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Security, VPS, Web Hosting

How To Secure Your VPS Hosting

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 Web hosting security as a topic seems to be everywhere these days, and it’s not only discussed by big companies but also by small businesses and almost all of the individuals who have an online presence; all of this is because of stolen information and data loss, so the security topic shouldn’t be taken lightly.  In this article, we’ll learn more about hosting security in general, but we’ll talk more specifically about VPS security, and the best ways to keep your VPS secure, so let’s get started.   Change Your VPS Default SSH Login Most VPS users use Secure Shell or SSH to log into their VPS server as a method for a remote computer connection; the risk with SSH is to be a victim of a brute-force attack. This attack means that someone tries to log into your SSH by trying a variety of common passwords. So, if you use SSH as a method to log into your VPS server, then we recommend you to change the default SSH Port and login password to a strong customized password in order to secure your VPS. As you probably know, a strong password consists of a combination of lower and upper-case characters, numbers, and symbols. This way you will secure your SSH and protect yourself from “brute-force attacks”.   Keep Your Software Up-to-Date Most of you probably know that software updates contain security patches most of the time, so it’s necessary to keep your VPS software up-to-date, and luckily for you, all it takes is a few clicks to run an update for your VPS operating system. We recommend you to automate this process. It depends on your operating system, but you can automate this process by using cron jobs, which is a Linux-based utility for scheduling commands and scripts on your VPS server to run automatically on a specific date and time for a specific number of times, so it’s an easy thing to do but one of the most important tips for securing your VPS. The last thing to be mentioned here, if you use any (CMS) Content Management System like WordPress, Joomla, and so on, don’t forget to monitor for its updates and install them as soon as they’re available, too, besides all of your server-side updates.   Always Monitor Your VPS Server Logs Monitoring your VPS server logs keeps you informed if anything happened with your VPS server, so when you track your VPS system logs and software, you will be better prepared for any issues that could happen. Monitor all of the server events, resources, traffic levels, users’ activities, software-generated errors, and warnings; this attitude helps you to be prepared all the time for any issues that could happen in the future. We recommend you set up email notifications for any server errors and warnings to have real-time monitoring of your VPS server.   Don’t Forget to Set Up Your Firewall We don’t want unwanted traffic, and that’s why firewalls matter. Most Linux-based operating systems have pre-installed firewalls. In addition to that, consider installing the free Config-Server Firewall. This firewall provides you with better security for your VPS server and gives you an advanced control interface for managing the firewall settings.   Perform Backups Regularly   This point goes for all types of hosting. It would be best if you make automatic backups. Note that backups should be performed outside your VPS server because if anything goes wrong with your VPS server, you should be prepared for this situation.   Set Up SSL Certificates For your Domains SSL Certificate creates an encrypted channel between the server and the client browser to ensure privacy; so, to keep your sensitive data such as credit card information, users’ data, passwords, and so on, you must set up an SSL Certificate to encrypt all of your website data.   To conclude No matter what your hosting type is, whether it’s shared hosting, VPS Hosting, or Dedicated Hosting, you should always be aware of your hosting security. With a VPS server especially, you’ll have more freedom but also more responsibility.

how-vps-work
VPS, Web Hosting

What is VPS Hosting?

