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.

Looking to learn more in-depth about the security included with all these plans? Below is an explanation of the different security tools and features included and how this can help you make sure your website is safe and secure.

The Importance of Security on Websites Using WordPress

When there’s a huge demand for a script or CMS, there’s a good chance that hackers and attackers will be keeping an eye on websites using it. At any one time, there could be hundreds or thousands of attacks happening on the internet. This makes WordPress websites a target.

As such, hackers will always be scanning WordPress websites for vulnerable areas. This means website owners who don’t properly prepare and secure their WordPress sites may be at risk. This is why you need to keep the security on your website in tip-top shape! Below are the features we offer at A2 Hosting on our Managed WordPress plans to help ensure your security success.

Managed WordPress Security Features

A2 Hosting’s new Managed WordPress plans now come with a selection of enhanced security features that have been designed to support our users such as HackScan Protection, Reinforced DDoS Protection, and KernelCare. We’re including a complete breakdown below of three of the main tools we will be including in the plans and the different security features they provide our users:

WordPress Toolkit

We include different levels of cPanel’s WordPress Toolkit on all of our WordPress plans. Below are some of the main security perks:

• 1-Click Hardening: Used to scan existing and new sites for settings that may be potentially vulnerable.
• Automatic Hardening: This can keep your site safe through the auto-application of the industry’s best practices in security.
• Mass Hardening: Scans all your sites for vulnerable settings while securing every site with just a click.
• Security Rollback: In rare cases, security updates may create compatibility issues on your website. This feature will allow you to quickly revert the changes made.
• Mass Updates: This allows you to execute updates for all of your website’s WordPress themes, core, and plugins.

Jetpack Security

We will also be including the popular Jetpack Plugin. This plugin comes with a multitude of security features including:

• Automated Spam Filtering: Protects your site by keeping spam content away.
• Brute Force Attack Protection: Works to keep your website safe by blocking unsafe login attempts from distributed attacks and malicious botnets.
• Free Daily Malware Scans (Included with our Fly & Sell Plans): This feature automatically checks your site for vulnerabilities such as malware. You’ll also receive immediate alerts if Jetpack finds problems to be addressed quickly.

A2 Optimized

All of our plans also come with our plugin, A2 Optimized. We’ve focused on various security measures with A2 Optimized, which include the following:

• Deny Direct Access to Configuration Files and Comment Form: This allows you to protect your configuration files by creating a Forbidden error to bots and web users who try to access WP configuration files.
• Lock Editing of Plugins and Themes from the WP Admin: This prevents exploits to use the built-in editing capabilities of the WP Admin.
• Login URL Change: With this, you can hide your wp-login and wp-admin pages, blocking off hackers from entry through brute force attacks.
• Regenerate wp-config salts: WP salts and security keys help to secure the site’s login process along with the cookies that WordPress implements to authenticate users.
• ReCAPTCHA on Comments and Login: Used to increase site security while decreasing spam by adding a CAPTCHA to the login screen and comment forms.
• Unused Themes & Inactive Plugin Notifications: Themes and plugins with security flaws can still have an impact on the site. Having these notifications can help you better manage other features on your site for improved security.

cPanel Security Features

There is also a wide range of improvements to cPanel’s Security. This includes:

• Directory Privacy: Blocks users who want to open a folder that you’ve designated for protection. They will first need to enter a username and password for access.
• Free SSL Certificate (Free RapidSSL On Sell plans): This allows you to secure pages on your website so that details such as credit card numbers, logins, and more are sent encrypted instead of plain text.
• Hotlink Protection: Stops your images from being used on other sites.
• Imunify360: A comprehensive security suite for real-time and proactive website protection. It provides an all-in-one security solution that features a Web Application Firewall, an Intrusion Prevention and Detection system, a Network Firewall, Patch Management, and Real-time Antivirus protection.
• IP Blocker: Blocks a range of IP addresses to stop hackers from getting access to your site.
• Leech Protection: Stops users from publicly posting or sharing passwords to restricted areas of your site.
• ModSecurity: Provides real-time monitoring for incoming threats and blocks malicious connections before reaching your WordPress website and applications.
• Patchman: This scans your account for any outdated WP malware scripts, vulnerabilities, and applications. It will then fix any vulnerabilities without doing damage to the site.
• SSH: Provides more secure file transfers.
• Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): If turned on, it will require the app on your smartphone to provide a unique security code that you must input apart from your password when trying to log into your account.
• Virus Scanner: Configurable scan of your account to identify any security threats.

Need Help? Ask Our Guru Crew

If you need support or just have a few WordPress Hosting questions, you can count on our expert Sales team! Working 24/7/365, our friendly and knowledgeable staff are more than happy to address any concerns or issues. You may also reach them via email, phone, or live chat, so you can get the answers you need when you need them.

The post New Managed WordPress Enhanced Security Features with A2 Hosting appeared first on The A2 Posting.

Ann Arbor, MI—January 17, 2022—A2 Hosting, a provider of high-speed web hosting solutions, announced the availability of its new and improved portfolio of Managed WordPress plans. Modernizing its prior WordPress offerings, the new plans run on the company’s high-performing Turbo servers and introduce advanced features and tools—innovations that collectively increase website speed and security as well as ease of management for customers. The plans are available in four distinct packages to support various business requirements from single or multiple website deployments to basic corporate or eCommerce site configurations. 

