Howdy-do, TurnKey Lovers?

A couple of weeks ago, my co-worker, Joe Schoonbeck, came up with a brilliant idea for a post. He suggested we write up a quick “How-To” on some of the essentials you need to begin a hosting business. What a simple, yet profound idea. If I had a dime every time we received questions about how to set up hosting, I would be able to buy a triple with cheese and a large fry from Wendy’s. Enough of this talk about food; let’s get down to business.

Now, this list of ideas is by no means set in stone. These are just a few steps that I believe will give you a good foundation to build your business upon.

 
Step 1 – Decide and Buy

This may seem like a no-brainer, but it is important to determine which type of reseller account suits your needs. Unlike spandex, one size does not fit all. You see, at TurnKey Internet, we sell different types of reseller accounts: alpha, master, and WHM (web host manager).

Each reseller account has its pros and cons, but we’ll leave that for another article. For this entry into the TurnKey diary, let’s just keep it very high-level. Alpha accounts can resell Master accounts and WHM accounts, while Master accounts can only resell WHM accounts. Then, the poor, old WHM accounts can only resell cPanel accounts. This allows you to resell multiple accounts on your website.

Once you decide which account is best for you, purchase it.

Step 2 – Create

I had an intense, internal debate about step 2. Initially, I was thinking about skipping right to Step 3 (configuring your DNS), but it didn’t make sense to me to get into that if you have no site to share with the world.

You can take multiple steps in setting up your website, so I will be brief. You can use TurnKey’s website builder that is included in our reseller packages. Or, maybe you have a developer who creates fantastic websites in his/her sleep. The choices are limitless on this step.

Step 3 – Setup (Part I: Your DNS)

For the sake of this article, I’m going to assume you do not know what DNS is. I’m going to instead share how I teach what DNS (domain name system) is to our newbie engineers. You see, I compare DNS to a post office system. You have your streets and your addresses, which allow people to find your place of residence. That’s what DNS is, in a nut shell.

You have your website, and in order for others to see your masterpiece, you must first tell them where it is. You do this with your DNS. You have your DNS record, which contains your website’s IP address and your nameservers. Your IP address is essentially like the number on your mailbox. Your nameserver(s) would be the street(s) on which your house resides. You have to setup your DNS in order for others to visit your site.

Step 4 – Configure

Now that you have your site online and users purchasing hosting from you, they will inevitably need support. This could be with anything, from support for setting up your clients’ websites, to adding space to their account.

You will need some point of communication that you can use to speak with your clients. Our TurnKey reseller accounts each come with free helpdesk software included, which you can white label in your company’s name. This allows you to have a way for your customers to easily and efficiently submit tickets.

Step 5 – Setup (Part II: Extras)

When I say “setup extras”, these are items that can add increased functionality to your hosting company. While this step can be rather large, we will just stick to a few of the basics.

If you’re selling anything on your site, you will need to install an SSL certificate. This basically encrypts your users’ connections when they submit orders to your company. I would say this is just as important as your website. If you don’t happen to have an SSL certificate lying around, you can request a FREE SSL with your TurnKey reseller account. If you’re going to be accepting orders, you may need a billing system that can help keep those orders in line. Enter—one of our most popular free extras—a free WHMCS license.

 
Now, there are no exact steps, but these can give you a good foundation for beginning your hosting account career.

Until next time, Turnkey Lovers!

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Howdie do Turnkey Lovers,

Jeremy here again. This past week, one of my co-workers made an interesting comment to me. He said, and I quote, “One day when the internet runs out and we have no more IP’s, what will people do then?”. Now this lead me to an interesting set of questions. Is my co-worker right? Are we going to run out of the “internet”, will it just ‘stop’ workign since IP’s are becoming scarce and how will that affect hosting (SEO/cPanel/Reseller).

 

Well, in order to answer these questions, we must first look at what an IP even is and are their different types? Now, for most of you technies or self-proclaimed geeks, you are probably shaking your heads saying, that’s such a dumb question. Of course there are different type of IP’s and everyone knows what IP’s are. For this article though, let’s assume that you were from a distant planet who knew nothing about the internet. You and you’re family had decided to make your way down to this glorious planet for a vacation.

