Basics of web hosting and what to look for
First Things First
After deciding that you are going to have a website, you need two things, a domain name and a company to host it for you. Domain names are fairly cheap, the web host provider will either sell them or give it to you with their plan.
The web hosting company is basically renting you space on their web servers. Whatever your website will be, a web hosting company will let anyone in the world view your site.
What To Look For
When shopping for a Web host, a couple of things you want to keep in mind: How fast are their servers, do they have good support and how is their uptime (meaning, how good are they at keeping your website up and running).
How fast are their servers? You want to know this, its crucial when people try to get to your site that it loads fast. Look for at least a server with a pentium chip in it and 800 MHZ.
Do they have good support? You do want to have the best support possible. If you have a question, you want it answered, fast. I look for host that have 24 hour support, if not anything else, at least 24 hour email support.
How is their uptime? Everybody can say they guarantee 99.9 % uptime, but are they just pulling your leg, find out for sure, ask them for statistics. Basically anyone with 99.5% uptime is good in my book. Mostly all the better host will give you that. Ensure that there is some sort of written agreement regarding service, which ideally will provide you with financial compensation in the event of failure.
How Much Should I Pay
If your reading this article, chances are your just starting out. My suggesting to you would be to spend no more than $15 a month on a basic web hosting plan. You can view some of our basic web hosting providers here.
No need to look for a host that is going to give you 500 MB of disk space, unlimited bandwidth (note: be very careful when a web host says they are giving you unlimited bandwidth, there is a catch and there is a limit). If you are just putting up a basic website than 50 MB of space and 2-3 GB of bandwidth should be enough. Nowadays, some of the bigger web host can offer you more space at the same price as some of their competitors who offer a lot less space, these are the best deals. Reasons for this could be that they are just trying to get more people to sign-up, or they have the technology and money to offer these services to you.
Remember, you get what you pay for. Keep in mind the 3 top services to look for in a web host and you should do fine with finding one that does all this and is less than $15 a month.
Source by: Ken Fishman
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
10 Things You Need To Know About Web Hosting
If you think that web hosting is a load of geek speak then I can assure you that you are in safe hands here. Web hosting is one of the most important elements of building a successful online business and there are a few things you need to know before you decide on which web hosting provider to go with.
Web hosting tip 1:
Space: What amount of space are you requiring? Are you looking at setting up simple one page websites, or are you wanting to develop your own product with audio downloads? I recently put an ebook and audio product together and could not understand why I couldn't download any of my audio. I was over my disk space and this could make or break your business.
*Please note: Keep your files tidy and delete whatever you don't need because extra files take up valuable space - lesson learnt!
Web hosting tip 2:
Bandwidth: This is the amount data that you are allowed to broadcast from your website each month. Your needs will differ significantly depending on whether you are running basic websites or a complete multi media experience.
Web hosting tip 3:
Customer Service: This goes without saying! Before choosing your web hosting provider contact the support desk or give them a call to see how responsive they are. If your website is down for some reason you want to get this sorted out as soon as possible.
Web hosting tip 4:
Extra Features: If you are new to the internet your initial needs will not be as demanding as the more experienced user. Extra features may include free scripts, PDF writing software, web audio features...and much more.
Web hosting tip 5:
Domains: A domain or URL is your website address. If you are planning on having a number of different websites then you will want a web hosting provider to offer unlimited domain hosting. Most of the time you will have to pay a minimal charge to transfer your domain name to your web hosting provider. Having additional domain names on one hosting account will also use up your disk space and bandwidth a lot quicker so this will be a factor when considering a web hosting provider also.
Web hosting tip 6:
Subdomains: Subdomains are the extensions you have on your domain, such as, www.success-system.co.uk/ultimatehosting. 'Ultimatehosting' is the subdomain. Most good web hosting providers will offer unlimited subdomains which is great because you don't have to keep buying a new domain name each time you want to set up a new website.
Web hosting tip 7:
Statistics: Good web hosting providers will offer a fully functional statistical analysis of your pages. From this information you will be able to see how much traffic you have had, what keywords people are typing in to find your page, what country your visitors are from...and so much more. Internet success is about testing and tracking and you can get a lot of this information from the statistics packages offered.
Web hosting tip 8:
Website developing software: Some web hosting providers offer a complete package that include web design software so if you are looking to create your own website a great cheap alternative is to have this included within your package for a minimal extra charge. The great thing with this is that you will have the support from your web hosting company whenever you run into any problems. They will be able to look at your entire back office to help rectify any problems.
Web hosting tip 9:
Email, Autoresponder, POP3 & Mail Forwarding:
If you are serious about building a successful online business then you will want to automate your business as much as possible and also have the ability to create proper email addresses that are related to your website. Forwarding is a great feature also that allows you to have a number of different email addresses that go to the same account.
Web hosting tip 10:
Control Panel: This is the panel that will allow you to do many of the features that I have mentioned above. Some are more user friendly than others. The first time I saw one I was a little overwhelmed as there are a lot of features on here. If you are a beginner there are some options that offer a basic user experience.
Now you have some information to start you off in the right direction for choosing your web hosting provider. It is worth spending a bit of time checking this out. I actually uses a number of different web hosting providers so after having made a choice you will probably use other services as your build your online business and have different requirements.
Source by: Clint Gray
Web hosting tip 1:
Space: What amount of space are you requiring? Are you looking at setting up simple one page websites, or are you wanting to develop your own product with audio downloads? I recently put an ebook and audio product together and could not understand why I couldn't download any of my audio. I was over my disk space and this could make or break your business.
*Please note: Keep your files tidy and delete whatever you don't need because extra files take up valuable space - lesson learnt!
Web hosting tip 2:
Bandwidth: This is the amount data that you are allowed to broadcast from your website each month. Your needs will differ significantly depending on whether you are running basic websites or a complete multi media experience.
Web hosting tip 3:
Customer Service: This goes without saying! Before choosing your web hosting provider contact the support desk or give them a call to see how responsive they are. If your website is down for some reason you want to get this sorted out as soon as possible.
Web hosting tip 4:
Extra Features: If you are new to the internet your initial needs will not be as demanding as the more experienced user. Extra features may include free scripts, PDF writing software, web audio features...and much more.
Web hosting tip 5:
Domains: A domain or URL is your website address. If you are planning on having a number of different websites then you will want a web hosting provider to offer unlimited domain hosting. Most of the time you will have to pay a minimal charge to transfer your domain name to your web hosting provider. Having additional domain names on one hosting account will also use up your disk space and bandwidth a lot quicker so this will be a factor when considering a web hosting provider also.
Web hosting tip 6:
Subdomains: Subdomains are the extensions you have on your domain, such as, www.success-system.co.uk/ultimatehosting. 'Ultimatehosting' is the subdomain. Most good web hosting providers will offer unlimited subdomains which is great because you don't have to keep buying a new domain name each time you want to set up a new website.
Web hosting tip 7:
Statistics: Good web hosting providers will offer a fully functional statistical analysis of your pages. From this information you will be able to see how much traffic you have had, what keywords people are typing in to find your page, what country your visitors are from...and so much more. Internet success is about testing and tracking and you can get a lot of this information from the statistics packages offered.