“Last year, 70 percent of businesses chose to invest more in their digital presence. In parallel, over 60 percent of websites currently use WordPress as their content management system,” said Bryan Muthig, CEO, A2 Hosting. “We have a highly regarded track record of staying in step with our customers’ wants and needs which is why we released an extensive WordPress survey. The results guided us in creating our new Managed WordPress solutions that maximize, secure, and simplify the use of WordPress.” 

Run, Jump, Fly, Sell

As stated above, A2 Hosting’s WordPress experts developed the four different levels of WordPress plans based on feedback from current and prospective customers. All plans include cPanel’s WordPress Toolkit for easy site management. The tiers are defined as: 

• Run: The first tier plan is for WordPress beginners and hobbyists to quickly and easily get sites up and running. Run best fits the needs of users who are beginning on WordPress and need a strong foundation optimized with security and features that can be built on.
• Jump: The second tier plan is designed for professionals whose businesses need more resources and/or have up to five websites to host. Jump includes extras like Jetpack’s Daily Backup License and 250 GB of NVMe performance storage.
• Fly: The third tier plan is designed for experienced web professionals and developers who host a number of sites for themselves and their customers. Fly provides users with unlimited websites, unlimited NVMe storage, and free daily malware scans with Jetpack’s Security Daily License. 
• Sell: This tier is specifically crafted for eCommerce professionals, with WooCommerce pre-installed and optimized. Sell is also bundled with a premium RapidSSL certificate and a site seal to demonstrate enhanced security to customers. This plan is ideal for buying and selling using WordPress.

Advanced Plan Features and Benefits

The new Managed WordPress plans are supported 24/7/365 by A2 Hosting’s in-house Guru Crew. This team provides hands-on assistance with server and plan maintenance. The plans take a focused approach to help users increase their success rates with the popular CMS: 

•  Security Enhancements

Also included is extensive security, including features like a web application firewall, real-time antivirus protection, a network firewall, and patch management that detect, fix, and protect these hosting plans. The Fly and Sell plans also include Jetpack Daily Secure that addresses specific WordPress vulnerabilities through malware scans, brute force protection, automated spam filtering, and more to remove the guesswork from deploying the most secure website possible today. 

• Speed Optimization

The plans are hosted on A2 Hosting’s Turbo servers. The servers’ integrated NVMe storage, advanced LiteSpeed caching, and A2 Optimized plugin (which uses Memcached and TurboCache to accelerate website performance) to increase server speeds up to 20x faster than stock installation with 204% of standard disk performance.

• Managed Server Benefits

All plans come with complete server management. This includes features like 24/7 server maintenance, security, resource upgrades, malware scanning, and more. 

• WordPress-Specific Site Management Tools  

The plans also include newly introduced tools designed to aid and automate the speed and security of WordPress websites. The tools offer daily back-ups and malware scans, site speed scores, 1-click optimizations, optimized CSS, and other features. They are also bundled with cPanel’s Deluxe WordPress Toolkit, which helps users easily manage, update, back up, clone, stage, and secure WordPress websites.  

A2 Hosting’s New Managed WordPress plans are currently discounted, ranging in price from $11.99 to $41.99 per month.  

About A2 Hosting

Recently awarded Leader in Web Hosting for Summer 2021 by G2 and Best Cheap Dedicated Web Hosting by Digital.com, A2 Hosting, Inc. is a high-performance hosting services provider located in Ann Arbor, MI. The company delivers ultra-reliable solutions and 24/7/365 US-based support from its Guru Crew team. Since 2003, A2 Hosting has offered innovative, affordable, and developer-friendly hosting for small- and medium-sized businesses as well as web development agencies worldwide. Customers seeking the fastest hosting options in the industry can host websites of any size on A2’s Turbo Performance server platform featuring page load speeds up to 20X faster compared to competing solutions. To learn more, visit https://www.a2hosting.com.

### 

Press Contact:

Heather Ailara

211 Communications

+1.973.567.6040

heather@211comms.com

The post A2 Hosting Launches Next-Generation Managed WordPress Hosting appeared first on The A2 Posting.

What is Magento?

First, let’s discuss what Magento is and why it may be a helpful platform for you. Magento is one of the top e-commerce platforms today. It is made with open-source software so users are able to control their online store’s look, functionality, and content without compromising the shopping experience. Also, Magento provides its users with a number of useful tools and features including marketing, SEO, and catalog-management tools. With Magento, users have access to a wide variety of plugins and themes to customize whatever they want. Such customizations can also improve customer experience.

In general, the platform is scalable to any store size and will adapt to your business, whether you are catering to a few customers or a million. This means that as your business grows you won’t be forced to change platforms.

What is Managed VPS Hosting?

Managed VPS Hosting is a managed service where you don’t need to worry about managing your server. With Managed VPS Hosting, your hosting provider will take care of server maintenance such as core updates, software installation, backup, security, and more.

