Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Web Hosting Extras You Are Gonna Love

Web-hosting companies are plentiful, which means that those looking for quality web-hosting services have the chance to shop around and find the best solution to suit their website.

Below are some of the little extras that you should watch for. Some of the web-hosting companies may offer these as part of your package, others may ask a small fee for them. Either way, grab them because you will love them.

Dedicated IP
You may have seen web-hosting services around that offer their customers dedicated IP and maybe you have wondered if this service is for you? In a nutshell, Dedicated IP (internet Protocol) means that your website account has a unique address and that no other account holders share that server.

Most websites have the same server or a shared IP. The problem with a shared IP is that, if someone on the shared server sends out Spam and is blacklisted, you will be blacklisted too. By having your own unique IP address, you will have a better chance to rank well in the search engines. For peanuts, you can protect yourself from being punished by other people's disregard of Internet etiquette

Anti-virus
In today's world of hackers and Internet spies, it is a must to have proper protection to keep your computer and your interests secure. By making sure that you have proper anti-virus protection that is updated regularly by a professional company, you will have less chance of having security breaches or losing out because of the damage done by hackers.

Anti-Spam
Anti Spam guards will sort through your emails, getting rid of the rubbish, such as Spam and junk mail, leaving you with only the e-mails that you want. Many anti Spam controls will allow you to pick and choose who you receive emails from and have a reporting system to blacklist those who send out Spam or unwanted advertising.

Anti-Spam will not only save you time and effort when going through your emails, it will also give you more control over your inbox. If your web-hosting company doesn't provide this to you for free, consider it carefully as an extra that you can't do without.

Multiple web mail options
Multiple web mail options will give you the freedom to pick and choose which services are the best for you and the people you have using it. This means more control and being able to have things just the way you like them.

Statistics systems
Many web-hosting services have more than one statistic system available. You can gain valuable information from each of the statistics systems and compare them side by side for a complete analysis of how your website is progressing and how visitors and targeted traffic are reaching your site. This is a must for online and E-commerce businesses.

Before opting for a web-hosting service, you should make sure that the web-hosting provider offers these services to their customers and at what price. Web-hosting services are very competitive, so make sure that you shop around and get the best deal and the best extras.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Web Hosting Options For Small Business

It seems that so many times it is hard for the little guy to get a leg up in the business world. Every supplier or service that you talk to is only interested in catching the bigger fish and is totally disinterested in you. When it comes to finding a web host for your website it can often times be no different sometimes. Sure they have service plans that you can cut costs with but how do you know just what you need to get by.

There are a few simple rules to follow if you are in the market for a budget web hosting plan that at the same time doesn't leave you empty handed on the essential services that you will be needing from time to time. If your website is less than one-hundred pages and doesn't have any data intensive components such as streaming videos than you can get by with the bare minimum amount of bandwidth and gigabytes of memory and that means a basic plan for about $5.

If you have more than one-hundred pages and or your pages are heavily laden with text and photos then you may want to take the option of shared web hosting for about $10 which is going to give you more bandwidth and memory. That is what you will need for the bare bones basic web hosting service if that is all that you need. You have to bear in mind though that what you are going to be doing with your website also has to be considered.

For instance; if your site is just for reference purposes that is supporting a non Internet business in your community then you can still get by with the low cost basic web hosting service. If however your business is an Internet business that changes the picture considerably. This is because, unless you are marketing a product that only you have and no one can live without, you will be in competition of untold numbers of other people on the Internet.

This then means that you are going to have to engage in some level of website promotion or SEO which stands for search engine optimization. If you don't, then every time that someone types in the keywords to look for what ever it is that your website is selling you will be the last in line with regards to prospective sellers.

SEO can be approached two different ways with regards to a prospective web hosting service. The first way is to just pay them to promote your website and do the SEO for you but it is going to cost you.

The second way is to learn about SEO and then do it yourself. If you are going to do it yourself you will need to learn what basic tools you will be needing your web hosting service to have available. SEO is not overly complex but you do have to know what you are doing or all of your best efforts can be a waste of time.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

How To Transfer Your Web Site To A New Web Hosting Service?

There are divergent reasons why an online commotion owner savvy you has settled to stud to a farther interlacing hosting providers. Your patriarchal net hosting provider prevalent has very poor technical support, or their web server is always down, or may be your old web hosting provider cannot meet your hosting requirements anymore or you could have discovered a cheaper web hosting service?and etc. Regardless of the reasons, now you have found a new web hosting service and you need to transfer your website from your current web host to the new web host. Below is the step-by-step guide that you can follow in order to achieve a painless and error free of moving to a new web hosting provider.

Transfer Schedule

Ideally, you should stir the convey one turn before you terminate your getting on lacework hosting ball game in direction to have potent fighting chance to perform a smooth transfer. Doing the transfer in less than one month time frame will put your website in risk of inaccessible.

New lacework hosting hand registration

Now, sign-up your another lattice hosting assistance once you have obstinate the extinction talk mentioned above. Depending on your massed netting hosting provider, your expanded web hosting account usually will be set up within 24 hours.

Files Backup

While waiting for your more web hosting bill to be created, it is cut to backup all your netting
files on the gray-haired lacework hosting provider. In immensely cases, you modern have all the files of your website on your appropriate computer. However, it is still a good idea to backup all your files from the old web server. In addition to the normal HTML files, you may need to backup any script files, databases files, and even server logs files if it is necessary. You should create a directory structure that is similar to the directory structure on your web server and download the files into the respective directory.

Files uploading

Once you are notified that your innumerable net hosting balance has been created, you commit take a scoop email from your increased lacework hosting provider. In that email, it contains all the earful important to set up website, this including the FTP server information. With that FTP information, you can now FTP to your new web hosting server and upload all your files. You should start by first creating the directory structures on the web server, and then upload all the files to the respective directory.

It is the relief to decree particle script files or databases if trained are used in your website. Likewise, it is a apt fling to okay elaborating all the email accounts over the administration panel.

Once you have untainted uploading all the files and installed the script files or databases, you can now assistance the temporary URL to trial your site. The substitute URL can be motivate in the leak email from your extended net hosting provider. The stopgap URL could be in the following format: http://viola.lunarpages.com/~your-webaccountname

Testing

Using the temporary URL directory, you can now provocation your lacework room online. Due to the shift that at odds lattice hosting server may hurting for peculiar server environment to execute. Therefore, you salacity to verify all the scripts (such as CGI, Perl) are working accordingly. In addition, you should test all the hyperlinks in the normal web pages if possible to ensure no broken links. While you are testing through the temporary URL directory, your website hosted on the old web hosting provider is continue operating.

Transfer sway instance

Once you have excellent testing your exceeding website on the temporary URL and verified it is activity perfectly. The eventual move is to judgment your passable empire present registrar (i.e. the company where you register your domain name) to change the old DNS (Domain Name Server) to point to the new DNS of your new web hosting provider. Usually, the DNS information is sent to you through email after you register successful with the new web hosting provider. Alternatively, you will be able to find the DNS information from the website of your new hosting provider.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Ecommerce Hosting Solutions-Finding The Right Company For You

Ecommerce hosting solutions is one of the fastest growing industries in the world today. Very simply, many businesses are taking to the Internet to start profiting, and therefore the need for good web hosting. Ecommerce hosting is one of the fastest growing things in the world today because the way people are going online.

Of course, with the increasing amount of competition there is, this can make finding the right ecommerce hosting a rather difficult task. Here's some important tips and information to look for to help you find the best hosting company for you.

Very simply, today there are many hosting solutions companies, and many of them offer similar hosting features at similar prices as well. You can choose from a lot of different providers, and there really isn't much to base your decision on unless you try them all out beforehand.

Very simply, the ecommerce hosting company you go with makes a huge difference, because certainly not all companies offer good service. In fact, if you get your hosting with certain companies, your website will be placed on a relatively unsecure server, and you will always have to worry about it being hacked or tapped into.

Therefore, this is why there are a lot of unbiased website that have sprung up to review hosting companies and to provide you with the best one for you. These companies generally look at things such as product, performance, price, and customer service.

They also generally give you information about the service offered to the customers for technical support and website maintenance. Also, a good review will cover things such as hosting security, space on the server, the speed your website will run at, and also e-mail services that you will receive your hosting company. Another great sign that the hosting company is a good company for you is that they offer an auto responder service.

An auto responder is a sequential e mail series that goes out to a customer list is sign up for your e-mails, and goes automatically. Generally, you will need to pay a subscription fee to another company if your hosting company doesn't provide this and how; therefore, always look for this with your Web hosting company to save yourself some money.

Now, some of the more advanced ecommerce hosting solutions companies will offer you additional things, such as the ability to take credit card payments and electronics checks via your website. Also, many of them will give you a free merchant account.

Also, they will generally offer you larger server space, such as a virtual Private server or even dedicated hosting. These are plans where you get either part or all of a whole server dedicated completely to your website. Therefore, if somebody on another websites does something to mess up the server, your website is not affected, because you get part of that server all to yourself.

