Which is Better?

[Bob_The_Insurance_Guy]

The Domain Name I bought was LegacyFinancialPartner.com for a few reasons that I won't bore you with now.

BobTheInsuranceGuy got me a great number of health business years ago, but none for life, DI, or LTC.

 

[STIBROKER]

then you really should have life,tlc.or di in the url some were.....it helps.....

The Domain Name I bought was LegacyFinancialPartner.com for a few reasons that I won't bore you with now.

BobTheInsuranceGuy got me a great number of health business years ago, but none for life, DI, or LTC.

 

[somarco]

You could have . . .

bobtheLIFEinsuranceguy.com

bobtheDISABILITYinsuranceguy.com

bobtheLONGTERMCAREinsuranceguy.com

 

[STIBROKER]

and throw in a state......

You could have . . .

bobtheLIFEinsuranceguy.com

bobtheDISABILITYinsuranceguy.com

bobtheLONGTERMCAREinsuranceguy.com

 

[somarco]

bobtheGeorgiaLIFEinsuranceguy.com

bobtheGeorgiaDISABILITYinsuranceguy.com

bobtheGeorgiaLONGTERMCAREinsuranceguy.com

 

[Alston]

I like the domain name as well.

It is easy to spell.

It has some SEO value.

If I get Bob on the phone, I'm going to assume I'm speaking with an expert.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I like the domain name as well.

• It is easy to spell.
• It has some SEO value.
• If I get Bob on the phone, I'll assume I'm speaking with an expert.

 

[Guest]

First a bit of terminology:

Operating system: The program that runs the computer (sometimes called a server, but the computer is not REALLY the server... it is the computer, duh!). The three most used operating systems for computers in "server farms" (a warehouse full of computers) are Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD. (Linux and FreeBSD are fraternal twins... look a bit different but have same parents.)

Server: Servers are all software programs. IF you have a computer that only has server software on it, then you may call your computer a "server" (see above.) Server software can do lots of stuff... here we are talking about web server software... and the three main ones are Apache, Tomcat, and Microsoft IIS. Apache and Tomcat runs on both Windows and Linux/FreeBSD. IIS (Internet Information Server) only runs on Windows machines. Another server you might use is a database server... the best known is MySQL which runs on both Windows and Linux/FreeBSD (and OS X) machines while SQL-Server by Microsoft only runs on Windows systems. Tomcat is used for Java applications... and not all that often anymore.

Application Programming "foundation": The computer language you use to program your website (at the 20,000 foot level!) There are a million choices here, but by far the two best known are PHP and ASP.Net. Again, PHP runs on everything, while ASP only runs on a Windows machine using their (M$) IIS web serer.

The vast majority of web sites in the world run on a Linux or FreeBSD machine, using the Apache web-server software and are programmed in PHP. I don't have the numbers but that's what I read... and believe. (There are some new "foundations" that are coming on strong... Ruby On Rails is one. I've never used it.)

There is a well-known ACRONYM for the non-Windows web host: LAMP. It stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP. For example my JAYA123 - Web-Based Back Office Software site is a LAMP site in that it runs on Linux (actually FreeBSD but they are basically the same) using the Apache server, MySQL for database and coded in the PHP language. (Of course the site uses HTML... all sites do so that is a given.)

The vast majority of websites are LAMP sites/applications.

There is only ONE reason to go with a Windows web-server (IIS) and this is if you are going to build your site using ASP.Net. This is a programming "foundation" that only runs on IIS servers (natively.) Oh... ASP hosting usually cost more because while PHP and Apache and MySQL are free, ASP and IIS is NOT... Microsoft does not give away their software!! (Apache and MySQL and PHP are "open source" like SugarCRM (which is programmed in PHP.)

The insurance industry and large (mega national) businesses have a love affair with Microsoft and their ASP (Active Server Pages.) and IIS platform. I'm sure you have seen site URLs that end in .aspx. That is how you can tell you are on an IIS site. Those sites run great on the Internet Explorer browser, but sometimes not so great on Firefox, Chrome, etc.

If you are NOT going to program your site in ASP or buy a canned site that is ASP specific, you are best advised to run your site on a Linux or FreeBSD operating system, not a Windows operating system. LAMP is the way to go. This chat board is run via LAMP.

Val can probably explain all of this better than I can as he is a professional sysadmin and I'm not... and never have been. I'm a programmer. When you see the "buy me" button, I'm the guy who writes all the PHP code "behind" that button that takes your credit card and sends it to the authorization company, gets back the verification, enters your order into the database, and send you an email confirmation... that kind of thing. (I used to be better at it than I am now, that's for sure!!!)

