There have been many enquiries recently about how to buy web space or how much webspace is really required for a website. Hence with an intention of offering a brief idea about the approximate amount of space that a particular website requires has been covered in this article.

Basic Knowledge

If your website consists of text content with not much images or any forms of media, then you definitely do not need a lot of web hosting space. Storage space of upto 1 Gb would be sufficient for such a website. Eukhost has designed plans in a way that it should be more than sufficient for a website to function optimally over the web. The bandwidth and other resources that are allocated to each account has been done after an extensive research and considering the general requirements.

Usually a website consisting of normal HTML pages require minimal storage space. But varies according to the content that is poured in, which maybe flash, images, video, heavy graphics etc.

Image Based website Content

Incase, you have a website that has a good volume of images, you are required to have a little more storage space with your web hosting package. Though, a single GB would suffice your initial requirements, but later with the increase in your website content (text, images etc) you would gradually need to add more space to your hosting account ie. you’ll need to upgrade to a higher package that is suitable for your website’s current requirements.

Also, unless you have really high-definition images added to your website pages, you would not require much diskspace. But if you do have multiple images, then a package that offers upto 10 Gb of Disk space should be fine. But, if your current data is more than 10 Gb, then a Cheap VPS hosting account can be considered.

Media Based Website Content

If a website contains video and audio files or is a website consisting of online games (flash based) or offers multimedia files, then you should ideally look for a web hosting package that offers good amount of storage space and a decent bandwidth allocation.

Streaming Web Site

Now-a-days there has been a trend of websites offering video and audio streaming. If you have such a website or are planning to create a similar website, you definitely need to look forward to hosting it on a dedicated web hosting server where you would get dedicated resources and optimum performance. Since, it is difficult to predict the traffic on such websites at a given point of time, you cannot really host it on a shared platform. The basic reason being, such websites require high performance servers, and with hosting packages other than dedicated, the servers resources are shared between number of customers hosted on the server. Hence, there lies a possibility where you might fall short of resources when other accounts too have been using the server to the fullest.

Still, if you have any doubts regarding the selection of a suitable web hosting package, you can get in touch with our sales team, they would assist you with an appropriate solution that suits your requirements.

What is Global Server Load Balancing and how it works ?

An Introduction

Load balancing is a technique that is used for distributing the workload evenly across computing machines, networks, processing units etc. It basically enhances utilization of resources and enables maximum throughput with minimum response time hence avoiding overloading of a single server.

An extension of the same technology is the Global Server Load Balancing. With this technology the Internet traffic can be distributed among different data-centers located at different locations of the planet. This technology is highly efficient in avoiding local downtimes and downtimes. There is a Master GSLB which monitors the health and responsiveness of the Slave sites, which inturn identifies the sites are available and can offer the best response.

Ideally GSLB would include:
I. Redirection of requests to other closest sites (DC) incase the usual DC or server does not respond.
II. Forwarding the visitor requests to the site that is most closer to the place from where the request is raised from a geographic point of view.
III. Incase a threshold is reached at a site, the requests are forwarded to other site which may be at a different geo-location. It algorithm would calculate the shortest distance from when the request has been raised.

Scenarios and Requirements:

In Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB), a website or services are hosted on different servers located at different geo-locations. Lets consider, a visitor is browsing www.eukhost.com from US, in usual web hosting, this request would be sent straight to the server where it is hosted, and the request would be served from the UK server only. But in a Global Load Balancing architecture, since the website is hosted on servers across different servers located in different geo-locations, the user trying to access the website from US, would be served from the server that is located in US. The GSLB in a regular time interval checks the health of the slave servers for providing the best response hence directing the traffic to those servers.

There aren’t any special requirements for implementing Global Load Balancing for your website. You simply need to choose a server as you do in the usual way, but since you intend to apply load balancing acoss the globe, you are required to select servers in different locations. With Eukhost Ltd. you can choose between 3 locations i.e. UK, US and India. Your website data is placed on servers of your choice in all the three locations.

Note: For Global Load Balancing, it is recommended to choose servers of equivalent configurations.

There are ideally two methods how GSLB can be configured :
A. GLB – Global Load Balancing
B. DNS Load Balance

A. GLB – Global Load Balancing : In the technique of GLB, we use a primary server also known as the Master Server and is connected to Slave Servers located in different geo-locations ie. different DC’s. Whenever a request is raised, the Master Server checks the location from where it was initiated. Then cookies are set and it redirects the request to the nearest server location.

