Understanding Facts About Web Server and Its Issues

There are businesses whose websites are critical to their success because they generate the majority, if not all, of the company’s sales. Perhaps you are one of them. When this type of website (web server) goes down, it has an impact on your company. If your website is hosted by someone else, you almost certainly have an “uptime” guarantee. However, what exactly is uptime, and how is it measured? Uptime is described as the amount of time your website is up and running, available, and able to satisfy customers. 

On the contrary, when your website is unavailable, it is unavailable. That is how downtime is calculated. Most downtimes are triggered by faulty routers, malfunctioning LANs, or a lack of electrical power; natural disasters are rarely the trigger. It is mainly triggered by a telecommunications company or application failures rather than a fire, flood, or another disaster. 

Cost Factors Of Down-time of Web Server

The cost of downtime depends on various factors, including the goods and services you provide, the size of your company, the number of online sales, and so on. Even if you do not sell any goods or services online, downtime has a cost. It is not easy to estimate the expense of downtime, as it differs from one business to the next.  

The ordinary company” figures that measure the cost of downtime for average companies are useless. Direct expenses such as labor charges for a team of technologists who had to fix the outages are included in the cost of downtime. The indirect costs are much more difficult to quantify and include potential lost income, staff efficiency losses, a tarnished image with consumers and the industry, lost future revenues, and the expense of storing unsold products.

Identification of The Problem 

This is the very first step that needs to be noted when the problem arises: 

• Website downtime, triggered by issues such as network failures, costs European businesses more than EUR 5 billion per year, according to a study by Cumulus Research Partners.
• Downtime in the automotive industry is often valued at $1.000 per minute.

Research Report Analysis 

According to the recent report, unscheduled downtime costs more than $20 billion per year in North America, accounting for nearly 5% of total production. The conventional maintenance strategy of “fail and restore” is no longer a viable MRO strategy. 

• Many hosting companies promise 99 percent uptime. While 99 percent uptime sounds fantastic, it means that your site could be down for more than 3.5 days a year, which is unacceptable on today’s Internet. In comparison, 99.9% uptime is much better, but with 8 hours and 45 minutes of potential downtime, it is not always sufficient. The percentage of uptime and associated downtime per year is shown in the table below. 
• 99.9%…. 8 hours, 45 minutes, and 36 seconds.
• 99.99 percent of the time…. 52 minutes and 33.6 seconds 
• 5 minutes, 15.36 seconds…. 99.999 percent • 99% of the time… 31.68 seconds as you can see, a 99 percent uptime does not seem to be a big deal, but it can save you a lot of money. There are over 30 uptime tracking websites worldwide, with some of them also having affiliate partners. Alberta, Alert Site, Dotcom track, Internet Seer, Jaguar, Red Alert, Site Uptime, Watch Mouse, Website Pulse, and others are some of them. Almost all of them have prepaid packages based on monthly payments, with prices varying depending on the number of monitored locations (servers), added features, and the service’s complexity. 

Their simple prepaid plan costs $5 to $40 a month. For this price, you can track only one or up to three devices, choose from a variety of protocols, send alerts to multiple contacts via email, IM, pager, or SMS, choose from regular, weekly, or monthly email reports, and, of course, access to online uptime output and statistics. Professional packages can cost as much as $180 a month or more.

Basic Facts Of Web Server 

Web server hacking is on the rise, so you must understand a few basic facts about web servers and vulnerability protection to protect your hard work. You have chosen your hosting business, come up with a fantastic website design, and begun to build. But then, there are about web server security. This article is based on web server management and vulnerability security.

If you are designing a website from the ground up, you should think about the webserver security issues that come with it. When you set up a web server on your hosting provider’s account, the problem starts. This action creates a tunnel in your network that the whole world can see through, and if you don’t have vulnerability defenses, you’re dead in the water.