If you are putting up a new site, put it up on a Linux / FreeBSD box.... unless you have need for ASP. (Like you want to buy a shopping cart system programmed in ASP. Net (the "competitor" to the free PHP language.)

FYI, I run all my sites with Pair Networks using FreeBSD. There is nothing I've found (including any of the 300 flavors of Linux) that is as stable as FreeBSD. It's the "Sherman Tank" of operating systems!! You probably never heard of it, but I'll bet the heart-lung machine that keeps you alive in the OR is running on FreeBSD. The heart surgeons really frown on getting a "blue screen of death" or a "Please reboot" message in the middle of a heart transplant!!!

That was the short answer !!!! I can explain more if you wish.

Al
I am here

 

[valdet]

LAMP is the way to go. This chat board is run via LAMP.

Val can probably explain all of this better than I can as he is a professional sysadmin and I'm not... and never have been. I'm a programmer. When you see the "buy me" button, I'm the guy who writes all the PHP code "behind" that button that takes your credit card and sends it to the authorization company, gets back the verification, enters your order into the database, and send you an email confirmation... that kind of thing. (I used to be better at it than I am now, that's for sure!!!)

Al, thanks for a very informative post.

Honesty, there's little I can add to that, except that LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) environment is much better than Windows server systems. Be it on security, usability or flexibility aspects.
Even WAMP systems do not come close to above

We switched from WAMP to LAMP few months ago and the difference is like going from Yugo to Mercedes SLR.

My definite advice for insurance agents is to go with Linux based servers. Check with your hosts which Linux distros they offer! This is an important information to have before moving ahead.

From my experience the best one is CentOS.

I hope that helps.

Have a nice weekend, all !
Val.

 

[Guest]

My definite advice for insurance agents is to go with Linux based servers. Check with your hosts which Linux distros they offer! This is an important information to have before moving ahead.

From my experience the best one is CentOS.

Val.

CentOS is the open-source version of Red Hat and it's fine. I'd add to the list:

Debian
Ubuntu
Slackware
Arch
Suse

If you were using one of the above as a desktop/business system there are lots of bells and whistles to differentiate them. (I've never known one insurance guy besides myself who ever ran an agency with Linux!)

But when you are running servers on these operating systems there is not much difference between them. Most servers are "headless" in that they don't have screens or keyboards. They are just "pizza boxes" mounted in racks controlled by a single monitor and keyboard.

The important item is not so much what the hardware is (like a Core 2 Duo Intel processor or how much RAM is on board) but how many sites the server has on it.

If your host is jamming 300 sites on to a box that does not have the "horsepower" you are going to have a slow site... especially if one of them is a porn site sending out graphic-heavy goat porn content to zillions of simultaneous users. You want to make sure your host knows how to balance loads. (There is a lot more to it than that... email and database loads also have to be balanced.)

The step-up from plain old shared hosting is VPS hosting. This is where the hardware of one machine is made to act like it is X number of computers. If done correctly you can have many (say 15) heavily used sites on one computer. You can learn about this here. This method is used by businesses who can't quite afford (or need) a dedicated box but are too big for a standard "shared" host.

For better results (and best security) is a dedicated server, and the best flavor of this is called a "managed" server where YOU don't have to worry about software updates or hardware issues... your data center people do it for you. (You won't even have "root" (the master "key") privileges. You pay through the nose for this but if you need it, this is the way to go.

I have a "QS-1" dedicated managed server at Pair Networks that cost about $2500 a year (you get a big discount if you pay yearly in advance." However I may switch to a Pair Networks VPS next year when I renew as these are as secure as a dedicated server and half the price.

You can get cheaper dedicated servers that are not managed or which have less bandwidth, etc. Dreamhost is a good company for a dedicated server (or VPS) for a modest budget with modest needs.

Ten years ago it was more about the technology but these days it's more about the service... if and when the host responds to problems... and how fast they get it fixed. That's why I'm with Pair in that they monitor all their servers (about 5,000 of them) and do diagnostics and catch problems before they happen... and fix them quickly so our downtime is minimal.

Note: Usual disclaimers apply. I have no financial relationship with Pair Networks except as a long-time (happy) customer. I have zero relationship with Dreamhost except that I know several people who host with them and are happy. There are lots and lots of good server farms out there, Pair and Dream being just two of them.

Al

 

[arnguy]

WTF are you guys, Al and Val, talking about? It's like a foreign language to me. BTW Val, I love my Yugo----it has 250,000 miles on it and it runs like a charm!(Just kidding)