Tag Archives | website

How to Budget for Web Hosting

We’d all like to save money with shared hosting, but for some websites, VPS or even dedicated plans are unavoidable. If you do end up having to spring for a more advanced plan, it probably means your site is getting bigger and receiving more traffic – so the financial cost will be worth the rewards. But how can you plan for that financial cost, and minimize it as much as possible? To start, you need to know where your site is headed. To figure out the best budget for your web hosting plan, it’s important to first identify the specific goals that you have for your site. You don’t want to end up committing to a plan that doesn’t fit those goals, whether it’s too complex or not scalable enough.

Continue Reading →

What are your site goals?

To figure out the best budget for your web hosting plan, it’s important to first identify the specific goals that you have for your site. You don’t want to end up committing to a plan that doesn’t fit those goals, whether it’s too complex or not scalable enough.

If you’re aiming for your website to…

  • Attract a small following among family and friends
  • Serve as a point of contact for a local business
  • Promote an individual portfolio or CV

…then shared hosting ($2.75 – $15.00/month) will be more than sufficient. But if you want that website to:

  • Handle the traffic demands of a medium-sized business
  • Be secure enough to handle electronic card payments
  • Accommodate the files of a successful and active blog
  • Maintain good page speed and image loading times as traffic increases

…you’ll need to upgrade to VPS ($5 – $80/month).

The only websites that will need to shell out for a dedicated plan ($80 – $730/month) are:

  • Pages for companies with a huge, multinational audience that generates a lot of traffic
  • Sites with particularly large ecommerce demands, like storing lots of high-res product images

If you’re running a small website with only a few pages right now, but the goal is to eventually scale up and become a high-traffic, content-heavy platform, then it’s possible to keep that ambition while saving your money – after all, you can always upgrade to a VPS or dedicated plan later.

Basically, you can think of shared, VPS, and dedicated hosting as the respective options for small, medium, and large websites. Once you’ve chosen between these types, the real budgeting work begins.

Planning costs by the year

The most important factor in a web hosting budget is time commitment. When you sign up to a hosting plan, you’ll have the option to pay for anywhere between one month and four years in advance.

The incentive to pay for four years up front is that the price per month becomes much lower when you do so. For example, HostGator’s most basic shared plan costs $6.95/month when purchased for three years, $7.95/month for two years, and $8.95/month for one year. It costs $10.95 to purchase one month at a time.

In short, here’s how much you’d pay initially by plan, and how much you’d end up paying after three years:

By paying for a year up front rather than by the month, you’ll already save $24 after one year, and $72 after three years.

We’d recommend purchasing a plan for one year in advance. That way, you still save on the monthly price, but you’re not sacrificing the opportunity to reach a growth goal and upgrade your plan within a year or two.     

Most hosting providers offer money-back guarantee periods that last for the first 30 or so days after purchase, so regardless of how many years you commit to in advance, you’ll still get that initial window risk-free.

It’s also important to note that most hosting providers offer tempting introductory prices for the first purchase period, which then renew at a much higher rate.

For example, buying HostGator’s basic shared plan for one year costs $5.95/month the first year, and then renews at $8.95/month. To buy the same plan for three years costs $2.75/month for the first three years, and then renews at $6.95/month for the following three years.

Choosing a provider

You don’t have to pay top dollar for good service. There are plenty of cheap hosting providers that can support your site without breaking the bank.

If you’re looking for dirt cheap hosting, then Hostinger’s $0.80/month introductory shared price is a good place to start, as is iPage’s $1.99/month shared plan. But if you’re looking to get the most value for your money, then it’s worth taking a closer look.

We’ve talked about how most hosting providers offer introductory prices and free trial periods. But the top providers also have their differences. Firstly, you want to choose a provider that has a good reputation for your chosen hosting type.

For example, while DreamHost offers great features on its shared plans, its VPS plans don’t allow you root access, and you’d be better served elsewhere.

