#WebHosting Archives

5 Signs Your Web Hosting is Holding You Back

Posted on 22/12/202113/11/2021 by Tushar

One of the biggest misconceptions about web hosting is that all hosting services are the same. Whilst it might seem like that from the way many hosting packages are advertised, there’s much more to consider than choosing a certain amount of disk space, RAM or bandwidth. For example, you should ask about the hardware being used and the way a server is configured. You also need to think about the providerâ€™s in-house expertise, the quality of its technical support and the amount of uptime they guarantee.

Whilst on the surface it might look like the only difference between hosting packages is the price, it can be a mistake to put the cost of hosting as your main priority. All hosting is relatively affordable these days, so saving a few pounds a month could be a false economy that can cause problems further down the line.

Here are five signs that will help you know if your web hosting is hindering your business and if it’s time to move on or upgrade.

1. Your site has slow loading times

The loading time is the speed at which your website takes to load on a visitors’ browser. It’s important because Google uses it as a ranking factor and because visitors abandon slow loading websites. It is estimated that a one-second delay in loading time can reduce sales conversions by 7%.

You can measure the speed of your site by typing your URL into Googleâ€™s PageSpeed Insights tool. This will give you the results for your sites’ performance on both desktop and mobile. It’s important that the site loads quickly on both types of devices, especially now that 66% of all UK browsing is done on smartphones and tablets.

While there are many things that can affect your loading times, such as your choice of theme and the number of plugins your website uses, one of the primary factors is the type of web hosting you choose. Well configured, high-performance servers can dramatically improve speed, as can upgrading from shared to VPS hosting.

2. Other users drain your resources

If you use shared hosting, every website hosted on a server shares the resources that the server provides. Most of the time, this isn’t a problem; there’s usually enough processing capacity and memory for everyone. However, there can be issues. Greedy hosts can put too many users on one server in the belief that most of them will underuse the resources available. All it takes is for a couple of websites to start using resource-heavy applications, perhaps sending out several thousand marketing emails or importing thousands of product descriptions and images, and this can negatively affect the performance of every other site on the server.

A good host will employ tools that limit the resources any one customer can use; ensuring that its activities do not impinge on others. This is a little like the fair use policy that some broadband companies impose. If you opt for shared hosting, make sure this happens. Alternatively, use a different form of hosting.

3. You have a poor performance during peaks

Unfortunately, the website draining all the shared resources could be yours. If your site has grown and you have lots of visitors carrying out resource-heavy actions, such as using the shopping cart, it could be your site hitting the resource limits set by the host – especially at peak times or during busy seasonal periods.

If this happens, the slow performance of your site can cause customers to abandon their shopping carts and spend their money elsewhere. Your Google Analytics data will tell you if this is the case.

The issue here is not really the fault of your web host. As mentioned above, it is trying to give everyone a fair share of the serverâ€™s resources. Actually, itâ€™s a sign of success: itâ€™s time to move on to a hosting package that provides the increased resources your site now needs. Your host may have bigger shared hosting packages or, for a few extra pounds per month, you could opt for the significantly better VPS hosting, where youâ€™ll have a virtual server all to yourself.

4. Your server has a bad IP reputation

The server you use will have its own IP address. If one of the other tenants on that server is carrying out inappropriate actions, such as sending spam or hosting malware, then that IP address can get blacklisted. This is bad news for every other website hosted on that server as it can affect search engine ranking and lead to emails being blocked.

What makes this particularly problematic is that the owner of that site might not even be aware of what is happening. They might have been hacked or infected without their knowledge. This is likely a result of them having poor security measures in place, such as not updating their software or having easy to crack passwords.

A good host will provide a range of security features to prevent an IP address from getting blacklisted. These include firewalls, intrusion monitoring, email monitoring, server monitoring and dedicated IP addresses. Make sure your host provides these.

5. You cannot use the software you want

Shared hosting is where one server is shared by lots of users. As itâ€™s a single server, everyone uses the same operating system and this is configured in a way that enables the majority of websites to run optimally.

One of the issues with this is that you cannot use programs that are incompatible with that operating system or ask to have the server configured differently just to accommodate a specific requirement.

If you have a critical need to run incompatible software, the only alternative is to have a server of your own. The most affordable way to do this is to opt for a VPS. By doing this, you have the freedom to use an operating system that is compatible, such as a legacy version of Linux or Windows OS.

Conclusion

Web hosting plays a crucial part in the way your website performs. Choosing the right package and understanding when it is time to change hosts or move to a different type of hosting is vital if for the long-term health of your site and business. Hopefully, from reading this post, you’ll now have a better understanding of the signs to look out for.

Here Is how Brexit is affecting your Web Hosting

Posted on 12/11/202113/11/2021 by Tushar

As the likelihood of a no-deal Brexit increases, businesses throughout the UK will be taking stock of what they need to do come October 31. One area that many businesses might have overlooked is how a no-deal Brexit may affect their hosting. In this post, we’ll look at what the potential problems are and what plans you might need to put in place.

Do you have an EU based web host?

Quite a few web hosts that operate in the UK are based in the EU and have their data centres located in European countries. This could cause several issues for UK customers in the case of a no-deal. As trade agreements with the UK would come to an end on October 31, it may mean that prices for hosting packages change as EU based hosts supplying the UK could be subject to tariffs.

This is by no means a certainty and even if tariffs are imposed, EU based hosts could adjust prices to counteract them. However, it is an issue which needs to be considered, especially as pound to euro currency values are likely to fluctuate considerably in the withdrawal aftermath.

Implications for data protection

The EU has the world’s most stringent data protection laws – something the UK is currently signed up to. Part of its legislation requires that any data held on EU citizens that is stored on servers outside of the EU must have the same level of protection as that which is stored inside the EU.

