We have over 25 years of combined web experience managing web servers and providing custom web services for large companies and organizations that need strong security and the latest server hardware to support their internet presence. That being said we know what it takes to meet that goal. When you become a client we know what you need most of the time which means when you contact our trained support we have the capability to deliver.

cPanel allows the end-users to easily manage files, giving access to configurations and files only available for their domain. This is primarily used for domain/website management. Some examples of what the cPanel side of things can do are: Create Email Addresses Edit websites files through File Manager Can create FTP and sub-accounts for each cPanel account Create Addon and subdomains You can view settings and configurations from WHM (Web Host Manager) that only root can access and change the server. This helps keep the server secure and adds an additional filter, so end-users using a standard cPanel do not restart your server or make other significant changes to the server, negatively impacting it. WHM is used for server-level management that you can generally do in SSH as root. Some more examples of what you can do in WHM are as follows: Upgrade MySQL/MariaDB service Install and Manage SSL certificates easily for all users Restart or Shut Down the server Turn on and off services ----------------- Publish a website Allow your customers to choose from the most popular site builders to launch their web presence or give them the resources to build and monitor their own websites from the ground up. Create emails & calendars Give your customers the ability to stay connected with the powerful email and calendar capabilities baked into cPanel. With our software, they can launch new email accounts, create shared calendars and enjoy various levels of spam protection. Backup, transfer & manage files Securely backup and transfer all web files from within the cPanel interface or allow your customers to use the FTP controls. Manage domains Offer your tech-savvy site owners the power to manage their network of domains. Create aliases, add or remove subdomains, manage DNS zones and direct site visitors around any of your web properties. Launch databases Provide customers with the power to design custom databases using MySQL Wizard, phpMyAdmin and various other tools.

Cloudflare is on a mission to help build a better Internet. Cloudflare is one of the world’s largest networks. Today, businesses, non-profits, bloggers, and anyone with an Internet presence boast faster, more secure websites and apps thanks to Cloudflare. Cloudflare network map Millions of Internet properties are on Cloudflare, and our network is growing by tens of thousands each day. Cloudflare powers Internet requests for millions of websites and serves 50 million HTTP requests per second on average. Here’s how it works: In the early days of the Internet, when you wanted to load a website, your request would go from your computer to a server, which would then return the web page you requested. Connection Between Computer And Server If too many requests came in at once, that server could be overwhelmed and crash, becoming unresponsive to anyone trying to access the resources it hosted. Overwhelmed server This made it difficult for owners of Internet properties to provide content that was fast, safe, and reliable. Cloudflare was created to ease these difficulties and empower users with the resources to make their sites, apps, and blogs safe and performant. This is done through the use of a powerful edge network that provides content and other services as close to you as possible, so you get the information as fast as possible. Website with Cloudflare You see, Einstein figured out some time ago that the speed of light is a hard upper limit on how fast you can communicate; there comes a point when the only thing you can do is move the content and computation closer! That’s why we put data centers in more than 310 cities all across the world: to give you what you’re looking for quickly! Einstein's speed of light Cloudflare also provides security by protecting Internet properties from malicious activity like DDoS attacks, malicious bots, and other nefarious intrusions. Cloudflare protection And allows website owners to easily insert applications into their websites without needing to be a developer. Application being dropped onto a website using Cloudflare If you’re a developer, we allow you to run Javascript code on our powerful edge network, so that you can get as close to a user as possible. This eliminates delays, and improves the experience for users like you! Hello world We provide security and performance for millions of Internet properties and offer great functionality such as SSL and content distribution to every website on our network. Our services run silently in the background, keeping many of the websites and services you depend on up and running. Your Internet provider, and anyone else listening in on the Internet, can see every site you visit and every app you use — even if their content is encrypted. Cloudflare offers a free DNS service called 1.1.1.1 that you can use on any device. Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 protects your data from being analysed or used for targeting you with ads. Above all, we are mission-driven. That’s why we protect organizations working on behalf of the arts, human rights, civil society, or democracy with Project Galileo, giving them Cloudflare’s highest level of protection for free. Project Galileo The right to vote is vital to democracy, which is why we also protect official election websites from hacking and fraud through Project Athenian, also at no cost