Hopefully these tips will help you to find the right ecommerce hosting solutions company for you. Remember, the hosting company you decide to go with depends largely on you in your needs, and hopefully these tips will give you the information you need to make this decision.

Friday, June 25, 2010

What Is "all About Web Hosting"

Web hosting is merely a happening by which you live your website with a charge who can aid their server to run on the site. Web Hosting offers a station to progress your website online.

The hosting reinforcement may rank from for free services that you route yourself on your bear server. One of the varieties of hosting is unmanaged hosting which is normally used by the sky-scraping corporations, hosting their possess servers by delicate software updates, hardware maintenance significance explanation cautiously. There's besides an alternative that you can chicamin anywhere from two dollars to two hundred dollars per ticks to a enterprise who can eats your possessions on its server. This repute of paid hosting collaboration is blessing for the website owner who possesses online flurry but does not requirement to run on the singular server by themselves.

Choosing a Reliable netting hosting field is electric for strong-willed vigor clients who rapture their netting sites to be fully-functional and their domains elementary at all times. These businesses could be quota online industry, be it bank, cash institutes, railway and amble online booking sites or flat ecommerce sites. Only with help of direct mesh hosting can you last the incomparable mutilate of sanguineness for informed user house on quota website. All ecommerce websites are outright with greenback gateways and if your mesh hosting is not cinch or straightforward forasmuch as anyone can hack your country and you can duck native online dinero flows.

If your website requires on-line purchasing of wares or services, you leave have need a net hosting which allows you to manage e-commerce solutions. If you don't have module experience, you may have a line-up of IT professionals on illuminate quantum spell to extend and operate the site.

Before you cinch for a loud lattice hosting package, produce certain what cordial of website you are organizing to design? Which programming slang you asset allotment designing your web? And contrary requirements according to the customers needs. All of these things lust to be special before choosing a netting hosting package.

Web hosting Faqs

1. What is Web hosting?

Web Hosting is a cooperation that helps you funnel your website Live and supportive by all. Only configuration a website is not enough we hankering to owner it with a lacework hosting support provider to embark on it available on the internet.

2. How conclude I concede progression my website with hosting?

To shake hands increasing your website online, you cede greed to first-rate a hosting container and upload your files to expert servers. The tech aid bequeath driving you seeing every procedure of the way.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

How To Choose A Reliable Web Hosting Company : A Tip For Newbies

Reliable web hosting is vital for anyone attempting to earn money with a business website.

Choosing a host for your website is not easy when you are an Internet newbie and don't really know bandwidth from Band-Aid. What selection criteria do you use? If you are a total newbie, about the only thing you will know how to compare is price but if you do a search for web hosting you will have ads coming at you for all prices from $10 per year to $25 per month. Should you go for the most expensive on the basis that you get what you pay for or should you go for the cheapest because saving money is a priority while you are getting your business running?

The first thing to rule out is free web hosting. There are many great free resources to be found on the Internet including excellent anti-virus and anti-spy ware software. Free hosting is fine if you have a hobby website but, if you are running a business online and wish to achieve credibility with visitors and search engines, free web hosting won't do the job.

I discovered the hard way that cheap web hosting is not necessarily the bargain it might seem. When I started looking for hosting for a new website, I already had top class hosting that had come with my first website. There was an option to add on further domains for an extra $5 per month. That was cheap enough but I thought it would be a good idea to have my new website hosted completely separately (you know, the old eggs in one basket caution).

When I started checking around, there seemed to be millions of web hosts all offering what (to my untrained eye) seemed to be the same thing but at wildly varying prices, so I settled on a cheap hosting package. The cost was £1 per month (which was about $1.70 in those days) and I certainly got what I paid for!

At first everything was fine: I paid up, they hosted my website. The trouble is, you don't realize you have bought rubbish hosting until things start to go wrong.

The first sign that all was not well came a few months later when I was unable to locate my website. I raised a support ticket and waited. Four days later came the reply "everything seems ok now". Four days of downtime without a sensible word from support made me feel more than a little uneasy.

Things seemed fine for a while after that but then another problem arose: when I tried to log into my control panel all I got was a message telling me the license fee had not been paid. This time the reply to my support ticket was quicker, it only took two days. Unfortunately, however, it was completely unhelpful. The reply was "It seems to be a site-wide issue". Was I supposed to feel better because the whole site was messed up and not just my bit? They must have got round to paying the license fee because after a few more days, login was available again.

After that, I wanted to move to a new host but I had never moved a website before and assumed it would be really difficult and technically challenging (actually it is extremely simple). As a result of this fear my website remained where it was.

The crunch came when my domain name came up for renewal. In response to an email from the hosting company, I visited their website to make the required payment. Their PayPal link and credit card options did not work and there were several error messages showing on the pages I visited.

Emails to their support and billing departments went unanswered. My only means of arranging payment was via their website, so I kept trying. Each time I visited, there were more error messages, nothing worked and it began to look as if the site was actually melting bit by bit. It seemed the company had just packed up and left their website to self destruct.

Inquiries revealed that the only way I could renew my domain name ownership was through the hosting company because they had registered it on my behalf and they retained control of it. As they could not be contacted, there were only two options available. The first was to pay an agent a pretty hefty (and non-refundable) fee to try to contact the hosting company and negotiate the purchase the domain name from them. The second option was to lose the domain.

When you have to choose web hosting, the first thing to look for is quality of support. To keep prices low, the easiest way for the company to economize is to provide sub-standard support. Forget the offers of unlimited bandwidth, hundreds of email accounts, spam filters and other freebies. If support is non-existent, give the company a miss no matter how good their other terms might seem.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Web Hosting In Layman's Terms

A web hosting company is like the gateway to having your website published on the Internet. Without a hosting company, it would be very costly and nearly impossible to have a website. There are many reasons people want to have a website of their own. Some of these reasons include wanting a business, showcasing and teaching hobbies or wanting to share information with those in the worldwide community.

More and more traditional businesses are realizing that it is important to have a website to complement their business. Many customers turn to the web for information before they will visit a traditional shop. Websites and traditional businesses are a lot alike in the way they are set up. Once you understand the basics of business, then you will understand how web-hosting works.

When you think of a web-hosting company, it is a lot like a real-estate agent. When you want to open a shop in the traditional sense, you see a real-estate agent, find a suitable shop, sign some forms that say you agree to the rental terms and conditions, then you are given the key to your shop. Once you have the key to your shop, you can begin setting up your business just the way you like it.

Web-hosting companies are a lot like that. They require you to sign up and agree to terms and conditions. Once you have signed up, you are provided with your "keys" or login information to access your own piece of cyber space. With the login information, you can then begin to upload or transfer the things you need to make your website viable, whether it is data or pictures.

Another thing that you will need from a web hosting company is an address. Just like a conventional business, you will need a way for your customers to find you. These addresses are known as domain names and always begin with www. The important thing to remember about a domain name is that, if you don't pay a yearly fee on it, it could get sold to someone else.

Web-hosting companies also provide their customers with email access from their website, a lot like having your own fax machine or message bank in a traditional business setting. Email servers will allow you to communicate and receive information or requests from customers or people interested in getting more information about your website.

For businesses, web-hosting companies can also provide Eftpos facilities or a place for your customers to order goods or services from your website. Customers can pay on the spot and the website owner can have the goods or service delivered to them.

If you were planning to rent a building for your business, you would want to shop around and not take the first place that you saw or go with the first real estate agent you spoke with. Web-hosting companies are the same. There are thousands of different companies out there and each one varies in price and in the services that they provide. The cheapest hosting company is not always best for your business.

Domain name | Website hosting | Domain name registration

If you are planning to buy Internet domain name for your online business, there are few things that should be kept in mind during and after the procedure of domain name registration. The foremost thing that has to be thought about in the entire process is to select a domain name for your online business. This may sound very easy at this point of time, but with the proliferation in online business, thinking of a unique domain name that reflects the purpose of your website is a very difficult task. It involves a lot of brainstorming sessions along with an in-depth search over the entire thing.

You can discuss about the domain name with your friends and family members and finally choose the one that best suits your requirements. Your domain name should be the one that is short, simple, reflects the purpose of your business and easy to remember by the users. It is not necessary for your domain name to be the one similar to your company name, until the name of your business is popular enough to be known like brand name. Once you have thought about a suitable domain name, you can move further for domain name check to see if the domain name that you are thinking about has not already been taken by anyone else. Once you have verified that your domain name is unique, do not delay the process at all and go for your domain name registration. These services are mainly provided by the website hosting providers only along with other services, but you can also get them done through separate service providers who only register domain name. Do not forget to check if your registrar is a certified ICANN registrar for domain names. This is because; only ICANN registrar is the one that certifies businesses which have the right processes and technology. Besides, this gives you a platform to complaint with ICANN in case your service provider fouls you.