In 2000, for example, the EU and USA implemented the Safe Harbour Agreement that enabled American companies to transfer personal data from European servers to those in the USA, on the proviso that the US provided privacy protection in line with EU directives. When in 2016, the US government announced that, for reasons of national security, it retained the right to access any EU citizens’ data stored on US servers, the European Court of Justice ruled that the Safe Harbour Agreement no longer offered adequate protection and was thus invalid. Businesses that used service providers which transferred their data to US servers found themselves at risk of substantial fines from the EU.

From October 2019, the UK finds itself in a similar position as the US. As it will no longer be part of the EU, it will have to prove that EU citizens’ data, held on UK servers, maintain the same level of protection as it currently does. This should not be an issue if the UK government keeps the existing laws in place, though it may need to implement a similar Safe Harbour Agreement as part of the process.

The potential problem, however, is that once the UK has left the EU, it is free to make its own data protection laws which may not satisfy the demands of the EU. That said, there are already big differences in attitudes to data protection within the EU and these are pushing some members to consider adopting their own data protection legislation. Such complexity makes it increasingly likely that the safest place for UK companies to store personal data is on servers based within the UK. This is especially so if the UK strengthens its data protection laws even further and considers UK citizens’ data held on EU servers to be inadequately protected.

.eu domain names

Earlier this year, the EU announced that following Brexit, .eu domains could only be registered to individuals or organizations which were geographically located within one of the remaining EU states. Consequently, UK citizens and UK-based organizations would no longer be allowed to register or renew a .eu domain. The only way for a UK company to have a .eu domain would be if it had a subsidiary located within the EU where it could transfer registration to. Any .eu domain which is currently registered to a UK citizen or UK-based business cannot be transferred to another UK-based organisation or be renewed. Eventually, all formerly UK-registered .eu domains will be revoked and made available for registration in the EU. This does not, however, apply to EU citizens living in the UK.

Should a no-deal Brexit takes place, the EU plans to withdraw .eu domains registered to UK organisations or individuals after two months, at which point they will cease to operate and will not be useable to host websites. Full revocation will take place 12 months following the UK withdrawal.

Conclusion

The uncertainty over Brexit is seeping into all areas of business, including your hosting. It can affect the price you pay for EU-based services, the places you store personal data, and even the right to the .eu top-level domain. With less than six months to go before the UK’s scheduled withdrawal, it may be time to take stock of your current hosting provider.

Windows Shared Hosting – Is It Right for You?

Posted on 05/11/202113/11/2021 by Tushar

While it’s not suitable for hosting all types of websites, Windows web hosting can be a powerful platform and for those with smaller sites, a Windows shared hosting plan can be the ideal solution. In this post, we’ll look at whether Windows shared hosting is the right choice for you and explain what to look for when choosing a hosting package.

Is Windows shared hosting right for me?

One of the biggest mistakes made by people new to web hosting is to opt for Windows hosting on the basis that they use Windows on their home computers and are familiar with the way it works. When it comes to hosting websites, the choice isn’t dependent upon personal preference for one type of operating system over another, in this case, Linux or Windows: far more importantly, it depends on the operating system’s compatibility with the software you use to create your website. Some website software will only work with Linux and others with Windows – and while there are some, like WordPress, which can work on both, there is always one option which is more suitable.

Should I choose Windows or Linux hosting?

Though Windows is the most popular operating system for PCs, when it comes to web hosting, Linux is the dominant force. The key reason for this is that, unlike Windows, a Linux operating system is open-source and free, as is the majority of website software that runs on it. If you are using CMS applications like Magento, Joomla or Drupal to build your site, you’ll need Linux hosting. And while WordPress, which has been used to build a third of the World’s websites, can be used on both, the huge majority of users opt for Linux hosting because WordPress is native to it and there is an abundance of online help for WordPress-Linux users.

However, you’ll need to use Windows if you intend to run Windows technologies as part of your hosting. This includes anything that needs the .NET framework, for example, anything written in ASP or ASP.NET, or if you intend to work with Visual Basic. Similarly, you’ll need Windows hosting if you want your website to make use of Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, Access or MS SQL.

Should I opt for shared hosting?

Shared hosting, whether Windows or Linux, is an entry-level solution designed for those with small websites and who have a limited need for storage, RAM and CPU resources. It’s ideal for the needs of many small businesses and is the least expensive form of hosting, making it a very cost-effective way to host a website.

Shared hosting works by hosting multiple user accounts on a single webserver and those users will be allocated a specific amount of storage space and share other resources like CPU and RAM. This is what enables the hosting to be so affordable.

Shared hosting is not without its constraints, however. As users have to share the server, they’ll have to use the operating system and server configuration provided by the host. This means users cannot optimise the server for their own purposes. At the same time, to prevent individual users hogging all the server’s resources, users might be prohibited from running resource-heavy applications, such as operating their account as an ad server or as a streaming service. Those who need additional resources should consider alternative hosting solutions such as VPS, dedicated servers or cloud hosting.

What to look for in a Windows shared hosting plan

While every website will have its own needs, there are certain attributes that you should look for in your Windows shared hosting plan. At the top of the list is the ability to make use of Windows features, such as support for ASP.net and .NET core, as well as the ability to create MS-SQL databases and to import and export data to and from them. For anyone wanting to run WordPress with a Windows server, it is also vital that the package allows you to run PHP & MySQL based applications.

For ease of use, look for a plan that comes with an intuitive, user-friendly control panel to manage your hosting and website, for example, by providing you with 1-click installation. A host that will provide free migration from another service provider can also be very helpful and can ensure your migration takes place without any technical issues.

As website hosting can be technically challenging, having the support of your web host to help you out in case of any difficulties is vital. Always look for a hosting plan that comes with 24/7 technical support included. This way, regardless of the time of day, an expert will be on hand to help you resolve any issues.