Process Flow :

i. The user (in this case user is in US) types the website url http://www.eukhost.com in the browser. Since global load balancing is applied, the request would first go to the Master server which is located in UK datacenter.

ii. The Master Server would send a query to the requester for querying IP address, upon confirmation of the users IP address, cookies are set which contains every information on the user system.

iii. This information is forwarded to the Master Server which is in the meantime checking the health and level of responsiveness of the slave servers.

iv. Now the Master Server in the GSLB architecture, would redirect the request to nearest Slave Server (ie. in US).

v. The users gets a response and is able to view the website which is served from the US server and not the UK servers.

All these processes happens in fraction of seconds without the knowledge of the users.

A constant synchronisation takes place between Master and Slave servers across all the DC’s.

B. Global DNS Load Balance: Load Balancing can be fulfilled using DNS. In this the response to the DNS requests depends on requester’s geographic IP location and the response from DNS. Lets consider a similar example as above : If a user requests for http://www.eukhost.com, it is sent to GLB DNS Server which would check the IP of the visitor. Then it would identify the server that is closest to the location or to the one that has the minimum response time, and the traffic is forwarded or redirected.

Process Flow :

i. The user based in Malaysia tries to access the site eukhost.com. In this case the DNS Request is sent to the ISP and further to the GSLB DNS Server.

ii. Then, the GSLB DNS Server forwards the request to NameServers of all the Countries or to the GSLB Server located various geo-locations.

iii. Within fraction of second, the GSLB receives the response from every server, it then analyses the response time and identifies the Closest Server Location from the Users Request and then redirects it to that server.

iv. The users in this way get connected to the closest server. In this scenario, the user request is initiated from Malaysia, hence the closest server as identified by GSLB is located in India, hence the website gets served from server located in the Indian DataCenter.

An absolute path is a directory specification that shows the way from the root of the file system to a specific file or directory. An example of an absolute path is: /home/jim/public_html/index.html An absolute path starts at / (root) and ends at the location of where the specified file is located.

Q. What are Custom Branded Dedicated Servers?

Ans. Custom Branded Dedicated Hosting Servers are basically Dedicated Web Servers, as the name suggests, with “custom” whois information in the IP whois. As an example, please see below for the current eUKhost whois information.

netname: EUKHost-LTD
descr: Server Lan
country: GB
admin-c: PETE3-RIPE
tech-c: PETE3-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by: blueconnex-mnt
mnt-routes: blueconnex-mnt
source: RIPE # Filtered

Now, the idea behind Custom Branded Dedicated Web Servers is that we can swap EUKHost-LTD to match your company name. So, I’m sure many of you are now asking “Do I need it?”. For the vast majority of you, the answer is, quite simply, NO. The service of Custom Branded Dedicated Web Servers is mainly a service that would be offered to medium/large web hosting providers. For example, if you are a web hosting provider you may have good reasons for not wanting your customers to know, or easily find out, where your services are located. There is no deception involved here, it’s simple marketing. You don’t want your customers to know that they can get the same service with us directly. This can be for a variety of reasons. Such as, our service offerings may be cheaper than yours, offer more hard disk space, more bandwidth, more support. You have done the hard work by getting the client and it would be unfair for them to switch to us directly. We have no interest in competing directly with our clients or with taking their customers. This is the main reason that we offer Custom Branded Dedicated Servers. Another reason behind Custom Branded Dedicated Servers is the benefit of receiving abuse e-mails directly and not having to have us forward them to you. As an example, one of the websites you are hosting has been compromised and is sending out spam messages. In the current system we will either have to spend time contacting you directly and if we are not able to do so in a timely manner, we may suspend your account. obviously this would have serious implications for your business and may ultimately lose your clients. In this case, Custom Branded Dedicated Servers could prevent this from happening.

Okay, so we have given some example as to who Custom Branded Dedicated Web Servers are useful for. Now, let’s look into the type of client that definitely don’t need Custom Branded Dedicated Servers. If we are not providing the same service as you provide, there is no reason for you to consider custom whois information. Your clients could, in theory, see our name mentioned and then visit our website. If our website is not offering the same services, they will have no reason to consider moving. If you host a forum advising people on the best fishing spots in the UK, your visitors or customers couldn’t care less where your website is hosted from. If it’s a personal hobby site, again, your visitors don’t care where your website is hosted.

There are also some technical limitations involved. It’s not possible to offer Custom Branded Dedicated Servers on a small number of IP addresses. It’s also not possible to rename currently assigned IP address whois information, please keep this in mind. A similar service is not currently available on individual VPS hosting services and it’s not currently possible for shared hosting. Costs can vary and as always subject to RIPE guidelines. Please contact sales@eukhost.com for more information.