 

Upon arriving, you notice everyone is talking about social media, smart phones, computers, and tablets. You’re quite the inquisitive alien life-form and begin to wonder, “What do all of these things have in common?”.  Enter Google. You begin to search the internet as one of your new Earth friends, let’s call him Jeremy(no relation), informs you that you need to find a computer and Google Internet. Upon your search, you discover that the internet is essentially a cluster of computers connected together globally using something called a TCP/IP Protocol.

 

This protocol, as they call, it seems to be rather important. So important that I included the definition from Wikipedia below on it:

 

The Internet protocol suite is the set of <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_protocol> communications protocols used for the  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet> Internet and similar networks, and generally the most popular <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_stack> protocol stack for <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_area_network> wide area networks. It is commonly known as TCP/IP, because of its most important protocols: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmission_Control_Protocol> Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol> Internet Protocol (IP), which were the first networking protocols defined in this standard.

 

Not to be the alien to leave information out, you decide to research further into the Internet Protocol (IP). Definition is below:

 

The Internet Protocol (IP) is the principal <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_protocol> communications protocol used for relaying  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datagram> datagrams (also known as  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_packet> network packets) across an  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internetwork> internetwork using the <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Protocol_Suite> Internet Protocol Suite. Responsible for  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Routing> routing packets across network boundaries, it is the primary protocol that establishes the  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet> Internet.

 

Or in lamen terms, it’s an individual address that every computer, smart-phone or tablet uses to connect to the Internet. Ok, I think the alien role-playing has gone on long enough. Let’s bring this back to Earth. Now let’s say you read my previous article and learned a bit about cPanel/Reseller hosting. It’s probably safe to assume that you’re aware that when you purchase a reseller or cPanel account from Turnkey Internet at http://www.turnkeyinternet.net/ , you can receive a dedicated IP. Essentially, the address to which you can host your website.

 

That IP is from the IPv4 family or the Internet Protocol Version 4 family. Now if we reference the statement made by my co-worker made earlier in the article, you can safely assume there is a finite number of these type of IPs. 2^32IP address or around 4.29 Billion IP addresses. The 32 is essentially 32 bits or 192.xxx.xxx.xxx. That’s a rather large number, but so is the number of people joining the internet every day. Eventually, those IP’s will run out which will force a new IP family, IPv6. Now, I won’t bore you with the details about the differences between the two families, but there is one key difference, the number of IPs each family can produce. For IPv6, they can make 2^128 available address or 340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. The 128 is essentially 128 bits or 192.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx(I think you get the point).

 

So to answer my co-workers question, which I’m sure you already know the answer to about running out of IPs, we just switch to a new IP family and the Internet will live on. Now, for the win, how does this affect your Turnkey Internet cPanel/reseller packages?

 

Well to be honest, the effect will be pretty negible on the cPanel/reseller side of things. The biggest noticeable difference will come during the transition period of switching to IPv6 as DNS propagation will take a bit of time to respond to the new IP addresses. This could affect your sites load times during the transition period. Other than that, the main difference will be cost. IPv4 will and already is becoming a premium as these IP’s are being filled by potential new Turnkey Resellers as yourself. Only a few companies are offering the IPv4 IP’s at a low, competitive price such as Turnkey Internet. Which means, you need to get them while you can.  Those who for instance start a web site a year from now when there are no more IPv4 addresses left, will only have a new IPv6 address, making their web pages possibly slower to load because of how the Internet as a whole will be using dns and specialized proxy systems to ‘store/forward’ to connect IPv4 and IPv6 together (think of it as a 4 lane highway that connects 2 big cities together).  IPv4 and IPv6 connections between each other will be congested on that 4 lane highway at times – which is why it’s very important to try to get yourself hooked up with a good web site that includes IPv4 space (and a provider that supports IPv6 too!).  TurnKey of course has that already setup for you and has been a leader in this space offering both for some time.

 

Well that was quite a handful or is it mouth full? I’m not sure anymore.  The reality is – the Internet will continue, IPv4 address will run out (or already are out, depending on which provider you are with) – and IPv6 will be a transition behind the scenes that may be a little bumpy and congested for people, but will happen.