Web hosting tip 8:
Website developing software: Some web hosting providers offer a complete package that include web design software so if you are looking to create your own website a great cheap alternative is to have this included within your package for a minimal extra charge. The great thing with this is that you will have the support from your web hosting company whenever you run into any problems. They will be able to look at your entire back office to help rectify any problems.
Web hosting tip 9:
Email, Autoresponder, POP3 & Mail Forwarding:
If you are serious about building a successful online business then you will want to automate your business as much as possible and also have the ability to create proper email addresses that are related to your website. Forwarding is a great feature also that allows you to have a number of different email addresses that go to the same account.
Web hosting tip 10:
Control Panel: This is the panel that will allow you to do many of the features that I have mentioned above. Some are more user friendly than others. The first time I saw one I was a little overwhelmed as there are a lot of features on here. If you are a beginner there are some options that offer a basic user experience.
Now you have some information to start you off in the right direction for choosing your web hosting provider. It is worth spending a bit of time checking this out. I actually uses a number of different web hosting providers so after having made a choice you will probably use other services as your build your online business and have different requirements.
Source by: Clint Gray
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
How To Find The Best Web Host
Building a website is very easy as there are countless web hosts, software programs, and website builders on the internet to choose from. But building a website that really produces profits, that builds traffic and ranks among the top websites on the net is extremely difficult to do.
Choose a hosting service that owns their own equipment and has high-speed connections to multiple Internet backbones, backup power generators and backup systems in place. Make sure they are a reliable business that has been around for awhile. Check their support system and make sure they offer 24/7 email, ticket system or live telephone support. Try their support team and see if they respond quickly enough for your needs and if their support staff is helpful and knowledgeable.
You should be able to host at least one domain name. There should be no restrictions on sub-domains. Look for e-mail access as well. The better the service, the more options they will provide for email. Make sure to get ample disk space for your website and try to get as much bandwidth as possible. Also make sure that your hosting service includes a statistics program so you can monitor your website traffic on your website.
If you plan on running a internet store or ECommerce shopping cart you need a hosting service that offers this service and supports SSL(Secure Sockets Layer.) When starting an online storefront, a web host will be able to guide you through the hosting process effectively. Ask the host about upgrade options so you can have an upgrade plan in place for when it is needed. Starting an online store is an exciting opportunity, and your web host will impact the success of your store.
Building a website that works, that drives traffic for long-term profits, takes the right process, the right tools and the right training. Check and see if the web host offers a website building program and tutorials to help you along the way. Make sure they have tools to optimize your website for the search engines. Check and see if they offer extras like auto-responders, Ezine publishing, and website submission services. Most web hosts bundle their services in package deals for you to choose from.
Don't be afraid to ask questions. Good website hosting services have no problem directing you to helpful information or answering your questions in a way that you can understand.
Article Source: Don Fletchinger from ABC Article Directory
Choose a hosting service that owns their own equipment and has high-speed connections to multiple Internet backbones, backup power generators and backup systems in place. Make sure they are a reliable business that has been around for awhile. Check their support system and make sure they offer 24/7 email, ticket system or live telephone support. Try their support team and see if they respond quickly enough for your needs and if their support staff is helpful and knowledgeable.
You should be able to host at least one domain name. There should be no restrictions on sub-domains. Look for e-mail access as well. The better the service, the more options they will provide for email. Make sure to get ample disk space for your website and try to get as much bandwidth as possible. Also make sure that your hosting service includes a statistics program so you can monitor your website traffic on your website.
If you plan on running a internet store or ECommerce shopping cart you need a hosting service that offers this service and supports SSL(Secure Sockets Layer.) When starting an online storefront, a web host will be able to guide you through the hosting process effectively. Ask the host about upgrade options so you can have an upgrade plan in place for when it is needed. Starting an online store is an exciting opportunity, and your web host will impact the success of your store.
Building a website that works, that drives traffic for long-term profits, takes the right process, the right tools and the right training. Check and see if the web host offers a website building program and tutorials to help you along the way. Make sure they have tools to optimize your website for the search engines. Check and see if they offer extras like auto-responders, Ezine publishing, and website submission services. Most web hosts bundle their services in package deals for you to choose from.
Don't be afraid to ask questions. Good website hosting services have no problem directing you to helpful information or answering your questions in a way that you can understand.
Article Source: Don Fletchinger from ABC Article Directory
Thursday, October 4, 2007
5 Features a Secure Web Hosting Package Must Have
Whether you have to host your personal page or a big e-Commerce site a secure hosting service is what you should always look for. This may seem a raw statement to many. But it's not. Secure hosting doesn't always imply a higher cost necessarily. Hosting security as much as internet security in general is up to the people running the appliances and infrastructure behind your website more than the costly firewalls or IDS protecting the network.
Many times, it is better to have a knowledged web administrator than a sophisticated $7000 Cisco Firewall. There are some web hosting services that in our tests proved to be stable and secure. But, what should one look for when in need of a secure web hosting?
The following is a list of the most important 5:
- SSL / SSH /sFTP
SSL allows you to have a secure encrypted tunnel between you and your server. This means that all the input (including login, credit card and any sensible information) doesn't travel in plain text and it is readable only by you and the server. It works using the Public/Private key paradigm.
If you have a shopping cart, or if you are going to host some membership portal storing personal members information SSL is a must have. Your visitors will appreciate it and will feel more comfortable to pass their data to you.
SSH stands for secure shell. It is used mainly as a secure access to the Unix machine from remote. You will be able to issue commands on the server console as if you were on the server keyboard. As SSL it works creating a secure tunnel.
SFTP is a network protocol that provides file transfer and manipulation functionality over
any reliable data stream. It is typically used with the SSH-2 protocol to provide secure file transfer. With normal FTP access all the files being transferred are sent in plain text
with no encryption at all. Many times you will have to transfer source codes containing hard coded passwords or database information.
- Strong Firewall/IDS
Almost all the networks have firewalls, but not all of them are managed sapiently thus
allowing remote access, information disclosure and active attacks to the hosting
provider network. A secure hosting service should manage redundant firewalls and should give you the capability of adding directly or indirectly (through administration access) to firewall rules. For example, if your website experiences an enormous malicious traffic (brute force http/email password as an example) your hosting administrator should give you the opportunity to add the ip address from which the attack came from to the blocking Firewall ACL's.
IDS stands for Intrusion detection system. They provide a further level of security because they can recognize a number of attack vector and stop them before they get any success on the target machine.
- Anti-DDoS
DoS stands for Denial of service, it is at the same time the most basic and the most
difficult to prevent attack that can be taken to a network. Such kind of attacks slow down your hosting provider network and all the sites hosted on the same node. This means that if hackers decide to attack a website hosted on your same server (in case of shared hosting), your website will suffer from this attack as well.
Anti-DDos features are now included into routers and firewalls and once again a secure hosting provider should be able to identify and block such attacks.
- Anti Spam
Although Spam is not directly connected with security, it can be a threat to your business. Spam carries viruses, worms and spy ware. Spam can even slow your server down up to shut it down depending on the emails number the mail server can handle. Not to mention the wasted bandwidth. That's why Anti Spam solution should never be missing not only into secure web hosting packages but in any kind of hosting you're going after.
