Archive for lunarpages
5 Hosting providers that re-define “Managed”
Posted by: | Comments“Managed hosting” is a term that most everyone in the web hosting industry understands, despite the fact that it is a bit vague. We know that it means that you have a server, it’s hosted at the web host, and you have access to it but the majority of the maintenance is done by the host themselves. However, there is an important question to ask yourself in consideration of this server, and that is this: what maintenance does this include?
There are certain items that will always come with it: rebooting stuck servers, load monitoring, and just about anything that relates to making sure that your server maintains a bare minimum standard of operation are just about always in there. If nothing else, your host will need to do most of these things to make sure you don’t have a greater impact on their network.
Nonetheless, some hosts push the envelope by offering you way more than that, stuff that you would normally just assume would always be your responsibility to handle. We went through our list of providers, and here are some hosts that are stretching the boundaries of what it means to be “managed”:
1) Codero
Codero offers four different levels of managed hosting. Three of the plans include managing operating system, server and software patches. The top 2 include daemon and service troubleshooting and security audits, and the highest level account also adds in application troubleshooting. All four packages include optional paid support for anything else not already covered.
2) Lunarpages
Lunarpages’ highest managed service offers a number of important security features. Among these are notifications of exploits on popular software packages, guaranteed same day hardware replacement, upgrades of Apache, PHP and even the kernel upon user authorization. For the latter, they don’t just do it, but inform you and then let you decide. Hardware replacement can be a major bonus if some critical flaw is found in, say, a RAM chip on your machine.
3) AYKsolutions
The list of services AYKsolutions offers goes right off the chart. Control panel support, hack recovery and dissection, server hardening and optimization are included. Hack recovery and dissection means that if you are hacked, they’ll help you figure out how to fix it. Guess what? That’s in their lowest level package! Their list of what they add to that for their full package is a few dozen items long, and includes such items as installation of 3rd party software and custom kernel configurations: considering what a host risks if they do it wrong, that’s a highly notable service to offer.
4) Hosting.com
Hosting.com doesn’t have a list of services as long as some of the above, but they do offer some specific services that many sites might find critical. Among them is compliance management, in which they help the user achieve compliance with a number of important business certifications, such as HIPAA and PCI (Payment Card Industry).
5) Connectria
Connectria’s managed hosting services offer some of all of the above. They will perform server hardening for both Linux and Windows machines, server protection from many different fronts including “Advanced Attack Correlation”, and more than a half dozen types of data encryption.
Web hosts are aware of the fact that there is far more involved with web hosting than even the most dedicated and capable webmaster can keep up with. They are showing this understanding in their managed hosting packages, and this is a case where you, as the consumer, can definitely use this to your advantage.
Related posts:
Lunar News – September 2011
Posted by: | CommentsWelcome to Lunarpages News. This month we cover:
How to Tap into the Power of Social Networking with Your Own Facebook Store
How can a business owner harness the potential that lies within a business Facebook page? LunarMods’ new application allows you to sell products right from your Facebook’s business page without any additional programming.
How to Use Facebook for Business – An Introductory Guide
At this point, you have heard of social media and inbound marketing. Maybe you’ve experimented with Twitter and checked out your kids’ Facebook profiles, and you can see the value for college students who want to make sure they’re all at the same bar on Saturday night. But why does any of this matter to you or your business?
If Your Website Has Organic Ranking Problems, Try SEM
Sometimes websites are created in such a way that it is difficult to achieve organic search ranking without a complete overhaul of your website. Many times these sites were created incorrectly, and you may not be aware of that fact until you experience little or no results from SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts. Occasionally, our strategic partner LocalDirective has seen these sites even have problems ranking organically for their own business name!
Establish Your Online Presence Quickly and Easily with Quicksite
Looking to make your mark on the Web? With Quicksite™ by Lunarpages, you can have your new website up and running in less than two hours with the help of our award winning customer support by your side the whole way.
An Interview with Lunarpages’ Marketing Manager
Diane Van Pelt joined the Lunarpages team in November 2009. From research to implementation, Diane has us covered. This month we took the time to get to know Diane better and share with you.
19 Links to Help Stimulate Your Inner Designer
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Finding design inspiration, for any webmaster, can sometimes be tough. We have searched the Web, far and wide, for some of the most inspirational design web sites out there – to help you find your creative muse. From art galleries to tutorials, there is a little something here for both design newbies to advanced design professionals.
Here are our top picks when it comes to finding the best ideas and inspirations for designs of all natures.
DeviantArt.com
Where ART meets application!
Design Solutions on Flickr
A great collection of site parts and ideas, for design inspiration.
BrowserShots.org
Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers.
PatternTap.com
Interface collection for design inspiration!
Getting Started with HTML
Great six part series, to help introduce you to the world of HTML.
Tagul.com
Awesome looking tag cloud designs!
ScrnShots.com
ScrnShots is the best way to take, find, and share screenshots of web and screen based design.
Toondoo.com
ToonDoo is a unique way to get creative and expressive with comic strips.
99designs.com
Designer Marketplace for Logo Designs and More…
Webdosanddonts.com
Snack-sized web design tips and tricks!
IconBuffet.com
Free Icons, Stock Icons, Custom Icon Design.
img4me.com
A free text to image service.
So, what do you do?
Really funny web designer flow chart!
WooThemes.com
Great quality premium WordPress themes!
fontstruct.fontshop.com
Build, share and download tons of custom fonts!