Benefits of Magento as an eCommerce Platform

Magento offers numerous advantages to e-commerce businesses. As an e-commerce platform, it provides:

• Increased performance and scalability
• Improved ability to persuade customers
• A powerful platform that can support thousands of products
• A responsive and mobile-friendly experience
• Advanced search engine optimization features
• A helpful community with developer support

Benefits of Managed VPS Hosting with A2 Hosting

• Enjoy Full Root Access: With full root access you can tailor your managed server to meet your specific needs as you’re not sharing it with other entities.
• Cost Savings: With managed virtual hosting, you can eliminate expenses incurred on hiring dedicated staff to take care of the technical administration and management tasks.
• Scalability: Managed VPS Hosting services also take care of scalability, which is an important requirement for growing businesses. With rising traffic, your server resources can be easily ramped up to meet the increasing demands.
• Security: With Managed VPS Hosting, you get an IP address that is unique to your server, which offers increased website security.

Conclusion:

At A2 Hosting, our goal is to offer fast, responsive, and reliable hosting solutions to meet your unique needs. This recent integration with Magento is one way for us to show our support to all of our customers.

If you’re a growing enterprise, increasing business demands can place undue strain on your website and online operations if they’re not designed to handle high traffic and other challenges. In addition, the demands of an expanding business can divert attention from more valuable business activities. This is where A2 Hosting can come to your rescue. By opting for our Managed Magento VPS Hosting, you can focus your time and attention on operations such as marketing, promotions, sales, and customer service that directly contribute to the growth of your business.

Leave the hosting challenges to us while you attend to your customers. Benefit from our hassle-free and seamless hosting plans!

Click here to check out our Managed VPS Hosting plans. If you have any further questions, contact our sales team today!

The post A2 Hosting Now Offers Magento Support on Managed VPS Hosting Plans appeared first on The A2 Posting.

ANN ARBOR, MICH–NOV 22, 2021–Black Friday sales in 2021 are forecasted to break $900 billion in online shopping globally, according to the Adobe Digital Economy Index. To prepare, eCommerce companies have begun to buckle down and enhance their websites for the recording-breaking traffic coming their way. A2 Hosting, a leading player in the web hosting industry, just released an accompanying ebook to aid online entrepreneurs in their preparations. “With the impacts of Covid 19 in 2020 and 2021, we know that now more than ever it’s imperative for our customers to experience a win during the holiday sales. We’re trying to give them as many resources as possible to help them succeed,” says Bryan Muthig, A2 Hosting’s CEO. 

This ebook is changing the game for eCommerce owners in 2021. It covers backend technical website improvements, front-end website optimization, and digital marketing do’s and don’t. eCommerce owners will find a thorough guide with step-by-step instructions on how to upgrade their websites as well as insight from A2 Hosting’s top-end development team, marketing team, and support gurus. Along with this ebook and a number of preparatory guides on their blog, A2 Hosting is also offering a Black Friday and Cyber Monday sitewide discount with their lowest prices of the year from 11/22-12/5. 

“We want to give our customers the right resources to succeed,” says Muthig. “Not only does that include the right hosting, but it also encapsulates the hosting experience in general. Our guru support crew will be available 24/7 for our customers throughout the holiday season so we’re here for you when it counts. Whether it’s a website crashing on Christmas Day or client questions on Black Friday morning, we’re a team that values supporting our customers in any way we can all season long.”    

About A2 Hosting

Recently awarded Leader in Web Hosting for Summer 2021 by G2 and Best Cheap Dedicated Web Hosting by Digital.com, A2 Hosting, Inc. is a high-performance hosting services provider located in Ann Arbor, MI. The company delivers ultra-reliable solutions and 24/7/365 US-based support from its Guru Crew team. Since 2003, A2 Hosting has offered innovative, affordable, and developer-friendly hosting for small- and medium-sized businesses as well as web development agencies worldwide. Customers seeking the fastest hosting options in the industry can host websites of any size on A2’s Turbo Performance server platform featuring page load speeds up to 20X faster compared to competing solutions. To learn more, visit https://www.a2hosting.com.

The post Win 2021 Black Friday Website Preparations with A2 Hosting’s Free eCommerce eBook appeared first on The A2 Posting.

But did you know that proper hosting is also important in establishing a good business reputation?

Through web hosting services, a website can provide amazing user experiences that will improve any brand’s image in its market. The opposite is true with a poor hosting solution. This can lead to poor user experiences that reduce your engagement significantly.

So how can you choose the right web hosting solutions for your website?

To help you decide, we’ve prepared a brief guide on the crucial things to know when choosing web hosting services.

How to Choose the Right Web Hosting Services

There are at least five factors to consider when deciding on the ideal web hosting service for your needs. Getting the highest levels on all these factors will ensure that your website can provide an excellent user experience.

These factors are:

Web Hosting Service Factor #1: Speed

The speed of your web hosting service provider is one of the first and most important factors you should consider. Hosting speed is a priority consideration as it shows how fast a provider can load web pages.

Websites that can load quickly often translate to a better user experience since most people won’t stay if a page takes a long time to load. With a slow website, your customers are more likely to leave your page and opt for competitors instead.

When talking about hosting performance, the software stack or server technology used by a provider is one thing to look out for. With technology evolving at a rapid pace, it’s important to have a web host that can adapt quickly and employ the latest tech advancements for maximum speeds.

