🙂 Fast, Secure & Affordable Europe VPS by AlexHost!

🔴 Looking for powerful and cost-effective VPS hosting in Europe? AlexHost offers a variety of high-performance VPS plans to meet your business and personal hosting needs!

❓ What Makes AlexHost the Best Choice?

✅ Premium Data Centers — 6 Locations across Europe 📌
✅ DDoS Protection — Your data is safe🛡
✅ Full Root Access — Total server control 🗝
✅ Instant Deployment — Get started in minutes ⏱

🔍 Test Before You Buy — Looking Glass:

📍 Moldova: Looking Glass
📍 Netherlands: Looking Glass
📍 Sweden: Looking Glass
📍 Bulgaria: Looking Glass
📍 Switzerland: Looking Glass
📍 France: Looking Glass

💳 Use Promocode: ALEXEU to get 10% discount. Harry up, it won’t last forever!

🚶‍♂️ Join thousands of happy customers and experience the best VPS hosting in Europe today! 🍾

Unmatched Bandwidth — 10 Gbps
Our dedicated servers are equipped with 10 Gbps network interfaces, ensuring lightning-fast data transmission and consistent service performance, even during peak traffic. Say goodbye to lags and fears of website or application overloads.

10 Gbps options with AlexHost

10 Gbps (99 TB): For just 75 EUR/month, on top of your server rental, this plan grants you 99 TB of bandwidth per month, delivering a significantly more stable and reliable connection than shared bandwidth. While the 99 TB limit provides substantial capacity, it’s important to note that exceeding this threshold may incur additional charges. Ideal for businesses seeking fast, dependable connections with a reasonable data cap.

10 Gbps Unmetered: For those who demand the highest performance and no limitations, this premium option is priced at 2,000 EUR/month. With truly unmetered bandwidth, you get unlimited data transfer with no caps or throttling, ensuring a seamless experience. Perfect for enterprises that require consistent, high-speed connectivity without the worry of overage fees.

Unmatched Bandwidth — 10 Gbps
Our dedicated servers are equipped with cutting-edge 10 Gbps network interfaces, designed to handle even the most demanding workloads with ease. This level of bandwidth ensures:

• Lightning-Fast Data Transfer: Whether you’re hosting high-traffic websites, managing resource-intensive applications, or running large-scale data transfers, 10 Gbps guarantees the speed you need. Your users will enjoy seamless experiences with no delays.
• Uninterrupted Performance During Peak Traffic: Handle traffic spikes effortlessly, whether it’s a sudden influx of visitors to your e-commerce platform, a live-streaming event, or heavy API usage. Our 10 Gbps servers maintain consistent performance even under the heaviest loads.

When you choose our servers, you’re empowered with complete administrative control over your hosting environment. This means you have unrestricted access to configure and manage the server according to your business or project needs. Whether it’s installing custom software, optimizing performance for specific applications, or creating tailored configurations, the server is yours to command.

Key benefits of full control

• Custom Operating Systems: Install your preferred OS, be it Linux or Windows, to suit your application requirements.
• Root Access: Enjoy full root or admin-level access, allowing you to control every aspect of your server’s performance and features.
• Scalability: Customize resources such as CPU, RAM, and storage to grow as your business evolves.

IPv4 and IPv6 Compatibility
Each server comes with dedicated IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, ensuring compliance with current and future internet standards and protocols.

Low Latency and Peak Performance

Latency, or the time it takes for data to travel from one point to another, can significantly impact your user experience. With our state-of-the-art data center strategically located in multiple regions, we ensure minimal latency, delivering lightning-fast communication between your server and your users, no matter where they are.

• Faster Load Times: Reduced latency results in quicker page loads, improving user satisfaction and engagement.
• Real-Time Data Processing: Ideal for applications that require quick data processing, such as online gaming, financial services, and real-time analytics.

Flexible Configuration and Scalability
Our servers are designed for seamless scalability — whether it’s upgrading memory, processors, or implementing custom software and security measures. This makes them the perfect choice for growing businesses.

https://youtu.be/T9kDn7ZD55I

🎃 Introducing Terrifyingly Great Offers In Celebration Of Halloween 👻

☠️ Use promo codes and get up to 33% discount on our services! Grab the offers here , available till 3 November only 💀

🧟‍♀️ This Halloween season, AlexHost offers budget-friendly hosting plans perfect for launching your website 🧟

🧛 Ideal for beginners and small businesses, our plans include a free SSL certificate, 24/7 support, and all the tools you need to grow your online presence 🧛‍

💀 Have questions? Reach us on: Telegram Live Chat

AlexHost — Spooky Holidays become delightful 🎃

How to Upload an SSH Public Key to an Existing VPS

AlexHost using SSH keys is one of the most secure and efficient ways to handle authentication. If you have an existing VPS and want to switch to using SSH keys (or add a new key), it’s a straightforward process that improves security by allowing passwordless login. In this guide, we’ll walk you through how to upload an SSH public key to an existing VPS, ensuring that future logins are secure and simple.

Why Use SSH Keys?