- Secure trusted web hosting providers
In my experience as security consultant I have found out that many sites of web hosting services have security holes in their shopping carts, hosting control panels or web application in general. These kind of holes can allow an attacker to gather access to registered users credential including ftp passwords. This is probably the worst thing you may encounter but it really happens.
Protecting from such bad security practices is difficult because no one knows the existence of such security issues beside hackers and security consultants. That's why it is very important to always review secure web hosting listings made by hackers in order to avoid poor secured web hosting causing you money and data loss.
Article Source: Ivanovich Cuxev from ABC Article Directory
Many times, it is better to have a knowledged web administrator than a sophisticated $7000 Cisco Firewall. There are some web hosting services that in our tests proved to be stable and secure. But, what should one look for when in need of a secure web hosting?
The following is a list of the most important 5:
- SSL / SSH /sFTP
SSL allows you to have a secure encrypted tunnel between you and your server. This means that all the input (including login, credit card and any sensible information) doesn't travel in plain text and it is readable only by you and the server. It works using the Public/Private key paradigm.
If you have a shopping cart, or if you are going to host some membership portal storing personal members information SSL is a must have. Your visitors will appreciate it and will feel more comfortable to pass their data to you.
SSH stands for secure shell. It is used mainly as a secure access to the Unix machine from remote. You will be able to issue commands on the server console as if you were on the server keyboard. As SSL it works creating a secure tunnel.
SFTP is a network protocol that provides file transfer and manipulation functionality over
any reliable data stream. It is typically used with the SSH-2 protocol to provide secure file transfer. With normal FTP access all the files being transferred are sent in plain text
with no encryption at all. Many times you will have to transfer source codes containing hard coded passwords or database information.
- Strong Firewall/IDS
Almost all the networks have firewalls, but not all of them are managed sapiently thus
allowing remote access, information disclosure and active attacks to the hosting
provider network. A secure hosting service should manage redundant firewalls and should give you the capability of adding directly or indirectly (through administration access) to firewall rules. For example, if your website experiences an enormous malicious traffic (brute force http/email password as an example) your hosting administrator should give you the opportunity to add the ip address from which the attack came from to the blocking Firewall ACL's.
IDS stands for Intrusion detection system. They provide a further level of security because they can recognize a number of attack vector and stop them before they get any success on the target machine.
- Anti-DDoS
DoS stands for Denial of service, it is at the same time the most basic and the most
difficult to prevent attack that can be taken to a network. Such kind of attacks slow down your hosting provider network and all the sites hosted on the same node. This means that if hackers decide to attack a website hosted on your same server (in case of shared hosting), your website will suffer from this attack as well.
Anti-DDos features are now included into routers and firewalls and once again a secure hosting provider should be able to identify and block such attacks.
- Anti Spam
Although Spam is not directly connected with security, it can be a threat to your business. Spam carries viruses, worms and spy ware. Spam can even slow your server down up to shut it down depending on the emails number the mail server can handle. Not to mention the wasted bandwidth. That's why Anti Spam solution should never be missing not only into secure web hosting packages but in any kind of hosting you're going after.
- Secure trusted web hosting providers
In my experience as security consultant I have found out that many sites of web hosting services have security holes in their shopping carts, hosting control panels or web application in general. These kind of holes can allow an attacker to gather access to registered users credential including ftp passwords. This is probably the worst thing you may encounter but it really happens.
Protecting from such bad security practices is difficult because no one knows the existence of such security issues beside hackers and security consultants. That's why it is very important to always review secure web hosting listings made by hackers in order to avoid poor secured web hosting causing you money and data loss.
Article Source: Ivanovich Cuxev from ABC Article Directory
Friday, September 21, 2007
4 Factors in Choosing a Hosting Company
There are a whole lot of different factors that should go into your decision making process when choosing a web hosting company. One of the biggest factors should be:
1) Phone support. Email support is nice, but email occasionally falls in between the virtual cracks. Getting someone on the phone when your site goes down can take a lot of mystery out of the entire process. A lot of the bigger web hosting companies offer toll free support and weekend hours to boot. Phone support is a great benefit for any web hosting client.
2)Another factor to use in deciding whether to use a particular web hosting company is their history. How long has this company been in business? Web hosting companies that have been in existence for less than a year might not be the best choice. A hosting company with a proven track record and a ton of happy clients is certainly a good sign and might work well for you.
3)How about the company's software? This varies widely between web hosting companies. I am rather fond of Cpanel merely because I am used to it, understand where the buttons are and what the features do. It's much easier to stick with something you know than switching to a new User Interface. Some web hosts offer Frontpage features and others don't. Another specific area you might want to research are the statistics programs. What sort of web statistics software is included with your web hosting account? Is Awstats included? This is one area you definitely want to heavily research before signing up.
4)Fees. I'd rather pay a little more to get all the features than fight it out with a sub par web hosting company who I can't reach if my site goes down. I've found decent web hosting for as cheap as $4 per month but generally pay around $15 per month if I want all the bells and whistles that I'll need to host a larger site. A lot of people worry about hosting fees, but I've had the experience that I generally get what I pay for.
Finally, I'd look carefully at the web hosting company's refund policy. Most offer a full refund if you aren't happy with your service. If you are paying for a full year of web hosting up front, you might want to examine the company's refund policy in detail.
Source by: Richard Martin
1) Phone support. Email support is nice, but email occasionally falls in between the virtual cracks. Getting someone on the phone when your site goes down can take a lot of mystery out of the entire process. A lot of the bigger web hosting companies offer toll free support and weekend hours to boot. Phone support is a great benefit for any web hosting client.
2)Another factor to use in deciding whether to use a particular web hosting company is their history. How long has this company been in business? Web hosting companies that have been in existence for less than a year might not be the best choice. A hosting company with a proven track record and a ton of happy clients is certainly a good sign and might work well for you.
3)How about the company's software? This varies widely between web hosting companies. I am rather fond of Cpanel merely because I am used to it, understand where the buttons are and what the features do. It's much easier to stick with something you know than switching to a new User Interface. Some web hosts offer Frontpage features and others don't. Another specific area you might want to research are the statistics programs. What sort of web statistics software is included with your web hosting account? Is Awstats included? This is one area you definitely want to heavily research before signing up.
4)Fees. I'd rather pay a little more to get all the features than fight it out with a sub par web hosting company who I can't reach if my site goes down. I've found decent web hosting for as cheap as $4 per month but generally pay around $15 per month if I want all the bells and whistles that I'll need to host a larger site. A lot of people worry about hosting fees, but I've had the experience that I generally get what I pay for.
Finally, I'd look carefully at the web hosting company's refund policy. Most offer a full refund if you aren't happy with your service. If you are paying for a full year of web hosting up front, you might want to examine the company's refund policy in detail.
Source by: Richard Martin
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Web Hosting Providing for your Needs
In today’s online world there are billions of websites. Each and every one of these websites, whether they are dedicated to blogging, sports, software, Pokemon or Jessica Simpson, all have one thing in common: web hosting.
