For would be website owners and authors, uploading your files to the server maybe as simple as it sounds but it goes beyond that. The time spent in uploading files is the tip of the ice berg. Choosing an efficient web hosting company can make or break your website. The web hosting company is the backbone of the data that you are asking them to keep. This data needs to be available all the time at break neck speed connections. Mistakenly chose a web host that is not capable of doing the job and the site is bound for the graves. Even if it has the best content and graphics if the web host cannot deliver the demands of the site, it will all be at lost.
Different Types of Web Hosting
Shared Web Hosting
By the word shared this means there is a sharing of website on a single server. This type of package is most common amongst less demanding websites that are more on text and little on graphics. This web hosting package shares the hardware and the connections to the other websites being hosted on the server. This website can range from a couple of hundreds to the tens of thousands that will be sharing for the hardware. The website that is being hosted at this type of web hosting is bounded by a quota of hard disk space and bandwidth. Since there are many websites that are hosted in the server, a client should expect that the website could lag due to the server's slower response time.
Virtual Private Server Hosting
This type of web hosting is just like the shared hosting package that shares the hardware resources of the web server but this provides the clients more control of the website. The data are still stored on the same computer but with lesser hosted websites since the hard disk of the host server is partitioned to each website. This process in turn can dedicate an individual Internet Protocol or IP address to each partition.
Reseller Web Hosting
Commonly a reseller web hosting package is similar to shared web hosting. They are just called reseller since this goes through a third party booking and not the web host company itself. There are web hosting companies that offer discounts to resellers who are typically website designers and authors that include web hosting as part of their services.
Dedicated Web Hosting
This type of web hosting is the most expensive type of web hosting package. Since dedicated hosting handles only one website per server, the website owner absorbs all the cost in maintaining the website such as power, hardware, line connection and technical personnel - unlike in Shared and Virtual Private Server Hosting wherein the cost can spread out to the websites that are leasing the server. This package is advisable for demanding website parameters such as e-commerce and customer relations management sites that are data intensive and a slow connection would mean loss sales.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
The Basics Of Web Hosting Services
The Internet is full of different web hosting companies these days. There are many different choices to help you get your site on the web. However all of these different web hosting companies offer a variety of different services. How are you ever going to choose which company is right for your web site? The easiest way to choose between the different web hosting companies is to look at the different services they offer and choose which one is the best fit for your web site.
Most web hosting companies offer basically the same types of services, but some companies offer better quality services than others. One of the most important services to look for when choosing a web hosting company is the amount of space they will give you. If you plan on creating a very large web site, then you need to make sure that the web hosting company you choose gives plenty of storage so that your web site has room to grow. Also many web hosting companies offer free email accounts when you host your web site with them. This can be a great feature if you plan on giving out email addresses on your web site, or you need email addresses for employees in your company. However if you do not need many email addresses, then this is not a great service for you.
I believe one of the most important services that can set a web hosting company apart from other companies is the ability to create web sites that can use server-side code. Using server-side code will allow you to communicate with a database on their server, and dynamically make changes on the web site depending on what information is in that database. In this new age of Web 2.0, using server-side code to create a truly dynamic user-driven web site is essential. However if you just want to communicate your message to your audience, and you do not need to have your users interact with your site, this service might not be that important to you. No matter what kind of web site you are creating there is a web hosting company out there with the services that you need.
Most web hosting companies offer basically the same types of services, but some companies offer better quality services than others. One of the most important services to look for when choosing a web hosting company is the amount of space they will give you. If you plan on creating a very large web site, then you need to make sure that the web hosting company you choose gives plenty of storage so that your web site has room to grow. Also many web hosting companies offer free email accounts when you host your web site with them. This can be a great feature if you plan on giving out email addresses on your web site, or you need email addresses for employees in your company. However if you do not need many email addresses, then this is not a great service for you.
I believe one of the most important services that can set a web hosting company apart from other companies is the ability to create web sites that can use server-side code. Using server-side code will allow you to communicate with a database on their server, and dynamically make changes on the web site depending on what information is in that database. In this new age of Web 2.0, using server-side code to create a truly dynamic user-driven web site is essential. However if you just want to communicate your message to your audience, and you do not need to have your users interact with your site, this service might not be that important to you. No matter what kind of web site you are creating there is a web hosting company out there with the services that you need.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Starting Web Hosting
The whole concept of web hosting is quite interesting. When you visit a website a web page is shown. This web page is downloaded from the server where web site is hosted to your web browser. A website contains many web pages which are made up of graphic images and texts. These web pages are stored on the server and are downloaded to web browser when somebody needs to view them.
So if you intend to host a website then first thing which you must have is a web host who will be providing you the web space over the server for your website. The host proving this hosting facility is called web hosting company or provider. Once your website is on the server then the users can access it through internet and requested pages will be downloaded to his browser on clicking on the links.
A well established host can provide hosting facility to a number of websites. ‘Hostgator’, a well known hosting provider hosts more than 4 lakh websites on its servers. For this it requires many web servers for hosting these websites. After this these servers are connected to the internet. These servers are kept in a physical ‘data centers’. Since these data centers are needed to be functional all the time so these data centers are made fully secure with 24X7 power-backup. Proper arrangements are there to protect these from fire. These have virus detection programs and temperature control systems with proper data back-up facility. Arrangements for disaster recovery are also needed for these data canters in case of any major disaster.
Now as far a web hosting is concerned, it can be of many types- shared hosting, dedicated hosting, co-location hosting and reseller hosting. In shared hosting there are several websites which share a common space on the server. Since a server can host numerous websites people think that the performance of the server deteriorates with the increase in number of websites that are being hosted on the server, but this is totally wrong as servers are equipped with high end components to cater to such loads.
In case of dedicated hosting, a customer is provided with a specific server. Since the server is dedicated to one customer only, he can host as many websites as he wants on that server. In case of dedicated hosting the customer has the option of changing software configuration and he can handle large site traffic. The charges for dedicated hosting quite high and can range from $50 to $500 per month depending upon the facilities provided by the company. In case on co-location hosting, the customer can also own the hardware of the web server with all the facilities of dedicated hosting. It provides more flexibility to the customer in terms of maintenance and control.
In reseller hosting a web space is offered to a party at some discounted price by the provider and this party can resell this space to some other customer in order to make profit.
So if you intend to host a website then first thing which you must have is a web host who will be providing you the web space over the server for your website. The host proving this hosting facility is called web hosting company or provider. Once your website is on the server then the users can access it through internet and requested pages will be downloaded to his browser on clicking on the links.
A well established host can provide hosting facility to a number of websites. ‘Hostgator’, a well known hosting provider hosts more than 4 lakh websites on its servers. For this it requires many web servers for hosting these websites. After this these servers are connected to the internet. These servers are kept in a physical ‘data centers’. Since these data centers are needed to be functional all the time so these data centers are made fully secure with 24X7 power-backup. Proper arrangements are there to protect these from fire. These have virus detection programs and temperature control systems with proper data back-up facility. Arrangements for disaster recovery are also needed for these data canters in case of any major disaster.
Now as far a web hosting is concerned, it can be of many types- shared hosting, dedicated hosting, co-location hosting and reseller hosting. In shared hosting there are several websites which share a common space on the server. Since a server can host numerous websites people think that the performance of the server deteriorates with the increase in number of websites that are being hosted on the server, but this is totally wrong as servers are equipped with high end components to cater to such loads.
In case of dedicated hosting, a customer is provided with a specific server. Since the server is dedicated to one customer only, he can host as many websites as he wants on that server. In case of dedicated hosting the customer has the option of changing software configuration and he can handle large site traffic. The charges for dedicated hosting quite high and can range from $50 to $500 per month depending upon the facilities provided by the company. In case on co-location hosting, the customer can also own the hardware of the web server with all the facilities of dedicated hosting. It provides more flexibility to the customer in terms of maintenance and control.
In reseller hosting a web space is offered to a party at some discounted price by the provider and this party can resell this space to some other customer in order to make profit.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Reliability Of Cheap Web Hosting Providers
All online marketers will be aware of the term web hosting. Each one of them is a client of one or the other web hosting providers. The number of web hosting providers have increased rapidly with increased use of internet in promoting online businesses. Everything from goods to services is sold on the internet today. In that case, each of these businesses would require a web hosting provider to promote web space for them where they can put up a website and promote their business.
The requirements of each type of business are different from that of the other. A web hosting provider may offer tools to run one type of business, but the same web hosting service may not be good for running another type of business. There is a common notion that only high priced paid web hosting providers can provide you with all the tools that you require. However, this is not the case. The tools and features provided by this web hosting company might be useless for your type of business and you only end up spending more money.
While price is the main consideration for most people while selecting a web hosting provider, there are also a few other points which need to be looked into.
1) Ease of use: You should be able to easily update and modify your website even if you are not aware of its technical aspects. cPanel is the most popular website control tool used by most web hosting providers.
2) Customer support: The web hosting company should be able to diagnose the problem with your website quickly and put in back in operation as soon as possible. Though some web hosting providers give cheap offers, they are very helpful and you can easily connect to them through a support telephone line, live chat or email support.
3) Uptime guarantee: check the uptime guarantee indicated by your web hosting provider. This guarantee indicates the percentage of time for which the web hosting server will be accessible. This information is usually indicated on the website. A web hosting provider is reliable only if he has an uptime guarantee of at least 99.5%.
4) Hidden charges: Some web hosting providers levy additional charges for setting up or upgrading your website. The charges taken for different operations should not be too high in any case.
Checking these points will help you get hold of the cheap and best web hosting provider.
The requirements of each type of business are different from that of the other. A web hosting provider may offer tools to run one type of business, but the same web hosting service may not be good for running another type of business. There is a common notion that only high priced paid web hosting providers can provide you with all the tools that you require. However, this is not the case. The tools and features provided by this web hosting company might be useless for your type of business and you only end up spending more money.
While price is the main consideration for most people while selecting a web hosting provider, there are also a few other points which need to be looked into.
1) Ease of use: You should be able to easily update and modify your website even if you are not aware of its technical aspects. cPanel is the most popular website control tool used by most web hosting providers.
2) Customer support: The web hosting company should be able to diagnose the problem with your website quickly and put in back in operation as soon as possible. Though some web hosting providers give cheap offers, they are very helpful and you can easily connect to them through a support telephone line, live chat or email support.
3) Uptime guarantee: check the uptime guarantee indicated by your web hosting provider. This guarantee indicates the percentage of time for which the web hosting server will be accessible. This information is usually indicated on the website. A web hosting provider is reliable only if he has an uptime guarantee of at least 99.5%.
4) Hidden charges: Some web hosting providers levy additional charges for setting up or upgrading your website. The charges taken for different operations should not be too high in any case.
Checking these points will help you get hold of the cheap and best web hosting provider.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Things you should know about Web Hosting
Some people or a lot of people knows what Web Hosting means, for those people that don't know what Web Hosting means I'm going to help you to understand more about Web Hosting. First Web Hosting is a service that some companies provide to users or people that want to have a web site online. If you are planning to have a web site or already have one web site, then you should ask yourself this questions; How big is my web site? How many people are going to visit my site? What programming language I want to use for my site? and how much money I'm want to spent? After you answer all the questions you'll have a better idea on what type of Web Hosting you need for your web site.
If you are not a webmaster or a programmer and you want to have your web site, I have good news for you. You don't need to be a programmer or a webmaster to have your web site up and running in a short period of time. Web Hosting companies have tools and software like CMS (Content Management System) which its already a site that have a lot of modules and templates that are ready for you to use. If you are a webmaster or a programmer the only thing you need to do is make sure that the company you are looking for Web Hosting support the programming language that you are going to use.
Make sure that you read and review all the information from the web hosting company since normally if you want to save money you need to pay a whole year in advance.