Conclusion

Windows shared hosting is an affordable, entry-level solution for those wanting to host websites that require the use of Microsoft and Windows-based applications and databases. Hopefully, this post will have explained whether you need Windows hosting, whether shared hosting is the right choice and what to look for in a Windows hosting plan.

10 Benefits of Cloud Computing for Businesses

Posted on 22/10/202113/11/2021 by Tushar

Cloud computing is where data is stored, managed and processed on a network of servers hosted remotely on the internet. It has become highly popular with businesses because it offers considerable savings together with high security, enormous capacity and a host of managed services. Cloud hosting provides businesses with many advantages and in this post, we’ll take a look at ten of the most important ones.

1. Cloud hosting saves you money

The bottom line for any business looking to adopt a new technology is whether it offers value for money and a good return on investment. What’s great about cloud computing is that you don’t need your own hardware as everything is hosted on your providers’ servers. This means savings can be made on the cost of hardware and, in addition, you can dispense with the costs of running your own data centre. You won’t need to pay for space, power, physical security, insurance and air-conditioning or need to cover the costs of ongoing maintenance.

2. Instantly scalable resources and pay as you go pricing

If you have your own data centre and need to increase computing resources, you’ll need to buy, install and configure an expensive new server. If you only need that capacity to cover a short-term demand, it leaves you with two problems. Firstly, you’re buying something that may lay redundant for most of the time and, secondly, if that demand comes unexpectedly, you might not get the server up and running in time to deal with it.

With cloud computing, scalability comes built in. If you need extra resources because of an unexpected peak in website traffic, you can increase your computing capacity instantly. If that peak only lasts for a day or two you can scale down as demand decreases. And, as you are charged on a pay as you go basis, you only pay for the extra resources you have used. There is no need to upgrade permanently to a bigger package or hire a new server. In this way, cloud provides increased agility and cost-effective resourcing.

3. Strategic competitive advantage

Deployment time in cloud computing is virtually zero and applications that are critical for growth and success can be online almost instantly, giving you a strategic competitive advantage over competitors who have not yet adopted cloud technology.

In addition, the scalability mentioned above means that smaller companies who would normally be at a disadvantage against larger companies with greater in-house capacity, now find themselves on a level playing field without the need to invest heavily in their own data centres.

4. High Availability

As businesses become reliant on applications to run their critical operations, downtime can be disastrous. Server failure can result in companies coming to a complete standstill and getting back online can be a challenging and sometimes long-winded process. Losses can be significant.

Cloud hosting, however, removes the possibility of server failure causing downtime. A cloud environment is engineered to deliver predictable and consistent performance with guaranteed 100% up-time. This is because clients are hosted on virtual machines that, in the event of an issue, can be migrated between the clustered server. The cloudâ€™s hyper-converged design guards against everything from hard disk failure to an entire server failure, enabling mission-critical applications to be available all the time.

5. Lightning fast performance

In order to stay competitive, cloud service providers need to continually update their technology to meet the demands of their customers. As a result, cloud computing offers high-performance servers with technology such as powerful CPUs and super fast SSD drives.

In addition, load balancing is used to route client requests in a way that maximises speed and capacity utilisation. In this way, when servers are busy, the load is distributed so that no single server suffers from performance problems â€“ and with so many servers at their disposal, a cloud provider can always ensure that performance is consistently optimised.

6. Get new apps running quicker

Before the advent of cloud computing, it could take a long time to get new applications running smoothly. Cloud-based applications, however, have significantly reduced the time required for successful execution. Most cloud-based applications can be used instantly after signup.

This offers many advantages to businesses. One, in particular, is that businesses who migrate to the cloud can be benefiting from AI and machine learning applications within hours of signing up.

7. Increased security

With cloud hosting, your business is protected against hacking, infection and internal data theft. Cloud providers are required to comply with a range of stringent security regulations in order to protect their customersâ€™ data. This includes the use of robust firewall technology that features intrusion prevention systems and in-flow virus protection. These detect and isolate threats before they reach your server. You can even extend your office into the cloud with extensive VPN features.

8. More flexible working

Cloud computing provides greater flexibility in how employees work. As it is internet based, staff can access files both in and out of the workplace, enabling them to work remotely or in the office. Many companies are using this to give employees more flexible working conditions and to cut down on the amount of office space they need. In order to cut costs, many local councils have massively reduced office space expenditure by allowing staff to work from home and by using a hot-desking system on the days they come into the office.

Staff can access the companyâ€™s system using web-enabled devices such as smartphones and laptops and can collaborate in real-time with others by sharing synchronised files and using online conferencing. Many businesses now have a â€˜bring your own device (BYOD)â€™ policy which is backed up by the use of a logical access authentication protocol to ensure security.

9. Environmental friendly

Moving your system to the cloud means that you won’t need your own data centre and can reduce your own carbon footprint significantly. You wonâ€™t need to power the servers or keep them cool. You wonâ€™t even need data centre space which needs to be lit.

However, there are more environmental benefits than simply offloading your carbon footprint to your provider. Once you have migrated to the cloud, youâ€™ll find that economies of scale mean that your provider can use energy in a much more efficient way and that the energy needed to run your systems is much less than it would be on-site. In this way, cloud computing reduces the overall impact on the environment.

10. The cloud is future enabled

We’ve already mentioned that cloudâ€™s scalability puts smaller companies on a level playing field with bigger ones. In the future, this is going to be even more important. With the growth of the Internet of Things, the amount of big data that businesses are collecting and processing is going to increase exponentially.

Big data analytics provides vital information for driving business development and those companies who have the resources to carry it out are the ones who will gain most. Cloud computing is by far the most cost-effective option for storing and processing enormous quantities of data. In addition, it provides the easy deployment of the applications needed to carry out this processing.

