TetraHost Bangladesh

The Official Company Blog

Author Archives: aDmin

19 Aug

Important security tips to keep your website secure!

Security is of utmost importance to TetraHost and we have taken every step to ensure the integrity of your data. However, the fact is that web servers cannot be completely secured, particularly since it is always connected to the Internet. The world of internet security is an evolving landscape, and perfect security is nothing more than a pipe dream. There is always a “weak link” in a networked system and it needs to be protected. The weakest link in a web server is usually outdated scripts which have vulnerabilities or files which have incorrect permissions/ownership that are uploaded by an end user. Hence we wish to make you aware of the importance of keeping your scripts updated through this blog!

In a typical shared hosting environment, there are numerous attack vectors. TetraHost has deployed the best known softwares to keep the web server and various services running in the server secure from outside attacks. This includes firewalls, mod_security rules, disabling of potentially dangerous PHP functions, etc. which can limit compromises that can happen through an user’s script/file.

Be selective about the script You install:

Do not just install any script that you find on the internet, especially those scripts that are not often updated. Such old scripts might have been dumped by its developer and he/she might not be developing or releasing patches in the future. Many of them are not maintained, and may have potential security holes that won’t be fixed. When choosing which scripts to install in your account, look for applications that appear to be actively developed or supported by the vendor. No script will be perfectly secure, but some may be designed to minimize the potential for security problems. If you’re not sure about a script, don’t install it. Of course, if you have the capability and know-how, you can always look it over yourself.

Keep your scripts updated:

This is the most important tip and it is imperative that you follow it as soon as possible. When a vulnerability is discovered, most reliable script developers will patch the vulnerability and an update will be released. These script developers usually maintain mailing lists that announce when a new version of the script is available. Make sure that you watch for those announcements and update the script immediately. You can also try removing the version number of the script that you’re using from the footer file, as this is one method attackers can use to identify vulnerable sites by using search engines.

Maintain the correct permissions:

It is not a wise idea to assign full write permission for your scripts or folders, unless the script developer has a purpose and requires you to set that permission, like an uploads folder. Incorrect setting of permissions can allow a potential attacker to execute vulnerable coding and exploit your script.

Backups:

Backup is the only fool proof method to be completely secure against compromises. TetraHost uses innovative backup technology to protect your data in the event of a compromise. Even though we provide the best backup services, we always recommend the client to maintain backups of the data at their side too. You can utilize the Backup feature in cPanel to take complete website backups of your account settings, files, emails, databases, etc. Please make sure that you do not store your backup files inside “public_html” or any directories that are accessible from outside. These backup files can be downloaded by a hacker giving him/her access to your login details stored in it.

Nobody wants their hard work to be damaged or destroyed, so upgrade that script today! You never know when a potential attacker might come along, and you may as well make his task as difficult as it can be!

18 Aug

How to Ping Your Sitemap to Google, Yahoo, and Bing

XML sitemaps inform search engines about the pages available to crawl on your website. Search engines find new pages by navigating links on websites. Sitemaps enhance search engine crawling by providing explicit information about the specific urls on your website. Sitemaps don’t ensure that your webpages will be indexed, but they typically increase both the chance and speed of indexing.

If you have fresh content on your blog or website, it is prudent to make sure the search engines know about this to get the content indexed as soon as possible. One way this is done is by pinging your xml sitemap. Although there are many search engines and services you can ping your sitemap to, make sure you concentrate on the big 3: Google, Bing, and Yahoo.

So, how do you automatically ping your updated sitemap each time your website updates?

If you’ve got an XML sitemap for your website, you can alert the search engines to updates by typing a specially formatted URL into your browser.

Ping Bing

Bing is Microsoft’s newly branded and revamped search engine that is gaining popularity and market share every day since its recent launch. It’s well known that Bing takes a long time to initially index a website, so ping their service when you launch a website and every time you update content.

Their ping service is http://www.bing.com/webmaster/ping.aspx?siteMap=[your sitemap web address].

You can manually ping Bing by entering the above url in a web browser and pressing enter. I prefer to automate this process, by entering the url into a ping list in WordPress. WordPress will then automatically ping Bing each time I update or submit a new post.

WordPress Ping List

Ping Google

Google is the dominant search engine, and you will want to inform when something new or changes appears on your site.

The ping url is http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ping?sitemap=http://www.example.com/sitemap-file.xml

Again, you can manually visit this url to ping Google, or add the url to an automated pinging service if this is supported by your website development platform.

