Fortunately, there’s no shortage of CSS frameworks that can fast-track the design and development process. By opting for a framework, you can create standardized, higher-quality code, with less time and hassle.

In this post, we’ll discuss what CSS frameworks are and why you may want to consider using one for your next project. We’ll then share advice on how to find the framework that’s right for you, before exploring six popular CSS frameworks. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to CSS Frameworks

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) controls the presentation of a document that’s written in a markup language such as HTML. Unlike some other languages, CSS creates a separation between presentation and content. This gives you more flexibility in how you display your content.

This language also promotes code reuse, as multiple pages can use the formatting defined in a single CSS file. This can reduce complexity and repetition, while also improving your project’s performance, such as by reducing your website’s page loading times.

Many different systems use CSS. This includes WordPress themes, which uses CSS to output the data generated by this popular Content Management System (CMS). Every WordPress theme contains a single style.css file:

Although you can write pure CSS, many designers and developers choose to use a CSS framework. This is a collection of stylesheets that provide a basic structure and classes for common elements.

You can use these pre-prepared stylesheets as a reference for resolving problems of a similar nature. Alternatively, you can override the framework’s generic functionality for your specific use case.

There can be some confusion about when to use a framework, and when it makes more sense to opt for a library. With libraries, you control when this technology performs a particular function. The rest of your code exists independent from that library. However, with CSS frameworks the control flow is in the framework, and you’ll customize it in places to better suit your project.

Why You Might Want to Use a CSS Framework

CSS frameworks can reduce the amount of code you need to write. Instead of programming everything from scratch, these frameworks provide all the tools you need to spin up a basic UI.

You can then spend your time perfecting this interface to meet your project’s exact requirements. Since you’re not starting every project with a blank slate, you’ll have more time to focus on the specific features that make your site or app unique.

A CSS framework can also be useful for agencies and freelancers who manage multiple client sites. Using this tool, you can create a theme and then deploy it across countless websites. This can help you onboard new clients more quickly, and grow your business without drastically increasing your workload.

If you’re collaborating on a project with multiple people, a CSS framework can help you achieve consistency. For example, instead of each team member inventing their own class names, a CSS framework implements standardized naming conventions. This typically results in higher-quality code that’s easier to read and maintain.

When your code is consistent, you’ll also find it easier to onboard new team members or freelancers. It’s also worth remembering that just because your staff are happy in their role now doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll stick around forever.

It’s smart to ensure that even if your head developer leaves, your project can continue. To make sure your project is never wholly reliant on a single person, it’s a good idea to implement a standardized approach that’s clearly defined and understood by everyone. A framework can help you achieve this uniformity across your project.

Factors to Consider When Using a CSS Framework

A CSS framework can be a valuable addition to your project. However, if you have little previous experience with CSS, then it’s important to familiarize yourself with this language before jumping into the world of frameworks.

By taking the time to master pure CSS, you’ll be better equipped to identify issues with your syntax. When you know how to achieve the desired results in pure CSS, you’ll also find it easier to scan your framework’s documentation for the information you need. This can boost your efficiency, particularly when it comes to problem-solving and troubleshooting.

We always recommend taking some time to sharpen your CSS knowledge before you start shopping around for a suitable framework. Depending on your previous experience and knowledge, this may require a significant amount of time and effort.

A CSS framework will also add to your project’s overhead. Depending on your project, this may include lots of unnecessary or irrelevant code that you don’t even use. Bloat is never good, but it makes zero sense to increase your project’s size without adding any value.

Since your project exists inside the CSS framework, this may be limiting for your application or website. If you rely on a framework too heavily, there’s also the risk that your finished project will look similar to other sites and apps that use the same framework. This can make your project blur into the background, when it should be standing out from the crowd.

How to Choose the Right CSS Framework

To start, your chosen framework should meet all of your project’s technical requirements. It’s also smart to look for characteristics that make this framework a good fit for your project. For example, a lightweight framework may be the perfect addition to a mobile-focused design, but it may be less ideal for a large, complicated application.

Over time, your project’s requirements will likely change. Although it’s impossible to predict the future, it’s always worth considering how your project might develop over the long-term. Your chosen CSS framework should be able to support your site or application as it evolves over months, and potentially even years.

When choosing any technology, it’s always smart to consider its ease of use. Even if you’re fluent in CSS, learning any new technology requires a big upfront investment. Every moment that you spend familiarizing yourself with your new framework is time that you could have invested directly into your project.

Ideally, your chosen framework will be intuitive, user-friendly, and have a gentle learning curve. This will minimize the time between installing the framework and starting to reap the benefits. If a framework is user-friendly, then you’re also much less likely to encounter major issues, including stumbling blocks that require you to pause development in order to research the problem.

When considering ease of use, it’s important to find out what support is available. Ideally, the framework will be backed by official documentation, tutorials, and perhaps even professional support.

You should also consider the level of community resources available, including third-party blogs, forums, and social media sites. An active community can be an invaluable source of additional support. You could even put your questions directly to the community via channels such as Stack Overflow.

6 Popular CSS Frameworks (And When To Use Them)

With so many CSS frameworks to choose from, picking just one isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve compiled this list of the six most popular CSS frameworks. Along the way, we’ll help you make the right decision, by suggesting the kind of projects each framework is perfect for.

1. Bootstrap

Originally named Twitter Blueprint and developed as a tool for internal teams, Bootstrap has since grown into one of the most popular CSS frameworks. Today, Bootstrap is used by around 22 percent of all websites, and its GitHub consists of over 20,000 commits from more than 2000 contributors.

To get started, you can download Bootstrap’s source Sass and JavaScript files from either Composer, Meteor, or the Node Package Manager (npm). You can also use the npm template repository to quickly generate a Bootstrap project, or check out any of the official examples, that are supported by extensive documentation.

All of this makes Bootstrap a great choice for anyone who’s new to CSS frameworks, or has limited pure CSS experience. This may include back-end developers who want to make some changes to their projects’ User Interface (UI). For these designers, Bootstrap provides templates for all of the most popular UI components, including alerts, tabs, forms, and dropdowns.

