Author: 4GHadmin

March 5, 2019

Domain Related, Hosting Related

Reading Time: 7 minutes

\ Most people are perfectly fine with prompting their desktop or notebook to ‘nod off’ at the end of a day, and especially for those who work on their device and will be back in front of the screen first thing tomorrow morning. It’s true that they can go into a low-power mode and there’ll be no light coming from the screen and illuminating the room once you tell your computer to go to sleep. Others who aren’t going to be using theirs as regularly may instead choose to shut those down and be perfectly all right with the time it takes to get it booted up and running again once they do want to use it again. The majority won’t really give it much more than that, and here at 4GoodHosting we’re like any other good Canadian web hosting provider with a good reputation in that we’ve got our minds on much more detailed and relevant aspects of what’s going in the digital world. But like any of you we’ve got desktops and notebooks at home too. That’s why we found a certain article on this topic to be informative in just the type of way we aim to offer our weekly blog content, and so here it is for you too! Let’s have a look at this, and try to come to a consensus on what’s the best choice for you when you’re doing using your computer – put it to sleep, have it hibernate, or shut it down entirely. Popular Thinking The standard belief is that choosing not to turn your computer off at night is preferable, because shut downs and start ups tax the computer and lead to some of its components wearing out more quickly. Alternately, leaving it on does the same for other ones that never get to rest when the computer is still running, and even if it’s long since asleep. There’s some truth to each of them, so the question then becomes which is the better of the two choices. Here’s the skinny on all of that. The Issue It’s easy to understand why believing that cutting the...

February 26, 2019

Domain Related, Hosting Related, SEO Related

Reading Time: 4 minutes

It’s been said that here and now in the 21st century we’ve never had more distractions pulling at our attention day in and out like we do now. This is especially true when we’re in front a screen, and we imagine not many of you need any convincing of that. Distractions aren’t particularly problematic when you’re only web surfing or the like, and more often than not they’re what you might call an irresistible nuisance in those situations. When you’re on your computer for productive purposes, however, all those distractions can add up to a considerable amount of lost time. That’s where people might wish there was something to be done about them… and it appears as if now there is. Here at 4GoodHosting, we’re like any industrious Canadian web hosting provider in the way we have our eyes and ears peeled for developments in the computing world. Most of them aren’t worthy of discussing at large here, but considering that nearly everyone has had difficulty staying on task when making use of the Internet then this one definitely is. Google Introduces Focus Mode for Chrome Browser As if the Chrome browser needed any more assistance in being the nearly ubiquitous web-browser of choice these days. Google is set to announce focus mode, and while they haven’t actually announced this new feature as of yet, tech insiders have found there’s a new flag to be seen that indicates whether or not ‘focus mode’ is on. It should be mentioned that they’re not broaching uncharted territory here. Different applications have attempted to take on the problem of getting people to focus while working on a computer, and there have been software solutions available for both Mac and PC that have arrived with little or no fanfare. It goes without saying, however, that no power players commands the attention that Google does these days. At this time little is known about the Focus Mode feature, asides fro the fact it will soon be implemented with the world’s most popular web browser. The seen flag is reportedly indicating that if ‘#focus-mode’ is enabled, it allows a user to switch to Focus Mode. What,...

February 19, 2019

Hosting Related, Security, Security Related

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Most people aren’t any more familiar with Wi-Fi beyond understanding that it means a wireless internet connection. Those same people won’t be aware that in the last near decade the digital world has moved from Wi-Fi 4 to to Wi-Fi 5, and now Wi-Fi 5 is set to be replaced by Wi-Fi 6. What’s to be made of all of this for the average person who only knows that the wi-fi networks in their home and office are essential parts of their connected day-to-day, and that the wi-fi in Starbucks is pretty darn convenient as well. The numeric chain that identifies a Wi-Fi standard is something they may well recognize though. 802.11 is the standard, but the Wi-Fi 4 you had from 2009 to 2014 is different from the same 802.11 standard you’ve had with Wi-Fi 5 since then till now. What’s to come later this year with Wi-Fi 6 will be a different 802.11. Right, we get you - what’s the difference exactly. Here at 4GoodHosting, we’re like any quality Canadian web hosting provider in that the nature of our work and interests makes it so that we pick up on these things, if for no other reason than we’re exposed to and working with them on a regular basis. Much of the time these little particulars related to computing, web hosting, and digital connectivity aren’t worth discussing in great detail. However, because Wi-Fi is such an essential and much-appreciated resource for all of us we thought we’d look at the ‘new’ Wi-Fi set to arrive later this year here today. Wi-Fi 6: Problem Solver When we look at ‘802.11ac’, the average person won’t get the significance of that. The fact is, however, they should and what Wi-Fi 6 is being designed to be is a solution to that problem. What we’re going to see is the beginning of generational Wi-Fi labels. Let’s make you aware that there is a collective body known as the Wi-Fi Alliance. They are in charge of deciding, developing, and designating Wi-Fi standards. We are all aware of how devices are becoming more complex and internet connections evolve, and when they do the process...