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When your website’s data and traffic grow, you’ll need to move from shared hosting plans to something bigger that offers more features and resources. In this case, Virtual Private Servers (VPS) will be the best choice for you. Let’s explain what VPS is and why you should choose it in more detail:   What is VPS hosting? First of all, the definition of VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. VPS hosting virtually mimics a dedicated server environment in a shared server. By the way, VPS is one of the most popular hosting types because it provides you with dedicated resources and it costs lower than a dedicated server. But provides you with better reliability and performance than shared hosting. VPS is often a great option for small to medium companies that are growing up, so they need a secure, more affordable, and high-performance hosting option.   A quick comparison between Shared Hosting, VPS, and Dedicated Servers   Shared Hosting: As we already know, shared hosting is about sharing a single physical server between multiple users and websites that share all of the server resources and can affect each other. VPS Hosting: VPS as we explained above, is a virtual private server. However, the difference between it and shared hosting is that with VPS hosting is that we’re still sharing one physical server. Still, we have dedicated resources and custom configurations with our virtual server and unlimited scalability.  Dedicated Hosting: A dedicated server simply means that we have a full server/computer with all of its resources, here you have total control; for example, we can upgrade the server ram or the hard drive, also in this case, we have full control and responsibility of our server security   How VPS works? VPS hosting emulates a dedicated server while using a single physical server with other users, VPS hosting uses a parent server to host many servers which are separated from each other virtually. We can achieve that by using a software called a hypervisor, which makes hosting companies capable of implementing a virtual layer on top of the original operating system (OS) to divide the virtual servers. The segmentation between the virtual servers’ walls enables users to install their operating system, their software and create a private server, separated from other users on the operating system level.   Types of VPS Hosting There are different types of VPS hosting which you might have seen or heard about, which are the un-managed VPS and the managed VPS. Let’s talk about each one of them in more detail. Unmanaged VPS: At first glance, we can understand from the name that with the unmanaged VPS, the web hosting provider offers you a VPS without many services, let’s talk about the details. When you choose the unmanaged VPS, here the web hosting provider installs the operating system for you on the VPS, but you as a site owner takes over managing the other aspects of the server such as: Installing your preferred control panel and other various software. Taking care of your server security, installing security patches, and fixing any other bugs or error messages. If there any type of failure, you’re the person who takes control and figuring out a solution to this problem Maintaining and configuring any software updates and/or upgrades for your server. Being responsible for setting up backups. This plan is recommended when you have technical experience. Managed VPS: With the managed VPS, the hosting provider IT team takes care of your server and makes sure that your VPS server is up and running correctly. this is what you would expect from your web hosting provider if you went with the managed VPS choice: Server setup: Your hosting provider will do the initial installation for your server including installing your control panel and operating system with any server software. Server updates: Your hosting provider will update your operating system for you to make sure that your server is up and running smoothly. Security patches: Your hosting provider will set up all of the necessary security patches for your operating system and your core server software. Automated backups: Your hosting provider will set up automatic backup services for you, so you can retrieve any copy of your website if anything has gone wrong with you. Monitoring: Your hosting provider will monitor your server for any early signs of hardware, software failure, and any malicious attacks. After we have completely understood what the VPS is, how it works, and its types. It’s time to know what are the benefits of the VPS, so let’s dive in:   What are the benefits of going with the VPS Hosting option? As you might know, the main strength points of having a VPS are that they give you more freedom on having your virtual machine which can handle more traffic volume with more performance than the shared hosting, but let’s go into detail for almost all of the benefits of the VPS Hosting: High performance: The VPS hosting will have its own allocated bandwidth and storage which isn’t shared with any users. Value: VPS Hosting is more affordable than a dedicated server, but it delivers you a lot more value than shared hosting. Control: You have root access, so you have full control of your server. Customization: You can customize as you want with your VPS, this gives you the ability to get only the features that you need, which starts from choosing your operating system and ends with every software on your server. Security: On the physical server, all of the VPS environments are isolated and separated from each other, which gives you more security than shared hosting. Scalability: With VPS, you can purchase the resources that suit you and your needs, and if you need more in the future, you can easily upgrade your resources, so VPS is highly scalable.   When I should switch to VPS Hosting? After knowing more about VPS Hosting and the difference between it and the other options, I guess you

