Posts Tagged ‘webhosting’

7 Simple Steps For Choosing A Great Web Host

There are thousands of web hosts around today with thousands of plans to choose from for what was once a simple procedure seem like a daunting task for both newbie and pro alike.

Whether you’re looking for your first host or are looking to move to a better, there are 7 simple steps you must follow to succeed in choosing a great host.

1. Platform
The first and most crucial step in choosing a web host is to determine the platform of the web server running, usually a choice between Unix / Linux and Windows.

Your choice is largely determined by your website and the technologies used to create it, usually a website created with Microsoft technologies (ASP, VB) will run on Windows servers, while most other sites using open source technologies (PHP, Perl, Python, etc.) will run on Linux based systems.

2. Features
Once you’ve chosen your platform is the next step is to determine the functions you need from your web host. Take your time with this step as the feature lists of web hosts are getting longer and longer every day and while some plans may be similar on the surface, a good look at the job listings can be a different story.

Only you can determine which specific features you’ll need, but some key things to monitor are:

Disk Space
Bandwidth
Backups
Uptime
Money Back Guarantee
Domains allowed
Databases (Number & Type)
CGI, PHP, Perl, Python, SSI
Cron
E-mail Accounts

The list goes on, just remember to take your time and ensure that your new web host you with everything you need.

3. Cost
Often this is the only thing people consider when choosing their first web host, funds are usually tight and most hosts on the surface look very similar. Sometimes you get lucky and choose a good host, but more often than not proves to be a horror story.

I can not stress enough that choosing a web host based on price alone is asking for trouble, remember that the cost of your web hosting is more than just the monthly fee, to consider the total cost of ownership. TCO includes lost revenue due to downtime and slow speeds, downtime discounts, extra bandwidth charges, setup fees, additional feature costs, and your monthly fee.

Many hosts will require that you pay annually to the best price available to get but there are some that allow you to pay by the month and still the best price, it’s really a matter of personal choice of what payment method is works best for you.

4. Customer Service
Customer service is another aspect that is often forgotten until it is too late, something breaks and you have noticed and this delicious handige sellers that more than helpful in taking your money now nowhere to be seen, all the time you ‘re losing the sale of every minute.

You should not settle for anything less than 24/7/365 service, your site should be running all the time so it’s no good if your hosting company does not work during the holidays. Do not take the word for web hosting companies, claiming all 24 / 7 support, but few back up with consistent performance. Sure to test them at different times of day and night by phone, email and chat if they offer to live.

5. Support
An extensive knowledge base or faq can be a real time saver but also as an indication of the level of customer support and expertise you can expect to receive. Spend some time browsing the supporting parts of the website and see for yourself the level of support.

Questions are thoroughly answered in the knowledgebase?Solutions are real or are they just cut and paste answers?

6. Longevity
Do a whois on the domain name of the web host and find the creation date, less than one year ago and the risk that they will not be around next year increases. They had a large army, but having more than 95% of new hosts go out of business within one year that’s really not something you should take a chance.

7. Uptime
It is a fact of life that a web host can not be online 100% of the time, servers re-booted for the security and software updates and not updated any webhost that is facing the increased risk of successfully hacked.

99.9% uptime guarantees are fairly standard in the industry, however, a guarantee is only as good as how it is defined and the company behind it. Look for no less than one full month free hosting they do not meet their guarantee, a pro rata refund based on the amount of downtime is virtually worthless. Say you pay $ 10 for one month of hosting and your site is down for 24 hours. They will refund you for one day of downtime which ends is about 33 cents.

All about Linux/Unix-based hosting

What is Linux / Unix-based hosting?

It means that the hosting is provided on Linux / Unix operating systems platforms. There is not much difference between these two types of operating systems because Linux / Unix is an enhanced version of Linux / Unix operating system. When applied only for web hosting companies for web hosting based on Linux operating system does not matter what you use on your computer as it is comparable with any operating system.