Bootstrap is also designed for responsive, mobile-first front-end development. This makes it a good fit for mobile projects.

If you do require additional support, Bootstrap has a large and active community on Stack Overflow. You can also access real-time support via the Bootstrap Slack channel.

2. Foundation

Foundation is a front-end framework for building websites, applications, and emails. Thanks to its Sass compiler, the responsive Foundation framework is ideal for creating projects fast.

Foundation favors clean, semantic code and takes a mobile-first approach. After ensuring that your project is fully compatible with mobile devices, you can add in more complexity for a fully-responsive design.

Foundation provides HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, which is great for rapidly prototyping websites. If you’re using Foundation to create emails, this framework provides tested patterns that work with all of the major email clients, including Outlook. This can help you create emails that display and function correctly, regardless of how the recipients choose to access them.

Despite its speed, Foundation is far from a limited framework, and many developers use it to create large applications. It’s also highly customizable, which makes Foundation a good choice for designers who want to create a unique experience for their end users, and who aren’t afraid to dig into Foundation’s more complex features in order to achieve the desired result.

Despite its current status as an open-source project, Foundation was originally maintained by ZURB. Today, ZURB continues to offer a full program of tutorials, online courses, custom training, and even an official Foundation certification.

3. Skeleton

The Skeleton framework is a small collection of CSS files that you can use to rapidly generate clean code and simple layouts. Coming in at under 400 lines of code, this bare-bones framework is a good fit for smaller projects, or projects that don’t require the utility of a larger, heavier solution.

As a lightweight framework, Skeleton shouldn’t add unnecessary bloat to your project, which can be particularly valuable for mobile designs. If you’re creating a mobile project, Skeleton has a well-structured grid that enables you to create a responsive layout with minimal hassle.

Skeleton provides a 12-column fluid grid with a maximum width of 960px. This grid shrinks according to the browser and device. However, if you need to alter the maximum width you can make that change with a single line of CSS.

Skeleton serves its scalable grid using media queries. It also provides a list of mobile-first queries for styling your project across multiple devices. All styles outside of a query apply to all devices, so larger devices are targeted for enhancement. This prevents small devices from having to parse large amounts of unnecessary CSS.

If you’re new to the world of CSS frameworks, Skeleton’s simplistic approach makes this a good framework for beginners. For CSS newcomers, it can even be a valuable learning tool before progressing to more complex and feature-rich frameworks.

Unlike some of the other CSS frameworks on this list, Skeleton is designed as a starting point that you can develop into something more substantial. It’s also worth noting that Skeleton’s lack of templates may become an issue if you try to use this framework in larger or more complex projects.

4. UIKit

UIKit is a responsive, lightweight CSS framework that you can use to create clean and professional-looking interfaces. This framework defines all the core components such as table views, buttons, labels, and navigation controllers.

UIKit is also extensible, and supports a comprehensive collection of advanced components that are not bundled with the core framework. This includes parallax girds, dynamic pagination, and sliders.

Alongside CSS files, UIKit provides an autocomplete package for Sublime Text and Atom editors. Since users don’t have to repeatedly look up UIKit markups and class names, this framework is great for your overall productivity.

Unlike other frameworks such as Bootstrap and Foundation, UIKit breaks the layout into three components: grid, flex, and width. Instead of restricting you to a 12-column grid setup, UIKit gives you the flexibility to create as many columns as you require.

Over at the UIKit website, you’ll find extensive official documentation and a series of video tutorials. Despite these useful learning resources, we find that UK Kit is a more complex framework that’s best suited to experienced developers.

5. Semantic UI

Semantic UI is a framework for creating responsive layouts. Based on natural language principles, Semantic UI aims to make code readable and easier to understand by creating a shared vocabulary around UI.

To achieve this, Semantic UI treats words and classes as interchangeable concepts. All classes are human words and use syntax from natural languages, including noun/modifier relationships and word order. Semantic UI also uses plurality to link concepts intuitively. As a result, its code often resembles regular text.

Human-readable code and ease of use makes Semantic UI a great choice for anyone who’s new to the world of frameworks. If you do have previous experience, it’s worth noting that Semantic UI integrates with React, Angular, Meteor, Ember, and various other frameworks.

In addition to the functionality you’d typically expect from a CSS framework, Semantic UI provides simplified debugging and performance logging. This enables you to track down bottlenecks without digging through stack traces. These added extras make Semantic UI suitable for larger projects, including enterprise apps and websites.

6. Pure

Built on Normalize.css, the Pure framework is a set of small, responsive CSS modules that provide layout and styling for native HTML elements. This includes many common UI components. Pure has a minimal and unopinionated design, so you should have no issues adding new CSS rules and overriding Pure.css with your own styles.

Coming in at 3.87B minified and gzipped, this is a simple, lightweight framework. If you only require a subset of Pure’s modules, you’ll save even more bandwidth. This makes Pure ideal for smaller projects, or any project that has modest requirements.

Its small footprint also means that Pure is a good choice for mobile projects, where you’re typically working with less memory. Even better, this framework is responsive out of the box, thanks to its use of Pure Grids and Vertical Menus. With Pure CSS, you can be confident that your UI will look and display correctly across a range of mobile and tablet devices.

Conclusion

Building applications and websites from scratch can quickly start to feel repetitive. Instead of wasting time coding the same elements over and over again, a CSS framework can handle this busywork for you.

If you’re still unsure which CSS framework is right for you, here’s a quick reminder of the six frameworks we covered earlier:

1. Bootstrap: An open source framework that’s perfect for responsive, mobile-first front-end web development.
2. Foundation: With an emphasis on speed, Foundation is ideal for rapid prototyping.
3. Skeleton: Coming in at under 500 lines of code, this CSS framework is designed with mobile devices in mind.
4. UIKit: A lightweight, modular framework that targets highly-experienced, professional developers.
5. Semantic UI: This theming framework contains pre-built semantic components that can help you create professionally-designed, responsive websites.
6. Pure: A collection of responsive CSS modules that have much to offer for mobile developers.

