This tip is on web hosting. Here you go — free on us — compliments of http://www.sozohosting.com/ and also compliments of http://www.biznesstechnologies.com/ :

What is an SSL certificate and what is the difference between http:// and https:// for web site addresses?

You should never enter credit card information, or passwords or any other very confidential information on web sites that only start with http:// . https:// at the start of a web site address means an ssl certificate is installed on the site scrambling all transmissions of data you enter in that web site screen. An ssl certificate scrambles the data you enter and then unscrambles it to process it. (In coding language it is called encryption and decryption.) When you login into your account on a web page and see the web site address at the top of your browser changes to https://.. then you are safe with your transactions as you should also see a lock icon show up on your browser.

SSL uses a cryptographic system that uses two keys to encrypt data, first a public key known to everyone and the second is the private key known only to the recipient. SSL an unique and effective way to achieve data/ecommerce security.

Internet trends have boomed in popularity and are creating more opportunities for both commercial and non-commercial sectors. Most people will not submit their private details on the web unless they know the transaction/information they provide would be secure. The best way to provide web security and gain more customers is by installing an SSL certificate to prove the legitimacy of your website.

Click on SSL Certificates for more information on how SSL certificates are priced for the time period you want them to cover on your web site.

This tip is on databases. Here you go — free on us — compliments of http://www.sozohosting.com/ and also compliments of http://www.biznesstechnologies.com/ :

Where do I get MS SQL Server Management Studio Express to handle my MS SQL 2008 databases?

Microsoft sql server management studio client tools (Express) can be downloaded for free from

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=22985.

You should read the prequisites on this link:  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms365247.aspx

After you have installed this tool on your computer you need 4 pieces of information to login to your database: 1) database IP it is running on, 2) your database name, 3) your database user id, and 4) your database password.

This tip is on hosting. Here you go — free on us — compliments of http://www.sozohosting.com/ and also compliments of http://www.biznesstechnologies.com/ :

Should I install WordPress Free Blogging Software on Linux Or Windows Web Hosting?

When you go to http://wordpress.org/ to get your free Blogging software, you will find you can install the WordPress Free Blogging Software or either a Linux Web Hosting Plan  or a Windows Hosting Plan as long as both web hosting plans have a access to set up a new mySQL database that the WordPress Bloggging software uses.

We recommend using the Linux Web Hosting Plan since permalinks can be set up using this string:  /%postname% which is not support in a windows install. Using the /%postname% permalinks means you can enter full words in your URL for each post which is good for Search Engine Optimization reasons.

Click on Linux hosting for plans that start at $6.95/month that support this free WordPress blogging software.

This tip is on databases. Here you go — free on us — compliments of http://www.sozohosting.com/ and also compliments of http://www.biznesstechnologies.com/ :

Where do I get MS SQL Server Management Studio Express to handle my MS SQL 2005 databases?

Microsoft sql server management studio client tools (Express) can be downloaded for free from

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=8961.

After you have installed this tool on your computer you need 4 pieces of information to login to your database: 1) database IP it is running on, 2) your database name, 3) your database user id, and 4) your database password.

These tips are on MS exhange hosting. Here you go — free on us — compliments of http://www.sozohosting.com/ and also compliments of http://www.biznesstechnologies.com/ :
I recently subscribed to the new exchange hosting plan (such as SoZo’s Exchange Hosting ) and when I go to outlook to the global address book I do not see anyone in my global address book from my company, I only see old entries.

Close microsoft outlook, do a search on your system for *.oab files, delete all of the found files. Then open outlook and select the down arrow next to send and receive, select the option to download address book.

I’m recently ran the setup program to connect to the exchange hosting server, this worked correctly but now I want to add some contacts I have to the new contacts folder, how do I do this? I’m using outlook 2007.

Righ click on contacts on the left pane and select import, then import your contacts.

I want to set up my windows mobile device to use outlook. How do I do this?