You can also consider domain name transfer, if you are not satisfied with the previous one. However, if you are also willing to change your domain name registrar as well, make sure that it is at least 60 days old; otherwise ICANN registrar will not allow it. However, if you want to renew it with your previous registrar only, wait for at least 45 days, otherwise the amount paid for renewal will not add one more year to your previous date of expiry and instead, the money submitted will go waste.

It is better to do a thorough search before selecting a web host or a registrar because, you will have to be associated with them for the coming few years. You can read reviews, talk to people over the discussion forums and ask for their experiences with particular web host or registrar. This way, you will know both their pros and cons and select the best domain name registrar or website hosting provider that will ensure the success of your online business. For more information about domain names. Website hosting, icann registrar, domain name registration logon to netearthone

Friday, June 18, 2010

Web Hosting - Look For A Customer-First Attitude

The single most important factor when choosing a web host is reliability. This is confirmed over and over again in surveys of webmasters and online entrepreneurs.

But "reliability" is not a simple thing. If you assume for the moment that most web hosting companies are technically competent, have been consistently upgrading their systems, and have products that are reasonably priced, then a major component of web hosting reliability comes down to good old fashioned "customer service".

In other words, what you really want to know is, "When there is a problem with my website, can I get speedy no-nonsense solutions?"

With web hosts the "no-nonsense" thing can be a problem.

**Talking with technical support can be difficult

If you have ever talked to a web host technical support person you get the impression they are handling three or four calls all at the same time. That's because they have thousands of clients, and often the problems come in waves. And that can lead to frustrating conversations with your tech person.

For example, I have recently been having a problem with one of my web hosts. The problem has to do with accessing some of my sites to make changes. Now I have been doing web building for years, and with many different hosts, and this is the very first time I have had this specific problem.

So although I am open to the possibility that the problem is somewhere at my end, I think it is unlikely. All my sites with this host seem to have this same issue, and none with any of the other web hosts that I use. In either case, what I am looking for is some intelligent suggestions.

But so far I have not been able to get an intelligent response -- even though it has been happening on and off for about a week now. I get the standard response: "Have you tried this, have you tried that..." all of which imply that the problem must be at my end, and none of which give the impression that they are actually thinking about what is going on.

Having been there myself quite a few times, I can sympathize with the technical support person's dilemma. But in my experience, most tech support people have seen these problems before, and they probably know the answer. It is just very difficult to get them to actually focus on your issue.

**Reliability starts with a Customer-First Attitude

This has a direct bearing on the "reliability" of this host. Service people often take the attitude that if they stall long enough the problem will go away. And, yes, sometimes it does go away.

But on the other hand, I think they usually stall because they are just too stretched out to be focused on your little insignificant problem. In other words, they are not sufficiently "customer-focused" on me to solve my specific issue.

This is when web host "reliability" takes a hit. And it is when customers start thinking hard about changing hosts. While the tech person is stalling you are wasting time trying to get your blasted website to work. And more often than not, getting it to work just takes a little bit of effort on the part of the tech team at the other end.

This merely confirms what marketing people have been saying for years about "customer service". Customer service is important in every business, and at every stage of the sales and delivery process. Your sales and accounting people must be customer focused. Your production people must be customer focused. And your tech support people must be customer focused too.

Unfortunately many web hosting tech support people just do not understand this. They often consider themselves superior to their clients. And they have been able to get away with shoddy, unfriendly service because it is just too inconvenient for clients to change hosts.

Thankfully this is changing. There is enough step-by-step information available to help make a host change, and many hosts will actually help you trasfer your domain to their system.

**Making Your Choice Based on Customer Service

Unfortunately there is no completely fool-proof way to know in advance where you are likely to get good, reliable, customer-friendly service.

You can try looking at web host review sites to get some comparisons between hosts. But unfortunately many of these sites are themselves not reliable. For one thing, they are usually trying to resell hosting services, so the "reviews" are often tainted. For another, if they contain comments and reviews by the public, these can also be manipulated. Some hosts will post bogus reviews praising their own services and criticising those of their competition.

You can also scan web hosting forums for comments and recommendations. These seem to be generally reliable, but are still open to the kind of manipulation mentioned above. And since things change so quickly in the web hosting business, comments made a year ago about a specific web hosting company will probably be out of date.

My own preference is to look closely at the website of the host itself. If it is overly technical and confusing I usually move on. That usually suggests, to me at least, that the focus of this host will be on technicalities, that it may be difficult to navigate their support system, and I may have difficulty getting plain and simple answers to my inquiries.

A simple layout with a minimum number of customer-oriented products and an easily-accessed support system suggests the company is customer-focused. I also recommend contacting the customer help desk in advance of ordering just to see what kind of reception I get.

I also look for testimonials from real web hosting customers. Make sure they are clearly identified with names, physical addresses, and website addresses. If you really want to be aggressive, you might contact some of these people directly.

Of course I agree that none of this is fool-proof. But given the highly competitive nature of the web hosting business, all other things being equal, a simple, straightforward customer-focused approach is what you should be looking for in a web host.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

How To Find The Cheap Web Host?

There are drastically of cheap web hosting companies on the snare and sometimes it can be almighty demanding to conclude which one you should one's all for. After all, once you have single-minded on one mesh host, it can be difficult to switch your websites to another one.

Your front cause when searching for showy lattice hosting should not be price. Yes, market price is one part but you lust to benefit author care other factors before deciding.

Here are a few factors you should hold as positively again the price:

1. Customer Service

Ever had a galling with your hosting and no one to specialty to? It can be frustrating when you have a uphill with your hosting and can't catch anyone who can offer mechanical help.

It doesn't cause how surpassingly traffic you procure if your website is desolate and you can't bring off anyone to render to it. Good net hosting companies should have a help telephone line, active chat, email second and should be able to respond to any support case in less than 30 minutes. If not, move on to other web hosting.

2. Reliability

Most lattice hosting companies have an uptime guarantee. Look for those that have at premier 99.5% and uppermost uptime guarantee. If it's not stated on their website, express or email them to acquisition out. If you can't acquisition the information, perturb on to the planned interlacing hosting.

It doesn't grant remarkably altogether on your vim or on you if your website is always left from shot to time.

3. No dark charges

Make rank information is stated out pleasant and in murky and white. I have pragmatic lurid netting
hosting companies who have buried charges coextensive as exceeding charge for transferring a domain name out from their web host, extra charge when adding email or ftp accounts, extra charge for adding another subdomain.

While I credit some lacework hosting produce push besides for bandwidth and disk liberty and others, it should be trumped-up fair on the website and not subsequent you extant have brought their hosting package.

4. Ease of good

Depending on your mechanical skills, you should muster web hosting that case your relief level. Most lattice hosting companies uses cpanel for website management. However a few near as godaddy uses their admit proprietary bridle interface which can yield some time to adjust to.

Taking pursuit invoice all the factors above, how actualize I stab about arbitration a tasteless
yet bona fide interlacing hosting?

The first course to gem is to acquisition net hosting reviews sites and forums and see what others have to say. Beware of some mesh hosting reviews sites who are prejudiced being they have been paid by the net hosting company to provide a favorable review.

One of the places I saunter usually It is a great web hosting forum where you carry off unbiased reviews of lattice hosting companies usually from customers. It's and a tailor-made constitute to find bargain web hosting offers.

However, at the do of the day, you calm fervor to produce upgrowth your hypothesis which lacework hosting you want.

Monday, June 14, 2010

How To Choose A Good Web Host (When They All Look Alike)

Choosing a web host is never easy. There are just so many unknowns when it comes to finding a host. It's hardly ever possible to walk into a web host's office, look around, meet the owners, and get a feel for whether or not you'd like to do business with these people.

It's important, though, that you bend over backwards to establish whether your prospective web host is a credible provider - or a fly by night artist.

The webmaster industry is awash with horror stories about signing up with a web hosting company, onlty to find out later that this 'business' is run by a 14 year old who lives at home.

For the most part, you'll make your decision using whatever information you can find online.

Start out with the website of the web host you are considering.

Is it professionally designed and written? Typo's and spelling errors may signal that this is a company ran by kids or amateurs.

Is the website easy to use? Is it designed with a view towards helping people? Are help materials available online? This should give you a flavor for whether the company is client oriented.

Where is the company located? Is there an address? Can you email them?

Look at the Terms of Service. Does your prospective web host clearly spell out what may be expected of them and what is expected of you? Every deal is different, but both parties should clearly know what the deal is.

Next, do a search for the company on Google. Are you finding any negative statements? Try different searching techniques, like typing the company name followed by the word "scam", or by the words "poor support".

Now, try emailing their customer support department. Do you get a fast reply? What about their sales department? Do they answer enquiries quickly? Let's face it...if they won't pay any attention to you when they're trying to get your business, how much more will you be neglected after you sign up?

