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iManila Help Center

Month: July 2017

The Hidden Benefits of Dedicated Hosting Service

 

When you are working in a marketing department or most especially in the IT department, you heard about your web or email server a lot of times. You would probably hear the term dedicated hosting service too. During the days when you are having massive marketing campaigns online, you’ll probably make it your default process to make your website as the primary landing page. And in the midst of the campaign, you will definitely experience some unwanted glitches. Two of these glitches are slow loading time of the website and inaccessibility for a certain period of time. If your company website and even emails are hosted on a shared environment, then this occurrence is expected. These things are all related to your hosting server.

Below is a perfect example of a similar situation that can be possibly be attributed to hosting server issue.

Scenario 1

One best scenario that would also describe this kind of difficulty is the booking website of a known LCC (low-cost carriers) airlines here in the Philippines. This airline, which is famous for its super low flight price promo, runs Piso-fare which is an annual flight sale. You can book flights that are incredibly cheap in advance. When this happens, a lot of consumers who are also into booking cheap flights are complaining about the inaccessibility of the website. Some may have encountered booking a slot but are having a hard time processing the payment or worse, experiencing an expired session, prompting them to start booking again.

This is really frustrating for visitors and often leads to poor traffic and conversion.

The fault may not be solely due to the server – because the coding and programming quality are also factors to consider – but the hosting server holds a large portion of the responsibility for this matter.

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Scenario 2

Probably the most epic of all are the government websites. In some corporate documents and presentation, government data is very important in setting the road for strategic directions. And oftentimes, government websites failed us the time we need them the most.

However, there are government websites that are hands-on in managing and optimizing their websites. The office of the president and the vice president, the Philippine Statistical Authority, and the Department of Science and Technology are some of the offices that have tidy and performing websites.

Verdict

There are two potential reasons for this kind of scenarios:

Firstly, they could be using a shared hosting environment and haven’t anticipated the surging visits to their websites – hence the problem of downtime and slow loading time.

Secondly, they could be using a dedicated hosting environment, but not solely dedicated to their websites. It is possible that even the webmails and other intra-agency files that eat the buffer space that should be used, in times of surging web visits.

Dedicated Hosting Server for your Website

The thing is, before signing a contract or allocating server space for your website, you need to have a background of your industry’s competition first. If you are catering to end consumer with built-in product catalog, you might want to consider a dedicated server for your website.

Why?

Because, catering to end consumer means, capturing a larger audience than those of the companies who deal with businesses. And usually, tangible products which are fast-moving are much prone to bloating web visits. Another consideration is if you’re a publisher. Publishers experience doubled the traffic of FMCGs. If you are either of the two, you need to go for a dedicated web hosting.

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Hidden Benefits

Sometimes we take things at face value. When it’s pricey, we turn it down. When it is a little cheaper, we go for it. The truth is, things that are priced cheap are often limited or capped. Those that are expensive will last longer and are flexible, and the same thing goes for hosting services.

Shared hosting environment is practically affordable because it is meant for website owners that are not into online commerce of publishing. An info site that is made as a reference site for the company, won’t consume much. That is why shared hosting server will do – even with email hosting in it.

  • Greater security and flexibility

Compared with shared hosting server, the dedicated server gives webmasters and web owners the flexibility that they need. Dedicated Hosting also comes with a better security because you don’t need to worry about other tenants that you are sharing the server with. In short, you have the full control of the server.

Dedicated hosting services usually come with support too. When you are having troubles managing the environment, you can contact your provider and seek some help. We at iManila, we don’t just provide support, we provide 24/7 support to make sure our hosting clients are well taken care of.

Since you are using the entire environment for your own benefit, that means the resources are all yours to use. That means that even when there are unexpected surges of web visits, your website is still up and running. Here in iManila, our servers guarantee a 99.95% uptime.

This is the best part. Since dedicated servers are flexible, you have enough room to scale-up your environment should the need for it arises. Will all the evolution of media consumption, the trend is always going up. People are more demanding in terms of content. Gone are the days of text and images, as people are starting to get accustomed to rich media such as plotagraphs, GIF animation, motion graphic and videos. These file formats are seriously eating up spaces, and once you are compelled to use them, a scalable dedicated server is your only choice.

