{"id":9,"date":"2006-12-04T21:53:02","date_gmt":"2006-12-05T02:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/dedicated-server-best-practices\/best-practices-for-dedicated-servers-part-ii\/"},"modified":"2018-11-05T13:15:51","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T18:15:51","slug":"best-practices-for-dedicated-servers-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/2006\/12\/best-practices-for-dedicated-servers-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Practices for Dedicated Servers: Securing Your Server"},"content":{"rendered":"

Freedom, by definition, demands responsibility.<\/span><\/p>\n

In dedicated server<\/a> land, you enjoy abundant freedom. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re free to run the OS and software that best meets your needs (as long as that software doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t violate your provider\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s acceptable use policies). You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re free to have as many IP addresses and domains as you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like. And you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re free to choose the bandwidth allotment that your traffic demands.
\n<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, along with that flexibility and power comes the duty to protect your turf.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are a few best practices that will help your server remain free \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and safe:
\n<\/span>\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. \n
    Patch, Patch, Patch<\/strong><\/h6>\n

    Why leave the door wide open for a hacker? Keep an eye out for patches for all your software and apply them regularly and diligently. Apache web server patches are announced at http:\/\/httpd.apache.org\/security_report.html<\/a>, and you can find patches and more for Microsoft\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s IIS at http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/WindowsServer2003\/iis\/default.mspx<\/a>.
    \nIf you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re using Windows, visit     http:\/\/update.microsoft.com<\/a> often to check for both critical and optional OS and software patches. Or, better yet, turn on automatic updates. Many Linux distributions also feature an automatic update feature. But, if the one you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re using does not, check the distro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s website. The same goes for all your applications, particularly your software firewall.<\/li>\n

  2. \n
    Work Within a Secure Shell<\/strong><\/h5>\n

    Whenever you update and maintain your website, be sure to do so using SSH\/SCP so that your login information is encrypted. Encryption is a simple, yet powerful, best practice that will eliminate a myriad of problems.<\/li>\n

  3. \n
    Practice Good Password Hygiene<\/strong><\/h5>\n

    Cheekymonkey<\/em> is not<\/strong> a good password! Hackers love passwords that contain dictionary words. Make their lives a lot harder by choosing passwords that are at least six characters long, use a mixture of upper and lowercase letters, and include numbers and other allowable characters.<\/li>\n

  4. \n
    Close Your Ports<\/strong><\/h5>\n

    You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll need port 80 for HTTP access and port 22 to use SSH\/SCP, and, if your site provides secure transactions for e-commerce and the like, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll also need to open port 443. Beyond these essential gateways, however, examine your needs very carefully and close down any ports you won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need.<\/strong><\/li>\n

  5. \n
    Inoculate Your Server Against Viruses<\/strong><\/h5>\n

    In today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s security climate, it should go without saying, yet security researchers continue to report amazement into how often this safe computing practice is ignored. Be sure to use an antivirus program that provides frequent definition updates.<\/li>\n

  6. \n
    Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Forget Physical Security<\/strong><\/h5>\n

    With all the cyber-threats that loom, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s easy to forget that one of the easiest ways to compromise a server is to have physical access to it. While most data centers are reasonably secure, it pays to see if your provider\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s facilities are housed in reinforced structures with adequate security.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Discussions of server security can \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and do \u00e2\u20ac\u201c fill entire books, but these tips provide a good start and will help you provide your users with a safe and secure Web environment.<\/p>\n

    ServerPronto offers affordable and secure dedicated servers<\/a> and cloud<\/a> hosting service\u00c2\u00a0packages.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let the little foxes spoil the vine. Take these tips on securing your server to heart and enjoy the fruit of your website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[123,17,112,22,18],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dedicated-server-best-practices","category-dedicated-server-security","tag-cloud","tag-dedicated-server","tag-hosting","tag-server","tag-web-hosting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3033,"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions\/3033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.serverpronto.com\/spu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}