Web hosting is provided by companies far too numerous to name, with products and services individualized to match the needs of their individual niche markets. With so many web hosting companies to choose from, and each one of them providing different services and options at different prices, how do know which one to choose? It seems overwhelming at first, but once you can identify with what it is you want to do with your website, you can start to narrow down the choices of web hosting companies quite a bit.
Before signing up with a web hosting provider, ask yourself a couple questions:
• What is it exactly that you want your site to do?
• Will you be hosting a blog or forum?
• Will you be selling products and services?
• Will you just be putting up pictures and news about friends and family?
• How do you want to administer your website?
• Do you want to make changes online in real time?
• Do you want to make changes offline so you can upload them to the server later?
• What software do you want to be working with while running your website?
• Will it be Windows based, Unix based, or something else?
The first thing to do is figure out exactly what it is you are trying to do with your website. If you are only putting up a site dedicated to friends or family, and not expecting a lot of traffic or to generate sales, then you can choose almost any web hosting provider available. Simple web pages can be generated by a host of free html web page building software, and will work quite well for small, individualized web sites. There are still plenty of companies offering free web hosting services which would work well for a website of this type. Just type in “free web hosting” at your favorite search engine and you will see a ton of companies providing this service.
If your website is going to be attracting a lot of traffic, and therefore utilizing a lot of bandwith, the you will probably want to do some more research and look into companies that are more tailored to hosting websites of this type.
One thing to consider is what type of software your website will be running on. Will it be Unix, Windows, something else? There are several companies offering web building platforms that run on ASP.net, a somewhat newer type of code for building and maintaining websites, which will only work on certain types of servers.
When choosing a web hosting provider, make sure you start by asking yourself these types of questions before you rush out and sign up with a provider. Identifying exactly what you want your site to do, and how you want to do it, and with what software before you sign up for a provider will save you a lot of time and headaches in the long run.
Source by: David Nemer
Web hosting is provided by companies far too numerous to name, with products and services individualized to match the needs of their individual niche markets. With so many web hosting companies to choose from, and each one of them providing different services and options at different prices, how do know which one to choose? It seems overwhelming at first, but once you can identify with what it is you want to do with your website, you can start to narrow down the choices of web hosting companies quite a bit.
Before signing up with a web hosting provider, ask yourself a couple questions:
• What is it exactly that you want your site to do?
• Will you be hosting a blog or forum?
• Will you be selling products and services?
• Will you just be putting up pictures and news about friends and family?
• How do you want to administer your website?
• Do you want to make changes online in real time?
• Do you want to make changes offline so you can upload them to the server later?
• What software do you want to be working with while running your website?
• Will it be Windows based, Unix based, or something else?
The first thing to do is figure out exactly what it is you are trying to do with your website. If you are only putting up a site dedicated to friends or family, and not expecting a lot of traffic or to generate sales, then you can choose almost any web hosting provider available. Simple web pages can be generated by a host of free html web page building software, and will work quite well for small, individualized web sites. There are still plenty of companies offering free web hosting services which would work well for a website of this type. Just type in “free web hosting” at your favorite search engine and you will see a ton of companies providing this service.
If your website is going to be attracting a lot of traffic, and therefore utilizing a lot of bandwith, the you will probably want to do some more research and look into companies that are more tailored to hosting websites of this type.
One thing to consider is what type of software your website will be running on. Will it be Unix, Windows, something else? There are several companies offering web building platforms that run on ASP.net, a somewhat newer type of code for building and maintaining websites, which will only work on certain types of servers.
When choosing a web hosting provider, make sure you start by asking yourself these types of questions before you rush out and sign up with a provider. Identifying exactly what you want your site to do, and how you want to do it, and with what software before you sign up for a provider will save you a lot of time and headaches in the long run.
Source by: David Nemer
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Are Free Webhosting Accounts Really Free? - 5 Critical Thing
Many free web hosting accounts are free to use, however they will cost you a lot of money, time, and customers as well if you have a site that is meant for business purposes and is more than the simplest site imaginable. Consider the following items as to why free web hosting might cost you more than you had bargained for when you signed up.
Consideration #1 Bandwidth Frequently, free web hosting providers offer you little bandwidth which means it will take longer for your page to load. When your page takes more than 10 seconds to load you will lose visitors because they will simply move on. Because of this, you might lose a lot of customers and sales from your free web host.
Consideration #2 Advertising Many free web hosting companies are "free" to you, however, you will have advertising posted on your website as well as pop up ads. Most people do not like this and will not visit your site because of it. Be careful about signing up with a free web hosting company that uses advertising. It might not bother you, but it will probably affect your traffic and sales.
Consideration #3 Web Space Since the web host is free, you cannot expect a whole lot of web space. Frequently people do not have the space they need to upload their web page and include all of their information. Be sure to check with your free web space provider or the ones you are considering to make sure you will have enough web space to host all of the required elements of your web pages.
Consideration #4 Reliability Another consideration with free web hosting companies is reliability. Often times limitations are put on your traffic flow and if you exceed this, your site may be disabled for a period of time or you may even receive a bill. Find out what the rules are for traffic and what the consequences are for exceeding your limits.
Consideration #5 Limitations More often than not, your free web host will have rules regarding the size of photos, icons, and more that you can upload. You will want to check into this before you sign up for free web hosting because if you cannot upload what you need, it is time to look at other options.
While free web hosting is technically free, it frequently costs websites more money in the long run because it limits activity and business from occurring at the rate set by consumers. Because of this, if you have a growing site it will eventually be too big for the free account and you will have to make some changes. Instead of dealing with the hassle, figure out if a free server will really be worthwhile and make a plan for change and growth ahead of time.
Source by: Michael Turner
Consideration #1 Bandwidth Frequently, free web hosting providers offer you little bandwidth which means it will take longer for your page to load. When your page takes more than 10 seconds to load you will lose visitors because they will simply move on. Because of this, you might lose a lot of customers and sales from your free web host.
Consideration #2 Advertising Many free web hosting companies are "free" to you, however, you will have advertising posted on your website as well as pop up ads. Most people do not like this and will not visit your site because of it. Be careful about signing up with a free web hosting company that uses advertising. It might not bother you, but it will probably affect your traffic and sales.
Consideration #3 Web Space Since the web host is free, you cannot expect a whole lot of web space. Frequently people do not have the space they need to upload their web page and include all of their information. Be sure to check with your free web space provider or the ones you are considering to make sure you will have enough web space to host all of the required elements of your web pages.
Consideration #4 Reliability Another consideration with free web hosting companies is reliability. Often times limitations are put on your traffic flow and if you exceed this, your site may be disabled for a period of time or you may even receive a bill. Find out what the rules are for traffic and what the consequences are for exceeding your limits.
Consideration #5 Limitations More often than not, your free web host will have rules regarding the size of photos, icons, and more that you can upload. You will want to check into this before you sign up for free web hosting because if you cannot upload what you need, it is time to look at other options.
While free web hosting is technically free, it frequently costs websites more money in the long run because it limits activity and business from occurring at the rate set by consumers. Because of this, if you have a growing site it will eventually be too big for the free account and you will have to make some changes. Instead of dealing with the hassle, figure out if a free server will really be worthwhile and make a plan for change and growth ahead of time.