A CSS framework can be your secret weapon for developing professionally-designed websites and applications in record time. However, once you’re ready to send your project out into the world, you’ll still need somewhere to host it.

By choosing a provider that’s optimized for web frameworks, you can ensure that you’re getting the very best out of your finished project. At A2 Hosting, we’ve optimized our plans for a wide range of frameworks, including Bootstrap. We even offer 1-click framework setup!

The post What Is a CSS Framework? (And When to Use 6 Popular Options) appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Fortunately, there are many ways to protect your website from the threat of malware and other cybersecurity issues. Many hosting providers enable customers to configure a range of site security settings using the popular Linux control dashboard cPanel. 

In this post, we’ll explain what website security is and why it’s important. We’ll also provide seven actionable tips that you can use to improve your site security and protect your website with cPanel. Ready? Let’s get started!

Why Protecting Your Website Is Important

It takes time and money to create a high-quality website for your business. However, without the right level of security, you could be putting your site at risk. 

According to cybersecurity statistics published by Forbes, one in three Americans have been a victim of ransomware attacks, and only five percent of companies ensure that their folders are properly protected.  That’s why it’s so important for site owners to take steps to secure their websites on a regular basis.

However, although protecting against cybercrime is one of the main benefits of maintaining good site security protocols, there are also some other benefits, including: 

• It helps to keep your employees safe. In the same way that your website can be at risk of malware attacks, your workers can be too. Viruses can pass from device to device. Therefore, if your site becomes infected, the devices your team members use to access the site may become compromised too.
• It can prevent your website from going down. Site owners should aim for as little website downtime as possible. Good cybersecurity measures can help you achieve this. By putting protective measures in place before attacks happen, you can prevent malware from causing issues that make you take your site offline to fix them. 
• It can inspire confidence in your customers. For online businesses, reputation is everything, even when it comes to your website. By following good cybersecurity protocols and sharing this with your customers, you can help them feel safe and secure when using your site. 

Next, we’ll take a look at cPanel, a commonly used control panel for WordPress sites. You can use it to make your website more secure without investing in any expensive plugins. 

A Brief Introduction to cPanel

cPanel is a control application that enables you to carry out server tasks for your WordPress website:

It isn’t the only application of this type available, but it’s the most commonly used Linux control panel. cPanel provides users with an easy-to-use interface for carrying out essential server-side maintenance tasks, including:

• File management
• Database management 
• Email management
• Site backups 

It can make your site easier to manage due to its automated processes and 24/7 support team. As such, it could be worth considering if you’re looking to save time and effort on your website management.

There are also several ways in which you can use cPanel to enhance cybersecurity. Next, we’ll take a look at some of the things you can do to protect your website with this application. 

How to Protect Your Website With cPanel (7 Essential Tips)

There are many site security plugins that you can use to enhance your cybersecurity. However, many of these are premium plugins that aren’t available for free. By using cPanel, you can secure your website using tools already at your disposal, so you don’t have to spend a penny. Here are our top seven tips for protecting your website with cPanel.

1.  Update cPanel Regularly 

Outdated elements on your website can lead to serious vulnerabilities. This is also true for cPanel. If it isn’t up to date, you could be leaving your site open to attacks and breaches. 

Additionally, you could be missing out on access to new security features by using an outdated version. Updates are used to fix bugs, add new features, and improve the security of cPanel. As such, it could be a good idea to ensure that you are always using the latest version of the software.

The good news is that keeping cPanel up to date is fairly easy. Depending on your hosting package, you may not need to manually update it at all, as the system administrators may take care of it for you.

If you do need to update it manually, start by logging into WebHost Manager (WHM). In the upper right corner of the main WHM screen, you should be able to see the current version of cPanel you’re running:

If a new version is available, you’ll also see a box just underneath this giving you the option to Update Now. All you have to do is click on this and wait for it to finish upgrading (it might take a while). Note that the Update Now box isn’t visible in the image above, as we’re currently already running the latest stable build. 

2. Choose Strong Passwords and Regularly Update Them

It’s imperative to ensure that all of your site entry points are protected by strong passwords. Without secure passwords in place, seasoned cybercriminals can easily infiltrate your site and install malware. 

Thankfully, with cPanel, it’s easy for you to reset your password. It even comes with a password generator to help you protect your site using strong credentials. To keep your site as safe as possible, it’s recommended that you change all passwords on a regular basis. Configuring them around once a month is usually sufficient. 

To change your cPanel password, log in and head to the Preferences tab, then click on Passwords and Security: 

Next, you’ll be prompted to input your old password, as well as your new updated password. You’ll also see a score that tells you how weak or strong your credentials are. If your chosen password is too weak, you might want to click on Password Generator instead. This will automatically generate a new, stronger login: 

Once you’ve done that, copy the generated password and paste it into the New Password field. Also, be sure to save it in a secure location that you can access in case you forget it and need a reminder. 

When you’re ready, click on Save Password Now! Once you’ve done that, your update should be complete, and you can start using your new credentials. 

3. Password Protect Your Vulnerable Directories 

In addition to having a strong password for your cPanel account, it’s equally important to password protect your vulnerable directories. Doing this in cPanel enables you to limit access to certain content for specific users.

Once you’ve added password protection to a directory, your site will prompt visitors to enter a username and password in their web browsers before they can access it. This helps to keep sensitive content secure from unauthorized access.

To add password protection to a directory, start by logging into cPanel. Next, scroll down to the Files section and click on Directory Privacy:

Here, you should be able to see a list of all your directories. Click on Edit next to the name of the folder you want to protect. On the next page, tick the box next to the text that says Password protect this directory. Then, type in a name for the protected directory below and click on Save:

Once you’ve done that, you should see a brief ‘success’ message. Click on Go Back, then enter a Username and Password in the appropriate text boxes, and then click on Save.