At A2 Hosting we offer Turbo hosting plans that are designed to provide users with the best speeds for their websites. The limited occupancy of these plans minimizes the number of resources being used while optimized server configurations ensure top performance.

Furthermore, our Turbo packages take advantage of the latest server hardware and software technologies in the market, providing as much as 20x faster page load speeds than the competition. Websites hosted on their turbos plans can handle 9x more traffic with 3x faster read/write speeds.

Web Hosting Service Factor #2: Reliability

Reliability or the uptime of web hosting services is the second most important aspect to consider. Your host’s reliability refers to how often a site is going to be available and accessible to the public.

Besides a slow-loading website, one that can’t be visited is one of the worst things businesses can experience. An inaccessible site, even if it’s just for a few hours, can significantly reduce conversion rates.

Brand websites that experience frequent downtimes can expect their images to be tarnished. No lead or customer would want to visit a website only to find out that it’s not available. Catering to the needs of the target market at all times should be a top priority for your business website.

One way you can avoid experiencing downtimes as much as possible is by leveraging a hosting solution that is guaranteed to have at least 99% uptime. Anything lower than that would drastically reduce conversions.

At A2 Hosting we take advantage of tried and tested technologies, ensuring that all of our customers get 99.99% uptime from our web hosting services.

Web Hosting Service Factor #3: Security

As you browse for your potential hosting solutions provider, you should consider the levels of security they have to offer for new and existing customers. This is particularly important at the server level since this is where most of your site’s resources are stored.

For instance, you want to check if they apply the newest operating system patches to your server. Patches and updates are vital for servers to have as few vulnerabilities as possible. You should also check if they provide DDoS protection and high-level firewalls to filter potentially malicious traffic.

Besides cybersecurity, backups are equally important as well. Backup solutions provide you with a repository containing saved business data that you can fall back on if the worst should happen.

With A2 Hosting, you can leverage secure web hosting services that provide you with top-notch protection and stability for your website. We work on the OpenVPN virtual private network so that our users can work from site to site and point to point without worrying about their security. OpenVPN, in particular, comes with security features such as network address translation (NAT) protection.

Meanwhile, our Brute Force Protection solution lets you block cybercriminals using methods such as IP routing, APF, and custom commands.

Other security features you can find from our packages include:

• ConfigServer and Firewall (CSF) login security
• Linux malware detection solutions
• Linux environment security
• SSL certificates
• Secure Shell (SSH) login security solution
• SimpleRisk risk management solution

At A2 Hosting, our goal is to help you identify potential security threats and resolve them before they become worse. Our secure servers utilize the latest and proven cybersecurity solutions so you can have around-the-clock protection for your websites.

Web Hosting Service Factor #4: Features and Add-Ons

Features and add-ons are always great to have in any web hosting service. The main reason for this is that these added options let you scale up when needed, especially when you wish to expand to a new market.

A2 Hosting offers customers quite a few add-on solutions that can help improve site security, functionality, usability, and experience. These additional options are:

• Cloudflare: The content delivery network (CDN) known as Cloudflare is a service that we provide to our web hosting customers free of charge. We offer a knowledge base of tutorials that will teach you how to set up and get started with Cloudflare.
• SSL certificates: SSL certificate is a necessary add-on solution for any website, especially in terms of ramping up security. Using the right SSL certificate, site owners can make sure that their website data are encrypted while making themselves more trustworthy to their visitors.
• WHMCS hosting: Resellers looking to leverage A2 Hosting’s plans can take advantage of WHMCS since we also support hosting with this feature. You can learn everything from configuring OpenSRS access for WHMCS to ordering a WHMCS license with us.
• Domain and SSL reseller: Again, for resellers or those using managed VPS or managed dedicated server accounts, you can turn into an SSL or eNom domain reseller with A2 Hosting.
• Promotions: Promotional programs are available when you pick A2 Hosting as your web hosting services provider. You can even access a knowledge base containing information on programs for affiliates, refer-a-friend, and more.
• cPanel licensing: Dedicated, cloud VPS, and unmanaged VPS servers normally don’t have cPanel included in their accounts. With A2 Hosting, cPanel licensing in included with many of our plans.
• MailChimp account setup: We can help you sign up for a MailChimp account and teach you how to generate API keys. The latter should help you integrate MailChimp with your A2 Hosting website so you can manage your newsletters and drip campaigns easily.
• Dropmysite: The Dropmysite cPanel plugin lets you keep track of your websites and configure backups for your data. A2 Hosting will provide you with all of the resources you need to make the most of Dropmysite.
• Ordering a Blesta license: Looking to leverage Blesta for your website? A2 Hosting will guide you throughout the process so you can maximize your reseller hosting package with us.

Web Hosting Service Factor #5: Support

If you’ve found a web hosting provider that has the hardware, software, and features that you need, then the next logical step is to consider their support. Does your chosen provider have the expertise, equipment, and resources to ensure you get the best levels of service at all times?