If you are not a webmaster or a programmer and you want to have your web site, I have good news for you. You don't need to be a programmer or a webmaster to have your web site up and running in a short period of time. Web Hosting companies have tools and software like CMS (Content Management System) which its already a site that have a lot of modules and templates that are ready for you to use. If you are a webmaster or a programmer the only thing you need to do is make sure that the company you are looking for Web Hosting support the programming language that you are going to use.
Make sure that you read and review all the information from the web hosting company since normally if you want to save money you need to pay a whole year in advance.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
A Basic Web Hosting Walkthrough
If you are relatively new to the concept of having your very own place on the web this article may help fill you in on some of the basics.
There are two main categories of web hosting that I am going to cover in this article. The first is dedicated hosting and the second is shared hosting. The second type ,shared hosting, I usually break down into paid and free. Normally, unless you are a very special person, you can't get dedicated hosting for free.
Before I break down the hosting types, however, let's clear up some terminology...
Bandwidth is the amount of data your site can transer in a given period of time. This is sometimes referred to as transfer. When people view your site on the internet they are downloading it from the server and this uses up your bandwidth.
Storage is basically the measure of hard drive space your web site is allowed to take up on a server.
OK, now on to the rest of it...
Dedicated hosting , or more like dedicated server, is where your web site gets one entire server to itself. You are pretty much entitled to all of the resources this server has to offer. The entire bandwith and hard drive capacity is yours including memory for processing and whatever else. With larger, traffic intensive web sites dedicated hosting is pretty much a must but shared hosting is usually more than sufficient for individuals and small to smallish medium businesses.
Shared hosting is basically when a hosting company puts your web site on a server with web sites from other customers. Your hosting provider will usually give you monthly limits for bandwidth, storage, email accounts and such. Depending on what server you were put on and how good your hosting provider is sometimes things can get a little crowded on a server and cause your site to be slow and unresponsive.
Free hosting is shared hosting you get from a free service like geocities or another. It is usually incredibly limited. Sometimes you can "earn" a decent free hosting account by posting in forums and such but in my opinion paid hosting and a real domain name are much better.
Paid hosting is actually inexpensive these days. You can get good solid hosting that will support a small business for under $100 per year. Usually hosting providers include a free domain name and free setup as well as a money back garantee.
I hope you found this article helpful. If you decide to buy hosting make sure to be incredibly picky. The last thing you want is to end up with the wrong web host. Read some articles on picking the right domain name and hunt down reviews of web hosting companies.
I wouldn't go with companies that aren't huge and well established. I've known many people who have lost web sites when unstable hosting companies went under.
Be vigilant and have fun. Getting a web site is the cheapest way to start a business.
There are two main categories of web hosting that I am going to cover in this article. The first is dedicated hosting and the second is shared hosting. The second type ,shared hosting, I usually break down into paid and free. Normally, unless you are a very special person, you can't get dedicated hosting for free.
Before I break down the hosting types, however, let's clear up some terminology...
Bandwidth is the amount of data your site can transer in a given period of time. This is sometimes referred to as transfer. When people view your site on the internet they are downloading it from the server and this uses up your bandwidth.
Storage is basically the measure of hard drive space your web site is allowed to take up on a server.
OK, now on to the rest of it...
Dedicated hosting , or more like dedicated server, is where your web site gets one entire server to itself. You are pretty much entitled to all of the resources this server has to offer. The entire bandwith and hard drive capacity is yours including memory for processing and whatever else. With larger, traffic intensive web sites dedicated hosting is pretty much a must but shared hosting is usually more than sufficient for individuals and small to smallish medium businesses.
Shared hosting is basically when a hosting company puts your web site on a server with web sites from other customers. Your hosting provider will usually give you monthly limits for bandwidth, storage, email accounts and such. Depending on what server you were put on and how good your hosting provider is sometimes things can get a little crowded on a server and cause your site to be slow and unresponsive.
Free hosting is shared hosting you get from a free service like geocities or another. It is usually incredibly limited. Sometimes you can "earn" a decent free hosting account by posting in forums and such but in my opinion paid hosting and a real domain name are much better.
Paid hosting is actually inexpensive these days. You can get good solid hosting that will support a small business for under $100 per year. Usually hosting providers include a free domain name and free setup as well as a money back garantee.
I hope you found this article helpful. If you decide to buy hosting make sure to be incredibly picky. The last thing you want is to end up with the wrong web host. Read some articles on picking the right domain name and hunt down reviews of web hosting companies.
I wouldn't go with companies that aren't huge and well established. I've known many people who have lost web sites when unstable hosting companies went under.
Be vigilant and have fun. Getting a web site is the cheapest way to start a business.
Monday, March 22, 2010
All About Dedicated Hosting Providers
Unless overtly listed otherwise, most web hosting packages you’ll come across in your search are what are called shared hosting providers. What this means is that the server or servers that host your website are simultaneously hosting numerous other websites also. This gives you a discounted rate on web hosting services in exchange for tolerating certain technical constraints, like bandwidth, disk space, upload and download speeds, security and privacy, traffic, and probably the most notable restriction -- total control.
If you want total control not only over the administration of your website but also over the very hardware and software used to run it, then you should be evaluating not shared hosting providers, but dedicated hosting providers. If your business is large enough or growing fast enough that it requires its own internet connection and server, you may need a dedicated web host.
What’s the downside to going with dedicated hosting providers? In a word: responsibility. In most areas of life, with total control comes total responsibility, and it’s no different with hosting providers. With a dedicated server, the onus is on you to buy, install, and maintain the actual equipment -- the server itself -- mounted in the dedicated hosting providers’ data center.
Fortunately, you still get the benefit of their presumably top-notch, around-the-clock security over the physical premises, but you remain fully responsible for the security of your cyber-premises. Likewise, dedicated hosting providers will ensure that the systems in the building are all provided with redundant uninterruptible and backup power and environmental controls, but it’s you who must keep your machines and cables maintained and functioning in this idyll environment.
How do you identify whether it’s time to switch from a shared host to a dedicated host? There are 3 main indicators to stay alert for:
Speed
If the traffic streaming through your shared server is slowing down your customers’ pace as they browse your site (or your employees, if an in-house site), it may simply be time to look for more unencumbered shared hosting. But if you’ve tried several shared hosting providers with the same results, then it may be time to remind yourself how impatient the average web surfer is. While you’re jumping from shared host to shared host trying to save a buck, your customers are jumping ship. Your ability to respond promptly and effectively to customer transactions and inquiries cannot be overemphasized either.
Reliability
The limits to your control are nowhere more apparent than in the areas of reliability and security. It’s not simply that problems can arise: problems do arise. It’s the nature of the biz. And if you don’t have unlimited access to your own operating system, software and database apps, etc., there’s not much you can do when one arises.
Customizability
If your company is growing fast, you’re going to be changing many aspects of your web presence along with it. You may regularly need to tweak your disk space and bandwidth and experiment with using different applications to better serve your changing needs. On a shared host, upgrading in such a way usually involves leaping from one “package” or “plan” to another. These packages are generally preset and may or may not serve your immediate needs. They may be riddled with programs you don’t yet need, for example, yet lack in the one singular program you do. Or the next leap up from your current plan has way more disk space and bandwidth than you need at the moment. With a dedicated server, you can make changes incrementally, step forward, step back, heck, step sideways if you need to -- and when you need to.
In large part, it’s the size and growth rate of your business that will dictate whether you need a shared or dedicated host. Affordability and personal time commitment are nice secondary considerations, but if your business is booming, you would do it a great injustice to try and save on a few bucks and few extra hours per week of your time in exchange for slower and poorer quality of service for your customers.
By the same token, however, if your business is small enough to function quite smoothly on any of the shared hosting providers out there, don’t squander your precious capital on a dedicated server just so you can have total control. Because sometimes total control isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
If you want total control not only over the administration of your website but also over the very hardware and software used to run it, then you should be evaluating not shared hosting providers, but dedicated hosting providers. If your business is large enough or growing fast enough that it requires its own internet connection and server, you may need a dedicated web host.
What’s the downside to going with dedicated hosting providers? In a word: responsibility. In most areas of life, with total control comes total responsibility, and it’s no different with hosting providers. With a dedicated server, the onus is on you to buy, install, and maintain the actual equipment -- the server itself -- mounted in the dedicated hosting providers’ data center.
Fortunately, you still get the benefit of their presumably top-notch, around-the-clock security over the physical premises, but you remain fully responsible for the security of your cyber-premises. Likewise, dedicated hosting providers will ensure that the systems in the building are all provided with redundant uninterruptible and backup power and environmental controls, but it’s you who must keep your machines and cables maintained and functioning in this idyll environment.
How do you identify whether it’s time to switch from a shared host to a dedicated host? There are 3 main indicators to stay alert for:
Speed
If the traffic streaming through your shared server is slowing down your customers’ pace as they browse your site (or your employees, if an in-house site), it may simply be time to look for more unencumbered shared hosting. But if you’ve tried several shared hosting providers with the same results, then it may be time to remind yourself how impatient the average web surfer is. While you’re jumping from shared host to shared host trying to save a buck, your customers are jumping ship. Your ability to respond promptly and effectively to customer transactions and inquiries cannot be overemphasized either.
Reliability
The limits to your control are nowhere more apparent than in the areas of reliability and security. It’s not simply that problems can arise: problems do arise. It’s the nature of the biz. And if you don’t have unlimited access to your own operating system, software and database apps, etc., there’s not much you can do when one arises.
Customizability
If your company is growing fast, you’re going to be changing many aspects of your web presence along with it. You may regularly need to tweak your disk space and bandwidth and experiment with using different applications to better serve your changing needs. On a shared host, upgrading in such a way usually involves leaping from one “package” or “plan” to another. These packages are generally preset and may or may not serve your immediate needs. They may be riddled with programs you don’t yet need, for example, yet lack in the one singular program you do. Or the next leap up from your current plan has way more disk space and bandwidth than you need at the moment. With a dedicated server, you can make changes incrementally, step forward, step back, heck, step sideways if you need to -- and when you need to.
In large part, it’s the size and growth rate of your business that will dictate whether you need a shared or dedicated host. Affordability and personal time commitment are nice secondary considerations, but if your business is booming, you would do it a great injustice to try and save on a few bucks and few extra hours per week of your time in exchange for slower and poorer quality of service for your customers.
By the same token, however, if your business is small enough to function quite smoothly on any of the shared hosting providers out there, don’t squander your precious capital on a dedicated server just so you can have total control. Because sometimes total control isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
40 Million Web Hosting Providers To Choose From
There is more then 40 Million web hoisting provider to choose from and all of them are thirsty for adding your business to their portfolio, in this situation how do you identify and distinguish the best from the worse web hosting providers. Below I have highlighted some key point to Consider When Choosing a Web Hosting Provider.
Security
The security of your website is the most important thing to consider once your site goes live, you should be 100% confident that the technology that brings your web project to life is of the highest caliber and extremely secure. If you set your website to process customer details and collect payments via the internet then you should consider a hosting provider who can provide you with a server which has encryption capabilities and the ability to set up a dedicated secure server if and when requested by you.
Server Space
Before you commit your self to a hosting provider, first consider the amount of disk space you will need to host your website, a reasonable amount is around 500 MB, to 1 GB disk space, which is sufficient enough for any small business, unless you are planning on running a software repository or an image gallery or a file sharing website. Web hosting providers offer their customers several hosting packages and many of the packages comes with un-necessary disk space for a very reasonable price in attempt to out perform their competitors in many cases I found hosting providers are cutting corners to bring it customers an excellent hosting package which only looks good on paper.
Reliability
The reliability of the hosting provider is crucial. The length of time they have been in business, their percent of uptime, reasonable uptime you should expect is at least 99.5% and their backup and data retrieval practices and policies. Some hosting providers have multiple data centres, and some might even give you a choice of where your server will be at. Ideally, the closer the server is to you the better, as file transfers and interaction with the server will be at faster speeds. This might be a good question to ask the company on the phone call above.
