Apache2 has growing demand among Linux Hosting consumers. For installing Apache2 you need to enter the following command at a terminal prompt.

sudo apt-get install apache2

Further more you need to place directives in plain text configuration files, these directives are separated between the following shown files and directories

• apache2.conf: This is the main Apache2 configuration file. Contains settings that are global to Apache2.
• conf.d: This contains configuration files which are applicable globally to Apache2 and some other packages which can be used by Apache2 for addition or symlinking files to this directory.
• envvars: Apache2 environment variable are set in this file.
• httpd.conf: Named after the httpd daemon, this was the Apache2 configuration file, it can be used for particular configuration option which globally affects Apache2.
• mods-available: Not only for loading modules but also for their configuration, this file can be utilized. (Only few specific and not all of the modules are included it this file)
• mods-enabled: This file has the ability to hold symlinks of files situated at /etc/apache2/mods-available, and this makes it possible to enable the symlinked file enabled at the next time Apache2 is restarted.
• ports.conf: Herea are the directives which analyze, which TCP ports Apache2 is listening currently.
• sites-available: Configuration files for Apache2 Virtual Hosts can be found in this directory. These virtual hosts permit Apache2 to get configured for more than one website which have their own separate configuration settings.
• Sites-enabled: similar to ‘mods-enabled’ here one can find symlinks at /etc/apache2/sites-available directory, also when a particular configuration file in ‘sites-enabled is found symlinked, the website configured by it can be kept active when the Apache2 is restarted.

WAMP is quite a well known term among Website Hosting Services industry. WAMP is acronym for the combination of Windows, Apache, MySQL and PHP/Python/Perl. In this combination the first three are constant ones and for the fourth one it varies among PHP, Python and Perl. There may be a few occasions in which Python and Perl can be used together. The reason behind the popularity of WAMP is because it provides four important elements Operating System, Database Web Server and scripting application which are required for a web hosting server. When all these four elements are used as combined then such a usage is called as ‘Server Stack’. In this (WAMP) server stack you use ‘Microsoft’ Windows as an operating system, ‘Apache’ as a Web Server, MySQL to work as a Database and you can choose one from PHP, Python and Perl to be used as scripting language. WAMP it is totally related with Windows Web Hosting Servers and has nothing to do with Linux Hosting Servers. For Linux Hosting users there is ‘LAMP’ which substitutes ‘WAMP’

To adopt WAMP one needs to download ‘WAMPServer’ which is an open-source Windows web development environment. It comes with a service manager as a tray icon. This enables an easy management of the server and easy installation of multiple releases of Apache, MySQL and PHP as add-ons. With WAMPServer the installation process is automated and you can secure your setting files while making any changes over your web servers. You can experience a great flexibility with ‘WAMPServers’ as enabling and disabling services of WAMPServer is just a matter of clicks.

With a left click on WampServer’s icon, you will be able to:

• manage your Apache and MySQL services
• switch online/offline (give access to everyone or only localhost)
• install and switch Apache, MySQL and PHP releases
• manage your servers settings
• access your logs
• access your settings files
• create alias

With a right click :

• change WampServer’s menu language
• access this page

As Security is one of the most important concerns in the internet world for webmasters, they should always keep their security system arrangements up to the mark, because hackers are always searching for new possible techniques to control your website and misuse it for their motive. Security measures can be classified in many categories, but a securing a website should cover security of web application as well as security of the web hosting server on which the web applications and website are hosted. Here I would like the share the information over security options on a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) as it is the most widely found combination among Linux Hosting Servers.
Instances in which a Web Hosting Server responds to the web browsers which are used by the visitors of the particular website residing on that particular website, that server provides a particular ‘header information’. Apache web servers are known for publishing many details of its environment as well as sometimes PHP also can be found responding in such header parts. Hackers may take advantage of this exposure in such headers of you website. Furthermore if he succeeds in knowing the factors like the type of web hosting services, type of server used, the web hosting platform, the version of scripting engine and other applications then it becomes an easy task for hackers to trace specific bugs or security loopholes. This makes the task easy for hackers to achieve their motives.
But still one can configure both Apache and PHP in such a way that it will remain hidden and will keep the possible attackers in the dark.

As Apache and Tomcat have high importance in web server hosting industry. There are both good and bad side this integration of Apache with Tomcat and there are different opinion about the same. Following are some points I would like to attach the discussion.

Clustering – When Apache is used as front-end it works as a front door for multiple Tomcat instances. Apache has the ability to ignore if any one of Tomcats fails. For this you need to use a hardware which is load-balanced.

Security – I we compared Apache with Java then we can know that Java has its own security manages and Apache works on bigger mid-share. Though this is a controversial topic but when one prefer to go fo Apache he needs to secure two systems at the same time but which can be appreciated by search engines also.

Clustering / Security – It is possible to use Apache with multiple tomcats for multiple URL name-spaces and in such situations Tomcats can be more protected individually. Though Apache is smarter proxy server one need to take care of it.

