Linux server blog

As there are many companies offering you good deals on Linux or Windows platform for hosting, you may be having a little dilemma to choose Linux or Windows platform for hosting. To make a better choice the two platforms can be compared by various factors such as performance, price, ease of use, functionality and stability. Before opting for the service you should have some idea about these platforms.

Linux was first introduced in 1991 by Linus Torvalds, as an extended form of Minix. Initially Linux was used by many universities as an operating system. Wide popularity and demand made the hosting service available for free distribution with General Public License. Linux supports a large number of script and programming languages.

As there was a great demand and need for graphic user interface, Windows platform was introduced as MS-DOS add on and its subsequent releases were widely accepted by the people. Windows Server 2003 was considered as very successful commercial server software and recently Server 2008 has been launched. The functionality of XP is very familiar.

The price of the platform depends on the services offered by the hosting company. Linux is available as a version, due to factors such as free licensing and availability which are not held by Microsoft products. As Linux is developed to cater to the multi-user environment, it takes some time to enable its stability, compared to Windows environment. Linux platform is considered to be more secure and stable than Windows. Both Linux and Windows platforms are very easy to use. Many people are familiar with windows processes. With a Linux Server you can upload content easily to your website by enabling FrontPage extensions. Windows Server system has very attractive functionalities with Access database support and is associated with MySQL. You can easily integrate off-line and online system by using ASP.net. While Visual Basic scripts and Windows Media files are supported by Windows servers, Real Player media is supported by Linux. Both the platforms offer you script support such as CGI, XML, PHP, etc. Linux offers the functionalities at a cheaper cost and a stable environment, compared to Windows due to the license cost of Microsoft.

You can find that many hosting companies offer a wide range of Linux and Windows hosting plans. While choosing the hosting company you have to evaluate your realistic and pre-determined needs for a reliable and secure service.

Filed under: Guides, Tips by Linux Admin
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Caching is the key to success - the more content you cache, the more visitors on the same hardware you can serve. Many Wordpress owners run wp-cache plugin to cache blog pages in files, rather than generating content on the fly - querying MySQL database. If you have a low usage that is fine, but if you have a medium load blog or getting Dugg/Slashdot effect - only tuning, optimization and proper caching will keep your blog up and running.

wp-cache will need to regenerate cache file every time a blog post receives a comment - performance is lost if the post receives heavy commenting. You can hack wp-cache plugin to expire cache for particular page only when cache expire time expires, not with every new comment.

Open the WP plugin directory - wp-cache plugin file: wp-cache-phase2.php

and comment out line:

add_action(’comment_post’, ‘wp_cache_get_postid_from_comment’, 0); 

// add_action(’comment_post’, ‘wp_cache_get_postid_from_comment’, 0); 

And you are set.

Filed under: Guides by Linux Admin
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Many experts have said that the best environment for E-commerce sites are those which used a dedicated server. Dedicated servers have become quite popular because they offer uses a great deal of security and the ability to customize their settings. The whole server if yours, and you can do whatever you want with it. However, the biggest down side to this is the cost involved with purchasing a dedicate server. Unless you have between $250 to $7000 to spend each month for you start up budget, you will need to either lease it, or you will need to co-locate the server on the data center of someone you know. It is also possible for you to pay for a large internet connection to your central location.

One good solution to a dedicated server is a Virtual Private Server. This is a service that essentially offers you shared hosting, and you will be given a single account. When you use a Virtual Private Server, the resources and hardware will be partitioned into a number of environments that are isolated. Each environment will function as its own small dedicated server. Every Virtual Private Server will have its own degree of control over the software, parsers, and resources. Virtual Private Servers are very useful because they reduce many of the problems that commonly occur with shared hosting. The user will have resources that are guaranteed, and the operating environment will have a high level of security.

There are a large number of advantages to a Virtual Private Server, and the first is control. While you may not be given the ability to make calibrations near the central operating system, you can update your PHP, as well as the configuration for MySQL and various other applications. With a dedicated server, you can make some serious errors if you aren’t sure what you’re doing, but you don’t have to worry about this with a VPS. The reason for this is because you will not be allowed to access things that can compromise the ability for the VPS to operate. This is a very useful feature for those who are interested in becoming skilled with web server administration.

Another powerful advantage of a VPS is that users are allowed to have multiple websites. You can have a large number of domains, and while there may be restrictions, some services allow you to have as many as 100 domains. One issue that should always be taken into consideration is security. Every Virtual Private Server will operate within an individual environment, and the files that are stored on this server cannot be seen by other Virtual Private Servers, even if they are on the same central server. Virtual Private Servers are known for having a high level of security in comparison to other server options.

The last and perhaps most important advantage of a Virtual Private Server is the cost. While dedicated servers will generally start at about $250 per month, most Virtual Private Servers will start at $30 per month, and will be as much as $100 per month. As you can see, there is a large price difference. This is an excellent option for small to medium sized businesses that can’t afford to use a dedicate server.

Filed under: Guides by Linux Admin
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