Support
Technical support is something that should definitely be a part of a web hosting plan. Professional web hosting providers offer customers a support ticket system, this support system track all queries made by you and will automatically notify you via e-mail or SMS when your query get updated. The support system also give you access to review the status of any tickets you have raised, set priorities and check response times.
PHP/CGI-Bin
No matter what type of site you are planning on running, chances are you will eventually need to install some type of CGI script. Whether it be a mailing list management script, contact form processor, or maybe even a fancy credit card processing script, your hosting account will need to allow you to install and run them. This requires access to a special folder on your server called "CGI-Bin". Some hosting accounts will only allow you to use "pre-installed" scripts as a security measure. These are scripts that the owners of the company have installed and configured so that they know that they will work properly and not adversely affect their server's performance. That may be all you need, but if you have the knowledge, it's always nice to have the ability to install your own scripts and configure them to suit your individual needs. You should also be sure that the account you choose supports the language in which your scripts are written, such as PHP, Perl, etc.
Security
The security of your website is the most important thing to consider once your site goes live, you should be 100% confident that the technology that brings your web project to life is of the highest caliber and extremely secure. If you set your website to process customer details and collect payments via the internet then you should consider a hosting provider who can provide you with a server which has encryption capabilities and the ability to set up a dedicated secure server if and when requested by you.
Server Space
Before you commit your self to a hosting provider, first consider the amount of disk space you will need to host your website, a reasonable amount is around 500 MB, to 1 GB disk space, which is sufficient enough for any small business, unless you are planning on running a software repository or an image gallery or a file sharing website. Web hosting providers offer their customers several hosting packages and many of the packages comes with un-necessary disk space for a very reasonable price in attempt to out perform their competitors in many cases I found hosting providers are cutting corners to bring it customers an excellent hosting package which only looks good on paper.
Reliability
The reliability of the hosting provider is crucial. The length of time they have been in business, their percent of uptime, reasonable uptime you should expect is at least 99.5% and their backup and data retrieval practices and policies. Some hosting providers have multiple data centres, and some might even give you a choice of where your server will be at. Ideally, the closer the server is to you the better, as file transfers and interaction with the server will be at faster speeds. This might be a good question to ask the company on the phone call above.
Support
Technical support is something that should definitely be a part of a web hosting plan. Professional web hosting providers offer customers a support ticket system, this support system track all queries made by you and will automatically notify you via e-mail or SMS when your query get updated. The support system also give you access to review the status of any tickets you have raised, set priorities and check response times.
PHP/CGI-Bin
No matter what type of site you are planning on running, chances are you will eventually need to install some type of CGI script. Whether it be a mailing list management script, contact form processor, or maybe even a fancy credit card processing script, your hosting account will need to allow you to install and run them. This requires access to a special folder on your server called "CGI-Bin". Some hosting accounts will only allow you to use "pre-installed" scripts as a security measure. These are scripts that the owners of the company have installed and configured so that they know that they will work properly and not adversely affect their server's performance. That may be all you need, but if you have the knowledge, it's always nice to have the ability to install your own scripts and configure them to suit your individual needs. You should also be sure that the account you choose supports the language in which your scripts are written, such as PHP, Perl, etc.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Choosing a Web Hosting Provider
There are literally thousands of web hosting providers on the Internet and it can be extremely difficult to decide on the right one. It is important to choose the right web host for your business. After all, your business is a reflection on you, so you definitely want a web host that is reliable – this means that cost should not be the only factor you consider when choosing your web hosting provider. To help you search for a good web hosting provider, you can start reading some web hosting reviews and visit some web hosting demo site. You can begin at this web hosting review site at http://www.ixwebhostingreview.org , over 60 web hosting being reviewed and with sample demo sites.
It can be very confusing to know where to start when you are looking for someone to host your website, because there are so many different companies to choose from. It is like being on vacation and trying to choose just the right local restaurant – unless you know a little about the culture of the city, you are lost. However, with web hosting, if you know a little of the basics, then you should not have a problem choosing a reputable web hosting provider.
One of the first issues you will need to assess about your prospective web hosting providers and the amount of server uptime they guarantee. Most reputable hosting companies strive for at least 99% uptime. If the servers of hosting company you choose are consistently down, then you will lose visitors and traffic and of course income. Most good hosting companies have scores of satisfied customers, so be sure to check customer reviews and feedback. You should find these both on the website and by searching the internet.
Another consideration is how much hosting space the plan you are interested in provides. If you are planning on hosting a lot of images and videos, then you will need to plan accordingly. If you are unsure of the amount of space you might need, make sure your web hosting provider allows for easy upgrades to other hosting plans.
Bandwidth is another concern when you are trying to decide which web hosting plan will suit your needs. This is simply how much data transfer you are allowed each month for your visitors and customers to use and view your website. Again, if you have lots of images and multimedia files, you will need to make allowances. On the other hand, if your site is mostly informational and/or your multimedia hosting is done elsewhere, you will probably be able to get away with less bandwidth. Ease of hosting plan upgrade is also definitely a consideration here.
When considering both storage space and bandwidth, the general rule is to get as much for your money as you possibly can without sacrificing quality. Beware of hosting companies that offer unlimited bandwidth at ‘too good to be true' prices. Be sure to read the ‘fine print' in the ‘Terms of Service' agreement. Normally, the hosting company's definition of ‘unlimited' will be defined.
Be sure that the web hosting provider you are considering offers all the features you will need to manage your website properly. A feature that you thought was included might not be available or may only be available as an ‘add on'; and if you are running an ecommerce site, there will be certain necessary security software and features you will need , such as secure Socket Layer (SSL). If you have any questions before purchasing, make sure that you ask them. This is also a good way to gauge the customer service of your prospective web hosting company.
Doing your research ahead of time will save you much wasted time and money when selecting a reputable hosting company. Hosting providers are literally ‘a dime a dozen', so take your time and be selective. Your business depends on it. Finally, before your enroll to their hosting services, you should find the best web hosting coupon and web hosting deal. A huge collection of over 30 web hosting coupon available at http://www.ixwebhostingreview.org/web-hosting-coupons/ coupon site. Compare and select the best web hosting deal.
It can be very confusing to know where to start when you are looking for someone to host your website, because there are so many different companies to choose from. It is like being on vacation and trying to choose just the right local restaurant – unless you know a little about the culture of the city, you are lost. However, with web hosting, if you know a little of the basics, then you should not have a problem choosing a reputable web hosting provider.
One of the first issues you will need to assess about your prospective web hosting providers and the amount of server uptime they guarantee. Most reputable hosting companies strive for at least 99% uptime. If the servers of hosting company you choose are consistently down, then you will lose visitors and traffic and of course income. Most good hosting companies have scores of satisfied customers, so be sure to check customer reviews and feedback. You should find these both on the website and by searching the internet.
Another consideration is how much hosting space the plan you are interested in provides. If you are planning on hosting a lot of images and videos, then you will need to plan accordingly. If you are unsure of the amount of space you might need, make sure your web hosting provider allows for easy upgrades to other hosting plans.
Bandwidth is another concern when you are trying to decide which web hosting plan will suit your needs. This is simply how much data transfer you are allowed each month for your visitors and customers to use and view your website. Again, if you have lots of images and multimedia files, you will need to make allowances. On the other hand, if your site is mostly informational and/or your multimedia hosting is done elsewhere, you will probably be able to get away with less bandwidth. Ease of hosting plan upgrade is also definitely a consideration here.
When considering both storage space and bandwidth, the general rule is to get as much for your money as you possibly can without sacrificing quality. Beware of hosting companies that offer unlimited bandwidth at ‘too good to be true' prices. Be sure to read the ‘fine print' in the ‘Terms of Service' agreement. Normally, the hosting company's definition of ‘unlimited' will be defined.
Be sure that the web hosting provider you are considering offers all the features you will need to manage your website properly. A feature that you thought was included might not be available or may only be available as an ‘add on'; and if you are running an ecommerce site, there will be certain necessary security software and features you will need , such as secure Socket Layer (SSL). If you have any questions before purchasing, make sure that you ask them. This is also a good way to gauge the customer service of your prospective web hosting company.
Doing your research ahead of time will save you much wasted time and money when selecting a reputable hosting company. Hosting providers are literally ‘a dime a dozen', so take your time and be selective. Your business depends on it. Finally, before your enroll to their hosting services, you should find the best web hosting coupon and web hosting deal. A huge collection of over 30 web hosting coupon available at http://www.ixwebhostingreview.org/web-hosting-coupons/ coupon site. Compare and select the best web hosting deal.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Virtual Hosting vs Dedicated Hosting
Why do some organizations choose to host their own Web site on their own managed servers, while others contract with a Webhosting company or purchase their ecommerce hosting services through an ISP (Internet service provider)?
While cost (including risk) and flexibility are often the two primary considerations when choosing how to host a website, understanding distinctions among Webhosting options and the pros and cons of each will help you pare down the list to something considerably more manageable, ensuring that you make the best decision.
Webhosting plans can be categorized broadly into two types: virtual server hosting and dedicated server hosting. Small to medium-sized businesses typically choose a virtual server plan where multiple ecommerce web sites are hosted on space within a single server. This service allows you to share a server with others, but your site is further protected or isolated with its own server resources including processor, memory, and disk storage. This arrangement works well for small sites that rely on dynamic generation of content from a backend database, small ecommerce sites, or for customers who wish to manage several separate web sites.
The reason that vendors can offer low-priced domain hosting for virtual private servers is because the customers look the same and require a set of web services that are essentially identical from site to site. Webhosting vendors who are able to package similar services across a huge volume of customers most effectively are generally the most successful since they can capture substantial economies of scale.
Dedicated hosting on the other hand is an option for mid- to large-sized businesses that require or desire the flexibility that comes with dedicated servers. While more expensive, this type of plan generally provides a higher level of security, support, and maintenance with a guaranteed level of availability. Offering this type of guarantee generally reflects a level of redundancy within the vendor's data-center operations that severely decreases the chances of downtime or removes the risk all together. Depending on the vendor's plan, flexibility means you can write and run your own custom scripts or applications and even use a content management system to manage the web site but not worry about managing the network, server hardware, or operating system.
The easiest decision will likely be whether you intend to host the site yourself or contract with a webhosting vendor. Scale is the primary decision-making factor. Going it alone takes money and the willingness to assume the activities and risk associated with managing the server hardware, software, and connectivity. For organizations that already have a dedicated IT staff and data center, hosting may be an affordable option. The IT department may, in turn, offer a shared server arrangement where organizational entities such as the organization's library are provided space on the server. But for those who are unable to tap into existing resources or who are working for companies without IT resources, contracting with an external webhosting provider is the only cost-effective option.
Narrowing the choices down can be difficult since there are so many vendors from which to choose. The first step is to list your requirements for developing, managing, and offering a web site to your users. For very simple sites, the vendor may provide tools for creating and managing your site along with available services to extend your site's offerings, such as online form capabilities. Alternatively, you can use your own HTML authoring tool and upload pages as needed.
Vendors try to make choosing plans as easy as possible by packaging most-requested services together into specific webhosting plans. Doing so allows customers to more easily select what they need; they also benefit from a cost structure that can be kept fairly low. Most plans require an upfront set-up fee along with a monthly fee covering the plan you choose and any additional services (extra e-mail boxes, additional storage, etc.) that you request.
Finally, choosing a webhosting vendor can be confusing due to the array of options. A winning approach includes developing your list of requirements along with a plan for current and future growth to allow you to substantially clarify how your needs map out against your domain hosting options.
While cost (including risk) and flexibility are often the two primary considerations when choosing how to host a website, understanding distinctions among Webhosting options and the pros and cons of each will help you pare down the list to something considerably more manageable, ensuring that you make the best decision.