Here are a few aspects to consider when it comes to support:

• Support level: When it comes to a host’s level of support, you need to consider the level of support your business website needs. For instance, do you require VPS, cloud hosting, or dedicated server support? What about WooCommerce or WordPress? Does your host offer help on those platforms? Are you looking for a managed plan where your host takes care of all of your backend server needs or looking to manage it yourself?
• Contact methods: The next aspect to consider is how your provider gets in touch with you in terms of support. Do they offer telephone and live chat or just email? Having an online support ticket system can be crucial, especially for business websites. A2 Hosting offers ticket, live chat, email, and phone calls 24/7/365!
• Ability to respond: Besides being able to contact them through multiple methods, you should also learn how quickly they can address your issue. In case your website goes down, you want to know how long before it gets back up so you can get back to business as soon as possible.
• How quickly they resolve issues: Similar to the above, resolution time is another thing to consider with your web hosting provider. Some hosts pass the concerns of their customers to third-party support providers, which can take several days to be resolved. You want to leverage the support services of a company that can resolve all of your issues themselves. At A2 Hosting we have an extensive in house support team, otherwise know as our guru crew.
• Operating times: Finally, you want to check and ensure your web host can provide around-the-clock support. 24/7 customer service is a must nowadays especially for website owners that can experience problems at any time of the day or night. That’s why A2 Hosting has someone there to help you 24/7/365!

At A2 Hosting, our web hosting services come with the highest levels of support you can expect from a premium provider. We are available to answer inquiries or resolve issues of our customers whenever they need us.

In case you want to learn more about our services, you can visit our support page that contains all of the information you need on various hosting solutions.

Which Level of Hosting Plan Is Right for You?

So which level of web hosting plan fits your needs? Consider the short overview below and click this link to take our free quiz!

Shared Web Hosting Plan

Our Shared Web Hosting plan is our most affordable hosting solution that lets you share resources such as disk space, data transfer, and processing power. It also comes with cPanel, server backups, and unlimited storage.

VPS Hosting Plan

On our VPS Hosting plans you share the same server with other sites, but you get to operate your account independently. This means you get your own allotted amount of resources! If you choose our managed plans back-end server maintenance is handled for you.

Dedicated Hosting Plan

Looking for a premium hosting solution? Our dedicated hosting plan means that you get the highest performance, best features, and a private server solely for all of your business website needs.

Conclusion

These are the most important aspects you should know about choosing a web hosting service. Following the tips provided in this post will help guide you in getting the right solution for your website.

If you have any questions about our web hosting services, contact our sales team today. Interested in finding out which plan is right for you? I encourage you to take our free quiz to help you decide!

The post Crucial Things to Know When Choosing Web Hosting Services appeared first on The A2 Posting.

WordPress (WP) Toolkit is a WordPress management solution. It has an easy-to-use interface that allows users to install, configure, secure, update, and manage all of their WordPress sites. A2 Hosting will be offering WP Toolkit Deluxe on all Turbo Managed Plans, and WP Toolkit Standard will be included on all other Managed plans, including our new Managed WordPress Plans! Watch our video below for an introduction on how to use the WordPress Toolkit Deluxe for Site Management or read the step-by-step guide beneath it.

So installing your site, is as easy as clicking the yellow highlighted button below and then filling out the following form that populates from this.

General

Once you click to install, this page will pop up. In the general section, there are a few things to make sure you fill out.

Installation Path: Your current live site will automatically show up on the installation path. Here you need to select another site or create a staging site (website.staging.com)

Website Title: Now we’ll go ahead and give your website a name. This can always be changed later within WordPress.

Plugin/Theme Set: Here you can choose a plugin theme or set. These are usually just pre-configured packs for you to get started.

WordPress Administrator: Here an overall username and password are required to access the WordPress portion of your site. One of the features of the WordPress Toolkit is to generate these automatically for you and then save them within cPanel so that all you have to do is click a button and you don’t have to remember these at all moving through the database.

Database

Most users may not have to interact with the Database section. This is automatically generated information kind of like the WordPress Administrator section above. You also don’t need to really remember this unless you’re integration level work in your actual databases, but for the most part, these can be left ignored.

Automatic Updates

This is an important consideration for making sure that your site stays available and online and stays secure as updates become available for vulnerabilities. So the default is yes, all minor and major updates. You can also if you choose, select plugins and themes to automatically be updated as well. After deciding this go ahead and click install to start the site installation process.

Just like that your new site is created! Once your installation is complete the window pictured below will pop up. It’s going to provide you with an opportunity to install some plugins. These plugins come directly from wordpress.org. This is the same set of plugins in the community that are managed and downloaded.

If you can click on the install plugins button it will take you to the screen pictured below. There you can look and see all the plugins and themes available. You will be able to see ratings, how many people have already downloaded it, and who the publisher is. It’s going to provide you with the information that you need to be able to decide if it’s the right plugin for you.

Finding Your Plugins and Themes

Let’s say you finish downloading all the ones you want and click off and then realize that you may have missed an important plugin. If you ever need to come back to make a change on your plugins and themes, you can find those in these tabs here on the main dashboard. So we can see that Akisment Anti-Spam 4.1.12 is installed and not currently online until we want to turn it on.

Finding and Installing Your Existing WordPress Sites

Let’s say that you have an existing WordPress site and you’d like to bring it into the WordPress Toolkit so that you can use all these features on your existing WordPress site. As long as it’s under your account, you can use the scan button here and it’s going to search your account’s directories and find your word, your previous WordPress sites that are out there.

