what is email hosting ??


I know web hosting. But can i know what is email hosting, and why do people need email hosting??

Some companies may choose email hosting to host their e-mails elsewhere, in case their web server goes down.

Some companies may only need to host their email somewhere, where they are working without a website. Generally these are companies who work in a different models, their customers could be regulars and hence there is no need for a website. Web hosting may be cheap, but to get someone to design a website is a different story.

Most email hosted on the same web servers does not have any backup MX. That’s mean if the single server fails, all the emails will be bounced back to the sender’s server to be queue for delivery again.

For companies who specialize in email hosting, they will have a few servers to handle incoming/outgoing emails to ensure that the uptime of the email servers are close to 100%.

Convert a computer into a dedicated server


I bought a Intel Core2Duo 3.0 GHz computer with 500GB HDD and 2 GB Ram. My question is : How do I convert it into a dedicated server and how do I get bandwidth.

1. install an OS.
2. install the required server software.
3. find an internet connection from an isp (and don’t forget to ask for public ip! or else you won’t be able to be accessed by people)
4. don’t forget to have:

* ups (for power failure protection)
* enough fan/cooling devices for your computer
* vnc (for remote access) ONLY IF YOU NEED

5. install security softwares (AV, Firewall, etc.) & secure/add password to your router/modem (via settngs) & change admin/root password
6. don’t forget to setup the name server & point your domain name. (i assume you have a domain name)
7. Done!

home PC’s are not made to run 24/7/365 with constant access or to the spec of a file or web server, so you run a high risk of hardware failures.

Most DSL and cable company’s do not allow you to host services on your home connection.

At home you’ll never be able to provide your server with the quality environment it needs, unless you want to spend a lot of money on power, networking, uplinks, climate control, etc.

cpwebhosting.net web hosting account with SugarCRM


Hi,
cpwebhosting.net provides SugarCRM software with their web hosting account.SugarCRM is the world’s leading commercial open source customer relationship management (CRM) software.But i want to know What is Commercial Open Source?

Commercial Open Source (COS) is based on the value Open Source software delivers to corporate buyers and the realization that existing commercial CRM applications are overpriced relative to the actual engineering dollars required to build these applications. The Commercial Open source model allows SugarCRM to offer:

Greater Innovation
By nature, open source product development is a Darwinian process, where only the most useful features and products merit the time and attention of the open source community. This “survival of the fittest” approach differs greatly from the development model of proprietary software vendors, where a group of engineers guess and then build features they think users across a variety of businesses, industries and geographies might want. By contrast, Commercial Open Source (COS) captures the feedback of thousands of the world’s best developers; leading to more frequent improvements of an application that fits the demands of individual businesses worldwide.

Better Quality
COS reveals 100 percent of its source code to developers, allowing the open source community to test and fix any problems or bugs within the application – a radical departure from the world of closed vendors. COS producers believe that using business applications and software in general does not have to be an unpleasant experience. If the software is not meeting customer demands, users should not have to wait for another product development cycle or patch release to fix the problem.

Less Risk

Too many companies have paid too much money and then watched as employees failed to adopt a new CRM system. The problem: people were forced to adapt to the application, not the other way around. The COS development process places customization and usability at the forefront. A fun, friendly and usable application increases user adoption, improves employee productivity and provides the visibility executives need to make their business successful.

Faster Payback
COS systems offers lower upfront, implementation, customization and maintenance costs than proprietary CRM systems because of the way the software is manufactured. By leveraging the expertise of developers worldwide, COS vendors deliver a better product at lower cost. Thus, customers can measure their return on investment in months, if not weeks; instead of years or, in some cases, never.

Thanx mouse

What are the deployment options of SugarCRM?

SugarCRM does not believe customers should be forced to make false deployment choices based on the software vendors’ business model. We have learned from our customers that they require different deployment options depending on their stage of growth, IT resource availability and the level of comfort of having a third-party manage their customer information. In order to give customers maximum flexibility, we offer our commercial products in a hosted environment (Sugar On-Demand), in a deployment-ready appliance behind your firewall (Sugar Cube), or downloaded in a pack (Sugar On-Site and Sugar FastStack). Customers can easily move between these existing deployments options depending on their needs.

Sugar On-Demand
Sugar On-Demand provides customers the latest version of Sugar Professional in a hosted environment. Sugar manages installation, upgrades, and patches for our On-Demand customers. Unlike other hosting providers, all customers receive a separate application and database that’s isolated from other customers, ensuring the integrity and security of customer information.

Unlike other hosting providers, Sugar On-Demand can be easily migrated when a customer decides they would like to bring their CRM application inside of their firewall. Other hosting solutions only offer the data for the migration. Sugar On-Demand customers can continue their Sugar Professional license, and attain their database and software including customizations to re-install on another system. SugarCRM will also transfer the customer’s application onto a Sugar Cube, a stand-alone appliance that can immediately be installed onto a customer’s rack.

