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

‘Site Definition entries’ used while defining a site play an important role in connecting a MySQL database in ‘Dreamweaver’ successfully. Here I would like to share an example of PHP / MySQL Definition which uses a Linux Hosting Server with PHP and which runs over a machine named such as mywebsite.host.co.in, and MySQL runs on other machine which can be named such as mysql.host.co.in, furthermore the ‘Dreamweaver should be running on a local workstation.

In this tutorial, we will be using FTP for the purpose of transfer of file between the Linux Hosting server and workstation.

Local Info:
Site Name: mywebsite
Local Root Folder: C:\mywebsite\
Remote Info:
Access: FTP
FTP Host: mywebsite.host.co.in
Host Directory: /htdocs/
Login: Admin (Your Log In Name)
Password: ********* (Your set Password)
Testing Server:
Server Model: PHP / MySQL
Access: FTP
FTP Host: mywebsite.host.co.in
Host Directory: /htdocs/
Login: Admin (Your Log In Name)
Password: ********* (Your set Password)
URL Prefix: http://mywebsite.host.co.in/

Tables are the very important parts of a MySQL Database and one must know the commands of handling tables and records in it to operate a MySQL database on a Web Hosting server. In this post I have mentioned many MySQL commands which are related to table with their short descriptions.

mysql> SELECT * FROM [table name];
This is a very basic command which a users learns at the start of learning MySQL. It is used for displaying all the records of a table.

mysql> show columns from [table name];
This command returns the columns and other information about them related to given table name.

mysql> SELECT * FROM [table name] WHERE [field name] = “0999″;
This command returns the certain selected rows which contains value “0999″ as the field name.

mysql> SELECT * FROM [table name] WHERE name = “abc” AND number = ’1234567′;
This command returns all records after checking the given conditions for two fields.

mysql> SELECT * FROM [table name] WHERE name != “abc” AND number = ’1234567′ order by phone_number;
Returns all records which do match with the given conditions.

mysql> SELECT * FROM [table name] WHERE name like “abc%” AND number = ’123′;
Returns all records which starts with particular letters ‘abc’ AND the number ’123′, its useful to be used a find with uncertainty of the records.

mysql> SELECT * FROM [table name] WHERE name like “abc%” AND phone_number = ’1234567′ limit 1,9;
Very similar to the previous command but just applying the limitation on the display of number of records.

mysql> SELECT * FROM [table name] WHERE rec RLIKE “^a”;
With the use of this command you can extract all the records starting with smaller case ‘a’ that means you can search the records starting with a particular letter being conditional to case sensitive.

mysql> SELECT DISTINCT [column name] FROM [table name];
By using this command you can find records which are unique.

mysql> SELECT [col1],[col2] FROM [table name] ORDER BY [col2] DESC;
This command is used to display the records from particular fields and sort then in the required order according to given field, i.e. with the above query you can find the records of column 1 and column 2 and they will be displayed in descending order as per the records of column 2.

mysql> SELECT COUNT(*) FROM [table name];
This command returns the number of rows (records) in a table.

mysql> SELECT SUM(*) FROM [table name];
You can perform the sum of records of columns of a table.

Being an open source platform, MySQL is one of the greatest utility for web hosting services providers and their clients to manage their databases, furthermore it can be used with both most widely used platforms of Windows web hosting as well as Linux Hosting. MySQL is a fast, robust, secured with encryption and also has very easy installation process. Following are few commands mostly used while operating MySQL.

ps -auxwww | grep mysql

This command is used for Checking whether MySQL Server is running or not

./bin/mysqld_safe &

For Starting mysql you should use this command

./mysqladmin -u root shutdown

After the work completed for Shutting down the MySQL you need to use this command.

cd mysql/bin
./mysqladmin -u root processlist
./mysqladmin -u root kill ProcessID
Any help required about mysql can be opened by enterting this command.

This is a useful command to check which query is running on which host, from which location query has been fired , which query has locked which table etc.

cd mysql/bin

This command is used to Kill processes

mysql> help alter;

REPAIR TABLE TableName

You can Repair a table by using this command.

Note :- Few more MySQL commands will shared in upcoming posts.

Mambo is one of the very popular and powerful Content Management System (CMS) available in the market. Websites cab be created easily with the web based interface and the user friendly features of Mambo CMS.

Mambo administrator password can be changed or reset using its MySQL Database available in your control panel provided by your web hosting services provider.

The most easy way to manage the database is through the phpMyAdmin tool. You need to go to your cPanel provided with you cPanel Hosting account and click on phpMyAdmin in the Databases box.

In phpMyAdmin you need to select Mambo’s database from the drop down menu at the left side. The page will automatically refresh and the table of database’s will be displayed. Access the SQL tab, it can be found at the top navigation bar.

