Technology Overview

Linux and PHP are two of the "big" names in the world of information technology. In fact, they usually go together, particularly in the world of web hosting. For example, if you want to find cheap PHP web hosting on Linux servers, you can do this quite easily. Linux, as an operating system, is frequently used by those offering budget hosting, and PHP is one of the many dynamic programming languages that works very well with Linux.

How do you find the most affordable PHP hosting, though? How do you find a web host that offers Linux servers? A quick search through your preferred search engine will yield several million results - obviously not a good place to start, unless you simply have the time to browse several hundred of those results. Even then, chances are good that you would not have scratched the surface of what is available. A better option is to find a directory of web hosts that ranks those hosts based on their operating system and programming language support.

What will you learn from such a directory? You can actually gain quite a wide range of information from these directories. For example, under the heading Linux hosting on the directory, you will be provided with a ranked list of different hosting providers. You will find the provider's name, as well as the name of the PHP/Linux plan they offer. Other information immediately available includes the cost of the plan, the rating for the provider and the geographic location of the company.

However, while that is most certainly valuable information when searing for cheap hosting on Linux servers, you should be aware of another ability these directories give you. One of the most functional features is the "compare" feature offered. This allows you to choose several of the top ranked web hosts and compare them on a side by side basis. Doing so will offer you the best, most in-depth information about the various services offered, the prices for the plans and more. This will help you ensure that you are able to find the best hosting plan, for the least amount of money, and with the fewest hassles possible. These directories make finding the perfect web hosting company a surprisingly simple process that can take very little time.

Game server providers (GSPs) are companies that lease game servers. Gaming clans will often lease one or more servers for their chosen game, with members of the clan contributing to the server rental fees. Game server providers often offer Web tools to control and configure the game servers; most allow those that rent or lease to modify the games being leased.

Dedicated game server
Most games use a dedicated server application. This program collects data from players and distributes it to other players. This is more efficient and effective than a peer-to-peer arrangement, but it requires a separate computer to host the server application. The additional computer is a server.

Network bandwidth, in particularly upstream bandwidth, is often one of the major limitations in hosting game servers. Home broadband Internet connections rarely provide the necessary upstream bandwidth to host dedicated game servers with more than 4-10 clients. In the past, this was the only option available. Typically a player would buy the game and host the server, as well as running the client, on their home computer. Even if the bandwidth provided by the latest broadband services at the time could handle the outbound network traffic the computer itself still struggled to provide a good quality of service to the networked players, while simultaneously running the game on the same machine.

A professional server is a computer to read data and transmit vast amounts of data as fast as players need it. A handful of game hosting pioneers realized the need for such systems. They purchased rack mounted server machines and colocated them within datacenters to host their games. They paid between $200 and $700 a month for this luxury, and the teams that could foot such bills were few and far between, but these setups significantly improved the gameplay. Within a few years online multiplayer gaming became a huge success. Prices have lowered dramatically and renting game servers, or dedicated servers to host game servers on, is something that has become very common for online gaming teams.
[edit] Types of game servers

Game servers can be classified as listen servers and dedicated servers. Listen server refers to a situation in which the server typically runs in the same process as the game client, allowing a player to both host and participate in the game. As a side effect, the server is usually terminated when the client is. Listen servers are operated mostly by individuals, often in LAN Party situations rather than over the Internet, and usually with a lower number of players due to the increased processing and bandwidth requirements associated with operating both server and client simultaneously on the same machine. Dedicated servers are servers which run independently of the client. Such servers may be run by individuals, but are usually run on dedicated hardware located in data centers, providing more bandwidth and dedicated processing power. Dedicated servers are the preferred method of hosting game servers for most PC-based multiplayer games. Massively multiplayer online games run on dedicated servers usually hosted by the software company that owns the game title, allowing them to control and update content. In many cases they are run on clustered servers to allow huge environments and large player counts.

Clustered hosting is a type of web hosting that spreads the load of hosting across multiple physical machines ("nodes"), increasing availability and decreasing the chances of one service (for example FTP, or email) affecting another - for example web or database (e.g. MySQL). Many large websites run on clustered hosting solutions, for example, large discussion forums will tend to run using multiple front-end webservers with multiple back-end database servers.

Typically, most hosting infrastructures are based on the paradigm of using a single physical machine to host multiple hosted services, including web, database, email, FTP and others. A single physical machine is not only a single point of failure, but also has finite capacity for traffic, that in practice can be troublesome for a busy website or for a website that is experiencing transient bursts in traffic.