Note: You can also automatically generate a strong password by clicking on the Password Generator button:

If you ever want to remove the password protection, repeat the steps above to navigate to the directory again. Then, clear the Password protect this directory checkbox.

4. Enable cPHulk Brute-Force Protection

cPHulk is another useful service provided by cPanel that helps to protect your server against brute force attacks. These attacks involve an attacker using an automated system to attempt to guess your username and passwords by repeatedly trying different combinations in rapid succession.

Using cPHulk through cPanel will enable you to block the IP address or accounts exhibiting suspicious behavior automatically. This prevents attackers from carrying out any further attempts to log in, thus preventing them from gaining unauthorized access and installing malware on your site.

To enable CPHulk Brite-Force protection, you’ll first need to log in to WHM. From there, navigate to Security Center in the left-hand sidebar, and click on cPHulk Brute Force Protection:

Next, you can toggle the button to ON to enable cPHulk protection:

Once it’s enabled, you can tweak the Configuration Settings. For example, you can specify how many failed login attempts are required to lock IP addresses out, and how long they should be locked out for. Once you’re done making changes, click on Save:

Note that aside from Configuration Settings, several other tabs are available on this page: Whitelist Management, Blacklist Management, and History Reports.

You can whitelist and blacklist certain IP addresses manually by navigating to the appropriate tab. This is useful in certain circumstances. For example, it may be a good idea to whitelist your own IP to avoid a lockout from your server.

If you ever need to see a log of what actions cPHulk has taken, you can do so by clicking on the History Reports tab. 

5. Protect Against Hotlinking 

Hotlinking (sometimes called ‘direct linking’) refers to when another website links out directly to content hosted on your website, such as image files. When visitors to their website load the page, your site serves the image files they see. This allows the other website to effectively ‘steal’ your bandwidth and use it to show pictures to their visitors. 

Naturally, this is something you’ll probably want to avoid. Fortunately, you can do so easily. All you have to do is configure hotlink protection using cPanel. Here’s how to go about it.

First, log in to cPanel and scroll down to the Security section. Then, click on the Hotlink Protection icon:

On the next page, you can toggle Hotlink protection ON or OFF. You can also change your configuration settings. For example, you might want to specify certain URLs that are allowed to access your files (cPanel will automatically populate this box with suggested local URLs):

Next, you can also specify the specific file extensions you want to block direct access to by adding them to the Block direct access for the following extensions box (make sure you separate each file extension by a comma):

Again, the above box should be automatically pre-populated with commonly hotlinked file extensions. However, you might want to add extra file extensions that aren’t already included. 

You can also add a URL to the Redirect requests to the following URL text box:

This will serve users from blocked sites with the specified URL page instead of the hotlinked file. Once you’re done making changes to the settings, just click on Submit.

6. Utilize Patchman by SITELOCK

Patchman is a really useful security service that helps to prevent your site from being hacked. Once installed, it will automatically scan your website for malware. If it detects any potential threats, it immediately emails you to notify you of them. If you don’t resolve the issue within 24 hours, Patchman will quarantine the affected files to protect your site:

Not only that, but Patchman also detects whether your WordPress, Drupa, or Joomla installation requires patching. Again, it will notify you of this by email and automatically apply the patch if you don’t fix it yourself within a week.

A2 Hosting has partnered with Patchman to provide our web hosting customers with free malware and vulnerability scans. Therefore, if you have a web hosting account with us, Patchman should already be enabled for your domain. 

However, if you want to manage your settings or carry out specific administrative tasks, you can do so by accessing the Patchman dashboard. To get to the dashboard, start by logging into cPanel, then click on Patchman in the Advanced section:

From here, you can run manual scans, view detected items and applications, and carry out manual actions. For example, you can review potential malware and choose to either ignore it or quarantine it:

Utilizing Patchman is one of the best ways to protect your website from security threats. However, not all hosting providers include access to it. Therefore, it may be a good idea to choose a hosting service provider that partners with the service.

7. Use Secure Shell File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)

SFTP stands for Secure Shell File Transfer Protocol. As the name suggests, it’s a secure version of the regular File Transfer Protocol (FTP). It uses the Secure Shell protocol to encrypt transfers.

If you didn’t already know, FTP is how you transfer files between your computer and your hosting server to make them accessible to the public and vice-versa. These files are often confidential and may include sensitive data such as usernames and passwords.

The problem is that the original FTP protocol doesn’t encrypt this data, which leaves it vulnerable to interception by attackers. If you want to prevent hackers from getting access to your data, it’s recommended that you encrypt it by using STFP instead.

In order to transfer files using SFTP, you’ll need your main cPanel account’s private key for authentication. To find it, log in to cPanel and scroll down to the Security section. Then, click on SSH Access:

]

On the next page, click on Manage SSH Keys:

If you already have a public/private key pair, you can use those for SFTP transfers. If you don’t already have one, you can generate a new one by clicking on Generate a New Key:

Once you’ve generated a new key, go back to the Manage SSH Keys interface, and click on the Manage link next to the new key. Next, click on the Authorize button to allow it:

Go back and scroll down to Private Keys and click on View/Download. The next page should display your SSH key details. You can click on Download Key to save it somewhere safe to your computer:

Once you’ve done all the above, your site is ready for an SFTP connection. You can open your preferred FTP client and use the private key you downloaded to connect via SFTP.

Conclusion

Keeping your site safe from malicious activity and malware is extremely important. Fortunately, cPanel offers you several ways to ensure that your site is secure and protected. 

Here’s a quick recap of how to protect your website using cPanel:

1. Update cPanel regularly. 
2. Choose strong passwords and update them regularly. 
3. Password protect your vulnerable directories. 
4. Enable cPHulk Brute-Force protection.
5. Protect against hotlinking.
6. Utilize Patchman by SITELOCK.
7. Use Secure Shell File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).

If you’re looking for a hosting provider that understands the importance of site security and reliable hosting, check out our affordable Linux hosting plans!

Image credit: Free-Photos.

The post How to Protect Your Website With cPanel (7 Essential Tips) appeared first on The A2 Posting.