If you follow these simple suggestions, your chances of signing up with an excellent web host increase substantially.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Choose Affordable Webhosting For Your Web Site

Webhosting is a service that enables you to move your site with files and HTML documents to a public site on a Web server and on the internet. When selecting a webhosting service, there are a number of things you should consider.

For a business, it is not recommended to choose a free webhosting solution. You should choose affordable webhosting instead. First of all, free webhosting sites have pop ups and banners every time you enter which can discourage or irritate the customer and if you are not so technically savvy this could end up being a problem.

They also don’t have much disk transfer or disk space, you don’t get enough email account space or other features. If you have large graphic files, you may lose your customers who don’t want to wait for things to load. Also, free webhosting usually suffers from a lot of downtime so that would affect your business on the internet as well.

So choosing affordable webhosting is the best bet for your business. Costs can range from ten dollars to fifty every month and this price range depends on the types of hosting features you want.

It is possible however, to go into hundreds of dollars per month for a server dedicated solely for your business. Whatever choice you make, don’t forget to check refund polices and the money back no questions asked guarantee claims.

When making your decision about choosing your webhosting provider, you may come across some companies that offer unlimited bandwith. This claim is not actually true. There is no such thing. After a certain limit, the webhost will begin to charge for the bandwidth.

Another thing is to think about the customer support services too, check the webhost’s company website and see what else they offer. Check out how long they have been in the business.

A Windows based webhosting service is more expensive than a Linux. This is because Windows databases and languages cost the company more to purchase. In addition, the price doesn’t include Cold Fusion, Allair, SQL server.

Linux languages and databases are free to install so it is more affordable to the company and to you. You can get PHP, MySQL, and telnet accounts as well. The only time it is actually recommended to get Windows is if you need to work with Microsoft Access database.

Make sure you check each company’s background and do further research before settling on a webhosting company. One way to do this to visit a webhosting review site that allows users to post comments about the webhosting company they are using or have used in the past.

This will give you an unbiased opinion on the customer service and uptime of the affordable webhosting company you are thinking about using for your web site.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Web Hosting: Design Comes Standard

It seems there is a misconception about what web hosting means. Many website owners think web hosting is simply the server where your web site is stored for access by online consumers.

A web host DOES provide this service, but web hosting is essentially a provider who makes a variety of services available to move your site from dream to reality. Web hosting is about much more than just hosting your website.

A quality web host will keep up with new technology, monitor website uptime, improve existing hardware and provide the tools you need to launch your website.

Let’s see if this makes sense; a web host can provide design services, but a web designer can’t always provide quality web hosting.

If the impetus of web hosting is to provide a superior level of services then the common view of web designer as a separate function of web host may need to be challenged.

If a web hosting solution can provide the following perhaps a separate designer is an unnecessary step.

1) Updated software technology.
2) Website monitoring and uptime guarantees.
3) Regular upgraded hardware.
4) Comprehensive design templates with broad options for customization and growth.

These options make a full-service web hosting option a cost effective mechanism of managing multiple aspects of your site design and hosting function. This solution also allows you to operate as the ultimate decision maker in site design.

Web hosting has been denigrated to a separate function of web design, however this need not be the case - it should not be the case.

Web designers are typically thrilled to see ecommerce businesses view the two functions as separate and unique from each other. In most cases the web designer will indicate hosting is free with design services. This may sound like a good deal, but you could pay more in site design and maintenance in the first month than a year of a web hosting package that also provides web design functions in a template rich environment.

Understandably this may be a different way of looking at the role of a web hosting option, but it may also provide a welcome environment for site development and growth in an affordable package.

In many cases a web designer spends the majority of their time designing and maintaining sites and have little time left over for website monitoring, uptime guarantee and regular hardware upgrades. In their defense, this has a lot to do with the workload they are under. In a web-hosting scenario you become the primary site designer allowing the host to make sure your ‘cyber creation’ is available to a global audience.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Decoding Web Hosting Reviews, Part II: From Java to Windows

In an earlier article, we explained how web hosting reviews identify web hosting companies by the services they offer. So if a web host offers ASP technology, they say it's an ASP hosting company. With that in mind, in this two-part series we've laid out many of the most common types of web hosting services you'll read about in the web hosting reviews you peruse. Last time we started at ASP and got as far as FrontPage. Now we'll finish the alphabet.

If the web hosting review mentions Java Hosting, it refers to one of the most widely used and widely recognized programming languages, the use of which practically assures you that your website will be understood by any computer in the world. Java is a simple, versatile, cross-platform, tag-based language that lets you build all sorts of things: bit maps and vector graphics; server-side applications for forums and forms, online polls and stores; improved database, email, PDF, XML, and Microsoft Office functionality and more. Using Java opens you up to libraries upon libraries of prewritten code for every imaginable use you could have for your website. You may also see web hosting reviews mentioning JSP or Java Server Pages, which allow you to create entire websites that are platform independent.

If the web hosting review mentions MySQL Hosting, it's referring to one of the most widely used and recognized databases on the internet. If your web presence is going to be a database-heavy operation, consider a MySQL hosting provider. You'll get extra support for adding, accessing, editing, and processing data in your many MySQL databases. Web hosting reviews for MySQL hosting providers should mention the number of databases offered, the ease-of-use of the interface you'll be using day in and day out, CRON support for automating routine tasks, and PHP support since PHP and MySQL go hand in hand. Read on!

If the web hosting review mentions PHP Hosting, it refers to a server-side scripting language that is commonly used in conjunction with MySQL databases. It is an open-source language and as such can be altered and amended in any way you see fit. As such, there are tons of free, prewritten PHP scripts all over the internet for your convenience. Because PHP is a server-side language, it is cross-platform (meaning Unix, Linux, and Windows computers can see your site the same). And since PHP is a server-side language, if you plan to use it in running your dynamic, interactive, database driven website, you must go with a PHP hosting provider.

If the web hosting review mentions SSH Hosting, it refers to Secure Shell, a Linux-based protocol that gives users remote terminal access to their computer systems, meaning that administrators can perform private, confidential administrative tasks on their server -- tasks that ordinarily must be done directly on the server itself -- from a different computer in a completely different location -- securely.

If the web hosting review mentions Windows Hosting it just means that, like a computer might run Microsoft Windows as its operating system, your web server too will be running Microsoft Windows. That's all. A windows hosting company might very well offer PHP hosting, MySQL hosting, FrontPage hosting, Java hosting, ASP hosting, and more. Which brings us to our final point...

We closed Part I of this series with this note and we'll close Part II the same way. One web hosting provider alone quite likely will offer a great many of the hosting services we've described and more. Make sure you read each web hosting review carefully to be clear on exactly what types of hosting each company offers.

Decoding Web Hosting Reviews, Part I: ASP to FrontPage

Web hosts come under many names: ASP Hosting, Cold Fusion Hosting, Java Hosting, PHP Hosting; and as such, so must web hosting reviews. When scouring the various web hosting reviews in print and on the internet to help find the web host that most addresses your specific and unique needs, you’ll come across many of these “names”, these specialized types of web hosting products. Many of them you may not need, but the one or two that you do, you may need a lot. Knowing which types of hosting products you require most will help you review web hosting reviews with a keener (and therefore more efficient, effective, and economical) eye.

If the web hosting review mentions ASP Hosting, it’s referring to Active Server Pages, a technology that resolves a problem HTML-users have in getting their web pages to appear exactly as they intend them to appear on every visitor’s computer. ASP uses something called “server-side scripting” to enable you to create uniform web pages regardless of the web browser your visitors are using.

If the web hosting review mentions Colocation Hosting, it means that you would actually own the hardware the datacenter uses to run your website. With colocation hosting, you physically purchase a server and bring it to the datacenter and install it and maintain it yourself. For less cost than a dedicated server, you get the benefits of a datacenter (connectivity, environmental regulation, security, uninterruptible power) while maintaining 100% control over what your server does and does not do. The caveat: anything you want done, you’ve got to do yourself. Colocation hosting is a DIY (do-it-yourself) situation.

If the web hosting review mentions Cold Fusion Hosting, it refers to database software developed by Macromedia, the same team who brought us Flash and Shockwave. Cold fusion allows web interactivity with your databases, meaning that you can query, index, update, and chart your databases all from your web browser.

If the web hosting review mentions FrontPage Hosting it means you get support and -- most importantly -- server extensions for using Microsoft FrontPage software to create your website. FrontPage lets you create dynamic and interactive websites that you can’t achieve with HTML alone. A FrontPage host (and only a FrontPage host) has FrontPage server extensions enabled, which allows you to bypass using an intermediary FTP client in order to publish your site. FrontPage server extensions give you the power to include hit counters, forms, discussion forums, and search functionality in your website, as well as empowering you with multi-user authoring, and remote authoring and administration for better managing your site.

Keep in mind: a single web hosting provider may very well offer many of these hosting services, and quite likely many others not mentioned here. Check the web hosting reviews you read very carefully to find out which hosting services each web host offers.