Conclusion

As you can see from this post, cloud hosting provides many benefits to businesses. It’s cost-effective, can save you money, itâ€™s highly reliable and it provides the scalability, flexibility, agility, high performance and security businesses need from their IT systems.

All About Managed Hosting That You Must Know

Posted on 01/10/202113/11/2021 by Tushar

Businesses that need to expand or upgrade their IT infrastructure have a range of possible choices. One of the most popular is managed hosting. In this post, we’ll explain what managed hosting is, the benefits it can bring and what to look for in a managed services provider.

What is managed hosting?

Managed hosting is a type of service in which a business hires IT hardware from a service provider, such as Anteelo. All managed hardware, i.e. servers, storage and network, has single tenant occupancy, in other words, no other customer will be using the same hardware. This provides the company with all the computing resources that the hardware provides: bandwidth, performance, RAM, storage, etc., and gives the customer complete control of the hardware, OS, software and system security.

With managed hosting, the hardware is securely housed in the service providersâ€™ datacentre and the service provider takes care of its management, admin and technical support. The alternative is unmanaged hosting, where companies still hire hardware and datacentre space but choose to manage it themselves. Whilst some companies still opt for this, most find it easier and more economical to let the service provider undertake management on their behalf.

What is included in a managed hosting service?

The range of services included in a managed hosting package will depend on the individual service provider. Most hosts will provide and manage the datacentre (space, power, building maintenance, physical security, IT engineers, etc.), hardware, networking, operating system (Windows, Linux, etc.) and application infrastructure. It is also possible to extend services even more by adding application management, too. At Anteelo, we even offer bespoke IT solutions.

The list above covers a wide range of management and administrative tasks which are done on your behalf. These can include real-time server monitoring, performance optimisation, server patching, backups, intrusion prevention, application installation and so forth. Using these services means companies do not need to worry about hardware or other issues and can let their IT teams focus on more business-related projects.

Which IT uses are best suited to managed hosting?

Managed hosting is suitable for a wide range of IT uses. This includes hosting websites, as a means for extending in-house architecture and for running custom or legacy apps. Single tenancy hosting is also ideal for those who require exceptional computing performance, large-scale storage and Big Data analytics. It is also being increasingly used for backing up data and for disaster recovery.

With increasing regulation, such as the implementation of GDPR, managed hosting also offers compliance benefits for those companies that require tight data security. If you are an organisation that has a statutory requirement to have a Data Protection Officer (DPO), for example, if you process or store sensitive information or large amounts of personal data, single tenant hosting can offer increased security and help ensure compliance.

What to look for in a managed hosting service provider

It is not only the range of services mentioned above that you would need to consider if you were looking for a managed hosting service provider. Here are a range of other factors you would need to look at:

1. Technical support: Make sure your service provider offers 24/7, 365 days a year technical support. That way, if you have any issue, youâ€™ll know there is an IT expert there to help.

2. Firewall security: All managed hosting should provide strong firewall protection. Look for technology, such as Fortinetâ€™s Fortigate firewalls, which protect against a wide range of security risks.

3. Port speed: Network performance is crucial for todayâ€™s websites. Look for a 1Gbit port speed.

4. High–availability: If you are paying for a managed service, you want it to be available all the time. Make sure your service provider guarantees 100% uptime.

5. High–performance hardware: You should be provided with exceptional hardware such as Intel Xeon CPUs and SSD hard drives.

6. Full root access: If you are leasing a server, you should have full control over it. Ensure the provider you choose enables full root SSH / RDP access.

7. Control panel: the quality of the control panel you are provided with can make a huge difference in taking care of the tasks which are not part of the managed service. The best available is Pleskâ€™s Web Pro.

Is managed hosting the right choice for you?

There is a number of important questions that companies will need to ask before making the decision to opt for a managed hosting package. These include:

1) In what ways will using managed services improve your IT capabilities?

2) What are the financial implications of using a managed service?

3) If you are migrating to a managed service, how can you best manage the move to have the least impact on your business? Will your service provider help you migrate?

4) If you were to opt for unmanaged services, does your company have the in-house expertise needed to manage its own infrastructure?

Conclusion

Managed hosting isnâ€™t the cheapest hosting option available, however, it can bring enormous benefits. It can cut down significantly on the in-house IT resources you dedicate to server management, freeing up your staff for more profitable tasks. It can enhance your security and compliance and, with the right infrastructure, can improve your systemâ€™s performance and IT capabilities.

6 Indicators that It’s Time to Switch WordPress Web Hosting

Posted on 21/04/202116/06/2021 by Tushar

Hosting is integral to the success of your WordPress website and something you should never be complacent about. A poor hosting provider or a wrongly chosen hosting plan can impact the performance of your site and the customer experience of your visitors. What’s more, they can result in lower search engine rankings and make it more difficult to manage your website. In this post, we’ll look at six signs that indicate it’s time to upgrade to a more powerful package or move to a better web host.

1. Your website keeps going offline

In a 24/7 marketplace, you need your WordPress website to be constantly online and available for your visitors. If it isn’t and your site goes down, even for short periods, visitors will become frustrated, damaging your reputation. What’s more, when search engines see your site’s availability decline, they’ll downrank it in their search results. Combine these and you’ll end up losing business and long term customers. If this is happening to your website, it’s a clear signal that you can no longer rely on your hosting solution to keep your site online.

To discover if your site is frequently going offline, you should monitor its uptime. As a WordPress user, you’ll find several plugins to do this which you can install directly from your admin panel. Recommended plugins include WP Umbrella and Site Uptime Monitoring, both freely available from the WordPress Repository.

Ideally, you should look for a host whose WordPress hosting packages guarantee a minimum uptime of 99.5%.

2. Your WordPress hosting lacks the features you need

WordPress hosting has moved on considerably over the last few years in order to meet the demands of today’s websites and the needs of their owners. If your hosting plan lacks these new features, it might mean you’re having to spend more time and effort than necessary managing your website.