Usefulness

A few years ago, Linux operating system available only to professionals and if you are not experienced user had no future with this OS. In the last few years the situation has changed.Providers have done their best to provide users’ websites more convenient and easier to manage. In case you’re just a beginner you will find that web interface control panels. And if you’re an experienced user, you can manage your site through the shell.
Reliability

Experts say that Unix-based platform is one of the most reliable ones but it will mainly depend on maintenance stuff professionalism. Thus quality and stability of Linux-based web hosting will not depend on a sudden and operating system bugs yourself, your website operational consistency reliability.
Functionality

In this area, Linux differs from most other popular platforms. It can handle a large number of processes that occur at the same time.This gives you an opportunity to more of the server.
What scripting languages are available for Unix?

Unix supports a wide range of application languages, more than any other operating system. The most common applications of this type in C, C + +, Shell, Perl, Tcl, Python, Java and PHP.
What Is Unix Support databases?

Databases are available for Unix mSQL and MySQL. The one you choose will depend on your needs and your Host Provider. This is important for you when choosing a hosting company.
Cost

Linux operating system developed by Linus Torvalds as an alternative to other operating systems and is enhanced by many specialists around the world. Most of its versions are free. This circumstance makes Linux-based hosting much cheaper than any other. As for Linux versions are sometimes called Linux distributions. The most popular distributions are Red Hat and Mandrake. These are easy to install a lot of different tools and suitable for all web hosting type.
Why choose Linux / Unix-based hosting?

So, as already mentioned the use of this platform is cheaper and more convenient than others. All existing scripts such as PHP, function best when using the Linux-based web hosting. Linux / Unix based web hosting upgrade options to increase when using Shell and Telnet access. Linux / Unix-based platform is probably the most stable and reliable.

Web Site Hosting: From Domain Registration to Going Online

Once your account is opened with your web host and you set the DNS for your site (see Part 1 and 2 for details) you can start uploading your content. The most common way this happens is through FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software, but there are a few other options.

The FTP protocol can transfer data files from one computer to another. Your web hosting company gives you the information you need to connect to your FTP site.

You would normally use software such as WS_FTP or FileZilla to connect. Your FTP address is usually ftp.yourdomain.com.

Your web host will also tell you where your files are uploaded to the server. There is usually a folder in the root directory of your website called public_html, www or something similar. This is where all the files from your website accessible to the public on the Internet to save.

You may need some settings in your FTP software to upload the files properly adapt. example. If you have a firewall on your computer (or a hardware firewall) you may need to set the transfer method to passive. And if you have a proxy server, you must adjust settings as well.

Files can be transferred with FTP in ASCII or binary mode. If the wrong mode to transfer, you can end up with errors. Your FTP software can automatically determine which method to use by looking at the contents of the files you transfer. It is possible that you might have to activate manually, however.

Files to be sent as ASCII, such as HTML (and variations like HTM, SHTML, etc.), TXT, ASP, JS, PHP, etc. Essentially, any file you want to open with a text editor should be transferred to ASCII.

Binary mode is used to transfer files such as images, binaries, and media files.

With your FTP software, connect to your webserver. Open the folder where you are going to see the files and then upload the files on your computer that you send to find. You can select individual files or entire folders via FTP.

Most of the pages on your website can be called anything you want, but the home page or main page in a subdirectories must be named index.htm (of. Html. Php, etc.) The name “index” tells the Web server that this is the file to be displayed by default.

So if someone goes to www.mydomain.com, what they actually going to see is www.mydomain.com / index.html, the web server just displays the file automatically so they do not need the index to enter . html “portion.

If you have an index file in every directory on your site, people are able to browse the folder and see “behind the scenes” on your website. This may be a security problem in some cases, so it’s always a good idea to place an index page in every folder, even if it’s just a blank page.

What other ways can upload your web site?

FTP is the only way to upload your web pages. Many web pages have transfer programs installed. Probably the most common example is Microsoft Frontpage. If your web host supports FrontPage, you can upload your site from Frontpage itself and do not have to worry about how or where to get things to wear.FrontPage takes care of everything for you.

