Silicon House

Quite often customers / friends ask us about the differences between dedicated servers and cloud computing and which is best for them. We have tried to list a few based on the criteria that are considered when a hardware is designed.

Resources:

Dedicated servers allows you to own the entire hardware and software resource to you. This means, the entire memory, cpu is allotted to you. Once a hardware configuration is set, it is not possible to change the configuration on the fly. For example, to upgrade the memory or cpu resource on the fly is not possible in a dedicated server.

In a cloud environment, only a part of the hardware is allotted to you. The entire hardware in a cloud is virtualized and allotted to each customer. The cloud is elastic. It is possible to change the memory or other resources on the fly without affecting the web application.

Availability & Performance:

If a dedicated server and an instance of cloud is compared, there is no difference in availability of the resources. But the amount of time taken to bring a server back if it faces as hardware failure or OS problem is much more than to bring back cloud instances in few minutes. Such a high availability makes cloud more formidable than dedicated servers. But lot of work need to be done in this area cases of cloud instances vanishing just like that were common in the past. What is the use to getting a new instance back without the application that we run in it.

Performance wise, cloud is more stable in theory. It should offer a robust high availability hosting infrastructure when compared to dedicated servers. But when it comes highly resource consuming applications like erp, database intensive portals and applications, dedicated servers score higher than cloud instances. Because in a dedicated server the entire server I/O is allotted to you. Unlike in cloud where multiple instances will compete for this same resource.

Compliance:

Dedicated servers score higher in compliance. This is because the entire hardware / software is allotted one user. It is not shared unlike in cloud hosting. Many compliances such as PCI require the data to be hosted in a dedicated environment. There is a new range hosting solutions being delivered now known as hybrid hosting. In this the application layer or the business process layer is hosting in cloud environment and databases and privacy related applications are hosted in dedicated servers. This way one can harness the stability of a cloud and high resource availability of a dedicated server.

Security & Control Panel:

Theoretically there should be no difference between cloud and dedicated servers as far as security is concerned. But cloud is in early stages now. We are not fully aware of how a user can affect the other. Apart from this, there is a practical issue with respect to cloud. Most of the cloud hosting providers do not provide any standard control panel like cpanel or plesk [ Some providers allow you to install it by yourself ]. These control panels come bundled with range of security softwares and also updates or alerts users about possible vulnerabilities. This is not available in a cloud environment. Hence a system admin who manages cloud instances should keep track of upgrades and security patches available for different services like web server, dns, database etc.

Is “ what you pay is for what you use” true ?

True, but not true. Unless you run a huge social networking site like You tube, Myspace etc, there is not going to be unexpected spurt in traffic or resource usage. Then there is no point to have elasticity in your hardware configuration. This means the pricing of both cloud and dedicated server will remain the same unless you run a portal like these. If you are running an erp or web application designed for your organization or an ecommerce website dedicated servers are the best choice. If you are running software as service, streaming, portals etc, then cloud instances are the best choice. What about the pricing ? - If you calculate all the cost involved, there will be little difference between the two.

Silicon House is glad to announce YBOX Apps - Super Reseller Suite v1.1 in Premium Super Reseller Accounts

YBOX Apps - Super Reseller Suite v.1.1 is an interface layer between System Admin and Reseller in cpanel servers. Traditionally cpanel servers have three tiers System Admin, Resellers, End Users. This had a limitation where in only a System Admin can create a reseller. For large resellers who manage more domains or mulitple platforms, this becomes a hiderance to allot resellers under them and to manage accounts in mulitple servers under single interface.

YBOX Apps - Super Reseller Suite is  the only software that allows you to create and manage multiple resellers in mulitple servers in various platforms of hosting such as Linux, Java, Media Streaming, Biz Secure Ftp servers. It is totally light in size as well as operation with neglible or near zero resource usage in your servers.

The Super Reseller Suite is desinged in a two-tier architecture where in Admin module can create Super Resellers. Super Reseller in turn can create sub resellers under them, who can have WHM access.