CloudLinux is a linux based operating system designed to give shared hosting providers a more stable and secure OS. Essentially a set of kernel modifications to the Linux distribution, CloudLinux implements features to enable system administrators to take fine-grained control of their server’s resource usage. By isolating users, CloudLinux helps ensure that problems with one account don’t degrade the service for others. CloudLinux virtualizes user accounts using a feature called LVE (LightWeight Virtual Environment). Each LVE is allotted a certain amount of resources (memory, CPU, etc.) which are separated from the server’s total resources. If a particular account receives a sudden increase in traffic or begins to use a lot of CPU or memory, rather than slowing the entire server and possibly causing a failure, only that particular LVE will slow down. How Does CloudLinux Help Shared Hosting Environments? A shared hosting environment is one where hundreds of website accounts are hosted on a single server, sharing the server’s resources equally. In a typical shared hosting environment, the server admin has limited control over individual website accounts’ server resource usage. If one website account is using an unfair amount of resources (e.g. due to being under a DDoS attack, poorly written script, increase in traffic, etc.), the entire server would become slow or go down completely, affecting all other customers on the server as well. In traditional hosting, we can not set a limit for RAM, CPU, and other resource usage for a particular website account. Finding problematic websites is a time consuming job and fixing such issues sometimes requires suspension of the website accounts. This can easily lead to unsatisfied customers which can adversely affect your business. What Happens When Issues Occur in a CloudLinux Hosting Environment? In CloudLinux based shared hosting environments, once a website account reaches its limit of set resources, the site will begin to slow down. The website account consuming too many resources will temporarily stop working until resource usage returns to normal. Meanwhile, other website accounts on the server will continue to run normally. In CloudLinux hosting environments, limits are put in place to protect against abusers and bad scripts, not to restrict the normal usage of an account. Lets take a look at how CloudLinux can improve a shared hosting environment. CloudLinux Features The following is a list of features that make CloudLinux unique. A Personal Set of Server Resources for Each Customer – With the LVE technology in CloudLinux, each customer’s website account has a separate set of allocated resources. LVE ensures that these resources are not shared with any other website accounts. Stable Hosting Environments – Sudden traffic spikes from one website account will never mean downtime for any other website account or the server as a whole. Since every website account has its own allocated resources they remain protected. This keeps websites running even if a sudden spike in resource usage comes from other websites hosted on the server. Secured & Hardened Kernel – CloudLinux’s hardened kernel helps prevent malicious users from attacking other website accounts hosted on the same server. Multiple Versions of PHP – CloudLinux has a built-in feature called PHP selector. It allows end users to select the specific version of PHP they need. This allows ultimate flexibility by offering all popular versions of PHP, including more than 120 PHP extensions to choose from. CloudLinux packages PHP versions 4.4, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, and 5.6. The convenient UI lets customers switch between versions, select extensions, and adjust PHP settings as needed. Stable Mysql Database Performance – MySQL often becomes a major headache for system admins in shared hosting environments. Keeping MySQL stable can be difficult, and customer queries can easily slow everything down. The MySQL Governor feature of CloudLinux helps system admins pinpoint abusers and throttle them in real time. It tracks CPU and disk IO usage for every website account in real time and reduces MySQL queries by using same-per-user LVE limits. With support for the latest versions of MySQL and MariaDB, it is a must-have for any shared hosting provider. In Closing With all its features and advanced technologies, CloudLinux makes maintaining and stabilizing a shared hosting environment easier. This means less time and money spent on resolving frequent resource usage issues and fewer headaches for both hosting providers and their customers. With CloudLinux, your websites remain stable, your servers stay secure, and your clients stay happy.

Litespeed is a popular web server offering high scalability, security, and load balancing. It also provides built-in anti-DDoS capabilities and allows per-IP connections and bandwidth throttling. This article discusses what is Litespeed Web Server as well as its features and use cases.

Simply put, Domain Name System (DNS) is the phone book of the internet. It’s the system that converts website domain names (hostnames) into numerical values (IP address) so they can be found and loaded into your web browser.

A distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack is a malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic. DDoS attacks achieve effectiveness by utilizing multiple compromised computer systems as sources of attack traffic. Exploited machines can include computers and other networked resources such as IoT devices. From a high level, a DDoS attack is like an unexpected traffic jam clogging up the highway, preventing regular traffic from arriving at its destination. DDoS attack traffic metaphor How does a DDoS attack work? DDoS attacks are carried out with networks of Internet-connected machines. These networks consist of computers and other devices (such as IoT devices)which have been infected with malware, allowing them to be controlled remotely by an attacker. These individual devices are referred to as bots (or zombies), and a group of bots is called a botnet. Once a botnet has been established, the attacker is able to direct an attack by sending remote instructions to each bot. When a victim’s server or network is targeted by the botnet, each bot sends requests to the target’s IP address, potentially causing the server or network to become overwhelmed, resulting in a denial-of-service to normal traffic. Because each bot is a legitimate Internet device, separating the attack traffic from normal traffic can be difficult. How to identify a DDoS attack The most obvious symptom of a DDoS attack is a site or service suddenly becoming slow or unavailable. But since a number of causes — such a legitimate spike in traffic — can create similar performance issues, further investigation is usually required. Traffic analytics tools can help you spot some of these telltale signs of a DDoS attack: Suspicious amounts of traffic originating from a single IP address or IP range A flood of traffic from users who share a single behavioral profile, such as device type, geolocation, or web browser version An unexplained surge in requests to a single page or endpoint Odd traffic patterns such as spikes at odd hours of the day or patterns that appear to be unnatural (e.g. a spike every 10 minutes) There are other, more specific signs of DDoS attack that can vary depending on the type of attack. What are some common types of DDoS attacks? Different types of DDoS attacks target varying components of a network connection. In order to understand how different DDoS attacks work, it is necessary to know how a network connection is made. A network connection on the Internet is composed of many different components or “layers”. Like building a house from the ground up, each layer in the model has a different purpose. The OSI model, shown below, is a conceptual framework used to describe network connectivity in 7 distinct layers. The OSI model 7 layers: application, presentation, session, transport, network, data link, physical While nearly all DDoS attacks involve overwhelming a target device or network with traffic, attacks can be divided into three categories. An attacker may use one or more different attack vectors, or cycle attack vectors in response to counter measures taken by the target. Application layer attacks The goal of the attack: Sometimes referred to as a layer 7 DDoS attack (in reference to the 7th layer of the OSI model), the goal of these attacks is to exhaust the target’s resources to create a denial-of-service. The attacks target the layer where web pages are generated on the server and delivered in response to HTTP requests. A single HTTP request is computationally cheap to execute on the client side, but it can be expensive for the target server to respond to, as the server often loads multiple files and runs database queries in order to create a web page. Layer 7 attacks are difficult to defend against, since it can be hard to differentiate malicious traffic from legitimate traffic. Application layer attack example: HTTP flood DDoS attack: multiple bot HTTP GET requests to victim HTTP flood This attack is similar to pressing refresh in a web browser over and over on many different computers at once – large numbers of HTTP requests flood the server, resulting in denial-of-service. This type of attack ranges from simple to complex. Simpler implementations may access one URL with the same range of attacking IP addresses, referrers and user agents. Complex versions may use a large number of attacking IP addresses, and target random urls using random referrers and user agents. Protocol attacks The goal of the attack: Protocol attacks, also known as a state-exhaustion attacks, cause a service disruption by over-consuming server resources and/or the resources of network equipment like firewalls and load balancers. Protocol attacks utilize weaknesses in layer 3 and layer 4 of the protocol stack to render the target inaccessible. Protocol attack example: Protocol DDoS attack example: SYN flood: spoofed SYN packets SYN flood A SYN Flood is analogous to a worker in a supply room receiving requests from the front of the store. The worker receives a request, goes and gets the package, and waits for confirmation before bringing the package out front. The worker then gets many more package requests without confirmation until they can’t carry any more packages, become overwhelmed, and requests start going unanswered. This attack exploits the TCP handshake — the sequence of communications by which two computers initiate a network connection — by sending a target a large number of TCP “Initial Connection Request” SYN packets with spoofed source IP addresses. The target machine responds to each connection request and then waits for the final step in the handshake, which never occurs, exhausting the target’s resources in the process. Volumetric attacks The goal of the attack: This category of attacks attempts to create congestion by consuming all available bandwidth between the target and the larger Internet. Large amounts of data are sent to a target by using a form of amplification or another means of creating massive traffic, such as requests from a botnet. Amplification example: Amplification DDoS attack example: DNS amplification: spoofed DNS requests DNS Amplification A DNS amplification is like if someone were to call a restaurant and say “I’ll have one of everything, please call me back and repeat my whole order,” where the callback number actually belongs to the victim. With very little effort, a long response is generated and sent to the victim. By making a request to an open DNS server with a spoofed IP address (the IP address of the victim), the target IP address then receives a response from the server. What is the process for mitigating a DDoS attack? The key concern in mitigating a DDoS attack is differentiating between attack traffic and normal traffic. For example, if a product release has a company’s website swamped with eager customers, cutting off all traffic is a mistake. If that company suddenly has a surge in traffic from known attackers, efforts to alleviate an attack are probably necessary. The difficulty lies in telling the real customers apart from the attack traffic. In the modern Internet, DDoS traffic comes in many forms. The traffic can vary in design from un-spoofed single source attacks to complex and adaptive multi-vector attacks. A multi-vector DDoS attack uses multiple attack pathways in order to overwhelm a target in different ways, potentially distracting mitigation efforts on any one trajectory. An attack that targets multiple layers of the protocol stack at the same time, such as a DNS amplification (targeting layers 3/4) coupled with an HTTP flood (targeting layer 7) is an example of multi-vector DDoS. Mitigating a multi-vector DDoS attack requires a variety of strategies in order to counter different trajectories. Generally speaking, the more complex the attack, the more likely it is that the attack traffic will be difficult to separate from normal traffic - the goal of the attacker is to blend in as much as possible, making mitigation efforts as inefficient as possible. Mitigation attempts that involve dropping or limiting traffic indiscriminately may throw good traffic out with the bad, and the attack may also modify and adapt to circumvent countermeasures. In order to overcome a complex attempt at disruption, a layered solution will give the greatest benefit. Blackhole routing One solution available to virtually all network admins is to create a blackhole route and funnel traffic into that route. In its simplest form, when blackhole filtering is implemented without specific restriction criteria, both legitimate and malicious network traffic is routed to a null route, or blackhole, and dropped from the network. If an Internet property is experiencing a DDoS attack, the property’s Internet service provider (ISP) may send all the site’s traffic into a blackhole as a defense. This is not an ideal solution, as it effectively gives the attacker their desired goal: it makes the network inaccessible. Rate limiting Limiting the number of requests a server will accept over a certain time window is also a way of mitigating denial-of-service attacks. While rate limiting is useful in slowing web scrapers from stealing content and for mitigating brute force login attempts, it alone will likely be insufficient to handle a complex DDoS attack effectively. Nevertheless, rate limiting is a useful component in an effective DDoS mitigation strategy. Learn about Cloudflare's rate limiting Web application firewall A Web Application Firewall (WAF) is a tool that can assist in mitigating a layer 7 DDoS attack. By putting a WAF between the Internet and an origin server, the WAF may act as a reverse proxy, protecting the targeted server from certain types of malicious traffic. By filtering requests based on a series of rules used to identify DDoS tools, layer 7 attacks can be impeded. One key value of an effective WAF is the ability to quickly implement custom rules in response to an attack. Learn about Cloudflare's WAF. Anycast network diffusion This mitigation approach uses an Anycast network to scatter the attack traffic across a network of distributed servers to the point where the traffic is absorbed by the network. Like channeling a rushing river down separate smaller channels, this approach spreads the impact of the distributed attack traffic to the point where it becomes manageable, diffusing any disruptive capability. The reliability of an Anycast network to mitigate a DDoS attack is dependent on the size of the attack and the size and efficiency of the network. An important part of the DDoS mitigation implemented by Cloudflare is the use of an Anycast distributed network. Cloudflare has a 228 Tbps network, which is an order of magnitude greater than the largest DDoS attack recorded. If you are currently under attack, there are steps you can take to get out from under the pressure. If you are on Cloudflare already, you can follow these steps to mitigate your attack. The DDoS protection that we implement at Cloudflare is multifaceted in order to mitigate the many possible attack vectors. Learn more about Cloudflare's DDoS protection and how it works.