Q. All eUKhost dedicated servers are fully managed, What does the server management include?

Ans. All eUKhost Dedicated Servers are fully managed and monitored round the clock. When you purchase a dedicated server from eUKhost, you not only get a server, you get a completely managed dedicated hosting solution. Once you place an order and after the server set-up, our team of Administrators monitor its performance and maintain your server 24x7x365 to ensure that it is always online and performing as per your expectations. All dedicated servers come with an array of server management services executed by our team of dedicated server experts. Server management includes installation and maintenance of a standard software package, security monitoring, backups and technical support. Every dedicated server comes with Apache, MySQL, mail and DNS server pre-installed along with Spam filter and virus-protection for your server. Every dedicated server is fully secured, configured, and customized for your specific business needs. All servers are delivered to you virtually production ready.

Regular updates are also performed on the server in order to make sure you are always running a secure machine, while benefiting from the latest stable versions of the installed programs.

eUKhost server management responsibilities include but are not limited to the following tasks:

* Initial Server Setup.
* Routine server monitoring.
* Server Migration (If applicable).
* Disaster recovery planning and procedures including system and file backup.
* Server backup restoration in the event of a hardware failure.
* Server troubleshooting – We will help you trouble shoot if the server is not performing well.
* Regular maintenance of the operating system (updates & patches).
* Installation of mod_evasive to prevent DDoS Attacks.
* Firewall configuration.

Visit our Managed Servers Information Pages for an overview of the functions performed by our Administrators to ensure your server is maintained in a healthy state at all times.

* Linux Server Management Overview
* Windows Server Management Overview

Need help? eUKhost’s Support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and each dedicated server comes with server management services at no additional charge.

Complete information on Unmetered bandwidth options offered by eUKhost on Dedicated Servers

Ans. Unmetered Bandwidth means that the dedicated server has part or all of a dedicated connection. Unmetered does not mean infinite however for example an unmetered 10Mbps connection gives a maximum transfer of roughly 3000 GB per month. Our Unmetered Bandwidth Dedicated Servers are available in 10Mbps, 100Mbps and 1000Mbps allotments.

Unmetered Bandwidth Features:-

-> Unmetered, 10, 100 and 1000 Mbps plans
-> No usage or overage charges
-> Fast and Reliable Network
-> Dedicated bandwidth – not shared.

What we offer at eUKhost:-

1. Standard bandwidth (3000 GB/5000 GB/10000 GB) is a 100Mbit port (full duplex) on the server which is connected into a Gbit switch.
2. 10 Mbit Unmetered bandwidth – dedicated, unshared 10Mbit full duplex connection.
3. 100 Mbit Unmetered bandwidth – dedicated, unshared 100Mbit full duplex connection.
4. 1000 Mbit Unmetered bandwidth – dedicated, unshared 1000Mbit full duplex connection.

With our unmetered bandwidth servers, you can be assured of high quality performance backed by our experienced fully managed dedicated hosting staff which will allow you to concentrate solely on the growth of your business.

Q. Are all scripts in Softaculous maintained by eUKhost regularly? Could you confirm that eUKhost.com maintains an up-to-date and secure list of mods and scripts?

:- Softaculous is a cPanel control panel addon and available on all our Linux cPanel Hosting plans at no additional cost. It is an external library of scripts which is integrated with cPanel for customer convenience. As and when Softaculous releases updates, we also run Softaculous upgrades. Having said that, there have been past instances where script version upgradations on softaculous have caused a few issues with cPanel compatibility owing to difference in versions of complementary modules. This has been a reason for one set of updates to be actually rolled back. eUKhost.com will always keep softaculous upto date till the time it does not hinder cPanel modules functionality.

Coldfusion 8 Web Hosting by eUKhost

eUKhost is now among the very few UK web hosts to offer full version of ColdFusion 8 Enterprise edition on its Windows shared hosting and Windows reseller hosting plans. Coldfusion 8 is one of the fastest and most comprehensive frameworks to build and deploy powerful Internet applications, develop websites and web services. ColdFusion 8 offers new functionality for developers including printable web content, rich forms, and integrated, structured business reporting. ColdFusion 8 provides developers with access to more features such as flex integration into applications, and provides a true development platform where one can build a robust application quickly. Additionally, ColdFusion can also be easily integrated with web services such as Java, .NET and SOAP.

eUKhost’s ColdFusion 8 web hosting plans are hosted on Microsoft Windows 2008 server and powered by very robust ColdFusion 8 Enterprise edition. Enterprise edition offers greater security and performance benefits with features such as application sandbox security, multi-threaded business report and PDF/FlashPaper generation, event gateways and support for enterprise database drivers.