February 11, 2019

Domain Related, Hosting Related

Reading Time: 5 minutes

AI continues to be one of the most game-changing developments in computing technology these days, and it’s hard to argue that there’s no more commonplace example of AI than in the digital assistants that have nearly become household names – Apple’s SIRI and Google’s Alexa. Even a decade ago many people would have stated their disbelief at the notion that it might be possible to make spoken queries to a digital device, and then have them provide a to-the-minute accurate reply. The convenience and practicality of AI has been a hit, and what’s noteworthy about it is the way that folks of all ages have taken to it. After all, it doesn’t even require the slightest bit of digital know-how to address Siri or Alexa and rattle of a question. Indeed, both tech giants have done a great job building the technology for their digital assistants. With regards to Siri in particular, however, it appears that Apple is teaming up with a company that’s made a name for themselves developing chatbots for enterprise clients. Why? – to make Siri an even better digital assistant and even more the so the beacon of AI made possible for everyday people. Here at 4GoodHosting, like most Canadian web hosting providers we have the same level of profound interest in major developments in the computing, web hosting, and digital worlds that many of our customers do. This zeal for ‘what’s next’ is very much a part of what makes us tick, and this coming-soon improvement to Siri makes the cut as something worth discussing in our blog here today. Proven Partnership The aim is to make it so that Siri gets much better at analyzing and understanding real-world conversations and developing AI models capable of handling their context and complexity. In order to do that, they’ve chosen to work with a developer who they have a track record of success with. That’s Nuance, who is an established major player in conversation-based user interfaces. They collaborated with Apple to begin with Siri, and so this is round 2. As mentioned, Nuance’s present business is focused on developing chatbots for enterprise clients, and so they’re ideally...

February 4, 2019

Domain Related

Reading Time: 7 minutes

We’re a few days late getting to this, but we’ve chosen to make DNS Flag Day our topic this week as the ramifications of what’s to come of it will be of ongoing significance for pretty much anyone who has interests in digital marketing and the World Wide Web as a whole. Those that do will very likely be familiar with DNS and what the abbreviation stands for, but for any who don’t DNS is domain name system. DNS has been an integral part of the information superhighway’s infrastructure for nearly as long as the Internet itself has been in existence. So what’s it’s significance? Well, in the Internet’s early days there wasn’t a perceived need for the levels of security that we know are very much required these days. There as much more in the way of trust and less in the way of pressing concerns. There wasn’t a whole lot of people using it, and as such the importance of DNS as a core service didn’t receive much focus and wasn’t developed with much urgency. Any Canadian web hosting provider will be on the front lines of any developments regarding web security measures, and here at 4GoodHosting we’re no exception. Offering customers the best in products and services that make their website less vulnerable is always going to be a priority. Creating informed customers is something we believe in too, and that’s why we’re choosing to get you in the know regarding DNS flag day What Exactly is this ‘Flag Day’? The long and short of this is that this past Friday, February 1 2019, was the official DNS flag day. So, for the last 3 days, some organisations may now have a non-functioning domain. Not likely many of them, but may will see their domains now being unable to support the latest security features – making them an easier target for network attackers. How and why? Well, a little bit of background info is needed. These days DNS has a wide-spread complexity, which is ever more necessary because cyber criminals launching are launching ever more complex disruptive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks aimed at a domain’s...

January 28, 2019

Hosting Related, Security, Security Related

Reading Time: 5 minutes

It’s likely that a good many of you are among the thousands upon thousands of people who have an Ad Blocker installed for your web browsers of choice. Some people do use them simply to avoid the nuisance of having to watch ad after ad, and it’s people like these that have necessitated some sites to insist that you ‘whitelist’ them in order to proceed into the website they want to visit. That’s perfectly understandable, as those paying advertisers are the way the website generates income for the individual or business. For others, however, we spend a great deal of our working day researching and referencing online, and having to watch ads before getting to the content we need in order to do our work. For us, an ad blocker is much more of a tool of necessity rather than convenience. Still, we get caught up in more than a few sites that will insist on being whitelisted too. For me, my ad blocker is a godsend and I don’t whitelist any website or disable my ad blocker for any of them. Here at 4GoodHosting, part of what makes us a good Canadian web hosting provider is having built up an insight into what really matters to our customers. The bulk of them are people who use the Information Superhighway as a production resource rather than web ‘surfers’ for whom it’s more of an entertainment one. That’s why today’s news is some that’s sure to be very relevant for most of our customers. Weakened WebRequest APIs Some of you may not know how your ad blocker works, and that’s perfectly normal. As long as it does its job, you don’t really need to know. Chromium is Google’s newest all-powerful web browser, and just like Chrome did you can expect it to soon become nearly ubiquitous as most people’s web browser of-choice. However, Chromium developers in the last few weeks have shared that among the updates they are planning to do in Manifest V3 is one that will restrict the blocking version of the webRequest API. The alternative they’re introducing is called declrativeNetRequest API. After becoming aware of it, many ad...