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With the fast evolving online community obsolescence is the only constant word to describe it. Megabytes are now just a child’s play, and who knows? The terabytes might be the next end users’ USB making hosting servers much bigger than they are now. With dedicated hosting, you have the power to scale up anytime you want, and with the support and security that comes with it, you can be sure that your website can meet the demands of the coming years.

For inquiries about web and email hosting service, you can call iManila at (02) 490-0000 or through the direct landline of our tech support guys at (02) 959-4807. You can also send us a direct mail at [email protected] or fill-out our contact forms through this LINK.

 

 

POP or IMAP: Which one’s best for you?

 

One thing is certain for most of us, we read our email as often as how we read our social media notifications. It is the culture of always being connected that brings almost all of us to stick with our devices whenever wherever. And in the spirit of the modern connectivity, it is common for most corporate employees to access their emails in almost all of the device that they are using. This has blurred the lines between work and personal lives for corporate workers and even to some professionals.

And the truth that is just lying in front of us is that our lives are now entangled with our email addresses – with our emails – whether we like it or not. The modern world compelled us to be reliant on our email addresses in almost all of our activities online. It houses some of the most important information about us such as log-in details to other accounts, mobile banking, e-commerce, and even with government-related transactions.

And in dealing with your emails, you might have encountered the terms POP and IMAP a lot of times, especially when setting up your remote email server. Using a Mac book? You’ve probably done this to your Mac Mail. Or are you a windows user? You surely did this to your Outlook too. The same thing goes for Gmail client app for Android and iCloud email for iPhones.

If you are wondering what the terminologies like POP and IMAP, refer to backgrounder below.

History of POP

Post Office Protocol or what we know as POP was developed as a simple means of accessing emails remotely back in 1984. This release required login usual login credentials like username and password to download all the email at once. In 1985, POP2 was released which has provided a greater and better range of commands and replies compared to the first POP release.  POP2 also allowed users to choose to read only one message instead of downloading their entire email inbox at the same time. Lastly, in 1988, the release of POP3 has made accommodations of the easy and efficient way of retrieving emails on their personal computers. In was noted that since 1998, no updates of changes have been made to POP marking 14 years of stagnancy which somewhat equates to obsolescence in today’s fast-evolving online community.

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History of IMAP

On the other hand, Stanford Computer Scientist Mark Crispin developed the first IMAP at the Stanford Knowledge Systems Laboratory.  This protocol served as an alternative to POP by bringing in a two-way protocol that provides greater functionality for users.

Shortly after its first release, another release was launched carrying the revision made to the first IMAP. The next revision was released in the 1990s known as IMAP2bis. This was provided for the use of Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME), which allowed an increase in the number of functions used in managing mailboxes.

Email and password encryption made the last revision of IMAP as IMAP4 rev1 has been released in 1996.

So which one is best for me?

Since we’ve gone through histories, which is admittedly a little boring, let’s get down to business. In this era of connectivity, the efficient way of managing mailboxes is an imperative. And speaking of efficiently managing mailboxes. IMAP is the appropriate setup.

Why?

IMAP has the ability to synchronously update mailboxes remotely. And for people who are using multiple devices, IMAP is the way to go. Since updates are done synchronously, managing your mailboxes doesn’t take so much effort.

POP, on the other hand, relies on downloading the entire mailboxes remotely. This protocol won’t allow synchronous updates making it confusing and difficult to manage multiple mailboxes.

Worry not, because modern devices use IMAP as the default set-up for their email apps. And if by chance you’re still caught up in an old email client server, here are the following signs that would tell you that you’re using a POP configuration:

Sign 1: If I create folders on one of my devices, they are not replicated on others

Sign 2: If I read an email on one of my devices, I see it as unread on others

Sign 3: If I delete an email on one of my devices, I still see it on others

Once you have determined that you’re in POP setup, you need to call the attention of your IT personnel to set up to IMAP. Remember, you need some assistance from the tech guys to make sure your mailboxes are intact as you migrate to another protocol.

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And if by chance you’re looking for competent IT guys to help you out troubleshoot this kind of dilemmas, call us at (02) 490-0000. You can also send us an email via [email protected].

 

 

 

Reference: pop2imap.com

 

The office is in silence while all heads are buried under piles of work. The only sound you can hear is the sound of their keyboards in sync with yours. There’s always a certain week in a month when all deadlines pile up like hell, and the only breather for all of you is taking a sip of your precious coffee. When suddenly, you accidentally close an important tab on your browser that you’re working on.

