We have some great new features to the MX Force Premium SPAM filtering service that we offer.  These new additions have been designed with simplicity and security in mind. Here are some of the new features you can start to take advantage of:

High Performance Administration Console

The most obvious feature is the complete redesign of the administration console. The new console is built entirely on AJAX technology enabling it to look and perform like a desktop software application, not like a website. Administration tasks can now be performed in less than half the time.  Of all the improvements that have been made, this is the one that we had the most requests for.

Exporting & Reporting

With the click of a button, you can now export your users, domains, quarantines and more into a CSV file for internal logging and diagnostics. The reports dashboard has been redesigned making it even easier to view the effectiveness of the solution. Also, all report data can now be easily exported or printed for internal reporting purposes.

Command Line Interface & API

Thee service has been build on a new framework enabling you to automate tasks such as adding, deleting, and changing users and domains. This is made simple by the new Command Line Interface. Administrators can now easily perform many tasks from their own command line without having to log in to a console. But most importantly you have the ability to write batch and shell scripts that automatically keep you in sync when, say, a user is added to your LDAP directory.

Quarantine Feeds

Finally, the most unique feature is the “Quarantine Feed”. Your users no longer have to wait for a quarantine summary, or manually log in to the console and wade through countless messages. With Quarantine Feeds, your users can locate and view quarantined messages right in their favorite email client. It even works with smart phones.

If you are using our premium SPAM filtering service, these features are already available.  If you aren’t using it and are sick of dealing with the junk email, contact us and we will give you a free month trial to try out this service.  You can find more information on our SPAM Filtering Service page.

It’s surprising but this is one of the most common questions we get from potential new clients who want a web site.  If you want to maintain a website, you probably need to know what web hosting is.  Web hosting has developed into a very important service for most business owners. Almost every organization needs a website for their operations, which is why there is a great demand for reliable web hosting companies. So in case you are looking to find out what is web hosting, there are a few very important points for you to consider.

To begin with, when you have a website that you want others to see over the internet a web hosting company would provide you with online space on which you can upload your website. After your website is uploaded on the internet, your website becomes visible to people who browse through the internet. However there are a few points that you need to be aware of with web hosting services.

The Internet and Web Hosting: A Brief History

Looking back through history, the internet and web hosting services are still in their stage of infancy. It was not before 1991 that web hosting services finally materialized into a practical tool for businesses and organizations. The internet on the other hand had seen its birth only thirty years before that, in the year 1962.

How it all started …

JCR Licklider pioneered in bringing in the idea of the internet though the articles he wrote for his research work at MIT in 1962. Even though there was no such infrastructure present, he talked about a global network of computers connected to each other, sharing information and resources. This led to the formation of ARPA or the Advanced Research Projects Agency. The US military was closely related to ARPA as they worked towards developing a network for defense purposes as well as for space research for NASA.

Slowly the concept began to spread amongst the scientists and researchers like Lawrence G Roberts and Thomas Merril, who were successful in linking two computers in the US through telephone lines over a dial up connection at 2.4 kbps. While AT&T helped with the telephone line, the computers that were connected were TX-2 at Massachusetts and the Q-32 at California.

But the slow speed at which the network performed was a huge handicap. This further lead to the formation of the ARPANET in the year 1969. This network linked the computers amongst a few universities and research centers like the UCLA, the University of Utah, the University of California and the Stanford Research Institute. And the network kept building till emailing was introduced in the year 1971 by Roy Tomlinson.

Slowly and gradually TELENET was developed, which was much more commercialized. It was not till the 80s that the term INTERNET was used for the first time. A number of introductions were made, like TCP/IP and DNS. Finally in 1991, the World Wide Web or WWW came into existence with the help of the researchers at CERN.

This is how the web hosting got its shape to what we use today. And the internet still grows a much stronger presence with every passing day!

Let us further look at some of the main components of web hosting for a clearer idea.

Web Server

A web server is like a container in which you upload your HTML files to make your website available online. A web server runs on software that accepts requests from internet users and returns responses in the form of web pages over HTTP (or hypertext transfer protocol). Web servers generally run on either Windows operating systems or Linux.

There are various applications like databases, web applications, etc that are very specific to the operating system the web server uses. For example, a Linux server will be compatible with PHP and MySQL, whereas a Windows server can support MS SQL Server, ASP, etc. One of the major things to understand when you learn what is web hosting is what are the applications that you need to use and hence what operating system would suit your requirements.

FTP and Email Hosting

When you upload pages and images on to your website, this happens through FTP or file transfer protocol. Some web hosting providers may allow you to use software like Microsoft FrontPage or Adobe Dreamweaver to upload your web pages and content, while others might allow you to use simply an FTP client.

Web hosting companies also provide you with web mails or customized email clients that you can use to send and receive emails through their servers. It is a good idea to consider these features when you check out the services of a web hosting company for the best results.

Data Center

A data center is a setup where the web hosting companies may house their servers and associated hardware like switches, routers, hubs, etc. Often domain hosting companies lease the servers belonging to these data centers to provide their clients the web space they require.

At other times web hosting companies might shift their hardware and servers to these data centers and pay them to provide the infrastructure required to host the servers. This is also known as colocation. It generally becomes much cheaper for web hosting companies to rent the services of a data center than to maintain their servers themselves. Data centers deal with a huge number of clients, making their overhead costs go down.

Domain Names

You need to register the name of the website you want to host through a domain name service. Most of the companies who provide domain hosting services would also be able to offer you a domain name for your website. Without a domain name (or an URL), you will not be able to host your website. DNS is an important topic for you when you look at what is web hosting.

Other Considerations

There are some other technicalities like the requirement of web designing software, consideration on the reliability of a web hosting company, the infrastructure and the services provided with the web hosting service, and the price that you have to pay to enjoy these services.

So if you were after your own website and wanted to know what is web hosting, the above information should at least give you a good start.  We have been offering web hosting since 1997 and would love to help you and your business get online.  You can read more about our services on our Web Hosting Page.

If you have logged into your Cpanel account this week, you may have noticed a big difference in the amount of storage space and bandwidth you now have access to.  This past weekend, we did an overhaul of the packages we offered and increased both storage and bandwidth by 50% - 100%.  Nothing will change with the pricing because of this upgrade, we are doing our best to offer you more without it affecting our pricing.  This is really just the first step, in the coming months we will be bring you more features, more services, more resources and more ways to communicate with us.

You can check out the details of these changes on our Web Hosting Plans comparison page.

Perfect Presence is excited to announce the addition of our brand new Private Label Web Design service.  With this new service, you can offer our web design and programming services to your clients and we will work with you behind the scenes, at a discount, to get the job done.   You work with your client to get the details on what they are looking for, we provide you with a quote/proposal that is branded to your company that you can send to your client.  You can adjust the price as you see fit.  We will do the work and you will get to keep a chunk of the contract amount.

It’s a great way to add another revenue stream to your business is you are offering something that could be a complimentary service.  For more information please go to Private Label Web Design Service.