January 14, 2019

Domain Related

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Last week we talked about key trends for software development expected for 2019, and today we’ll discuss another trend for the coming year that’s a bit more of a given. That being that datacenters will have even more demands placed on their capacities as we continue to become more of a digital working world all the time. Indeed, datacenters have grown to be key partners for enterprises, rather than being just an external service utilized for storing data and business operation models. Even the smallest of issues in datacenter operations can impact business. While datacenters are certainly lifeblood for every business, they also have global impacts and in particular as it relates to energy consumption. Somewhere in the vicinity of 3% of total electricity consumption worldwide is made by datacenters, and to put that in perspective that’s more than the entire power consumption of the UK. Datacenters also account for 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions, and 2% electronic waste (aka e-waste). Many people aren’t aware of the extent to which our growingly digital world impacts the natural one so directly, but it really does. Like any good Canadian web hosting provider who provides the service for thousands of customers, we have extensive datacenter requirements ourselves. Most will make efforts to ensure their datacenters operate as energy-efficiently as possible, and that goes along with the primary aim – making sure those data centers are rock-solid reliable AND as secure as possible. Let’s take a look today at what’s being done around the globe to promote environmental sustainability with data centers. Lack of Environmental Policies Super Micro Computer recently put out a report entitled ‘Data Centers and the Environment’ and it stated that 43% of organizations don’t have an environmental policy, and another 50% have no plans to develop any such policy anytime soon. Reasons why? high costs (29%), lack of resources or understanding (27%), and then another 14% don’t make environmental issues a priority. The aim of the report was to help datacenter managers better understand the environmental impact of datacenters, provide quantitative comparisons of other companies, and then in time help them reduce this impact. Key Findings 28% of...

January 7, 2019

Domain Related

Reading Time: 8 minutes

Here we are into the first week of 2019 and as expected we’ve got a whole lot on the horizon this year in the way of software development. We live in a world that’s more and more digital all the time, and the demands put on the software development industry are pretty much non-stop in response to this ongoing shift. Often times it’s all about more efficient ‘straight lining’ of tasks as well as creating more of a can-do environment for people who need applications and the like to work smarter. Here at 4GoodHosting, a part of what makes us a reputable Canadian web hosting provider is the way we stay abreast of developments. Not only in the web hosting industry, but also in the ones that have a direct relevance for clients of ours in the way they’re connected to computing and computing technology. Today we’re going to discuss the key trends in software development that are expected for this coming year. Continuing to Come a Long Way Look back 10 years and you’ll surely agree the changes in the types of applications and websites that have been built – as well as how they’ve been built – is really quite something. The web of 2008 is almost unrecognizable. Today it is very much an app and API economy. It was only just 10ish years ago that JavaScript framework was the newest and best around, but now building for browsers exclusively is very much a thing of the past. In 2019 we’re going to see priorities put on progressive web apps, artificial intelligence, and native app development remain. As adoption increases and new tools emerge, we can expect to see more radical shifts in the ways we work in the digital world. There’s going to be less in the way of ‘cutting edge’ and more in the way of refinements on technology that reflect developers now having a better understanding of how technologies can be applied The biggest thing for web developers now is that they need to expand upon the stack as applications become increasingly lightweight (in large part due to libraries and frameworks like Vue and React),...

December 31, 2018

Domain Related

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Here we are on the final day of the year, and most will agree that 2018 has seen IT technology expand in leaps and bounds exactly as it was expected to. In truth, it seems every year brings us a whole whack of new technology trends cementing themselves in the world of IT, web, and computing development. Not surprisingly, the same is forecast for 2019. Here at 4GoodHosting, a significant part of what makes us one of the many good Canadian web hosting providers is that we enjoy keeping abreast of these developments and then aligning our resources and services with them when it’s beneficial for our customers to do so. Worldwide IT spending for 2019 is projected to be in the vicinity of $3.8 trillion. That will be a 3.2% increased from the roughly $3.7 trillion spend this year. That’s a LOT of money going into the research and development shaping the digital world that’s so integral to the professional and personal lives for so many of us. So for the last day of 2018 let’s have a look at the top 10 strategic technology trends we can expect to become the norm over the course of the year that’ll start tomorrow. Autonomous Things We’ve all heard the rumblings that we’re on the cusp of the start of the robot age. It seems that may be true. Autonomous things like robots, drones and autonomous vehicles use AI to automate functions that were performed by humans previously. This type of automation goes beyond that provided by rigid programming models, and these automated things use AI to deliver advanced behaviors tailored by their interacting more naturally with their surroundings and with people – when necessary. The proliferation of autonomous things will constitute a real shift from stand-alone intelligent things to collections of them that will collaborate very intelligently. Multiple devices will work together, and without human input if it’s not required – or not conducive to more cost-effective production or maintenance. The last part of that is key, as the way autonomous things can reduce production costs by removing the employee cost from the production chain wherever possible is going to...