To choose and run an e-commerce website a powerful shopping cart program is very much important to the success of your online business. Shopping Cart plays a very significant role in managing an online store. There are many different kinds of online store management software programs available  on the market today.

OsCommerce which is also known as Open Source e-Commerce Solution is one of the most commonly and widely used online shopping cart programs to manage online store or ecommerce site. The osCommerce application can be easily installed through Fantastico in your cPanel control panel. It can be integrate with any web server having PHP and MySQL installed.

This osCommerce shopping cart program is a free software available under the General Public License (GNU). This article will explain you the simple steps to install an osCommerce software as well as steps to configure the dedicated SSL and shared SSL certificate to secure your online transactions.

Steps to install osCommerce Shopping Cart:

1) First login into your cPanel account and click on the Fantastico icon which can be easily notice by a smiling icon at you on bottom of your main page.

2) Now, navigate to the “E-commerce” section and simply click on the “osCommerce” link.

3) Next, click on the “New Installation” link.

4) Now its time to go through a multi-step procedure in order to define the installation location:

• Select your domain from the drop-down menu on which you want to install osCommerce.
• Enter the name of the directory where you wish osCommerce to be installed.

Remember that never add dashes in the “install in directory” field. Enter a simple phrase of the new folder or else every time the installation will fail.

• Re-check the information you have entered in the above fields. If you wish you customers to access your e-commerce site using “http://domain.com” then leave the “Install in Directory” field blank.  Or if you already have an existing website, you want to enter a given directory name in that field.  Suppose, if you decide to use “store” as the directory name, customers would access your osCommerce online store by visiting “http://domain.com/store”.

5) After entering the required information for the installation destination, enter a user name and password for your osCommerce administrative area.

6) Lastly, enter the name of your store, an owner name, and valid email address.

Steps to Activate SSL Certificate:

Once you have the installation destination squared away, the proceeding steps are self explanatory.  The SSL process deserves a little bit detailed explanation.

1) Set the “Use SSL” option to”Yes”

2) Enter the hostname for your secure server.

Remember, that if you have a dedicated IP address and SSL certificate for your website, just enter your domain name in the next field. If not, simply use the server name entered above.

3) Select the information you want to require from your customers. You will see that these options are pretty straightforward and can be simply set to “Yes or “No.”

4) After entering the information, click on the “Install osCommerce” tab.

5) At last, on the next page click “Finish installation”.

Now, you have successfully installed the osCommerce shopping cart program integrated with an SSL certificate to secure your online transaction. Now, simply open the appropriate URL into the browser to log in and set up your online e-commerce store.

Now all you have to do is the click the provided link or type the appropriate URL into your browser to log in and set up your online store. Checkout the SEO Secrets for E-commerce Websites to boost your online business.

Posted under e-Commerce

What is Dedicated IP Web Hosting?

Dedicated IP web hosting, or static web hosting is a type of hosting in which you purchase your own, permanent and unchanging Internet Protocol address. An IP address is assigned by your web hosting company and is used by the Internet to identify your websites distinctive location. The IP address acts as a home to your website and is made up of four sets of decimal numbers (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) ranging from 1 to 254.

The alternative to dedicated IP web hosting is something called dynamic IP web hosting. With dynamic web hosting, each time someone enters your URL or uses a search engine to locate your website, your files are given a different, temporary IP address.

Dedicated IP web hosts are ideal for business or e-commerce websites. With a dedicated hosting, you will be granted a SSL certificate and an anonymous FTP, which means that you will be able to conduct your online business safely and securely. Your customers will feel safe transferring their personal information to you through the Internet. Since you will not be sharing a server with anyone but yourself, a dedicated IP web host will also help to prevent spam. That is something that cannot be said for a dynamic IP web host.

Best of all, with a dedicated web host, your search engine optimization will function at a much higher level. Since a dynamic IP address is temporary, your website doesn’t have the ability to rank high in search results. Your website may even be given an IP address that has previously been used by a website that has been banned from the search engine. With a dedicated IP address, your unique location will always be the same, and therefore has the ability to rank higher in search engine results than a dynamic IP address does.

There is only one real disadvantage when it comes to using a dedicated IP web host. It is that some companies offer the service to you at a higher cost than what you may be willing to pay at any given time. Some companies will offer you a dedicated IP address at a very reasonable price though, so research multiple companies before opting for a server that you won’t be satisfied with down the road.

If you are unsure whether you have a shared IP address or you have an IP address that is unique to you, contact your web hosting company to check the details of the package you originally purchased from them. Most often than not, they will tell you that you have been using a dynamic web host. Ask them what needs to be done to change that. If you are unable to gain a dedicated IP address from your current company, start thinking about switching web hosts. You will definitely want to use dedicated IP web hosting if you are trying to optimize your search engine results.

Posted under Dedicated Server Hosting