Write the below mentioned SQL Query in the text field available :

UPDATE `mos_users` SET `password` = MD5( ‘new_password’ ) WHERE `mos_users`.`username` = “admin_username” LIMIT 1 ;

“new_password” – replace with the new password to be used.
“admin_username” – replace with the username the password for which should be updated.

Once done, click on the GO button to submit your query. If the query completes without any errors, you would be able to login to Mambo with the newly assigned password.

Below is the continuation of the previous article: Frequently Used Terms in Web Hosting Industry : Part 1

MS SQL
It is a database management system which is a Microsoft product. MS SQL databases are offered only with Windows Web Hosting packages.

MySQL
MySQL is a database server.It is most commonly used with PHP.MySQL can be availed with Linux Web Hosting packages as well as Windows Hosting packages.

Perl
Perl is preferred and renowned scripting or programming language.It is considered to be one of the most powerful languages used for scripting. It is most commonly used for CGI scripts. With Perl building and testing of programs get simplified.

PHP
PHP is an Open source, server side HTML embedded scripting language that is typically used for creating dynamic web pages. Since it is released under Open source GNU, it is freely downloadable. Web masters prefer to use it on Linux/Unix Servers.

POP3: Post Office Protocol
It is a type of protocol that  is used for receiving E-mails. When using an E-mail client to retrieve email messages, the client communicates with the mail server via POP3.

Primary DNS : Primary Domain Name Server
It is the Primary domain name server for the customer domains. These are the DNS IP numbers often preceeded as ns1.domain.com and ns2.domain.com.

Root Server
Its a machine thats loaded with softwares and data that is required to locate the name servers which contain authoritative data for the top level domains.

SMTP : Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
This is main protocol that is used to send  and receive e-mails over the Internet.

SSL : Secure Socket Layer
It is a protocol designed to enable encrypted and authenticated communications across the World Wide Web.SSL is usually used for secure communication between web browser and the servers. The URL that starts with “https” indicates that the website is secured with SSL.SSL Certificates are installed on the domains of websites that involve online transactions.

TCP/IP
TCP/IP is a protocol that defines the Internet. It indicates how data can be transmitted between hosts. It is most widely used standard of communication. This set of communication protocols to connect to host servers over the Internet.

Telnet
It is a program that is used to login from and Internet site to the other. It is actually a protocol used to access machines placed at remote remote locations. You can connect to any server over the Internet that has telnet server.

TLD : Top Level Domains
It is the suffix of the domain name for example .co., .org , .gov, .net etc. It is the highest level in the hierarchy of doman extensions.

Tomcat
Tomcat is a Java based web server software created to run Java Server Pages (JSP) in the web applications.

Unix
Unix is an operating system that is used on business class computers often known as servers. It is a similar operating system to DOS and MacOS. It is one of the most common operating systems used on servers.

Virtual Server
A virtual server is nothing but a web server that shares its resources with multiple users hosted on a single physical server. In this, users get to experience dedicated server like environment.You are provided with complete admin access of the server.As a matter of fact, a VPS Hosting package is one of the most preferred type of web hosting solution.

Web Server
A web server is nothing but a computer that delivers web pages.It is important that the server is connected to the World Wide Web inorder to deliver webpages upon request.

Web Site Traffic
Website traffic refers to the volume of visitors visiting a website. The tool that measures the traffic is referred as the website traffic reporting tool.

XML : eXtensible Markup Language.
XML is a programming language which allows designers to create their own tags to indicate specific information. W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) is a widely used standard which facilitates the interchange of data across computer applications. It is similar to the language used for Web pages HTML.

As we know that the PHP is the most common and loved web language world wide. PHPMyAdmin is also written in PHP as the name itself suggests. It is an open source tool which is used for administer MySQL over the web. It can perform all the tasks on the database such as creating, modifying or deleting the tables, databases, columns, rows and a single field also. It executes the SQL statements and manages the user permissions.

Currently this tool is available in 57 language and is maintained by the The PHPMyAdmin. There are more similar products available which include PostgreSQL, PHPMSAdmin also. Although the variety of the tools are available PHPMyAdmin is widely used and appreciated by the people. It has won several awards. It was chosen as the best PHP application in many of the awards.

Take a look at the features:

1. spontaneous Web Interface

2. It supports almost all MySQL features.

Browse and drop the databases, fields, views, indexes.

Create the databases, copy, rename.

Alter the databases, fields, views, tables, indexes

Maintain the server databases and tables

Executing the SQL statements and bookmark it, edit and even batch     queries

Manage the Users and the permissions.

It also manages the stored procedures and the triggers.

It has a support to import the data from SQL and CSV.