SSH keys are widely used for securing access to remote servers. They offer several advantages over traditional passwords:

• Stronger Security: SSH keys use cryptographic authentication, which is significantly harder to crack than even strong passwords.
• Passwordless Login: Once set up, SSH keys allow you to log into your server without typing a password.
• Protection Against Brute Force Attacks: By eliminating passwords, SSH keys prevent brute force attacks aimed at guessing login credentials.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, you’ll need:

1. Access to your existing VPS: This means you can currently log into the VPS using SSH, likely with a password.
2. An SSH key pair: If you don’t have one, we’ll cover how to generate it.
3. Basic knowledge of SSH commands: Familiarity with the command line interface (CLI) is required.

Step 1: Generate an SSH Key Pair (If You Don’t Have One)

If you don’t already have an SSH key pair on your local machine, you can create one. Here’s how:

Open a terminal on your local machine (macOS or Linux) and run the following command:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"

This command will create a 4096-bit RSA encryption key pair. During the process, you’ll be asked where to save the key:

• Press Enter to save the key to the default location (~/.ssh/id_rsa).
• Optionally, add a passphrase for an extra layer of security (recommended), or press Enter to skip this step.

This process generates two files:

• id_rsa: Your private key (keep this secure and never share it).
• id_rsa.pub: Your public key (this is what you’ll upload to the server).

Next, display the public key so you can copy it:

ssh root@your_vps_ip

Copy the output (your public key), as you’ll need it in the next step.

Step 2: Log into Your VPS

To add your new SSH public key to the virtual machine, you’ll need to log into it using the current method (either with a password or an existing key). Open your terminal and run:

ssh root@your_vps_ip

Replace your_vps_ip with the actual IP address of your VPS. If you’re logging in with a different user account (not root), replace root with the appropriate username.

Step 3: Create the .ssh Directory (If It Doesn’t Exist)

Once logged in, ensure that the .ssh directory exists for the user account you’re using. If it doesn’t exist, create it with the following command:

mkdir -p ~/.ssh
chmod 700 ~/.ssh

This command creates the .ssh directory and sets the correct permissions so that only the current user can access it.

Step 4: Add the Public Key to the authorized_keys File

Now that you have the .ssh directory in place, you need to upload your SSH public key to the VPS by adding it to the authorized_keys file. This file contains the public keys that are allowed to authenticate against the server.

1. Open the authorized_keys file using a text editor, such as nano:

nano ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

If the file doesn’t exist, this command will create it.

2. Paste your public SSH key (the one you copied from id_rsa.pub earlier) into the file. Right-click or use the terminal’s paste function to insert the key.

3. Save and close the file by pressing Ctrl + X, then Y, and hit Enter.

4. Set the correct permissions on the authorized_keys file:

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

This step ensures that the file is accessible only to the current user.

Step 5: Test the SSH Key Login

After adding your SSH key to the VPS, you should test the setup to ensure that you can log in without a password.

1. Log out of the current SSH session by typing:

exit

2. Now, try logging back into the VPS using your SSH key:

ssh root@your_vps_ip

If everything is set up correctly

3. , you will be logged into the VPS without being prompted for a password.

Step 6 (Optional): Disable Password Authentication

For additional security, you can disable password-based authentication, allowing only users with an SSH key to access the VPS. This step is optional but recommended for environments where security is a priority.

To disable password authentication:

1. Open the SSH configuration file on your VPS:

nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

2. Find the following lines in the configuration file and make sure they are set as follows:

PasswordAuthentication no
PubkeyAuthentication yes

3. Save and close the file by pressing Ctrl + X, then Y, and hit Enter.

4. Restart the SSH service to apply the changes:

systemctl restart sshd

Now, only users with a valid SSH key will be able to log into the VPS.

Step 7: Managing Multiple SSH Keys

If you manage multiple VPS or remote servers, you may want to organize your SSH keys and configure your ~/.ssh/config file for convenience. Here’s an example configuration that allows you to specify different SSH keys for different servers:

Host myvps HostName your_vps_ip
User root
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

After adding this to your SSH config file (~/.ssh/config), you can simply log in with:

ssh myvps

Conclusion

Adding an SSH public key to an existing VPS significantly enhances the security of your remote server while simplifying the login process. By following this guide, you can easily upload your SSH public key and configure your VPS for passwordless login. For added security, consider disabling password authentication entirely, ensuring that only authorized SSH keys can access your VPS. This setup not only protects your server from unauthorized access but also streamlines your workflow by eliminating the need to enter passwords each time you log in.

Is not only privacy that you will gain, but you will make it more secure and harder for people who want to track your steps online, however it is still possible to track you. Using other methods, nothing can make you fully anonymous, but you can make it harder to find your hosting by hiding hosting information for a website that will help you and will prevent you from being easily tracked.

How to host anonymous website on the Internet?

First you need to use Offshore Hosting that takes care of your information and secure your information without providing it easily. Offshore Hosting is not illegal, people usually associate offshore hosting with illegal activity, that is not true. Offshore Hosting is a country that allows you to have freedom of speech or a certain level of privacy, for example Governments that track you online, what you do and all your internet activity and don’t allow you to post or talk about them is not allowed at all. That is Offshore Hosting, they probably (most) of them allow you to do freedom of speech and protect your privacy and your website stays up.

How to hide your hosting information of your website?