DesignFloat.com
A Digg-like social news web site for designers!
Flash-Template-Design.com
Great professional looking flash and non-flash templates for web sites!
RedBubble.com
RedBubble is an online art gallery and creative community that makes it easy to buy and sell art as high-quality framed prints, greeting cards, posters, designer T-Shirts and more.
TV.Adobe.com
Your online source for expert insight and inspiration.
So there are our picks, now which web sites would you add to the list? Let us know your favorite design web sites in the comments!
Use Gmail as Your Lunarpages E-mail Client
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Did you know that you can use Gmail as a POP3 e-mail client? This way you can both send and receive mail as you@yourdomain.com through the Gmail interface.
If you have ever found yourself wanting to use Gmail more, but did not want to abandon your professional looking e-mail address this is the tutorial you have been looking for. We’ll share with you how you can setup Gmail to both send and receive e-mail to your non-Gmail e-mail address.
How to Receive Your Lunarpages E-mail in Gmail
Here is how you can add your e-mail account to Gmail.
From within Gmail, click on the Settings link, at the top of the page. Next, click on the Accounts and Import link.
Now, you will want to click the button labeled, “Add POP3 email account”. That should pop up a new window where you can input the information about the e-mail account.
- Provide your e-mail address (you@yourdomain.com). Click the button labeled, “Next”.
- Next, give your user name, password, POP server (yourdomain.com or mail.yourdomain.com). There are other settings to choose from, but lets ignore them for now. Click the button labeled, “Add Account”.
Now, when you go to Settings > Accounts and Import you should see your e-mail account listed under Check mail using POP3. If you click the edit info link beside your account, you can then edit the other details we skipped before, such as:
- Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server
- Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail
- Label incoming messages
- Archive incoming messages (Skip the Inbox)
So now Gmail is acting as the e-mail client looking for e-mail from yourgooglename@gmail.com and your hosted e-mail account. That covers receiving incoming mail from both accounts. What if you need to send mail as you@yourdomain.com?
How to Send E-mail in Gmail from Your Lunarpages Address
Here is how you can send mail using your personal e-mail account, rather than your Gmail e-mail address. From within Gmail, go to Settings, and then Accounts and Import. Under the Send mail as: section, click the button that reads, “Send mail from another address”.
This will pop up another window, where you can input your information.
- Give your name, as you want it to be seen as the sender when somebody gets an e-mail from you.
- Give your e-mail address you wish to send from, such as the one you setup using the previous steps above (you@yourdomain.com). Now, click the button labeled, “Next Step”.
- You then have the option to send mail one of two ways:
+ Send through Gmail (easier to set up)
+ Send through yourdomain.com SMTP servers (recommended for professional domains) - You will then be e-mailed a message at this address to verify you are able to use it. To perform the verification click “Send Verification”. They will then send an e-mail to you@yourdomain.com with instructions on how to verify your address.
Once you complete the verification process, you should then be able to send mail as you@yourdomain.com too.
Now you have yet another option when it comes to picking which e-mail client you wish to use, out of the many choices there are out there today. Using Gmail with your Lunarpages POP3 hosted e-mail account gives you the ability to use the flexibility of Gmail with the reliable e-mail service you know and love here at Lunarpages.
Tip: Once you have set your e-mail up this way, you can enable a button on Gmail’s main interface that will let you manually check for new POP3 mail from your domain. Just go to the Google Labs section of Gmail, and enable the “Refresh POP Accounts” Gmail Google Labs feature.
Affiliate Survey and Feedback
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We are looking for feedback on our Lunarpages Affiliate Program, and need your help. You can easily earn $65 for every qualified referral you bring to Lunarpages, and we want to make this great system work even better for you.
Lunarpages knows that you can not have a successful affiliate program without successful affiliate partners, so with that said, we would like for you to take this short survey to share with us what you might like to see when it comes to the Lunarpages Affiliate Program.
Lunarpages Affiliate Plan Survey
Lunarpages April Newsletter
Posted by: | CommentsWhen you are a customer with Lunarpages, everything on the Web is just a little ‘bit better. Your web sites are social, your visitors are more plentiful, and your designs are top notch. How can this be? Well, we provide every client with this great monthly round up of some of the best tutorials, tips, and web design knowledge all wrapped together by this great web hosting web site.
So what is new this month in the April 2010 edition of the Lunarpages Newsletter?
It is time to stop and smell the web development roses. We have some of the most recent news from around the Lunar-verse to share with you, including the web design giveaway results, from last month.
Have you ever wondered how people change their link colors on a web site? We are here to help with this very basic CSS tutorial covering what you need to know to dress up and style your web site links.
Google AdWords & Your Search Engine Marketing Odyssey
Our search engine marketing friends at LocalDirective have some Google AdWords tips to share with you all, and announce the winner of the free online marking program contest.
Want to temporarily or permanently redirect links on your web site? Thanks to this new LPCP web hosting feature, you can now do so right from your control panel.
Lunar Picks – Favorite Programs and Web Sites
The Lunar Crew is back to share with you some of their own favorite programs and web sites they use on a daily basis. There are a lot of great software suggestions shared, and you can leave your own in the comments too!
We hope you really enjoy Issue 30 of our Lunarpages web hosting newsletter. We always enjoy hearing your reaction, so please feel free to leave a comment or send your opinions to news@lunarpages.com.