Apart from providing extraordinary hosting services, dedicated servers can offer better security for the website as well. With these enhanced security features, the website remains protected from the prying eyes of the hackers and there are less chances of the website being hacked. The dedicated servers make sure that no hacker can ever try to hack the system. The security features of these servers include a firewall that protects the safety of the website and all of the applications present on it.

The dedicated servers provide another benefit for high trafficked websites, which is of total control. They provide the administrator controls of the server to the website owner. He becomes the sole runner of all the proceedings going on the website. The dedicated servers give all the power to the website owner and enable him to make changes and include new application on the hosting server according to his liking. This control provided by the dedicated servers is not available if you have a normal web server hosting your website. The reason for this is that in such cases, other website owners are sharing the hosting servers too and no change can be made to the servers without their consultation and approval.

Perhaps the biggest advantage that the dedicated servers provide the website owners that receive high traffic is that of quick loading times. As the website owners have the sole control over the server, all of the resources of the dedicated servers are used for hosting their website. Because of this, the website loads quicker than ever and the users visiting the website do not have to wait for minutes to get the site loaded as is the case when normal web servers are used for hosting the websites.

So, if you are the owner of a website that receives massive amount of web traffic daily then hosting your website through dedicated servers is the best option available to you.

If you have a single server and its working, you might never suspect you would have a problem, but if too many people visit your server, some visitors could start getting denied access. Even worse, too much congestion can even bring a server down. With redundant servers, you can spread the load over two or more identical servers. The information across both is the same, so it does not matter which one a user gets when they access your site.

The other, perhaps more critical advantage of server redundancy is that even if one server goes down, the other one will continue to work. The more redundant servers you have, the more reliable your site will be. Generally speaking redundancy is probably not necessary for small, low-traffic sites, but for big sites that see huge volumes of regular users, it could be a life saver.

Photo Source: Flickr

Answer: MRTG stands for Multi Rounter Traffic Grapher. It is free and open source software that monitors and measures traffic on a network. It provides a graph that shows traffic load over a set period of time. Although it was originally developed to monitor routers, many web hosting companies use it to keep track of bandwidth usage.

If you are a running a dedicated server, you will find MRTG very useful. With it, you can keep track of your site(s) bandwidth usage, high traffic times, and any anomalous spikes. MRTG is a Perl application and can run on numerous platforms, including Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, and Netware.

Users can download MRTG directly from the project’s website. It is also available in most Linux software repositories, making installation quick and painless. MRTG is available under the GNU General Public License.

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons

The winning bidder was Divyank Turakhia, who paid £946,137 ($1.4 million USD) for the name. Turakhia is a technology entrepreneur who own a number of premium domains and start-ups.

As you can see, domain auctions are serious business. Most are done online, but it’s not uncommon to see the most valuable names sold at events like T.R.A.F.F.I.C.

The biggest sale was the combined auction of Blackjack.co.za and Casinos.co.za, which fetched £29,526 ($48,436 USD). Other notable sales include:
Sextoys.ca- £12,148 ($19,928 USD)
Identidad.es- £844 ($1,384 USD)
Employ.us- £3,294 ($5,404 USD)
Refrigerator.in- £898 ($1,472 USD)
AirlineTickets.co.uk- £3,037 ($4,982 USD)

Look out for TRAFFIC New York on October 26-29.

Source: Domain Name News

Each day, according to the report, a person will view 42 pages per online session, which lasts about 1.02 hours. At the end of a month, a person will have accumulated 37.21 hours of web site browsing. I can only wonder what my statistics would look like for the nights I fall asleep with my browser still open. Even more interesting is that UK users are apparently the biggest net junkies, clocking 47 web sessions and 86 domain visits per month.

The average person spends 51 seconds on a web page, just long enough to see someone fall from a bike on YouTube. In the UK, they spend only 49 seconds. The report estimates that the “Digital Media Universe” now has a population of 560,574,661. Despite the economic recession, there seems to be no reduction in the amount of pointing and clicking, something that is sure to make Internet service providers and web site owners happy.

Source: Nielsen Online
Photo: Flickr

DiamondRings.com- £141,589
Rugs.co.uk- £13,844
Vegas.cm- £13,547
Job.us-£ 22,025
Tel.fr- £4,370
Houses.co.uk- £44,574
Blog.eu- £12,585

Obviously the big sale here is DiamondRings.com for £141,589. It’s a great name, but a bit overpriced in my opinion. The owner paid about £20,000 too much for it. DiamondRings.net sold at the same auction for £ 2,657, while DiamondRings.co.uk changed hands in 2008 for only £801.

The next TRAFFIC event will be in New York on October 26-29.

Source: Domain Name News

News of the conviction of four people responsible for The Pirate Bay file-sharing site spread quickly, and the IFPI, an international affiliate of the RIAA, is now targeting web hosting providers who host file sharing web sites.

The web hosts, they argue, are accountable for content and should shut down the file sharing sites, despite the fact that the sites in question do not illegally distribute music.

The IFPI’s actions raise new questions about privacy and how involved a web hosting provider should be in the daily activities of their clients. Web hosting providers do not generally monitor their clients, unless there are specific terms of service violations or activity that would cause harm to the servers.

DCP Networks, the company responsible for providing hosting services to TorrentBytes, one of the larger BitTorrent sites, reportedly received a letter from the IFPI, requesting them to shut down the site.

IFPI lawyer Magnus Mårtensson told DN.se that the letter received by DCP Networks is not something strange or unusual. IFPI has contacted several other hosting providers and site owners Mårtensson said. What they aim to do here is extend the (yet to be appealed) verdict of “assisting copyright infringement” and apply it to hosting providers as well.

It remains to be seen whether there will be any legal basis for the IFPI claims, but their letters to web hosting providers might be enough to convince some to reject any clients with torrent tracking web sites.

Source: DN.se via Torrent Freak
Photo: Flickr

As the name implies, the focus of the expo will be ccTLDs, or country code top-level domains. Silent domain auctions will run every day June 2-June 4. The inventory has yet to be announced.

Single admission is £995 ($1,495 USD). Discounts are available for groups and families. The price is so steep because it includes various day and evening activities, such as dinners and parties. A €290 pass will be offered soon that covers the conference only.

Rick Latona Auctions is the event sponsor. The following ccTLDs will be discussed: .nl, .de, .uk, .eu. .fr, .es, .it, .cn, .jp, .kr, .ph, .in, .br, .ar, and .mx. Those looking to submit a domain for auction may do so here.

The first TRAFFIC expo was held in 2004. It is now the largest domain conference in the world, with 12 having already been held. After Amsterdam, look out for TRAFFIC New York October 26-29.

On the event’s last day, 201 domains were sold, netting £306,769 ($460,000 USD). Some notable sales include:
SteakKnives.com- £12,004
OnlineTelevision.com- £13,337
GreatFalls.com- £11,700
SiameseCats.com- £8,003

Source: The Domains