Salient Features of YBOX Apps - Super Reseller Suite v.1.1 are ;

1. Powerful Administrator module to manage server list, super reseller packages and server ips
2. Super Reseller module allows to create sub resellers with WHM access
3. Super Resellers can create accounts in multiple servers in the same interface
4. Super Resellers can create accounts in Linux, Java, Media Streaming, Biz Secure FTP Servers
5. Allows to reset password of sub reseller whm / edit their packages and limits
6. Allows to choose the required ACL for each reseller based on allocation from Administartor
7. Allows to suspend / unsuspend sub resellers

A very serious malware has surfaced in the internet and it proves to be very dangerous and malicious than the previous versions of similar malwares. The simple reason being it sends spam, sniffs ftp login details, overwrites .htaccess files to hijack your search engine results of your website and disables essential security software.

When users visit a site that is infected with this malware, it installs itself in the visitors machine and starts acting on it own.

Sniffing FTP Login Details
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This is very dangerous and malicious part of the malware function. It sniffs the ftp logins that are used by the infected systems to upload their contents. It then sends the sniffed login details to the remote attacker. Once the ftp logins are received the remote attacker starts uploading perl files [.pl], .cgi files, .js files, .php files, .htm files which contain injected iframe or malware redirection coding. Previously these coding were evident while viewing the source of the file. But of late, they have started insterting malicious code as ascii numbers or hexas so that a noivce developer will not notice quickly.

This type of injection cannot be scanned any anti-virus software as it wont be active unless it is view from a website.

This is also injected to a website directly without ftping via sql injection or vulnerable include files that have full write permission etc. Also if the users have unprotected directories with full permission, then they will be tragetted to upload directly in to the server.

Sending Spam
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Once the remote attacker uploads the malicious perl file using the password that he has sniffed using the above method, that file can be used to send spam mails / phishing mails at will. It is difficult to trace them or control them as most of the websites will have send mail enabled by default.

Hijacking the Search Engine Results
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One common way these attackers use to spread this malware is to overwrite your .htaccess file to send all search engine hits from google/yahoo etc to their malware site. Hence as a user you might view the site when you access the site as www.domain.com but when you click on a search result of that domain in google or yahoo, it will be redirected to a malware website.

Disables Security Software
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This malware is also capable of disabling the security software such as anti-virus in that system in which it is downloaded. But this type of disabling is more predominant in windows based systems only.

How to secure yourself from such an attack
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1. First change the password for all your websites immedietly. Make sure that ftp login details are tough and not easy
2. Review the code of your infected website particularly look for include files, .js files etc. Look out for iframe / sql injection coding / large sequence of numbers and digits
3. Look out in your sql database for any field that has junk codes or iframes injected
4. Check for your .htaccess file in various direcotries like public_html and see whether any undesired changes are done in it.
5. Check for any .pl, .cgi file uploaded in your website or in cgi-bin folder
6. Check for any unknown files appear nearly to your file names uploaded in your website.
7. The best way to safe guard is to keep a backup of your website, mail, database. Terminate the account. Recreate it in your whm. Review the coding and database thoroughly and upload your website.
8. Make sure that your local lan and systems are with latest version of OS with proper updates
9. Make sure that all your security softwares are upto date and function properly
10. Do not allow any one to access unwanted sites in your local lan or system or laptop
11. Make sure that a firewall such as Windows firewall or Zone lab firewall is installed and enabled in your systems
12. Warn all your customers about this issue and make sure that they also keep their systems clean and secure
13. Advise your customers to change passwords regularly and make sure that passwords are always tough
14. Advise your customers to use secure and safe ftp software while uploading webpages and desist from uploading via public terminals

Silicon House, partnering with Hi Speed SMS, now offers SMS short code services in addition to SMS Gateway services offered earlier.

This completely brandable SMS Gateway reseller accounts allow to manage all the SMS related services under one interface.

Few of the services include;

Fully Brand-able Reseller SMS Gateways
Short Code SMS
Long Code SMS
Mobile Social Networking

It’s official and it’s live.

The all new ” SH - live ” , a web 2.0 intiative from Silicon House.

Get a taste of live web casting when we stream an exclusive interview with Animation Guru “Lino”

Live Web Casting Schedule
————————————

Topic : Delivering 3D animated content via internet - By Lino Stephen
Time : 27 Aug 2008 Evening 7 PM

Do join us @ http://live.siliconhouse.net

Silicon House has recently launched domain parking services. Many resellers have been earning handsome returns by monetizing idle domains. Silicon House has exclusively tied-up with zer0parking.com to provide domain parking services.