So, What is URL Masking? 

Masking a URL means disguising its true destination, making it harder for someone to track where you are going. This can be an important tool for privacy and security, but there are also some potential downsides to consider. Developers mask URLs to obscure the true destination of a link. In order to understand URL masking, it’s important to understand what URL redirects are. 

URL redirections send a domain to an alternative URL. The HTTP protocol categorizes the URL redirects. 

There are three major types of URL redirects:

• 301 (permanent) 
• 302 (found/moved temporarily)
• URL frame (masked)

301 redirects are used when the destination URL of any website’s page changes. It’s commonly used when a website needs to be migrated to a new domain. 

302 redirects direct traffic to a new URL for a brief period. This is common for A/B testing. 

When migrating your website to a new domain name, the new domain doesn’t have a search engine optimization (SEO) authority. However, a 301 permanent redirect eventually gives 90% of the old website’s authority to the new domain. 

Google, a search engine, must verify the new website, which can cause a delay as it ranks the new domain. Some developers use 302 redirects for migration to avoid Google’s aging delay, but the 301 redirect is the proper method to use in this instance. 

Both 301 and 302 redirects display the new destination URL in the address bar in URL masking. Masked redirects allow you to use content from another domain while maintaining the address bar’s original name. 

This way, you use your homepage as the URL for every page of your website. Masked redirects are also called URL cloaking or domain masking. 

In other words, the mask refers to how the URL displays in the address bar. So your user thinks they’re on one domain when, in fact, they’re on another. 

When to Mask URLs

There are specific instances when website owners might want to mask links, including: 

• Masking affiliate links: Some users prefer to link cloaking to hide their affiliate links so that users won’t see they’re making money off of a purchase.
• Link shortening: long links aren’t visually appealing. Some users choose to shorten their links instead of changing their domain names.
• Hiding free web hosting URLs: Some users use free subdomains provided by their host, like store.a2hosting.com. So, you can use domain masking to make it appear as though the website has its domain. 
• Tracking: Some link tracking software use URL masking to hide tracking tags in the original URL. 

If you are looking for a way to improve your website’s security, or if you are trying to keep your website visitors from seeing where your website is hosted, domain masking may be the solution for you. Our support team would be happy to help set up domain masking for your website. Contact us today and let us know how to help make sure your website is as secure as possible.

Related Articles:

• How to set up URL frame forwarding
• How to rewrite URLs in Apache with the mod_rewrite module
• How to configure redirects in cPanel
• What Is A Parked Domain (And How to Use It)

The post What Is URL Masking? appeared first on The A2 Posting.

What if we told you that WooCommerce can do all that for you? With the free and open-source plugin, maintaining your website instantly becomes so much easier.

Keep reading to find out exactly what WooCommerce is and how it can help your WordPress website.

What Is WooCommerce?

WooCommerce is an e-Commerce plugin used by over 3 million online stores. It was developed to be used as an extension to WordPress, which is why it integrates perfectly into any WordPress site. A simple but powerful platform chock full of features, it is a fantastic solution for anyone looking to sell their products online.

We highly recommend that you use WooCommerce as an extension for your shop, as it contains everything that you need for your business to run smoothly.

What Are the Benefits of WooCommerce?

WooCommerce exists to make managing your online shop simpler. It is incredibly user-friendly and offers dozens of helpful features right at your fingertips. If you’re about to open your own online shop or just want to upgrade an existing site, we’re certain that you’ll find all of the features of WooCommerce to be extremely helpful.

Customization Options

You can make changes to your store page any time you like with no additional costs, thanks to WooCommerce. You can either customize everything yourself or choose from a wide array of stylish, functional themes.

Built-In Analytics

Even if you have no experience in tracking implementation, WooCommerce comes with a built-in data analysis tool that will give you more insight into your growing business.

Integrated Payment Gateways

An efficient payment process is essential for any store. With WooCommerce, you can give your customers the option to choose from several platforms, such as Stripe, PayPal, debit or credit cards, bank transfer, or even cash on delivery.

Various Shipping Options

WooCommerce allows you to provide any variety of shipping options for your customers’ orders, like a pickup from nearby stores, local delivery, or international shipping. You can even restrict shipping options as you see fit.

Automatic Tax Calculation

WooCommerce makes it easy for anyone to calculate taxes for their online shops. All you need to do is configure the settings to automatically compute taxes on every order.

Order and Inventory Management

The built-in inventory management system of WooCommerce allows shop owners to handle and track everything in their supply. Plus, you can oversee the entire order process, from tracking orders to shipping them out.

All these amazing WooCommerce advantages will pair perfectly when used with a Managed WordPress platform, which is another worthwhile investment for any WordPress user.

What Is Managed WordPress?

Managed WordPress is a hosting platform that is fully streamlined and optimized for easy creation and management of your website. As its name implies, the web host manages your WordPress for you, taking over all the server responsibilities.

Our platform, A2 Hosting, revolves around making your site run as fast and secure as possible. We will handle all the administrative tasks, from installing WordPress, to security checks and updates, and even caching your web page. If you have any questions you can speak with our sales team for more information on our new and improved Managed WordPress plans!

WooCommerce is an incredibly powerful tool for WordPress users. When paired with our efficient Managed WordPress platform, managing your online shop will be fast and hassle-free. For an optimized eCommerce shop, get started on managed WordPress today with A2 Hosting!

The post What Is WooCommerce? Explaining the Features and Benefits appeared first on The A2 Posting.

This new PHP version has allowed popular frameworks like Symfony and WordPress to run on PHP 8.1, so you know that A2 Hosting’s servers will be able to support it! You can now take advantage of PHP 8.1 with your PHP applications hosted by us.

New Updates!

PHP 8.1 is the most recent release of PHP and features new updates, such as:

Scalar Type Hints

PHP will now receive better error messages when type hinting doesn’t match. This means that if you’re expecting a string and PHP receives an integer, PHP will throw a clear and concise error message to help you debug the issue easier. PHP will also not allow errors to occur when typing hinting at your PHP variables. This is just one of the ways PHP 8.1 helps you keep your PHP applications secure and bug-free!