Appliance
Sugar Cube offers customers the opportunity to deploy a complete CRM application pre-installed, optimized, and ready for production on a stand-alone server. Sugar Cube is best for companies who do not have hardware available to install Sugar Professional, or lack the IT resources in the allotted time to get Sugar Professional supporting mission-critical business activities. Sugar Cubes are proven, tested and optimized based on the Sugar Professional Pack ordered. Customers who need a proven solution guaranteed to run efficiently with a fast integration cycle, the Sugar Cubes are the best solution to implementing Sugar Professional.

The servers are built with the latest technology and components covered by a three-year hardware warranty and lifetime toll free technical support from our vendor. This is in addition to your Sugar Professional support. Sugar Cubes offer your IT professionals all of the options of a made-to-order appliance solution, including appliance hardware configuration, appliance operating system, choice of Sugar Professional user packs and extensions, and full source code.

On-Site
For customers who would like to not only have their CRM information reside behind their firewalls and also would like to have their IT experts customize and integrate sugar with third-party systems, we offer Sugar On-Site, a deployment option that gives your team the maximum control to get the most our of your CRM application. Sugar On-Site differs from existing installed CRM because it is written in a computer language (PHP) that is simple and understandable. Thus, companies no longer have to hire billable Java or other expensive developers. Instead, Sugar can be deployed quickly and customized without the expensive consulting fees and lengthy deployment times.

To help expedite and simplify the deployment process, SugarCRM also offers Sugar FastStack, a seamless installation and support option for non-technical users that can have your organization fully deployed On-Site in just minutes.

Can I migrate between deployment options?

Yes. If you would like to move from On-Demand to Appliance we can port your information from our servers to an appliance and install it behind your firewall. From On-Demand to On-Site, we will pack your information and install it on your own servers. From Appliance or On-Site to On-Demand, we can import your Sugar instance to our servers.

How do I access the SugarCRM application?

Regardless of deployment options, all Sugar information is accessible through a standard web browser.

How do I work with SugarCRM when I am not connected to the Internet?

Sugar Enterprise offers offline client synchronization that lets users work without an Internet connection and then automatically transmit their new work into the SugarCRM system when they get back online. Sugar Professional and Enterprise are also accessible via wireless devices so users can access important information while on the move.

SugarCRM editions are available?


cpwebhosting.net provides SugarCRM software with their web hosting account. How SugarCRM editions are available?

There are four products.

* Sugar Enterprise offers the functionality and support needed for the most demanding enterprises.
* Sugar Professional offers a sub-set of Sugar Enterprise functionality.
* Sugar Open Source is our open source product which can be freely downloaded and used.
* Sugar Network provides the product extensions, training and support to ensure success with Sugar Open Source.

Thanx for reply

Can I upgrade from one edition to the other?

Yes, all products are built on the same code base so you can easily move from one product to another. If you have not customized the application, the process is to run the database upgrade SQL script, provided by SugarCRM, against the open source database to turn it into a pro database. Then run the pro installer and point it to the upgraded database.

In a customized system, apply the same database upgrade process as mentioned above. Then merge over the customized files from the open source installation over to the new pro installation.

What are the software requirements needed to run Sugar?

If you choose to go with Sugar On-Demand and have us run Sugar for you, the only software you need is a browser (Firefox or Internet Explorer).

How do I get my current data into Sugar?

You can easily import data from another CRM solution, or even just a standard spreadsheet using the standard Comma Separated Value (CSV) format. You can import directly into the database, or use the import wizard found in the shortcut menus through out the application. If you need additional help, SugarCRM offers data migration packages to assist you with importing your data.

Can my company configure SugarCRM?

PHP, the language in which Sugar is written, is a simple programming language that can be easily modified by persons who understand basic programming languages. This gives your organization the utmost flexibility in tailoring the application to meet the demands of your business.

SugarCRM has also provided administration and tools for non-technical people to change the application. Administrators can quickly add new fields to suit your business through the Administration view through a drag-and-drop user interface.

Billing management software.


Hi,

I’m looking for some recommendations for billing management software.

We’re currently running ModernBill 5 and having tons of difficulties with it which are taking forever to get corrected by ModernGigabyte, In fact I wish we had stayed with MB4 come to think of it! But the thought of the soon to disappear support for this software motivated us to upgrade. Anyhow, we’re considering switching to something better, if available with out having to write it ourselves.

Main priorities are:

1, Something clients will understand – simple and friendly interface.

2, Can automate signups for Helm on our Windows servers and DirectAdmin on our Linux Systems.

3, Can also handle billing for our Dedicated Servers and non hosting related products and services.

Any and all opinions very much appreciated.

U can use WHMAutopilot

ClientExec can also integrates with Plesk.

Best Control Panel


Hi,

What’s your favorite control panel and what feature you like most about it?

cPanel/WHM is best..

DirectAdmin. Stable and fast.

We have found H-Sphere to be the prefered panel by our customers.

cPanel here….it has silly bugs at times but they’re mostly small and easily fixed.

DirectAdmin and Cpanel are about the same for me.

personally i like plesk, just a shame their application pack is so outdated

H-sphere is best for me.

Another vote for H-sphere.