Vulnerability Security Issues of web server

Although most visitors to your website are content to shop, a small percentage will try to dig deeper into areas of your site that you don’t want the general public to see, such as vulnerabilities; this is where vulnerability security comes the way. On the other hand ofcourse, the most serious threat is the kind of person with a strong desire to see something they shouldn’t and will use any means available to do so. The ramifications can be inconvenient, such as learning that your website’s home page has been changed.

Theft of your customers’ personal information and your entire database, as well as the introduction of viruses and Trojan horses that will infect your customers’ computers the next time, they visit your site. To prevent this, make sure the device is designed to defend against vulnerabilities.

Security Gaps 

According to website security forums, poorly designed and updated software reveals security gaps in the system, and overly complex software contains bugs that can be exploited. Web servers are usually large and complex programs with security flaws, which is why web server management is so important.

CGI scripts can be run thanks to the open architecture of web servers remotely. Some CGI scripts on your website contain bugs or vulnerabilities, posing a possible security risk and are not the responsibility of your hosting company.

Website Server Management 

In terms of web server management and vulnerability defense in web server network security, the goal for all web developers is to keep the bad guys out while maintaining control over their database and website. The irony is that a website aims to provide access to your database and network to the rest of the world. Therefore, even the most meticulously designed firewall would have holes in it due to a poorly installed and maintained website and a web server. On the other hand, overzealous controls would make the website difficult to use and unfriendly to customers.

Most web users believe that surfing the web from home is secure, but this is not the case. On web pages, active content such as ActiveX controls and Java applets can be found. These can unknowingly inject viruses or other malicious code or software into users’ devices while surfing. Active content may also cause big problems if it isn’t handled properly. Unfortunately, the ActiveX problem is not the only one. Surfing the internet leaves a record of your surfing history that a shady character can use to put together an accurate image of your surfing tastes and behaviors.

Data Transmission Issues 

The lack of confidentiality of data transmitted over the internet must also affect users and web developers who use web server management. TCP/IP is open to network eavesdropping because it was not designed to ensure confidentiality. TCP/IP sends the bulk of data unencrypted. When a sensitive document is sent from a website server to an internet browser, or a customer sends their private or personal home banking details to a website, someone may be listening in.

Tips for Getting Rid of Unnecessary Risk with Customer Data and Services

To help you avoid taking unnecessary risks with your service and customer data, keep these fast tips in mind:

Remove redundant services such as interpreters.

If FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is not needed, it should be removed. FTP is a hacker-friendly protocol that comes pre-installed on your website server. Spend some time reviewing your scripting languages and eliminating those that aren’t needed by the platform.

Check to see if you are on your server’s defense list. You are not required to join, but you can at the very least review their website for new updates regularly and ensure that you install them as soon as possible. Be sure to check the operating system for updates and patches as well.

Instead of easy-to-guess passwords, use alpha-numeric passwords. To make guessing and cracking much more difficult, add numbers, symbols, and capital letters. However, do not make the password policy so strict that it becomes impossible to remember your password. Instead, update your default password regularly, and uninstall any accounts that are no longer in use.The first thing is that the website server should be accurately monitored – Your web server logs keep track of all requests and operations, so keep an eye on them for anything suspicious.

Separate the data:

If necessary, keep private customer information on a different device than publicly available information. Learn how to set up your server correctly – You must understand the basics of server configuration, so keep executable files in your internal directories and don’t let source code download.

Automatic directory indexing is another service you can disable if you don’t need it. Some automated security tools come with your operating system or are provided by your web service provider. One such tool is the Microsoft IIS Lockdown Tool. This will help you spot any potential weak spots in your settings.

Understanding with The Help Of Example 

For example, CGI scripts on web servers are especially vulnerable to security breaches, especially if the scripts don’t validate user-supplied data before accessing operating-system resources or system files.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, it may be concluded that your company’s financial analysts and accountants will assist you in determining the factors that are relevant to your business. If your website is profitable for your business, you would almost certainly use an external monitoring service to keep track of it. You can choose from various services on the Internet to get uptime reports, statistics, and updates when your website is down. You cannot let your customers know when you are having problems. Look at these numbers to see how important it is to be mindful of downtime.