Return Type Declarations

PHP 8.1 now supports return type declarations which means that PHP will be able to tell what kind of data you’re expecting back from a function. PHP 8.1 can not only help with security but also PHP performance as PHP will be able to execute the function and return the type of data you’ve requested without an extra step which speeds up PHP execution!

PHP 7 Compatibility

PHP 8.1 now has improved compatibility with PHP 7 so PHP developers don’t have to rewrite their PHP scripts for PHP 7. PHP 8.1 is backward compatible with PHP 7 so you don’t have to rewrite your code!

Contact Us Today

A2 Hosting is a leading provider of PHP hosting with a 99.9% uptime guarantee and a 24/7 support team to help you get the most out of PHP 8.1, today! Our expert Guru Crew team can help you with any questions or concerns about your PHP application, PHP 8.1 support, or migrating to PHP 8.1! We are available 24/7/365.

The post A2 Hosting Supports Newest PHP Version 8.1 appeared first on The A2 Posting.

So, let’s get started! 

Best Free SEO Plugin – Yoast

There’s no I in Team Yoast. With over 25,000 five-star reviews, there’s a reason Yoast has carved their place in the plugin marketplace since 2008.

Want to rank higher in search engines? This plugin is a necessity. They consider themselves a versatile everyman application for SEO users of all kinds–from bakery owners to corporate giants. 

Sure, there’s a Premium version, but Yoast SEO Free is packed with the most important features you’ll ever need. 

Here at A2 Hosting, we use Yoast for all of our blog posts and like good students, we double check our work before publishing it into the ether of the internet. 

What we love about YoastSEO: 

• It automates mundane processes like writing titles and meta descriptions.
• Offers advanced XML sitemaps so Google can better understand your site’s structure.
• SEO analysis. 
• Readability analysis. Arguably Yoast’s best feature. Yoast uses an algorithm to determine how user-friendly your post reads. They offer several checkpoints to increase reading accessibility for humans and search engines. 

Who it’s best for: Websites actively creating content. 

Best Free WordPress Optimizer – A2 Optimized

Lazy loading images evoke a picture of a tortoise waking up from a nap, but in fact, they’re part of what improves loading speeds. Neil Patel says people don’t have patience for slow websites with 40% abandoning a website taking longer than 3 seconds to load. 

Technically, this is under the SEO umbrella as well, but every website owner can benefit from optimizing their images. 

Images that are lazy loading mean they’re only loaded when users see them instead of loading all at once when the initial page loads. 

Smush literally smushes your images down, compressing them into a smaller size, without sacrificing the quality (this is called lossless compression). 

What we love about it: 

• A user can compress or “bulk smush” up to 50 images in one click saving you the tedious task.
• The ability to resize images. Larger files mean longer loading times. You can set max width and height dimensions.
• No daily, monthly or annual limits for images up to 5MB in size. 
• Faulty image detection to quickly locate images slowing down your site.

Who it’s best for: Websites with a large volume of images. 

Best Free WordPress Optimizer – A2 Optimized

Did you know that A2 Hosting has our own in-house WordPress plugin? 

That’s right. A2 Optimized was designed specifically to enhance and secure your WordPress website. Our experts have tested the best settings and functionality configurations of third-party plugins. 

What we love about it: 

• Page caching capabilities. Storing full copies of webpages so that they can be accessed quicker by users and in turn speed up your site.
• The ability to compress the size of HTML pages to provide page load improvements.
• WordPress hardening rules to prevent browser access to specific files.
• Bot prevention for comment forms.

Who it’s best for: Any WordPress user wanting to optimize and secure their site with minimal manual effort.

Conclusion

These are obviously only three plugins out of thousands, but they are our favorite, and frankly, practical and efficient for your WordPress needs, whatever they may be. 

If you have any questions about how A2 Hosting can help your website, contact our sales team today!  If you’re looking for a host for your WordPress website check out our new Managed WordPress Hosting plans!

Related Resources: 

• An Introduction to Website Caching (And Why It’s Necessary)
• WordPress plugins A2 Hosting does not recommend
• A Beginner’s Guide to WordPress Plugins and How to Install Them
• How to Evaluate Your WordPress Plugins (In 3 Steps)

The post The Best Free WordPress Plugins appeared first on The A2 Posting.

With our LiteSpeed Hosting solution, you address speed issues with a blazing-fast platform.  Read on to discover how it can help you build a site fit for the modern consumer.

What Is LiteSpeed?

LiteSpeed — a drop-in, speed-enhanced web server — is available with our Turbo packages. With LiteSpeed, our clients experience 20X faster page loads compared to traditional solutions. If you’re serious about boosting your site’s performance, you should make the switch to LiteSpeed.  Here’s why:

High-Performance

A slow website impacts your bounce rates, SEO rankings, and bottom line. With Litespeed, we take care of your site’s performance so you can focus on other high-value activities. Here’s what we can guarantee with our solutions:

• 40% faster CPU performance
• 2X faster to first byte
• 9X more traffic capacity
• 3X faster read/write speeds

Free Site Transfer

Are you ready to experience A2 Hosting but fear migrating to our servers on your own? Don’t worry; in most cases, we can move sites for free. Call our 24/7/365 Guru Crew Support for more information about our free site transfer.

With our worry-free migration services, you can eliminate all speed optimization barriers.

Developer Friendly

We’ve been serving various website needs since 2003, and we’ve always enabled our clients to enjoy the most popular development software. We support older versions, too! Here is some of the development software we can link to your account:

• PHP 5.6, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, or 8.0
• MySQL
• 6/MariaDB
• PostgreSQL 9.6
• Python 3.4
• PERL 5.10
• Apache 2.4
• js 12
• FTP/SFTP
• Free SSH Access
• SSL & Free SSL

Perpetual Security

Recent cyber security statistics reveal that hackers attack 30,000 sites across the globe every day. With our Perpetual Security feature, we prevent our clients from falling victim to such attempts. A2 Hosting accounts come with free HackScan Protection to block malware before they can do any damage. Also, our reinforced distributed denial of service (DDoS) Protection boosts the likelihood of remaining online even after attacks.