There are many ways to hide hosting information for a website online, you need to use the right tools and to avoid the maximum exposure. That means that you should use anonymous services, offshore hosting. You can use Alexhost Hosting. We protect customers’ information in our services like Alexhost VPS, Web Hosting, Dedicated Servers for freedom of speech and privacy. But that is not the question, what to do to hide your hosting information? To do it, you need to do this few steps:

1. Use a CDN

Using a CDN (Content Delivery Network) like Cloudflare will allow you to hide your backend IP of your Hosting Provider, of course it won’t protect you fully, but will allow you to protect your website from someone to know the real location of your hosting. But of course, it is possible by contacting them. In such cases you should use reliable alternatives like DDoS-Guard the alternative for the cloudflare.

2. Reverse Proxy

This is one best way to hide hosting information for a website, your traffic will go to reverse proxy which will send the traffic to your backend IP, your hosting information is hidden by the reverse proxy, people will think that you are hosting in X or Y hosting, but in fact that is just a reverse proxy, by default the hosting providers can’t access or shouldn’t access your server without permission. This is a slightly harder method. You can use Alexhost VPS or Alexhost Dedicated Servers to make your own reverse proxy. However, some people know techniques to track your backend server IP.

2.1 How you can create reverse proxy

You can create reverse proxy using a VPS or Dedicated server, take a look in our VPS Hosting. You can create reverse proxy through this:

• Nginx
• HAProxy
• Apache / Tomcat

3. Cloudflare & Reverse proxy

This method is one of best, since it will make it more harder to find your backend IP, you can use DDoS-Guard (instead of Cloudflare for example, doesn’t need to be cloudflare), but since Cloudflare have free plan, that is more suitable for you. How this works? Well

As you can see in the graph above, this works in this way. You use your Internet (obviously) when you go to your website it will be doing this Cloudflare -> Reverse Proxy (hides your backend IP) -> Backend IP (origin server). You can do many reverse proxies but remember that your loading can be longer than expected. But that is possible to reverse if you do load balancing.

4. Use other DNS

Don’t use DNS from your domain provider, well you can do it. But if you want to make it a little more harder (not so hard for those who have know-how), using a Private DNS will make it more suitable for you, with more features and probably DDoS Protection, fast loading and improvement of your performance worldwide.

Few DNS Solutions to check:

• Cloudflare — Also allows that and Cloudflare is not only a CDN but also has free WAF (Web Application Firewall) but of course it is limited.
• DDoS-Guard — Is another solution but is paid. They have WAF Protection and they also have CDN, this is a good solution and good alternative to Cloudflare services, DDoS-Guard also hides your backend IP, that is possible also.
• CloudDNS — They have been in the market many years, they provide many features and ddos protected DNS servers for those who are constantly attacked.
• Imperva — This is a paid solution, is more used for business and big companies in the world, since the pricing isn’t visible. But also hides your backend IP. Imperva also provides DDoS Protection

5. Don’t expose your mail servers.

Usually users don’t know that and some of them are aware of this dangerous leak. Don’t let your backend IP exposed through mail servers, because they will know that by checking your DNS records and they will find your mail servers.

How to avoid exposing your mail servers.

Don’t use your own VPS where the website is hosted in. Instead of that you can use Gmail servers, Protonmail servers and other servers to do it and yes you can use other VPS to host your own mail servers and prevent people to know it. Or you can’t not use any mail servers! That is your choice. You can just add your mail information in the website and that’s!

Check your DNS records for IP Leak:

• DNSDumpster — You can check your domain DNS records using this tools, please you don’t need to use https or www, just use example.com domain and you will track all dns records available, if your IP is there even if you use cloudflare that means that your backend IP is exposed.
• Robtex — Is a smart tool to track online users, robtex is more used for investigations and for people who want to know more about you, since they have several tools for free. Note that your “old records” can be tracked and saved in their database, notice that before doing it.
• dnschecker — DNSChecker will do that for you, this tool allows you to select which records you can search by “all” or just by one that you should be interested in.
• Manually — You can check your DNS records through Windows Commands, Linux Terminal they are limited in some cases, but it is possible to have other tools integrated and make it more powerful. But for basic search is easy take a look by using a command line (CMD) or Terminal in both OS:
• Windows use: nslookup thewebsiteyouwant(.)com
• Linux use: host -a thewebsiteyouwant(.)com

Conclusion:

There are several tools to do that, some of them we didn’t publish but since there are many solutions over the corner, now you know how to hide hosting information for a website online and which tools allow you that.

Do you want to create a very fast wordpress server and make it faster than ever? In this article we will tell you how you can make a fast way to create wordpress site, secure and reliable for your VPS.

With this Stack and bash scripts it will help you to build and fast way to create wordpress site with Secure, reliable and fast (includes caching like Redis or Fastcgi with Nginx!), not only that but your server will be secure with SSL / TLS and Web server like Nginx hardening prepared for high traffic websites and fast loading, performance and deployment.

1# First to do is..

