Digital Pacific Company Blog

VPS Hosting

January 25th, 2012

VPS stands for virtual private server. A VPS hosting option is one step up from shared hosting. With VPS, a physical server is subdivided into smaller virtual servers – each with its own set of isolated hardware and software features. A virtual server is private and dedicated, but it does share actual physical server space with other VPS accounts.

The Advantage of VPS over Shared Hosting
A VPS account will allow a user root access via remote Desktop Access on a Windows hosting service, or through SSH on a Linux server. Having root access means VPS users can install their own chosen programs, applications, and scripts. A VPS option offers greater flexibility and overall control compared to a shared hosting account.

In terms of resources, a VPS will have certain limitations but nothing as restrictive as a shared hosting account. VPS resource allowance depends on the resources installed on the physical server it resides on. However, because each VPS is isolated it will have a dedicated amount of resources at its disposal. These resources won’t be affected by other VPS accounts.

With shared hosting, resources are unilaterally shared. So a sudden spike of traffic, or resource usage, from one or two websites may hamper the performance of other websites sharing the same server. Because a VPS is allocated its own dedicated share of resources, this problem will not occur.

Additional Security
A VPS is more secure than a shared hosting account. Unlike a shared hosting package, a VPS does not share memory-related resources with other accounts. It has its own dedicated allotment of RAM and disk space that cannot be accessed by other VPS accounts hosted on the same physical server.

The security advantage of possessing your own private disk space, RAM, and other resources is obvious. No one can maliciously tamper, other users cannot pry, and you have complete control over any applications or programs you install.

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Tags: dedicated hosting, VPS, VPS Hosting, Web Hosting, Website
Posted in Business Websites, Tips for Hosting, Web Hosting | No Comments »

Setting Up Email on Thunderbird

January 17th, 2012

To setup an email address on your copy of Thunderbird (v7 or higher), do the following:

1. Go to the Tools menu and select Account Settings.

Setting Up Email on Thunderbird

2. In the Account Settings dialogue box click on Account Actions. Select Add Mail Account.

Setting Up Email on Thunderbird

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Tags: domain, Domain Names, Email, Thunderbird, tips and tricks, Web Hosting, Website
Posted in Business Websites, Email, Random, Support, Tips for Hosting | No Comments »

How to Manage SPAM in cPanel

January 8th, 2012

To setup your control panel to manage SPAM email, do the following:

1. Log into your control panel at:

http://www.yourdomain.com.au/cpanel

Replace www.yourdomain.com.au with the domain name of your hosting account.

If you are unsure of your cPanel login details please refer the the email “Hosting Account Information – Please Keep Safe – Please do not reply”. This email was originally sent out to your default billing email address when you first purchased your web hosting.

How to Manage SPAM in cPanel

2. Go to the Mail section and select MailScanner Configuration

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Tags: blogs, cms, content management system, cPanel, Email, spam, Support, tips and tricks, Web Hosting, Website
Posted in Business Websites, Online Security, Random, Tips for Blogs, Tips for Hosting, Web Hosting, Webmaster | No Comments »

How To Get Your Business Online

January 3rd, 2012

While making money on the Internet is certainly not as easy as it used to be, there are still plenty of opportunities out there. With a realistic approach and plenty of patience, many people are perfectly capable of making an income online. While there are freelancing opportunities to accommodate a wide variety of skills such as writing, web design and much more, starting your own business from scratch is somewhat more challenging. One of the greatest attractions to starting an online business is that the costs are minimal. Keeping your goals realistic is also essential. It’s wise to completely ignore the outlandish promises made by companies and individuals selling get-rich-quick schemes and instead start out with a plausible plan with goals that you can actually reach if you work hard enough. Consider the following steps for building a money-making website.

1. Be Inspired

Consider your skills and your level of knowledge in certain areas. You’ll want to think of a niche which you know plenty about as well as something which interests you. Since you’re going to need to provide quality content and something of value to your visitors, you need to be knowledgeable in your field. Of secondary importance is coming up with an idea that is ideal for making money.

How To Get Your Business Online
2. Register a Domain Name and Hosting Package

The only costs involved in starting an online business are registering a domain name (web address) and getting a web hosting package. The costs only run into a few dollars per month and the costs will only ever increase if you have an enormous number of visitors and you need to start paying for more bandwidth.

Choose your domain name carefully. It’s good practice for search engine optimization (SEO) to include a relevant keyword or phrase in your web address. You should also keep it short and memorable. It’s also a good idea to register multiple domain names which all direct to your main website. Ideally, you should register your domain name for a longer time, such as five years. The search engines favour long-term registrations.

You’ll also want to decide whether to use a local domain name ending in the country code for your location or a .com address. As a general rule, you should only use a localised domain name such as “.com.au” if the content of your site is primarily relevant to an audience in that country. For the most part, all other sites are better off using a .com address. There are plenty of other options, however.