Webhosting plans can be categorized broadly into two types: virtual server hosting and dedicated server hosting. Small to medium-sized businesses typically choose a virtual server plan where multiple ecommerce web sites are hosted on space within a single server. This service allows you to share a server with others, but your site is further protected or isolated with its own server resources including processor, memory, and disk storage. This arrangement works well for small sites that rely on dynamic generation of content from a backend database, small ecommerce sites, or for customers who wish to manage several separate web sites.
The reason that vendors can offer low-priced domain hosting for virtual private servers is because the customers look the same and require a set of web services that are essentially identical from site to site. Webhosting vendors who are able to package similar services across a huge volume of customers most effectively are generally the most successful since they can capture substantial economies of scale.
Dedicated hosting on the other hand is an option for mid- to large-sized businesses that require or desire the flexibility that comes with dedicated servers. While more expensive, this type of plan generally provides a higher level of security, support, and maintenance with a guaranteed level of availability. Offering this type of guarantee generally reflects a level of redundancy within the vendor's data-center operations that severely decreases the chances of downtime or removes the risk all together. Depending on the vendor's plan, flexibility means you can write and run your own custom scripts or applications and even use a content management system to manage the web site but not worry about managing the network, server hardware, or operating system.
The easiest decision will likely be whether you intend to host the site yourself or contract with a webhosting vendor. Scale is the primary decision-making factor. Going it alone takes money and the willingness to assume the activities and risk associated with managing the server hardware, software, and connectivity. For organizations that already have a dedicated IT staff and data center, hosting may be an affordable option. The IT department may, in turn, offer a shared server arrangement where organizational entities such as the organization's library are provided space on the server. But for those who are unable to tap into existing resources or who are working for companies without IT resources, contracting with an external webhosting provider is the only cost-effective option.
Narrowing the choices down can be difficult since there are so many vendors from which to choose. The first step is to list your requirements for developing, managing, and offering a web site to your users. For very simple sites, the vendor may provide tools for creating and managing your site along with available services to extend your site's offerings, such as online form capabilities. Alternatively, you can use your own HTML authoring tool and upload pages as needed.
Vendors try to make choosing plans as easy as possible by packaging most-requested services together into specific webhosting plans. Doing so allows customers to more easily select what they need; they also benefit from a cost structure that can be kept fairly low. Most plans require an upfront set-up fee along with a monthly fee covering the plan you choose and any additional services (extra e-mail boxes, additional storage, etc.) that you request.
Finally, choosing a webhosting vendor can be confusing due to the array of options. A winning approach includes developing your list of requirements along with a plan for current and future growth to allow you to substantially clarify how your needs map out against your domain hosting options.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
A Web Hosting Directory Can Assist Your Search For A Host
As the popularity and power of the Internet continues to grow, so does the online community of websites that promote businesses, entertainment, commerce, and social destinations. For those who choose to establish an online presence through the creation of a website, a number of decisions must be made in order to give your website every opportunity for success; not the least of which is the choice of a web host that can effectively service your site. But finding an appropriate web host from among the thousands that offer the service can be a bit like hunting a needle in a haystack. A web hosting directory, however, can offer a starting point for your search.
In order to place your website online you must do so through a web host – a company or individual that offers access to the Internet through a server. While complex sounding, a server is nothing more than a high-powered computer that has open communication to release and receive information throughout the network of computers that make up the World Wide Web. A web host then offers websites “space” within their server – for which they pay a monthly or yearly “rental” fee. Once a website has secured space on a host server they are considered to be online. A website owner, in order to find the host that best suits their needs and get online, must search among the companies that offer hosting services. A web hosting directory offers a comprehensive list of companies and individuals that offer hosting services.
A web hosting directory will list host providers, the services they offer, and the prices at which they offer them. Most importantly, however, a web hosting directory will provide contact information for web hosts; and this is where the real research begins.
You can certainly narrow down your search for a web host with the use of a web hosting directory. You must first determine how much space your website will require on a host server – depending on the size of the files and graphics that your site will store and the amount of traffic it receives. You can tell a lot about a host through a web hosting directory including the space it can provide your website, the security measures it can offer, the prices it charges, and its commitment to customer service.
Once you have narrowed down your search, you can utilize a web hosting directory to contact those hosts in which you are interested. At that time you should be prepared to ask a number of questions including inquiring as to their level of experience, ability to host your particular site and the services that will be unique to it, and the features that it may offer through a web hosting plan. Consider a web hosting directory to be your ultimate reference guide to establishing your website online.
In order to place your website online you must do so through a web host – a company or individual that offers access to the Internet through a server. While complex sounding, a server is nothing more than a high-powered computer that has open communication to release and receive information throughout the network of computers that make up the World Wide Web. A web host then offers websites “space” within their server – for which they pay a monthly or yearly “rental” fee. Once a website has secured space on a host server they are considered to be online. A website owner, in order to find the host that best suits their needs and get online, must search among the companies that offer hosting services. A web hosting directory offers a comprehensive list of companies and individuals that offer hosting services.
A web hosting directory will list host providers, the services they offer, and the prices at which they offer them. Most importantly, however, a web hosting directory will provide contact information for web hosts; and this is where the real research begins.
You can certainly narrow down your search for a web host with the use of a web hosting directory. You must first determine how much space your website will require on a host server – depending on the size of the files and graphics that your site will store and the amount of traffic it receives. You can tell a lot about a host through a web hosting directory including the space it can provide your website, the security measures it can offer, the prices it charges, and its commitment to customer service.
Once you have narrowed down your search, you can utilize a web hosting directory to contact those hosts in which you are interested. At that time you should be prepared to ask a number of questions including inquiring as to their level of experience, ability to host your particular site and the services that will be unique to it, and the features that it may offer through a web hosting plan. Consider a web hosting directory to be your ultimate reference guide to establishing your website online.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Web Hosting Tips For Beginners
If you are thinking about setting up your first website or registering your own domain name, there are a whole host (pun intended) of companies out there lining up for your business. This is a double edged sword because although it’s great for consumers to have choices, the greater they are, the more bewildering they become.
In your attempt to make a decision you will negotiate a minefield of headlines clamoring for your attention and probably baffling you beyond belief, so here are a few ground rules for those first venturing into the world of web hosting.
Before you do anything, it is wise to have a good idea of exactly what kind of user you are – will you be setting up a personal website or blog on your domain or are you a business user? If you are setting up a business website your priorities will probably be somewhat different and likewise your needs. Think carefully about what you want as you research the best deals. I have concentrated more on business users here, as a lot of the issues are perhaps not as vital to many non-commercial webmasters, although they are certainly no less worthy of consideration.
The first thing to remember, as with most things in life, the general rule will be that you get what you pay for. Big numbers and low prices do not always constitute a good deal. When you see companies offering a terabyte of storage for a dollar a month, remember that most websites need nowhere near this amount of disk space – it’s a hollow offer because the company knows that you will almost certainly never need it, but big numbers look good, particularly to the uninitiated.
If you have some idea of the amount of space you will need, all well and good, if you don’t, you will probably not need more than most companies offer you in a decent package.
If you are a business user, decide what kind of website you are hoping to run and what features you are likely to need – for example, will you want e-commerce facilities for online ordering? A good idea is to look at the websites of your competition as you will probably want something along similar lines. Make sure that the hosting company you choose can support the features you need.
At this point, a quick word about people who are engaged in online marketing – you will have certain requirements that some hosts may not be prepared to accommodate. Some hosts will not allow certain scripts to be hosted on their servers, so once again, buyer beware – if you want to set up a traffic exchange perhaps, or safe lists for example, you need to check before you buy your online space. Some hosting companies are geared far more towards certain markets than others so be sure to position yourself with a service that is sympathetic to your requirements – this applies to everyone, not just online marketers!
Returning to the numbers game, there are some that are very important. Look at the amount of data transfer or bandwidth that you are being offered. If you are expecting a high volume of traffic and a lot of activity (for example downloading of files, particularly large files like sound and video) your bandwidth requirements will be far greater than a personal user with their low traffic site about their daily life. There is nothing worse for business than to see a ‘bandwidth exceeded’ error when someone tries to access your business online – it looks very unprofessional and people are far less likely to return.
The other vital number is uptime. Once again, for business users in particular, downtime is a credibility and business killer, so the reliability of your host is paramount. Nobody can genuinely offer you one hundred percent uptime guarantee – that is just the nature of the technology, but you should be looking for ninety-nine percent upwards.
This leads us to support from the hosting company – it is almost a requirement nowadays for them to advertise 24/7 support, but remember that talk is cheap, and the definition of 24/7 support can be a very loose one. For you, when things go wrong, you need to be able to contact someone right away, but you also want problems fixed in the minimum amount of time – just having someone around to answer the phones out of office hours does not constitute 24 hour support. If you need technical support, particularly important to new users and less “techie” types, will your host have the people and the time to assist you and answer your questions? It is difficult to know which hosting companies perform in this area so again, do your research – ask around, visit forums online and check any testimonials from existing customers. You will probably hear many horror stories, but hopefully some good feedback too, and forewarned is forearmed as they say.
Many web hosts rent their server space and although this is not necessarily a bad thing, it is another area where not all hosting companies are the same. If a company owns its own data center, you are often assured of far quicker response times should there be any hardware problems, there being no middle men to slow down the communication process.
Hardware problems tend to be solved far more quickly by a host who has direct access to its servers.
As far as a lot of hosting features go, the numbers figure prominently in advertising, so know what they mean and you’ll understand if they are important to you. As an example, I have the capability to set up unlimited email accounts, or at least 999. Do I need that many? Certainly not, but for some businesses this could be a very important feature – particularly if you wish every employee, as well as every department, to have an email account on a given domain.
Talking of domains, how many will you want to host on your web space? If you are only just beginning the journey, you’ve bought your domain name; can you foresee ever needing unlimited domain name hosting? How many will your business need in the future? How many names do you want to pay for? How many sub-domains do you anticipate wanting to set up? So again, think about your needs before being blinded by marketing excess with the “big numbers” game.
Most hosting companies now offer a range of add-on services, for example, website building software – that sounds great to anyone new to the web but sometimes all it amounts to are a few templates. This might be fine if you have experience in web authoring, HTML, CSS……but if you’re inexperienced, some host’s web building software won’t be of much use. I have heard from any would-be website builders who have spent money on a template, only to be completely lost as to how to edit it!
If these kinds of extras are important to you, be sure to understand what you are buying before parting with your money. There are some web hosting companies who provide a lot of support to new webmasters, both from their own staff and from other users of their hosting services – if you think you’ll benefit from extra help in the areas outside of hosting, finding such a company could be invaluable to you.
I haven’t gone into too much detail here because, after all, it’s a general article aimed at beginners. My resource box at the foot of this article contains some useful links and leads to a lot more information so please check them out.
If you find a good hosting company straight off the bat, it will save you a lot of frustration and worry further down the line, so do shop wisely. Cheap may be just fine for many people and there are plenty of cheap web hosting offers around today, but if your business is going to depend on your web presence, it may not always be the wisest move to cut corners.
In your attempt to make a decision you will negotiate a minefield of headlines clamoring for your attention and probably baffling you beyond belief, so here are a few ground rules for those first venturing into the world of web hosting.
Before you do anything, it is wise to have a good idea of exactly what kind of user you are – will you be setting up a personal website or blog on your domain or are you a business user? If you are setting up a business website your priorities will probably be somewhat different and likewise your needs. Think carefully about what you want as you research the best deals. I have concentrated more on business users here, as a lot of the issues are perhaps not as vital to many non-commercial webmasters, although they are certainly no less worthy of consideration.
The first thing to remember, as with most things in life, the general rule will be that you get what you pay for. Big numbers and low prices do not always constitute a good deal. When you see companies offering a terabyte of storage for a dollar a month, remember that most websites need nowhere near this amount of disk space – it’s a hollow offer because the company knows that you will almost certainly never need it, but big numbers look good, particularly to the uninitiated.