You will do this by using microsoft activesync. First install activesync on your mobile device, you can download this from the web. Next follow the steps below.
1.On your device select Start > ActiveSync.
2.In the ActiveSync panel select Menu > Add Server Source.
Enter name of the ActiveSync server:

For exchange 2003 users use: ActiveSync.MyOutlookOnline.com

For exchange 2007 users use: Exch1.Myoutlookonline.com

3.Check “This server requires an encrypted (SSL) connection option.”
4.Press Next.
5.In the User Information panel fill the following fields:
• User name:
• Password: The mailbox password
• Domain: MAIL
6.Check “Enable Save password option.” Press Next.
7.In the Options panel choose the data you want to synchronize with the server.
8.Press Finish.
9.ActiveSync will perform an initial sync.

This tip is on databases. Here you go — free on us — compliments of http://www.sozohosting.com/ and also compliments of http://www.biznesstechnologies.com/ :

How do I load an MS SQL 2005 Database Using MS SQL 2005 Server Management Studio?

MS SQL 2005 Server Management Studio is different than doing Imports and Exports with Enterprise Manager (MS SQL 2000). You need to learn how to script the database that you are copying from and then run that DB script on the empty database that you want to import to. Scripting databases is not an easy topic you can learn by reading 1 paragraph here. You need a DB administrator to script a database or buy some good books on the topic.

Just doing a simple Import or Export with MS SQL 2005 Server Management Studio can help you load data initially in your tables but you can lose the identity field increment options on a table if you don’t know what you are doing. However if you have a small database and don’t use identity field increment options or indexes you can do the following steps.

Open MS SQL 2005 Server Management Studio and click on the database you want as the source to copy from. Right click on that database and choose the Tasks menu then the Import Data menu option under that Tasks menu. This will open up the SOURCE dialog box. Leave the Data Source as “SQL NATIVE Client” and change the server name to the source server or source IP. Enter your SQL Server authentication and choose the correct database. Click the next button to open up the DESTINATION dialog box. Leave the Data Source as “SQL NATIVE Client” and change the server name to the destination server or source IP. Enter your SQL Server authentication and choose the correct database. DOUBLE CHECK YOU HAVE THE RIGHT DATABASE. Click the next button to open up the Table/Query Dialog box. Choose either selection however if you are not running a DB script then choose the top option and click Next. Choose the tables you want to import or select the ALL button at the bottom. Click Next to go to the Execution Dialog box. Here you can click Finish to execute the IMPORT or you can save it if you are going to do this import often. You will be notified when the IMPORT is complete.

This tip is on hosting. Here you go — free on us — compliments of http://www.sozohosting.com/ and also compliments of http://www.biznesstechnologies.com/ :

How to run several websites under one ip address in apache:

1. Install Apache using the following command: yum install httpd

2. Check to see if apache came up properly, browse to the ip address of the server.

3. To configure apache to run several websites on one ip you will need to create the directories first, upload the websites and then modify the httpd.conf .

4. You can create the directories for example under /home , so they would be /home/site1.com/www, /home/site2.com/www and so on and so forth.

5. Once the directories are in place you can now make the following entries at the bottom of the httpd.conf:

:80>
ServerName site1.com
DocumentRoot “/home/site1.com/www”

allow from all
Options +Indexes

:80>
ServerName site2.com
DocumentRoot “/home/site2.com/www”

allow from all
Options +Indexes

6. Also add the following virtual host entry:

# Use name-based virtual hosting.
#
NameVirtualHost :80

This tip is on loading MS MSQ 2000 old databases. We will post a later tip on later MS SQL databases. Here you go — free on us — compliments of http://www.sozohosting.com/ and also compliments of http://www.biznesstechnologies.com/ :

How do I load an MS SQL 2000 Database Using MS 2000 Enterprise Manager?

Open MS 2000 Enterprise Manager and click on the database you want as the source to copy from. Right click on that database and choose the All Tasks menu then the Import Data menu option under that All Tasks menu. This will open up an initial dialog box for you just to click next which will take you to the SOURCE Dialog box. In Source Dialog box leave the top Data Source drop down on “Microsoft OLE DE Provider for SQL Server”.

Change the server dropdown to the source server or source IP. Enter your SQL Server authentication and choose the correct database. Click the next button to open up the DESTINATION dialog box. Leave the Data Source as “Microsoft OLE DE Provider for SQL Server” and change the server dropdown to the destination server or source IP. Enter your SQL Server authentication and choose the correct database.