To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer - a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn't have one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit partnership of people from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers. ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. What is the domain name system? The domain name system, or DNS, is a system designed to make the Internet accessible to human beings. The main way computers that make up the Internet find one another is through a series of numbers, with each number (called an “IP address”) correlating to a different device. However it is difficult for the human mind to remember long lists of numbers so the DNS uses letters rather than numbers, and then links a precise series of letters with a precise series of numbers. The end result is that ICANN’s website can be found at “icann.org” rather than “192.0.32.7” – which is how computers on the network know it. One advantage to this system – apart from making the network much easier to use for people – is that a particular domain name does not have to be tied to one particular computer because the link between a particular domain and a particular IP address can be changed quickly and easily. This change will then be recognised by the entire Internet within 48 hours thanks to the constantly updating DNS infrastructure. The result is an extremely flexible system. A domain name itself comprises two elements: before and after “the dot”. The part to the right of the dot, such as “com”, “net”, “org” and so on, is known as a “top-level domain” or TLD. One company in each case (called a registry), is in charge of all domains ending with that particular TLD and has access to a full list of domains directly under that name, as well as the IP addresses with which those names are associated. The part before the dot is the domain name that you register and which is then used to provide online systems such as websites, email and so on. These domains are sold by a large number of “registrars”, free to charge whatever they wish, although in each case they pay a set per-domain fee to the particular registry under whose name the domain is being registered. ICANN draws up contracts with each registry*. It also runs an accreditation system for registrars. It is these contracts that provide a consistent and stable environment for the domain name system, and hence the Internet. In summary then, the DNS provides an addressing system for the Internet so people can find particular websites. It is also the basis for email and many other online uses. What does ICANN have to do with IP addresses? ICANN plays a similar administrative role with the IP addresses used by computers as it does with the domain names used by humans. In the same way that you cannot have two domain names the same (otherwise you never know where you would end up), for the same reason it is also not possible for there to be two IP addresses the same. Again, ICANN does not run the system, but it does help co-ordinate how IP addresses are supplied to avoid repetition or clashes. ICANN is also the central repository for IP addresses, from which ranges are supplied to regional registries who in turn distribute them to network providers. What about root servers? Root servers are a different case again. There are 13 root servers – or, more accurately, there are 13 IP addresses on the Internet where root servers can be found (the servers that have one of the 13 IP addresses can be in dozens of different physical locations). These servers all store a copy of the same file which acts as the main index to the Internet’s address books. It lists an address for each top-level domain (.com, .de, etc) where that registry’s own address book can be found. In reality, the root servers are consulted fairly infrequently (considering the size of the Internet) because once computers on the network know the address of a particular top-level domain they retain it, checking back only occasionally to make sure the address hasn’t changed. Nonetheless, the root servers remain vital for the Internet’s smooth functioning. The operators of the root servers remain largely autonomous, but at the same time work with one another and with ICANN to make sure the system stays up-to-date with the Internet’s advances and changes. What is ICANN’s role? As mentioned earlier, ICANN’s role is to oversee the huge and complex interconnected network of unique identifiers that allow computers on the Internet to find one another. This is commonly termed “universal resolvability” and means that wherever you are on the network – and hence the world – that you receive the same predictable results when you access the network. Without this, you could end up with an Internet that worked entirely differently depending on your location on the globe. How is ICANN structured? ICANN is made up of a number of different groups, each of which represent a different interest on the Internet and all of which contribute to any final decisions that ICANN’s makes. There are three “supporting organisations” that represent: The organisations that deal with IP addresses The organisations that deal with domain names The managers of country code top-level domains (a special exception as explained at the bottom). Then there are four “advisory committees” that provide ICANN with advice and recommendations. These represent: Governments and international treaty organisations Root server operators Those concerned with the Internet’s security The “at large” community, meaning average Internet users. And finally, there is a Technical Liaison Group, which works with the organisations that devise the basic protocols for Internet technologies. ICANN’s final decisions are made by a Board of Directors. The Board is made up of 21 members: 15 of which have voting rights and six are non-voting liaisons. The majority of the voting members (eight of them) are chosen by an independent Nominating Committee and the remainder are nominated members from supporting organisations. ICANN then has a President and CEO who is also a Board member and who directs the work of ICANN staff, who are based across the globe and help co-ordinate, manage and finally implement all the different discussions and decisions made by the supporting organisations and advisory committees. An ICANN Ombudsman acts as an independent reviewer of the work of the ICANN staff and Board. How does ICANN make decisions? When it comes to making technical changes to the Internet, here is a simplified rundown of the process: Any issue of concern or suggested changes to the existing network is typically raised within one of the supporting organisations (often following a report by one of the advisory committees), where it is discussed and a report produced which is then put out for public review. If the suggested changes impact on any other group within ICANN’s system, that group also reviews the suggested changes and makes its views known. The result is then put out for public review a second time. At the end of that process, the ICANN Board is provided with a report outlining all the previous discussions and with a list of recommendations. The Board then discusses the matter and either approves the changes, approves some and rejects others, rejects all of them, or sends the issue back down to one of the supporting organisations to review, often with an explanation as to what the problems are that need to be resolved before it can be approved. The process is then rerun until all the different parts of ICANN can agree a compromise or the Board of Directors make a decision on a report it is presented with. How is ICANN held accountable? ICANN has external as well as internal accountabilities. Externally, ICANN is an organisation incorporated under the law of the State of California in the United States. That means ICANN must abide by the laws of the United States and can be called to account by the judicial system i.e. ICANN can be taken to court. ICANN is also a non-profit public benefit corporation and its directors are legally responsible for upholding their duties under corporation law. Internally, ICANN is accountable to the community through: Its bylaws The representative composition of the ICANN Board from across the globe An independent Nominating Committee that selects a majority of the voting Board members Senior staff who must be elected annually by the Board Three different dispute resolution procedures (Board reconsideration committee; Independent Review Panel; Ombudsman) The full range of ICANN's accountability and transparency frameworks and principles are available online. * There is an important exception to this in the form of “country code top-level domains” (ccTLDs) such as .de for Germany or .uk for the United Kingdom. There are over 250 ccTLDs, some of which have a contract with ICANN; others of which have signed working agreements with ICANN; and some of which have yet to enter any formal agreement with ICANN. ICANN however does carry out what is known as the “IANA function” in which every ccTLD’s main address is listed so the rest of the Internet can find it. ICANN is also in the position where it can add new TLDs to the wider system, as it did in 2000 and 2004 when seven and six new TLDs respectively were “added to the root”.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer, a global standard security technology that enables encrypted communication between a web browser and a web server. It is utilized by millions1 of online businesses and individuals to decrease the risk of sensitive information (e.g., credit card numbers, usernames, passwords, emails, etc.) from being stolen or tampered with by hackers and identity thieves. In essence, SSL allows for a private “conversation” just between the two intended parties. To create this secure connection, an SSL certificate (also referred to as a “digital certificate”) is installed on a web server and serves two functions: It authenticates the identity of the website (this guarantees visitors that they’re not on a bogus site) It encrypts the data that’s being transmitted

Softaculous is an auto-script installer that allows its users to install and configure a wide variety of commercial and open-source apps via scripts and PHP classes. This installer supports multiple control panels (including cPanel, Plesk, and DirectAdmin) and it can also take up installs of other auto-installers.