Ping Yahoo

Yahoo’s ping service lets you notify them anytime your site changes so their index can be updated quicker. Their ping url is http://search.yahooapis.com/SiteExplorerService/V1/updateNotification?appid=YahooDemo&url=http://www.domain.com/sitemap.xml

You can automatically submit your updated site map using a pinging service or manually entering the above url.

If you don’t have an xml sitemap yet, you can use a free xml sitemap generator to get you started.

17 Aug

The Art of Troubleshooting Thyself!

TetraHost often receives tickets from our clients who claim that their website is not accessible. However, most of the time it turns out that the issue is actually at the client’s side itself. So in this blog we try to help you to run some self diagnostic tests which will equip you to figure out whether the issue is at your side before opening a support ticket.

Note: It is recommended that you check Network Issues page on your Clientarea so that you will get notified whenever there is an ongoing server/network related issue. TetraHost staff will post a report when any issue is detected by our 24/7 monitoring system. If you do not find any new topic after a few minutes, please go through the following steps to check whether the issue is at your side:

1) Check using third party monitoring services:

There are several website monitoring services available that can check whether your website is up or not. Most of them can also check it from multiple locations across the world. Some of the services that allows free website monitoring checks are:

http://www.alertra.com/spotcheck.php
http://www.hyperspin.com/en/quicktest.php
http://www.watchmouse.com/en/checkit.php
http://www.siteuptime.com/users/quickcheck.php

If the third party monitoring services are also reporting your website as down, please open a Support Ticket in our Help Desk. However, if they are reporting your website as “UP”, the issue is likely at your side itself. Let us see how we can further troubleshoot the issue at your side.

2) Traceroute:

The next step to diagnose the issue is to run a Traceroute command from your windows PC to your domain name. Trace route is a network utility that traces the path taken by your network to reach a host. It shows all nodes the packet travels from sender to destination (also reffered as “hops” in the network), the domains if available, IP addresses and the amount of time in milliseconds that took the reach that specific host. To run a traceroute command, you can do the following steps:

a) Assuming that you are using a Windows PC, click Start > Run
b) Type: cmd (and Press Enter)
c) Type the traceroute command at the prompt: tracert yourdomain.com (and press Enter)
d) Wait for a few seconds for the traceroute command to complete. Once the traceroute is completed, it will show “Trace Route Complete”.
e) To copy the trace route result, right click the Command Prompt window and click on “Mark”. Now drag and select the result to highlight it and press Enter to copy it.

Paste and Save this information in a text file which you can attach when submitting a Support Ticket later.

* If the trace route shows a “Unable to Resolve Host” message, it is likely to be a DNS issue at your side. You may be having a DNS cache or your ISP’s DNS server aren’t updated yet. In such cases, you can try flushing your DNS cache or you can use third party DNS addresses from OpenDNS, etc. to resolve this issue.

* If the trace route result shows “Request Time Out” within your ISP’s network range, it is likely that your ISP is having issues and you may have to contact them regarding this issue along with the traceroute result.

* If the trace route result shows “Request Time Out” towards the end (just before reaching the server), it is likely that your PC’s IP Address is blocked in the server’s firewall. Please open a Support Ticket in our Help Desk to get your IP unblocked from the firewall along with the trace route result and your IP address.

The above troubleshooting tests will help you find and resolve issues at your side quickly without the need for contacting us through the Help Desk. If there is an ongoing issue reported at our side, then it will be posted in the Network Issues area. In such cases, please do not open a Help Desk ticket as it would delay our efforts to bring back the server online since we will have to attend to your ticket at the same time. Please refresh the Network Issues page or subscribe to the topic to receive an email notification when there is an update.

MTR

To run MTR (My traceroute) on a Windows system, you need to download and install the MTR software first. Here are the steps:

Download WinMTR from the official website:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/winmtr/files/latest/download

Extract the downloaded ZIP file to a folder of your choice.

Open the extracted folder and double-click on the WinMTR.exe file to launch the application.

In the WinMTR window, enter the IP address or hostname of the target you want to trace the route to in the “Host” field.

Click the “Start” button to begin the MTR process.

WinMTR will start tracing the route to the destination and display a real-time report of the network performance and latency for each hop in the route. To stop WinMTR, click the “Stop” button.

17 Aug

Getting Listed in Google

Your new business or personal/community web site is finally up and running. But how do you attract visitors now to your website? The first step towards announcing your website to the World Wide Web is to get listed in Search Engines. Majority of the traffic to a website is through Search Engines. Google is one of the most popular Search Engines and we will give you a few tips on how to get listed in Google and increase the traffic to your website.