And while Hostinger’s shared plans are secure and user-friendly, it doesn’t offer any dedicated plans, which immediately limits your potential to scale.

Providers also differ in their more general strengths and weaknesses. If you value customer service above all, then DreamHost’s lack of phone support will be a major mark in your “cons” column. If uptime is your top priority, then HostGator’s 99.99% guarantee will be a big draw.

Additional costs

Saving money is important. But it’s also important to make room in your budget for the hosting features that matter most to you. Here are three add-ons that we think are worth paying for:

  1. Security tools
  2. Email
  3. Automated backups

The most important security cost you’ll incur is that of an SSL certificate. You can’t really host a successful website without this coveted padlock icon, because it’s an immediate signal to visitors that their data is safe.

Many hosting providers include a basic version of SSL for free on some plans, or you can up your game and purchase a premium SSL certificate for about $50. If you want to take security a step further, you can also budget for SiteLock security at about $2/month, which offers daily malware scans and increased protection from DDoS attacks.

Adding advanced email functionalities to your website will typically cost between $6 and $15/month. Many web hosts will let you purchase business accounts for G Suite or Office 365, which you can then use to set up addresses @yourdomain.com.

This is an especially attractive feature for anyone looking to host a business or eCommerce site.

You can always back up your site yourself. But if you have room in your budget for the convenience of automatic backups, most hosting providers offer this service for around $2/month.

The Wrap-Up

It’s important to have clear goals in mind when you choose a hosting plan. If you’re making a small blog to update family and friends, then there’s no need to overpay for a VPS plan.

But if you’re looking to get an eCommerce business off the ground, then the lack of security on a shared server will be too limiting. Once you know what you want from your site, it will be easy to select a plan that will give you the most value for your money.

Lastly, don’t forget to budget your time wisely, too! You’ll save the most money by purchasing a hosting plan for three or four years upfront, but for most of us, committing to one provider for that long is a lot to ask.

Take a look at monthly and yearly payment options before you make your decision.

Now that you know what to look out for, you’ll be able to get the most bang for your buck. Happy hosting!

0

Why You Should Protect Your Research Papers in Linux

Writing a research paper is a huge task in itself. When you think about how easy it is for other people to copy or plagiarize the paper you worked hard on, this should encourage you to learn how to protect your research papers and other documents on your Linux computer. To do this, you should improve network security and even the physical security of the data stored on your computer. To ensure that hackers won’t get to your files, it’s recommended to have several security measures in place. From the research paper files themselves to the other files in your device, there’s a lot for you to keep secure. One of the most secure ways to protect your files is through encryption. This is a lot like keeping your files in a locked safe. You can even use encryption for safeguarding your website and other online data. Encrypting involves generating a password or encryption key. The only person who can access encrypted data is the one holding the password. In this case, that would be you.

Continue Reading →

Encrypting your research papers and other files

For Linux, there are several tools you can use to create a secure container called an “encrypted volume” to keep all of your files and research papers. Rather than encrypting your files individually, placing all of them in an encrypted volume makes it more convenient for you to find your files.

However, if you copy your files on a flash drive or on another computer, you would have to encrypt them again to guarantee their safety.

With all the software available for Linux, you have to choose the right one. Some of these software options offer important features that allow you to customize your security settings.

Some tools even allow you to permanently encrypt your computer’s entire disk along with all the files stored on it, temporary files, installed programs, and even operating system files.

Finding the right tools

Linux operates on three levels of access to files on your computer. Understand that on Linux, all stored content including programs are considered files and you might want to remember this when setting up access control.

Security levels consist of User, person who created file or owner of device, a user group collectively granted access to a specific file(s), and Other or open.

Access permission is also set at three levels. First up is Read permission by which you can open and read a file but cannot modify. Next is Write permission that allows you to modify contents in a file.

