Shared Security Risks

If you are like many newcomers emerging online, you are working with a modest budget and looking for an affordable web hosting plan.  In this scenario, a shared host would be the most cost-effective option as you can easily find a plan for under $10 a month.  If this is the path you choose, be warned of all the potential security issues that will be shared.

How Shared Hosting Works

A company that offers a shared hosting service runs numerous websites on a single server.  This allows the provider to enjoy convenience and savings as the hosting customers are paying the costs of the server.  The problem with this situation is the flexibility today’s shared host offers its customers, freedoms that open up numerous security holes.  With the ability to code with dynamic scripting languages such as ASP, PHP or Perl, domain owners can make critical mistakes that have an adverse impact on the entire server.  They could also launch attacks on other users hosting on the machine.

Many pre-installed software solutions typically require you to permit the server to read, write and execute your files, leaving them vulnerable other users on a shared server.  Although software developers have come up with a several safeguards, there is no surefire way to protect data in a sharing hosting environment.  Some applications attempt to make files only available to the domain owner.  However, because there needs to be write access, many of these programs make it possible for other domain owners to write files to a particular domain.  The same functions that grants a user flexibility opens up the door for potential abuse on a shared server.

If a web host permits the use of sensitive functions such as EXE. (execution), you should be very cautious about incorporating add-on programs, including those useful applications that come included in the Fantastico script installer.  To be on the safe side, you should first contact a provider and ask if the server grants other users with access to functions that enable files to be written to your directory.  If the host permits the use of the execution function, you may want to consider moving to a different hosting environment, especially if you are storing sensitive data on your website.

Conclusion

One of the most secure solutions for hosting your website is a dedicated server as you have the entire machine to yourself and are not exposed to potential threats posed by shared users.  When you are looking to save money, this may not be practical.  If shared hosting is your only option, do a little research on the provider to ensure that you are getting a secure and reliable service.  Always make sure that other domain owners cannot access commands that allow them to write files to your domain.  You should also remain cautious when installing open-source applications and working with scripting languages.  These technologies should be kept up to date to ensure the best functionality and security.  While you can’t ensure 100% protection on a shared server, there are ways to limit your vulnerability.

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Dec 09, 2008 : Shared Hosting No responses yet

The Shared Hosting Checklist

Are you looking to build a website but are working with limited resources?  If so, shared hosting could be the option for you.  This solution is very affordable and can provide you with a number of tools needed to establish yourself on the web.  Before signing yourself into a lengthy service contract, there are many important things you need to know about this environment.  By reading over this checklist, you will be more likely to find a provider that suits your needs and avoid all the pitfalls of shared hosting.

Overselling

Believe it or not, overselling is a common trait in the shared hosting sector.  What this means is that a company is selling more server resources than they have access to.  For instance, if a provider is offering you 10,000 GB of disk space and bandwidth per month, this might be unlikely if they are hosting 10,000 websites on a single server.  This could result in various problems for your site, especially if most of your neighbors as just active as you intend to be.  Although the 500 GB of storage offered by a dedicated host may not sound as attractive as the unlimited offering of a shared provider, it is however, more likely to be true.  In fact, you should keep in mind that unlimited is merely an advertising gimmick whereas 500 GB is generally more than enough bandwidth and storage.

Reselling

Reselling is any easy and affordable way for people like yourself to generate income from the web hosting business.  You sign up with a company, they you provide you with server space and you sell it to customers of your own to make a profit.  Some succeed at this venture while others fail.  Even worse are the fly-by-night resellers that have no intentions on hosting your site.  Instead, they take your money and sensitive files and make off.   If you decide to host with a reseller, do a little research and find out how long they have been doing business.

Support

Customer service is a critical element of web hosting, especially if you are creating your first website.  To make sure you get the benefit of quality support, you should find out if the company has a phone number, email address or live chat.  You can take this one step further by making contact before signing up to judge their response time.  If they take days to reply or blow you off completely, there is no need to waste your time.

