A web hosting control panel is a web based control interface that helps to ease all the admin work on a hosting account. With the control panel you can easily manage domains, email accounts, install software, backup website data, manage website files and a number of other things needed to operate a website. If we were to compare a website to a human being the web hosting would be the physical body and the control panel would be considered the respiratory system. Every human needs to breath to live.

There are many different brands of control panels available; cPanel is the most popular one while vDeck tends to get overlooked. CPanel has been such a dominant force in the market that most people aren’t aware of the existence of other control panels like vDeck. It’s likely cPanel’s popularity that tends to blind people keeping them from judging rationally. No doubt cPanel is a great control panel but vDeck has made up some ground with their latest release, vDeck 3.0.

CPanel has been incorporated independently since 1997 and has been working to provide the best hosting automation tools. The tool functions include the ability to manage PGP keys, crontab tasks, mail and FTP accounts (including mailing lists). However, the reason cPanel has become so successful is due to its user friendly design and interface. Thanks to the simple yet affective design most people can learn their way around cPanel very quickly. (more…)

What Kind of Server? Linux, Windows, Shared, Dedicated, VPS?

After the WDA had been signed and the details had been thoroughly discussed the developer started work on photo shop comps of the website while I began a new journey; the quest for a server. Being so green when I started this project I actually thought you could successfully run a social network on a shared hosting plan. Well, in theory you could for a short time, but I wasn’t looking to run a website short term. I needed some room for growth and the last thing I wanted was a server to crash after launching.

Shared hosting plans are very affordable and for a small blog are ideal but when you are looking for high amounts of traffic the option isn’t even an option, it’s dedicated. Sadly enough even a dedicated machine won’t keep you online for long if you see rapid growth; at some point load balanced servers will be a necessity. This was probably the biggest jaw dropper for me; how can I afford $200 – $500 a month on a server? Actually the better question is how could I afford not to? (more…)