Choose your VPS! Yes, you can take a look in Alexhost VPS, have many plans of VPS Managed or Unmanaged VPS, however if you want to be the boss. Use VPS Unmanaged it will provide you freedom and you will be the boss, that means you will manage, install and configure it by yourself. That is what you need to create a very fast wordpress server in your VPS

We recommend a VPS with 2GB RAM or 4GB RAM for this, 1.5GB RAM can be enough but make sure that you have more RAM if your website is bigger and receives many traffic and requests.

IMPORTANT: Before start or trying to do anything make sure:

• That your OS is compatible with any of this stacks (check their requirements in their website)
• That your hardware is enough to deploy a WordPress website (don’t forget installation of redis, nginx, php and other tools uses space, cpu and RAM!)
• Make sure you have enough RAM to run your stack + your wordpress with files (images, videos etc)

2# Choose the best WordPress Stack for you

WordOps

This is an excellent choice, since it is regularly updated and doesn’t require high knowledge about server management, just a bit of code execution commands. Something that you can learn on their website and guides. This WordPress Stack will make your WordPress flying, faster and secure with security hardening and Nginx configuration is ready on the fly for you.

Requirements:

requires Ubuntu Server 18.04/20.04/22.04 or Debian 10/11

**To be installed requires that OS to work, otherwise it won’t work.

Benefits of WordOps:

• Fast Deployment (Fast and automated WordPress, Nginx, PHP, MySQL & Redis installation)
• Custom Nginx build (Nginx 1.22.0 — TLS v1.3 Cloudflare HTTP/2 HPACK & Brotli support)
• WordPress Hardening (Hardened WordPress security with strict Nginx location directives)
• SSL / TLS (Domain, Subdomain & Wildcard Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates handled by acme.sh)
• Monitoring (Live Nginx vhost traffic with ngx_vts and server monitoring with Netdata)And many but many features will come soon and in next updates for sure, this is a great WordPress Stack to choose!

Slickstack

What is SlickStack? It’s a super and secure lightweight collection of bash scripts (and cron jobs) for deploying Nginx cloud servers for new or old WordPress and other PHP-based CMS that is lightning-fast and incredibly secure. SlickStack is a good alternative to WordOps, this is a good stack to use and to help you to build your website faster than others.

SlickStack vs WordOps: Which one will you choose?

**This table was created by SlickStack and all credits go to them!

Why choose SlickStack?

They also use Nginx hardening, Cache and optimized WordPress, not just optimized like Hardening WordPress and Nginx that will make your web server and CMS more secure than regular and default installations in new servers.

EasyEngine

EasyEngine is another Stack script to help you install WordPress and deploy faster and secure your WordPress with security, hardening and all Nginx configuration, currently is side-to-side with WordOps, but is more compatible with many OS and provides other solutions for your cases, not only for WordPress but also for Nginx Custom vhost and many features! But is a great WordPress Stack secure, fast and reliable it definetly will create a very fast wordpress server for you.

Features of EasyEngine

EasyEngine Features comes with many features for your WordPress servers with many already implemented like security patches and hardening, this is what EasyEngine have as features:

• EasyEngine Features:
• Let’s Encrypt — HTTPS with wildcard and auto-renewal support
• Complete Setup — Install WordPress, Nginx, PHP, MySQL, Redis & deps
• For WordPress — WordPress object & full-page cache support
• Admin Tools — PhpMyAdmin, Redis web viewer & more
• WP-Cli — Every WordPress site has WP-CLI by default
• Freedom — EasyEngine uses MIT license. More power to you!
  **Note: features are provided by EasyEngine website.

Which Stack should I choose for my WordPress?

In our opinion, choose the most active and those still in development, because they can fix bugs, errors, vulnerabilities and provide better features and for sure disable dangerous and old deprecated functions. But that won’t make the difference if you don’t use a good VPS with good RAM and good Cores will help your stack be more reliable! Check Alexhost VPS for your cases, if you don’t have knowledge we can install it for you!

How to install WordOps, SlickStack, EasyEngine?

In their websites you just need to follow their commands, it is very basic and does everything for you, it is very easy to do. But if you don’t have time or if you don’t want to do that, please check Alexhost VPS Managed, we will do it for you (if you request of course). We can help you with that.

Conclusion: Any choice will have benefits, but Alexhost can’t guarantee that this will make magic for you (probably this will make your website faster than default apache installation for sure), is easy to use and provides many features to manage like Phpmyadmin, Redis and Nginx fastcgi for your website! Amazing right? Contact Alexhost if you want to have it installed in your VPS with your new website through WordPress! Any of this suggestions will help you to create a very fast wordpress server in your Virtual Private Server (VPS).

Today the AlexHost.com team is raising an important question about the domain name. We decided to dwell on this issue in detail.

We all know the addresses of the streets where we live, we all remember the addresses of our offices, but are we ready to memorize a complex algorithm of numbers, letters, signs in order to visit the sites we need?

A domain is a unique name, address, directory, which is the Internet address of a website or any other Internet resource. Domain, allows users to access a website or any other resource by simply typing the domain name in a web browser into the search box, instead of having to remember a complicated numerical algorithm IP address (Internet protocol address) — a device’s unique address. (usually a computer/server) connected to a local network or the Internet).

The main purpose of a domain is to identify the uniqueness of a web resource on the Internet.

Where is a domain name used and what is it for?