DOUBLE CHECK YOU HAVE THE RIGHT DATABASE. Click the next button to open up the Table/Copy Dialog box. Choose the bottom selection “Copy ojects and Data Between SQL Server Databases”and click Next. Click on the OPTIONS button and another dialog box will open. UNCHECK the top 3 checkboxes in the top Security Options section and click OK to close this second dialog box. On the remaining dialog box click Next.

To run it immediately chick on the Next button and then finally click on the Finish button to start the import. You will get a status bar of the completion of your import. Failures are typically due to permissions not being granted to you.

We will be posting many tips on managing your database as well as tips on managing your web hosting environment. This tip is on moving SSL certificates in IIS. Here you go — free on us — compliments of http://www.sozohosting.com/ and also compliments of http://www.biznesstechnologies.com/ :

How do I move my SSL certificate from Windows IIS 6 to IIS 7?

You must first export the certificate and private key from IIS 6 into a .pfx file. This file will contain everything you need to move the certificate over to an IIS 7 server.

To export the certificate and private key from IIS 6:

1 – Start > Run and type “MMC” and hit enter

2 – Click File, Add/Remove Snap-in

3 – Click Add

4 – Select “Certificates” and click Add

5 – A wizard will open. Select computer account and click next

6 – Select Local Computer and click finish

7 – Click close

8 – Click Okay

9 – Expand Certificates on the left hand side of the console window

10 – Locate the personal certificate folder, right click on it and select import under all tasks

11 – Locate the certificate you need to export in the personal folder. Right click on it and select export under all tasks.

12 – In the export wizard, select the option to export the private key

13 – Select the file format to be PKCS#12 and check off “Include all certificates in the certification path if possible”

14 – Provide a password for the file and complete the wizard

You can now take the exported .pfx file and move it to the IIS 7 server.

To install the certificate in IIS 7, please follow these instructions:

1 – Start > Run and type “MMC” and hit enter

2 – Click File, Add/Remove Snap-in

3 – Click Add

4 – Select “Certificates” and click Add

5 – A wizard will open. Select computer account and click next

6 – Select Local Computer and click finish

7 – Click close

8 – Click Okay

9 – Expand Certificates on the left hand side of the console window

10 – Locate the personal certificate folder, right click on it and select import under all tasks

11 – Point the wizard to the .pfx file and complete

12 – Open up IIS 7 and click on the site in the left hand connections menu

13 – Under actions, select bindings

14 – Click the Add button to add a new binding

15 – The type will be https, IP address ”All unassigned” and port set to 443

16 – From the SSL certificate drop down, select the cert your just imported through the MMC and click OK

17 – Stop and Start the server.

We will be posting many tips on managing your database as well as tips on managing your web hosting environment. This tip is on SQL Injection so you can learn how to protect your database from hackers. Here you go — free on us — compliments of http://www.sozohosting.com/ and also compliments of http://www.biznesstechnologies.com/ :

How do I stop SQL Injectons In My Application?

SQL injections are performed by hackers using your application code to run SQL statements that you did not plan on. SQL injections can occur if you have edit boxes that allow users to enter some text and then you use that text they entered tacking it on to the end of a standard SQL lookup statement and then run that concatenated SQL statement against your database.

To stop SQL injections, you should first know a lot about SQL commands and how to avoid writing code that lets users run a SQL statement other than what SQL you wanted to perform. You should add client side valiation to your code on all places where users can enter some text into a text box on your application screens. Do not allow the following characters in an input box:

percent sign, greater than sign, less than sign, semi-colon, single quote, double quote….

You also could limit text entered on your application screen’s edit boxes to only be a-z characters, and/or 0-9 digits as that is even more protection.

Click on these links below and read the information for further instructions (like always using stored procedures) on how to protect your websites against SQL injections.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998271.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/tom/archive/2008/05/29/sql-injection-and-how-to-avoid-it.aspx

We will be posting many tips on managing your database as well as tips on managing your web hosting environment. This second tip is on Email clean up with your Server email and Microsoft  Outlook. Here you go — free on us — compliments of http://www.sozohosting.com/ and also compliments of http://www.biznesstechnologies.com/ :

Automatic Email Clean Up Options With Use of Microsoft Outlook

When you retrieve e-mail messages from a POP3 e-mail account the messages are deleted from the e-mail server by default after they are downloaded to your computer. For many people, this works great. Note: POP3 is a very common protocol that is used to retrieve e-mail messages from an Internet e-mail server.