Source by: Michael Turner
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Which Web Host Should I Choose To Host My Business Site?
This article focuses on the differences between various business hosting services, and helps the reader identify some important criteria in choosing a hosting provider for their business (for instance, do you require a dedicated server, a managed server, or a shared server). A business web site could range anywhere from a simple ecommerce site which sells one product, to a very complex pay per click engine with real time statistics and payment functionality.
Even with all of the consolidation going on in the web hosting industry, there are still thousands upon thousands of hosting companies to choose from. If you visit some of their sites, you will see that each of them tout some features you may or may not of even heard of before (Miva Scripting, Co-Location services, Virtual Private Servers, Redundant backbone connections, etc). The very first question you must ask yourself is not which hosting company to choose but rather, WHY do you need a hosting company?
Your particular needs are crucial in determining the kind of hosting you need. Web Hosting comes in many different flavors and sizes, (not to mention prices!) so its key that you shop for only the services you require or you will be paying for a lot of services that you don’t need. When trying to decide which hosting company will best suit your needs be sure to ask yourself a few questions first. Here are some important ones:
1. What kind of functionality will you require (ie Database, secure server for processing credit cards, etc.)
2. What will your traffic needs require (do you anticipate your site having small, moderate, or significant traffic)
3. How important are load times (if a majority of your visitors are global you might want to consider a hosting company that has a presence overseas as well as the U.S. , also you may want to consider a dedicated server as opposed to sharing a server with several other businesses)
A business site can range in price anywhere from the low end of $40-$50.00 all the way up into the thousands of dollars per month. Features that usually catapult the price range are things like dedicated servers (especially if they are on the high end hardware wise), and bandwidth capacity.
Choosing a web host for your business needs is absolutely one of the most important decisions you can make. If your site is down, your business is down, end of story. Below is a list of some of the important questions you will want to make sure you ask any prospective hosting company before signing on the dotted line.
1. Do they offer a money back, no questions asked guarantee?
2. Do they offer an uptime guarantee? (as in, if there is a outage, are you compensated?)
3. What types of backups do they offer (tape back ups, CD rom storage)
4. Do they have redundant backbone connections to the internet (are they connected to the internet by more than one provider, and are those providers major backbone providers)
5. Do they offer 24-7 technical support (including phone support, or is it only via email)
6. How long have they been in business for and can they provide some business references of other sites that they currently host?
7. Can you pay month to month or do they require an annual contract?
8. Is it easy for you to upgrade/downgrade services you may or may not require as time passes?
By Jonathan Caputo
Even with all of the consolidation going on in the web hosting industry, there are still thousands upon thousands of hosting companies to choose from. If you visit some of their sites, you will see that each of them tout some features you may or may not of even heard of before (Miva Scripting, Co-Location services, Virtual Private Servers, Redundant backbone connections, etc). The very first question you must ask yourself is not which hosting company to choose but rather, WHY do you need a hosting company?
Your particular needs are crucial in determining the kind of hosting you need. Web Hosting comes in many different flavors and sizes, (not to mention prices!) so its key that you shop for only the services you require or you will be paying for a lot of services that you don’t need. When trying to decide which hosting company will best suit your needs be sure to ask yourself a few questions first. Here are some important ones:
1. What kind of functionality will you require (ie Database, secure server for processing credit cards, etc.)
2. What will your traffic needs require (do you anticipate your site having small, moderate, or significant traffic)
3. How important are load times (if a majority of your visitors are global you might want to consider a hosting company that has a presence overseas as well as the U.S. , also you may want to consider a dedicated server as opposed to sharing a server with several other businesses)
A business site can range in price anywhere from the low end of $40-$50.00 all the way up into the thousands of dollars per month. Features that usually catapult the price range are things like dedicated servers (especially if they are on the high end hardware wise), and bandwidth capacity.
Choosing a web host for your business needs is absolutely one of the most important decisions you can make. If your site is down, your business is down, end of story. Below is a list of some of the important questions you will want to make sure you ask any prospective hosting company before signing on the dotted line.
1. Do they offer a money back, no questions asked guarantee?
2. Do they offer an uptime guarantee? (as in, if there is a outage, are you compensated?)
3. What types of backups do they offer (tape back ups, CD rom storage)
4. Do they have redundant backbone connections to the internet (are they connected to the internet by more than one provider, and are those providers major backbone providers)
5. Do they offer 24-7 technical support (including phone support, or is it only via email)
6. How long have they been in business for and can they provide some business references of other sites that they currently host?
7. Can you pay month to month or do they require an annual contract?
8. Is it easy for you to upgrade/downgrade services you may or may not require as time passes?
By Jonathan Caputo
Thursday, July 26, 2007
How to Choose a Cheap Web Hosting Service
Cheap web hosting is one thing every website owner wants to have, and there are quite a number of companies willing to take on that responsibility for prices starting as low as $3.95 a month. Most web hosting firms charge more than that, so the $3.95 might well be termed discount web hosting. Some research will obviously be required on the part of the website owner to determine which of the many companies offering web hosting will be most beneficial. A good host will allow regular changes to the content of the website to keep it from becoming "old hat" and stale. Fresh material keeps visitors to the site coming back. For a business trying to sell a product this is particularly important, and there should be no extra fees for updating a site.
When a website is down, business comes to a halt, so one important topic to discuss with a potential web host is the amount of down time they experienced over the previous months. The number should be low. The next question should be about the time it takes to get back up after downtime. Obviously, if little time is lost the economic losses to a business are small, but there should be a reimbursement of a part of the monthly fee for any time the website is actually down. Besides downtime, other technical difficulties should be addressed quickly. It is helpful to find out from other customers of the company what their experience has been with this cheap web hosting company. Customer service should be high on its priority list, and should be available at any time.
Does this discount web hosting company offer virus and spam filters? They should certainly offer this service as part of their package, along with multiple e-mail addresses. The amount of bandwidth a website owner can use will depend on the level of service paid for. The host company should provide a schedule of payments and all the services they offer before a customer signs a contract, to avoid any misunderstanding.
A tracking service should be included with the cheap web hosting so the website owner can see how many visits to his site were made over a given period of time. It is through this information, along with the number of sales that resulted from these visits, that lets the business owner know just how effective his website is or is not. The whole purpose of a business opening a website on the Internet is to move its products, or expand its services, whichever is appropriate. For other kinds of entities, such as a chamber of commerce or a city, the purpose is to broadcast information for tourists. The numbers of visitors to their sites could bring dollars to the community, so constant updating is very important. If it is a charitable institution, the goal is clearly to acquire donations. Current information is important in all cases for success to be achieved.
The actual design of a website and the choice of a name is offered to customers by all discount web hosting companies, unless the customer has already drawn a design. The attractiveness of a design can make the difference between success and failure. Whether it's cheap web hosting or very expensive services, this provision should be the same for everyone. There will be some elements in an expensive contract (such as bandwidth offered) that will differ from the lower cost contract, but for either one the web page design should be of a quality that both the host and the website owner will be proud. Quality was important to the Israelites when they were building their temple, too. "And the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the censers, of pure gold: and the entry of the house, the inner doors thereof for the most holy place, and the doors of the house of the temple, were of gold." (2 Chronicles 4:22)
No matter which of the several cheap web hosting companies a person or company considers signing up with, there will be more than one plan for payment of the fees for their services. Monthly fees usually run higher than quarterly or annual payments would be. If it fits in the budget of the businessman, the longer payment intervals will save money. No matter which plan one chooses, however, the service should be the same. The web host offering discount web hosting should listen to the needs of the client accepting that low offer just as closely as the client who is paying for the most expensive package offered.