By clustering services across multiple hardware machines, and using load balancing you can eliminate single points of failure increasing availability of your website and other web services beyond that of ordinary single server hosting. A single server can require periodic reboots for software upgrades and the like, whereas in a clustered platform you can stagger the restarts such that the service is still available whilst still upgrading all necessary machines in the cluster.

Clustered hosting is similar to cloud hosting, in that the resources of many machines are available for a website to utilize on demand, making scalability a large advantage to a clustered hosting solution.

Many large companies who are not internet service providers also need a computer permanently connected to the web so they can send email, files, etc. to other sites. They may also use the computer as a website host so they can provide details of their goods and services to anyone interested. Additionally these people may decide to place online orders.

    * Free web hosting service: offered by different companies with limited services, sometimes supported by advertisements, and often limited when compared to paid hosting.
    * Shared web hosting service: one's website is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. The features available with this type of service can be quite extensive. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.
    * Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a collocated server. Many resellers provide a nearly identical service to their provider's shared hosting plan and provide the technical support themselves.
    * Virtual Dedicated Server: also known as a Virtual Private Server (VPS), divides server resources into virtual servers, where resources can be allocated in a way that does not directly reflect the underlying hardware. VPS will often be allocated resources based on a one server to many VPSs relationship, however virtualisation may be done for a number of reasons, including the ability to move a VPS container between servers. The users may have root access to their own virtual space. Customers are sometimes responsible for patching and maintaining the server.
    * Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.
    * Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
    * Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.
    * Cloud Hosting: is a new type of hosting platform that allows customers powerful, scalable and reliable hosting based on clustered load-balanced servers and utility billing. Removing single-point of failures and allowing customers to pay for only what they use versus what they could use.
    * Clustered hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization. Clustered Servers are a perfect solution for high-availability dedicated hosting, or creating a scalable web hosting solution. A cluster may separate web serving from database hosting capability.
    * Grid hosting: this form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.
    * Home server: usually a single machine placed in a private residence can be used to host one or more web sites from a usually consumer-grade broadband connection. These can be purpose-built machines or more commonly old PCs. Some ISPs actively attempt to block home servers by disallowing incoming requests to TCP port 80 of the user's connection and by refusing to provide static IP addresses. A common way to attain a reliable DNS hostname is by creating an account with a dynamic DNS service. A dynamic DNS service will automatically change the IP address that a URL points to when the IP address changes.

Web hosting is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan; there are many free and paid providers offering these services.

A customer needs to evaluate the requirements of the application to choose what kind of hosting to use. Such considerations include database server software, scripting software, and operating system. Most hosting providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of different software. A typical configuration for a Linux server is the LAMP platform: Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Perl/Python. The webhosting client may want to have other services, such as email for their business domain, databases or multi-media services for streaming media. A customer may also choose Windows as the hosting platform. The customer still can choose from PHP, Perl, and Python but may also use ASP .Net or Classic ASP. Web hosting packages often include a Web Content Management System, so the end-user doesn't have to worry about the more technical aspects.

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to make their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own or lease for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation.

Service Scope
The scope of hosting services varies widely. The most basic is web page and small-scale file hosting, where files can be uploaded via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or with little processing. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) offer this service free to their subscribers. People can also obtain Web page hosting from other, alternative service providers. Personal web site hosting is typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or cheap. Business web site hosting often has a higher expense.

Single page hosting is generally sufficient only for personal web pages. A complex site calls for a more comprehensive package that provides database support and application development platforms (e.g. PHP, Java, Ruby on Rails, ColdFusion, and ASP.NET). These facilities allow the customers to write or install scripts for applications like forums and content management. For e-commerce, SSL is also highly recommended.

The host may also provide an interface or control panel for managing the Web server and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail. Some hosts specialize in certain software or services (e.g. e-commerce). They are commonly used by larger companies to outsource network infrastructure to a hosting company.

Social networking website Facebook has capped a year of phenomenal growth by overtaking Google's popularity among US internet users, with industry data showing it has scored more visits on its home page than the search engine.

In a sign that the web is becoming more sociable than searchable, research firm Hitwise said that the two sites accounted for 14 percent of all US internet visits last week. Facebook’s home page recorded 7.07 percent of traffic and Google’s 7.03 percent.