However, if you need to check your e-mail from multiple computers you use, you must configure Microsoft Outlook to not delete the messages on your e-mail server. This scenario is most common for people who want to check their home Internet service provider (ISP)e-mail account from work and download the messages for permanent storage on their home computer.

When you leave messages on your Hosting e-mail server, you can choose from several options to delete your e-mail messages. To make your choice, you need to consider several factors about your e-mail usage, such as how long you want the e-mail messages to be accessible from multiple computers and the storage limits imposed by your e-mail server administrator. If you exceed your SoZo Hosting storage limit, you might be unable to receive new messages or might be charged additional fees. Typically, it is best to have one computer set to the default setting that doesn’t leave e-mail messages on the e-mail server. When you use the computer to retrieve your e-mail messages, they are downloaded and deleted from the e-mail server. If you choose not to do this, Outlook allows you to select a time duration for leaving e-mail messages on the server.
1.On the Tools menu, click E-mail Accounts.
2.Click View or change existing e-mail accounts, and then click Next.
3.Select your ISP account, and then click Change.
4.Click More Settings.
5.Click the Advanced tab, and under Delivery, select the Leave a copy of messages on the server check box.

6.Select one of the following options:
•Remove from server after x days E-mail messages are downloaded to your computer but remain on the e-mail server for the number of days that you specify. This is the most common setting for people who want to read their messages at work but also download them for permanent storage on their home computer. We recommend that you choose the smallest number of days that suits your needs. The longer you leave messages on your e-mail server, the greater the risk of exceeding your mailbox size quota.
•Remove from server when deleted from ‘Deleted Items’ E-mail messages are downloaded to your computer but also remain on the e-mail server indefinitely until you delete the e-mail message in Outlook and empty the Deleted Items folder. Just deleting the message doesn’t remove the message from the e-mail server.

If you do not select either check box, messages are left on the server indefinitely. You can eventually exceed your mailbox quota, unless you connect to the e-mail server from another computer that has Outlook configured to remove messages from the e-mail server.
7.Click OK, and then click Finish.

We will be posting many tips on managing your database as well as tips on managing your web hosting environment. This first tip is on MS SQL Server databases. Here you go –  free on us – compliments of http://www.sozohosting.com/ and also compliments of http://www.biznesstechnologies.com/ :

Web Hosting And Database Tip 1

It is your responsibility to control your MS SQL database log size. If it gets too big for the Size you have allotted then you will get an error in your application. You can fix this different ways. You could run this in a query window but this is a 1 time event:

BACKUP LOG YourDatabase WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY
DBCC SHRINKFILE(YourDatabase_log, 2)

Replace the text “YourDatabase” with your database name and replace the number 2 with the MB size you want to shrink your log file down to. Use 2 as your minimum as that will reduce your database log file to 2 MB. After replacing the text with your database name and setting the MB size of the log file, execute both SQL lines above together.

You could add this SQL call below to call if more often dynamically adding

BACKUP LOG YourDatabase WITH TRUNCATE_ONLY
DBCC SHRINKFILE(YourDatabase_log, 2)

in your application code, replacing the “YourDatabase” text with your database name and setting the size of the log file, and executing this SQL dynamically. Best case is to add these 2 lines of SQL script above to a stored procedure and schedule the stored procedure to run nightly. Of course you want to back your database up before your run this script if you want to maintain a copy of your full sized log file.