At Anteelo, for example, you’ll find WordPress pre-installed and ready to go, you’ll get a free domain on annual accounts and free SSL certificates for your sites. You’ll even have use of our specially developed WordPress Toolkit that lets you install, secure, update and manage your WordPress sites all from a single, easy to use interface.

What’s more, we provide the advanced security that WordPress sites demand with our application firewall protecting you from hackers and bots and our daily backups ensuring that you can rest easy should you ever need to recover your data. There’s also 1-click website hardening, automatic WordPress patching and more.

3. Your website is slow

Visitors and search engines expect websites to load quickly and respond swiftly to interactions, like clicks and data inputs. When they don’t, customers abandon the site and search engines downrank it. Ensuring the site performs well, therefore, is critical to its success.

WordPress does have some speed issues, often caused by the number of plugins working in the background and the size of the images used in a site’s content. While there are well-known actions you can take to speed up a site, such as caching, compression, image optimisation and content delivery networks, these only go so far.

By far the most important factor in driving the speed of a website is the performance of the server on which it is hosted. If you find your site sluggish, even when you have optimised its performance, it’s another sign you need to upgrade to a more powerful solution.

The WordPress hosting at Anteelo is built from the bottom up to provide enhanced WordPress performance. We use the latest Xeon processors and super-fast SSD hard drives in our servers and then configure them to provide optimal performance for WordPress using Apache + NGINX, PHP7.x + OPcache and HTTP/2. We even provide an in-built caching engine, so you don’t need to install a separate caching plugin.

4. Your host suspended your website

There are only a few genuine reasons why a web host would take a site offline or suspend a user account, for example, if the site was infected with malware, if it was being used to carry out illegal activities or if the hosting bill hadn’t been paid.

Some hosts, however, will take a site down and even suspend an account if the host’s usage limits have been exceeded, such as reaching a maximum bandwidth allocation. Meeting a maximum bandwidth allocation is a sign that your website is doing well in terms of the visitors it receives. It’s a time when the company should be reaping the benefits of its success, not getting punished by finding its site offline.

If your hosting has bandwidth restrictions, it’s time to move to a solution where this isn’t an issue. At Anteelo, our WordPress hosting plans have unmetered bandwidth – in other words, there is no data transfer limit, just a simple, fair use policy.

5. You have outgrown your WordPress hosting package

Over time, you’ll want your online venture to grow. This could mean having a bigger website, multiple websites, dealing with far more visitors or even running other applications on your server besides your websites. When this happens, there may come a time when the hosting plan you currently have lacks the resources (storage, CPU, RAM and bandwidth) or the features (number of websites, email addresses, databases, etc.) that you need.

This is one of the most obvious signs that you need to upgrade. And while there are bigger WordPress hosting packages you can upgrade to; at some point you’ll need to move on from shared hosting to a larger solution, like VPS. The issue for many WordPress owners is that dedicated WordPress VPS hosting is something of a rarity. This is not the case at Anteelo.

At Anteelo, we offer WordPress Starter and WordPress Standard shared hosting plans. However, for those making the move upwards, we also have a WordPress Pro-Server plan hosted on your own VPS. Unlike a standard VPS, this has been optimised for WordPress in the same way as our shared hosting solutions but with the added advantages of 50GB of storage, 4vCPU core processors, 4GB of dedicated RAM and unlimited websites and mailboxes.

6. Poor technical support

Who do you turn to when something goes wrong with your website or hosting? While there is a monumental amount of WordPress help available online, when the need is urgent you want a WordPress expert that can help you sort out issues quickly so that your site remains online and working as it should.

A key requirement of a good web host is providing technical support to its customers. At Anteelo, we go above and beyond. Our technical support is free with all accounts and our technical experts (not merely customer support) are available 24/7, 365 days a year. What’s more, you can contact them via online chat, phone, email or ticket – and about any problem you have with your site or hosting.

If you find your host lacking in the technical support department, then it’s another sign that you need to move on before you find yourself in a tricky situation with no one to help.

Conclusion

WordPress hosting is specially designed to improve the hosting of WordPress websites. However, not all plans or vendors are the same. Hopefully, the information given here will help you know when it’s time to make the move.

The 10 Steps to a Painless Website Migration

Posted on 18/05/202016/06/2021 by Tushar

Migrating your website can be a technically challenging process and not without risk. Here, we’ll look at the potential risks involved and explain the process you need to go through to make sure everything goes smoothly.

Why migrate a website?

There are several reasons for migrating a website, the main ones being that you are upgrading to a better form of hosting, for example from shared hosting to VPS, or that you are moving to a new web host. Regardless of the reason, it will mean moving your website from one server to another and this is where the challenges and risks are to be found.

What are the risks of website migration?

The biggest risk is that the migration will not be carried out properly and that the website won’t function correctly after the move. There’s also the risk of losing data during the move so that elements of the website are missing. Moving to a different server can also affect your performance on search engines if not handled correctly and there’s the potential for your site to be offline while you fix any issues.

Here are the steps to ensure your migration goes smoothly.

1. Do not take down your existing website

Until you are 100% sure your new site is working, keep your existing site online. This way, if there are any issues, they won’t affect your users.

2. Make a copy of your website

The first stage of the migration is to copy your existing website and upload it to your new server. This will enable you to test how well it performs in its new hosting environment and give you an indication of any changes you will need to make.

As you will want to keep your existing website in operation during this time, you’ll need to do this on a different domain or subdomain.

3. Block search engines from indexing your test site

You don’t want the test site to be accessed by users until its finished and this means preventing it from appearing in search engine results. You can block search engine crawlers in a number of ways, for example, using a robots.txt file, password protecting your site or by using a no-indexing tag.