1) Add your URL to Google:

The first step to get listed for any website is by manually submitting your URL with Google. Visit: http://www.google.com/addurl/ and submit your website details. Google does not guarentee that your website will be listed, but you can improve your chances of getting listed by following the protocols outlined by Google. You can follow these protocols when designing your website to increase search engine friendliness.

You can also try submitting your URL at DMOZ The Open Directory which Google uses for classifying websites. This is a directory that is managed by volunteers that act as “category editors.” To list your site, simply go to the most appropriate category for your web site, then drill down to the relevant subcategory and select the “Add URL” link at the top of that category’s page.

The time required for the Google bot to start crawling your website will vary though you can expect it to start within a week or two.

2) Increase PageRank

Google uses PageRank algorithm for ranking websites. This is Google’s description of PageRank:

“ PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves “important” weigh more heavily and help to make other pages “important”.

Hence it is important that your website should have links from and to other websites. The more number of links, the better PageRank for your website which means more traffic to your website! You can start writing articles and submit them to the article submission sites. All of the article sites (the good ones at least) allow you to include a section called “About the Author” or “Author Resource”. It’s here that you can include a link back to your site.

3) Sitemaps

Sitemaps help visitors to navigate between pages and also helps search engine bot to index very easily. Generate a sitemap and keep it updated so that Search Engines will be able to index your website efficiently. There are many Sitemap generators available. You can find a good list of Sitemap generators here.

4) Search Engine Friendly design

When designing your website, make sure that it is search engine friendly. Meta description is an important component for on-page SEO. Google only consider 155 characters from Meta description. So it’s important to write a unique Meta description within 155 characters using keywords. Images make articles and pages attractive to visitors. More over images are also indexed different search engines. Using relevant keywords in the image ALT tags help Search Engines to recognize images and index them according to the ALT tags. Title tag is very important. Title should not be too long. For Google, 70 characters are enough. Descriptive titles have maximum clickthoughs.

5) Content is King

The most important factor for driving more visitors to your website and maintaining them is to keep your content updated regularly. This would naturally keep Google Bots busy as well as they will index more pages from your website. The more you update the content within your site, the more value it earns. It takes more than simply having content on your site to bring visitors back to your site time after time. It takes quality content that is updated regularly.

Google and other search engines have a very simple goal with their search results: to provide the most relevant results to those who perform a search. It is important that your web pages are optimized for search engines if you want to get high search engine rankings. A combination of optimized web pages and high link popularity leads to high rankings on search engines like Google.

16 Aug

Starting a Web Hosting Company – Obstacles

As with any company, you’re going to run into obstacles. You will face new challenges almost every day, and how you deal with those challenges will determine if you come out stronger, or so damaged you end up closing up shop..

The key here is proper planning. From the very basics all the way to the most complex, you need to have a plan of action written down that you’re going to follow. As you face each challenge, you would then be able to consult your strategy and deal with it logically.

For example, some challenges you will face:
– Drop in sales
– Increase in cancellations
– Shortage of funds
– Downtime
– Mistakes in service
– Angry customers
– Negative Reviews
– Increased Competition

Just to name a few. You can combat all of the above easily.. Let’s take negative reviews for example. So long as you are providing a good service, are confident you have done everything in your power to ensure satisfaction, have been professional and offered resolutions to the customer, then you have nothing to worry about. In your plan of action, make sure you have a strategy for handling bad reviews, don’t just go in all guns blazing.

A part of my process to maintain quality is making sure my attention is where it is needed most. I can’t possibly monitor all tickets, and not all tickets require monitoring, however it is important you don’t miss important tickets out.. A good filter I put in place, is monitoring tickets that have too many back & forth replies. If something isn’t resolved within the first few replies, then typically, something is wrong. I will monitor those tickets and see why it is taking so long to resolve. I will go back and consult whoever worked on the ticket and ask why this is taking so long. I typically intervene at that point, implement a structured approach to resolution.

Let’s take another example.. Increased competition. Competition is just a way of business. I know a few hosts, in particular one small mainly UK web host that seems obsessed with what we do. Going as far as copying our plan names word for word, our site structure, type of wording, services we offer and even under cutting the prices. Should we be worried? Nope, not at all. A company that copies is always one step behind. Always a minute too late in getting the sale. Lack innovation and shows their inability to come up with their own ideas. Only sees what’s on the outside, but isn’t aware of the internal processes which ensure we deliver what we promise. We need a little bit of a pinch to keep the heat on, increase our efforts and eliminate the competition. We have a plan of action which keeps such companies at bay. It is a good idea for you to have one too, as ultimately, you will one day face such a scenario too and it will be important for you to stay ahead of the game.. Web Hosting isn’t an easy industry, it’s not just about getting a reseller account and a website.. You need to make sure you can get the sale, you need to make sure you give your customers a better reason other than price to sign up with you.