To protect your valuable research paper, do not leave this level open. The final permission level is Execute, which allows modification of program coding and by extension the possibility to corrupt your stored data. Credentials for Read and Execute levels must be seriously protected, and known to you only or other trusted person.

Properly applied, these levels of security in Linux OS will protect your data against hacking and corruption.

A corrupted assignment at the wrong time might leave you asking the inevitable question; can I pay to do my assignment? Well, it it come to this, EduBirdie a reputable online service can help you salvage your loss and provide you with professionally-written research papers and other documents.

If you believe that your research papers and all other files you save on your computer are important, then security should be your first priority. If a person successfully hacks into your computer and corrupts your files, it’s a disaster.

Of course, it’s better for you to protect the files you worked hard on too. Since there are several options for Linux to encrypt your files and keep them safe, you need to do a bit of research to find the right one.

Search for the features you need and when you find a tool, app or software with this feature, dig deeper. The key is to learn everything you can about the digital tool before downloading or purchasing it.

Finding the right tools

Safely using encryption on Linux

Encryption alone won’t do much good if system root access is not protected. Linux restricts what other systems call administrator access privileges to any user other than the authorized custodians.

This protects the system’s core and stored files from inadvertent attacks by worms and viruses through careless web browsing.

Next, you need to choose easy to use but highly secure tools for encrypting your files. One way is to create containers which are similar to zipped files and encrypt these using the VeraCrypt tool. The beauty of this container is that it is also portable and accessible on both Linux and Windows.

Alternatively, why not just encrypt the whole disk? This however presupposes that you won’t leave your computer on and unattended, as your files will be unprotected. Having encrypted containers or one containing all others is the best way to keep your data safe.

You can also encrypt on Linux using Files by choosing a compression format for your document, add password, and compress.

Another simple way to protect your research data is to secure your account in the first place using a strong password. All these are features of Linux operating system for security of your data

Storing research papers and other data is of the essence, especially if you placed a lot of effort and time into creating them.

While encryption helps reduce the safety risk greatly, this won’t eliminate the risk completely. Therefore, you should also learn how to protect the most sensitive information you have stored on your computer.

If you think that there is anything on your computer that can be potentially damaging to you that you don’t really need to store on your computer, delete and keep it clean.

For those who can’t delete, use the best encryption tool to keep them safe. While encryption isn’t completely safe, it’s still the best option. To increase your files’ safety even more, here are some tips to keep in mind:

  • If you plan to walk away from your computer, close all of your files. Even if it’s your home computer if you plan to leave it overnight, close all of your files to prevent remote intruders from accessing them.
  • Even when putting your computer to sleep or in hibernation mode, close all of your files.
  • Never allow other people to use your computer without closing your files first.
  • Also, close all of your files before you insert a flash disk or other external storage devices into your computer. This applies even if the storage device belongs to someone you know.
  • If you store encrypted volumes on a flash disk, never leave it lying around. Keep it in a secure place to ensure the safety of the data stored within it.

These practical tips are essential to ensure the safety of your files. Combining encryption with other safety features is the best way to protect your data in Linux.

Linux performance

Linux OS has more pluses over other operating systems that you stand to gain from besides security of your research data. It is an open source OS that you can modify and create a personalized version without license restrictions.

The General Public License that comes with Linux will save you a ton of dollars on fees and cost of software as it is compatible with many standard Unix packages and can process most file formats.

A Linux operating system is a smart option in many ways for storing your valuable data. Remember to work with a good programmer to set it right for you to enjoy maximum performance and security.

Conclusion

As a Linux user, the application and tool options grow each day. Now, you can find an app to help you encrypt your data and keep it safe from those who want to corrupt or copy them. Your research papers and all the other files stored on your computer belong to you and no one else.

If you want to keep it that way, learning how to protect your data is key. These days, the huge collection of Linux tools and apps has great potential.

Once you find the tool you need, you can install it then start using it right away. That way, you won’t have to worry about the safety of your digital data.

0