Reviews

One way to find yourself a good shared host is to read reviews online.  This should give you a good idea about who you will be dealing with and what to expect.  At the same time, you shouldn’t rely solely on web hosting reviews.  Some could be written by internal sources at a particular company while others could be written by competitors.  If you want helpful reviews, try to get them from somebody you can trust to provide honest opinions.

Status

Every web host had to start somewhere, but it’s always a good idea to sign up with a company that has been in the business for a while.  Several providers have crumbled despite seeming as if they were off to a good start.  By doing business with trusted names with documentation to back up their claims, you can better assure that your experience with shared hosting will be a positive one.

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Nov 24, 2008 : Shared Hosting No responses yet

The Two Sides of Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is the most cost effective way to get a website of your own, thus the main reason why it is so popular among personal users and small to medium sized businesses.  So why is shared hosting so affordable?  It’s rather simple.  Multiple users are hosting their sites on the web server and essentially sharing the costs.  Despite the convenience and cost-efficiency, shared hosting often gets a bad rap.  In this article we will share some of the concerns and cover the advantages and disadvantages that come along with the shared server.

The Good Side

Not only is shared hosting more affordable, it also enables the easy management of your website.  Unlike a dedicated hosting environment, you don’t have to worry about the technical challenges associated with maintaining the server which generally includes updating the operating system, installing software and other tasks.  This is all handled by the web hosting company who basically gives you a pre-installed platform already configured for client-side management.

The Bad Side

The factor that makes shared hosting so great is the very thing that presents drawbacks.  The nature of this environment can result in problems to every site hosted on the server.  Even if one site on the machine experiences a sudden burst in traffic or makes a critical scripting error, the available resources of every other user could be impacted to a point where their sites become incredibly slow or completely inaccessible. While this is very inconvenient for someone trying to run a successful business, reliable hosts constantly monitor the performance of their web servers for such problems.  This gives them the ability to quickly address issues by temporarily shutting down the machine and performing the required maintenance.

Another disadvantage of shared hosting relates to the limitations you are forced to endure.  What you get is what you get, which is generally a certain amount of bandwidth and disk space, databases, scripting languages and a couple of pre-installed software applications.  So what happens when you want to utilize a particular script or program that is not available on the server?  Nothing.  You simply miss out.   This can present numerous problems as the average shared host simply cannot structure their service to benefit a single user.  When coupling the fact that so many providers are overselling their service with unlimited this and unlimited that, you have a situation that may not be worth the incredibly low price after all.

The Determining Factor

In the end, a reputable shared hosting company is really all that matters.  When doing business with a company that has established a proven track record, you can host your site in confidence and cater to thousands of visitors everyday.  In order to ensure a smooth performance, we suggest looking into a provider and finding out about how many sites they a running on a single server.  Additionally, you should look for signs of reliability in the form of a respectable uptime and customer support in case something does go wrong.  If everything is intact, you can enjoy all the benefits of an economical web hosting service without much worry about performance and security issues.

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Oct 29, 2008 : Shared Hosting No responses yet

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Shared Hosting

Shared servers offer the most popular and widely used web hosting services available.  Not only does it provide server space for your website, but for the sites of other clients as well.  All of these sites make use of the same operating system and software applications.  Although free hosting runs a similar setup, shared hosting typically offers many more benefits.

A free shared hosting service is a sound solution for those simply looking to express themselves or try out a few new ideas.  If things don’t work out as you may have hoped, you have the benefit of having paid nothing for your website.  At the same time, you should come to expect that free shared hosting will not provide the best conditions.  For instance, storage space and bandwidth is limited and reliable support for MySQL databases and PHP is almost nonexistent.  To put it mildly, this type of environment is not geared for someone looking to succeed at e-commerce.