cpu usage
Shared hosting, VPS, Web Hosting, Web Hosting Tips

Tips to Decrease CPU Usage

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CPU time, also known as processing time, is when the central processing unit (CPU) is used to process instructions in a program. This contrasts with the system that is waiting for input or output operations. Your web pages are constructed and sent by the server’s CPU, whether the pages are static or dynamic. More CPU resources are used when your web pages are served dynamically from a script or database. This is because the visitor’s pages must be processed in accordance with the data. It loads the web template, gets the data for that specific page from the database, runs any modules or plugins you have installed and serves the page to your visitors. The CPU’s time is limited and shared by all websites on a web server. If one site uses the CPU in excess, It deprives other websites on the same server and even if the website is hosted on the server on its own, the website’s performance will decrease if it uses too much CPU and users won’t be served properly. In the worst-case scenario, Your server might crash and your website will go down. To avoid this, web hosts monitor the CPU usage of their site with shared web hosting plans. This avoids issues when a website is using CPU time too much and has adverse effects on other websites. To reduce CPU usage on your server, there are some rules you can follow: Third-party web apps should be upgraded to the most current stable release, such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or any other management software or scripts on your account. This applies to your add-ons and plugins as well – ensure they are up-to-date. Make sure your website is clean. Remove any outdated or inactive add-ons or plugins. If you developed your own scripts, try lessening the number of PostgreSQL/MSSQL/MySQL queries and adjusting them to reduce processing time.   You must first determine the cause of high CPU usage in order to reduce it on your hosting account. This may seem difficult. This is especially true if you are using third-party web apps. These could include blogs or content management systems or forums that you haven’t developed yourself. There are some things you can do to help you get started and then eventually fix the problem.   If you have multiple websites, find the website most likely to be the cause of high CPU usage If you have more than one website in your account, it is worth determining which one is most visited and drives the most traffic. This is why CPU usage is so high. Your CPU can be affected by simultaneous hits to all your websites. Visit Live Stats You can find out which subdomains and domains are generating the most traffic in the Bandwidth Stats section and consider moving it to a different host or optimizing it.   Look deeper to identify CPU-intensive files. Once you’ve determined which website generates the most traffic via Bandwidth Stats, visit the Live Stats Traffic Section. The traffic statistics for the subdomain or domain can be viewed at the moment. Find the file that brought you the most traffic. This can be found by looking at the Total URLs per Kbytes table and Top 10 apps. Find any PHP/CGI script files. It could be responsible for high CPU usage if it generated a lot of traffic. If so, consider optimizing it.   Identify malicious visitors Check out the monthly statistics of your subdomain or domain. Look for the visitors that brought in high amounts of traffic and analyze their traffic patterns, as you might be a target for a DOS or a DDOS attack. Once you identify a malicious visitor, block their IP address/ range. The list can be found at Top 10 of XX Sites by Kbytes. It will return a hostname, an IP address, or a domain. Once you have identified the host, block them from your website.

full root access
Linux, VPS, Web Hosting

Full Root Access in a Nutshell

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Virtual Private Server Hosting (VPS) is a type of hosting that is used to split a single server into multiple environments. Web developers prefer VPS hosting to establish their online presence. It offers more security than shared hosting, and it’s much faster. VPS hosting is the most popular and widely used solution for all hosting requirements around the world, and we talked more about VPS and how it works in this article if you want to know more VPS offers many benefits over other web hosting options, especially shared ones. One of these advantages is full root access to your server at all times. What is Full Root Access? And why should you have it on your server? Root access allows you to have full access/control to your server. Root access does not require physical access to the server. However, if you have an internet host, you will be provided with an online login credential that will allow you to access the server’s inner workings and details. You can access your server from anywhere you wish. This includes adding websites to it, deleting third-party software or applications, customizing it, making changes and all other things. With full root access to your VPS, you can do everything. Depending on what kind of website it is and how you intend to use it, you might not need full root access if you only need the server to host a personal website for example. If your website is a business website, you might need full root access and the right type of OS to support it.   Many have found full root access to be a huge advantage. Web hosts have made this a key benefit by offering packages to their clients. Web hosts don’t like people fumbling with their servers and adding whatever they want to and that’s why not all web hosts allow it.   A second aspect to be aware of is the belief that VPS users can’t have root access because their websites are all on the same server. If you’re using a shared server, this is true but not the case with VPS hosting. That’s because a VPS is essentially a single server that is split into multiple servers. This allows you to do whatever you would like to the VPS.   What are the Advantages of Full Root Access? It is important to recognize the importance of the internet in today’s lives. The internet makes it easy and fast to gather data, reach out to people, contact emergency services, book flights and trains, send large amounts of data to distant locations around the world, and much more. VPS hosting with full root rights is a valuable addition to the web hosting industry. VPS hosting is considered the middle man between dedicated and shared web hosting in almost every industry. One server is divided into multiple servers with an OS (operating systems) and independent software. Let’s take a look at the main advantages that help us be more prepared to achieve our business goals.   Take better control VPS hosting with full root access allows the webmaster greater control over site administration, which in turn gives many great benefits for webmasters since they would have root access and SSH to their VPS.   Greater Security Full root access gives you better security and scalability. VPS environments are isolated from one another, which makes them safer than shared hosting.   Higher Reliability and More Flexibility This type of hosting offers greater flexibility and security than dedicated hosting. You will be able to access your root server from anywhere in the world. This is what makes websites more performant. The advantages of having your own dedicated bandwidth and storage you don’t need to share with anyone else are numerous.   A boon for web developers This is because of the advantage of customizing the software applications yourself. Developers can then install the software on their servers. You are also protected against hackers and other mistakes by having full root access to your VPS hosting.   Data Protection VOS hosting makes it simple to backup servers. In most cases, daily backups are included as a standard. You can customize it to only get the features you need, even the OS of choice. VPS hosting offers full root access, which allows you to host two websites on one server. You can also update and modify one website without putting pressure on another. It offers a high-speed connection to your server and a fast and easy way to access it. VPS hosting with full root access is the best option to personalize your hosting environment and grow your business.