3. Support for exporting data to various formats i.e. SQL,CSV,XML, OpenDocument Text and Spreadsheet.

4. It export the data in normal Word, Excel also.

5. Ability to Administer multiple servers.

6. The database layout can be transformed into PDF graphics.

7. Complex Queries are created by the use of Query by Example(QBE)

8. Ability to search globally or a subset of the database.

9. It can transform the stored data into any format using the predefined functions.

10. Taking back ups of the databases.

The features listed above are just the key of them, you can explore more of them by using PHPmyAdmin

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.

It is important to know few basic but important things when choosing a web hosting service provider for you business. You should be aware of the requirements of your website/s such as the language used for scripting for example MySQL, PHP, Perl, ASP, ASP.Net etc., you also need to adjust things according to the budget. Once, these things are clear, you can hunt for a suitable web hosting service provider. If you are targeting customers in a particular Geographical location, it is suggested to have your website hosted on servers that are placed in or near those areas.

There are two platforms namely Windows and Linux to choose for hosting your website/s Windows and Linux. If your website is designed using PHP and MySQL, Linux Web Hosting is the most recommended web hosting solution. But, incase you are planning to develop your website in ASP.Net, then you do not have any option other that going for Windows Web Hosting as ASP is supported by Windows only.

Both Linux Web Hosting and Windows Web Hosting have their individual benefits. Web Hosting providers offer various web hosting plans such as managed and unmanaged Dedicated server hosting, Semi-dedicated Web Hosting, Virtual Private Server (VPS) Hosting, Reseller Hosting and Shared Web Hosting for Linux and Windows platforms. Some web hosting providers also offer customization of Dedicated Web Hosting solutions.

Below are some benefits of Windows Web Hosting and Linux Web Hosting.

Benefits of Windows Web Hosting

A) On Windows server you can host websites the use Microsoft’s .Net technologies such as ASP.Net and VB.Net.

B) If you need a database, it is mandatory for you to choose a Windows Server Hosting plan for having a MSSQL database.

C) Access databases are available only with Windows Web Hosting solutions as Access is a Microsoft product and can be run on Windows Servers only.

D) Microsoft’s Sharepoint service too needs to be run on a Windows Server, hence Windows Web Hosting would be the perfect plan for you.

E) Windows Web Hosting solutions are particularly more costly than Linux Hosting as a licensing cost of Microsoft needs to be paid.

Benefits of Linux Web Hosting

A) Linux is an open source software and is registered under the GNU General Public License, hence you are not required to pay a licensing fees for the operating system. It can be downloaded for free from the internet.

B) Linux web hosting is considered as an affordable web hosting solution. The cost of distribution is borne by the web hosting service provider or the owner of the web site.

C) If you have used PHP, MySQL, PostgreSQL or Perl for developing your website, Linux Web Hosting solution would be the most appropriate for you.

D) Linux Web Hosting is comparatively more secure than Windows Web Hosting, hence it is a preferred platform of designers and programmers.

For small business websites, Linux hosting can be more appropriate and affordable hosting solution.

Drupal is one among the different Open source Content Management Systems (CMS). It enables a user with an ease to publish, organize and manage large variety of content on a web-site. Many enterprises and Organisations use Drupal for their Community Portals, Blogs, E-commerce and other purposes.
Many web hosting service providers offer Drupal Web Hosting packages. Once a relevant domain name is chosen, you can choose an appropriate web hosting plan. You should be clear with your web hosting requirements such as bandwidth, disk-space etc. The web hosting provider can suggest you the best suitable plan for hosting your Drupal website. Drupal offers  an advanced portal with collaborative book, search engines friendly URLs, online help, roles, full content search, site watching, threaded comments, version control, blogging, news aggregator. Drupal can be installed through cPanel which can be used with any Linux Hosting package.

Drupal application is developed by PHP and can be run against MySQL and PostgreSQL. Hence, one should search for a web hosting provider that offers support for PHP alongwith MySQL database support and PostgreSQL. Therefore, a Linux Web Hosting package is the perfect for your requirements. It is also important that the web host enable mod_rewrite module.

A hosting control panel along with the package can help you in multiple ways for managing the account. It can ease you to use the tools to create MySQL or Postgre SQL database as well as grant the access to others. You can execute back-ups as well  as restore it. With a control panel, you get an editor to modify the Cron jobs, which is extremely important for shared web hosting solution. There are many tasks that needs to be run at the same time, hence a permission to change the Cron file proves helpful for the Drupal Webmasters. With it you also get the privilege to access permission of the file and directory.

Before choosing a web hosting provider, you should get convinced about the connection speed between the web server and the database server. Usually, due to un-optimization of the connection speed between the two servers can run Drupal real slow. A stable server environment is very important for Drupal. One should make use of the review websites and customer testimonials while choosing a web hosting provider.