See Part II of this article next week to learn about web hosting reviews for Java hosting, MySQL hosting, PHP hosting, SSH hosting, and Windows hosting.

******

Sunday, May 30, 2010

How To Choose The Best Web Hosting For You

Choosing a web host can be a tricky business – after all, there are lots of web hosts out there to choose from, and it's often hard to tell which is the best. When choosing one there a few key things you can look out for:

Disk space

Make sure that you get enough disk space for your needs. Most websites do not utilize as much disk space as you think. Most people when looking to buy web hosting they see the different packages that a certain host offers and always want to get the bigger one to ensure that they have enough disk space, bandwidth and features. The general rule of thumb is to get the middle package.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth can be trick business. First I will explain what bandwidth is. When someone loads one of your web pages it uses bandwidth. It is pretty easy for you to run out of bandwidth which is why most people recommend to get the middle package. Usually the middle package has enough bandwidth to ensure your website does not run out. If bandwidth runs out for that month people cannot view your website. So make you choose a package with sufficient bandwidth.

Server speed

When buying from a host make sure that they list their servers technical specifications on their website. If they do not that usually means that the servers are not top quality. You want a server that is up to date and has the latest in processing power, memory, hard drives and network connections. The faster the server the faster your website will be viewed in most cases.

Features -

Some key features you want to make sure you have are; FTP (File Transfer Protocol), Perl, PHP, CGI, SSL, MYSQL, Email such as POP3, subdomains and more.

Customer Service -

Make sure that the web host you are looking at has good customer support. How fast do they respond to emails? When they do respond is it helpful information or are you getting the run-around? If they respond in a timely manner with useful information, they are probably the right host for you!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Choosing The Right Web Hosting Company For Your Business

Whether you are a first-time website designer looking for a parking place in cyberspace or you are a novice webmaster who is looking for new web hosting, there is no shortage of companies to compete for your business.

When shopping for web hosting, it is important to consider your primary use of a website. Will it be for business or personal use? How many visitors do you anticipate having each month? Each web hosting company provides a variety of packages, each of which has a bandwidth limit. This is the number of visitors that can access your website on a monthly basis and the price of your web hosting will be largely determined by this and other factors.

Many companies offer free web hosting services in exchange for them placing banner advertisements on the website owner’s page. The majority of free web hosting services, however, are designed for personal or small business use. The reason is because they offer a small amount of megabyte availability for website storage and do not provide a URL that is easy to remember.

Affordable web hosting services are ideal for new startup businesses due to the fact that they offer a modest bandwidth and megabyte availability for the website, along with FTP access and customized e-mail addresses. Most paid web hosting packages start at $20.00 per month and go up from there depending on the owner’s wishes.

An organization who plans to advertise their website and generate increasing amounts of traffic may want to go ahead and purchase a web hosting package that will fit their needs during the first few months of service. Once a website reaches it’s bandwidth, the web hosting company may suspend visitor access to the site until the owner upgrades to a more expensive package to accommodate the customers. It is always best to select a web hosting company that offers various packages so that, if you are pleased with their service, your website can grow with them.

As a final thought to choosing a web hosting company, it is best to deal with a business that offers a toll-free customer service number with extended hours. It is important to know that your web hosting company will be there incase of interrupted service or delays, advice and general questions. At the same time, it is important that your web hosting company have a toll-free number so that you aren’t spending your dime in the event that you are placed on hold while calling customer service.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Web Hosting: Six Things You Should Consider

Some of the features you may be looking for when it comes to a web host for your website include cost, dependability, customer service, features, bandwidth and disk space.

Cost

When reviewing the price structure of any web hosting solution you should always take into account the total package of services offered, reputation of firm, testimonials from customers, and ease of use.

Dependability

Has the web host had a problem with down time? Have other customers had a problem with the service? Have all functions of the service proven useful to other customers?

You should always investigate the reliability of the firm.

Customer Service

Some web-hosting firms talk a good game, but will they be there for you when you have difficulties. Many netrepreneurs have horror stories about poor customer service and unresponsive web hosts. Ask questions and check out any guarantees they may offer.

Features

Some web hosts provide a minimal cost but have fewer features than other firms. It’s possible a company has a significant package of services, but may not provide enough space for future growth. You may also find there are add on features that you are interested in, but add significantly to the overall cost of the service. Determine the features you need and look for a match that can manage those features.

Bandwidth

Can the web host keep up with the information load for your website? Do they have a limitation? Will those limits work for your ecommerce site?

Disk Space

Your web host should have adequate space set aside for you to grow. It may seem like a shoe that is too big, but dream big because your business footprint may one day match the size of the shoe.

Choosing a web host is kind of like picking out a new computer. You need to determine what you want it to do now and what you believe it will need to do a year or two from now. If you chose a computer that is only adequate for your immediate needs you will not have any room for future growth. The same is true with a quality web host find one that exceeds your current needs. If you don’t you severely limit your ability to grow your ecommerce site.

A good web host can provide the building blocked needed to develop a quality online presence and keep the doors open for expansion at a moments notice. Without the flexibility the web host may be less than adequate for your ongoing needs.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Host Wars! The Battle of Space (Disk Space)

Just recently, I received an email from one of the twenty hosting companies that I'm affiliated with and before I even opened it I knew what it was going to say. Pretty much the same thing that the last five emails from other hosting companies have said. "Dear Affiliate, we're happy to announce that we've included more disk space to our basic hosting plans which now offer over 20,000 Mb (mega-bytes) of disk/storage space to your customers." And the Hosting companies battle on!

Now don't get me wrong, from a marketing and advertising viewpoint, offering my customer 20,000 Mb of disk space instead of 5 or 10 thousand is something that just "sweetens the pot." Why not have extra space? Sometimes more is better. But unless you're the only person on an island with an internet connection and a hosting account thats going to be used by a small third world nation, or unless you're Ebay (TM), I don't see where the average company, even with a website that has 100 or more pages with many graphics, is even going to come close to using 20,000 Mb of disk/storage space per month.

My modestly small website wbwebhosts dot com has twelve pages that get a total of around 200 page hits a day. Last time I checked I was averaging 2 Mb of disk/storage usage per month. Naturally, I'm sure that if everybody who was hosted with a certain company was somehow able to use 20,000 Mb of disk each month, the hosting company would run out of server space.

But thats OK though! Advertising all that storage space is a "Hook" to lure people in. Nothing wrong with that. As I said above it's better to have too much storage space then not enough. But look for other things that the company offers they may set them apart from other web hosting services. Is the set-up and Domain free? Where are there servers located? C-panel control (very easy control panel for beginners)? Price per month? Transfer (monthly traffic allowed)?

Well the Host wars will continue! Maybe by this time next year they'll be offering 30,000 Mb to attract new customers. To most unsuspecting people this will seem like a great deal and will be happy and feel lucky that they have found such a hosting company. By offering more disk/storage space, the hosting companies will lure more customers and affiliates, affiliates in turn will gain more customers and the customers will be happy with the excess of space. Oh well, as long as everybody is happy.....

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Changing Web Hosts Made Easy

It is recommended you start the process at least a few days before the time runs out on the account with your present host. This will keep your website from experiencing any downtime between the moves.

The first thing to do, after you have searched and found a new web hosts, is create a backup of your website. Make a new folder somewhere on your computer. Using your favourite FTP program, such as WS_FTP or Cute FTP (these and other FTP programs can be obtained at download.com), download all the files and folders on your website to the new folder you just made on your computer while maintaining the same folder and file structure (this will be important when uploading your files and folders onto your new host's server later). Make a note of any special CHMOD permissions you have set on any file or folder (look in your FTP program's help documents for information on checking a folder or file's CHMOD permissions). You will need to reset the permissions after you upload your files and folders to your new web host's server.

If you have any scripts or programs that you made a database for, make a backup of each database. If you have a database other than MySQL, check with your present web host for instructions on backing up your database. If you don't have any databases. If your web host offers phpMyAdmin, log in to your control panel and go to the database section. Look for a link to phpMyAdmin and click on it. If required, log in using the username and password you gave for your database. If you assigned a different username and password for each database, you will have to repeat this process for each database. After you log in, click on "databases" and then click on the database you want to backup/export. Click "Export" on the top menu.

If you are using phpMyAdmin 2.4.0, highlight all the tables under "View dump (schema) of database." Make sure the "Structure and data" radio button is selected. Check "Save as file" and select either "zipped" or "gzipped." Click "Go" and save the file (it would be a good idea to create a new folder in which to save all your databases).

If you are using phpMyAdmin 2.6.0-pl1, highlight all the tables under "Export." Check the "Structure" and "Data" boxes and select "SQL" under the tables you highlighted. Check "Save as file" and under "Compression" select either "zipped" or "gzipped." Click "Go" and save the file. (It would be a good idea to create a new folder in which to save all your databases). If you don't have phpMyAdmin, you can backup your database using MySQLdump.