It is the first time that Facebook.com has enjoyed a weekly lead over Google.com. The lead may be slim, but it has become inevitable as Facebook’s popularity has grown rapidly from just over 2 percent of visits a year ago.

Heather Dougherty of Hitwise said that Facebook had “reached an important milestone” with the weekly figures.

Facebook’s membership has more than doubled in the past year, passing the 200m mark last April and 400m in February.

“The true value of Facebook and social networks is just becoming clear to marketers,” said Augie Ray, analyst at Forrester Research.

Although Facebook is enjoying rapid growth, it is only beginning to cash in on its success. Revenues at the social media company are estimated to be in the range of $1bn to $1.5bn this year, while Google took in $23.7bn last year.

Google has responded to the ascendancy of the social networking site with its own Buzz service last month.

Buzz allows users to add status updates, friends, pictures, videos, location information, comments and links to other networking sites.

Buzz, though, has struggled with privacy concerns just as Facebook has been criticised for encouraging members to reveal personal data to search engines.

The Hitwise figures only cover visits to the Google.com site, meaning that services such as Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps and searches carried out in a box in a browser toolbar are excluded.

Taking all Google properties into account, the internet company accounted for 11.03 percent of US website visits last week, compared with 10.98 per cent for Yahoo properties and 7.07 per cent for Facebook, according to Hitwise.

Facebook’s trajectory suggests that it will soar ahead of Google.com in the coming months.

However, social networking sites have fallen in the past. Google.com had led since September 2007, when it overtook News Corp’s MySpace.com.

Internet users worldwide spent more than five-and-a-half hours a month on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in December 2009, an 82 percent increase over the previous year, according to the Nielsen Company research firm.

Bangladesh's internet users are now allowed to talk through VoIP (voice over internet protocol) technology within the country, as 18 local companies yesterday launched IP (internet protocol) telephony services.

The existing users, connected by local internet service providers (ISPs), will get the chance to transfer and receive voice calls through IP telephony.

Besides getting data services, the internet users will enjoy video calls, call forwarding and audio-video conferencing.

Internet protocol telephony service providers (IPTSPs) initially target corporate customers, as intra-office communication cost will come down.

Presently, more than five lakh internet users are connected through local ISPs, while mobile operators claim that more than 40 lakh people are connected via mobile internet. Bangladesh's internet penetration rate is four percent.

ISP internet users can start voice calls by just installing PC2 dialler software into their computers. With headphones, they can talk through landline and mobile phone. The internet users can also transfer voice through USB phone.

The users who have traditional phone sets with an internet connection can switch to IP telephone by installing an analogue telephony adaptor.

SIP (session initiative protocol)-enabled handset users can get the benefits of IP telephony in the Wi-Fi areas.

However, users can talk to people living abroad through IP phone, but overseas calls through VoIP are still restricted.

The IP telephony operators offer free installation of PC2 software to the customers. Presently USB phones are available at Tk 1,000 in the local market. IP telephone sets cost Tk 3,000 to Tk 30,000, while the analogue adaptor price ranges from Tk 2,000 to Tk 6,000.

IPTSPs will charge a maximum of Tk 0.20 a minute for IPTSP-IPTSP calls and a maximum of Tk 2 for a call from IPTSP to any mobile or landline operator, in line with a Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) directive.

As per the decision of IPTSPs, customers will have to pay Tk 100 as connection fee per month for unlimited IPTSP-IPTSP calls.

However, the minimum airtime charge for calls from IPTSP to any mobile or landline operator will not be below Tk 0.65 a minute.

The 18 operators are Advanced Data Networks System Ltd, Agni Systems Ltd, BDCom Online Ltd, Beximco, BracNet, BTS Communication Ltd, Connect BD Ltd, Dhakacom Ltd, Grameen Cybernet Ltd, Global Access Ltd, HRC Technologies Ltd, Information Services Network Ltd, Innovative Online Ltd, Link3 Technologies Ltd, Metronet BD Ltd, Optimax Communication Ltd, Royal Green Online Ltd and Telnet Communication Ltd.

The companies have developed required software locally to run the business.

Yeafesh Osman, state minister for science and ICT, yesterday inaugurated the IP telephony service at a programme organised by Internet Service Providers' Association of Bangladesh (ISPAB) at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel.