If you have some idea of the amount of space you will need, all well and good, if you don’t, you will probably not need more than most companies offer you in a decent package.
If you are a business user, decide what kind of website you are hoping to run and what features you are likely to need – for example, will you want e-commerce facilities for online ordering? A good idea is to look at the websites of your competition as you will probably want something along similar lines. Make sure that the hosting company you choose can support the features you need.
At this point, a quick word about people who are engaged in online marketing – you will have certain requirements that some hosts may not be prepared to accommodate. Some hosts will not allow certain scripts to be hosted on their servers, so once again, buyer beware – if you want to set up a traffic exchange perhaps, or safe lists for example, you need to check before you buy your online space. Some hosting companies are geared far more towards certain markets than others so be sure to position yourself with a service that is sympathetic to your requirements – this applies to everyone, not just online marketers!
Returning to the numbers game, there are some that are very important. Look at the amount of data transfer or bandwidth that you are being offered. If you are expecting a high volume of traffic and a lot of activity (for example downloading of files, particularly large files like sound and video) your bandwidth requirements will be far greater than a personal user with their low traffic site about their daily life. There is nothing worse for business than to see a ‘bandwidth exceeded’ error when someone tries to access your business online – it looks very unprofessional and people are far less likely to return.
The other vital number is uptime. Once again, for business users in particular, downtime is a credibility and business killer, so the reliability of your host is paramount. Nobody can genuinely offer you one hundred percent uptime guarantee – that is just the nature of the technology, but you should be looking for ninety-nine percent upwards.
This leads us to support from the hosting company – it is almost a requirement nowadays for them to advertise 24/7 support, but remember that talk is cheap, and the definition of 24/7 support can be a very loose one. For you, when things go wrong, you need to be able to contact someone right away, but you also want problems fixed in the minimum amount of time – just having someone around to answer the phones out of office hours does not constitute 24 hour support. If you need technical support, particularly important to new users and less “techie” types, will your host have the people and the time to assist you and answer your questions? It is difficult to know which hosting companies perform in this area so again, do your research – ask around, visit forums online and check any testimonials from existing customers. You will probably hear many horror stories, but hopefully some good feedback too, and forewarned is forearmed as they say.
Many web hosts rent their server space and although this is not necessarily a bad thing, it is another area where not all hosting companies are the same. If a company owns its own data center, you are often assured of far quicker response times should there be any hardware problems, there being no middle men to slow down the communication process.
Hardware problems tend to be solved far more quickly by a host who has direct access to its servers.
As far as a lot of hosting features go, the numbers figure prominently in advertising, so know what they mean and you’ll understand if they are important to you. As an example, I have the capability to set up unlimited email accounts, or at least 999. Do I need that many? Certainly not, but for some businesses this could be a very important feature – particularly if you wish every employee, as well as every department, to have an email account on a given domain.
Talking of domains, how many will you want to host on your web space? If you are only just beginning the journey, you’ve bought your domain name; can you foresee ever needing unlimited domain name hosting? How many will your business need in the future? How many names do you want to pay for? How many sub-domains do you anticipate wanting to set up? So again, think about your needs before being blinded by marketing excess with the “big numbers” game.
Most hosting companies now offer a range of add-on services, for example, website building software – that sounds great to anyone new to the web but sometimes all it amounts to are a few templates. This might be fine if you have experience in web authoring, HTML, CSS……but if you’re inexperienced, some host’s web building software won’t be of much use. I have heard from any would-be website builders who have spent money on a template, only to be completely lost as to how to edit it!
If these kinds of extras are important to you, be sure to understand what you are buying before parting with your money. There are some web hosting companies who provide a lot of support to new webmasters, both from their own staff and from other users of their hosting services – if you think you’ll benefit from extra help in the areas outside of hosting, finding such a company could be invaluable to you.
I haven’t gone into too much detail here because, after all, it’s a general article aimed at beginners. My resource box at the foot of this article contains some useful links and leads to a lot more information so please check them out.
If you find a good hosting company straight off the bat, it will save you a lot of frustration and worry further down the line, so do shop wisely. Cheap may be just fine for many people and there are plenty of cheap web hosting offers around today, but if your business is going to depend on your web presence, it may not always be the wisest move to cut corners.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Hot Secrets Revealed : Things No Website Designer Or Web Hosting Provider Would Tell You
Web-hosting and designing the apt website for your business can be quite a daunting task for the uninitiated. Notwithstanding the jargon and the fact that most of the technical nitty-gritty would sound like a death knell to you, it is important and is something that your online or offline venture cannot do without. When it comes to website designing and hosting, there are a few secrets that the industry tends to keep them under wraps. Not that it would eat up your bottom-lines but it might help you in making the most prudent decisions with regards to your small business web design and hosting requirements.
We have listed out a few things to keep in mind for the non-technical YOU. The more you pay heed, the better your decision is going to be.
• Read the terms and conditions of your web hosting provider and ensure that you know what you are getting for your money.
• Choose a plan that is appropriate for you. Some web hosting providers lure you into believing that they provide you with "Unlimited bandwidth". No one can provide with Unlimited "disk space" and "bandwidth" just because it is a saturated market out there amongst the web hosting providers and there is no one in the world to be able to provide you with the same. It is a marketing gimmick and it helps if you are aware of this fact. What is required here is your acuity and decision making skills - You ought to know approximately how much traffic your website must be getting to determine the bandwidth and the disk space. The hosting providers can manage to con you into believing that you have access to "Unlimited" Bandwidth and disk space because they know that most small business owners and webmasters do not need a lot of these parameters and hence they get to improvise.
• Please do ensure that you know your web-hosting provider's policy with regards to increasing your bandwidth requirements if you envision your web site's traffic. Higher number of hits on your website would mean more bandwidth requirements. Just keep track of the surges in traffic and ensure that your provider gives you the flexibility of increasing the band-width as and when required. Also, pay special attention if you intend to include videos, blogs and mp3 content on your site. You need to make a lot more space available for all that content and you have to think about all this when you talk to your web-hosting provider.
• Does your hosting provider have a range of hosting services - ranging from shared common hosting to Dedicated servers or virtual servers? Does your service provider also provide you with other relevant products like email, traffic boosters, blogs, photo sharing utilities and a whole lot of things depending on your unique requirements?
Building a website isn't as easy as it was earlier. Its difficulty level has now evolved along with the innate complexity of the Internet itself and your success is now attributed to prudent and acute decisions that you ought to make while considering your Internet Strategy for your offline or online business.
We have listed out a few things to keep in mind for the non-technical YOU. The more you pay heed, the better your decision is going to be.
• Read the terms and conditions of your web hosting provider and ensure that you know what you are getting for your money.
• Choose a plan that is appropriate for you. Some web hosting providers lure you into believing that they provide you with "Unlimited bandwidth". No one can provide with Unlimited "disk space" and "bandwidth" just because it is a saturated market out there amongst the web hosting providers and there is no one in the world to be able to provide you with the same. It is a marketing gimmick and it helps if you are aware of this fact. What is required here is your acuity and decision making skills - You ought to know approximately how much traffic your website must be getting to determine the bandwidth and the disk space. The hosting providers can manage to con you into believing that you have access to "Unlimited" Bandwidth and disk space because they know that most small business owners and webmasters do not need a lot of these parameters and hence they get to improvise.
• Please do ensure that you know your web-hosting provider's policy with regards to increasing your bandwidth requirements if you envision your web site's traffic. Higher number of hits on your website would mean more bandwidth requirements. Just keep track of the surges in traffic and ensure that your provider gives you the flexibility of increasing the band-width as and when required. Also, pay special attention if you intend to include videos, blogs and mp3 content on your site. You need to make a lot more space available for all that content and you have to think about all this when you talk to your web-hosting provider.
• Does your hosting provider have a range of hosting services - ranging from shared common hosting to Dedicated servers or virtual servers? Does your service provider also provide you with other relevant products like email, traffic boosters, blogs, photo sharing utilities and a whole lot of things depending on your unique requirements?
Building a website isn't as easy as it was earlier. Its difficulty level has now evolved along with the innate complexity of the Internet itself and your success is now attributed to prudent and acute decisions that you ought to make while considering your Internet Strategy for your offline or online business.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Four Types of Web Hosting
Free Web Hosting Service
This is the most basic kind of Web hosting that you can get. Free Web hosting is typically advertisement-supported and offers limited features. This is the best option for those just starting out and only interested in hosting a small personal site that will be light on traffic.
Free Web hosts will give you a subdomain (yoursite.example.com) or a directory (www.example.com/~yoursite). They include a small amount of bandwidth and storage and tend to offer little to no support for MySQL, PHP, multiple e-mail addresses, and site statistics.
Shared Web Hosting Service
Shared hosting is the most popular kind of Web hosting service. Virtually all small businesses, medium to large Web sites, and professional sites see shared hosting as the perfect solution to their hosting needs. None of these entities require anywhere near all the resources of an entire Web server, not to mention the fact that it would be very costly for them to purchase and run one.
As the name suggests, shared Web hosts allow more than one site to be hosted on the same server. These hosts provide system administration, which is good for users that do not want to deal with the hassles of running a server along with a number of other users.
Although it depends on the specifics of the hosting plan, most server features will be readily available to the user, including PHP or ASP, MySQL, multiple e-mail addresses, and more bandwidth and storage than a free host. One downside is the possible security risks that are inherent with sharing a server with a number of other sites.
Dedicated Web Hosting – Unmanaged
This is a great option for users who want more bandwidth, storage, and other server features that free or shared hosting cannot offer. Having a dedicated server means that there are unlimited numbers of databases and e-mail addresses that the user can create, not to mention bigger bandwidth capabilities. Normal dedicated server plans give the user about 500 to 1,000GB of bandwidth per month, and if extra storage is required, a new hard drive can be purchased for the server.
For some users, the one big downside of having an unmanaged dedicated host is that you must be your own server administrator. If you do not know how to deal with this task, there are two options: learn about how to be a server administrator, or just go for the next Web hosting option.
Dedicated Web Hosting – Managed
So, if you want the big-time capabilities of a dedicated server but you do not want to deal with the hassle of learning about server administration, then this should be the perfect option for you.
Going this route means that you will have help in getting your server up and running, and you will have assistance readily available to you if something should ever go wrong. That being said, it is best to get a referral from a close and trustworthy person, or to at the very least do some diligent research on the Internet.
Pricing varies depending on how much reliability, security, and depth of support you want.
This is the most basic kind of Web hosting that you can get. Free Web hosting is typically advertisement-supported and offers limited features. This is the best option for those just starting out and only interested in hosting a small personal site that will be light on traffic.
Free Web hosts will give you a subdomain (yoursite.example.com) or a directory (www.example.com/~yoursite). They include a small amount of bandwidth and storage and tend to offer little to no support for MySQL, PHP, multiple e-mail addresses, and site statistics.
Shared Web Hosting Service
Shared hosting is the most popular kind of Web hosting service. Virtually all small businesses, medium to large Web sites, and professional sites see shared hosting as the perfect solution to their hosting needs. None of these entities require anywhere near all the resources of an entire Web server, not to mention the fact that it would be very costly for them to purchase and run one.
As the name suggests, shared Web hosts allow more than one site to be hosted on the same server. These hosts provide system administration, which is good for users that do not want to deal with the hassles of running a server along with a number of other users.
Although it depends on the specifics of the hosting plan, most server features will be readily available to the user, including PHP or ASP, MySQL, multiple e-mail addresses, and more bandwidth and storage than a free host. One downside is the possible security risks that are inherent with sharing a server with a number of other sites.