All About Dedicated Hosting Providers

Unless otherwise stated openly, most web hosting packages youâ € ™ ll find in your search 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 discount on web hosting services in exchange for tolerating certain technical constraints such as 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 about managing your website, but also about the very hard-and software used to run it, you should not review the shared hosting providers, but dedicated hosting providers. If your company is large enough or growing fast enough that his own Internet connection and server requires, you may need a dedicated web host.

Whatâ € ™ s the downside comes with dedicated hosting providers? In a word: responsibility. In most areas of life, with total control comes total responsibility, and itâ € ™ 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 providersâ € ™ data center.

Fortunately, you still get the benefit of their supposedly top-notch, round-the-clock security over the premises, but you remain fully responsible for the security of your cyber-premises. Also, dedicated hosting providers to ensure that the systems in the building all have uninterrupted and redundant backup power and environmental controls, but itâ € ™ s you need to maintain your equipment and cables and functioning in this idyll environment.

How to recognize whether itâ € ™ s at the time of a shared host to switch 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 pace as they customersâ € ™ on your site (or your employees, if an in-house site), the time just to look more freely shared hosting. But if youâ € ™ ve tried different providers shared hosting with the same results, it may be time to remind yourself how impatient the average web surfer has to be. While youâ € ™ re jumping from shared host to shared host to try to save a buck, your customers are jumping ship. Your ability to quickly and efficiently customer transactions and inquiries can not be overstated.

Reliability

The limits of your control are nowhere more evident than in the field of reliability and safety. Itâ € ™ s not just that problems can arise: problems do. Itâ € ™ s the nature of the biz. And if you donâ € ™ t have unlimited access to your own operating system, software and database applications, etc., thereâ € ™ s not much you can do when one occurs.

Adaptability

If your business is growing rapidly, youâ € ™ re going to change many aspects of your web presence with them. You may often need to make your disk space and bandwidth, and experiment with using tweak different applications to better serve your changing needs. On a shared host, upgrading in such a way usually involves leaping from one œpackageâ â € €? œplanâ € or â €? to another.These packages are generally preset and may or may not serve your immediate needs. They can be riddled with programs that you donâ € ™ t yet, should such a defect in one particular program you do. Or the next jump up from your current plan has much more disk space and bandwidth than you need at the moment. With a dedicated server, you can make changes incrementally, step forward, one step back, heck, if you step aside – and whenever you want.

In large part, itâ € ™ s size and growth of your business that will determine whether you need a shared or dedicated hosting.Affordability and personal time commitment subsidiary observations are nice, but if your business is booming, you would do a great injustice to try and save a few bucks and a few extra hours per week of your time in exchange for slower and poorerquality of service for your customers.

Hosting Matters When It Comes To Interactive Marketing

Most people choose a web host based on price, technology and / or recommendation of their Web agency. These are all important factors, but most people overlook the destructive impact choosing the wrong host can have on your interactive marketing initiatives.

How to choose a hosting company? One of the key factors in choosing a host is determining which tools and services they support and donâ € ™ t support. What statistics or web analytics packages does your host offer? You donâ € ™ t want to pay a third premium for your web analytics tool, because your host only provides œfree-WAREÂ â € €? statistics. Many hosts have strategic relationships with some of the best Web analytics vendors in an effort to provide their customers with powerful site measurement tools bundled into the cost of their hosting packages.

You are choosing your host because it is also a site that lets you build? If so, can a big advantage for companies without web development resources, but buyers should beware that this will likely impact your Search Marketing initiative. Most WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) site building applications make optimizing your site for search engines is very difficult at best, with most actually hurting your chances of achieving necessary search engine rankings. These tools in many cases actually prevent Search Engine Optimization (SEO) best practices incorporated into your website.

Does your host provide or offer eCommerce packages? If so, is that the software you will use to sell your products online? If not, the host will make sure your e-commerce solution of choice to support.Many e-commerce solutions require specialized installations which your host may or may not support even a dedicated hosting environment.

While website tools and services are important, consistent and reliable email delivery is even more important for many. How good is your host fight spammers? Do they have controls in place to block spammers using their servers as launch pads for their spam campaigns? If they dont get this right, your host may be put through one or more backbone providers or ISPs.

