Web Hosting

Help choosing a Linux or Windows web hosting package

If you are unsure as to whether you should purchase a Linux or a Windows hosting package, the information below should help you decide:

• If you are using PHP, Perl, CGI or MySQL, you would require a Linux hosting package
• If you are using ASP, ASP.NET , Ajax or MS SQL you would require a Windows hosting package

Compare the web hosting features of our Linux Web hosting and our Windows Web hosting.

If you are still uncertain, this information on recommended operating systems for applications and site types should help:

• If you are using Drupal/Joomla, Magenta, Actinic, Wordpress, OSCommerce or a website using PHP to interact with MySQL, the recommended operating system for you would be Linux web hosting
• If you are using an ASP.NET application or if your website is using ASP to interact with MSSQL, the recommended operating system for you would be Windows web hosting
• If you require Microsoft ASP, ASP.NET, or Microsoft SQL Server 2005 on your website then one of the Windows web hosting packages is recommended
• If you do not require any of the above or are not sure what they are then one of the Linux Plans would be the recommended solution

Benefits of our Linux and Windows web hosting services

• Firewall protection - the server your site is located on is protected by a leading brand enterprise firewall, providing hardware level packet filtering.
• Resilience and reliability - To ensure maximum uptime for your website, we invest heavily in resilience throughout our hosting infrastructure, from network access to each server hardware component.

Features of our Linux web hosting services

• cPanel control panel - is simple to use yet with powerful features. A user friendly interface packed with useful tools and features previously limited only to more advanced users
• Script support - includes PHP 5, Perl 5 and CGI
• Fantastico De Luxe - allows you to add a gallery, blog or forum to your existing site or use these powerful scripts to create a website from scratch with little previous web design experience
• Webmail - webmail access is provided via the powerful Horde package, which gives a simple yet extensive mail interface and also provides calendaring, memos and task management
• Email forwarders/aliases - allows you to receive mail for more than one email address to a single mailbox with each account is allowed an unlimited number of email aliases
• Autoresponders - for each email account, auto-responders can be set up to send a reply when a message is received
• HTTP & FTP virus scanning - active antivirus scanning is performed on text files uploaded to all Linux web hosting accounts via HTTP and FTP 
• Email anti-virus & anti-spam - all email destined for your Linux Web hosting account, regardless of where the domain name is hosted, is passed through our virus and spam filtering clusters

Features of our Windows web hosting services

• Helm control panel - an intuitive, user-friendly control panel that helps you find your way around and perform basic admin tasks
• Livestats web statistics - a comprehensive Web marketing tool, Livestats helps you analyse your Web traffic, track campaigns and create custom reports
• Windows web hosting development tools -
  • ASP .NET v1, 2, 3 & 3.5 SP1 - Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology is a part of the Microsoft .NET framework, and a powerful tool for creating dynamic and interactive sites
  • .NET 1.1 & 2.0 - a Microsoft programming environment that enables developers to build fast, portable applications for Web sites
  • AJAX - a new and popular set of development tools, AJAX helps make interactive pages that load more quickly and efficiently

Fantastico web tools (Linux web hosting only)

Fantastico is a module within cPanel that allows users to install a variety of useful web tools and add-ons (scripts) within a few mouse clicks. With such a variety the biggest challenge is choosing, so based upon your feedback, industry reviews and our own experience, we've handpicked the 11 finest from a selection of 37.

Virus protection for email

All email destined for your Linux web hosting account, regardless of where the domain name is hosted, is passed through our virus filtering cluster. This high capacity cluster features a powerful antivirus engine which filters out potential threats before they are passed to your inbox. The antivirus engine is kept up to date using multiple antivirus signature databases which are updated multiple times every day, and contain hundreds of thousands of virus signatures.

Spam protection

In addition to virus scanning we also pass all email destined for your Linux web hosting account through a spam filtering cluster. The cluster identifies spam by matching each emails fingerprint against a matching list and, if found to be spam, rejecting it before it reaches your inbox. On average, we as a web host reject over 2 million spam emails every week before they reach our Linux web hosting customers.

Virus protection for HTTP and FTP

Active antivirus scanning is performed on all text files uploaded to our Linux web hosting servers via HTTP and FTP. The active scanning of uploaded files can help prevent exploitation of an account by malware by moving suspicious files to quarantine before they become active. In addition to utilising the same antivirus signature database as our email gateways, the breadth of exploit detection includes:

• Over 3000 known exploit script fingerprint matches
• Regular expression pattern matching to help identify unknown exploits
• Filename matching
• Suspicious file names
• Suspicious file types
• Binary executables

The system has been tuned for performance and scalability in order to ensure your Linux Web hosting service remains responsive and reliable.

SSL certificates

An SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate provides a means of communicating securely with Web customers and makes eavesdropping on your Web traffic almost impossible. You need an SSL certificate if you conduct online transactions via your Web site, if you send or receive information of a personal nature via your website or if you just wish to inspire trust in those who communicate with you via your Web site. 

For more information on SSL certificates please contact our Sales team on 0845 058 9000.