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Tags: au domain, blogs, dedicated hosting, domain, Domain Names, how to build a website, SEO, tips and tricks, Web Hosting, wordpress
Posted in Business Websites, Domain Names, Marketing and PR, Tips for Blogs, Web Design | No Comments »

Digital Pacific Milestones for 2011

December 22nd, 2011

We thought we would keep everyone posted on the events that have happened at Digital Pacific over the past 12 months and give you a sneak peak of what is planned for the next 12 months.

Data Centre Relocation

Around June 2010 we started to plan the move of our infrastructure to a brand new Data Centre. We felt that we needed to make this move as we were growing at a rapid rate and we needed make sure that we could sustain our growth well in to the future. The move itself was successful and whilst it took over a year to plan, the actual move took 5 weeks which was done in stages to minimise downtime. We reserved a fair amount of space at this facility that should see us through the next few years.

New Network Build

When we were planning the DC relocation we thought it would be an excellent time to build a new redundant network from the ground up, so we invested a large sums of money in Cisco and Juniper gear to make this a reality. The switches we used are Juniper EX4200’s and are capable of supporting our new cloud platform and IPV6 deployment which will be happening over the next few months.

cPanel Migrations

When we started Digital Pacific over 10 years ago we used a control panel called Ensim which was an excellent product back then, however over the years that product was acquired by another company and support and updates came to a halt, so we made the decision to move to cPanel which is the worlds most popular control panel for web hosts. At the end of November this year we completed our Ensim cPanel migrations after almost 2 years of planning. We worked closley with cPanel to develop migration scripts and tools to make the migration as smooth as it could be. There were a few sites that required attention after the migration however overall this was a massive success. cPanel is the control panel of choice for millions worldwide and Digital Pacific is now proud to now offer cPanel hosting. We have also fine tuned our cPanel servers with Cloud Linux and other software that gives a lot more stability than the previos Ensim servers.

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Seven Good Reasons to Buy a Domain Name For Your Small Business Blog

December 14th, 2011

If you are starting a blog for your small business it’s tempting to skip buying a domain name and jump right into a free blog hosting service. You’re trying to grow your business so you want to keep costs down where you can. Free is good, right?

Wrong. If you are at all serious about your company, be nice to your business blog and buy it a domain name. Here are seven good reasons why you should register a domain name for your small business blog.
Seven Good Reasons to Buy a Domain Name For Your Small Business Blog
1. If the aim of your blog is to market a business then it must look business-like. A self-hosted domain is the first step to a professional looking blog. Internet-savvy readers simply won’t take seriously a blog like yourbusinessblog.freeblogsite.com. It looks amateurish. Readers will take far more seriously the self-hosted yourbusinessblog.com. It looks like a real site. Whether you’re selling a product, a service, or your own expertise, a proper domain name will inspire customer confidence.

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Seven Good Reasons to Buy a Domain Name For Your Small Business Blog

Tags: au domain, blogs, Domain Names, how to build a website, online business, tips and tricks, Web Hosting, Website, wordpress
Posted in Attracting Clients, Business Websites, Domain Names, Great Domain Names, Tips for Blogs, Tips for Hosting, Web Hosting | No Comments »

A Very Merry Christmas Party

December 8th, 2011

Last Friday night we held our annual Digital Pacific team Christmas Party at the Bavarian Bier Cafe.
A Very Merry Christmas Party
We gorged ourselves on copious amounts of pretzels, pork knuckle and chicken shnitzels until we were just about shnizeled out.

We also consumed so much beer and cider that (lucky for the Bavarian Bier Cafe), we had to move on to our next pit stop at the Comedy Store before too much damage could be done.
A Very Merry Christmas Party

Needless to say, a fantastic night was had by one and all. Plus, what a bonus it was that we were all still standing by the end of the night!

To see more photos, visit the Digital Pacific page on Facebook.

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Magento Hosting Explained

December 3rd, 2011

Australian Statistics reveal that Six-and-a-half million Australians have Internet access at home or work, and they spend more than $11 billion dollars a year in online purchases. So, if you own a shop selling anything from jeans to jams you need to be able to tap into this lucrative marketing opportunity and open an online store with an e-commerce platform.

Magento Hosting Explained Magento is one of the fastest growing e-commerce platforms around and the Magento Community Edition is free! Its flexibility and wealth of features are some of the reasons this software has been downloaded by over 1 million users. Magento has placed itself in the market as one of the strongest ecommerce platforms around for stores of any size who are looking for a great online solution.

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Tags: dedicated hosting, how to build a website, online business, shopping cart, Web Hosting, Website
Posted in Business Websites, Tips for Hosting, Web Design, Web Hosting | No Comments »

How to Write an Email Marketing Letter

November 22nd, 2011

Receive. Read subject. Delete. These actions can be carried out by your user in less than two seconds. So why did you spend 20 minutes preparing what you thought was a carefully worded email that tackled all the right points?

Read on to find out more.

Increasing Importance in E-Commerce — Get it Right!

Understanding how your readers think is vital to getting your email opened, read and actioned. There are many traps to avoid when crafting your email communications in order for them to cut through the overwhelming amount people receive daily. The ease at which emails can be sent by businesses often attributes to the low quality of the communications.

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