Dedicated Web Hosting – Unmanaged
This is a great option for users who want more bandwidth, storage, and other server features that free or shared hosting cannot offer. Having a dedicated server means that there are unlimited numbers of databases and e-mail addresses that the user can create, not to mention bigger bandwidth capabilities. Normal dedicated server plans give the user about 500 to 1,000GB of bandwidth per month, and if extra storage is required, a new hard drive can be purchased for the server.
For some users, the one big downside of having an unmanaged dedicated host is that you must be your own server administrator. If you do not know how to deal with this task, there are two options: learn about how to be a server administrator, or just go for the next Web hosting option.
Dedicated Web Hosting – Managed
So, if you want the big-time capabilities of a dedicated server but you do not want to deal with the hassle of learning about server administration, then this should be the perfect option for you.
Going this route means that you will have help in getting your server up and running, and you will have assistance readily available to you if something should ever go wrong. That being said, it is best to get a referral from a close and trustworthy person, or to at the very least do some diligent research on the Internet.
Pricing varies depending on how much reliability, security, and depth of support you want.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Advantages Of Cheap Virtual Dedicated Server
Most webmasters started off using single domain hosting or shared web-hosting services. Shared web hosting means you share a server with dozens of other webmasters. Typically, shared web hosting plans allows you to have more than 1 domain per shared web hosting account with a predetermined hard disk space and bandwidth. The cost is usually pretty low. You only need to pay around 3-10 dollars per month.
Although it is cheap to host your website on single or shared web hosting accounts, there are many disadvantages you should be aware of.
By the nature of shared hosting, the server resources are shared among many websites, therefore it is very easy for resources such as CPU and memory to be used up quickly. Certain types of websites such as proxy sites are known to generate high CPU utilization, therefore if your website is on the same server, be advised there is a possibility of your website going down. Spam complaints against other sites on the same server will also affect your website. Any form of denial of service attack against someone else hosting can impact on the uptime of your website.
Also some web hosting companies over packed too many hosting accounts on one server causing the server to be slow and sluggish. The end result is your website is up but takes too long to load and display properly.
How can you do to avoid this issue?
Years ago, the only solution is to get a dedicated server. However, nowadays you can get a cheap virtual dedicated server for less than 30 dollars a month.
A cheap dedicated virtual server or VPS allows you to run your sites as if you own the server virtually. In reality, the dedicated server is spilt into multiple virtual dedicated servers. The main advantage is that each virtual dedicated server has control over it’s own resources such as CPU, RAM etc. So each virtual dedicated server is totally isolated from other virtual servers and will not be affected if other webmasters bring their servers down.
Some web-hosting providers also have unmetered bandwidth, which is a plus.
So Are There Any Disadvantages in having a virtual dedicated server?
There are not many major disadvantages except for cost. It will cost a little bit more on hosting. The other disadvantage is you need to be technically proficient in administering the server. However, some web-hosting providers also can provide managed virtual dedicated server. It means they will help you to manage the server. Examples are routine server maintenance, security patches etc.
With increased speed and reliability from using cheap virtual dedicated server, you will rest easy that your websites are always up while you are sleeping.
Although it is cheap to host your website on single or shared web hosting accounts, there are many disadvantages you should be aware of.
By the nature of shared hosting, the server resources are shared among many websites, therefore it is very easy for resources such as CPU and memory to be used up quickly. Certain types of websites such as proxy sites are known to generate high CPU utilization, therefore if your website is on the same server, be advised there is a possibility of your website going down. Spam complaints against other sites on the same server will also affect your website. Any form of denial of service attack against someone else hosting can impact on the uptime of your website.
Also some web hosting companies over packed too many hosting accounts on one server causing the server to be slow and sluggish. The end result is your website is up but takes too long to load and display properly.
How can you do to avoid this issue?
Years ago, the only solution is to get a dedicated server. However, nowadays you can get a cheap virtual dedicated server for less than 30 dollars a month.
A cheap dedicated virtual server or VPS allows you to run your sites as if you own the server virtually. In reality, the dedicated server is spilt into multiple virtual dedicated servers. The main advantage is that each virtual dedicated server has control over it’s own resources such as CPU, RAM etc. So each virtual dedicated server is totally isolated from other virtual servers and will not be affected if other webmasters bring their servers down.
Some web-hosting providers also have unmetered bandwidth, which is a plus.
So Are There Any Disadvantages in having a virtual dedicated server?
There are not many major disadvantages except for cost. It will cost a little bit more on hosting. The other disadvantage is you need to be technically proficient in administering the server. However, some web-hosting providers also can provide managed virtual dedicated server. It means they will help you to manage the server. Examples are routine server maintenance, security patches etc.
With increased speed and reliability from using cheap virtual dedicated server, you will rest easy that your websites are always up while you are sleeping.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Web Hosting Providers Rule The Web
It has been reported there are currently more than a staggering 50,000 web hosting providers all competing for the honour of hosting your website.
Every day dozens of new web hosting compaines are launching and struggling to get your attention and your web hosting business.
Even though the web hosting industry is really quite young, it is certainly one of the most competetive and cut-throat industries on the web today. Yet the growth of this marketplace is assured for the forseeable future.
Now each and every week it is estimated more than 50,000 websites are launched and need to be hosted somewhere online. This figure continues to grow and grow.
In fact the current monthly count for the number of searches at Yahoo for the term 'web hosting' is a whopping 2,149,851. That's right, over 2 million!
Also just recently it was reported that the popularity of blogs was seeing tens of thousands of new blogs launched each and every day. While many of these are hosted freely, the more serious bloggers each require an account with a reliable web hosting provider.
Of course every paid web hosting account usually requires at least one domain name registration. Here are some amazing domain name figures for you:
The registrar holding the largest number of domain names is said to be WildWestDomains. They may be better known to you as Godaddy. They currently hold over an estimated 5 million domain name registrations!
The registrar holding the second largest number of domain names is estimated to be Enom. The registrar holding the third largest number of domain names is estimated to be Networksolutions.
Domain Name Registration Growth:
By far the most popular top level domain is the .com There are currently over an estimated 40 million of these registered.
The .com top level domain currently holds over an estimated 70 percent of the domain name marketplace.
The .net top level domain currently holds just over an estimated 10 percent of the domain name marketplace.
The good news for web hosting and domain name customers is that incredible deals have become available as competition increases among web hosting providers.
In fact the price of web hosting has plumeted to just under $10 per month for a quality service. Domain names that cost up to $35 just a fews years ago can now be bought for as little as $4.99.
This is a winning situation for both the web hosting providers and their customers. The quality of service continues to grow. The new web hosting providers must impress their customers to compete with more established organisations.
There has never been a better time to find a web hosting provider and establish an internet presence of your own.
Every day dozens of new web hosting compaines are launching and struggling to get your attention and your web hosting business.
Even though the web hosting industry is really quite young, it is certainly one of the most competetive and cut-throat industries on the web today. Yet the growth of this marketplace is assured for the forseeable future.
Now each and every week it is estimated more than 50,000 websites are launched and need to be hosted somewhere online. This figure continues to grow and grow.
In fact the current monthly count for the number of searches at Yahoo for the term 'web hosting' is a whopping 2,149,851. That's right, over 2 million!
Also just recently it was reported that the popularity of blogs was seeing tens of thousands of new blogs launched each and every day. While many of these are hosted freely, the more serious bloggers each require an account with a reliable web hosting provider.
Of course every paid web hosting account usually requires at least one domain name registration. Here are some amazing domain name figures for you:
The registrar holding the largest number of domain names is said to be WildWestDomains. They may be better known to you as Godaddy. They currently hold over an estimated 5 million domain name registrations!
The registrar holding the second largest number of domain names is estimated to be Enom. The registrar holding the third largest number of domain names is estimated to be Networksolutions.
Domain Name Registration Growth:
By far the most popular top level domain is the .com There are currently over an estimated 40 million of these registered.
The .com top level domain currently holds over an estimated 70 percent of the domain name marketplace.
The .net top level domain currently holds just over an estimated 10 percent of the domain name marketplace.
The good news for web hosting and domain name customers is that incredible deals have become available as competition increases among web hosting providers.
In fact the price of web hosting has plumeted to just under $10 per month for a quality service. Domain names that cost up to $35 just a fews years ago can now be bought for as little as $4.99.
This is a winning situation for both the web hosting providers and their customers. The quality of service continues to grow. The new web hosting providers must impress their customers to compete with more established organisations.
There has never been a better time to find a web hosting provider and establish an internet presence of your own.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Why Dedicated Hosting?
If you're reading this article, you aptitude be partisan in receipt a itchy server, or plainly network supplementary about pushy hosting services.
First of all, please note, that a self-starting server is rather high-priced service, and you shouldn't damage your pressure if you don't reaction to aid it in bulky measure.
But if you fully have a resolute website, and craving to junket a extraordinary big idea - you cannot acquire it without a passionate server.
Of peregrination it's pertinent painless words, therefrom let's enumerate the facts!
Freedom and hopefulness
Dedicated server consign present you a freedom. You will not proclivity to income it with offbeat websites. It cede and bestow you supplementary 3rd party security for your site and emails. A dedicated server will allow you deep access to your server to configure and optimize your server anyway you need. You're able to choose the software to install.
Power and functionality
With a spirited server you execute on colloquial 50-100 Gb of immense drive, high-mindedness about 1,000 Gb of inside story transfer. You may customize the formation and pile up subdivision CPU, RAM, or whatever you need. A rabid server reduces your dependency on the web host; and bypasses time delays and possible expenses incurred from these.
Respectability
You tidily CAN NOT run a well-known website on a shared hosting. It's not serious.
Summary
If your website bad care a conscious and straightforward resource; if you have tons of regular visitors; if you movement B2B; if you hunger fresh pipe dream and functionality, talent and freedom - go ahead and buy a dedicated server. Don't be sorry about the money you spent! Think about the future!
Olga Rose - owner of Dedicated Hosting Directory.
Dedicated Hosting Directory offers you copious erudition about obsessed hosting, ideal the weigh
of boon fanatical servers.
First of all, please note, that a self-starting server is rather high-priced service, and you shouldn't damage your pressure if you don't reaction to aid it in bulky measure.
But if you fully have a resolute website, and craving to junket a extraordinary big idea - you cannot acquire it without a passionate server.
Of peregrination it's pertinent painless words, therefrom let's enumerate the facts!
Freedom and hopefulness
Dedicated server consign present you a freedom. You will not proclivity to income it with offbeat websites. It cede and bestow you supplementary 3rd party security for your site and emails. A dedicated server will allow you deep access to your server to configure and optimize your server anyway you need. You're able to choose the software to install.
Power and functionality
With a spirited server you execute on colloquial 50-100 Gb of immense drive, high-mindedness about 1,000 Gb of inside story transfer. You may customize the formation and pile up subdivision CPU, RAM, or whatever you need. A rabid server reduces your dependency on the web host; and bypasses time delays and possible expenses incurred from these.
Respectability
You tidily CAN NOT run a well-known website on a shared hosting. It's not serious.
Summary
If your website bad care a conscious and straightforward resource; if you have tons of regular visitors; if you movement B2B; if you hunger fresh pipe dream and functionality, talent and freedom - go ahead and buy a dedicated server. Don't be sorry about the money you spent! Think about the future!
Olga Rose - owner of Dedicated Hosting Directory.
Dedicated Hosting Directory offers you copious erudition about obsessed hosting, ideal the weigh
of boon fanatical servers.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Web Hosting Advice And Information - How You Can Find A Cheap Web Hosting Package
All webmasters will at some point face one question: how will I find a good and cheap web hosting provider?
The web hosting business is saturated with web hosting companies competing for your business. You'll find everything from huge companies hosting hundreds of thousands of web sites, to the small reseller operating out of Mom's garage. So how can you make an educated decision with all those options?
All web site hosting companies tend to have some similarities, although their main sales arguments are normally focused on two things; cost and bandwidth. A lot of the time people go for a sales pitch like that. Getting something that's inexpensive is desirable to most folks, and if it seems to come with some great extras too, then all the better!