 

Until next time Turnkey Lovers  – Jeremy

 

 

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After quite a few stumbles, the website is up and running! It was a lot harder to get from step two – designing the site – to the finished product. My biggest problem was choosing the best website design software. I started with What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG), which was not the best choice for a first time website builder. There were no templates in WYSIWYG – so I basically had to build it from scratch. I jumped ship pretty quickly and tried out PageBreeze. I liked PageBreeze quite a bit. I made the homepage of www.savethacherpark.com first. Here, I put a picture of Thacher Park, and then links to other related sites and to other pages of the website. I had media, rally info and action pages. I finally finished it up and uploaded it to the server. I looked at it online and it did not look like how I designed it. The fonts were messed up and the picture was not appearing. I spoke with my supervisor, and she thought I ought to give Adobe Dreamweaver a shot. It was by far the best design software. Luckily, the site was up just in time for the Thacher Park Rally.

My supervisor, Anneke, joined forces with the Parks and Trails NY Campaign Director, Sean, and together they organized an amazing rally. To prepare, they had a pizza and poster making party the Sunday before. This had a good turnout – about 20 people showed. Hundreds made it out on Wednesday to protest and lobby for Thacher Park. Veterans, Senators, elementary school children, senior citizens who had fought for Harlem parks in the 60s, and many other park loving people came to Albany to fight for this cause. The anger was palpable and their voices were heard. In fact, quickly after the rally, New York State Senator Serrano issued a press release stating that he would push to block $11 million from the budget cuts to keep the parks opened. Thanks to the hard work and passion of a few individuals, the beloved parks have a chance to stay open for everyone’s enjoyment. Make sure to check my site, www.savethacherpark.com, often to learn about more fun events and Thacher Park’s status!

Overall, the site-making project went really well. I’m keeping it updated and recent with new information and links, and have had a great response from the public. The main lesson learned here: if I can do this, anyone can! Save the park!

Abbey Connick
Intern

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Hi, I’m Abbey Connick, the new TurnKey Internet intern. My first project is to create a website, which I have never done before.

Here is the title of my first website: Save John Boyd Thacher State Park.

Living in Upstate New York one of my favorite things to do has always been to visit the state parks.  I remember family picnics, fun hikes, and wildlife excursions at Thacher Park.  Sadly, these may become distant memories. Governor Paterson is proposing to cut the parks budget which would cause Thacher Park to close (among others). This would be a huge loss to the Capital Region, as it serves as a wholesome destination for family and teen outings.

Needless to say, the public is completely outraged.  Thacher Park has been a great outlet for the Capital Region. With the economy in a shambles, it is a smack in the public’s face to close this free destination that so many people utilize. Also, unlike many of the other state parks that will stay open, Thacher was hugely popular with many low-income communities.  Nobody saw this coming as everyone was completely shocked when Paterson delivered the news this past weekend.

To compensate for their lack of input before the decision, the inhabitants of the Capital Region have a lot to say (if not yell) now. Tens of thousands of people are joining Facebook groups for this cause, protests are being organized, and petitions are being signed. Leading the troops, is my supervisor Anneke. She has been an avid Thacher hiker and is enraged that her favorite weekend activity might be canceled for good. She is doing everything she can to spread awareness and organize people to stop it.

It is actually her passion that gave me my website idea. I have no website design experience (really, none!) and I was unsure of what to do at first.  I wanted to make a website that was both useful and interesting.  I finally decided that dedicating my website to the Thacher Park cause fit both of these requirements.  It will be teaching me about web design while helping to organize and promote action to keep Thacher Park open.

After I found my website idea, I needed to actually make the website. I had (and still have) no idea what I’m doing. I know, I know, this should be simple. I went to MIT for two years and I’m friends with about a few dozen start-up guys (and girls), yet I do not know the first thing about making a website. After Googling ‘how to start a website,’ I found a pretty good ‘how to’ guide.  The first thing they instructed me to do was to pick a domain name.  I registered the name, www.savethacherpark.com, with Turnkey Internet.  It was actually easier than I thought it would be. Next step: designing the website. This part might be a little harder than the first one. Consulting with my how-to guide, I found a really good web builder program – What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG). I have been using that so far and again, it is a lot easier than I expected.

I’m still on step two, but stay tuned for my progress.  I’ll keep you updated about my failures and triumphs as a web designer AND how you can keep Thacher Park open!

– Abbey

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