There are countless cases where email generated from IP ranges or even entire hosting companies has gotten blocked, penalizing non-spam companies. To emphasize the importance of this let me explain further. Emails from innocent, non-spam companies can be blocked without knowing where the companyâ € ™ s Web host on a black list due to a lack of protection of the e-mail servers. The main recommendation here is to do your homework by going to sites like http://www.spamhaus.org http://www.dnsstuff.com or to see if your host is currently blacklisted.

Another obvious issue is server uptime. While for a few minutes here and there is unpleasant and causes missed revenue opportunities, the real impact is felt as significant downtime.Significant downtime – be set for days, not hours – can lead to significant revenue loss, tarnish your organizationâ € ™ s brand and cause temporary loss of your search engine rankings. While most hosts offer 99.9% uptime, many have a history of data center, router and / or backbone issues that have affected their clients for extended periods. This is not something they will probably be fairly familiar, but some good search engine research will most hostsâ € ™ past to uncover the plethora of blogs, consumer sites and hosting review directories.

In addition to server uptime, server performance is to consider. As we all know arena webvisitors € ™ t going to wait for pages to download. Many hosts pack their shared servers with too many websites. This not only causes downtime, but can cause poor server performance. Imagine a scenario where youâ € ™ re paying significant money for a good performing Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns. If your pages are prone to load slowly given your hosta € ™ s server performance, you are likely to pay for clicks that donâ € ™ t even your landing page page. This has implications not only for your eMarketing campaigns, but will affect all your web visitors and ultimately affects your Branda € ™ s value in the market.

In short, choosing a hosting company is more complicated than just comparing the traditional features such as disk space, bandwidth and price. This decision can have a significant impact on your eMarketing initiatives. Do your homework and make sure your host supplements your online marketing initiatives versus creating barriers that work against them.

USA Reseller Web Hosting: Unix or Microsoft?

If you’re in the U.S., and you plan to enter the U.S. reseller web hosting industry, you need a major issue in the first place to consider: would you like UNIX provide ready functionality with Microsoft-only ones?

Offering Microsoft-only services like the smart choice, but supporting Unix is its own assets, which may be a world of possibilities open to you as a USA reseller web hosting outfit. In fact, if you opportunities to ask for both Microsoft and Unix support your web host, the better!

One disadvantage of selling web space instead of your own server is that you do not check to basics. As a reseller you may be able to change things around using the standard control panel. You can even limited access to some features, such as merchant accounts and secure site hosting. But if you want to switch between operating systems, or OS-es – it is unfortunately not the conversation, but your web host.

Web hosts determine the nature of the OS-es running on their servers. Many web hosts offer both Windows and Unix functions, using a Unix machines as servers, and then just with Windows applications and servers within these machines. Over time, Unix server operating systems more tolerant of Windows programs, so a Unix server, a sweet deal for web hosts and resellers alike.

Unix servers are cost effective because they are ideal for the conduct of open source programs. Preferably open source programs to help save on operating costs because they are often free for use, depending on the specifications of the persons or outfits that developed the codes to be used. When programs or servers on your machine paid, not only did you have to think of the cost of purchasing the software – you also need the potential costs to consider renewal of a license.

There is no guarantee that the same software license fees over the years! And you have in your profit projections consider when working with a web host. Fortunately, you do not have to deal with that as a reseller. However, as a reseller, you should be aware of what software your potential customers needs.

If your web host only supports Unix and open source features, you run the risk of losing a large part of your clientele. But you run the same risk as your host supports only Microsoft Windows! As a U.S. reseller web hosting outfit, you should deeply aware of the needs of your target market.

Free Website Hosting Vs. Paid Website Hosting Basics

Web site hosting service companies on the Internet permit the user to make Their Web Site Accessible through the World Wide Web.There are huge numbers of Companies That On Their server offering web space for customers and Their Also offering Internet connectivity in general in a data center. There Can Be Various types of web site hosting companies. The main classification is the free web site hosting and the paid web site hosting service companies.