ColdFusion 8 Hosting Features:

* ColdFusion 8 Windows Web Hosting
* ColdFusion Enterprise Edition
* Windows 2008 Server Platform
* DotNetPanel Control Panel
* Java, .NET and SOAP integration
* PDF capabilities – Generate and interact with PDF documents
* MySQL included with MS-SQL option
* Plans from £99.99 per year

eUKhost’s ColdFusion 8 windows web hosting provides a highly robust and flexible environment, along with a 99.95% uptime guarantee and 24×7 support and monitoring. Pricing for the ColdFusion 8 windows web hosting plans starts at £99.99 per year.

For more information on eUKhost’s Coldfusion Hosting visit – http://www.eukhost.com/coldfusion-hosting.php

To view Coldfusion Hosting plans visit – http://www.eukhost.com/windows-web-hosting.php

Mambo CMS Hosting

Do you offer Mambo Hosting?
Mambo website hosting is supported on all our servers.

Mambo is most powerful content management system (CMS) around. With the help of web based interface along with user friendly features you can create simpler as well as more complex corporate websites. Mambo is PHP MySQL based so Linux web hosting as well as  windows web hosting package will suited for Mambo website.

eUKhost is most trusted company in UK for Mambo Hosting due to the high level security on our servers. We have enabled mod_security rules on our servers which filters intrusions, hacking attempts and other invalid arguments passed by the intruders.

Mambo is easy to install on a website. If you have cPanel hosting package, you can install Mambo CMS at a one click through Fantastico.

All you need to do is select appropriate domain name and proceed with Mambo installation.

Mambo is easy to use or manage and website can be customized from easy to use administrative panel. You won’t need to be an IT expert as it is suited for newbies as well as advanced users.You can have a look at Mambo tutorial to learn about its functionality and design. Default theme of Mambo can be changed anytime and and can be customized as per your requirements.You can change it to a custom Mambo template which can be used for a website.

Mambo functionality can be further extended by adding extra tools for your website. It will help you to create more advanced websites like ecommerce website, forums, gallery etc. Mambo is an excellent website building tool through which you can create personal as well as business website.

phpBB Forum Hosting

Do you offer phpBB website hosting?
Yes, phpBB is supported on all our web hosting packages.phpBB is supported on our linux Web hosting as well as Windows Web hosting.  phpBB is PHP MySQL based so no problems on our servers as all our servers include PHP and MySQl.

phpBB website hosting include lots features such as easy to use control panel, multiple tools, secure servers and the best thing is 24×7 support via email, phone and live chat. Our Website Hosting packages include full support for phpBB along with free installation, free resources at affordable prices. All our web hosting plans support multiple domains which makes easy to manage websites. All you need is signup for a hosting package as per your requirements for phpBB Web Hosting.

PHPBB Hosting Features

*Free phpBB installation
*Instant phpBB Account Setup
*Easy phpBB Account Upgrade
*phpBB Optimized Servers
*Multiple Domains and databases
*Unlimited email accounts
*CPanel and Fantastico
*PHP 5.x and MySQL 5.x
*99.95% Uptime Guarantee
*30 Day Money Back Guarantee.
*24×7 UK Customer Support

phpBB is the most powerful and commonly used forum software used these days. It is suitable for newbies as well as more technically sound users. You can create mid sized forum or a forum for large communities using phpBB. The best thing is phpBB is open source project and it is available for free.

phpBB is powerful software along with easy to use administrator panel. You can create unlimited forums and categories. Features such as Polls, smilies , emailing , permissions and other such can be added easily as well.Forum can be controlled as such that you can bam specific IP’s , email adresses or users.PhpBB forum can be installed and activated within 15 minutes. With our Linux web hosting account, phpBB can be installed at a one click through fantastico.

phpBB is highly secured in terms of authorization system and high encryption that helps to save all passwords save.You can slect the theme for phpBB as per your requirements.You can select which are available for free on web. You can even use CSS to change colors and fonts. phpBB supports cookies section as well.

Unlimited number of users can be created using phpBB. A user can create avatars, send private messages to other users of the forum, etc on phpBB forum. Posts can edited and managed easily as the interface of phpBB is uer friendly.