In the Dedicated Hosting environment, you are able to choose your own server operating system, which for some webmasters is a tough decision. If you are familiar with Linux and Windows operating systems, you should already know which one best suits your website’s needs. If you’re new to working with Dedicated Servers, however, you may be interested to know the difference between working in Linux and Windows environments.

It is extremely important to note that you do not have to run Linux on your home computer to run it on your web hosting server. The same goes for Windows – even if you have Windows XP on your home computer, you can use Linux for your Dedicated Server OS.

The biggest differences you’ll notice between a Linux and Windows platform is the cost – where Linux is an Open Source (or free) operating system and can thus be offered by your Dedicated Hosting Provider for free, the many different Windows systems come direct from Microsoft and thus carry a licensing fee for any server that runs them.

Another rather large difference between Linux and Windows is the kind of databases and website scripts they work with. Linux servers tend to work with most capabilities you may be interested in, but if you need ASP, ASP.net, MS Access, Frontpage, Windows Streaming Media support, and/or MS SQL integration, you’ll want to take a look at a Windows Server. As a rule of thumb, anything that has a license through Microsoft will generally need to be on a Windows server, but you’ll want to double check with your web hosting provider as well to see if the applications or programs you want to run will work through Linux as well.

Overall, though the two operating systems are unique and may require further knowledge of programs you need to run, both Linux and Windows Dedicated Server hosting plans do about the same thing and can be used for the same purposes.

Our recommended hosting provider, Lunarpages Dedicated Hosting, is available to give you a custom quote and can help you decide which OS is best for your website

Need help accessing phpmyadmin from Plesk?  Look no further, I have the perfect way to get that done from any dedicated hosting setup.  In order to access phpmyadmin if you are using Plesk you must follow the steps listed bellow:

You must first login to your control panel via:

https://www.yourdomain.com:8443/

and enter your username and password.

You must have already created a database: See our article “How to create a mysql database”

Once the database is created:

1. Click on the “Database” icon in Plesk
2. Choose your database you want to manage
3. Click on the “DB WebAdmin” icon

A popup window will open for phpmyadmin (make sure you do not have a popup blocker installed to prevent this).

You can now edit tables, fields and data as well as perform backups of your mysql database from within phpmyadmin.

and if you are using cpanel then you must follow the steps listed bellow:

1. To access the MySQL Account Maintenance Menu, click on the    icon above the words MySQL Databases on the main screen of your cPanel interface.
2. Click on phpMyAdmin

Now you are in and ready to manage phpmyadmin from within your dedicated hosting account.

Looking to start up your own forum on a dedicated server?  Be sure to check out these previous posts filled with tons of advice and tips.

1. Dedicated Server Hosting (by Project)

You’re thinking of ordering a brand new, shiny dedicated server. You’ve got your domain name, you’ve chosen a reliable dedicated hosting provider like Lunarpages, and you’ve found the best dedicated hosting coupon available. So…now what?

2. Importance & Advantages of Control Panels

As two of the most popular and powerful control panels for dedicated server hosting on the market, cPanel and Plesk can support a wide variety of scripts, programs, installations, and server requirements. It is almost essential for every new dedicated webmaster that you choose to install some kind of control panel on your dedicated server, because it will help automate the process of installing scripts and deploying them properly. If you choose to work with SSH/Shell access, you will have to memorize and use shell commands. For an advanced webmaster, this is perfectly fine, but if you’re new to the dedicated hosting realm, there are many advantages to using a control panel on your dedicated server.

3. Fantastico Web Hosting

CPanel is arguably the most powerful control panel on the planet when it comes to dedicated server hosting. This is why it’s also the most popular choice for webmasters these days. If you’re unfamiliar with cPanel’s web hosting technology, you should definitely research this amazing control panel before you add it to your dedicated server. But cPanel works with a variety of really cool programs, not the least of which is the Fantastico Script Library.

4. Forum Scripts Perfect for Dedicated Hosting

When it comes to dedicated hosting, getting a forum up and running shouldn’t be a hard task at all.  Here are a few alternatives to pick from when trying to decide which forum script might be best for your dedicated account.

Backing up from cPanel for your dedicated hosting account is really easy.

The first step in the process would be to login to your cPanel account. Once you are on the front page, then find and click the icon marked “Backup”. This will take you to the cPanel Backup screen.

The full backups are backups of your entire web site and everything in it except for MySQL databases. To generate a full back, click on the link at the top of the page that reads, “Generate/Download a Full Backup”.

To do a normal backup generation, just select from the Backup Destination drop down menu, “Home Directory”. Next, put in your e-mail address in the second box and skip over the remote settings. Click on the button that reads, “Generate Backup” and you should be e-mailed once the backup is ready to download. When it is, you can come back and get it. To download your backup, login to cPanel and click on “Backup”. From there, under full backups click on the text link the reads, “Download a home directory backup”.

To backup your MySQL databases, login to cPanel. Once you are on the front page, then find and click the icon marked “Backup”. This will take you to the cPanel Backup screen.

Near the bottom of this page, you should see a section titled, “Download a MySQL Database Backup” with your databases listed under it. Click on your database name, and then save the backup to your own computer.

Now you can do this for each cPanel account you have under your dedicated hosting server to update all of your personal backups.

By now you have already installed Apache onto your dedicated server. Now, let’s configure Apache to run with PHP4 or PHP5, whichever is your preference in scripting.

