Tag Archives: Domain Registration

01.22.13
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Choosing Your Web Hosting Reseller Software


As a web host reseller, one of your most important business decisions is your choice of web hosting control panel software. The web hosting software you use will save or cost you time, money, and frustration.

We’ve compared four quality web hosting reseller software programs:

  • Alabanza
  • cPanel
  • H-Sphere
  • Plesk

All of these reseller control panels come with control panels for your clients. They all have numerous features advanced email management, web statistics, pre-installed scripts, multi-languagesupport, and more. They all work on Linux platforms, while H-Sphere and Plesk also work with Windows. According to the cPanel website, a Windows version of cPanel is in development. Other features that set these control panels apart are their degree of automation, the number of features and ease of use for the end user, and the features and ease of use for you, the reseller.

Alabanza:
If you lease a dedicated Alabanza server, you can create your own reseller accounts. However, only you can set up hosting plans; resellers below you will be limited to hosting plans that you create. Alabanza offers resellers a high degree of automation with its Domain System Manager (DSM), which can significantly reduce overhead and time spent on routine tasks:

  • Account creation
  • Billing and invoice management
  • Credit card processing
  • Domain registration
  • Email notifications
  • Ordering fraud protection

Even novices can sell hosting with this level of automation.cPanel
For resellers and end users, cPanel is known for its ease of use and range of features. cPanel’s collection of over 50 pre-installed scripts and Fantastico auto installer help clients set up their sites with little web development knowledge.A basic cPanel reseller account comes with two separate programs for resellers to manage their business:

WHM (Web Host Manager) is used to create accounts and packages, add and suspend sites, modify passwords, view bandwidth usage, park domains, install SSL certificates, and perform other administrative functions.

From the reseller’s cPanel control panel, a drop-down menu takes the reseller to the control panels for each of the sites on the reseller account, including the reseller’s site.H-Sphere
H-Sphere is designed for both Linux and Windows platforms. Moreover, resellers can set up plans for both Linux and Windows and administer sites on different servers from the same control panel. The control panel, actually a separate server, also provides administrative access to the integrated helpdesk.The H-Sphere control panel server automates account configuration, credit card processing, domain registration, and email notifications. It also includes a built-in billing module and supports over 20 payment gateways.From the reseller’s point of view, H-Sphere has a higher learning curve than most other control panels because of its numerous features. A key feature is the ability to have control over separate domains with multi-domain hosting.

H-Sphere comes with the website builder Site Studio, which guides users through a variety of style choices and stores content separately from the layout. No HTML or FTP knowledge is required.

Plesk
Plesk is known for its stability and security. Resellers and end users like its simple navigation, its clean interface, and its professional appearance. It comes in versions for both Linux and Windows platforms. With Plesk, all users use the same control panel but with different levels of control:

  • Server administrator
  • Client / reseller
  • Domain owner
  • Mail user

Plesk handles Spam Assassin at the mailbox level rather than at the domain level. This feature enables users to white list or blacklist email for each email address, allowing each email user to have individual settings.So you can choose your reseller.

01.17.13
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INTERNET DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION


A domain name is your address on the Internet. Like any address, it is important for the success of your business that you use, promote and protect it so that customers can find you easily. More than this, your domain name is your online-identity and brand – your customers won’t just know you as Your Company Inc., they will know you as “yourcompany.com”.

Domain names were developed to make it easy for people to find things on the Internet. Computers find each other by using a set of numbers called an IP Address (IP is an acronym for Internet Protocol), these look like 69.72.214.243. The Domain Name System (DNS) is a set of software and a computer that translates domain names into their matching IP addresses and vice versa.

The domain name must conform to Standard rules for domain names:

  • Only characters in the range of A to Z, 0 to 9 and hyphen are allowed.
  • Names cannot begin or end with a hyphen.

The maximum length is 63 characters (exclusive of the .com, .org, .net portion).