Having a plan of action will ensure you are prepared and equipped to handle the many challenges you are going to face.

14 Aug

Fantastico!

Fantastico is just how the name implies – it’s fantastic! Fantastico De Luxe, developed by Netenberg, is an auto installer software will allows you to install various scripts easily through cPanel. Installing scripts may be a tedious job for the novice web master. Fantastico allows you to install more than 40 open source (free) software applications with minimum hassle. No technical knowledge is required to install the scripts. The script installation procedure just takes a couple of minutes to complete and can be performed by novices without the need of setting up MySQL databases, importing structure, chmoding files and without the need of other tasks usually associated with script installations.

Fantastico is integrated into cPanel and is available through the user’s cPanel. Fantastico will typically create tables in a database, install files, adjust permissions, and modify web server configuration files. Although Fantastico is typically associated with open-source software, a handful of scripts are also available that install commercial products; such as SohoLaunch (web site builder), PerlDesk (customer support software), and AccountLab Plus (billing software). Fantastico is the leading auto script installed in the web hosting industry due to its popularity and its tight integration with cPanel.

The following scripts are currently available for installation through Fantastico:

Blogs:

b2evolution (2.4.2)
Nucleus (3.32)
WordPress (2.6.1)

Portals/CMS:

Drupal (6.4)
Geeklog (1.4.1)
Joomla 1.5 (1.5.6)
Joomla (1.0.15)
Mambo Open Source (4.6.5)
PHP-Nuke (7.9)
phpWCMS (1.1-RC4 Rev. A)
phpWebSite (0.10.2)
Post-Nuke (0.764)
Siteframe (3.2.3)
Typo3 (4.1.5)
Xoops (2.0.18.1)

Customer Support:

Crafty Syntax Live Help (2.14.6)
Help Center Live (2.1.4)
osTicket (1.3.1)
PerlDesk (4.012.2) (Commercial, needs license)
PHP Support Tickets (1.9)
Support Logic Helpdesk (1.2)
Support Services Manager (1.0b)

Discussion Boards:

phpBB (3.0.1)
SMF (1.1.5)

E-Commerce:

CubeCart (3.0.17)
OS Commerce (2.2 Release Candidate 2a + buySAFE)
Zen Cart (1.3.8a)

FAQ:

FAQMasterFlex (1.51)

Hosting Billing:

AccountLab Plus (2.8 r14) (Commercial, needs license)
phpCOIN (1.4.1)

Image Galleries:

4images Gallery (1.7.6)
Coppermine Photo Gallery (1.4.19)
Gallery (2.2.5)

Mailing List:

PHPlist (2.10.5)

Polls and Surveys:

Advanced Poll (2.03)
phpESP (1.8.2)
PHPSurveyor (1.0)

Project Management:

PHProjekt (5.2.2)
dotProject (2.1.2)

Site Builders:

Soholaunch Pro Edition (4.9.1 r10) (Commercial, needs license)
Templates Express

Wiki:

PhpWiki (1.2.11)
TikiWiki (2.0)

Other Scripts:

Dew-NewPHPLinks (2.0.1.0b SEF w/Thumbshots)
Moodle (1.9.2)
Noah’s Classifieds (1.3 [Patched-1])
Open-Realty (2.5.2)
phpAdsNew (2.0.11-pr1)
PHPauction (3.2)
phpFormGenerator (2.09c)
WebCalendar (1.0.5)

Netenberg does a good job in keeping the scripts version updated with new releases for Fantastico DeLuxe frequently. Fantastico will not auto update the scripts, so you have to keep tab of the new script versions and update them through Fantastico when it is available.

Fantastico has grown massively over its time, and its made itself part of the Web Hosting industry for users who aren’t sure on installing some types of scripts. It certainly makes things easier for everyone.

14 Aug

Have a WordPress site? WP Super Cache is Must for You!

WordPress is the world’s most popular blogging software and the most used by our clients here at TetraHost. Naturally, when something comes along to make one of the best pieces of software ever made even better, we’d like to let you know aout it! WP Super Cache is a plugin that will speed up just how quickly your blog loads;

WP Super Cache is a static caching plugin for WordPress. It generates html files that are served directly by Apache without processing comparatively heavy PHP scripts. By using this plugin you will speed up your WordPress blog significantly.

Download and Installation
1. Download the newest version of the WP Super Cache plugin from the WordPress.org plugin db and follow the instructions contained in the readme.txt file. If you have installed WP-Cache before this shouldn’t be any more difficult.
2. After installation, go to the WP Super Cache options page and set your desired cache time.

