As a webmaster, you know the importance of a good spam blocking and virus protection program, and maybe you have learned from our dedicated server tutorials how to set con jobs for scheduled tasks, how to protect your system or administer backups, but did you know that there may be things you are unaware of trying to hack your server?

One of these necessary evils of dedicated server hosting is called a rootkit. A rootkit is simply a program usually designed by hackers who attempt to take control of your dedicated server without authorization. They can gain complete access to your system or install themselves as drivers, kernel modules, or other malware. They often go undetected and can seize control of your operating system and obscure the presence of potentially harmful viruses, commands, or Trojans.

Oftentimes, once a rootkit has hidden utility programs in your system, they open a backdoor to your server at any time of the day and can thus be severely harmful to the health of your dedicated server.

If your dedicated web host has a Managed Hosting option, you should look into it, as they often perform rootkit checks to ensure the security of your dedicated server. Remember, a good dedicated web hosting provider doesn’t want your server brought down either and will do everything in their power to keep you a happy customer.

When you purchase your Windows or Linux Dedicated Server, you have the option to add the Plesk Control Panel, one of the most powerful control panels on the planet. And if you do decide to add Plesk as your control panel, you also have the ability to add the Plesk Power Pack, a series of amazing add-on modules similar to cPanel’s Fantastico Script Library.

So what do you get with your dedicated server and the Plesk Power Pack?

• Application Pack – With the Plesk Power Pack’s Application Pack, you can pretty much do everything you need, all from one simple administrative panel. The Application Pack comes complete with the Mambo Content Management System (CMS), a Website Builder Tool to create dynamic websites, support for post-Nuke Web Hosting, osCommerce Ecommerce software for ecommerce web hosting, phpBB software, picture gallery software, phpBook for guestbooks, bbClone for website statistics, and gtChat for chat web hosting.

• Anti-Spam Solutions – Plesk’s Power Pack utilizes SpamAssassin’s Anti-Spam solutions software to eliminate spam forever.

• Tomcat Web Hosting – Tomcat java servlet support allows you to manage and deploy Tomcat web applications and run Tomcat’s JSP web hosting.

• ColdFusion Web Hosting – Administrators can configure and enable/disable ColdFusion right within the hosting panel. Perfect for ColdFusion web hotsing.

• MS SQL Hosting – Need the world’s most popular and powerful relational database manage system? You got it with Plesk Power Pack’s support for MS SQL web hosting. You can deploy and manage MS SQL databases on local and remote instances. Your Windows Web Hosting solution is complete. Also perfect for Windows Server 2008 Hosting!

• Multi-Level Helpdesk – Now you can run your own HelpDesk solution for answering tickets and support inquiries via a powerful integration system within Plesk’s Power Pack.

Our recommended and best dedicated hosting provider, Lunarpages Dedicated Hosting, now offers Windows Server 2008 Web Hosting! This means you can take advantage of any of their Windows Dedicated Server Hosting plans and apply Server 2008 without any hassle. Your Windows media server hosting is just as easy with Lunarpages, as they provide solutions for every kind of hosting platform, from database hosting, web server hosting, application hosting, and media server hosting.

So what are some of the additional features you’ll get with Windows Server 2008 Web Hosting?

* IIS7 Hosting
* ASP.NET 3.5 Hosting
* SmarterMail 4.x Email
* AJAX Enabled Web-Based Email
* Free Email Virus Scanning
* RSS Feed Synchronization
* Server Delegations for Media, Web, and Application

Programming languages vastly range from standard to dynamic and can help you do just about anything you’d like to your website. One of the more dynamic and somewhat complex programming languages is called ColdFusion, and as it requires dedicated server hosting from a reliable dedicated web host.

ColdFusion uses a combination of normal HTML tags and elements along with its own branded markup language tags called CFML. By using HTML as well as CFML, the application server translates each tag, then refines it through the database, and then returns the results in strict HTML format to the website and browser. It is dynamically generated and recalled, which allows webmasters to control the abilities of the applications they create and integrate specific server and server-side technologies.

Many dedicated server hosting webmasters enjoy using the ColdFusion language because it is easy to learn as it’s similar to HTML in the tag-based element and in that you can create an administrative program from within the language to maintain your website. Other related languages to ColdFusion Web Hosting include PHP, ASP, JSP, CGI, and ASP.NET.