In case of free web hosting site, the User has the right to upload His or her web site content on the server That space is provided by the Web site hosting company Without Any Cost. This type of web site hosting service is great for people who are new to the Internet to plan and to get familiar with Web site creation and functionality of web servers. On the otherhand, to get your website uploaded on a web space That is provided by a paid web site hosting company, you need to pay the company periodic fees. The Fee Amount May Vary from company to company. The paid web site hosting companies are best suited for professional web site owners. People who need large web space to upload Their web sites and who expect a Certain Amount of web site visitors Which is restricted on free hosting accounts to a minimum.

The revenue thats the paid web hosting service companies get is through That’s the fee paid to the company by the web site owners.In case of free web site hosting companies, the main source of income are the ads and banners That Can Be Placed On Their clients web pages.

The main advantage of Using a free web site hosting service is That They Are free of cost and Hencse make a perfect choice for people who are writing the new business and are just looking to start out. They are perfect for people who just because to display a minimum content on the World Wide Web in small Amount of web space. The other advantage of Using the free web site hosting service companies providence That must or thesis integrated, easy tools to upload the pages on to the hosting account. They do this Realizing the fact thats the free web site hosting services are utilized by the newbies gene rally.

Also there are disadvantages of Certain Using the free web site hosting services. When Using the free web site hosting service, you are forced to place the ads and banners by the web site hosting company on your web pages. Also has the revenue That Obtained by the ads goes to the company web site. In case of paid web site hosting service, ads and banners on your web site are Placed thing to your compromise and approve the revenue of the banners and ads Placed on your web site goes in your pocket.Also in some case or free web site hosting, the domain name of your web site starts with the Web site hosting company name followed by your particular web site. This is not the case of paid web site hosting service. You get a unique web site domain. The web space provided by free web site hosting service is limited whereas in case of paid web site hosting service web space you-can buy the accordion thing to your requirements.

Basic advantages of Linux server hosting and windows server hosting

When you go to a hosting service to hire for your website for your small business to build the basic things you need to know web hosting. You’re the best person to decide what features are needed and what about your budget.

Usually, this choice to host your website depends on the scripting language used in your website. If languages like PHP, MySQL, Perl or used in your website, Linux server hosting is preferable. But if you think that for ASP Dot Net scripting language your best choice would be the window hosting.

If you are a number of interactive facilities like chat or searchable database, Linux may not be the best choice. Also, a Linux-based web server is not fully acquiescent with Windows technologies. If you are using a Windows-centric technologies like Visual Basic, would then choose the appropriate Windows-based servers for you.

Advantages of Linux server hosting

1. Linux is an open source software product and therefore it does not need the high licensing fees that other operating systems do, you can free download and use without cost.

2. A Linux website can easily be converted to a Windows website without much hassle. The website can be easily changed as the requirement of the user grows.

3. Linux web hosting is very economical as Linux is a free operating system. Usually only the costs of distribution borne by the host or owner.

4. When the scripting language like PHP, MySQL, Perl, etc., or are required for your website then Linux server hosting is the most reliable and cost-effective solution for you. Unless heavy load of scripting language, this can not be traced.

5. There are many types of databases running on Linux hosting, but most likely the most prevalent among web host providers mSQL, MySQL and PostgreSQL. These databases are relational by nature, and permit highly optimized communication with your website for a rapid regeneration of the data.

6. Through much of circles Linux hosting is supposed to be much secure than Windows hosting, and for that reason only Linux server hosting is the most popular choice for web designers and programmers.

Benefits of Windows Server Hosting

1. . NET technologies like ASP dot net VB dot net are available on this platform. If you have a website built with Microsoft. NET technologies then you have a Windows server hosting plan to choose.

2. If you have an enterprise class database there are a number of different functions that run on a Linux platform, but if you’re Microsoft MSSQL database, a Windows hosting plan, your best choice.

3. Access databases are only available with a Windows server hosting plan. Access can only be run on a Microsoft Windows platform and so is not available on Linux hosting. If your site needs particularly this position you will have to accept windows server hosting.