A domain name is a tool that is provided to the user for the convenience of remembering a complex root address, and a tool for gaining access to a certain unique web resource. This name is used to identify or recognize web resources.

What is a domain name made up of?

A domain name consists of two independent parts, but both are very important in their own way: a top-level domain (TLD) and a second-level domain (SLD).

TLD (top-level domain) is the final part of a domain name that indicates the type or purpose of a web resource, for example:

• .com — mostly resources for commercial use
• .org — resources for various organizations
• .gov — resources for government and public services
• .edu — mainly resources for educational institutions

SLD (Second Level Domain) — The main part of the domain, usually displaying the brand name or service name, for example, in the domain name “www.peace.com“

• peace is SLD,
• .com is a TLD.

Together, these two parts make up a fully qualified domain name, which serves as a unique identifier for a web resource on the Internet.

Can I buy and register a domain?

Anyone can purchase a domain name without any difficulty. What’s more, you can register a domain even if you don’t have a website. Many people and companies do this for future use, to protect their desired domain name before someone else does. Domain names can be registered and purchased from registrars (ICANN authorized naming and numbering companies, one of which is AlexHost.com).

To buy and register a domain, you need to follow these steps:

• go to AlexHost.com, go to the domain names section (https://alexhost.com/domains/)
• choose a domain name that is easy to remember, write, and relevant to your business (remember: short domain names are usually easier to remember, this is also very important!)
• find out if your desired domain name is available with the check tool. We recommend using the WHOIS directory (https://www.whois.com/whois/catalog.com), which is a publicly accessible data directory containing information about already registered domain names and the persons or organizations that own them.
• some domain names may not be available for purchase because they may already be registered by someone else, so you may need to select a different domain name or consider other alternative TLD values.
• choose AlexHost.com as a reliable domain registrar that will take care of your registration, place an order: https://alexhost.com/domains/
• after paying for the order, AlexHost.com will provide you with the DNS settings that you need to configure in order to associate your domain name with the web resource
• after completing the above steps, you will successfully register your domain name.

IMPORTANT! you will need to renew your domain registration when it expires in order to continue using it.

What are IDN domains and where are they used?

IDNs or internationalized domain names containing non-Latin characters such as Arabic, Chinese, or Cyrillic. This allows native language domain names to be used, which empowers and makes the Internet more accessible and convenient for non-English speakers.

How many years can I own a domain?

Most often, the term of ownership of a domain name is directly tied to the terms of the contract with the registrar company. As a rule, one year of ownership of a domain name is taken as a basis, with the possibility of annual renewal.

It’s important to keep an eye on your domain name’s expiration date and renew it in a timely manner so you don’t lose it. The Alexhost.com team always takes care of their customer as well, and we notify our customers in advance of the deadline for completing the registration date. What is also important in the relationship between the client and our company.

Can I transfer the purchased domain to another hosting service provider?

You can transfer a domain name from one hosting provider to another without any problems, unless there is a minimum period for keeping a domain with a registrar, and it is at least 60 days. This process usually involves a sequence of several steps, including unlocking the domain name, obtaining an authorization code, and providing the new registrar with information and the right to transfer.

Before transferring a domain, it’s important to research and compare the features and prices of different hosting providers to make sure you’re making the decision that best suits your needs. It is also important to carefully read and understand the terms and conditions of the new hosting provider to ensure that you are aware of any restrictions or requirements for using their services.

Once you have decided to transfer your domain to a new hosting provider, you will usually need to initiate the transfer process through the new registrar. The new registrar will then take over the transfer process and provide you with any additional information or instructions you need.

It is important to note that the domain name transfer process can take several days, during which time the domain may be unavailable or there may be temporary downtime.

Our company is ready to provide you with such a service, we will take care of high-quality service, offer the most convenient and favorable conditions. You can find the service on our website: AlexHost.com

How to properly secure your domain name?

It is important to take a few steps to help you secure your domain name:

• monitor your domain name, check your domain name regularly to make sure it is being used for its intended purpose and not being used for any malicious activities.
• be vigilant against phishing and other cyber threats.
• if your domain name is a trademark, consider registering it with the appropriate authorities to enhance your legal protection.

By following these important steps, you’ll protect your domain name and make sure it’s a safe asset to your business and online presence.

Conclusion

In closing, a domain name is a critical aspect of your online presence and it’s important to choose a domain name that accurately represents your brand and is easy to remember.

You can buy a domain from various registrars, including AlexHost.com. We offer a range of domain name options, as well as web hosting and email services, to help you easily set up and manage your online presence.

Do you want to create a blog website? Do you want to know how to start a successful blog or how to start a blog for free and make money, we will discuss how you can start a new blog for your business or personal blogging.

How do i start a blog?

Well, we aren’t gonna lie to you! To start a blog you need some money because nothing is really free, every product or service is limited in certain aspects, then you will be the “product” if you know what we mean with that, if they can sell or resell your information, because nothing is free. To start a blog you need to invest some money, probably less than 20–50€ one time, this is the first cost to start a blog.

How to make a successful blog?

A Successful blog starts with Quality, yes you heard right, quality! But which kind of quality? Quality of content! You need to make high quality content for your users and visitors to be able to read everything with good content, images, texts and useful information. Be the king!