I have purchase a Reseller account from cpwebhosting.net.I found H-sphere the best and my customers love it too.

Monitoring software


Hello

What is the best Monitoring software to use and that is free can be linux or windows.

l I need it to do is have a webpage that I can have loded up on my pc that will up date and then send me an email if there is a problem.

I would like to here what you have to say

I m using Nagios on various flavours of Linux with no problems.

We use up.time, but it;s not free

On Windows.. ServersAlive

U can use Cuevision Network Monitor

Nagios is the best

I have heard good things about bbstatus

Overselling mean?


I m newbie in e-business. Can anyone tell me what does overselling mean?

Overselling is basically the selling of resources beyond the limits you are given. Let’s take bandwidth for example, you are given 10GB of bandwidth to sell. You then sell 5GB of bandwith to one customer and 10GB of bandwidth to another customer. That would be overselling.

Overselling has a bad name in the hosting industry cos it may often encourage bad selling practices where hosts promise ridiculously huge amounts of resources that they can’t afford to sell. But used wisely, overselling can be beneficial to sellers and customers alike since resources are actually used more efficiently than if there was no overselling. The problem is, “overselling wisely” is a term that many people view very cynically.

That’s not a very good example. Reason is, additional transfer in that case can be paid for.

A better example would be that the server is connected to a 10mbits port. The maximum theoritical transfer is 3TB for a month. If you sell more than 3TB to your customers in total (in the same server), its overselling. In short, overselling would be selling more than what is actually possible.

The host/reseller promises you more space/bandwidth than what they are allocated and thus, allowing them to put more accounts into one server as they believe that the users would not be able to use that much amount of what you are given. This might allow them to save some money from not having to invest in more space/bandwidth for the server or even maybe getting a new server and also open up the possibility of overages.

What is SSL?


How can i secure my E-commerce website. I have listen about SSL.What is SSL?
SSL (Secured Socket Layer), is used for sending and receiving sensitive information such as Credit Card information across the World Wide Web. It ensures encrypted/secure communications between the client and receiving server. The SSL protocol supports the use of a variety of different cryptographic algorithms, or ciphers, and most of which provide 40, 56, or 128 bit encryption security.

Key-exchange algorithms like KEA and RSA key exchange govern the way in which the server and client determine the symmetric keys they will both use during an SSL session. The most commonly used SSL cipher suites use “RSA” key exchange, which many of you have probably seen displayed on numerous websites, and next to a provider called “GeoTrust”, who issues the SSL Server Certificates. A certificate is used to officially identify you as a legitimate SSL enabled website, and displays your name as the certified holder when visitors check it.

When to use SSL?
SSL is not generally, nor should it be used for all pages on a website. SSL is most commonly used for the sending and receiving of sensitive information such as credit cards, membership ID’s, or customer billing information access. SSL need only be used on the “particular” page where the secure activity is taking place. ALWAYS use SSL when asking for credit card information. If visitors do not observe the https// appearing on the form URL, and the “SSL Symbol”, does not illuminate in their browser, they won’t be doing a whole lot of business with you. No one wants his or her credit card information intercepted and stolen as the result of a site not using SSL encryption!
Thanx tcheck

How to use SSL?

There are two different ways of using SSL. The two are essentially the same, however one will display “VOSN” as the certificate holder, and the other, (which you must purchase) displays “your company” as the certificate holder. Essentially, when visitors click on an SSL enabled page, they receive a message that displays information about the owner of the SSL certificate. In most cases, e-commerce based websites would prefer to have ‘their’ name appear as the holder because it maintains a professional appearance. Alternatively, and if it matters not, you could simply use our default SSL server, however visitors will see “VOSN” as the owner of the certificate. We’ll explain how to obtain your own certificate later in this document.

Web address with “www” and without one


Is there any difference between an web address with “www” and without one?

example:

http://www.cpwebhosting.net
and
cpwebhosting.net

there is no difference unless you specify this in your DNS

ie www can have an A record which points to a different IP address.

You can think of the www as being a type of alias for the domain name or otherwise where the web portion of the domain name lives.

Thanx alemcherry

how do we set it up so that it will have www,If currently domain has no www

Set up a A record for your domain called WWW.
You need to set up the IP address as the same one that your ste is hosted on, usually the same as the @ record is pointed to.

Well, Does it have any effects on search engine results?

There should not be any affect on the search engine as long as both the www and non-www points to the same web site.

Yup, www is just another subdomain that was popularized by the media. www means “world-wibe web” but anything can be used in it’s place and still be on the world-wide web.

Some companies use www as their public site and just the domain name as their “company internal site” or website map if they have several websites.

It makes absolutely no difference to search engines whether or not you use www or not. However, most users are used to typing in www in front of everything so it might benefit your exposure by using www.

Search engines does not penalize you if you do not use the ‘www’ variant.

Technically, the non-www is the actual site and the ‘www’ version is technically a subdomain but since it is associated with the internet, ie ‘www = world wide web’, it seems to be associated to websites and thus people use that as part of their URL.

Google sees them as two different sites. But in general same thing… Just a preference kinda of thing.