Implementing WordPress Toolkit for Your Site

Using the WordPress Toolkit Deluxe to manage your WordPress sites can save you time and stress in the long run. That’s why A2 Hosting is offering the WordPress Toolkit Deluxe version for free on all Managed Turbo plans and the WordPress Toolkit Standard on all other Managed plans. We feel free to look into our new Managed WordPress plans we just refreshed. If you have any other questions, contact our sales and support teams and they will be happy to help you!

The post Using cPanel’s WordPress Toolkit Deluxe for Site Management appeared first on The A2 Posting.

The prevalence of data breaches in today’s technology-driven world should prompt you to invest in SSLs or Secure Sockets Layer. This technology keeps sensitive information sent across the Internet encrypted so only the intended recipient can access it. SSLs work by keeping user data secure and preventing attackers from accessing sensitive data or creating a fake version of your website.

If you’re on the lookout for the best SSL to use, you’re on the right track. Our team at A2 Hosting is now offering SSLs from three different companies: DigiCert, GeoTrust, and Rapid. Aside from helping you protect sensitive data online, these products offer several other benefits.

We’ll assess the SSLs offered by these three companies so you can choose one that suits your needs.

DigiCert

The parent company of all our SSL’s and founded in 2003, DigiCert continues to “wow” their customers by offering SSL certificates with secure unlimited servers equipped with the highest authentication and strongest encryption. According to Netcraft, one independent survey company, DigiCert is the world’s largest high-assurance certificate authority, commanding 96% of organization-validated certificates around the world and 59% of the Extended Validation SSL certificates in the market today.

Why Should You Use DigiCert SSL?

Offers the Strongest Encryption

Because DigiCert has been in the industry for decades, all of its SSL certificates are trusted by major mail systems, online browsers, operations systems, and even mobile devices. This will make it easy for your organization to integrate SSL certificates into your existing systems.

Has Award-Winning Customer Support

If you have questions about the installation and use of SSL certificates, DigiCert will be there to help you out. This company is superior to its competitors because it has top-rated customer support to ensure that all of its customers can use its products with ease.

Fast Issuance and Load Times

Time is money when it comes to business, which is why you should invest in SSL certificates that are issued fast. DigiCert meets this criterion as the company has in-house validation experts who can issue certificates within a few hours.

DigiCert uses Online Certificate Status Protocols that are eight times faster than its competitors, making the company one of the fastest SSL/TLS issuers in the industry.

Provides the Cost and Convenience That Customers Want

Regardless of the size of your company and the type of data you want to protect, DigiCert has the right product for you. Unlike its competitors, DigiCert offers a suite of SSL certificates that fit every business’s unique needs.

RapidSSL

If you want to secure your data online but don’t want to spend thousands of dollars for it, RapidSSL is an excellent choice. Unlike its competitors, RapidSSL is a cheaper option as you’ll only have to pay $59 for its certificate annually. Even with a cheaper price tag, you’ll still have peace of mind knowing that you’re getting an SSL certificate from a well-known certificate authority.

Why Should You Choose Rapid SSL?

Faster

If you want to use SSL fast, you should definitely start using RapidSSL. Thanks to its fully automated purchase process, you can pay for an SSL certificate and receive the product within a couple of minutes!

Easy to Install

Who says you need to be a pro to install and use an SSL certificate? RapidSSL is easy to use and offers 24/7 web support, which means that you can easily reach out to one of their representatives if you need help with their product. With this after-service, you won’t have any problems completing the installation and using the product.

Powered by DigiCert

RapidSSL has also become the leader in the industry as the company prides itself on using DigiCert’s modern infrastructure. This technology can support various customers, along with their current and future needs.

DigiCert is also known to provide the highest level of speed and reliability. Using RapidSSL today gives you access to enjoy these features.

Proven Track Record

RapidSSL has been in the industry for decades, and it’s easy to see why. This company has become popular for providing the best SSL and TLS certificates and excellent customer service, allowing them to maintain the public’s trust.

GeoTrust

GeoTrust is the first certificate authority to use domain-validated certificate methods that account for over 70% of all SSL certificates in the World Wide Web. This technology is known to prevent phishing, fraud, and the creation of fake sites.

By 2006, GeoTrust became a leader in the industry as it secured its position of being the second-largest certificate company with a 26.7% market share and over 100,00 customers worldwide.

Due to the wide range of affordable SSL security it provides, GeoTrust is an excellent option for small and large entrepreneurs who want to secure their online transactions.

Why Should You Use Geotrust SSL?

They’re Fast, Simple, and Convenient

Organizations that don’t have any experience using SSL certificates can enjoy using GeoTrust SSL as this company offers fast, simple, and convenient processes. The company uses straightforward systems and processes to ensure that all customers can easily buy, install, use and manage their SSL certificates.

Embraces the Industry’s Best Practices

Integrity is the core foundation of GeoTrust. This company doesn’t only offer internal systems that are payment card industry or PCI compliant; they’re also known to follow some of the industry’s best practices in regards to:

• Availability
• Confidentiality
• Privacy
• Processing integrity
• Security

Better Security at the Best Value

GeoTrust offers a full range of 265-bit encryption SSL and TSL products to customers around the world without the expensive price tag. They also have affordable SAN and Wildcard SSL certificates.