So if you are choosing between a web hosting company that's offering a cheap web hosting plan with 50GB bandwidth for $10 per month, and a different hosting company that promises you a hosting plan with 500GB a month for five dollars, a lot of people will foolishly pick the second option. However, it is this type of logic that leads to disaster for many web hosting clients.
Sure, it's great to save a few bucks - although do you believe a web hosting company is going to give great support and reliable service when you pay them almost nothing? The old saying "You get what you pay for" is very truthful, and the complete truth is you're far more apt to receive great service if you keep clear of the really cheap web page hosting packages.
That being said, it is also true that the service quality can differ a lot betweeen web site hosting companies in the same price range. In truth, the one way of making sure you keep clear of the bad apples is to do a little of your own research. Check out places such as Web Hosting Talk to find out for yourself what real customers feel about the web hosting provider they use.
While there isn't a web hosting company that will be liked by everybody, you will find that some have a lot more complaints than others. I have done extensive research on this and learned that while some web hosting providers may have mostly good reviews, other providers have mostly negative reviews. In conclusion: when looking for an affordable web hosting service, keep clear of the cheapest offers and do some research before you sign up.
The web hosting business is saturated with web hosting companies competing for your business. You'll find everything from huge companies hosting hundreds of thousands of web sites, to the small reseller operating out of Mom's garage. So how can you make an educated decision with all those options?
All web site hosting companies tend to have some similarities, although their main sales arguments are normally focused on two things; cost and bandwidth. A lot of the time people go for a sales pitch like that. Getting something that's inexpensive is desirable to most folks, and if it seems to come with some great extras too, then all the better!
So if you are choosing between a web hosting company that's offering a cheap web hosting plan with 50GB bandwidth for $10 per month, and a different hosting company that promises you a hosting plan with 500GB a month for five dollars, a lot of people will foolishly pick the second option. However, it is this type of logic that leads to disaster for many web hosting clients.
Sure, it's great to save a few bucks - although do you believe a web hosting company is going to give great support and reliable service when you pay them almost nothing? The old saying "You get what you pay for" is very truthful, and the complete truth is you're far more apt to receive great service if you keep clear of the really cheap web page hosting packages.
That being said, it is also true that the service quality can differ a lot betweeen web site hosting companies in the same price range. In truth, the one way of making sure you keep clear of the bad apples is to do a little of your own research. Check out places such as Web Hosting Talk to find out for yourself what real customers feel about the web hosting provider they use.
While there isn't a web hosting company that will be liked by everybody, you will find that some have a lot more complaints than others. I have done extensive research on this and learned that while some web hosting providers may have mostly good reviews, other providers have mostly negative reviews. In conclusion: when looking for an affordable web hosting service, keep clear of the cheapest offers and do some research before you sign up.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Web Hosting - Are You Getting Your Moneys Worth?
Web hosting. If the term means anything to you at all then you either already have a hosting provider or are looking for one. Either way I hope to educate you on some of the basics to look for in a hosting company. Personal, business, free, ecommerce or discount an educated consumer makes all the difference.
When reviewing hosting providers most people wouldn't put this point first, but I do. Support. Yes, most companies have some type of support, but not all are equal. First and foremost is availability. Support staff should be available 24/7 by phone and email. Response time should also be quick and wait times should be announced and published on the web site. Technicians should be friendly, educated and speak your language.
After support the next most important set of things to look for in a hosting company are features. If the company can't provide what you need then you might as well look elsewhere. Some basics are of course capacity and bandwidth, but more importantly is the ability to do what you need to with your site. Ecommerce, blogging, forums, scripting and databases are much more important anymore then the amount of space you get.
Last but not least is price. When I say price I don't mean to suggest you get the cheapest plan out there. You should find the plan that has the features you need and is affordable. Don't get more than you need simply because you can. There are many hosting companies out there with bargain basement pricing. They can do this because your server is in their basement next to their washer and dryer. Be careful who you do business with and remember you get what you pay for.
In summary I just want to point out that the hosting environment is changing. With blogs and the like becoming more prevalent hosting companies need to adapt to stay in business. You as the consumer need to be educated in what you need and don't be afraid to make a switch if you have to.
When reviewing hosting providers most people wouldn't put this point first, but I do. Support. Yes, most companies have some type of support, but not all are equal. First and foremost is availability. Support staff should be available 24/7 by phone and email. Response time should also be quick and wait times should be announced and published on the web site. Technicians should be friendly, educated and speak your language.
After support the next most important set of things to look for in a hosting company are features. If the company can't provide what you need then you might as well look elsewhere. Some basics are of course capacity and bandwidth, but more importantly is the ability to do what you need to with your site. Ecommerce, blogging, forums, scripting and databases are much more important anymore then the amount of space you get.
Last but not least is price. When I say price I don't mean to suggest you get the cheapest plan out there. You should find the plan that has the features you need and is affordable. Don't get more than you need simply because you can. There are many hosting companies out there with bargain basement pricing. They can do this because your server is in their basement next to their washer and dryer. Be careful who you do business with and remember you get what you pay for.
In summary I just want to point out that the hosting environment is changing. With blogs and the like becoming more prevalent hosting companies need to adapt to stay in business. You as the consumer need to be educated in what you need and don't be afraid to make a switch if you have to.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Having The Best Web Hosting Plan
If and when you’re interested in starting a business online, there are a lot of things that you have to study first before you can rightfully expect a high ROI or return on investment.
First, you have to make sure that your company website has a user friendly interface which basically means links are visible, easily located and properly labeled and that the content provided in the website is complete, interesting, effective and grammatically correct.
Secondly, there’s the little matter of search engine optimization or SEO which requires you to employ a number of strategies that your company website is heard and seen by the right people. Common search engine optimization strategies would be keyword listing, site code optimization and top search engine placement.
And of course, we finally come to the main theme of our article: web hosting. No matter how great your website looks or how effective your SEO strategies are, if you don’t have the right web hosting plan, none of those would see the light of the day because your web hosting plan simply prevents them from being properly uploaded and viewed.
Web hosting is integral to your plans if you want your website to have its own niche in the Internet so do read carefully what we’re about to teach you.
You have mainly two choices when it comes to web hosting – you can get it for free or you can spend for it. Naturally, it would be lovely if web hosting would be free for all of us but understand that all the needs of your company website must be met by the free web hosting plan if you want your future to look rosy.
In order to determine whether your company website could do well even with a free web hosting plan, here are some key issues to address.
Are you willing to put up advertisements that may take too much space or would have an irritable effect on your readers? These ads are often required by free web hosting plans because it’s the only reason they can continue letting people enjoy free web hosting.
Are you okay with low bandwidth access and minimal web space? Because of these constrictions, you may not be able to create a website that’s exactly to your liking.
Are you capable of some basic software troubleshooting? Most free web hosting plans do not offer any free live customer support so you might be forced to solve a problem or two on your own when something wrong happens.
If you’re not ready for the situations enumerated above then perhaps it’s better that you go for a post paid web hosting plan so that all your worries would be over.
First, you have to make sure that your company website has a user friendly interface which basically means links are visible, easily located and properly labeled and that the content provided in the website is complete, interesting, effective and grammatically correct.
Secondly, there’s the little matter of search engine optimization or SEO which requires you to employ a number of strategies that your company website is heard and seen by the right people. Common search engine optimization strategies would be keyword listing, site code optimization and top search engine placement.
And of course, we finally come to the main theme of our article: web hosting. No matter how great your website looks or how effective your SEO strategies are, if you don’t have the right web hosting plan, none of those would see the light of the day because your web hosting plan simply prevents them from being properly uploaded and viewed.
Web hosting is integral to your plans if you want your website to have its own niche in the Internet so do read carefully what we’re about to teach you.
You have mainly two choices when it comes to web hosting – you can get it for free or you can spend for it. Naturally, it would be lovely if web hosting would be free for all of us but understand that all the needs of your company website must be met by the free web hosting plan if you want your future to look rosy.
In order to determine whether your company website could do well even with a free web hosting plan, here are some key issues to address.
Are you willing to put up advertisements that may take too much space or would have an irritable effect on your readers? These ads are often required by free web hosting plans because it’s the only reason they can continue letting people enjoy free web hosting.
Are you okay with low bandwidth access and minimal web space? Because of these constrictions, you may not be able to create a website that’s exactly to your liking.
Are you capable of some basic software troubleshooting? Most free web hosting plans do not offer any free live customer support so you might be forced to solve a problem or two on your own when something wrong happens.
If you’re not ready for the situations enumerated above then perhaps it’s better that you go for a post paid web hosting plan so that all your worries would be over.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
How To Choose A Reliable Web Hosting Provider
Learning how to choose a reliable web host for your web hosting needs is an important and difficult decision. Make sure that you prepare a detailed list of your web hosting requirements before you start searching to find the most suitable web host. Here are few 'verification' points to make sure that your web host is reliable.
- Past performance: Go through the web site of the host to find out details like how long the host has been around, up time commitment (I will come to this later), any awards that the web host has won, any well known sites that are being hosted by this provider (normally a list of clients can be found on the host’s site or you may find testimonials). These should provide you with a sufficient amount of confidence in the first place to deal with this specific web host.
- Up time: This is a very important feature. Web sites hosted on the servers of a particular web hosting provider are subject to technical problems and things can happen and servers crash. This means that during this period if a web surfer comes to see your site, they will be unable to view it. Normally represented as a percentage, this value gives you the idea of the time the sites hosted by the particular host are up and working fine. A value above 98% is good. Nowadays many web hosts guarantee a certain percentage of up-time like 99.8%. This is exceptional.
- Flexibility: A flexible web hosting plan is useful because you can start with a minimum plan and later upgrade to another hosting plan when your needs grows. Web Hosts who provide only one kind of plan are always not useful for everyone.
- Cost and features: Compare the features and costs of a few web hosting providers. See if the features match your need. Also make sure that all basic requirements are covered and also check out the availability of latest technologies on the hosting feature list. Even if you don’t need them, this can show the reliability of the provider.
- Payment plans: Check out very carefully the payment plans of the web hosting provider. A monthly payment plan is always good even if it costs you a few dollars more. You always have the choice to change providers at any time you want. Most web hosts now provide a 30 day money back guarantee period.
- Support: This is something you will need the most. What kind of support the web hosting company provides the clients such as telephone support, email, FAQ sections, etc... Maybe a dedicated discussion board or forum will help as well. Also check on the delay in responses especially for the email support service. A web hosting provider who supports clients 24-7 is an excellent feature.
- Backup: Last but not least. Recently we have been hearing a lot about sites with tons and tons of pages disappearing. Why, because of some technical problems on the servers and no backups. No one likes to see their years of hard work disappear within a few seconds. Now, many reliable web hosting service providers have a daily automatic backup feature.
Learning how to choose a reliable web host for your web hosting needs is really about what is important to you and your needs!
- Past performance: Go through the web site of the host to find out details like how long the host has been around, up time commitment (I will come to this later), any awards that the web host has won, any well known sites that are being hosted by this provider (normally a list of clients can be found on the host’s site or you may find testimonials). These should provide you with a sufficient amount of confidence in the first place to deal with this specific web host.
- Up time: This is a very important feature. Web sites hosted on the servers of a particular web hosting provider are subject to technical problems and things can happen and servers crash. This means that during this period if a web surfer comes to see your site, they will be unable to view it. Normally represented as a percentage, this value gives you the idea of the time the sites hosted by the particular host are up and working fine. A value above 98% is good. Nowadays many web hosts guarantee a certain percentage of up-time like 99.8%. This is exceptional.
- Flexibility: A flexible web hosting plan is useful because you can start with a minimum plan and later upgrade to another hosting plan when your needs grows. Web Hosts who provide only one kind of plan are always not useful for everyone.