A virtual private server, also known as a VPS, acts as an isolated, virtual environment on a physical server, which is owned and operated by a cloud or web hosting provider. VPS hosting uses virtualization technology to split a single physical machine into multiple private server environments that share the resources.

It's a complete cloud deployment and management platform that's designed to make it easy for service providers to sell a wide range of cloud services. 1337 Mushroom Cloud can also be used by enterprise IT departments and MSPs to deliver cloud services to end users. It's a front and back end management system to proportion actual cloud Linux and Microsoft containers on full stack inside platform with hypervisors, a massive SAN and full automated fail over and self healing backup system that is automated.

TeamSpeak (TS) is a proprietary voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) application for audio communication between users on a chat channel, much like a telephone conference call. Users typically use headphones with a microphone. The client software connects to a TeamSpeak server of the user's choice, from which the user may join chat channels. The target audience for TeamSpeak is gamers, who can use the software to communicate with other players on the same team of a multiplayer video game.

Ventrilo (or Vent for short) is a proprietary VoIP software that includes text chat. The Ventrilo client and server are both available as freeware for use with up to 8 people on the same server. Rented servers can maintain up to 400 people.[2] The Ventrilo server is available under a limited license for Microsoft Windows and macOS and is accessible on FreeBSD Kopi, Solaris and NetBSD. The client is available for Windows and macOS.[3] However, the macOS client is still unable to properly use most servers because of a lack of support for the sparsely used GSM codec. Flagship Industries does not offer a Linux Ventrilo client.[4] Third party Ventrilo clients are available for mobile devices, such as Ventrilode for iPhone[5] and Ventriloid for Android.[6] Ventrilo supports the GSM Full Rate codec[citation needed] and used to support the Speex codec, which Ventrilo 4.0.0 replaced with the Opus codec.

Dedicated server hosting essentially means that your website has its own server all to itself. It offers immense power and flexibility, but usually comes at a premium. As such, it’s important to do your research before opting to purchase this type of plan.

Reseller hosting is a type of web hosting service that lets you buy hosting resources from a hosting provider and resell them to your own customers. A reseller acts as a middleman between the hosting provider and the end users.

Shared hosting is a type of web hosting where a single physical server hosts multiple sites. Many users utilize the resources on a single server, which keeps the costs low. Users each get a section of a server in which they can host their website files.

Config Server Firewall (or CSF) is a free and advanced firewall for most Linux distributions and Linux based VPS. In addition to the basic functionality of a firewall – filtering packets – CSF includes other security features, such as login/intrusion/flood detections.

OpenVZ (Open Virtuozzo) is an operating-system-level virtualization technology for Linux. It allows a physical server to run multiple isolated operating system instances, called containers, virtual private servers (VPSs), or virtual environments (VEs). OpenVZ is similar to Solaris Containers and LXC.

Solus Virtual Manager (SolusVM) is a powerful GUI-based VPS management system which allows you to monitor your VPS status and change basic settings. It allows you to modify server resources live and segment large servers into individual containers.

MySQL is a relational database management system The database structure is organized into physical files optimized for speed. The logical data model, with objects such as data tables, views, rows, and columns, offers a flexible programming environment.

Virtualization is a process that allows for more efficient utilization of physical computer hardware and is the foundation of cloud computing.

A hypervisor is software that creates and runs virtual machines (VMs). A hypervisor, sometimes called a virtual machine monitor (VMM), isolates the hypervisor operating system and resources from the virtual machines and enables the creation and management of those VMs. The physical hardware, when used as a hypervisor, is called the host, while the many VMs that use its resources are guests. The hypervisor treats resources—like CPU, memory, and storage—as a pool that can be easily reallocated between existing guests or to new virtual machines. All hypervisors need some operating system-level components—such as a memory manager, process scheduler, input/output (I/O) stack, device drivers, security manager, a network stack, and more—to run VMs. The hypervisor gives each virtual machine the resources that have been allocated and manages the scheduling of VM resources against the physical resources. The physical hardware still does the execution, so CPU is still executing CPU instructions as requested by the VMs, for example, while the hypervisor manages the schedule. Multiple different operating systems can run alongside each other and share the same virtualized hardware resources with a hypervisor. This is a key benefit of virtualization. Without virtualization, you can only run 1 operating system on the hardware. There are many choices for hypervisors from traditional vendors and open source. VMware is a popular choice for virtualization, and offers the ESXi hypervisor and vSphere virtualization platform. Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) is an open source option and is built into the Linux® kernel. Additional options include Xen, which is open source, and Microsoft Hyper-V.

A Storage Area Network (SAN) is a specialized, high-speed network that provides network access to storage devices. SANs are typically composed of hosts, switches, storage elements, and storage devices that are interconnected using a variety of technologies, topologies, and protocols. SANs may span multiple sites. A SAN presents storage devices to a host such that the storage appears to be locally attached. This simplified presentation of storage to a host is accomplished through the use of different types of virtualization. Figure 1-2 SANs are often used to: Improve application availability (e.g., multiple data paths), Enhance application performance (e.g., off-load storage functions, segregate or zone networks, etc.), Increase storage utilization and effectiveness (e.g., consolidate storage resources, provide tiered storage, etc.), and improve data protection and security. SANs perform an important role in an organization's Business Continuity Management (BCM) activities (e.g., by spanning multiple sites). SANs are commonly based on a switched fabric technology. Examples include Fibre Channel (FC), Ethernet, and InfiniBand. Gateways may be used to move data between different SAN technologies. Fibre Channel is commonly used in enterprise environments. Fibre Channel may be used to transport SCSI, NVMe, FICON, and other protocols. Ethernet is commonly used in small and medium sized organizations. Ethernet infrastructure can be used for SANs to converge storage and IP protocols onto the same network. Ethernet may be used to transport SCSI, FCoE, NVMe, RDMA, and other protocols. InfiniBand is commonly used in high performance computing environments. InfiniBand may be used to transport SRP, NVMe, RDMA, and other protocols.