Registration with a search engine is included with host company services. The host company and the website owner will work together to choose key words that fit the business, then submit the information to multiple search engines at no extra cost. Getting on the first page of a category is difficult and expensive, but with new companies being added and old companies being dropped all the time on the Internet, the position of a company could move up over time.
Source by: rod hewitt, ABC Article Directory
When a website is down, business comes to a halt, so one important topic to discuss with a potential web host is the amount of down time they experienced over the previous months. The number should be low. The next question should be about the time it takes to get back up after downtime. Obviously, if little time is lost the economic losses to a business are small, but there should be a reimbursement of a part of the monthly fee for any time the website is actually down. Besides downtime, other technical difficulties should be addressed quickly. It is helpful to find out from other customers of the company what their experience has been with this cheap web hosting company. Customer service should be high on its priority list, and should be available at any time.
Does this discount web hosting company offer virus and spam filters? They should certainly offer this service as part of their package, along with multiple e-mail addresses. The amount of bandwidth a website owner can use will depend on the level of service paid for. The host company should provide a schedule of payments and all the services they offer before a customer signs a contract, to avoid any misunderstanding.
A tracking service should be included with the cheap web hosting so the website owner can see how many visits to his site were made over a given period of time. It is through this information, along with the number of sales that resulted from these visits, that lets the business owner know just how effective his website is or is not. The whole purpose of a business opening a website on the Internet is to move its products, or expand its services, whichever is appropriate. For other kinds of entities, such as a chamber of commerce or a city, the purpose is to broadcast information for tourists. The numbers of visitors to their sites could bring dollars to the community, so constant updating is very important. If it is a charitable institution, the goal is clearly to acquire donations. Current information is important in all cases for success to be achieved.
The actual design of a website and the choice of a name is offered to customers by all discount web hosting companies, unless the customer has already drawn a design. The attractiveness of a design can make the difference between success and failure. Whether it's cheap web hosting or very expensive services, this provision should be the same for everyone. There will be some elements in an expensive contract (such as bandwidth offered) that will differ from the lower cost contract, but for either one the web page design should be of a quality that both the host and the website owner will be proud. Quality was important to the Israelites when they were building their temple, too. "And the snuffers, and the basons, and the spoons, and the censers, of pure gold: and the entry of the house, the inner doors thereof for the most holy place, and the doors of the house of the temple, were of gold." (2 Chronicles 4:22)
No matter which of the several cheap web hosting companies a person or company considers signing up with, there will be more than one plan for payment of the fees for their services. Monthly fees usually run higher than quarterly or annual payments would be. If it fits in the budget of the businessman, the longer payment intervals will save money. No matter which plan one chooses, however, the service should be the same. The web host offering discount web hosting should listen to the needs of the client accepting that low offer just as closely as the client who is paying for the most expensive package offered.
Registration with a search engine is included with host company services. The host company and the website owner will work together to choose key words that fit the business, then submit the information to multiple search engines at no extra cost. Getting on the first page of a category is difficult and expensive, but with new companies being added and old companies being dropped all the time on the Internet, the position of a company could move up over time.
Source by: rod hewitt, ABC Article Directory
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Web Hosting Features To Look For
When you are looking for a professional web hosting service, you want to look for certain features and services. Do not worry about knowing exactly what all the technical terms mean, just look for them! You should always shop around, phone the hosting companies and ask questions as part of your qualification process.
1. Reliability and Speed
Look for a hosting service that owns their own equipment, with high-speed connections to multiple Internet backbones, backup power generators and backup systems in place. The hosting company will generally brag about their high-speed connections and will usually guarantee 99% or better availability of your web site.
Many hosting services are operated by resellers. This can be a good thing if they bring better and more knowledgeable support to their resold services. Unfortunately, many resellers do not really have the resources or knowledge to adequately support you.
Years in business are something you should take a look at. Three years or more is a pretty good yardstick of reliability.
If they offer a trial period, take advantage of it and actually try the service out.
2. Operating Systems
Do they use a standard operating system configuration that they keep updated on a routine basis? If they do not, you may have trouble getting newer scripts to work. On Linux servers, look for Red Hat, Mandrake, Debian, SuSE, Slackware and CentOS. On Windows servers, look for recent Windows operating systems with all patches kept current. If they do not publish this information, email or phone them to find out.
3. Language and Database Support
They should support the key programming languages and databases that are used by newer scripts and should keep these up to date as well. On Linux you should look for PHP and Perl at the least. For a database, look for MySQL. You should be allowed at least one database. You should have your own CGI Bin. On Windows systems, look for MS Access at the least and MS SQL Server for power and speed. If you want to use the Microsoft NET framework, your hosting will need to support that.
4. Support
Check their support. The minimum support is email support. The better hosting services provide 24/7 email, ticket system and live telephone support. Actually try their support and see if they respond quickly enough for your needs and if their support staff is helpful and knowledgeable.
5. FTP Access
Many inexpensive hosting services do not provide FTP access. You will need FTP access if you plan to add much material to your website or if you need to install scripts on your website. Also check that you can change permissions on your files via FTP or through SSH.
6. Email
How many email accounts do they provide? Are they POP email accounts? Can you add forwarders and email aliases? Look for web mail access as well. The better the service, the more options they will provide for email.
7. User Control Panel
Look for a comprehensive user control panel that allows you to manage your hosting account. The better control panels also provide automatic script installers like Fantastico or Elefante. Cpanel, Ensim and HSphere and Plesk are all well known and well supported. There are many more control panels than these and they are good too, but you should probably check them more thoroughly and take a look at their demo system if they have one.
8. Domain Names
You should be able to host at least one domain name. The better hosting companies will generally allow you five or more domain names. There should be no restrictions on sub-domains.
9. Statistics
Does your hosting service include a statistics program so you can monitor your website traffic?
10. Disk Space
The absolute minimum is 50 MB, but you should be paying very low prices for that little disk space.
11. Bandwidth
The main difference between the basic and expensive plans of any hosting service is the amount of bandwidth allowed per month.
To figure how much bandwidth you need, multiply your visits per day X page views per visit X average page size X 30 days.
Example: 100 visits per day, 5 page views per visit, with a page size of 45 kb: 100 X 5 X 45 KB X 30 = 675,000 KB = 675 MB.
Try to get as much bandwidth for your dollar as possible, but beware of web hosting services that offer unlimited bandwidth. Read the fine print and their terms of use carefully. There is usually some kind of restriction that you will need to be aware of.
Make sure you read up on how they charge you if you exceed your monthly bandwidth and what upgrades they have available.
12. eCommerce
If you plan to run a shopping cart or secure payments or data transfers on your website, you need to make sure that the hosting service supports SSL.
