or laptop users do not wait more than 3 seconds to load a website
No more 5 seconds waiting on mobile devices
Amazon will lose 1.6 billion if their website response speed slowed for 1 second
Search engines take website response speed into algorithm

But how much size is good for picture file? many professionals said under 70kb. No matter if it's a real standard, we should compress our picture when it does affect your website speed.

Use right picture format

There're 3 popular picture format: jpeg, gif and png. Let's see their difference

• JPEG(or jpg) is the most common format for high quality picture compression. If you have high requirement to picture on site, JPEG is much better than gif or png.
• GIF picture has less displaying quality comparing to jpeg. It's always used for simple display such as decorative pictures and cartoon pictures. gif is not suitable for high quality image compression.
• PNG is better than gif because the amount of supported colors. Especially for small images, png will not loose color but be able to deeply compress the file size.

So the basic conclusion is, jpeg has the best image quality, png less and gif the lest. So some tips for your website:

If you would like to show high quality product view, jpeg is perfect choice, you should never use gif picture for large view because when you do compression, colors will lost. gif is best for small cartoons. PNG can be alternative choice of jpeg and gif, especially you like to use small size, png is the best.

About Thumbnail

Most websites have thumbnails so visitors can view as more products as possible without navigating different pages. It's great solution, but it might affect your website loading, especially when its an online store. Two tips for thumbnail. a, compress it as much as you can because you don't need high quality view for it. b, no alt description for thumbnails because we only like to show the high quality product pictures to search engine.

Submit Image Map

Sometimes you need to use js functions for image display, but it's absolutely not friendly to search engine. To avoid such problem, you can submit an image map from webmaster tools center. Just make a little search on google and there're lots of great guidance for example this google guideline.

Pay attention to democrative images

Some non product related images like background, button and border images should be considered for optimization. You need to check if they have big size that already affected the website loading. Some tips for optimization such images

Use png or gif for simple decorative images like borders.
Use css as much as you can instead images.
It's not recommended to set background image. If it's a must, compress it for as small size as you can.

You're happy because your website is up and you get good business there. But what if your website hacked by people? Well, you can not sleep well and will take any available solutions to make it alive again. But you may not wish to be hacked again and ruin your internet business. In order to keep your website always in healthy state, you have to research a lot and tighten the security settings with your hosting provider. This article will guide about what to do after website hacked and how to secure your website in best practice.

Step1 – Restore most recent healthy backup

The very first task after hacking is to recover from your most recent backup. You can ask web hosting provider for quick assistance or upload your own if you backup often. In this way you can reduce the website down time as more as possible and your potential buyers will be kept on site. So basically, it's good habit to backup your website by schedule and in case you run into such problems you can always recover it in quick time.

Step2 – Find out hacking attempts

Once you have restored a clean backup, you can not just leave as it was. Instead, you must find out what have caused the problem so you can prevent further hacking. You can analyze the website logs and traffic logs to find out some doutable attempts. Since most hacks today are from sql injection, you will have to check your sql data base as well and prevent using some dangerous statements in coding. Generally speaking, use stored procedure is good solution to avoid most database hacking. You also need to talk with your hosting support for their suggestions since they have direct access to your server space.

Step3 – Remedy security holes

Ok so you have found the security holes on your website after a bit research. Now you need to fix all those problems. Check with your website developer or hosting provider about the fix and apply new security rules to avoid further hacking attempts.

There're definitely more to do because your website is your property. You never wish it to be hacked by somebody and bring problems to your life. Above solutions should help with your fix in most degrees. Just think about any other method to keep your site healthy.

Tips on how to secure your website in best practice

Security is the most important part when you're going to put up a website online. You have to do lots of work before/after your website get hosted. In order to help create a healthy website, we compiled the following 6 tips based editorial experience and practice.

Tip1. Get the latest software updates

Creating a website doesn't require programming or developer skills nowadays. You can pick up an existing cms software easily to start the journey. However, you must select a reliable and secure platform which is used by lots of people. Because such softwares have been applied lots of security fixes during live production. We highly suggest the leading platforms like wordpress, joomla or dotnetnuke based your personal skills. But please remember you should always keep your site with the latest updates because each update comes with new security fixes.

Tip2. Get a secure web hosting server

Now you have chosen the perfect platform to develop your website, but where to host it? We highly recommend to check out Arvixe(www.arvixe.com) for reliable and security hosting servers. The rich feature arvixe hosting plans are pretty affordable to help with your website success($2.8/mo after discount). Arvixe provides both windows and linux server plans to meet up with your different hosting requirements. Their servers are all newest DELL server production with up to date hot fixes to ensure the best security for your hosting service. Moreover, arvixe co-operate with lots of security software providers like 6scan(www.6scan.com) to help clean out virus attacks.

Tip3. Get strong login passwords and store in safe place

Always keep in mind it's good idea to set a strong and complex passwords to all your website/database. But that's not all yet. Most of the time, you will need to upload files via ftp clients. Some softwares like filezilla will remember your connection details. In case somebody else accessed your computer and launched this software they will logon to your server space directly without knowing your passwords. So it's highly recommended to clear out any connection after you have transfered files using FTP. The best practice is to remember your login details in mind so no other people can get it.

Tip4. Scan your website often for virus and malwares

Scan your files often to make sure your site is clean. You should scan both your local computer and server space because your local computer might be affected by virus and when you upload something to server, your site will be affected too. But since all your files are stored in server space, hosting providers will provide basic scans by schedule, but that's not enough. You might need third party service/tools to scan your site lively. Once you have found any virus/malware, clear out immediately.

Tip5. Join security communities

Join security communities and visit often. Especially when you're using existing cms software for website development, you should check out the official forum regularly to find out common security problems and learn from people on how to fix it. It's extremely helpful when you indeed run into such problem but not sure where to go, you can get suggestions quickly from the community.

Tip6. Keep Improving

Website security is not a one time fix. Once your site is going online you have to monitor it and improve the security setting as time flies. Because the security fix today will come with another one tomorrow, you always need to keep improving and ensure the best security.