Archive for November, 2007...

Filed under Web Hosting

Lately I’ve got OpenAds 2.4 running at TheWebmastersCafe.net to manage my ads. I’ve found that the new version was more resource-consuming than it’s predecessor, OpenAds 2.0. Still, I kept using it since I wanted the geotargeting feature made available from that version.

Upgrading to 2.4.1 sort of showed a performance gain on the scheduled maintenance task while the administrative interface is still a bit slow. At this point I haven’t been penalized too much on the ad-serving part in terms of performance but it seems that higher page serving could cause OpenAds to perform poorly on that end too.

Here are a few fine-tuning tips to help you gain performance with OpenAds 2.4.x:

  • Turn off auto-maintenance and use an hourly cron job. Go into Settings => Main Settings => Administrator Settings => Preferences and uncheck Automatically perform maintenance during delivery if scheduled maintenance is not set up.
  • Disable debug logging. This is enabled by default and logs to a text file which will grow significantly. Unless you need to debug OpenAds, turn off this feature. Go into Settings => Main Settings => Debug Logging and uncheck Enable Debug Logging.

I know this helped OpenAds to run faster on my server.

Comments (0) Posted by Stephane on Friday, November 16th, 2007

Filed under Web Hosting

EDIT : THE 90 DAY OFFER HAS ENDED AND HAS NOW BEEN REPLACED BY A 50% REBATE.

Jumpline must be out of their mind. They are offering you a free VDS (Virtual Dedicated Server) for 90 days, no purchase required. How cool is that?

What Is A VDS?

VDS means Virtual Dedicated Server. It’s also known as a VPS or Virtual Private Server.

Basically, there are three types of web hosting:

  • Shared Hosting: Users are sharing a single webserver. This is usually the cheapest type of hosting.
  • Virtual Dedicated Server: Users have full control over their own virtual private server. The virtual web server is hosted on a shared physical server.
  • Dedicated Server: Users have their own physical web server. This is usually the most expensive type of web hosting.

Why Should You Have A VDS?

  • Flexibility: You get full control over your webserver so you can install whatever software or tool you need to run your online business. You can also manage all of your webserver’s configuration files.
  • Performance: Although you are sharing a physical server, there are a minimum of resources (memory, CPU, etc.) assigned to your VDS. And unlike shared hosting, having the full control of the OS gives you the possibility to tweak your webserver’s performance settings.
  • Security And Reliability: When you host your website on a shared hosting account, you are at the mercy of other users. So if one of your “neighbors” hosts an unsecured website on the same server, then you are at risk. With a VDS, every user has their own independent operating system so if it’s being attacked, it won’t affect your server.
  • Scalability: As your resources (hard disk, cpu, memory, etc.) are all virtual, upgrading your server is done within a couple of clicks and no downtime (or very little).
  • Price: A VDS offers all the same features as a physical server but for just a small fraction of the price.

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Comments Off Posted by Stephane on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007

Filed under Blogging, Web Design

If you’ve ever got your content stolen, you know it kinda sucks. Not only content but also images. Now I am not making any references to a previous post about a website who stole some of my content cause I don’t care that much about this incident.

Anyway I know I’ve probably stolen a few stock images myself at some point but I now use free image banks.

What Can You Do If Your Content Is Stolen?

As a webmaster, blogger, designer or whatever, if your content is stolen, you can always file a DCMA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).

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Comments (1) Posted by Stephane on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007