ionCube produces leading tools for PHP source code protection to secure your PHP software from prying eyes and to combat software piracy. Featuring an advanced compiled-code encoding engine that translates source to highly efficient bytecodes, ionCube encoding tools deliver the ideal combination of maximum source code protection without sacrificing performance, reliability or language compatibility.

In order to view encoded ionCube files on your server you need the ionCube loader. This is a free plugin for Apache web server that only takes a few minutes to install and is well worth it.
http://www.ioncube.com/

Requirements:
- Root Shell access to your server
- phpinfo page: create a new document and call it phpinfo.php. Inside place phpinfo();
  Place this document in your www directory so you can view it and see all your PHP settings.

Installing ionCube Loader:

1. Download the program and store it on your server using wget or FTP.
http://www.ioncube.com/loader_download.php

4. copy ioncube-install-assistant.php to a web directory such as your hosting directory and open it in your browser window.
cp ioncube-install-assistant.php /home/userdirectoryhere/www

Then open it http://www.yourdomain.com/ioncube-install-assistant.php
The output should be something similar to:

Analysis of your system configuration shows:

PHP Version 4.3.3
Operating System Linux
Threaded PHP No
php.ini file /usr/local/lib/php.ini
Required Loader ioncube_loader_lin_4.3.so

5. Now lets move the iconcube directory to a permanent location:
cd ..
mv ioncube /usr/local

6. Now that you know the location of php.ini you need to edit it.
pico /usr/local/lib/php.ini

Now find where other zend extentions are in the file.
ctrl + w: zend_extension

Paste in your new line for ioncube loader
zend_extension = /usr/local/ioncube/ioncube_loader_lin_4.3.so

7. Save the changes
ctrl + X then Y and enter

8. Restart the web server to take effect.
/etc/init.d/httpd restart

Success! You should now see a section in your PHP Info page that says:
Additional Modules
Module Name ionCube Loader