You can get a Domain name registered from one of the Domain name registrars. The pricing for Domains varies from registrar to registrar. Some registrars dupe their customers by charging exorbitant fees for domain registration. Sometimes they charge $ 35 per year. Some others can offer you the same domain at $ 7.99. It does not matter which registrar you choose to get your domain registered. As ultimately the domain records are going to be held by the registry.

A domain name is a combination of two or more words. The last word is called “Top Level Domain”. A Top-Level Domain (TLD) is the suffix that is attached to the end of a domain name. For instance, in the domain name, netlynx.com, “.com” is the TLD. Generic Top Level Domains (gTLD) such as .com, .org, .net, can be registered by anybody. To the left of TLD comes “Second Level Domain”(SLD). E.g. in ‘netlynx.org’, netlynx is the second level domain; ‘.com’ is the TLD. One can also have ‘domains.netlynx.com’; here ‘domains’ is called the host name or “Third Level Domain”.

Domain Registration is the term used to describe the process of acquiring a domain name from a domain name registrar.

Any entity such as Individuals, Organizations, ISPs, Corporate, Resellers, etc in any type of profession can register a domain to get recognition on the Internet.

You can register a domain name from a minimum of one year to a maximum of ten years.

06.01.12
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Domain Registration VS Web Hosting


Domain Registration vs web hosting

Domain Registration Vs Web Hosting

To have a website you must own a registered domain and have a web host. Many people confuse and use these terms interchangeably.

Domain Registration

Every website has its own, unique domain name. In order to own a domain, you must register a new, unused domain name with any of a number of domain registrars. When choosing a domain registar, here are few things to ask about:

  • Cost of domain registration (per year, or for multiple years)
  • Ease of access to modify domain settings – any registrar should grant you access to update your own contact info, change name servers, etc.
  • How easy it is to contact the domain registrar – some only allow contact through email or the web whereas others offer a telephone number.
  • If you want whois security, does that cost extra?

Web Hosting

The web host is the place where the actual web content (pages, pictures, etc.) is saved and served up to the World Wide Web. Often (but not always) the web host may also be the place that owns any email addresses associated with your domain.

Although many domain registrars offer web hosting (and may encourage you to host with them), you may actually host your website anywhere. All you need to do is to point your Domain Name Servers (aka DNS) to the web hosting company you want to use.

What you do with your domain beyond registration is up to you. You can

  • Forward it to another site
  • Place a parking page on it
  • Host a site on it
  • Throw up some revenue scheme.

A few important things with hosting are

  • Reliability – for most hosts you would expect uptime of over 99.9%. in addition it is important to know that your host has a functional business model and that it is not just going to go away some day
  • Customer support – A rapid customer support is must if you are planning on making a living off the internet
  • Type – Linux and Windows hosting support entirely different features and languages

DOMAIN REGISTRATION SERVICE

Domain registration service is the service to provide domain name (i.e., .com, .in, .org, etc.) with a required agreement to conduct website for commercial, individual, social, etc. sort of purpose. Now-a-days several companies had developed in this sector and providing domain registration service easily within few minute processes. Since domain name registry operator has also the sole registrar for domains, so several companies had been developed independent registrar services. Domain registration is maintained with the help of the domain name registries. These registries contact with domain registrars for providing registration services to public. An end user selects a registrar for providing the registration service and this registrar becomes a designated registrar for the domain name that is chosen by user.

Recently various companies are giving finest facilities regarding domain registration service at affordable prices. Process of registering for domain name services is simple and user friendly with security aspects. Domain name registration providing by several companies is available with friendly features that will enable to control email, web space and so on with secure domain name space at very affordable charges. These services providing companies also help user in managing the domain name with simple interface such as users can renew or extend domain name registrations, can choose email forwarding and web forwarding options, can promote web hosting options, manage pop3 email addresses and make choices for various web hosting options.