- Cost and features: Compare the features and costs of a few web hosting providers. See if the features match your need. Also make sure that all basic requirements are covered and also check out the availability of latest technologies on the hosting feature list. Even if you don’t need them, this can show the reliability of the provider.
- Payment plans: Check out very carefully the payment plans of the web hosting provider. A monthly payment plan is always good even if it costs you a few dollars more. You always have the choice to change providers at any time you want. Most web hosts now provide a 30 day money back guarantee period.
- Support: This is something you will need the most. What kind of support the web hosting company provides the clients such as telephone support, email, FAQ sections, etc... Maybe a dedicated discussion board or forum will help as well. Also check on the delay in responses especially for the email support service. A web hosting provider who supports clients 24-7 is an excellent feature.
- Backup: Last but not least. Recently we have been hearing a lot about sites with tons and tons of pages disappearing. Why, because of some technical problems on the servers and no backups. No one likes to see their years of hard work disappear within a few seconds. Now, many reliable web hosting service providers have a daily automatic backup feature.
Learning how to choose a reliable web host for your web hosting needs is really about what is important to you and your needs!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Servers and its Benefits!
What is a Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated server and why is it different than normal web hosting. Web hosting offers you limited control of how the server your web site is hosted on behaves. Normal hosting plans put many customers' accounts on a single server and you upload your files to that Server. Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated servers allow you to actually control your own server where you receive Admin access to install and run virtually anything YOU want on the server. You can host multiple web sites on the one server account, and even sell hosting and host other sites on your server.
I have referred to Dedicated and Virtual Dedicated Servers. You may ask, what is the difference? Virtual dedicated servers are similar to Dedicated servers as they offer many of the same features, but at a much lower price.
With a virtual dedicated server, the customer shares the server space with a limited number of other customers using the same server box. Each virtual dedicated server is isolated from the other accounts giving the user full control of their own server. Virtual dedicated servers are useful for companies and individuals that run complex applications that need the bandwidth, consistent performance, and flexibility of a virtual dedicated server.
With a dedicated server, you actually lease a server box that is dedicated to only you and is set up to your preferences. The dedicated server customer has exclusive rights to the server's bandwidth, memory and storage space. Also, a dedicated server account provides full control of any software installation on the server. Dedicated servers are useful for companies and individuals that run very-high-trafwfic Web sites or applications that need the bandwidth, versatility, and consistent performance of a dedicated box.
Dedicated / Virtual dedicated servers are an excellent choice to use for gaming sites, database management, shared hosting, and hosting of Web sites that receive high amounts of traffic.
Companies now offer your own customization of your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server. This allows you the flexibility to choose one of their popular pre-packaged plans, or go wild and customize and configure your own virtual dedicated server by selecting your own options.
One bonus that can help you decide on where to get your server from is the support they offer, the value they give you when signing up and what system
you will actually be running the server on. With support, the standard now is to be offered 24x7 email, telephone and Web-based tech support, as well as you having access to modify your server 24x7. Sometimes a free offering when purchasing the server is given. You should look for companies that offer Free and quick setup of the server, so you may be running in no time.
So you have decided you need a Virtual Dedicated Server or Dedicated Server. Now what? You need to choose a company to purchase your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server from. Here is a company I recommend for purchasing your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server from.
Domains at Retail - offers 24x7 email, telephone and Web-based tech support for your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server, allows you to pick a pre-configured server or to customize your own server and will set up your account for free. Visit Domains at Retail at http://www.domainsatretail.com/wholesalehosting.html for your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server needs!
Good Luck with the purchase of your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server and start running your server today!
I have referred to Dedicated and Virtual Dedicated Servers. You may ask, what is the difference? Virtual dedicated servers are similar to Dedicated servers as they offer many of the same features, but at a much lower price.
With a virtual dedicated server, the customer shares the server space with a limited number of other customers using the same server box. Each virtual dedicated server is isolated from the other accounts giving the user full control of their own server. Virtual dedicated servers are useful for companies and individuals that run complex applications that need the bandwidth, consistent performance, and flexibility of a virtual dedicated server.
With a dedicated server, you actually lease a server box that is dedicated to only you and is set up to your preferences. The dedicated server customer has exclusive rights to the server's bandwidth, memory and storage space. Also, a dedicated server account provides full control of any software installation on the server. Dedicated servers are useful for companies and individuals that run very-high-trafwfic Web sites or applications that need the bandwidth, versatility, and consistent performance of a dedicated box.
Dedicated / Virtual dedicated servers are an excellent choice to use for gaming sites, database management, shared hosting, and hosting of Web sites that receive high amounts of traffic.
Companies now offer your own customization of your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server. This allows you the flexibility to choose one of their popular pre-packaged plans, or go wild and customize and configure your own virtual dedicated server by selecting your own options.
One bonus that can help you decide on where to get your server from is the support they offer, the value they give you when signing up and what system
you will actually be running the server on. With support, the standard now is to be offered 24x7 email, telephone and Web-based tech support, as well as you having access to modify your server 24x7. Sometimes a free offering when purchasing the server is given. You should look for companies that offer Free and quick setup of the server, so you may be running in no time.
So you have decided you need a Virtual Dedicated Server or Dedicated Server. Now what? You need to choose a company to purchase your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server from. Here is a company I recommend for purchasing your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server from.
Domains at Retail - offers 24x7 email, telephone and Web-based tech support for your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server, allows you to pick a pre-configured server or to customize your own server and will set up your account for free. Visit Domains at Retail at http://www.domainsatretail.com/wholesalehosting.html for your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server needs!
Good Luck with the purchase of your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server and start running your server today!
Monday, March 1, 2010
PEER 1 Hosting: PEER 1 UK launches smart-phone app hosting service
Mobile network peering and dedicated team optimises results
PEER 1 Hosting the global online business hostingprovider has today announced the launch of a dedicated smart-phone app hosting service, taking advantage of its peering relationships with mobile network operators. The company, which provides dedicated hosting solutions through ServerBeach, has assigned a specialist “Host My App” team tasked with supporting fast growth innovators who are developing smart-phone apps, to enable the potential explosion in popularity that successful apps attract.
In addition to peering with mobile operators, including Vodafone and O2, which ensures that apps are downloaded quickly to end users and operate at optimum speeds, the Host My App team offers flexible and scalable month-to-month contracts. These elements, coupled with the ability to offer robust hosted test development environments, have been packaged to create a bespoke hosting solution specifically to meet the needs of smart-phone app developers.
PEER 1 Hosting already supports a number of successful smart-phone apps including Red Laser from Occipital and Urban Spoon. The company, which recently provided 150 servers in 48 hours for EA Games whilst on a month-to-month contract, has shaped its offering as a result of working with these brands.
Geri Searson, Head of Host My App at PEER 1 Hosting said: “Choosing the right hosting partner is a vital component in the success in smart phone app development. The peer reviews can make or break an app and performance plays a key part in the customer experience. We recognise that a small percentage of apps launched get into the top ten, so it is vital that contracts are flexible and primed for success, without costing the earth.”
Jeffrey Powers, Co-Founder of Occipital, the company behind No.1 barcode scanner app, RedLaser said: “Choosing the right hosting partner has been a critical part of our success. RedLaser has over one million users and has been among the top 20 paid iPhone apps for six months, three months of which was spent in the top 5. The ServerBeach team has been highly responsive and their technology offerings have allowed us to scale to match the growing demand, all while giving us the granular control we need to optimise our search API.”
PEER 1 Hosting’s UK Host My App team can be contacted on hostmyapp@peer1.com and via the telephone line 0800 840 7490
PEER 1 Hosting currently has over 500 customers in EMEA and revenue in excess of £3 million making it one of Europe’s largest IT hosting providers. The company offers managed hosting through PEER 1 Hosting and dedicated hosting through, ServerBeach, which is billed as ‘by geeks, for geeks’.
About PEER 1 Hosting
PEER 1 Hosting believes in the limitless opportunity of the Internet, and the business growth potential it provides for its more than 10,000 customers. As a global online business hosting provider, PEER 1 Hosting offers a reliable high performance Internet network supporting scalable Managed Hosting, Dedicated Hosting through the ServerBeach brand, and Colocationsolutions. Backed by its 100 percent uptime guarantee and 24x7x365 FirstCall Support™, PEER 1 Hosting ensures customers’ online presence is always fast, always available. Since 1999, PEER 1 Hosting has grown to include 16 state-of-the-art data centres and points-of-presence throughout North America and Europe. The company’s headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada, with European operations headquartered in Southampton, UK. PEER 1 Hosting shares are traded on the TSX under the symbol PIX.
For more information visit: www.peer1.com or www.peer1hosting.co.uk.
For European media inquiries please contact Champion Communications
Tel: +44 20 7268 3076,
Email: peer1@championcomms.com
PEER 1 Hosting the global online business hostingprovider has today announced the launch of a dedicated smart-phone app hosting service, taking advantage of its peering relationships with mobile network operators. The company, which provides dedicated hosting solutions through ServerBeach, has assigned a specialist “Host My App” team tasked with supporting fast growth innovators who are developing smart-phone apps, to enable the potential explosion in popularity that successful apps attract.
In addition to peering with mobile operators, including Vodafone and O2, which ensures that apps are downloaded quickly to end users and operate at optimum speeds, the Host My App team offers flexible and scalable month-to-month contracts. These elements, coupled with the ability to offer robust hosted test development environments, have been packaged to create a bespoke hosting solution specifically to meet the needs of smart-phone app developers.
PEER 1 Hosting already supports a number of successful smart-phone apps including Red Laser from Occipital and Urban Spoon. The company, which recently provided 150 servers in 48 hours for EA Games whilst on a month-to-month contract, has shaped its offering as a result of working with these brands.
Geri Searson, Head of Host My App at PEER 1 Hosting said: “Choosing the right hosting partner is a vital component in the success in smart phone app development. The peer reviews can make or break an app and performance plays a key part in the customer experience. We recognise that a small percentage of apps launched get into the top ten, so it is vital that contracts are flexible and primed for success, without costing the earth.”
Jeffrey Powers, Co-Founder of Occipital, the company behind No.1 barcode scanner app, RedLaser said: “Choosing the right hosting partner has been a critical part of our success. RedLaser has over one million users and has been among the top 20 paid iPhone apps for six months, three months of which was spent in the top 5. The ServerBeach team has been highly responsive and their technology offerings have allowed us to scale to match the growing demand, all while giving us the granular control we need to optimise our search API.”
PEER 1 Hosting’s UK Host My App team can be contacted on hostmyapp@peer1.com and via the telephone line 0800 840 7490
PEER 1 Hosting currently has over 500 customers in EMEA and revenue in excess of £3 million making it one of Europe’s largest IT hosting providers. The company offers managed hosting through PEER 1 Hosting and dedicated hosting through, ServerBeach, which is billed as ‘by geeks, for geeks’.
About PEER 1 Hosting
PEER 1 Hosting believes in the limitless opportunity of the Internet, and the business growth potential it provides for its more than 10,000 customers. As a global online business hosting provider, PEER 1 Hosting offers a reliable high performance Internet network supporting scalable Managed Hosting, Dedicated Hosting through the ServerBeach brand, and Colocationsolutions. Backed by its 100 percent uptime guarantee and 24x7x365 FirstCall Support™, PEER 1 Hosting ensures customers’ online presence is always fast, always available. Since 1999, PEER 1 Hosting has grown to include 16 state-of-the-art data centres and points-of-presence throughout North America and Europe. The company’s headquarters are in Vancouver, Canada, with European operations headquartered in Southampton, UK. PEER 1 Hosting shares are traded on the TSX under the symbol PIX.
For more information visit: www.peer1.com or www.peer1hosting.co.uk.
For European media inquiries please contact Champion Communications
Tel: +44 20 7268 3076,
Email: peer1@championcomms.com
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