IP telephony could be the cheapest means of communication for the educational institutes, said Nazrul Islam Khan, national project director of Access to Information Programme of the Prime Minister's Office.

He said: "The service can be tagged with government plans to bring all educational institutes under internet service."

Zia Ahmed, chairman of BTRC, and Akhtaruzzaman Manju, president of ISPAB, also spoke.

Skype for Symbian will run on any Nokia smartphone using Symbian ^1, the latest version of the Symbian platform. Skype will soon introduce this client to Symbian mobile devices from other manufacturers, including Sony Ericsson. “Symbian enables us to bring smartphones to more and more people and ensures scale for our solutions and compelling services, such as Skype. We're seeing around 1.5 million downloads a day on Ovi Store now and believe that the Skype client for Nokia smartphones will have wide appeal to Symbian users," said Jo Harlow, senior vice president for smartphones, Nokia.

“Skype, the king of Internet communications, running on Symbian, the world's dominant smartphone platform, makes for an explosive combination,” said Larry Berkin, Head of Global Alliances and GM USA, Symbian Foundation. “With Symbian's global reach, Skype is that much closer to becoming the ubiquitous real-time communications platform for hundreds of millions of Symbian-based mobile users.”

Russ Shaw, General Manager, Mobile at Skype said, “With Skype for Nokia smartphones, more than 200 million smartphone users worldwide will be able to take the Skype features they love with them on the move. Alongside Skype's relationships with operators and handset manufacturers worldwide, making Skype available direct to consumers will help millions of users keep in contact with the people that are important to them without worrying about the cost, distance or whether they are away from a computer.”

The initial Skype for Symbian application is compatible with the following Nokia devices: Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia X6, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia 5530: Nokia E72, Nokia E71, Nokia E90, Nokia E63, Nokia E66, Nokia E51, Nokia N96, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8Gb, Nokia N85, Nokia N82, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8 Gb, Nokia N79, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 5320.

bracNet, a leading local internet service provider and KDDI Corporation, the second largest telecommunication company in Japan have announced the launch of bracNet-DEFTA-KDDI joint venture in Bangladesh.

KDDI Corporation has forayed into Bangladesh market acquiring 50 per cent stakes of BRAC BDMail Network Limited (bracNet). According to the Japanese trade official, KDDI found potential future of business in Bangladesh for its huge population and possible growth in telecom and internet service markets. Entry of KDDI in Bangladesh would give a further boost to the growing telecom and ICT sector of Bangladesh and help to achieve the goal of “Digital Bangladesh by 2021”.

A senior official of bracNet said partnership with KDDI would enhance their company's financial and technical strengths for further expansion of existing services and take it to the doorsteps of consumers at an affordable cost.

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, KCMG, the founder and Chairperson of BRAC was the chief guest in the ceremony. Dr. Syed Abdus Samad, executive chairman, Board of Investment, Prime Minister's office, Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury, chairperson bracNet and Mohammad Abdur Rab, CEO bracNet were also present.

Tadashi Onodera, president and chairman, KDDI Corporation and Gorge Hara, chairman, Alliance Forum Foundation and DEFTA Partners, LLC, represented KDDI, Japan and DEFTA Partners respectively.

Google is offering news publishers a way to attract paying subscribers without having to remove their content from Google News search results, after some media companies accused it of profiting from their online news. The Web search giant said it would adapt its so-called First Click Free programme to prompt online readers to register or subscribe to a news provider's site after reading five free articles from that publisher in a day. Previously, the user's first click on any article would be free for an unlimited number of articles, provided the user did not click through any more links from any article. Google said the update would allow publishers to focus on potential subscribers who were accessing a lot of their content on a regular basis. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp had been reported to be considering removing its news from Google's web search results and to be talking to rival Microsoft search engine Bing about listing stories there instead. News Corp already limits online access to its Wall Street Journal newspaper to paying subscribers, and plans to do the same for its Times and Sunday Times newspapers in Britain. Many other news providers are also considering putting up paywalls around online content as a recession-led slump and structural changes in advertising mean they can no longer fund newsgathering operations from ad revenues. Google's relationship with publishers who put news behind paywalls is complicated by the fact its web crawlers need to access the content behind the paywall to index it and make it discoverable by its search engine. But its crawlers cannot fill in registration or subscription forms, leading to the potential for users to be shown different content from what the crawler sees, and hence encouraging users to click through to pages that are not what they expected.