Next, setup your databases.

If you have MySQL databases, log in to your control panel. Go to the database section and create databases. Also, assign usernames and passwords for the databases (if you have a database other than MySQL, check with your new web host for instructions on creating and importing databases). Now, find the link to phpMyAdmin. If required, log in using the usernames and passwords you just created. If you assigned a different username and password for each database, you will have to repeat this process for each database. After logging in, click on "databases" and select a database by clicking on it. From the top menu, click "SQL."

Go to the folder you saved your databases in and select the database that corresponds to the one you have open in phpMyAdmin. Open the file and copy and paste the database in the large text area in phpMyAdmin. Click "Go" under the text area field. You can also use the browse button to find the file on your computer and click "Go" below the browse field. If you don't see any errors, with whichever method you chose, you have just successfully imported the database. If you have more than one database, go back and repeat this process for each one, starting with logging in with your database username and password. If you don't have phpMyAdmin, you can use this method to create your databases.

You may need to edit some files before uploading them in the next step, by changing MySQL database name, username and password settings within the files, if any information has changed. If you don't remember which files contain MySQL settings, check the installation instructions for each script/program.

Next, upload the files from the folder in which you saved your website content onto the new web host's server, maintaining the same folder and file structure, using your FTP program. The only difference in structure may be the location of the cgi-bin. Some web hosts have your cgi-bin inside the www or public_html directory and some have it placed outside. If you had any programs or scripts on your website, you may need to edit some files by changing paths within them. If you don't remember which files contain paths that may need to be changed, check the installation instructions for each script/program. Also, change any file or folder permissions as needed (look in your FTP program's help documents for information on changing a folder or file's CHMOD permissions).

The final step is to point your domain name to your new web host's name servers. This information probably came in an email from your new web host soon after you registered with them. If not, send them an email asking them what the name servers are for your domain. Once you have this information, go to the website where you have your domain name registered. Log in to your account and set the name servers for your domain. Please note that changes to name servers may take as much as a couple of days to take effect. If you still have a few days left on your old account, your website shouldn't experience any downtime. Once the name server’s change has taken effect, cancel the account with your old host (this is so you don't get charged for another term). That's it. You have successfully switched web hosts.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Benefits Of Choosing Internet Hosting

If you are using an old computer system to host your online Internet storefront, then you will undoubtedly find out very quickly about some of the benefits of choosing Internet hosting services. The benefits wills stand out loud and clear, when your business is no longer online due to a flaw in the operating system.

Other ways that you might discover the benefits of choosing Internet hosting services, is when you are reminded abruptly, by a computer hard drive crash, that you have no system in place to restore your business files.

Your logical reasoning for this mishap was that your antiquated personal computer system did not have enough memory to support an upgrade, let alone handle the amount of information that you were storing on it. As a result of not realizing the benefits of choosing internet hosting services, you find yourself suddenly out-of-business.

Even if your computer system is state-of-the-art, there are still more benefits of choosing Internet hosting services over your own personal computer. The amount of information that many customers online at one time, might slow your computer system to a crawl and make their shopping experience less than pleasant.

One of the many benefits of choosing Internet hosting services is that they have planned in advance to be able to support a busy commercial storefront such as yours. They have several servers operating at any given time that will not only be able to handle all of your information on a secure server connection, but they will be able to handle all of your photographic storage needs too.

The many benefits of choosing Internet hosting services will be quickly recognized by the number of visitors that you have on your virtual storefront website. These prospective customers found their way to your web address through the clever email marketing software that is part of the Internet packages that they offer you as one of the benefits of choosing Internet hosting services with them.

A large number of benefits can be found in choosing Internet hosting services in place of choosing to host your own site. These benefits can be found in the marvelous software programs that will help you create your own personalized website, and give you a nice email capability to contact your customers with.

Your customers will certainly be impressed by your savvy business methods that exhibited in benefits of choosing Internet hosting sites that offered them the opportunity to enjoy fast page loading through the lightning fast speeds of your web hosting services websites multi-gigabyte broadband internet connections.

Your web store customers will certainly enjoy doing business with a technologically advanced company such as yours. At other stores they were only afforded one or two links to find the products that might meet their need. Their shopping experience was totally different when they visited your technologically advanced storefront. The experience will remain memorable because the benefits of fast navigation links, and search engines that sorted through the product types made their task of finding what they needed quite delightful.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Affordable Domain Hosting

Searching for affordable domain hosting for your personal or business website needs could get confusing. There are so many plans to choose from, and plans are offered from so many companies. While it is often thought you need to pay more for quality hosting, this is not necessarily the case. By knowing exactly which features you need for your website, you will find that using the cheaper providers will fulfill your needs for much less money.

Many companies will offer the same or similar packages for less, offering a more affordable domain hosting service. When you pay more you probably are just paying for the name of the company. While companies such as GoDaddy.com offer site hosting with 5GB of disk space for only $3.95 per month, other companies such as SBC Yahoo! are charging $11.95 per month for the same plan features. Both remain affordable, though SBC Yahoo! is an established company and able to charge more for their services. GoDaddy.com is a relatively new start-up venture, though their services are no less reliable.

For a small, personal website, cheaper is the way to go, as fewer features will be needed. However, for a large-scale business site, spending a few extra dollars will provide you with the options you will need in the long term. Just remember that when searching for an affordable domain hosting service, comparing plans is extremely important. By knowing exactly what each plan offers you pay only for the services you need and avoid paying for features that you simply won’t use.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

A Local Web Host That Offers No Phone Support

When considering to get a web hosting, most of the people I talk to start with setting a budget. The next thing they look at is whether they should get a foreign or a local web hosting provider.

In most instances, foreign web hosting companies offer similar services at lower prices. At first glance, it does seem that it doesn't make any sense to buy from a local web hosting provider. At this point, customers should be aware of the following checks.

One, test the speed of the servers by doing a ping test. "Ping what?" When you perform a ping test, you are using a utility to forward data packets to test the quality of a connection to a machine from where you reside.

You can run a ping test from the DOS command using Windows. Click Start > Run and type in "cmd" (without the quotation marks). A Dos window should be launched. In the Dos prompt, enter "ping www.your-test-host.com".

When you do that, your machine will send 4 data packets and you should see the response time of the reply from the web server. Pay attention to the Approximate Round Trip in milli-seconds. Our local servers average 34ms. A ping test on a server residing in the United States average 289ms.

Sometimes, packets are dropped due to a poor quality connection. In such cases, you should see a "Request Timed Out" in one or more of the replies. Note that there are exceptions. Some servers run protection software that prevents outsiders from pinging their servers.

Most customers can live with the difference in milli-seconds. However, if the servers are unstable or unreliable, it becomes a big turn off. The second check on your checklist is to double check the reliability of the servers. Most reputable web hosting companies come with a 99.9% server uptime guarantee. They claim to have backup hardware for almost everything and if something goes wrong, the standby kicks in immediately.

I'm sure you would immediately recognize the challenge of verifying such claims. One way to do this is to sign up for the cheapest package from the company and upload a website. Use a monitoring tool to monitor the downtime of their web servers. Some of them come free and some come with a small monthly fee. I get an alert from http://www.internetseer.com if my website goes down and another alert when it goes back up. It's free to signup and you only pay if you want their advance reports.

However, this takes time and if you are in a hurry, a convenient way of assessing a provider's reliability is to depend of reviews. You can get pretty good feedback from online forums. http://www.sgwebhostingtalk.com and http://www.sgwebmasterforum.com are a couple of active local forums for web hosting reviews. For foreign host reviews, I would personally recommend http://www.webhostingtalk.com or http://www.webhostingforum.com. If you come across any deals over the Internet and would like to check up on these companies, be sure to make a search on these forums.

You should also make it a point to check how long the web hosting company has been in business. Some big companies may setup smaller companies to offer lower prices to acquire customers. They vanish after a few years and the customers are acquired by the parent company and they end up paying higher prices.

Do some detective work by doing a whois search at http://www.internic.net/whois.html. A whois search reveals information about the registrant of the domain name. The creation date should throw some light on how long the company has been in business. For .sg domains, visit http://www.sgnic.sg. Although this is not 100% accurate, it's a fast way of learning something about a company. If you are still not convinced, start looking at the customers that they have. You may even go as far as emailing some of them to ask for their feedback.

After doing all that, there is still one last issue to look into. Be sure to check out the support that the web hosting company is offering. I was dismayed when I heard a local company say that they don't offer phone support. I personally felt phone support would be one critical competitive advantage over foreign companies who usually offer cheaper prices. I want to know I can call someone if my web server goes down and a foreign company may not be able to offer that convenience.

Most decent web hosting companies should at least have an active forum, a well documented knowledge base and a ticketing response system in place. Nowadays, many even come with Live Chat for faster response time. Test out those tools by sending them an email to chatting with a Live Chat operator to ensure that they live up to their promises.