With a paid shared hosting service, you are typically provided with all the necessary features to make an impact on the web.  This includes multiple email accounts, a number of MySQL databases, easy to use web building tools and much more.  Maybe you want a to start a small business that looks professional but doesn’t require enough to fill an entire server.  Paid shared hosting offers you an easy way to host your site on a powerful web server for an affordable monthly fee.

Shared hosting is usually the first choice for the brand new webmaster.  This type of environment gives you the ability to create a significant web presence without the need of advanced technical skill.  Here is a list of other advantages you will enjoy.

• A fast connection and reliable up-time

• Quality server administration

• Efficient control panel software

• A number of useful features

Shared hosting is a viable solution but there are a few drawbacks as well.  Below we have listed and detailed the disadvantages of hosting your site on a shared server:

Limited resources - on a shared server, you are sharing precious resources with everyone else who has signed up for service.  This puts restrictions how the scalability of your site as capacities such as disk storage, bandwidth and memory are limited.

Software restrictions - a shared hosting provider generally only permits you to use the software they have supplied.  This means you are unable to implement valuable components that could possibly increase the functionality and value of your site.

Security issues - the shared hosting environment is much more susceptible to outside and internal exploits.  This is mainly due to the vulnerabilities in common scripts and the lack of security implementations.

The most attractive advantage of shared hosting is a managed environment that can be afforded on nearly any budget.  When signing up with a reliable company, their support team will handle all technical difficulties and guarantee your uptime.  When looking to host your website on a shared server, be sure to base providers on customer support, security, space and features.  After gathering this information, you will be able to determine if shared hosting is the best option.

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Aug 15, 2008 : Shared Hosting No responses yet

Warnings to Consider About Shared Hosts

“Unlimited” has become a prevalent term in the web hosting industry. It seems as if every other provider is offering some type of unlimited service, whether it’s storage space and bandwidth or domain names. So does this mean that there is no limit to the scalability of your business? Not exactly, especially in a shared hosting environment. Even if a web host is genuine about their claims of providing unlimited space, bandwidth and domains, there are other factors that need to be considered, factors that are unworthy of the unlimited title.

Before you are able to enjoy the benefits of unlimited bandwidth, you are likely to experience issues such as exceeding associated resources. Resource usage is a major factor that limits the capability of a shared host. It generally covers three areas: CPU usage, RAM usage and database usage.

CPU

CPU (central processing unit) is responsible for the functionality of a website and delivering content to visitors. If your website is built with dynamic content, with applications such as blogs and message boards, it would naturally require more CPU usage. This is because the CPU has to process web content and recreate it every time a user requests it.

If you are building on a shared server that is hosting a number of other sites, the performance of your site may eventually endure issues and thus function much slower. This is because the server uses CPU to compensate for each individual site on the server. Shared hosts with limited resources typically monitor CPU usage and restrict those use too much.

RAM

RAM (random access memory) is temporary memory used to store the programs, scripts and related data of your website as they are running. While many web hosting providers openly advertise their amount of bandwidth and storage, rarely will they disclose the capacity of RAM and how much you are allowed to use.

RAM usage also determines how fast your website runs a script or process. Keep in mind that every script and application requires RAM usage. The more you install on to the server, the higher amount of RAM you’ll need.

Database Connection

The database is a very critical feature in web hosting. With more than 10 million installations throughout the globe, MySQL is the most widely used database management system available. Your database is what stores the content of your website such as user names and passwords, customer addresses and credit card numbers, etc. However, when there are too many requests or connection to a database, the server may easily become overloaded, especially when a number of users are constantly making simultaneous adjustments.

In Closing

Before purchasing service with any web host, you should ask the provider about resource usage and how they handle accounts that have exceeded server limits. Shared servers are popular but at the same time they are limited. Hopefully this article helped you to become familiar with this type of hosting. This environment tends to be more suited for personal sites and small businesses opposed to large e-commerce sites.

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Jun 30, 2008 : Shared Hosting No responses yet