To make a successful blog you also need to check this points

• Theme / Design — You may need a good theme / design for your blog, you can’t just make it simple. You need to think that people loves simple blogs, but not bad. Being simple is not bad, but don’t keep it simple or basic, use a excellent design prepared for Mobile UI and other devices, light theme design is the best choice for you always.
• Content — This is the NUMBER ONE you should focus on, which content you will post? Which niche? You need to think about this carefully. Do special content, exclusive content that your competitors don’t do or can’t do. Do you have special contacts? Informations? Great! That is a good way to start. For example Football Transfers of Players if you have exclusive and unique information that is a good way to start a successful blog!
• Hosting + Domain — Yes you will need to buy a Hosting it can be VPS Hosting, Web Hosting Shared, Dedicated servers, whatever you want. You need this to make your website online everyday! Why not check Alexhost VPS Managed Hosting Plans or LiteSpeed Web Hosting? The domain you will need to choose which name your blog will have, can be anything you want. Why not purchase a Domain Name from Alexhost? You can buy a domain with us!
• SEO — You should add SEO Keywords in your blog text to people who are searching to find you more easily, you need to write good quality content with images and good amount of text. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) will help you to rank better in Google and get more traffic! This is very important, you can’t skip.
• Marketing — You need to start thinking how you will advertise your blog right? Create content, advertise in Social media, share with friends, share in other apps of chats and many more! If you can spend some money, advertise it through social media and Google Adwords or Facebook Ads or Instagram Ads. This is the last phase for you, but you need to take this into consideration.
• SSL — Google recognizes this as important. You need to have SSL in your website! This guarantees that your connection is secured and “encrypted” with your clients, users and visitors. This is a must! Want a green SSL? You can buy SSL Certificates from Alexhost, don’t worry about it! We have it for you and we also have free SSL in our LiteSpeed Web Hosting with no costs for you!

How to create a blog website

Yes, we know that you are thinking, like but how to start a successful blog? Well now you need to choose the platform to create a blog website, CMS (Content Manager System) is what you will need to use, there are many free options with many features.

Choose your CMS is how do you start a blog:

WordPress — This CMS is the most used in the world, we can tell you that WordPress is the CMS most used in many companies, journalism, bloggers and websites are using this CMS to create or start a blog, and is easy to setup and maintain.

Joomla — This CMS is like WordPress, but has features that WordPress doesn’t have and features that WordPress have, anyway this is a good CMS to create and start a blog, Joomla is one of main competitors of WordPress! Amazing features also.

Drupal — This CMS is not for everyone since it is used for many things, is a little complex but works fine and if you want a professional website, you should take a look at this one! We promise that you will love it, but don’t think it is easy. This is for those who want to adventure in other CMS.

Ghost — Ghost CMS is a free and open-source, self-hosting CMS for blogging. they focus on simplicity, SEO and useful features, this is a nice one! We recommend it, but it is not recommended for beginners, unless you want something professional, exclusive and different. This is a very good CMS, not very well known in the market but what do you want, like how to start a successful blog? Ghost CMS might be the answer, being different is the key!

DLE — Data Life Engine is a paid CMS but you have a free version of course is limited! If you want a lightweight CMS this is your best alternative, they aren’t very well known in the market, specially Europe. But we promise they are good. Your website will load fast, because this CMS is very light and runs smoothly. This CMS is more known in other countries like Russia, France, China and other markets. But it is a good way to start a successful blog.

How to make money with a blog for beginners?

Yes, now we will cover this part. You want to know how to make money with a blog for beginners right?
Notice that to make money with a blog for begginers this may take sometime!

How to make money from the blog?

Yes that is possible, like Youtubers and other people. To make money with your blog you need to make great articles, SEO, Marketing when you start to have traffic from Search Engines, Social Media (note: this take time!) you will know here how to make money with a blog for beginners in few steps with useful information

How to make money with a blog with Ads Networks:

• Ads — You will need to use Ads like Popups, Banners from Publishers Networks like PopCash, Adcash, Google Adsense and others in order to get clicks, impressions or interaction. That is one way to make money from the blog but don’t abuse it! Visitors don’t like websites full of ads.
• Affiliate Programs — Choosing the right affiliate program for your niche like Clothing, Stores, Shoes, Pet shop, Casino you place a banner or link in your website and you earn by commission per sale or other! It depends on the program and their methods of working. Affiliate marketing is a good way to start making money with blogs.
• Partnerships — You don’t need to put any banner, you can make a partnership with some company, they pay you to create articles or review something, that is wonderful. If you are a non-profit organization they can probably give you something to start a blog like Hosting or Domain name, they can support the ideas and make partnership with you, both parts earn in these cases!
• Premium or VIP membership — This is another way, having premium content and exclusive content for paid members, users you can earn from this way! It all depends on what you want to do and your niche and of course depends on the exclusives you want to put on an exclusive account.
• Selling Service / Product — Well this is not new, but it is another way to make money, selling things and accessories of your brand even if it is not your niche, you can sell this to your fans, visitors, readers. There are many ways to sell, unless you are a shop this makes a lot of sense and is normal, but it can also be applied to blogs!