Some Closing Thoughts:
Typical prices for professional level hosting range between $6.99 and $45.00 per month for a reasonable level of disk space and bandwidth on shared hosting. Below that you are asking for trouble because they probably do not make enough money to adequately support their equipment, systems or you.
Windows servers are usually more expensive than Linux servers because the Windows operating systems are not open source. The hosting company has to pay for using them.
When you are comparing plans, keep in mind that you are getting a better deal at $25 per month for eight domain names than $10 per month for one.
When you are looking for hosting don't be afraid to ask questions. Good hosting services have no problem directing you to helpful information or answering your questions in a way that you can understand.
Source by: Kevin Sinclair, ABC Article Directory
1. Reliability and Speed
Look for a hosting service that owns their own equipment, with high-speed connections to multiple Internet backbones, backup power generators and backup systems in place. The hosting company will generally brag about their high-speed connections and will usually guarantee 99% or better availability of your web site.
Many hosting services are operated by resellers. This can be a good thing if they bring better and more knowledgeable support to their resold services. Unfortunately, many resellers do not really have the resources or knowledge to adequately support you.
Years in business are something you should take a look at. Three years or more is a pretty good yardstick of reliability.
If they offer a trial period, take advantage of it and actually try the service out.
2. Operating Systems
Do they use a standard operating system configuration that they keep updated on a routine basis? If they do not, you may have trouble getting newer scripts to work. On Linux servers, look for Red Hat, Mandrake, Debian, SuSE, Slackware and CentOS. On Windows servers, look for recent Windows operating systems with all patches kept current. If they do not publish this information, email or phone them to find out.
3. Language and Database Support
They should support the key programming languages and databases that are used by newer scripts and should keep these up to date as well. On Linux you should look for PHP and Perl at the least. For a database, look for MySQL. You should be allowed at least one database. You should have your own CGI Bin. On Windows systems, look for MS Access at the least and MS SQL Server for power and speed. If you want to use the Microsoft NET framework, your hosting will need to support that.
4. Support
Check their support. The minimum support is email support. The better hosting services provide 24/7 email, ticket system and live telephone support. Actually try their support and see if they respond quickly enough for your needs and if their support staff is helpful and knowledgeable.
5. FTP Access
Many inexpensive hosting services do not provide FTP access. You will need FTP access if you plan to add much material to your website or if you need to install scripts on your website. Also check that you can change permissions on your files via FTP or through SSH.
6. Email
How many email accounts do they provide? Are they POP email accounts? Can you add forwarders and email aliases? Look for web mail access as well. The better the service, the more options they will provide for email.
7. User Control Panel
Look for a comprehensive user control panel that allows you to manage your hosting account. The better control panels also provide automatic script installers like Fantastico or Elefante. Cpanel, Ensim and HSphere and Plesk are all well known and well supported. There are many more control panels than these and they are good too, but you should probably check them more thoroughly and take a look at their demo system if they have one.
8. Domain Names
You should be able to host at least one domain name. The better hosting companies will generally allow you five or more domain names. There should be no restrictions on sub-domains.
9. Statistics
Does your hosting service include a statistics program so you can monitor your website traffic?
10. Disk Space
The absolute minimum is 50 MB, but you should be paying very low prices for that little disk space.
11. Bandwidth
The main difference between the basic and expensive plans of any hosting service is the amount of bandwidth allowed per month.
To figure how much bandwidth you need, multiply your visits per day X page views per visit X average page size X 30 days.
Example: 100 visits per day, 5 page views per visit, with a page size of 45 kb: 100 X 5 X 45 KB X 30 = 675,000 KB = 675 MB.
Try to get as much bandwidth for your dollar as possible, but beware of web hosting services that offer unlimited bandwidth. Read the fine print and their terms of use carefully. There is usually some kind of restriction that you will need to be aware of.
Make sure you read up on how they charge you if you exceed your monthly bandwidth and what upgrades they have available.
12. eCommerce
If you plan to run a shopping cart or secure payments or data transfers on your website, you need to make sure that the hosting service supports SSL.
Some Closing Thoughts:
Typical prices for professional level hosting range between $6.99 and $45.00 per month for a reasonable level of disk space and bandwidth on shared hosting. Below that you are asking for trouble because they probably do not make enough money to adequately support their equipment, systems or you.
Windows servers are usually more expensive than Linux servers because the Windows operating systems are not open source. The hosting company has to pay for using them.
When you are comparing plans, keep in mind that you are getting a better deal at $25 per month for eight domain names than $10 per month for one.
When you are looking for hosting don't be afraid to ask questions. Good hosting services have no problem directing you to helpful information or answering your questions in a way that you can understand.
Source by: Kevin Sinclair, ABC Article Directory
Four Top Tips for Choosing a Hosting Company
Choosing the right web hosting company is one of the most important decisions you will make regarding your Internet business. When selecting a company, there are many factors to consider. Make sure to follow these four tips for choosing a reliable company for your website.
1. Know Your Needs
You need to have some idea of what your companies needs are before you start shopping around for a web hosting company. The cost of different packages will vary based on size requirements and bandwidth capacity, so a company won't be able to give you a price estimate without this information.
2. Reliability of the Hosting Company
Before you select a company, you need to know how reliable that company is. If you ask any web hosting company whether or not it is reliable, the answer will of course be yes.
The question you need to ask is about downtime. You need to know how much downtime the company experiences. You also need to find out if the quoted expectation for downtime includes regularly scheduled maintenance or not.
Remember that when the web host is down, the Internet component of your business is down time. If prospective customers can't find you online when they are ready to buy, they will find what they need from someone else. When it comes to Internet business, downtime is money lost.
3. Reputation of the Hosting Company
One of the great things about the Internet is how easy it is to access information online. There are a number of forums online that appeal to webmasters and website owners. When you are searching for a reliable company, visiting these forums can be an invaluable source for information about web hosting companies.
When you find an active forum where those who are knowledgeable about web hosting are posting, look for related threads. If you don't see recent posts on the topic, post a question yourself. You may get some ideas about which web hosting companies are the best. You'll definitely learn about some of the ones you want to avoid!
4. Customer Service
You will want to go with a web hosting company that has available and responsive customer service. The first thing you should do is look at the website of a hosting company you are considering. Check out the options for customer service. If you have a difficult time finding customer service information posted on the website, that is a good sign that you are going to have trouble getting help when you need it.
Ideally, you want to select a web hosting company that offers 24 hour customer service with multiple ways of requesting help. Many of the best hosting companies offer live chat help, e-mail technical support, and a toll-free technical support phone number.
However, just because a web hosting company has customer service contact information posted does not mean that the company actually provides customer service. Before you make your final decision, use the customer service contact methods to see what kind of response you actually get. If you don't get a live person, or a quick response, keep looking for another company.
Source by: Amy Nutt, ABC Article Directory
1. Know Your Needs
You need to have some idea of what your companies needs are before you start shopping around for a web hosting company. The cost of different packages will vary based on size requirements and bandwidth capacity, so a company won't be able to give you a price estimate without this information.
2. Reliability of the Hosting Company
Before you select a company, you need to know how reliable that company is. If you ask any web hosting company whether or not it is reliable, the answer will of course be yes.