Add-Ons – In Apache one can add PHP, CGI and pearl very smoothly and such addition is very effective for Tomcat. Unlike Tomcat, Apache has many modules to be plugged in.

Dcorators – It possible to perform multiple decorators when Apache is in front of Tomcat which does not support of quick code.

Speed – Though it is very hard to compare speed between Apache and Tomcat, when things come to static content, Apache is quicker than Tomcat. But this only applicable in the case of high traffic websites. There are some exceptions where Tomcat wins the race by using connector wisely.

Socket Handling – In many cases Apache it known as better socket handler than the Tomcat. Tomcat handles the sockets through JVM which require to go through platform, hence makes Tomcat slower.

Anyone is the world will not want their things to be kept insecure. If we say about the web applications, they are insecure too. If we spent time, money and efforts creating a web application why not a further step in protecting them. In the case of web application if you don’t secure it anybody can copy the work and the code. This issue was highlighted by two PHP developers and they thought of the software called Zend optimizer tool from the Zend Technologies.

This optimizer tool helps you to use the Zend Guard encoded files. If you don’t use this tool the code which is Zend guarded cannot be executed. If this code is encoded the visitor will be to interpret it, but won’t be able to see it. This tool enhances the performance of the PHP applications. The zend optimizer goes through the code generated by the standard Zend run time compiler and then it will optimize the code for the faster execution. Even though the optimizer runs every time the page is executed it has a very little or you can say negligible overhead. It speeds up the code execution process with 40% to 100 %. Additionally it will enable PHP to load  and execute the files that are encoded by using the Zend guard.

Zend Optimizer has a limited functionality to only interpret the encrypted the code. In actual to encrypt tit you need to use the Zend guard. This Zend guard will convert the code in the PHP format to the binary equivalent known as “Zend Intermediate Code“. When the conversion is over the new encoded files will take place of the original regularly coded PHP files. Zend guard is helpful in suggesting if any module or functions needs to be excluded from the encryption process for the better development time.

Lets see some of its specifications.

Supported Operating systems, Platforms.

Linux : Linux x86, Linux x86-64, Linux Power.

Solaris: Solaris Sparc 8, 9, 10, Solaris x86 9, 10.

Free BSD x86 5.x, 6.x

Windows x86 2000, XP, 2003.

OS X Mac Power

AIX pSeries 5.

Web Servers it supports:

Apache 1.3x

Apache 2.0.x (prefork mode)

IIS 5,6

Support for PHP versions:

PHP 4.2.x to 4.4.x

PHP 5.0.x, 5.1.x

Things to be ensured before using the zend optimizer. Zend optimizer will not run if the following PHP settings are enabled:

1. Thread Safety.
2. Enable Versioning

Zend optimizer is free and easy to use software. Mainly good hosting companies use this utility for the security of the web applications and code as explained above

Linux Web Hosting itself explains that it is hosting of websites on the popular and most powerful server ie. Linux server. High quality web applications i.e. Linux Apache MySQL and PHP (LAMP) are used in Linux web hosting solutions. Linux is registered under GNU General Public License hence it is an open source software, therefore Linux web hosting solutions can be available at cheap rates as there is licensing fees that needs to be paid. Which isn’t the case with Windows, you need to pay licensing fees with every purchase of the OS.

One can avail good benefits with Linux Web Hosting services. With it web hosting providers offer many powerful and useful web applications that are very easy to use, a person with limited or no web master skills can easily manage the Linux hosting account/s.

Linux has gained popularity due to its stability in the hosting environment, which is one of the major reasons for people preferring Linux platform. Major website related tasks can be handled quite effectively with Linux web hosting. These plans are much cheaper than its competitor.

Understand the LAMP technology

LAMP is an abbreviation of Linux Apache MySQL and PHP. These applications are one of the most popular web applications. Each of them are renowned due to their extreme power and their ability to effectively adapt to web hosting. This technology is well known due to its usability, stability, reliability and the variety of other features. The MySQL database and PHP scripting language are the most preferred applications.

Linux is a lot similar to Unix, as it is registered under the GNU General Public license, which means that it is freely available. Its source code can be easily modified and the modified versions can be redistributed. Linux can be extensively used on Web Servers, Desktop PC’s, Mobile phones, LapTops etc. Linux web servers are one of the extremely reliable and stable systems, it has the capability to handle an extensive range of applications. Due to Linux being an open source application, webmasters from across the globe keep upgrading it with the latest technologies. This enables Linux users to get these new features for free. There is no licensing fees that needs to be paid for these updated versions.

In this technology, Apache HTTP server comes second in the list. It is one of the highly used HTTP server across the globe. As a matter of fact, almost 50% of the existing websites use Apache. Most of the common and mostly used scripting languages such as Perl, PHP, Python etc. are supported by Apache. In addition to that, modules such as mod_auth, mod_auth_digest, mod_access, mod_digest etc. are supported by Apache. SSL (Secure Socket Layer), TLS (Transport Layer Security) and Proxy modules too are supported by Apache. Virtual Hosting which is a type of web hosting can be easily possible using Apache.