Tip: Why not check our blog post about how to create a store online this will help you also to build a blog + store which can be good for your SEO and Marketing.

Conclusion: Alexhost knows that this may be a little confusing for beginners, but there is useful information there which will allow you in how to start a successful blog, how to start a blog for free and make money and how to create a blog website. This article might be useful in such cases. Alexhost is here to help you, we have Managed VPS which we can install any of this CMS for you and manage the server for you. You can relax, let Alexhost.com do that for you. You can also use our LiteSpeed Web Hosting if you are adventurous and want to start by yourself. Is not as hard as you think.

Some ways on how to protect your server from hackers, applying on your server and practicing good security will be a very good thing to prevent and know how to protect server from hackers in Linux and other systems.

We have to be honest when it comes to server protection, good security hygiene is necessary, there is no such thing as a bulletproof system where no one can access it. This will always be a game of cat and mouse, where whoever has better technical knowledge, qualifications and experience will win, but it is possible to make the access more difficult and protect the server from some attacks and prevent it!

We will tearch you how to protect server from hackers in Linux by appling a good security pratice, please note this won’t be “enough” but will be better than do nothing.

Why is important to protect your server from hackers?

It is always better than ending up with a compromised server and all your and your customers’ information being exposed on the internet and compromised. And that is not good neither for the client nor for any company. This can be very bad for your company reputation, clients / customers and all information of your company like employeers.

Did you know…

Almost every day there are intrusion attempts on the servers?
Many hackers look for easy servers or use social engineering to penetrate servers?
Did you know that many people scan IPs to know which types of ports are open or closed? Did you know that this is dangerous?

Did you know that your server is the target of attacks on a daily, weekly basis? Sometimes more than 100 attempts!

Here are some solutions to prevent and how to protect server from hackers:

1 — Change your SSH port.

By default, your SSH port usually is 22 in most systems. It isn’t good to use the default port for everything, since hackers and some blackhat people knows certainly that the default port is the “main target” from bad intentioned people, then change the server port and change it to another to make it harder to access, this will not prevent an attack but it may prevent and help prevent and make it harder in certain aspects.

2 — Disable root logins and passwords and use only SSH Key Auth.

People by habit often use passwords for everything and this is not always good, did you know that you can avoid this? Just disable root access and password and start using key authentication known as “ssh keys” which will greatly increase your security and that of your server, as long as you don’t share the key with anyone!

3 — Install Firewall

Installing a firewall is essential, I would say important and critical on the server side, it is important to have port filtering and blocking of certain ports. We recommend that you do the following.

3.1 Close ports that you do not use or do not use (i.e. that are useless), it is better to block and close them!

CAUTION: Be careful, don’t block ports like port 80 or 443, this can stop your server from working, because port 80 is used for direct connection with your web server. So be careful!

3.2 Limit login attempts for longer than 4h with email notification and always register.

This will give you time to know and prevent unwanted access and can also be useful in case someone tries to access your server. This will notify you, if you want to be more practical make 3 attempts and apply a block for more hours like 24h or more.

3.3 Types of firewalls for linux that you can install and use:

• UFW (most common)
• IPFire
• CSF (ConfigServer Security and Firewall)
• Pfsense
• Smoothwall
• 4. Types of ways to block brute force attacks.
• Install any of those services to help you to protect your SSH Logins and server.
• CSF (ConfigServer Security and Firewall)
• Fail2ban (one of best)
• SSHGuard
• Crowdsec (one of best, currently being competitive with fail2ban)

Alexhost recommends you check CSF, Fail2ban and Crowdsec all of those provide good security and protect your server if it is very well configured. Install any of those and prevent anything from happening, it isn’t bulletproof but can definitely provide good security and prevent attempts.

• Block certain ISPs of Spamming, Brute Force, Hacking

Block IPs and IP blocks of ISPs and service providers and even IPs from countries with higher incidence rate, i.e…. Do an analysis and check which countries are always creating attempts to penetrate your server. Block them, usually there is always one country or another that stands out in this, if you don’t need it and it’s not a country you will work in you can block and prevent further headaches. Prevention is better than ending up being targeted.

• Using a non-root user to SSH into the server

That is one of best ways to avoid using “root” for everything, change it, and prevent it from happening. Using a non-root user to manage your servers will prevent many issues that can end with your work. Be smart and choose the security rather than be hacked or targeted by someone else. Disable root login and use other methods.

Alexhost recommends its clients and users to prevent on…

Well there are several ways to prevent it, another way is to use two-step authentication, this will help a lot and prevent many attacks from succeeding even if they manage to get in, with double authentication it will be much more complicated! And that’s the idea, is to prevent and make it as difficult as possible. Because there are no totally safe systems, there are always ways to do damage, prevention is the best thing to do on your server.

Our company Alexhost recommends to all customers to practice good security, it goes without saying that you should use strong and long passwords, easy passwords will facilitate the access of intruders! Don’t do this, ever. Use strong and long passwords whenever possible, preferably not known and unique. Need help? Alexhost have VPS Managed and Dedicated Servers with management, with will allow you to save time and we will harden your server and do this for you.