Data privacy, sometimes also referred to as information privacy, is an area of data protection that concerns the proper handling of sensitive data including, notably, personal data[1] but also other confidential data, such as certain financial data and intellectual property data, to meet regulatory requirements as well as protecting the confidentiality and immutability of the data. Roughly speaking, data protection spans three broad categories, namely, traditional data protection (such as backup and restore copies), data security, and data privacy as shown in the Figure below. Ensuring the privacy of sensitive and personal data can be considered an outcome of best practice in data protection and security with the overall goal of achieving the continual availability and immutability of critical business data. Please note that the term data privacy contains what the European Union (EU) refers to as “data protection.”

Since 2008, when Satoshi Nakamoto’s White Paper was published and Bitcoin emerged, we have been learning about a new solution using a decentralized ledger and one of its applications: Blockchain. So, what is Blockchain and when do we use it? Wikipedia defines Blockchain as follows: A blockchain, originally block chain, is a growing list of records, called blocks, that are linked using cryptography. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data (generally represented as a Merkle tree). … and, as they say, “the rest is the history.” Fig 1. Blockchain and how it’s all connected Fig 2. Merkele Tree There are certain drawbacks which are significant in today’s applications for Blockchain solutions: Reliability Interoperability Data Accuracy Latency Let’s review these. Reliability There is a consistent issue in solutions today. In most cases, they are not scalable and cannot be adopted by the industry in their current format. Teams developing solutions need financial backing and support, and when the backing stops, the chain disappears even if technically it was a great solution. We aren’t even touching on certain solutions that, upon analyzing the underlying technical approach, are not viable for the industry overall. But their intentions are good, and there is such a thing as trial and error, so we are still learning what would be a good approach to blockchain solutions. Interoperability Interoperability is one of the major obstacles since the vast majority are chains with no interface to work across different chains, and that basically makes it an internal company product or a solution. You cannot use these in real-world applications if you want to create an exchange of data and information. Granted that there are some nascent solutions which try to address this problem, and I know that our group will analyze and work with these companies and teams to see if we can create an exchange of best practices. Data Accuracy When it comes to data in the blockchain the true or false relies on the immutability property of blockchain as a data storage. Having an improved storage medium which prevents careless or malicious actions to make them visible and proven the authenticity of the data will allow to remove false data and flag attempts for chain to be corrupted. Latency Latency is another aspect which is hindering adoption today. Regular transactions using databases and code are currently faster than utilization of the blockchain. This is an outlook on how Blockchain Architecture supporting interoperability will look like:

A solid-state drive (SSD) is a device for storing data on non-volatile memory. SSDs have no moving parts and are known to be smaller, more reliable, often have lower power consumption, and have typically have much higher input/output performance than hard disk drives (HDDs). The overwhelming majority of SSDs today use NAND flash as the non-volatile memory to store data. NAND memory is stacked into packages and connected to a controller across various channels to improve performance. SSDs come in multiple capacities, media types, interfaces, form factors, and segments to address the large market for data storage.

The SNIA dictionary defines iSCSI (Internet Small Computer Systems Interface) as a transport protocol that provides for the SCSI block protocol to be carried over a TCP-based IP network, standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force and described in RFC 7143 and RFC 7144. iSCSI, like Fibre Channel, can be used to create a Storage Area Network (SAN). iSCSI traffic can be run over a shared network or a network dedicated to storage. However, iSCSI does not support file access Network Attached Storage (NAS) or object storage access (they use different transport protocols). There are multiple transports that can be used for iSCSI. The most common is TCP/IP over Ethernet, but Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) can also be used with iSER, which is iSCSI Extensions for RDMA. If using iSER, the transport is RoCE or InfiniBand and the underlying network is Ethernet (for RoCE) or InfiniBand (for InfiniBand transport). iSCSI is supported by all major operating systems and hypervisors and can run on standard network cards or specialized network cards (see TOE below). It is also supported by almost all enterprise storage arrays. For these reasons it has been popular for so-called “Tier 2” applications that require good, but not the best, block storage performance, and for storage that is shared by many hosts. It also is very popular among hyperscalers and large cloud service providers when they need a block storage solution that runs over Ethernet.

Fibre Channel is a high-speed data transfer technology that is designed to connect general purpose computers, mainframes, and supercomputers to storage devices. Fibre Channel provides in-order, lossless delivery of block data. The technology connects devices using fabric (Fibre Channel switch) topologies and point-to-point topologies. A storage area network (SAN) is a dedicated network used for storage connectivity between host servers and shared storage - typically shared arrays that deliver block-level data storage. Fibre Channel SANs are often deployed for low latency applications best suited to block-based storage, such as databases used for high-speed online transactional processing (OLTP), such as those found in banking, online ticketing, and virtual environments. Fibre Channel typically runs on optical fiber cables within and between data centers but can also run on copper cabling. Fibre Channel fabrics can be extended over distance for Disaster Recovery and Business Continuance. Most SANs are designed with redundant fabrics. Begun in 1988, the Fibre Channel technology is standardized in the Fibre Channel (T11) Technical Committee of the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), an American National Standards Institute (ANSI)-accredited standards committee. The Fibre Channel Physical and Signaling Interface (FC-PH) standard was first published in 1994. This has been superseded by Fibre Channel Physical Interface (FC-PI) series of standards and Fibre Channel Framing and Signaling (FC-FS) series of standards.