Simple process of domain name registration

  • First of all a suitable domain name should be decided by user according to nature of business and website features. It should make sure that it’s not too long and is easy to remember.
  • After the choice taking for domain name have to check the availability of domain name. Service providing companies domain checker tool accomplish it after typing the choice name in search box and on the basis of availability results consider alternative domain endings.
  • Then the final step is now, registration. After displaying search results on the service providing company’s site page, can decide which domain name would like to buy from the available choices.

Domain name registration is the easy process but this registration remains for fixed period of time. After the end of registration period domain name can be renew. Registration service providing company will remind renewal date with email and post. Some registration service provider provides renewal service at very low cost. Unique domain name registration is essential to identify the websites on internet. Several other companies register domains in oneself choice names, can take that’s kind of service with any hosting plans also.

Free domain name registration is also available with various hosting packages. Various service providers register in a .com, .org, .net, .info domains registration free with life time hosting plans. That’s sort of registration is a cheap domain registration with life time validity. The maximum period of registration for a domain name is 10years but some registrars also offer longer period of up to 100 years (abt.). This 100 years registration would not be in the official registration database. With lot of other facilities conclusively registrar or service providing companies provide either cheap domain registration or free domain name registration with preferable hosting plans.

Domain name registration establishes a set of start of authority (SOA) records in the parent domain’s DNS servers. Most of registrar offer DNS hosting as an optional free service. Domain registration is essentially useless for internet services without DNS service for the domain. Most of domain registrars price products and services to address both fees- annual and administration that must be paid to Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Each ICANN registrar must pay a fixed fee and a variable fee. Some well known registrars are Go Daddy, e Nom, Tucows, Melbourne IT, Network solutions, Dotster. Shared registration system is creating competition day by day and enables end users to choose from many registrars at varying offer range and services.

Brief- Domain registration service is domain name providing service with limited period authority agreement and various facilities to user.

Multi-factor Authentication:-

The importance of multi-factor authentication has increased owing to the recent internet downtime due to security attacks. Hosting registrars for google.co.vn, Lenovo and newyork times website has also been the target of cyber attacks. Internet users were redirected to different sites while accessing these websites. According to the sources Lizard squad took responsibility of attacks. Domain and registrar hijacking is a matter of huge concern as illicit intruder gets access into a server and sensitive information as well. These attacks emphasize over vulnerabilities of Domain registrar accounts therefore an extra layer of security like Multifactor authentication is required.

All company should incorporate extra security with their registrar. It must be made the company policy to implement minimum two-factor authentication for DNS and Domain registration. If more layers are added than it is more than good to keep client domain as secure as possible.

A single layer authentication requires login username and passwords whereas multifactor authentication allows user to receive a unique code .further options may also require token-generated code or restrict certain IP address. Beside Multi factor authentication, businesses also must be prepared for other cyber attacks like DDoS (Distributed denial of service). These attacks can take websites down and can cause internet traffic congestion which has made networks of major companies’ domain unavailable.

Multi-factor authentication includes two or more independent credentials: what user knows (password), what user has (token), what user is (biometric verification).Some typical scenario of Multi factor authentication includes:-

  • Entering pin after swiping card
  • Request to enter an OTP which is sent to user’s mobile or email address by authentication server.
  • Scanning a fingerprint after swiping a card and answering security question.
  • Using one time password to log in into VPN.

For authentication some factors are used .Authentication factors are categories for identity verification. In MFA each factor tends to enhance the assurance that an entity who is requesting access to system is who or what. Some common categories are:-

Knowledge based factors : these are the information that the user is able to provide in order to log-i.e. Username, password, Ids.

Possession based factor : It is anything a users does have in their possession like security token, OTP etc.

Inherence factors : these are the biological traits which may be used for login. It may includes biometric authentication methods like retina scans, iris scans, fingerprint scans, face/voice recognition mechanism.

An MFA product involves RSA SecurID and EMC RSA Authentication Manager, Symantec Validation and ID Protection Service, Vasco IDENTIKEY Server, CA Strong Authentication and DIGIPASS, Dell Defender, Safe Net Authentication Service.