Server Protection from DDoS Attacks

In the website hosting industry, many business websites with huge traffic or confidential data/databases often opt for Dedicated Web Server Hosting. Dedicated Servers being the best option to protect the sites from the access of any other users, it has been the most considerable solution. These servers come with many features and give the users privilege to own the server where they can do almost anything under the rules of hosting provider.

Being known that Dedicated Hosting is suitable for high end websites, hackers do try to make hacking attempts on such servers. Due to the continuos monitoring from the Dedicated Server providers, they find it difficult to be successful in such attempts. However, at few times, when either of the hackers find a path to enter the server which is technically called a bug, they instantly take an action and have command over your server. This has been a rising issue and hundreds of sites are being hacked everyday. The users are almost left alone with the protection of their sites/servers. If these users have Unmanaged servers, it would be too difficult for them to get protected or even prevent from such attempts. However, if the hosting provider offers Fully Managed Hosting solution then they can atleast rely on the host to give necessary suggestions or even help with the protection of their websites or a server.

Many hosting providers offer Dedicated Servers with firewall. This firewall may cost few hundred dollars using which you could prevent your site if strong settings are done. It is found that many hackers easily break the rules of such Firewall. This happens only for those sites which are often under the attack of hackers. If this is the case with your site, the website hosting providers might not like you to be their customer. However, if the site has less number of attacks that could be prevented, they would either ask you to get a Firewall installed or will recommend you to use Proxy Shield. This proxy shield is capable of protecting big DDoS attacks, but if your site has severe attacks even that would not help. Also, this proxy shield costs so much that a common user cannot afford to buy it at all.

Now, it is necessary for a user to check the reviews for hosting provider. One should make sure that it is not a regular issue with the servers of your host. It happens with few hosts that their servers are often targeted by DDoS attacks. You should always confirm that your hosting provider is not one of such hosts. It might be a case too that a specific data center has DDoS attacks. Hence, you must also confirm that your site is not hosted in such data centers.

To conclude, there is no perfect solution for a DDoS attack. The only thing that could be done to prevent from DDoS attempts is taking necessary precautions. Reviewing the servers, subnets etc. could be few of those necessary steps. Finding a reliable host is very important to get protected from any hacking/DDoS attempts.

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Starting With A Dedicated Server

When you are aware of your Hosting requirements, you know what you need, you conclude that the Dedicated Servers are the only solution for your hosting needs then you would have to find the dedicated hosting provider. However, before you opt for either of the hosting providers, you have to know   the following things to be assured that your provider worth what you pay for.

1) Types of Dedicated Servers:-
a) Managed Servers:- These are the types of dedicated servers where the service provider takes care of system administration, backup, server monitoring, server maintenance etc. Managed Servers are the best solution for the companies or individuals who do not know the technical how-tos or do not have enough knowledge to play with Dedicated Servers. There are many advantages of Managed Dedicated Server.
i) Better Uptime, highly secured, better access and easily scalable are few of the best advantages of Managed Dedicated Servers.
ii) Managed Hosting provider takes care of the entire server up and down.
b) Unmanaged Servers:- These are types of dedicated servers where the user has to take care of server administration, backup, server monitoring etc. If the user needs any kind of technical support, (s)he might have to pay few pennies to the service provider. Many Unmanaged Dedicated Server providers charge the users for technical support. If a single password has to be reset, they charge anywhere between 2 USD to 20 USD. Though the Unmanaged Dedicated Servers seem to be cheaper than Managed Servers, however, the hidden prices for support can be a headache and the user might end up with cancellation. It is better to opt for Fully Managed Dedicated Server rather than Unmanaged Server. Paying few extra pennies to get 24/7 support and many more privileges worth than paying many dollars at each time the support is needed.

2) Understanding the Usage:-
Yes! It is very important to understand the usage of server. Many people might only have a website with more traffic. However, few might have websites with huge databases. You should know the amount of resources required by your website. If your website has heavy database, you might face many problems like the website loading slow, server time-outs etc. In this case, you would need to consider High End Dedicated Server.