NVMe™ is the most common host controller interface for systems using PCI Express (PCIe) based devices. With the participation of over 120 member companies, NVM Express® is the organization that authors the NVMe specifications. While NVMe was architected from the ground up for PCIe Solid State Drives (SSDs) to be efficient, scalable, and manageable, it has grown to include support for Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) and Key Value (KV) storage devices. The first NVMe specification was published in 2011. Since then, there have been many NVMe specifications published with multiple revisions each: NVMe Base Specification, NVMe Management Interface (NVMe-MI™), NVMe Command Set Specification, NVMe Zoned Block Device Command Set Specification, NVMe Key Value Command Set Specification, along with transport specifications for each supported transport. The NVM Express Base specification defines an interface that provides optimized command submission and completion paths. The interface supports parallel operations with up to 64k I/O Queues and up to 64k outstanding commands per I/O Queue. The interface scales for multi-core CPUs, with a minimum of clock cycles needed for each I/O operation. The specification also includes end-to-end data protection, enhanced error reporting, and virtualization support. The NVM Express Management Interface is the command set for in-band and out-of-band management of NVMe storage systems. These management functions include, but are not limited to, discovering, monitoring, and updating firmware on NVMe devices. NVMe-MI provides an industry-standard way to manage NVMe drives and devices. The NVMe-oF protocol enables NVMe commands to be transmitted over RDMA, Fibre Channel, and TCP. NVMe-oF extends the NVMe deployment from local host to remote host(s) for a scale-out NVMe storage system. The NVMe-oF protocol is defined in the NVMe RDMA Transport specification, the NVMe Transport Specification and the INCITS T11 FC-NVMe family of standards. The Native NVMe over Fabrics Drive Specification defines methods to connect a Native NVMe-oF device directly to an ethernet infrastructure that enables NVMe commands to be transmitted over NVMe-RDMA or NVMe-TCP. These specifications are continuously evolving to new revisions to provide more features and functionalities to support increasing demand for NVMe based storage solutions.

Object Storage is a method of storing and subsequently retrieving sets of data as collections of single, uniquely identifiable indivisible items or objects. It applies to any forms of data that can be wrapped up and managed as an object. Objects are treated as an atomic unit. There is no structure corresponding to a hierarchy of directories in a file system; each object is uniquely identified in the system by a unique object identifier. When you create an object on this type of storage, the entire set of data is handled and processed without regard to what sub-parts it may have. When reading from object storage, you can read either the whole object, or ask to read parts of it. There is often no capability to update to the object or parts of the object; the entire object is usually required to be re-written. Most object storage allows for objects to be deleted. Object storage often supports meta-data. This is data that is part of the object, but that is in addition to the object ID and the data. It is often expressed as an attribute-value pair; for instance, an attribute of COLOR in our collection of objects may have the value RED for some objects and BLUE for others. These permit collections of objects, individually addressable by their object ID, to be searched, filtered and read in groups without needing to know the specific object IDs. What objects contain is not important to the storage system. They can be simple sets of data, files, entire file systems, videos, virtual machines or containers, databases, the list is endless, since the storage system simply sees and manages the object as an object ID that is associated with a chunk of data.

Linear Tape File System (LTFS) provides an industry standard format for recording data on modern magnetic tape. LTFS is a file system that allows files stored on magnetic tape to be accessed in a similar fashion to those on disk or removable flash drives. LTFS refers to both the format of data recorded on magnetic tape media and the implementation of specific software that uses this data format to provide a file system interface to data stored on magnetic tape. Magnetic tape data storage has been used for over 50 years, but typically did not hold file metadata in a form easy to access or modify independent of the file content data. Often external databases were used to maintain file metadata (file names, timestamps, directory hierarchy) to hold this data but these external databases were generally not designed for interoperability and tapes might or might not contain an index of their content. The standard is based around a self-describing tape format originally developed by IBM.

Persistent Memory is non-volatile, byte addressable, low latency memory with densities greater than or equal to Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM). It is beneficial because it can dramatically increase system performance and enable a fundamental change in computing architecture. Applications, middleware, and operating systems are no longer bound by file system overhead in order to run persistent transactions.

Ransomware is a malware attack that uses a variety of methods to prevent or limit an organization or individual from accessing their IT systems and data, either by locking the system's screen, or by encrypting files until a ransom is paid, usually in cryptocurrency for reasons of anonymity. By encrypting these files and demanding a ransom payment for the decryption key, the malware places organizations in a position where paying the ransom is the easiest and most cost-effective way to regain access to their files. It should be noted, however, that paying the ransom does not guarantee that users will get the decryption key required to regain access to the infected system or files. In some instances, the perpetrators may steal an organization’s information and demand an additional payment in return for not disclosing the information to authorities, competitors or the public, something that would inflict reputational damage to the organization. The cybercriminals who commit ransomware cybercrimes are now becoming so proficient at what they do that they use artificial intelligence in analyzing the victim’s environment to ensure that recovering files is extremely difficult if not impossible. Additionally, cybercriminals are offering RaaS (ransomware-as-a-service) to organized crime and government agencies to help them launch an attack while they reap the benefits. That may explain why large organizations, which theoretically have large sums of money to pay ransoms, are currently more likely to be targeted than individuals. However, the landscape is changing, and ransomware is no longer just about a financial ransom with attacks being aimed at public services, utilities and infrastructure undermining public confidence.