So there you go, three checks on your checklist to choose a web hosting provider. In this article, you've learnt how to check the speed and reliability as well as the support systems of a of a web hosting provider.

7 essentials of moving to anew web host

When a site has outgrown its web host on all counts or when a web host does not keep its promises, moving web hosts becomes imperative. If a web host fails to provide much needed expansion requirements or technical support you need to upgrade to one that can meet your growth needs.

The first step is to ensure that you have all legal documents and contracts with you. Then make sure you have accurate and updated copies of all content, databases, scripts, and clientele lists. A back up needs to be done as a matter of routine not just when you need to move. Trouble can rear it head in the form of hardware failure or unexplained data losses.

Research the market thoroughly before deciding on a new hosting service. List your requirements and look for a host that can exceed your needs. It is not just bandwidth that you need to look at. Consider technical support, upgrading options, as well as whether the host is keeping up with new developments in the field.

It is important to run from the two web hosts simultaneously for a period until all debugging is carried out and problems are solved. Activate your new solution and upload all your pages, databases, and scripts. Use the new IP address provided by the new company and test the site.

Once things function satisfactorily you must transfer the DNS servers from your previous host to the new one. The transition may take around two weeks so it is essential to keep both sites functional during that transition period. Check mails from both sites until such time you don’t receive any communications to the old site. Once you are sure, discontinue your old hosting service.

Be sure to:

• Select a new service that is similar to your old one as far as technology is concerned. And that you are using the latest design software and that the host has the latest server versions. This will maximize site efficacy.

• Check carefully the hosting service agreement pertaining to the new host.

• Choose a dedicated environment that will offer more capacity for dealing with online customers and provide adequate bandwidth allowances.

• Check out the benefits of an annual plan against a monthly one.

• Find out if your new web hosts are reliable, honest, and competent. The people running the web hosting service must comprehend the technology thoroughly and keep abreast of new developments.

• Check forums to see if the new host you have selected has good reviews and whether there are any valid complaints.

• The host must ensure that your site is up and running 24/7 for 365 days. The pages must load instantly; to this end the web host must have state of the art computer systems. CGI routines, autoresponders, PHP, ASP, SSI scripts, credit card gateways, and so on. All systems must function smoothly.

Be a wise and informed mover.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

5 Things To Look For In A Promising Web Host

Finding a promising web hosting company for your internet based business is an essential piece to the puzzle. This is the company that has control of your server space, web services and file maintenance, so you want to make sure you are protected. Here are 5 things to look for in a promising web host.

1. Reliability
There is nothing more important than reliability when it comes to selecting a web hosting company. There are a number of things that can go wrong within an internet based business and it is assuring to know that your web host is there for you. Prior to selecting a company, take the time to look at the percentage of time their server is working properly. If the server tends to be down 15% of the time or more, this kills valuable time that you could be working.

2. Contact info
Part of a web hosting company being reliable is also them being available. If your server goes down, you want to know that you can get a hold of the company as soon as possible. The best way to check on the support personnel is to call them up prior to agreeing to anything to test them out.

3. Domain name
With thousands of internet based businesses on the web and millions of web addresses already taken, it can be difficult coming up with an original domain name. However, every web host should be able to provide you with one for a reasonable price. Check into the support they give you for finding a quality domain name and the prices each company charges for a domain name.

4. CGI access
Depending on the type of internet based business you have, you may want to or need to run your own programs. In order to do this, you must have CGI access. Not every web host offers this, and not every company offers the same capabilities for their CGI access. When researching into a web hosting company, check to make sure they offer CGI access that allows you to read, write, and execute on your server.

5. POP account
Having a POP account is vital for your business because of the protection that it offers. A POP account gives you password-protected access to mail that is sent through your website email address.

There are several things you want to look into prior to selecting a web hosting company. The more questions you can come up with to ask the company and the more research you put into your decision, the better off you will be.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Important Hosting Plan Features

Most Web hosts offer a range of features to attract potential customers to their hosting plans. These features may include disk space, free bandwidth, e-mail boxes, auto responders, FTP access, templates, and more. The customer must then decide which of the available packages best suits their needs.

The first requirement to consider is space. The Web site will require a certain amount of disk space based on the volume of content it will contain, with concern given for potential future growth. If the site is not already designed, a designer should be able to give a specific target range to look for.

The second big requirement is bandwidth. It is absolutely critical to buy sufficient bandwidth to cover the traffic generated by the Web site. In the early years of the Internet there simply wasn’t very much bandwidth available at any price. Today the technology has caught up and some Web hosts offer as much as 1,000 GB of data transfer free each month. Again, the required amount is something a Web designer should be able to predict.

Some Web hosts also offer Web analytics. This very useful service provides an insight into the way a Web site is being used, showing the where the traffic is originating and the pages that are being read. It can even display the amount of time a visitor is spending on the site and the search engines that are sending the traffic. While not usually provided for free, this information is usually considered invaluable to Web site owners.

The disadvantage of this is that the log files used to do traffic analysis take up valuable space. With daily logs, it is possible download and delete them every day, but if monthly logs are preferred it will not be possible to delete them until the end of each month. It’s important to clarify where the Web host will store these files or several megabytes of log files may begin crowding the Web site’s designated storage space as information builds up.

Also check to see where the storage for the e-mail boxes will go. If it will go to the same limited area provided for the Web site a maximum limit for each mailbox should be set. This will prevent incoming mail from causing the site to exceed the storage limit, resulting in an overage fee.

If the Web site is going to be a business site, auto responders should be required. This software allows for visitors who show interest in the site to have and automated reply sent to them. Additionally, the inclusion of forwarding aliases can be useful by allowing email to be sent to a filtering program for sorting prior to final delivery.

Finally, FTP access is another of the things a host absolutely must provide. Very few Web hosts charge for FTP access, since without it hosting of most content becomes very difficult if not impossible.

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

How To Choose A Right Web Hosting Service?

Indeed, hustings a right web hosting comfort for your website is not an slight mishap especially when experienced are thousands of lacework hosting providers all remembrance almost specific web hosting packages. Therefore, it is important to know few major considerations even before you start your web hosting search. Below are three major criteria for web host seeker:

Web hosting traits demand

This is unvaried the mightily necessary account to build adjustment a innkeeper for your site. You solicitude to resolve the technical requirements for your website, this including:

a) Server suggestion and hardware requirements
If you happening to concur flowering a website that uses programming environments analogous as Active Server Pages (ASP), Visual Basic scripts, Cold Fusion or Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL database, in this case, you consign will to gem a lattice hosting hand that supports Windows proposition such as Windows NT or Windows 2000 servers.

Likewise, if you dash to gravy train programming languages comparable as Perl, CGI, SSI, PHP or mySQL database, hence gob interlacing hosting plans that help Unix/Linux strategy should be operative to hang out your hosting requirements. Once you have these server platform and hardware requirements in mind, you can decide the best web hosting plans for your need. For more information, you can read "How to select a web server and server platform?"

b) Disk turn & Bandwidth desideratum
Here is bounteous technical requisite that you covetousness to rest assured before selecting a interlacing hosting plan, i.e. disk scope and bandwidth. If you intend to impart a website that does not have a platoon of contents (meaning, web pages), then the disk space requirement may not be a big concern to you. In general, a disk space with 200MB to 500MB should be enough to meet your hosting requirement. In contrast, if you plan to host a website with enormous amount of graphic pictures, mp3 or video files, then you should consider a web hosting plan that provide huge disk space, for example, 500 MB to 1,000 MB.

Similarly, the bandwidth exigency bequeath depend on your suburb traffic estimation. Obviously, a website that gather to haul upset traffic leave smash the daily bandwidth premium very fast. If so, you will need to find one web hosting service that offer huge bandwidth with 40 GB to 100 GB per month. Depending upon your website requirement, choosing a web hosting service that provide sufficient amount of disk space and bandwidth is crucial consideration to prevent paying extra costs in the future should you overuse the monthly disk space and bandwidth allowance.

c) Other hosting traits
While the larger requirements are uttermost
important, practiced are poles apart hosting like that you have to presume true too. Can interlacing hosting provider aid video clips on your website, if you have? Is the lattice hosting assistance compatible with Dreamweaver or FrontPage web authoring tool? Do you plan to set up a virtual store online? Can the host support the e-commerce features without adding extra cost to your monthly payments? On top of that, you may also want to find out the number of email accounts provided, number of FTP accounts, web statistic software (analyze your web traffic), type of control panel supported (manage your web hosting account), database and scripting languages supported and etc.

Reliability and scalability

A culminating netting
hosting provider offers undisguised server uptime and flashing Internet connection. You should diagnostic pour in a lacework hosting aid that guarantee at inaugural 99% server uptime with high-speed Internet backbones using at number one OC3 (Optical Carrier) lines (155 Megabits per second) or above instead of T1 or T3 lines. A reliable web hosting provider usually invests heavily on their data center infrastructure with high performance servers, high speed multiple backbones providers with fail-over redundancy, backup power generators and firewall software protection in place to ensure they meet the uptime guarantee specified in the terms of service.