TCP IP
cPanel & WHM, Linux, VPS, Web Hosting

Common Protocols and Their Port Numbers

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Service names and port numbers are utilized to differentiate between services used over transport protocols such as TCP/IP, UDP and SCTP. The organization responsible for assigning the name and port number of the services is called Internet Assigned Numbers Authority or IANA for short who also maintains the registries where service names and port numbers are stored. Port registries used in transport protocols are divided into three ranges: 1-System Ports (0-1023) 2-User Ports (1024-49151) 3-Dynamic / Private Ports (49152-65535)   For service to operate efficiently, hosts that operate them and access them along with intermediate devices, like firewalls, must agree on which service is used on which port and many services will use the port listed on the IANA registry. However, with the growing use of windows and single-user Linux systems over the years, the initial port model isn’t strictly adhered to, which means It may no longer be presumed that a particular port number automatically refers to a specific service. For example, web hosts launch multiple instances of the same service, so we cannot use the same port for all. Nowadays there are hundreds and hundreds of programs and application-level protocols that have been delegated service names and port numbers along with this amount is set to increase later on. Additional confusion above port numbers may appear since IANA may de-assign a few more in usage and reassign it to a different service. Here’s a table of the most common services and their port numbers Service name   Port number FTP 20,21 SSH 22 TELNET 23 SMTP 25 DNS 53 DHCP 67,68 HTTP 80 HTTPS 443 POP3 110 IMAP4 143   On Linux machines, you can find information about the services that client applications might use in the /etc/services folder. On windows, services, port number and protocols are in the C:windows\system32\drivers\etc\services   Conclusion Dealing with services and port numbers can be messy, but you know what’s not messy? Hostilica shared hosting services. With Hostilica’s SSD server, 99.9% uptime guarantee, and qualified customer support, you can be sure that hosting your website will go as smoothly as possible. Check out our shared hosting offers here.