4. If you are using a number of Microsoft Windows Sharepoint Services, a hosting plan is only reliable choice for you.

5. Windows plans typically much costly because of the license costs compulsory by Microsoft.

Normally, Linux server hosting plans are at least 20% economical than windows server hosting plans. If you do not have unique features for your website, like cart, searchable database etc, Linux server hosting is a best alternative for your needs.

When required for specific Microsoft technologies, Windows hosting plans in general, your positive thinking. But for every small business owner needs Linux hosting plans will generally perform very well for the cost functions.

Using cPanel to Manage Your Host Files

CPanel is a simple user-interface site that lets you control your host account environment. The main peculiarity of this operating system is so easy to use that your below average computer user Cani ¿½ t mess up. Iti ¿½ s got great features embedded into its panel and some of the features are listed below.

Site Tools

There are tools available for your use, Web Protect are (. Htaccess editor), custom error pages, redirects, Ability to MIME types, edit, For Apache handlers, Install / Uninstall FrontPage Extensions, Search engine tool edit submitting and File Manager.

E-mail

The e-mail program allows you to add, delete and change passwords while managing email accounts. CPanel is also provided by Webmail for the accounts, autoresponders, forwarders, mailing lists, spam filtering and more.

Backup

Backup you can make copies of account files and databases. The backup menu can also download the automatic backups that were downloaded by your CPanel administrator.

Stats

Here are different tools to survey your site popularity and efficiency.Those are Webalizer web stats, Webalizer FTP stats, Analog stats, AWStats, View latest visitors View bandwidth usage View error log and modules.

FTP

There is a module that controls FTP accounts (add, remove, change password for access), Anonymous FTP controls; Ability to change FTP login message and ability to kill FTP sessions.

Advanced Stuff

You have an option to add or remove sub domains, sub domain, redirects and its Stats.

Advanced Tools

You are provided with tools of SSH access tools, Manage GPG keys and cron jobs.

There are also Pre-Installed CGI Scripts. Those are Interchange Cart, Agora Cart, Bulletin Board, Java Chat, HTML Chat, phpMyChat, CGI Wrapper (for non-suexec installs) Random HTML generator, Advanced Guestbook, Counter Generator, Java Clock Generator, Java Countdown Generator, Secure FormMail clone , cgiemail, Entropy Search, Entropy Banner. Network Tools are DNS Lookup and Traceroute. Database Management tools includes the management of MySQL databases and phpMyAdmin access.

For beginners, CPanel has a lot of options that are easy to use.CPanel works with most browsers, like Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox and others.

Need web hosting ? Compare before you buy

The Internet is one of the most important tools in modern times.What started as just a way of transferring data is now used for a wide range of purposes. Today, it plays a very important role in commerce and finance, throughout the world. These days many products are sold through the net. Yes, you will find products ranging from cars to safety pins and nails of large plants on sale on the Internet. It is perhaps due to this ever growing popularity, that a large number of companies, the arena of internet marketing policy.

Following this, more and more websites coming every day. As a matter of fact, it does not seem to be a distant reality, that one day, each person would be a separate website to have his or her own.To meet this growing demand for websites, web hosting services have emerged as an effective tool. In recent times, a number of portals have come, providing web hosting services to offer. These websites offer different web hosting plans you can choose from depending on your needs. However, one of the most important aspects in this context, is to select the right web hosting service. It is often difficult, choosing an appropriate service that can help you achieve your goals.

Web Hosting Geeks can be of great help in this respect, in case you face a similar dilemma. This particular location offers reviews of various sites, offering web hosting services, dedicated server hosting and other products. This would help in analyzing the various plans offered to you and eventually choosing the right plan that fits your needs. This site offers unbiased and independent reviews of web hosting providers, offering the best in terms of price and value. It gives an overview of economic web hosting services with a pricing of $ 10 per month. Also, all web hosting plans offer at least one free domain name registration, and thirty days money back guarantee. So now, you can review the web hosts.

Dedicated servers provide a number of advantages for your business. Whether you work with an e-commerce website or you are looking for additional security, dedicated servers play a very important role. In this regard, this website also can provide you with adequate assistance.