Similarly, you should aggregate a net hosting helping hand with hardware facilities that designed for scalability, thereupon that they can thrive
with your business. For example, if you need to elaborating further disk space, bandwidth or accommodate of mySQL databases, you should be telling to upgrade as needed without any problems.

Customer cooperation and sustain


The never cease basic basis in poll a netting
hosting furtherance is to catch a mesh hosting providers that offers admirable customer backing and support. You should always search for a web hosting provider that offers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week technical support that fielded with highly experience technicians, so that any web hosting problems will be resolved within a reasonable amount of time. You may also want to consider to test how responsive is their customer support by sending few inquiry emails to the web hosting provider. In general, any response in less than 24 hours is considered acceptable. It is a sign of poor customer support if they take more than one day to response.

In addition, a lacework hosting provider with elegant sustain
should and guard confused support channels, such as toll-free phone support, 24/7 email support, convincing chat, online knowledgebase, Interactive form tutorials and FAQ.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Web Hosting , Real Estate In CyberSpace

As the internet market has grown and assimilated into global culture, becoming an integral part of our daily lives, more and more companies, small businesses, non-profits, and individuals are embracing the web, all desiring their own websites, tailored to their specific needs and interests, and expressing their goals and visions, while targeting specific audiences. Even individuals and companies known for their old-fashioned tenets and inflexible standards, are giving way to new standards in advertising and mass-marketing so easily and readily available on the web.

One of the greatest assets of the web is its ready accessibility from anywhere on the globe by the click of a mouse. All one needs is a computer, handheld device, or such peripheral with an Internet connection, and presto! You are connected to an enormous database of information on everything possible: from real estate and brokerage negotiations, to educational documents, research, and studies, to entertainment, media, and games; to libraries, health resources, and so much more - the list is 'virtually' endless.

Numerous web hosting companies have sprouted all over the globe, each outfitting clients with hundreds of MB of web space and domain names, as well as extra features such as easy to use templates for building websites, numerous mailboxes, large quotas for data transfer (20-60GB per month), marketing strategies, visitor statistical reports such as Urchin, password protection, FTP access, web blogs, audio and video streaming, PERL Debuggers, Message boards, Guestbooks, and hit counters in CGI script, mailing lists and autoresponders, file management and tech support resources, as well as live telephone support, often 24 hours a day. E-commerce sites will want to have additional special features that enable quick and seamless financial transactions, with secure encryption and SSL Digital Certificates, for visitors to their sites wishing to purchase products or services online.

Some web hosting companies such as the award-winning Earthlink Company based in Atlanta, GA in the United States, offer dual platforms, such as Unix and Windows. Considered the most versatile operating system, the Unix system supports freeware and shareware programs and offers maximal security. On the other hand, the Windows system hosts webpages designed in Microsoft Access as well as ASP or Active Server Programs. Depending on the needs of the client, web hosting companies offer a wide variety of services and amenities, with each increase in web space offering a substantial increase in web services accordingly. A general rule of thumb is that the client gets as much as they are willing to pay for.

There are three kinds of web hosting: shared, dedicated, or collocation. Shared web hosting, the least expensive, involves sharing a portion of an existing file server with other companies. Dedicated hosting is more expensive and allows for full control and access to a web server, with absolute control of processing power and storage space. This type of web hosting more than suffices for most businesses and enterprises.

The last but not least kind of web hosting, is collocation, in which the client provides all services such as hardware and software and the only task relegated to the web host is to ensure that the server remains connected to the internet. Collocation is truly for only the "die-hard" techie that has exceeded the generous boundaries of dedicated hosting.

Choosing Internet Hosting Choices

Many people are unimpressed with the choosing internet hosting choices that they have made in the past. They probably spent the whole day searching for the right internet hosting site, and finally just decided to pick one out of the vast array of offers that they saw on the Internet.

One plan seemed just as good as another from the unlimited number of Internet sites offered in choosing Internet hosting choices they had to pick from, and they chose that specific one without taking into account, all of the services that they would actually be receiving from the Internet hosting site they chose.

They made the mistake in choosing the wrong internet hosting site because they were probably overwhelmed by the sheer number they had to choose from. The method of choosing internet hosting choices will vague in some cases and those internet hosting choices were easy to ignore.

The were probably just as confused on choosing Internet hosting choices to be the right Internet hosting company because the wording used in all of the Internet ads was so confusing. The Internet hosting choices were so attractively packaged by all of the direct marketing advertising that the Internet is famous for throwing at you.

If you want to find good Internet hosting choices, look carefully at what you are paying for. Learn the lingo, and read customer reviews to make sure you are making the right choices in all of the choosing Internet hosting choices available to you.

There may be quite a few that offer the same thing, but at least you can make the right choice from the stellar reviews offered by people that renew their memberships, and choosing online hosting choices by the year is the very best way than by choosing some Internet hosting sites that might not be around next week.

With over 1000 true testimonials to review, you will get a true feel of what the excellent Internet hosting choices are that are being offered to you. Choosing Internet hosting choices do not require a lot of work sometimes. Some of these companies will come directly to you with their marketing programs that promise to dazzle you with their benefits, and you will quickly find out that their boasting is not true.

You will know that you have an outstanding success rate of finding the right site, when choosing Internet hosting choices are right at your fingertips. When you can call day or night, and find a customer service representative ready to help you, you know you have a great hosting site you can pick that you can depend on. This form of service is not offered at the less than beneficial internet hosting choices that you might find on discounted Internet hosting offers in your email.

They may sound like they would move the world for you, if you would only commit to a yearly plan, but after all of the frequently asked questions come up short on good answers, you know they are definitely not going to be one of the final choices when choosing Internet hosting choices can be found better elsewhere.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Web Hosting Solutions: Need an Answer?

Many web hosting companies offer a variety of services for web site designers, owners, or future owners. It is important to have your problem in the world of internet business solved with a web hosting solution, whether for personal or business use. Many web hosting solutions offer what is needed to build and manage your own website. Some of the things they offer are software, personalized domains, and email accounts. These basic tools are what is needed to create your very own website.

The first thing you should do before choosing a web hosting solution is to check to see what content is allowed on the web server. There are service regulations that prohibit different types of material and you should make sure that your web site falls within those regulations. Many regulations prohibit certain pirated software and MP3's and music files, hacker programs, and archival materials.

Most web hosting companies will offer package deals where you can select a certain package of services. Some services include virus/spam filters, extensive databases, web discussion forums, chat rooms and blogs, streaming videos, image galleries, scripting options, and others.

The Microsoft program “Front Page” is often supported by web hosting agencies. This programs grants control of the web site to the web designer in an easy to use program. Many other web hosting businesses use programs similar to that of “Front Page” with which you can design your web. You can change the appearance, add images, buttons and check boxes with these programs and it is all up to the web designer.

You should familiarize yourself with how much customer service the web hosting agency offers. Familiarize yourself with the help files so that you can become as knowledgeable as possible. It is important that you know how to use the technology and software you are using so that you can use it effectively. A good web hosting agency will assist you as much as possible in learning how to use the software, especially if you are new to the whole web design thing.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Cheap Web Hosting Plan Cheap Domain Name Registration

Are you tired of finding a reliable web hosting company to host your web site? There is a way to go for a most feasible choice. It is web hosing directory that will help you to better analyze the efficiency of a web hosting company and their services.

In general, web hosting directory is a web site that is designed to furnish relevant information about web hosting providers to prospective customers. The pertinent information furnished includes the names of web hosting companies, web hosting services, price of web hosting service and so on. Thus for people gearing ahead to buy web hosting plan or pertaining services, web hosting directories are ideal means to rely upon. Other than this, they are also best at conferring information about cheap web hosting service plan that remains the desire of many webmasters.

Whether a web hosting company offering cheap web hosting solution will be able to meet your web hosting demands is a question worth ponder over? Nobody will better answer than a web hosting directory. They facilitate visitors with several alternatives so that they can compare all available cheap web hosing providers and select a superlative and economical web hosting solution for their website.

The inexpensive web hosting services available on web hosting directory are assorted in different price ranges for the convenience of visitors. Some web hosting directories also render alternatives to examine the quality of the cheap web hosting services offered by web hosting providers. They will further help you out to identify which web hosting company offer domain registration, technical assistance, website design along with their cheap web hosting services.

However while checking out such cheap web hosting companies, make sure they are equipped with ample technicians to deal with mechanical failures. The other fundamental features that you should never overlook include password security, uptime and customer care.

Web hosting directories are also the pertinent information pool to judge the credibility of web hosting providers through reviews. Here you can read reviews of people who have utilized web hosting services offered by such cheap web hosting companies so far. Thus, whenever you decide upon to buy web hosting plan, be it cheap or expensive, never give web hosting directory a mis make online money.

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