For PHP4, it’s as simple as apt-get:

apt-get install apache2 php4 libapache2-mod-php4

Since PHP5 can be automatically installed if you don’t specify the package ‘4’, you can do that or apt-get:

apt-get install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5

To test and ensure that you are now hosting with PHP4 or PHP5, create a test file called test.php in /var/www folder with phpinfo() function as follows:

nano /var/www/test.php

php phpinfo();

Now, just point your web browser to http://ip.address/test.php and you’ll be able to see your php config and default settings. If you don’t, check with your dedicated server administrators or web hosting provider.

From there, you can also edit necessary values or setup virtual domains, enable CAPTCHA, and more.

LAMP web hosting is probably the most popular and affordable server setting for webmasters these days. If you aren’t already aware, LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP and defines how your dedicated server will run – it will be Linux hosting with an Apache server, MySQL databases, and PHP development.

The first step to create a LAMP server setup is to install Apache on your Linux machine.

1) Download Apache from Apache Software Foundation.

2) Uncompress the archive using gunzip and tar and replace apache_1.3.11.tar.gz in the example here with the name of the current live version you just downloaded:

gunzip < apache_1.3.11.tar.gz | tar xvf –

This should create an apache_1.3.11 directory.

3) Move into the new directory you just created and use cd apache_1.3.11.

4) ./configure in the root so that your screen appears as such:

# ./configure
Configuring for Apache, Version 1.3.11
…
Creating Makefile
Creating Configuration.apaci in src
Creating Makefile in src
+ configured for Linux platform
+ setting C compiler to gcc
+ setting C pre-processor to gcc -E
+ checking for system header files
+ adding selected modules
+ checking sizeof various data types
+ doing sanity check on compiler and options
…
Creating Makefile in src/modules/standard

5) make so that your screen looks like this:

# make
===> src
make[1]: Entering directory `src/httpd/apache_1.3.11′
make[2]: Entering directory `src/httpd/apache_1.3.11/src’
===> src/regex
…
[several lines later]
…
gcc  -DLINUX=2 -DUSE_HSREGEX -DUSE_EXPAT -I../lib/expat-lite

make[1]: Leaving directory `src/httpd/apache_1.3.11′
<=== src
#

6) Install your new Apache with # make install and you’re done!

Now you are welcome to start Apache to make sure it’s working if you’d like.

As root, type /usr/local/apache/bin/apachect1 start and your browser at your brand new web server at yourdomain.com. If you see the Apache standard “It worked!” homepage, you are set.

Plenty of first time Plesk (and dedicated hosting) users are often confused when it comes to adding users to a new MySQL database.  They can create the MySQL database with no issues, but adding a user can be a little trickier.

The option to create a MySQL database user should become available after you click on the database name from within Plesk.  As you can see sometimes it is the obvious issues that get in our way the most.

Plesk offers a powerhouse of tools and services to use to manage our dedicated hosting servers, but as with anything it pays to read up on it before you jump in with both feet.  All control panels are pretty much the same, they just have different ways of getting these jobs done.

Windows web hosting and MS SQL databases go hand in hand, just like Linux web hosting and MySQL are the most compatible. But what happens if you’re looking to use MySQL with your Plesk control panel in your Windows Server Hosting account?

Here’s a simple tutorial that should help you access phpMyAdmin using Plesk.

First, you’ll want to login with the username and password you got from your dedicated web host.

In order to access phpMyAdmin, you must first have created a MySQL database, so if you have not done that yet, do so now before you proceed.

Once the database with MySQL has been created, click on the “Database” icon in your Plesk control panel and choose whichever database you want to manage. Finally, click on the “DB WebAdmin” icon, where a popup window will open for phpMyAdmin.

NOTE: If nothing pops up, your popup blocker might be preventing this, so double check your settings and proceed once you can access the phpMyAdmin popup.

From there, you can edit tables, fields, data, and perform backups and delete your MySQL databases, right from phpMyAdmin!

If you’re using cPanel, it’s a bit easier: simply click on the icon above the words “MySQL Databases” on the main cPanel interface screen and then you’ll see phpMyAdmin and you can go from there!

So either way, whether you’re using Plesk or cPanel, you will be able to access phpMyAdmin with your dedicated server.

Blog Web Hosting is possibly the fastest growing type of web hosting these days. Because blogging helps with SEO (search engine optimization), builds resources and content, and draws customers and audiences to explore and offer their opinions, link back, and more, corporations are using blogs for their websites as content management systems, even as individuals continue to grow the blogging community with daily unique content about their hobbies and personal lives.

This puts b2evolution web hosting in the forefront of the industry, as b2evolution provides quality open source (free!) blogging software for your website!

b2evolution is actually an advanced blogging tool that is great for beginners and experienced webmasters alike. Similar to WordPress, b2evolution includes all kinds of traditional blogging tool, like posting categories, tags, comments, skins, and content management, but also combines that simplicity with a sophisticated yet easy-to-use interface with features like file and photo management, multiple blogs, and detailed user permissions and groups.

On your dedicated server, you just need to find a reliable dedicated web host and use a LAMP-based configuration (i.e. Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/PERL/Python).

Database Servers are becoming more and more popular these days, as technology professionals not only need a server to run their website for web server hosting but they also require the functionality and performance of a reliable database server. And in setting a database server up, you not only need affordable dedicated web hosting but also a database management system.

So what is a database management system?

A database management system (or DBMS) is more or less a piece of software that helps you organize, store, manage, edit, and retrieve of data in a database or databases from your server. Like content management system (CMS), it is setup to do these things as easily as possible for you.

There are many database management systems around, but here is a quick list of some of the most popular choices for dedicated server hosting:

• Oracle
• Microsoft Access
• Microsoft SQL Server
• Firebird
• PostgreSQL
• MySQL
• SQLite