When-you-should-upgrade-to-VPS-Hosting
VPS, Web Hosting

6 Reasons Why You Should Upgrade To VPS Hosting

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  Are you facing a problem with your shared hosting now? You can upgrade to VPS hosting, but when and why should you upgrade to VPS hosting? Let’s answer the “When” part first. But, let’s highlight that Shared Hosting is a perfect starting point for most small businesses and websites. But, as your business and website grow and require more resources to handle it successfully, you need to think about upgrading to VPS Hosting. So, if your website has grown to a level that your website goes down a lot, you have a high page load time, you need to create a separate development environment, or install custom software, then this is the right time to upgrade to VPS Hosting. Now it’s time to answer the “Why” part of the question. Here are the reasons why you should upgrade to a VPS Hosting plan:   Support Bigger Traffic Volume at The Same Time As your traffic grows, operations like synchronizing users accessing your website, purchasing products, sending and receiving emails, using webchat, downloading and uploading files, forum or blog posts, and so on. When all of these operations happen from a high number of users at the same time, this will make your website slower.   Reduce Page Loading and Wait Time In shared hosting, many websites are using and competing for limited resources such as a limited amount of memory. And if your website can’t access the amount of memory it needs, then page load time and the other operations surely will get slower. Most VPS hosting packages are supported by a high and dedicated amount of ram, which will reduce the waiting time and ensure that your website is running properly. So, your users will benefit from rapid page load, faster processing, quicker downloads, uploads, and so on.   Keep your Traffic Flowing Smoothly Your server’s CPU is the brain of operations, which handles your user’s (Inputs/Outputs), and actions on your website, so your server’s CPU is responsible for handling user requests and making sure that your website is running smoothly.   More Scalability VPS environment allows you as a system administrator to expand and upgrade your server’s CPU cores to enable the server to handle busy times and scaling (Input/Output) resources to handle the increased traffic volume.   Build More Complex Web Apps As we know, a simple website can run smoothly on Shared Hosting. But you should know that your server performance can be reduced when handling many requests simultaneously. So, as your web app grows and becomes more complex, it will require more processing power to give us better performance. VPS Hosting packages with the higher resources’ capabilities will ensure that your web app runs as fast as possible even when handling many requests at the same time and continuously runs smoothly.   You Need More Security The VPS environments are isolated and separated from each other, which gives you more security and more security control than shared hosting. With shared hosting, many websites share the same hosting environment, so they can affect each other when it comes to security. So, as your website grows and has more data to protect or if your website handles sensitive data, you’ll probably need to upgrade to a VPS Hosting plan and be more secure.   Do you feel like you have one or more reasons to upgrade to a VPS? If you feel like you need to support bigger traffic volumes, want to scale your online business and presence, optimize your website performance and work on your page loading time, or you feel like you need more security, so don’t hesitate to upgrade to a VPS for a second!  You’ll feel the difference as soon as you start moving from shared hosting to VPS hosting; it will be like you were a startup and became a mid-level company! You can pick a VPS server that suits your business needs from here! 

shared-hosting-vs-vps-hosting
Shared hosting, VPS, Web Hosting

VPS vs Shared hosting – Top Key Differences

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If you decided to start a website, and you need to find the best hosting option which suits your needs, don’t worry we’ll talk about the two most popular hosting options, Shared hosting vs VPS hosting.   What is shared hosting? Shared hosting is a type of web hosting where a server hosts multiple websites. Many users use the resources of a single server, which lowers the cost. Each user gets a part of the server where they can host their websites’ files. Imagine shared hosting like sharing an apartment with other people, so you’ll share the same server resources, like CPU, disk space, and memory with other users who are on the same server. Shared hosting is the most affordable way to host your website online. But, Unfortunately, your website might get slow with a high traffic load, and this happens because of the limited resources. [themify_layout_part slug=”web-hosting-discount”] What is VPS? VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. VPS also is one of the popular hosting types. VPS is about providing you with private resources on a single server with multiple users. With VPS you’ll still be sharing a single server, but it’s more secure and stable than shared hosting where you don’t get private or dedicated resources; all of that ensures that these resources are always available to you.   When to choose shared Hosting? – You’re starting a blog or personal website. – You’re starting a small or average company website. – You don’t know much about dealing with servers. – You have a small budget.   When to choose VPS hosting? – You want to expand your business. – You expect a high traffic load for your website. – You have a bigger budget and planning to invest in your website.   Shared Hosting Pros and Cons : Pros: – More friendly hosting solution for beginners. – Have a standardized setup. – The most affordable hosting solution Cons: – It has limited resources. – Gets slow when handling high traffic load by your website or any other website on the same server. – You have limited access to the server back-end.   VPS hosting Pros and Cons: Pros: – VPS hosting has more bandwidth, memory and easily scalable. – Not affected by other websites’ traffic. – Faster and stable than the shared hosting. Cons: – Have a slightly higher price. – Need more technical experience to manage it well.   Shared hosting vs VPS hosting To conclude, shared hosting is the most affordable solution when it comes to hosting because you’re sharing a single server with other websites. You will have limited resources, but you’re able to host a small website without spending too much money. VPS Hosting, on the other hand, gives you more control, more freedom, and more performance. You don’t have to worry about high traffic or limited resources. However, it’s a bit more expensive.   Finally, When to upgrade your hosting plan? You might be wondering about when is the best time to upgrade to VPS hosting if you already have a shared hosting plan. You can answer this question by asking your self these questions: – Do I want more control over managing my server?– Will I get a high traffic load in the future?– Will I host more than one website in the future? At the end of the day, all of the hosting solutions are good, but the purpose of this article is to explain how to choose the best hosting plan for you, which of them suits your needs more than the other. We hope that this article was useful to you.

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