Storage security is a specialty area of security that is concerned with securing data storage systems and ecosystems and the data that resides on these systems. Storage security represents the convergence of the storage, networking, and security disciplines, technologies, and methodologies for the purpose of protecting and securing digital assets. Storage security is mainly focused on the physical, technical and administrative controls, as well as the preventive, detective and corrective controls associated with storage systems and infrastructure. Ensuring adequate confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data stored and accessed on current and emerging storage technologies requires a concerted effort within this layer of ICT (Information and communications technology). Many security efforts will focus on: Protecting storage management (operations and interfaces), data backup and recovery resources Ensuring adequate credential and trust management Data in motion, rest, and availability protection Disaster recovery and Business continuity support Proper sanitization and disposal Secure autonomous data movement and secure multi-tenancy Storage Security Risk Storage security risk is created by an organization’s use of specific storage systems or infrastructures. Storage security risk arises from threats targeting the information handled by the storage systems and infrastructure, vulnerabilities (both technical and non-technical) and the impact of successful exploitation of vulnerabilities by threats. Risk management is a key concept in information security and its process can be applied to the organization as a whole, any discrete part of the organization (e.g. a department, a physical location, a service), any information system, existing or planned or particular aspects of control (e.g. Business Continuity planning). This process consists of context establishment, risk assessment, risk treatment, risk acceptance, risk communication, and risk monitoring and review. Threats for storage systems and infrastructure include things like: Unauthorized usage and access Liability due to regulatory non-compliance Corruption, modification, and destruction of data Data leakage and/or breaches Theft or accidental loss of media Malware attack Improper treatment or sanitization after end-of-use These threats can give rise to a wide assortment of risks. However, for storage systems and infrastructure the risks associated with data breaches, data corruption or destruction, temporary or permanent loss of access/availability, and failure to meet statutory, regulatory, or legal requirements are the major concerns. Data Breaches A data breach can be one of the results of a security compromise and it can take many forms. Unauthorized access or disclosure of protected information are two commonly recognized forms of data breaches, but it is important to understand that lesser known forms can include accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, or alteration of data. Depending on the volume and type of information involved (e.g., personally identifiable information, protected health information, etc.) and the applicable laws and regulations, a data breach can expose the organization to significant risk arising from costs involved in investigating the data breach, making requisite notifications to affected individuals, litigation expenses, regulatory fines and other legal penalties as well as brand damage accruing from the public disclosure of the data breach. There are economic and security risks to the entity that has lost their or others’ secured information. Untrusted or unauthorized entities seeking this leaked or spilled information can be of a broad range of sources, be well funded and have diverse motivations.

Malware is usually distributed through malicious websites, emails, and software. Malware can also be hidden in other files, such as image or document files, or even in seemingly innocuous files, such as .exe files. Users can unintentionally install malware when they click on a link in a phishing email, or when they download and install software from a website that is not reputable. Malware can also be installed on a computer when the user plugs in an infected USB drive, or when the user visits a website that is infected with malware. There are many different ways that malware can infect your PC. One common way is through infected files that you download from the Internet. Malicious code can be hidden in all kinds of files, including videos, pictures, and software. When you open these files on your PC, the malware can infect your system and cause damage. Another common way that malware can infect your PC is through malicious websites. If you visit a website that is infected with malware, the malware can automatically download and install itself on your PC without your knowledge. In addition, malware can also be spread through email attachments. If you open an email attachment that is infected with malware, the malware can install itself on your PC and cause damage.

PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. Instead of lots of commands to output HTML (as seen in C or Perl), PHP pages contain HTML with embedded code that does "something" (in this case, output "Hi, I'm a PHP script!"). The PHP code is enclosed in special start and end processing instructions <?php and ?> that allow you to jump into and out of "PHP mode." What distinguishes PHP from something like client-side JavaScript is that the code is executed on the server, generating HTML which is then sent to the client. The client would receive the results of running that script, but would not know what the underlying code was. You can even configure your web server to process all your HTML files with PHP, and then there's really no way that users can tell what you have up your sleeve. The best part about using PHP is that it is extremely simple for a newcomer, but offers many advanced features for a professional programmer. Don't be afraid to read the long list of PHP's features. You can jump in, in a short time, and start writing simple scripts in a few hours.

Python is an interpreted, object-oriented, high-level programming language with dynamic semantics. Its high-level built in data structures, combined with dynamic typing and dynamic binding, make it very attractive for Rapid Application Development, as well as for use as a scripting or glue language to connect existing components together. Python's simple, easy to learn syntax emphasizes readability and therefore reduces the cost of program maintenance. Python supports modules and packages, which encourages program modularity and code reuse. The Python interpreter and the extensive standard library are available in source or binary form without charge for all major platforms, and can be freely distributed. Often, programmers fall in love with Python because of the increased productivity it provides. Since there is no compilation step, the edit-test-debug cycle is incredibly fast. Debugging Python programs is easy: a bug or bad input will never cause a segmentation fault. Instead, when the interpreter discovers an error, it raises an exception. When the program doesn't catch the exception, the interpreter prints a stack trace. A source level debugger allows inspection of local and global variables, evaluation of arbitrary expressions, setting breakpoints, stepping through the code a line at a time, and so on. The debugger is written in Python itself, testifying to Python's introspective power. On the other hand, often the quickest way to debug a program is to add a few print statements to the source: the fast edit-test-debug cycle makes this simple approach very effective.

Laravel is a popular PHP-based back-end framework and comes with the features necessary to build modern web apps at scale. These features include routing, validation and file storage. Laravel is an easy-to-use web framework that will help you create extensible PHP-based websites and web applications at scale. Before creating a web app or website, you need to make a foundational decision as to what technology you are going to use. This is one of the trickiest parts of the web development process. To build something simple, such as an online store or portfolio, you can rely on no-code website creators. If you are looking to build something more advanced, a no-code solution might not be enough. Instead, you should choose a framework and start writing code on it. Laravel is a good choice as an easy-to-use open-source framework for building modern web applications at scale.

Ruby on Rails (simplified as Rails) is a server-side web application framework written in Ruby under the MIT License. Rails is a model–view–controller (MVC) framework, providing default structures for a database, a web service, and web pages. It encourages and facilitates the use of web standards such as JSON or XML for data transfer and HTML, CSS and JavaScript for user interfacing. In addition to MVC, Rails emphasizes the use of other well-known software engineering patterns and paradigms, including convention over configuration (CoC), don't repeat yourself (DRY), and the active record pattern.[4]