Installation shouldn’t be a problem, but should you have any issue just submit a support ticket in our client area and we’ll be only too happy to help.

Here’s to happy, speedy bogging!

13 Aug

Latest cPanel v11.25

cPanel was already upgraded to 11.25 sometime ago. Today i will try to write an short summery of the new cPanel version.

New cPanel bring a whole range of new features including the ability to edit DNS zones right from cPanel, an enhanced AJAX interface and more.

Performance

cPanel/WHM 11.25 implements some major changes throughout our mailing system. We’ve adjusted the Exim configuration to allow a single process to listen on multiple ports, thereby reducing RAM and CPU usage. In addition to this, we’ve also improved quota lookup efficiency.

RoundCube webmail can now operate using the lightweight SQLite database engine. This gives each email account its own SQLite database, and assigns ownership of the RoundCube process to the cPanel account, for easier process accounting.

Version 11.25 also updates RoundCube, SquirrelMail, and Mailman to their most current versions.

Security

We know that security is important to you. That’s why we’ve added numerous security features to cPanel/WHM 11.25. Our new security token system attempts to prevent cross-site request forgery (XSRF) attacks by appending URLs with a session token in the form of cpsess. When this feature is enabled, absolute URLs are no longer allowed. This new feature helps to ensure a safe environment for you and your customers.

Refined User Interface

We’ve revamped the cPanel home page with even cleaner HTML, and reduced the number of HTTP requests the page sends, resulting in shorter load times. Plus, we optimized the CSS used by cPanel, to speed page loading throughout the entire cPanel interface.

We’ve also overhauled one of cPanel’s most frequently accessed areas: the Email Accounts page. It now combines all the major functionality involved with email accounts into a single page: you can add, search, sort, and delete accounts, as well as change passwords and quotas, all without leaving the page. With its clean new design, this page provides a faster, more intuitive way to manage your email.

cPanel/WHM 11.25 comes equipped with an improved editor for MX (mail exchanger) entries. This new editor allows you to configure multiple mail exchangers with the same priority, for balancing the load on your mail servers.

12 Aug

What is Good About Linux Hosting?

Linux hosting is a fairly easy thing to get. If you are currently on Windows and you are thinking about getting this kind, you do not have to fret since the PC’s operating system and that of the web host will not impact each other. Let us find out more about Linux hosting.

The first benefit of getting Linux hosting is that it is easy to afford. This is an open-source software that you can get for less compared to Mac or Windows. You do not have to pay for any licensing fees. Windows has very strict rules on licensing. Each product will get its own license. You do not have to worry about this with Linux because you can do more than one installations from one purchase.

Is Linux hosting dependable? It has proven time and time again that it is stable and that anybody who uses it can rely on its performance. Most home PCs still use Windows but this is not the case when talking about hosting servers. You can see that Linux is something that most platforms strive to copy.

Aside from these, the Linux hosting system has the capacity to give you plenty of features to give you interactive and lively pages. It makes use of MySQL, Perl, and PHP to give you the best solutions. You can also use free applications to make your site look better and help it cater to your needs. This is a very well rounded hosting system which any sort of online business will find useful.

You might begin to think that Linux hosting is complicated but the truth is that it is not at all. This is very easy to understand even for beginners. Microsoft runs on a fancy graphic interface but Linux runs on command inputs. You can also use all the control panel functions that you find. Linux has a great array of control panels such as Plesk and cPanel. These are also very easy to use.

So these are the reasons why you should opt for Linux hosting. Take advantage of the affordability and superior performance of this kind of server. Websites are very competitive and having this good hosting solution working with yours will really put you at a notch above your competitors. You will find yourself enjoying the ease at which you can control your site and along with this will come high traffic and, eventually, profit.

12 Aug

Limited Time Promotion: 25% Off on all Web Hosting and Reseller Hosting package!

Link: http://www.tetrahostbd.com/specials.html

For a limited time you can take advantage of the following offer on all of our Web Hosting and Reseller Hosting Plans. Special offers cannot be combined and do expire, so we urge you to go fast now and save big while you can!

Special (#1) – 25% OFF (one-time), Shared Hosting Package – COUPON: Shadhin
Special (#2) – 25% OFF (one-time), Reseller Hosting Package – COUPON: Shadhin

Visit our Web Hosting and Reseller Hosting page, located at:

http://www.tetrahostbd.com/hosting.html
http://www.tetrahostbd.com/reseller.html

for complete details and to place your order today!