Or you could add a stored proc and call it on a regular basis after you run your database backups. Here is an example of a stored proc for MS SQL 2008 databases to shrink the log file to 1 MB:

USE [YourDatabase]
GO
/****** Object: StoredProcedure [dbo].[SRINK_Log_File_To_1MB] Script Date: 12/15/2011 10:00:32 ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
ALTER PROCEDURE [dbo].[SRINK_Log_File_To_1MB] AS
BEGIN

– Truncate the log by changing the database recovery model to SIMPLE.
ALTER DATABASE YourDatabase

SET RECOVERY SIMPLE

– Shrink the truncated log file to 1 MB.
DBCC SHRINKFILE (2, 1); — here 2 is the file ID for trasaction log file,you can also mention the log file name (dbname_log)

– Reset the database recovery model.
ALTER DATABASE YourDatabase

SET RECOVERY FULL

END

Here is a firm that is offering no set up fees for Microsoft Mail Exchange Hosting until the end of this 2011 year:

Exchange email is an enterprise email solution that offers a better way to share email, calendar and contact information so you can get more done. Sync your mobile devices, anti-spam and more.

For more information about this promotion, click on this link: Microsoft Mail Exchange Hosting

Here is a firm that is offering 2 months free on Windows, Linux, and Coldfusion Web Hosting until the end of this 2011 year:

Sozo Hosting provides so many different types of web hosting solutions. Our shared hosting plans include, Coldfusion hosting, Windows web hosting, Linux web hosting and WordPress blog hosting. Our shared hosting environments are carefully managed and run on a fast gigabit network backbone. Our knowledgeable staff is available 24/7 to help with any of your questions whether they are related to php or Coldfusion.

For more information, click on this link: http://www.sozohosting.com/hosting/

Here is a firm that provides excellent cloud hosting solutions:

Sozo Hosting provides enterprise Windows Cloud Hosting solutions. Each windows cloud server performs exactly like a stand-alone server with its own applications and users. The Windows Clould Server can be rebooted independently and has its own root access, users, memory, processes, files, applications, system libraries, IP addresses and configuration files.

Some of the benefits of Windows Cloud Hosting are that you can very rapidly add additional memory, processing power, disk space and additional systems as needed to your cloud environment

For more information, click on this link:  http://www.sozohosting.com/the-cloud/windows-the-cloud.cfm

SEO Tip 32: Yes!  I just completed a project that a customer was not in the top 100o positions in Google.  Now they are on page 1 of Google.  So yes, SEO programing works as long as you do it by the rules Google lays out. Click this link for Google SEO descriptions: Google SEO.

Most businesses are programming with SEO techniques so if you are not programming your web site for SEO, you might find new businesses are taking the ranking positions you used to have.

For more information click on this link: http://www.sozohosting.com/contact/search-engine-rankings.cfm

Frustrated with spending countless hours purchasing, deploying and managing your hardware, network and data center yourself? Managed Hosting Services will take care of those details for you at competitive rates. Managed Hosting Services provides you with the datacenter, redundant power, internet access, firewall security, servers, software licensing, backups and IT Staff. Instead of making a large financial investment in your own server hardware, software, network and security systems you can outsource your IT needs using Managed Hosting Services.

An example of an excellent firm to perform Managed Hosting Services for you is SoZo Hosting. SoZo Hosting has provided IT management and IT outsourcing to dozens of companies locally and nationwide.

Click on this link for more info: http://www.sozohosting.com/dedicated/managedhosting.cfm

White page web advertising is similar to putting your business in the old paper White Page Telephone book from years ago however most of today’s white pages are on line since few look at those old paper phone books anymore.

So why not list your business for free on web white pages?  Web White pages or white page online have so many more benefits than the old paper books since web surfers now have a link right to your web site to see the products and services you are promoting.  The free service listed below gives you 100 characters for a free ad caption that you can change as often as you desire –  YES FREE!  You get a free private advertising account to change your ad caption as often as desired on the web.

Click on this Free White Page Listing link to list your web site for FREE on 20+ business directories and multiple blog sites.

In order to set email alerts in Cacti you need to install the Cacti Plugin Architecture. This can be found at http://docs.cacti.net/manual:087:1_installation.9_pia#installing_plugins, this is a good document for instructions on how to install and add plugins. Once this is installed be sure to go under the Utilities section of Cacti and select User Management. Once in User Management you will need to select the users you would like to have the ability to set Thresholds. You would do this by selecting the user, go to the realm permissions tab, then put a check on the Thresholds you would like to allow the user to have access to. Next hit save and you are done.