4. Test the new site

Once you have reached this stage, you are in a position to test your website on the new server to make sure it does not have any technical errors and performs as expected. Testing should make sure that users can carry out all the interactions offered by the site, including searches, navigation, signing into user areas and making purchases. You should also make sure that all pages, posts, links, etc., display and perform properly. These tests should be carried out on both desktop and mobile versions of the website and on different types of browser.

5. Test if your new site can be crawled by Google

Although you blocked access to search engines earlier on in the process, you will need to give it temporary access just to make sure that once the new site goes live, it can still be indexed. If it can’t, then post-migration, you will lose your website ranking. To do this, temporarily add the test site to Google Search Console and check the site can be found. Once this has been successfully achieved, you can block the access once again.

6. Check site speed

It’s a good job to test the speed of the new site in comparison with the existing site before launch. You want your new site to be crawled and indexed quickly by Google and this will happen swifter if the server is performing well. It will also enable you to implement other speed enhancements, such as compression, CDN, minification and image optimisation. All of these can accelerate site speed, giving a better user experience and improving overall website ranking. You can check the speed of both the mobile and desktop versions of your site using Google’s PageSpeed Insight’s tool.

7. Update DNS settings

Once you are happy with the performance of your new website, it will be time to start sending users to it. To do this, you will need to change your DNS settings so that they point to your new IP address. You will need to contact your hosting company to ask for this change.

8. Unblock search engines

As soon as the DNS settings have been changed, it is important that you remove the blocks that prevent search engine crawlers accessing your site. This will enable search engines to continue to crawl and index all your pages and ensure that they don’t go missing in search queries. Double-check this is working by using the Google Search Console Coverage report.

9. Test redirects

If you have any redirects enabled on your website, test they are still working on the new server and that there are no 404 errors.

10. Retest

Finally, carry out all the steps in point 4 above, once again. This will ensure that now the site is live, it is still working as expected.

Conclusion

Migration from one server to another can be a daunting experience for many. Hopefully, the steps discussed here will make it less traumatic and help ensure that things go smoothly.

Features to Look for in a Web Host for a Hospitality Business

Posted on 02/05/202016/06/2021 by Tushar

As the hospitality sector prepares to bounce back after the lockdown, many companies are seeing the importance of their websites going forward. From marketing to customer experience, your online presence can make a dramatic difference to the success of your business. Here, we’ll look at some of the ways your website can benefit your company and what things you’ll need to include in your web hosting solution.

Better marketing

Having a website ensures your hospitality business is open 24 hours a day. Visitors who search for you, click on ads or see your social media posts can quickly find all the information they need about your business.

From a marketing perspective, you’ll be able to make a feature of your business’ services, whether that’s your menus, hotel rooms, spas and other services. You’ll be able to post detailed descriptions, interior and exterior photographs, videos, customer reviews, star ratings and all the other details that discerning customers want to know before making a reservation.

Improved customer experience

Websites are no longer just for promoting your business. Today, many hospitality companies are making them useful for customers throughout their journey with you. A website can enhance customer experience in many ways. A hotel, for example, can use it to take room bookings, enable customers at the venue to book restaurant tables, order room service, contact the concierge, find out about nearby amenities, take advantage of offers, check out and more. Even after they have left, you can use the website to create a members’ area to develop customer loyalty and promote future visits.

Customer experience has become increasingly important in hospitality and those venues that make things quicker, easier and more convenient for their customers will benefit from better reviews, increased loyalty and a growth in revenue.

A website for staff

A further way to use your website is to create a separate area for your staff. This can be used to increase efficiency and improve the way you deliver services. Staff can use your site on their smartphones to sign in or notify you of absences, they can inform management about issues, such as low stock or maintenance requirements. It can be used to send messages, display notices and timetables, issue daily instructions and more. All of these can improve the way the venue is managed and enhance the service you provide your customers.

What to look for in a hosting solution

To put these things into place and get the most from your hospitality website, it is vital that you have the right hosting solution for your hospitality company. Here are some of the hosting features you should look for.

Strong security

As a hospitality company, you will likely need to collect and store the personal data of your customers. In some cases, this may include names, addresses, contact information, payment details and even passport information. Legally, you are required to keep this data safe in order to comply with regulations, such as GDPR.

Hospitality companies are the targets of cyberattacks simply because the criminals know they keep this information and they are using increasingly sophisticated means to acquire it, including ransomware, phishing attacks, malware infections and hacking.

To keep your system and data protected, you need to choose a secure hosting solution. Make sure your web host provides a range of security tools, including a robust firewall, intrusion prevention, malware scanning, remote backups, SSL encryption, spam filtering, email scanning and more.

Growing room

As the hospitality sector becomes increasingly digitised and automated, your hosting needs will grow over time in order to provide a wider range of online services for both staff and customers. You might, for example, need to deploy website chatbots, virtual tours, customer-facing reservation tools and link your website to third party booking sites. Additionally, the increasing reliance on data for decision making means you may need to analyse more data to improve online and digital services for your customers.

To make use of these tools and technologies, you’ll need a hosting package with more storage and better performance, such as VPS, dedicated servers and cloud hosting. To make growth easy, look for a web host that provides all these services and will help you migrate from one to the other. This will save you the headache of having to move everything to a new host.

Guaranteed uptime

If you are going to offer 24/7 services to your customers, you need a website that remains constantly online and which can cope with the demand for your growing online services. Failure to do this can lose you custom, damage your reputation and lead to complaints and poor reviews. Look for a web host that guarantees an uptime of 99.9% and above and make sure your package is large enough to deal with the demand you expect.

24/7 technical support

Managing a hospitality business is challenging enough without having to struggle with technical website problems. However, as the sector adopts more sophisticated online technologies, the demand on managers is likely to grow. To take away the stress and the challenge, it is important that your web host provides 24/7 technical support. This way, should you have an issue there will be a qualified expert there to help you, regardless of the time of day.