Benefits of Turbo Plans

At A2 Hosting, our goal is to provide our clients with the best web hosting solutions that are both ultra-fast and reliable, like our Turbo plans. These are the options we offer for such services:

• 40% faster CPU performance
• 2x faster to first byte
• Can handle 9x more traffic
• Improved user experience with fast page loads
• Better SEO rankings

Built for Speed

Below are some components that make our turbo plans super fast, apart from LiteSpeed Hosting:

• Non-volatile memory express (NVMe): Through this component, we offer 3X faster read/write speeds.
• HTTP/3: This feature is the new gold standard in providing faster and more reliable connections for sites and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
• Edge Side Includes (ESI): With ESI, you don’t have to designate entire pages as non-cacheable. Instead, you can determine which portions can be cached and those that cannot.
• Quick UDP Internet Connections (QUIC): This element is an ideal alternative to transmission control protocol (TCP). QUIC creates multiplexed connections between computers, which further enhances your website’s speed.

Advanced Caching Software

Every time someone visits your site, your server has to run a request to convert all information pieces to viewable parts in a web browser. This process sometimes causes sites to run slowly, but it doesn’t have to.

This process doesn’t vary much from visitor to visitor, making caching essential. Turning on your cache stores your files within a much faster random-access memory (RAM). When caching software, your site won’t have to run complicated processes. Instead, your server stores HTML files for a fast load speed.

Upgraded Server Hardware

At some point in your company’s life, peer-to-peer networking becomes insufficient. As you grow, your user demands will exceed the capacities of routers and shared storage devices. For this reason, upgraded server hardware can do wonders for your business.

With a trusty server on your side, you can manage email campaigns for more people, grant access to multiple users, and manage shared resources in the workplace.

Optimized Configurations

Our experts know our hosting infrastructure inside and out, making it easy to optimize our solutions for various sites. Whether you have a CSS, JS, or HTML site, we have the right hosting infrastructure to meet your needs.

With our optimized configurations, you can enjoy faster load times while reducing overall page size. We can help you save up to 80% bandwidth and boost your site’s performance tenfold.

The A2 Hosting Edge

A2 Hosting is nothing like your typical hosting company. We designed our Turbo plans for super speed, limited occupancy, and various performance add-ons to provide clients with the fastest web hosting services available anywhere.

With our solutions on your side, you can boost your user experience and conversion rates. Read on for more reasons to switch to A2 Hosting.

Super Speed

Fast web hosting servers allow you to customize your website in a way that addresses your unique requirements. These services are essential to thrive in the modern world.

Fast hosting leads to a quick load time — a crucial SEO component that encourages clients to hang around. Additionally, a fast website equates to better security and more revenue. If your slow internet is driving away clients, It’s time to say goodbye to mediocre hosting.

Guru Crew Support

With A2 Hosting, our exceptional services don’t end when you sign up with us. Our 24/7/365 Guru Crew Support proves it.

When you manage a company, you typically observe normal business hours. However, overseeing a website is a different story.

Websites require 24/7 support because anyone can access the internet from anywhere in the world. Any time of the day, you have visitors reading your content or making purchases. Every time you experience technical difficulties, you can lose traffic and credibility.

Whether you experience a breakdown or network outage, our support team will be there for you 24/7/365.

Money-Back Guarantee

We believe in all our groundbreaking solutions, inspiring us to offer a money-back guarantee. There’s nothing to lose but everything to gain from our offer, so why not give it a shot?

We don’t think you’ll cancel because we offer up to 20X faster web hosting to help you thrive in the modern world! However, if you do, we’ll give you a hassle-free refund. We hate breakups as much as the next person, but we won’t hold it against you.

99.9% Uptime Commitment

Uptime refers to a measure of system reliability expressed as a percentage of time a machine has been available. When hosting providers boast impressive uptime rates, it’s a good indication of high-performance servers. Our 24/7/365 support staff will get your site running in no time.

Upgrade Your Website Now

In today’s modern world, your website speed can make or break your online presence. A fast load time can boost your SEO, conversion, and sales efforts. Whether you need shared web or managed dedicated services, there’s an ideal Turbo Hosting for your needs. With its LiteSpeed Hosting feature, you never have to lose an online client again because of a slow website.

Contact our sales team today to discover how working with us can transform your business.  We’d love to help you achieve your 2022 business goals.

The post What is LiteSpeed? The Ultra-Fast Web Server You Should Know About appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Why do you need WordPress Under Construction Pages

You need either Coming Soon or Maintenance mode page prepared for your site for the following reason:

• Inform your potential visitors about your new site, and its launch date
• Collect information about your visitors with a contact us or subscription form
• Inform visitors about launch promotions
• Keep your site users on the maintenance duration and its duration
• Avoid losing SEO traffic by having the right response page.

Types of Under Construction Pages

When you create a new WordPress site and want your visitors to be aware of the launch date, a Coming Soon page is displayed. The maintenance mode page, on the other hand, is displayed when you are updating or performing routine maintenance tasks on your WordPress site. The Under Construction or maintenance mode page should clearly state the duration of the site’s downtime and include a 503 response code. The 503 response code informs search engines that the site will be restored, preventing any SEO issues.

Popular WordPress Under Construction Page Plugin

There are numerous WordPress plugins available that allow you to easily create both of these pages for your site while maintaining a professional look and feel. The following are some of the most popular WordPress Under Construction page plugins.

Seed Prod

SeedProd is a freemium plugin available in the WordPress plugin repository. This plugin allows you to easily create professional-looking and customizable “Coming Soon” and Maintenance Mode pages without any scripting knowledge.

The premium version of the SeedProd Coming Soon, Maintenance Mode, and Landing Pages plugin supports custom 404 errors. The free version templates are more than enough for a starter website, and the free pages can be further customized with SeedProd’s built-in page builder.