Moreover, the security solutions offered by Geotrust are supported by different browsers and mobile devices. This makes it easier for you to integrate SSL certificates with your existing systems and use the same certificates as your business expands in the future.

Offers Top-Notch Customer Support

To ensure that customers can maximize their products fast, GeoTrust offers top-notch customer support. If you have concerns about their products, you can easily reach out to them using one of their contact numbers and talk to a trained security expert.

Trust A2 Hosting

Now that you know which companies offer the best SSL certificates, contact our team at A2 Hosting to utilize the service. Our goal has always been about offering the best web solutions to customers like you, and that includes helping you pick the right SSL certificate provider.

A2 Hosting is a company you can trust as we offer high-quality software, features, and hardware to ensure that your website performs at optimal levels. Everything you need to keep your website secure is available on our website!

If you have questions about A2 Hosting and the list of services we offer, visit our website to email or call us. You can also chat with a member of our support team through our website!

The post A2 Hosting Is Offering Rapid, GeoTrust, and DigiCert SSL’s appeared first on The A2 Posting.

WordPress (WP) Toolkit is a WordPress management solution. It has an easy-to-use interface that allows users to install, configure, secure, update, and manage all of their WordPress sites. Users can implement it with cPanel as a replacement for the cPanel WordPress Manager. A2 Hosting will be offering WP Toolkit Deluxe on all Turbo Managed Plans, and WP Toolkit Standard will be included on all other Managed plans. Watch our video below for an introduction to the WordPress Toolkit Deluxe or read the step-by-step guide beneath it.

An Introduction to WordPress Toolkit

So you’ve just created your new hosting account at A2 Hosting and you logged in to find your WordPress site and WordPress Toolkit. I’m going to walk you through some of the features that you’ll see on the dashboard when you first get started.  

Dashboard

There’s a slew of different features that will allow you to control certain aspects of your WordPress site. First things first, let’s say you want to get into WordPress and start writing on your blog or start working on the site itself. Right below the thumbnail and the bottom left is going to be your easy access, one-click login to get into the WordPress admin area. That’s where everything that happens on the app that contributes to your site management is going to take place.

Site Management on Your Dashboard

The rest of WordPress Toolkit is built around managing your site from more of a project perspective. Here is a screenshot of the dashboard and what each section means:

• File Manager: This is where you can look at all of the files that you currently have on your WordPress Site.
• Copy Data: This button allows you to copy data from one site to another if you’re managing more than one WordPress domain.
• Clones: There’s also a place where you can create a clone, which is basically creating a copy of your site and then storing it within the dashboard’s interface.
• Backup and Restore: This feature enables you to save a backup of your website. This backup can be downloaded, it can be moved, and it allows you to keep that record of your site at a certain place in time to be able to restore it at a later date if you ever need to.

Plugins 

So you can see for my site that was just created that I have the Akismet AntiSpam 4.1.12  and Hello Dolly 1.7.2 plugins. I could also enable some others by clicking the install button just below the word Plugins. This will take you to a page where you can search and find additional plugins within the WordPress community that can be added to your site.

Themes

I also have three themes on this example dashboard.: Twenty Nineteen 2.1, Twenty Twenty 1.8, Twenty Twenty-One 1.4. I currently have the bottom theme enabled but you can turn them off and on as needed. You can also search for more themes by clicking the install button and the screen pictured below will pop up. From there you can choose from thousands of amazing free and paid themes.

Status and Updates

So getting into the center section of the site here, we can see there’s a status column and that’s going to provide us with the status of our WordPress site. In WordPress, and with any type of website really, it’s always important to make sure that your site is kept up to date in both the version as well as your plugins and themes. 

The WordPress community is very active and there are people that are trying to maliciously attack websites all the time, so if there’s ever an issue or there’s a way that someone is able to crack the security of a website, these plugins, themes, and WordPress core, as we refer to it, get updated very quickly. It’s very important that you make sure that those updates are always applied to your site when they become available. That’ll help keep your site safe.

Running a Security Check

The next important security step is running a security check, which is included here within the WordPress Toolkit interface. Watch in the video below as I click security to run a check so the Toolkit can tell me what there is to update and fix on my example site. 

Once enabled, WordPress Toolkit will pull up a predefined list of security measures that you can implement to protect your site from outside attackers. If some of these tasks aren’t familiar to you you can click the little notice icon and it will provide you with a little bit more detail so that you can decide if you want to move forward with each step. 

Once you decide that you’re comfortable making these updates you can select the ones you’d like to apply or go ahead and select all and click Secure at the top. Check out the video below where I show you how on my example site. 

Tools

The second column here is tools. These items are a bit more advanced and can be utilized when you need to change how your site is interacting with the outside world or the outside web. 

• Search Engine Indexing: So search engine indexing is just like it sounds. This is where you can turn on indexing and index your site so that it can be found in a search engine or you can turn it off so it’s hidden from visitors.  
• Debugging: Debugging is a tool that allows you to essentially track issues that are happening with your site so that you can catch them and then apply those fixes.
• Password Protection: Password protection allows you to set a password for access to your site. This is a good tool to use if you’re working on your site and it’s currently not ready for production view. You can put a password on it so that only you or anyone with the password can access it.
• WP-Cron: WP-Cron is a technology that allows you to schedule tasks to run on your site and it’s a great time saver. It runs routinely and allows WordPress Toolkit to implement your changes as necessary to make sure that your resources are being allocated correctly and your site stays in production. 
• Hotlink Protection: Hotlink protection prevents other websites from using your images. Basically, if anyone were to come to your website and right-click your image to get the image location, or the image URL, and then link to it from a different site, hotlink protection would prevent them from being able to do that.