Conclusion

Finding the right hosting solution is critical if your hospitality company is to bounce back from the lockdown and remain competitive in a market that makes increasing use of digital technologies. The right hosting can ensure your website is capable of delivering a wider range of services to your customers, enables you to deploy tools to improve staff and operational effectiveness, keeps your systems and data secure and ensures your site stays online.

The cPanel Control Panel’s Key Characteristics

Posted on 01/05/202016/06/2021 by Tushar

The cPanel control panel is the leading web hosting control panel on the market today. Designed for use on Linux operating systems, it is often used for managing the hosting of WordPress, Magento, Drupal, Joomla and similar websites. With an intuitive and easy to use graphical interface, cPanel offers website owners a broad suite of tools and functions unrivalled by other Linux-based control panels. Here, we’ll provide an overview of cPanel and look at some of its main features.

An overview of cPanel

cPanel is a control panel that enables you to carry out a multitude of website and hosting management tasks. While the admin area of your website is where you can update content, change themes, install plugins, etc., cPanel enables you to carry out higher-level tasks, managing both your website and other aspects of your hosting, as well as offering other ways to carry out some of the things that can be done in the admin area.

cPanel organises its tools into 10 easily navigable sections. These are:

Files: for managing your website files and disk space.
Databases: for managing your databases.
Domains: for managing your domains and DNS.
Email: For managing email, email security, contacts, etc.
Metrics: For viewing website data, such as visitor numbers and resource usage.
Security: a suite of tools for securing your site, such as 2FA and SSL.
Software: to manage PHP, web platforms and to install new apps.
Advanced: More complex tools for things like cron jobs, error pages, etc.
Preferences: for cPanel management, such as user manager, passwords and interface personalisation.
Softaculous App Installer: Softaculous is a tool that lets you install hundreds of tools/apps directly from cPanel.

Main features-

Email

cPanel’s email tools help you to manage your email from directly within the control panel. They enable you to:

Add and remove email accounts
Set up email forwarding, mailing lists and auto-responders
Manage spam filters and global filters
Encrypt emails for security
Read and compose emails anywhere in the world via Webmail.

FTP Manager

The FTP manager can be used to manage FTP access to your server directories and files. Features include:

Set up FTP accounts
Set up anonymous FTP access
FTP session control

File Manager

The File Manager makes managing your files even easier than using FTP as you can do it directly from an interface within cPanel. You won’t need to make an FTP connection, use an FTP program or create additional usernames and passwords.

Backup

Backups are essential to help you recover from lost data, corrupted files, hardware failure and cybercrime. cPanel has built-in backup functionality that lets you create a backup of your website with a single click, download it, and store it remotely from your server.

Domains

cPanel gives you complete control over your domains. It enables you to manage your domains and DNS settings, add new domains and subdomains, publish domains once your websites are completed, set up domain aliases and redirects.

Raw Log Manager

The Raw Log Manager lets you choose how raw logs are stored on your hosting account.

Raw Access Log
cPanel gives you the ability to download the raw access logs for any domain in your account. This information is useful for tracking user movements.

Error Log
cPanel’s Error Log helps you get to the bottom of 404 errors. The log displays all the “404 File does not exist” errors, helping you discover which files are missing from your website and quickly replace them or remove broken links.

MySQL Databases
CMS websites require a MySQL database and you may have multiple databases if you have more than one domain. The MySQL Databases tool enables you to manage your databases, creating new ones, modifying existing ones and creating, managing and removing database users.

Two Factor Authentication (2FA)

Take your cPanel security up a level by using the control panel’s 2FA tool. This will require anyone logging into your cPanel account to use an additional method of verification, sent to their phone, besides the username and password. 2FA helps prevent unauthorised users or brute force hackers gaining access to your control panel.

Softaculous

Make the installation of applications a breeze with Softaculous. Softaculous enables you to install hundreds of useful apps and tools, quickly and easily, to improve your website’s functionality. From CMS, such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento, etc, popular eCommerce platforms, image galleries, social media tools, blogging tools, forums, ad managers, calendars, user polls, project management tools, customer support tools and much more – all installed with a single click!

There are many more useful features available in cPanel. With such a rich variety of features, it’s no wonder that cPanel is the world’s most used control panel.

The Benefits of Cloud Computing for Real Estate Agents

Posted on 30/04/202016/06/2021 by Tushar

The estate agency landscape has transformed over the last decade, with home buyers increasingly looking to the internet as their first port of call. This has led to the rise of disrupter startups that have stormed the market with nationwide online platforms and the promise of low-cost selling. To stay competitive and relevant, traditional estate agencies have had little option but to adopt new technologies themselves, a need accelerated by the impact of the pandemic. For those looking for the right solutions to their IT requirements, the answer lies in cloud technology. Here, we’ll explain why.

1. Better customer experience

For estate agencies concerned about competition from low-cost online agencies, it’s worth noting that, according to Gartner, 86% of consumers are willing to pay more for better customer experience (CX). The issue is that many online estate agencies have already begun to provide great online CX themselves. Migrating to the cloud, however, not just enables you to provide excellent CX yourself, but do so swiftly and cost-effectively.

Migrating to the cloud enables you to provide both buyers and sellers with all the information and help they need without having to visit your premises. There are a growing number of cloud-based tools and technologies to help estate agents offer great CX. These include financial calculation tools, virtual tours, online form completion and submission, customer service chatbots, omnichannel messaging and much more. These provide great CX in that they make the buying and selling of property quicker, more convenient, less stressful and highly engaging. Who wants to look at a photo of a house when they can put on a VR headset? Who wants to wait for a phone call when information can be accessed and answers provided instantly?

All these cloud-based technologies make customers more confident about your services, foster strong relationships and lead to better reviews and online reputations.