Refer to this article for a step-by-step tutorial on how to create a Coming Soon or Maintenance mode page with the SeedProd plugin.

WP Maintenance Mode

DesignModo’s WP Maintenance Mode is a free plugin that allows you to create fully customizable maintenance mode pages. It is suitable for multisite installations and includes useful features such as a countdown timer for maintenance duration, contact forms, and a subscription form to collect visitor information that can be downloaded later.

The maintenance mode can be activated immediately after installing the plugin. For more information on the extensive feature set available, go to the official plugin page at https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-maintenance-mode/.

Under Construction Page

The Web Factory Ltd Under Construction Page plugin is a specialized plugin that allows you to quickly and easily create under-construction pages using a drag and drop builder. The free version of this plugin includes unique features such as Google Analytics page visit tracking, the ability to load custom CSS to customize the page, and maintenance mode timers.

Conclusion

Have any questions? Contact our team today and we will be happy to answer them!

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Apache Log4j 2 is a Java-based logging library developed by the Apache Foundation. It is used by numerous enterprise applications and cloud services to provide advanced logging capabilities. If you have a managed hosting account, you can rest assured that we take care of server configuration and updates for you. If you have an unmanaged server, now is a good time to review your security configuration and make sure updates are installed in a timely manner.

On November 24, 2021, Alibaba Cloud’s security team reported a Log4j 2 remote code execution vulnerability to Apache. The exploit takes advantage of some Log4j functions that perform recursive analysis. With specially constructed malicious requests, attackers can trigger remote code execution.

The vulnerability impacts default configurations of several Apache frameworks, including:

• Apache Druid
• Apache Flink
• Apache Solr
• Apache Struts2

On December 10, 2021, this vulnerability was officially designated in the NIST national vulnerability database as CVE-2021-44228 (also known as the “Log4Shell” vulnerability).

How the Vulnerability Impacts You

Depending on the type of hosting account you have with A2 Hosting, you may or may not need to take action:

Shared, Reseller, and Managed WordPress Accounts

If you have a shared, reseller, or Managed WordPress hosting account, you do not need to do anything. These servers automatically receive frequent updates that include patches for the Log4j 2 vulnerability.

cPanel published an update to mitigate CVE-2021-44228 the same day the vulnerability was announced. For more information, see cPanel’s blog entry.

Managed VPS and Dedicated Servers

If you have a Managed VPS or Managed Dedicated server, you most likely do not need to take any action – your server is updated automatically with patches for the Log4j 2 vulnerability. The only exception is if you have installed any software utilizing log4j outside of cPanel/WHM you should ensure those installations are updated. All software installed and managed by A2 has already been updated.

cPanel published an update to mitigate CVE-2021-44228 the same day the vulnerability was announced. For more information, see cPanel’s blog entry.

Unmanaged VPS and Dedicated Servers

If you have an unmanaged VPS or unmanaged Dedicated server, make sure you keep it up-to-date with the latest security patches.

If you use Log4j 2 it is very important to ensure you have updated to the most recent version.  The first patch included another vulnerability which required a second patch.

Java 8 (or later) users should upgrade to release 2.16.0.

Java 7 users should upgrade to release 2.12.2.

More information can be found at Apache.

For information about how to install updates on unmanaged servers, please see this Knowledge Base article.

The Bottom Line

Heartbleed… Shellshock… The Log4j vulnerability is only the latest in a long line of security bugs. It isn’t the first, and it surely won’t be the last.

If you have a managed hosting account, you can rest assured that we take care of server configuration and updates for you. If you have an unmanaged server, now is a good time to review your security configuration and make sure updates are installed in a timely manner.

The post Log4Shell: 0-day Exploit in Popular Apache Logging Package Log4j 2 appeared first on The A2 Posting.

What is an Unmanaged Dedicated Server?

Unmanaged Bare Metal Dedicated servers are dedicated servers with full root access. They’re designed to grant a user complete root access control for custom server configurations. They aren’t for the faint at heart though as they require Linux expertise and server administration experience. We only pre-install software on your server after you make your selection upon checkout. Otherwise, the server upkeep relies on you and your team. 

When Should You Use Unmanaged Dedicated Servers? 

The easy answer is when you need the power of a dedicated server and the flexibility of an unmanaged plan. 

Unmanaged dedicated servers are less expensive than their managed peers because you aren’t paying for the additional resources. You and your team manage the operating system, security, configuration, and every aspect of the server. This requires great skill to deploy updates, perform regular server backups and take necessary measures to keep your server up-to-date and secure. If you are not knowledgeable about server maintenance or don’t have someone or your team who is, an unmanaged dedicated server may be hard to maintain. If you do have the expertise there are great benefits to unmanaged hosting:

Unmanaged dedicated servers give you total control.

We give you full administrative access to configure the server to your needs. You and your team decide which control panel to use, which operating system you’d like, and which applications and servers you deploy on the server. 

Unmanaged dedicated servers are cheaper. 

Again, these plans are cheaper because we don’t offer the level of support guaranteed with a managed plan. You or your team must have the requisite server skills to manage your server and troubleshoot any arising problems. 

Unfortunately, unmanaged dedicated servers require a lot of work.

All aspects of server maintenance are up to you. You need to constantly protect your server from potential threats like malware, viruses, and other attacks. If you aren’t technically savvy, this proves difficult.

There’s no single answer to when you should use an unmanaged dedicated server. If you’re on an unmanaged VPS plan and need the extra power and flexibility, upgrade to an unmanaged dedicated server. But, if you’re currently on a managed plan, weigh out all your options and make sure you have access to the right resources before you commit to an unmanaged plan. 

Related Articles:

• Managed vs Unmanaged Hosting Plans: Which Is Best for Your Website?
• Unmanaged vs Managed WordPress Hosting: What’s The Difference?
• An Introduction to Dedicated Servers and Their Configuration Options
• How To Navigate Web Hosting Options & Find What’s Right For You

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