Checking WordPress Integrity

The last part of keeping your site up to date and running is to check WordPress integrity. This is basically a way to check to see if your site has files that have ever been infected by malware and it’s an important step in ensuring your website is active and online. Check out the video below to see how.

Implementing WordPress Toolkit for Your Site

Using the WordPress Toolkit Deluxe to manage your WordPress sites can save you time and stress in the long run. That’s why A2 Hosting is offering the WordPress Toolkit Deluxe version for free on all Managed Turbo plans and the WordPress Toolkit Standard on all other Managed plans. If you have any other questions feel free to contact our sales and support teams and they will be happy to help you!

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What is WordPress Toolkit?

WP Toolkit is a WordPress management solution that provides users with a simple interface for installing, configuring, securing, updating, and managing their WordPress sites. It can be used with cPanel because it replaces the cPanel WordPress Manager.

WordPress Toolkit Standard Features

A Free cPanel WordPress Management Solution

WP Toolkit Standard comes free with all of A2 Hosting’s managed plans. One of the greatest features of this toolkit is the dashboard which helps make installation, access, and modification of individual WordPress sites easy. Here are some of the features of WP Toolkit Standard we like the most:

• A single dashboard displays all WordPress sites: Check the status of all sites, including their updates and security, as well as site management tools that are readily accessible. You may search and filter the dashboard to see only the sites you’re interested in.
• Customizable installation: Users of cPanel WordPress may quickly set up new sites, and each one can be modified before going live. Installation path, administrator details, website title, automatic update settings, and database credentials are just a few of the customization choices available.
• One-Click Logins: With a click of the mouse, access the dashboard of any WPT-managed WordPress site.
• Automatic Security Hardening: WP Toolkit implements a variety of security upgrades automatically upon installation, including limiting access to essential files, switching off pingbacks, creating security keys, among others.
• Debug Management: From the site’s interface, quickly activate WordPress debugging options. You may enable enhanced maintenance mode in the same dashboard, disable search engine crawling, and enable password security.
• Plugin and Theme Set Installation: When you install a site, it will automatically install predetermined plugin and theme settings. Setting up WooCommerce stores, blogs, and other websites is a breeze with this capability.
• Single-site Automatic Updates: Within hosting cPanel WordPress, you may customize the automatic update preferences for WordPress sites, themes, and plugins.

WordPress Toolkit Deluxe Features

WP Toolkit Deluxe features everything in the standard version, plus powerful batch management and website cloning technologies that make handling huge volumes of WordPress sites considerably faster and easier.

WordPress Site Cloning and Staging

Cloning is helpful for building staging sites where modifications and additional features can be tested. Any WordPress site managed by WP Toolkit can be cloned with only a single click of the mouse. First, you choose a site and inform WP Toolkit which domain you want to use. Then it copies the files and database, updates the configuration files, and creates a subdomain so you can view the cloned site right away. Then you can manually copy items and database tables back to the source location, allowing you to deploy updates rapidly or deploy them all at once.

Smart Updates

Sometimes users update their WordPress or its plugins only to discover that the modifications have ruined their site, making the process of updating daunting. To solve this, the deluxe version of WordPress Toolkit set up Smart Updates.

Whenever a Smart Update is initiated, WP Toolkit makes a clone, runs a set of tests, modifies the clone, restarts the test, and generates a report in a platform that lets users examine the site before and after changes. When everything is in working condition, and the user approves, the WP Toolkit removes the clone while updating the parent site. This way you can test for updates without breaking anything!

Mass Hardening and Updates

WP Toolkit Deluxe expands and improves the Standard version’s safety and updating features. WP Toolkit Deluxe also lets users analyze many sites and implement security hardening settings individually at the same time, on top of automatic security hardening. For instance, using the toolkit’s Security Status screen, you might activate bot protection on scores of WordPress sites in moments.

Plug-In and Theme Set Management

You can upgrade WordPress core and plugins, add and remove plugins and themes, and change the auto-update settings for numerous sites all at once.

Back-Up and Restore Points

If something breaks or there is a problem when updating or changing your site, backups and restore points work together to allow users to reload their sites to earlier versions.

The Bottomline

WordPress Toolkit is a convenient tool for those who manage numerous WordPress sites. In this article, we’ve covered the WordPress features that you can take advantage of using both Standard and Deluxe. Keep your eye on the A2 Hosting blog as we release video content and guides on how to use this amazing toolkit to manage your WordPress sites!

At A2 Hosting, we provide Managed WordPress hosting plans where we handle all aspects of website management for you, including upgrades and patches, ensuring that your site is secure and configured to function as efficiently as possible. We will be offering WP Toolkit Deluxe on all Turbo Managed Plans, and WP Toolkit Standard will be included on all other managed plans. To learn more about our services, contact us today!

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