Disaster is screaming in your head! You’re pissed, and you’re tired even though the day is just starting. And the worst part is, you don’t know where to start. In emergency cases like this, you need a saving grace to make it through the day – and through the week. And what we had below, will definitely save your day, and will even help you beat the “hell week”.

  • In emergencies like what happened above, what you need to do first is to relax. Recovering the tab that you accidentally closed can be recovered by pressing CRTL + SHIFT + T (for Windows) COMMAND + SHIFT + T (for Mac). This will instantly reopen the tab that you closed. This is way better than redoing everything that you did on that tab. However, you just have to take note that this shortcut won’t work when you are in private browsing/incognito.
  • Remember the times when pressing the backward or forward button on your browser just to be on your desired page never fails to ruin your mood? Here is the antidote to your seemingly perpetual frustration: just press ALT + LEFT ARROW KEY to go back and ALT + RIGHT ARROW KEY to go forward.
  • Wanted to select multiple texts when editing a document? Just press SHIFT + LEFT OR RIGHT ARROW KEY. It is a little easier than hovering your mouse all over the document. And on the top of that, it is much precise than using the mouse.

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  • Looking for an important file? Press WINDOWS KEY + E to open the file explorer real quick.
  • Wanting to format a phrase to all caps without retyping it? Just select that phrase and press SHIFT + F3. Hit SHIFT + F3 again and that phrase will be in caps and lowercase format. Do it the third time and it will go back to all lowercase format. Easy right?
  • Going on a bio break? Minimize all your open windows by pressing WINDOWS KEY + D. Then WINDOWS KEY + L to lock your computer. Just login afterward, and you can go back to these tabs – no problemo mi amigo!

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We can all get through the hell weeks in our lives. There are only two things that will help us cope with all the demands and deadlines of the week: just relax and focus on the tasks at hand based on priorities, and these shortcut keys that will definitely save you time and effort. Happy weekend everyone!

What is imunify360?

Overview

imunify360 is a complete Six-Layer Security that is installed to iManila shared servers. It protects our websites from different digital attacks. Imunify360 is an automated security solution, powered by AI and Proactive Defense, that will protect your web servers from infections, maintain secure kernels, and keep you in the know with relevant information.

 

  • Advance Firewall
    Imunify360 offers advanced firewall protection that uses cloud heuristics and artificial intelligence to detect new threats and protect the servers that run the software. The firewall is capable of defending against brute force attacks, DoS attacks, and port scans.

    The firewall tightly integrates with mod_security web application firewalls to dramatically enhance its usefulness. In combination with WAF, we can stop the majority of web application attacks even before they start. An advanced Captcha system is employed to reduce false positives and make sure that valid customers can reach your website.

  • Intrusion Detection and Protection System (IDS)
    Imunify360 features an excellent Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) with a comprehensive collection of “deny” policy rules to quickly block all known attacks, especially those using a common or well-known exploit tool.

    The Intrusion Detection System (IDS) provides excellent visibility of server security by monitoring server logs. It scans log files from all different angles and bans IPs that show malicious signs, such as password failures, potential exploits, etc. It helps protect your server from attacks and reports to the Imunify360 dashboard.

  • Malware Detection
    Over 68% of hosting providers say that malware infection is a top issue for their customers’ web servers.

    Imunify360 automatically scans file systems for malware injection and quarantines infected files.

  • Proactive Defense
    Imunify360’s Proactive Defense (previously known as Sandboxing) protects websites against zero-day attacks – it stops even the malware that no scanner is able to detect. It identifies attacks on your Linux web servers in real time, then blocks potentially malicious executions automatically and with zero latency.

    Proactive Defense uses a unique method of identifying security risks – it analyzes what scripts do rather than what is actually in the code.


    image from imunify360.com

  • Patch Management

    Rebootless Secure Kernel
    Rebootless Secure Kernel powered by KernelCare is a component that keeps your server secure by automatically patching kernels without having to reboot the server. Its agent checks for new patches every four hours and automatically applies them to the running server without any performance impact. KernelCare keeps your kernel updated to help you avoid disastrous incidents.

    Hardened PHP
    Hardened PHP is a component that ensures your web server security by patching all PHP versions against known vulnerabilities, allowing you to run any version of PHP without having to update programs to accommodate newer versions.

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