Also I found a little gotcha on the installation that had me stuck for a few hours. When you are on the final stages of the installation of the plugin architecture make sure you have the settings plugin installed. This plugin should be set in the config.php as ($plugins[] = ’settings’; ) . Also you do not need to add other plugins to the config.php , just load them in the /cacti/plugins directory . Then once they are there go to the configuration section , plugin management and the plugin will appear.

Hope this helps!

Where is your website ranked in Google, Yahoo and Bing? Are you even in the top 100 positions?

Below is a firm that can help you. They have helped mamy customers get to page 1 on Google.

Write Up from SoZo Web Advertising Services:

Our Internet Advertising Division is here to help you increase your search engine rankings in the major Search Engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo. The first step is to choose your keyword search engine phrases that summarizes your firm.

Is your site programmed for SEO?(Search Engine Optimization).  It is time to increase your rankings!

We have tools to look up your keyword phrases and tell you how many times people are doing searches on those keywords phrases each month on Google. Our consulting services will then recommend to you some more keywords phrases that will help you in your search engine rankings.  After doing an analysis of your site and looking to see how much of your web site code has SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Programming in it, we can recommend the following steps:

1. Call us at 1-800-640-4892 extension 103 and we will do the above analysis for you for only $49.95 which includes an email to you (this email includes your web site meta tag analysis, your current search engine rankings and the number of times your keyword phrases are searched for in Google each month). When you call us we will ask you to sign up on a web advertising account with us.  We can help you sign up on this professional advertising service, (which is only $19.95/month — see this link Full Page Ad ) to give you a full page ad for your web site on 20+ business directories and over 30 blog sites. This web full page ad can edited as often as desired on your free web advertising account.. This full page ad web advertising service has tremendous benefits.  Click on this Full Page Ad Benefits link  for more information (all included in this $19.95/month flat rate).

2. After we do an analysis on your site in the above step, we will recommend one of the following plans of action:

Plan A (the Consulting Plan). We explain to you, where and how your keyword phrases are to be programmed into your web site. We explain to you how to add 2-4 additional web sites that help and not hinder your search engine rankings. The normal industry rate for this consulting is $100/hour however we will give you the special price of only $80/hour for the time that we are on the phone with you. The minimum charge is 1 hour and time is charged on the full hour.

Plan B (the Programming Plan). Do plan A (the Consulting Plan) above as well as actually design, program, and deploy the changes for your new website(s). We will scope out the hours it will take to add the new html pages, menus, links, css files, as well 2-4 additional web sites. We will give you the special price of only $80/hour and tell you the number of hours that are required to complete the project. We will charge your credit card the total amount up front before we begin programming on your web files.  We will email you the statistics of your Google rankings of how your ranked BEFORE we started the project and AFTER we finish the project, showing how your rankings have increased. The minimum charge is 8 hours as we need to add a minimum of 2 new web sites for you and 4-6 new web pages on each site.  This new web site will have your same logos as your main site. You will be required to submit to us 200 to 500 words of your own text for each new site added.

Search Engine Ranking has to be monitored and your site needs SEO tuning and tweaking each month based on the current competition to your web site found in Google, Bing and Yahoo. The new web site hosting fees for these 2 – 4 new sites and the new domain registration costs and the cost of your full page ad on over 20 business directories and over 30 blog sites is all included in the $49.95/monthly ongoing charge that we charge you at the start.

What is the Cloud? The cloud or cloud computing refers to the use and access of multiple server-based computational resources via a Internet connection using or the World Wide Web. Cloud users may access their server resources using a computer, netbook, tablet computer, smart phone, or other device. In cloud computing, applications are provided and managed by the cloud server and data is also stored remotely in the cloud configuration. Users do not download and install applications on their own device or computer; all processing and storage is maintained by the cloud server.

Load applications on your cloud server and then run them on all web brower platforms including your Iphone and Ipad. Sharing an applicatoin by running it in the clould means you even can print reports locally from that cloud application. Take time to rethink of applications that you can share across your company by putting them in the cloud saving huge amounts of time.

For more information click on this link: http://www.sozohosting.com/the-cloud/