Are you looking for other services? Alexhost have it for you, check our other products:

LiteSpeed Hosting — Doesn’t need a lot of knowledge and comes with free SSL and cPanel + LiteSpeed technology web server.

VPS (Unmanaged and Managed) — You can apply this in your server or managed services will do it for you.

Dedicated Servers

VPN — Hide your IP and protect you from being a target when you are browsing

Alexhost have many products and services, you can contact us when you want and we will help you to choose the best solution for you, check our Alexhost Homepage, we also have many payment methods.

Conclusion:

This is a good way in how to protect server from hackers. There is no foolproof way to prevent any intrusion, the best security is prevention, being aware and reading the login logs whenever possible and of course making regular backups. Don’t trust people you don’t know or give your server password or key to someone you don’t know! Alexhost is proud to help every client and customer that are with us.

We want to you know that we are here not only for you, but for everyone who needs us. Alexhost guarantees that your privacy and security will be stable, secure and reliable with us. We take this seriously.

How to set up an online shop

First, to create, for example, how to setup your own online store, you will need to think about which kind of store it will be. For example you may think about how to set up an online clothing store or ecommerce website store. Let’s think that you want to create an online clothing store to sell t-shirts, hoodies or anything (again, this is a example!), you need to know how much does it cost to set up online store and of course you can afford that for the next few months? Good question! Ah?

1 — Find which kind of Store you want.

Yes, you need to know which kind of Store you want to create, for example do you want to create or know how to set up an online clothing store or how much does it cost to set up online store?
After you decide which kind of store you want to create, you need to choose which one are more affordable for you and never forget do you have knowledge in Computers and Browsing? Then you will need to go with a AIO (All-In-One) solution to avoid that lack of knowledge for example.

2 — How much is your budget?

To create a good store, we don’t lie you will need some budget to have success and to maintain the store online. Well, you can use free options like free hosting but it won’t work well in the next months or years. Now that you have your niche or which store you will want to create in your mind, you need to think about how much does it cost to set up online store? Not a lot. You will need a Hosting.

We suggest you take a look in our LiteSpeed Web Hosting, need something more powerful? Thinking of having the best speeds and performance? Use our Virtual Private Servers (VPS), isn’t enough? Do you need more storage? Do you want to be king? Use our powerful Dedicated Servers you can have big storage for your images, blog and websites hosted with us! That will be the best for you!

3 — Choose the CMS / Platform to setup your own online store

There are many CMS or Plataforms which will allow you to create and how to set up an online clothing store, for example clothing store can be a good example of how to setup or how to create a clothing online store, you can do that in many ways! Of course it can be another kind of content.

4 — How to setup a online shop with a free CMS or paid platform

OpenCart

OpenCart is a free CMS to create your set up an ecommerce site or setup your own online store, opencart will allow it! Why? It’s free! No costs! Of course there are limitations but this is a wonderful way to use it. You can use that in your Hosting Provider and you will be amazing with the features built-in and ready to sell.

PrestaShop

PrestaShop is another CMS or Platform which will allow you how to set up an online shop easily, with PrestaShop it won’t be difficult, PrestaShop have all features built-in to help you to create a online store for free! Yes you heard right, prestashop is also free!

WordPress + Woocommerce

Did you think that WordPress is only for blogging or normal websites? You are wrong! You can use it in order to set up an ecommerce site easily with Woocommerce. The Woocommerce and WordPress are free to use! In fact they are the most used CMS / Platform in the world (we are talking about WordPress), but there is a cons! WordPress doesn’t have built-in features to sell or to set up an online clothing store or ecommerce site!

Because WordPress is for blogging, mainly focused on that. But how did you tell you that you can’t do a store with WordPress? You will need to install Woocommerce to do it. But it is not the best way, but we must admit it is the easiest way to start because of many plugins available and themes. But it is not the right CMS to setup your own online store in our own opinion.

Shopify

Are you tired of creating stores without know-how? Don’t worry, you can set up an online clothing store in the most easy ways. But this has some cons, this is paid. Even if it is still one of the easiest ways to do it (you don’t need to host or buy hosting to do this), they have their own servers, for this reason is another way to create your ecommerce site online or set up an ecommerce site with zero knowledge.

With Shopify you have all features, support and everything. But everything comes with a price! It won’t be cheap like others options in the long term. But another way how to setup your own online store, the pricing you must decide and think if it is affordable for you or not. Remember success comes with great websites and design. Just use the KISS (Keep it simple, stupid) and we can guarantee that you will have a good online store for your clothing, pets, perfumes and much more!

Do you want help how to setup your own online store?

Yes, Alexhost can help you migrating, installing, configuring a store for you! Do you have a desire in how to set up an online clothing store? Don’t know about Server Management? Alexhost does that for you also.

That’s all, you need to explore and choose the best and affordable options to you! To start isn’t difficult is only requires patience, time and learn! Everything is possible!
Of course, are you thinking in changing or migrating your store for other web hosting provider? Contact us! We help you to migrate or install any of those CMS in your Web Hosting!

Didn’t decide which one to choose? Open a ticket support with us and tell your story and we will help you. You have other ways to contact Alexhost, please check the page Contact us in Alexhost website, it will be a pleasure to help you to migrate, create or start a new business by opening a online store!