The question you need to ask is about downtime. You need to know how much downtime the company experiences. You also need to find out if the quoted expectation for downtime includes regularly scheduled maintenance or not.
Remember that when the web host is down, the Internet component of your business is down time. If prospective customers can't find you online when they are ready to buy, they will find what they need from someone else. When it comes to Internet business, downtime is money lost.
3. Reputation of the Hosting Company
One of the great things about the Internet is how easy it is to access information online. There are a number of forums online that appeal to webmasters and website owners. When you are searching for a reliable company, visiting these forums can be an invaluable source for information about web hosting companies.
When you find an active forum where those who are knowledgeable about web hosting are posting, look for related threads. If you don't see recent posts on the topic, post a question yourself. You may get some ideas about which web hosting companies are the best. You'll definitely learn about some of the ones you want to avoid!
4. Customer Service
You will want to go with a web hosting company that has available and responsive customer service. The first thing you should do is look at the website of a hosting company you are considering. Check out the options for customer service. If you have a difficult time finding customer service information posted on the website, that is a good sign that you are going to have trouble getting help when you need it.
Ideally, you want to select a web hosting company that offers 24 hour customer service with multiple ways of requesting help. Many of the best hosting companies offer live chat help, e-mail technical support, and a toll-free technical support phone number.
However, just because a web hosting company has customer service contact information posted does not mean that the company actually provides customer service. Before you make your final decision, use the customer service contact methods to see what kind of response you actually get. If you don't get a live person, or a quick response, keep looking for another company.
Source by: Amy Nutt, ABC Article Directory
A Beginner Guide to Web Hosting
What is web hosting? Whenever you visit a website, what you see on your web browser is essentially just a web page that is downloaded from the web server onto your web browser. In general, a web site is made up of many web pages. And a web page is basically composed of texts and graphic images. All these web pages need to be stored on the web servers so that online users can visit your website.
Therefore, if you plan to own a new website, you will need to host your website on a web server. When your website goes live on the web server, online users can then browse your website on the Internet. Company that provides the web servers to host your website is called web hosting providers.
A well-established web hosting provider sometimes hosts up to thousands of websites. For example, the Best Web Host of the Year 2003 award winner, iPowerWeb, is a web hosting company that hosts more than 200,000 websites. For that reason, a web hosting company need many web servers (essentially, these are computers) to store the website. And all these web servers are connected to the Internet through high speed Internet connection and housed in a physical building called data center. In order to guarantee all the web servers are safe, secure and fully operational all time, a data center is a physically secure 24/7 environment with fire protection, HVAC temperature control, virus detections, computer data backup, redundant power backup and complete disaster recovery capabilities.
What are the different types of web hosting? There are different kinds of web hosting companies out there with different characteristics. The main types of web hosts can be organized into the following categories:
a. Shared Hosting
In shared hosting (also known as virtual web hosting), many websites are sharing the space on the same physical web servers. Depending on the web host, a physical web server can hosts a few hundred to even thousand of different websites at one time. You may wonder if a physical web server is shared by so many websites, will the performance of the web server deteriorate? In fact, web servers are usually equipped with high-end powerful computer, therefore it can support up to a certain number of websites without any problem. But when the web server is overloaded and exceeded the reasonable number of websites that it can support, then you will begin to experience a slower response from the web server.
However, a reputable and experience web hosting provider will constantly monitor the performance of the web server and will add new web servers when deem necessary without sacrificing the benefits of the website owners. Since a physical web server is shared (diskspace, computer processing power, bandwidth, memory) by many websites, the web hosting provider can therefore afford to offer a lower hosting price. For the same reason, websites on the shared hosting would have to accept slower server response time. Typically, shared hosting plans start at $5 - $20 per month.
b. Dedicated Hosting
In contrast to shared hosting, dedicated hosting assigned a specific web server to be used only by one customer. Since a dedicated web server is allocated to only a single customer, the customer has the option to host single/multiple web sites, modify the software configuration, handle greater site traffic and scale the bandwidth as necessary. Therefore, dedicated hosting commands a higher premium and typically starts at $50 per month and can range up to $200 - $500 per month. As a result, dedicated hosting is regularly used by high traffic and extremely important website.
c. Co-location hosting
In dedicated hosting, the web server belongs to the web hosting providers and customers only rent the web server during the hosting period. While in co-location hosting, the customer owns the web server hardware and only housed their web server within the web hosting provider’s secure data center. In this way, the customer has full control over their web server.
Source by: Super Admin http://www.contentmart.com
Therefore, if you plan to own a new website, you will need to host your website on a web server. When your website goes live on the web server, online users can then browse your website on the Internet. Company that provides the web servers to host your website is called web hosting providers.
A well-established web hosting provider sometimes hosts up to thousands of websites. For example, the Best Web Host of the Year 2003 award winner, iPowerWeb, is a web hosting company that hosts more than 200,000 websites. For that reason, a web hosting company need many web servers (essentially, these are computers) to store the website. And all these web servers are connected to the Internet through high speed Internet connection and housed in a physical building called data center. In order to guarantee all the web servers are safe, secure and fully operational all time, a data center is a physically secure 24/7 environment with fire protection, HVAC temperature control, virus detections, computer data backup, redundant power backup and complete disaster recovery capabilities.
What are the different types of web hosting? There are different kinds of web hosting companies out there with different characteristics. The main types of web hosts can be organized into the following categories:
a. Shared Hosting
In shared hosting (also known as virtual web hosting), many websites are sharing the space on the same physical web servers. Depending on the web host, a physical web server can hosts a few hundred to even thousand of different websites at one time. You may wonder if a physical web server is shared by so many websites, will the performance of the web server deteriorate? In fact, web servers are usually equipped with high-end powerful computer, therefore it can support up to a certain number of websites without any problem. But when the web server is overloaded and exceeded the reasonable number of websites that it can support, then you will begin to experience a slower response from the web server.
However, a reputable and experience web hosting provider will constantly monitor the performance of the web server and will add new web servers when deem necessary without sacrificing the benefits of the website owners. Since a physical web server is shared (diskspace, computer processing power, bandwidth, memory) by many websites, the web hosting provider can therefore afford to offer a lower hosting price. For the same reason, websites on the shared hosting would have to accept slower server response time. Typically, shared hosting plans start at $5 - $20 per month.
b. Dedicated Hosting
In contrast to shared hosting, dedicated hosting assigned a specific web server to be used only by one customer. Since a dedicated web server is allocated to only a single customer, the customer has the option to host single/multiple web sites, modify the software configuration, handle greater site traffic and scale the bandwidth as necessary. Therefore, dedicated hosting commands a higher premium and typically starts at $50 per month and can range up to $200 - $500 per month. As a result, dedicated hosting is regularly used by high traffic and extremely important website.
c. Co-location hosting
In dedicated hosting, the web server belongs to the web hosting providers and customers only rent the web server during the hosting period. While in co-location hosting, the customer owns the web server hardware and only housed their web server within the web hosting provider’s secure data center. In this way, the customer has full control over their web server.
Source by: Super Admin http://www.contentmart.com
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