Tag Archives: web hosting

Virtual Servers Offer Power, Convenience, and Savings

As a full-service ISP, Southwest Cyberport offers a complete spectrum of web-publishing services from simple static webpages to highly complex, state-of-the-art interactive content managed sites. But there’s even more to it than that. At one end of the range are free personal webpages we offer to all our broadband and dial-up customers. At the high end are dedicated colocated webservers owned and operated by corporate clients that access the Internet directly from our secure, access controlled machine room. In between, SWCP offers web-hosting services in three different strengths: Starter, Basic, and Professional. But now, we are happy to offer a new upper tier of web-publishing service that gives the isolation and independence of private servers without the steep costs of owning and colocating hardware. A Virtual Private Server (VPS) here at SWCP balances convenience and cost to allow website owners and administrators to run their own web-publishing software just the way they want to. A virtual machine is software on a device that emulates the functions of an entire computer. This allows many virtual servers to run simultaneously on one “real” server, all hidden from each other. Less hardware is required, space is conserved, and resources are shared more efficiently than with purely dedicated servers. Virtualization is already common and is spreading quite rapidly through data centers particularly because of its usefulness in cloud computing. These economics make virtual servers much less expensive to operate than racks of dedicated devices … Continue reading

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5 Tips To Improve A Restaurant Web Site

I have a pet peeve — restaurant web sites which don’t work. There is no doubt that it is hard to produce a “good” web site. “Good” means a site that gives people the information they want, entices them to visit the physical business, and doesn’t frustrate them into going away. Every business category is full of examples of bad web sites, but restaurants seem to be particularly vulnerable to the kinds of mistakes mentioned here. Why is that? There are some common factors that apply to many restaurants and conspire to create a similar outcome. Restaurants are often small businesses, mostly single-location, where the owner-operator wears many hats. There is rarely a full-time marketing person available to guide the choices, and often the web site is produced by the owner, or the owner’s friend or relative. But even if the owner hires a web design firm, the “who is the customer?” problem rears its ugly head. The web designer’s job ultimately is to make the restaurant owner happy. The owner needs a web site that will attract and keep customers. But it’s very easy for the owner to get caught up in the excitement of the new design, and approve (or request) bells and whistles that seem nifty but add nothing to the overall value of the site (I’m looking at you, auto-playing background music). One of the hardest things for a web designer to do is tell the … Continue reading

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Pro Web Hosting

This is the third in a series of blog posts about Southwest Cyberport web hosting plans.  If you missed the first one, you can view it here.  You can also read about the technical details of SWCP’s web hosting infrastructure on our companion blog.  This article will explain the Pro Plan, and what type of sites it works well for. Pro Plan Cost: $25/month Features are 2000 MB of storage, 30 GB of monthly transfer, CGI support, advanced web statistics, MySQL and web applications, 15 email boxes. Pro web hosting is for sites with heavy duty requirements, or developers seeking the flexibility to roll their own custom applications.  With 2000 MB of storage, 10 MySQL databases, 30 GB of transfer and 15 email boxes, this is the package for your busy company web site, your CMS, or your high volume e-commerce site. Most large websites today use a database as part of their design.  The Pro package offers access to up to 10 MySQL databases, MySQL being the premiere database for the web.  In addition, many web applications, such as forums, content management systems, and shopping carts require MySQL.  If your site or application requires MySQL, and is not one of the web applications offered as part of the basic package, then the Pro package is what you want. Developers choose the Pro package for access to MySQL, PHP, and CGI.  Your imagination is the limit to what you can … Continue reading

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