2. Using data to improve your business

Data is now a critical component of decision making for businesses, providing insights that can help improve marketing, website design, productivity, cost-effectiveness and more. Analysing that data needs cloud technology. Cloud enables you to cost-effectively store and centrally manage your data and provides you with the AI and analysis tools that can find those insights needed to drive your business forward.

It can help you map customer journeys across all touchpoints, ensuring that communications are consistent and that whoever is dealing with a client is always up to date; it can pinpoint weaknesses in your website, such as poorly performing calls to action or quickly abandoned pages; and It can show you whether your communications are being opened and accessed and if not, predict which channels and times of day are most effective. It can even help predict shifts in the market, changes in consumer behaviour and the impact of changes in regulation, such as the return of full stamp duty, all of which can help you react quickly and make gains before your competitors.

3. Cost-effective

As digital transformation takes place in the housing market, estate agents will face growing IT needs. Developing an in-house infrastructure can be highly expensive, requiring the hiring of IT talent and the purchase of servers. Not just in real estate but across all sectors, businesses large and small have migrated to the cloud in a bid to keep IT costs to a minimum.

In the cloud, you are using the infrastructure of your service provider and this means there is no need for capital investment in hardware. And while there is a monthly fee for your cloud services, this is charged for on a pay-as-you-go basis, so you only pay for the resources (storage, CPU, RAM, bandwidth) that you actually use. This is an exceptionally cost-efficient way to procure your IT.

What’s more, the cloud gives you the flexibility to scale up or scale down on-demand, so if your website gets very busy or you need to carry out a process-heavy data analytics workload, you can be assured that you’ll always have enough IT resources to carry it out without your system crashing. When your period of high demand is over, you can simply scale down again and save money. Doing this in-house would require you to purchase additional hardware which might sit idle except for at the busiest of times.

4. Managed services

As an estate agent, you’ll want to focus on the needs of your business and not spend too much time dealing with IT. With an in-house system, every aspect of your IT will need to be dealt with by your own staff and this includes server management and maintenance tasks that detract IT staff from implementing better services.

In the cloud, server management comes with the service. Your provider will update and patch the operating system on your behalf and ensure that your server is working optimally and remains constantly online for your customers.

What’s more, a good service provider will also offer 24/7 technical support, which means if you have an issue with your cloud services or any of the applications you run on them, you have an expert available, there and then, to help you get it fixed.

5. Remote working

With cloud-based tools at your disposal, the days of telling a customer ‘I’ll check that when I get to the office and get back to you,’ are over. In the cloud, your systems and files are available anywhere with an internet connection and on any device, including smartphones and tablets. This means when carrying out the remote aspect of your job, such as visiting a client’s home, you can access the tools you need and ensure that you have up-to-date information at your fingertips.

It also means you and your staff can work more flexibly and stay productive during disruptions like the lockdown and bad weather days.

6. Stronger security

With the constant risk of hacking, malware, ransomware, DDoS attacks and other threats and a need to comply with regulations like GDPR, IT security is a major concern for all businesses. Putting robust security in place is both expensive and challenging, especially for companies with limited IT budgets.

Cloud vendors, however, employ security experts and utilise the most advanced tools to protect their datacentres and their customers’ systems. They deploy next-gen firewalls with intrusion and malware protection to keep cybercriminals away from your servers and data. They also provide essential security services, such as SSL certificates, email encryption, VPN, 2FA, data encryption and remote backups.

What’s more, when your data is stored in the cloud, you don’t need to keep copies on removable drives, laptops or other devices that can easily be lost or stolen. This helps prevent the risk of your customers’ personal data being breached.

Conclusion

The shift towards a digital market means estate agents need to digitally transform to remain competitive and relevant. To offer the services that customers want, benefit from the advantages of the latest technologies, stay secure and remain cost-effective, this means migrating to the cloud.

1. Your site has slow loading times

2. Other users drain your resources

3. You have a poor performance during peaks

4. Your server has a bad IP reputation

5. You cannot use the software you want

Conclusion

Do you have an EU based web host?

Implications for data protection

.eu domain names

Conclusion

Is Windows shared hosting right for me?

Should I choose Windows or Linux hosting?

Should I opt for shared hosting?

What to look for in a Windows shared hosting plan

Conclusion

1. Cloud hosting saves you money

2. Instantly scalable resources and pay as you go pricing

3. Strategic competitive advantage

4. High Availability

5. Lightning fast performance

6. Get new apps running quicker

7. Increased security

8. More flexible working

9. Environmental friendly

10. The cloud is future enabled

Conclusion

What is managed hosting?

What is included in a managed hosting service?

Which IT uses are best suited to managed hosting?

What to look for in a managed hosting service provider

Is managed hosting the right choice for you?

Conclusion

1. Your website keeps going offline

2. Your WordPress hosting lacks the features you need

3. Your website is slow

4. Your host suspended your website

5. You have outgrown your WordPress hosting package

6. Poor technical support

Conclusion

Why migrate a website?

What are the risks of website migration?

1. Do not take down your existing website

2. Make a copy of your website

3. Block search engines from indexing your test site

4. Test the new site

5. Test if your new site can be crawled by Google

6. Check site speed

7. Update DNS settings

8. Unblock search engines

9. Test redirects

10. Retest

Conclusion

Better marketing

Improved customer experience

A website for staff

What to look for in a hosting solution

Strong security

Growing room

Guaranteed uptime

24/7 technical support

Conclusion

An overview of cPanel

Main features-

1. Better customer experience

2. Using data to improve your business

3. Cost-effective

4. Managed services

5. Remote working

6. Stronger security

Conclusion

Delivering excellence, collaborating across time zones.

Take a look at our global hideouts.​

Contact

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Atlanta, USA

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India (HQ)

Take a look at our global hideouts.