Domain Portfolio

Domain Portfolio is a collection of hundreds of generic or potentially high revenue earning domains owned by a Domain Investor usually referred to as a  Domainer. Similar to shares, the worth of a Domain Portfolio is determined based on revenue it generates at present, expected revenue it can generate if developed as a website or portal.

How to build your Domain Portfolio?

To build a successful Domain Portfolio, you must register or acquire domains that have potential for high type-in traffic. The following are the simple rules that you can keep while acquiring domains under your domain portfolio.

Generic Domains: Pick generic or simple or easy remember names. It might look like all the domains were already registered, but a focused approach will allow you zero-in on potentially high revenue earning domains.
Domain Extensions: Keep it in .com or .net as far as possible. The main reason behind this being they have international appeal and monetization will be open for all country users. But this does not mean you must not go for country level domains. Country level domains if properly picked can earn more revenue than a .com domain. Before going in for country level domains, do a research on what field will work better for them. For example, exports or tourism related domain will work for a country like Nepal than insurance. Also keep an eye on new domain extensions that pop up time to time and try to grab some generic names.
Next Generation Domains: If you feel that you have missed out the domain revolution in 90’s, don’t worry. Keep an eye on upcoming fields [ like nano technology, online advertisements etc ]. Try and register domains in these upcoming fields which will earn more revenue than a normal domain over a period of time.
Focused as well as accommodating: Acquire domains in fields for which internet is generally used. Example: jobs, software, movies, songs, friends etc.
You may also acquire domains in highly focused areas like medical tourism etc.

Trademark Domains: Never acquire a trademark domain. While most of the ad feed providers themselves restrict this, there are still a lot of grey areas left. Still, it is a good thing to keep away from trade mark domains.
Putting yourself first:  While acquiring a domain portfolio, look at the user and advertiser perspective rather than your own likes or dislikes.  Be focused rather than investing in various fields. Imagine that you are managing shares instead of domains and do more home work on which field you are acquiring domains.

Once your have acquired your Domain Portfolio [ domain names ], you should monetize them to generate revenue out it. There are various ways in monetizing your domain names. The quickest and efficient way is Domain Parking.

Domain Parking is an online advertising technique which is targeted at type-in traffic that a domain name naturally generates. For example, a domain name email.com can generate more type-in traffic which can be monetized using a web page which displays pay per click ads on the landing page.

Once your domain is parked, then the landing page must be properly optimized to generate more visitors and to display the most relevant click thro’ navigational ads. Optimization is key to higher revenue generation. zer0parking uses state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence based optimization technology.

Artificial Intelligence based optimization technology is a high end, self learning algorithm based multi-tier technology.  While the basic structure of this technology being contextual, relevant comparison of premium keywords and in depth analysis of user analytics in delivering the ad feeds makes it more profitable than any other parking method. Since the system is self learning, the revenue per domain keeps increasing over a period a of time.

The zer0parking Advantage

1. zer0parking is a technology driven company. The company invests heavily on latest technologies
2. Run by professional team with over a decade of experience in the domain industry
3. ISO 9001:2000 certified company
4. Trusted by thousands of resellers around the world

To sign up for a Domain Parking account, please visit www.zer0parking.com

Silicon House now offers Media Streaming Services for resellers and customers. As a part of web2.0 hosting intiatives, Media Streaming Services and SH-APPS are launched during August 2008.

Media Streaming is delivering audio / video content continuously over the web. With broadband spreading in every corner of the world and latest compression / delivery techniques, Media Streaming is becoming more popular. Dedicated High End / High Bandwidth servers that enable constant delivery of such content are called as Media Streaming Servers.

Media Streaming Servers are used in two ways
1. On demand audio / video streaming
2. Live Streaming or Web Casting

Types of content that can be streamedStreaming Audio/Video (FLV and MP3)
Recording Client Streams (FLV only)
Live Stream Publishing

 Please visit www.siliconhouse.net/mediastreaming for complete details.

Starting 15 Aug 2008 Freedom Offers are in place till 31 Aug 2008.

Payment Gateways @ Just Rs.4999
Thawte SSL @ Just Rs.2750
Introducing Media Streaming @ Just Rs.1699
Dedicated Servers @ Just Rs.7999
All New COMBO & TRIO Reseller Packs

You can view the offer details at www.siliconhouse.net/offers