3) Requirements of Applications:-
It has been observed that people opt for Managed Dedicated Servers thinking that the applications they need would be pre-installed or supported on the server. After the hosting provider sets up the server and the user try to find or install the required application, he ends up after knowing that the application wasn’t supported. It is better to approach the Dedicated Hosting provider to know if they actually support the applications you want to host.

4) Reliability & Availability:-
Before choosing the service provider for Dedicated Server Hosting, you must check how reliable the service provider is. One should also check if they are available to offer you support whenever you need them. Hosting providers with only email support or phone/chat support during business hours are not considerable. You might need them at any point of time. So, it is better that you consider a host who are available 24 hours a day.

5) Server Costs:-
Re-check the costs for the server.  Suppose you need a Core2Duo server, get its price from the service provider. Now when you have the price with you, recheck with other hosts if they are offering the same server and if yes, at what cost. Likewise, you may be able to close the deal for server at an affordable price by price-matching.

If you are not sure whether you need a Dedicated server or not, I would recommend you to going through my previous post “Do I Need A Dedicated Server?”. Knowing the above mentioned points before selecting any hosting service provider can help you in getting satisfactory hosting services.

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Do I Need A Dedicated Server?

There are many users who just don’t know if they really need Dedicated Servers. Either they are too new to this industry or they are not technically sound to understand the requirements of their website or applications. Let us try to find an answer to a most commonly asked question in the Web Hosting industry, i.e., “Do I Need A Dedicated Server?”.

When you are stuck in selecting the web hosting package or you know what you need, but are unable to select/choose a dedicated hosting service provider, the below mentioned tips may be of help for you.

1) Analyze Your Website Resource Usage:- I am mentioning this as a first point because in my opinion, resource usage is most important thing while selecting or moving to the Dedicated Server. The resources can be either Disk Space required, Bandwidth consumption, CPU Speed, CPU Cache etc.

Assuming that you are on the Shared Hosting package and you are not using all the resources available to you from the hosting provider. However, one of these resources is over-used at once either in a week or daily. In this case, your website may overload the server which would cause other websites on the server loading slow or not responding at all. The host might have to suspend your account or ask you to upgrade to VPS or Dedicated Hosting Server.

In some cases, it may happen that inspite of the website not using more resources, all the websites on that server face this problem regularly. Here you might have to conclude that the problem is not with your website but the host. This would be the right time to change your hosting provider.

2) Analyze Website Security:- You might have seen websites been hacked and a banner or message from hacker been displayed on the webpage. It is the most common issue faced with the websites hosted on shared hosting packages. Sometimes, it is host who is not taking security measures or keep the server left with bugs which make it easier for hackers to get control of your website.

3) Availability and Privileges:- There are hosts who offer upgrading specific resources. If you need either more storage capability or bandwidth, confirm with your host if they give you enough privilege to upgrade these specific resources. If not, you may have to upgrade the server.

4) Analyze Your Knowledge:- Yes! You will need to know how much knowledge you have. You might know that running a website on Shared Hosting or Reseller Hosting packages doesn’t require much technical knowledge. Hosting companies take care of system administration. However, if you are looking forward at Dedicated Servers, you will have to be ready to handle and administer your server. You might need to know many technical things that are commonly related to dedicated servers. There are Fully Managed Dedicated Servers provider who take care of your servers administration. Hosting the server with such managed hosting providers can make your work easy.

5) Analyze Your Budget:- Last but not least, does your pocket allow you to buy a dedicated server? For few people, it might not be a problem to spend thousands of dollars on the dedicated servers. But for few us, money might matter. Monitor the earnings from your website, monitor the popularity of your website, monitor the growth of your website. If you think that you are earning good amount from your website and the website growing with much popularity, this should be the right time for you to move to Dedicated Server.

You may come up with many such common things which could be noted while hosting the website on Shared Hosting packages. The best way to get help in making a decision is to either getting help from your System Admin or seeking help on public forums.

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