Wordpress Hosting

What is a blog?

“Blog” is an abbreviated version of “weblog,” which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A blog is a frequently updated, personal website featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles on other Web sites. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.Many blogs focus on a particular topic, such as web design, home staging, sports, or mobile technology. Some are more eclectic, presenting links to all types of other sites. And others are more like personal journals, presenting the author’s daily life and thoughts.

Generally speaking (although there are exceptions), blogs tend to have a few things in common:

• A main content area with articles listed chronologically, newest on top. Often, the articles are organized into categories.
  

• An archive of older articles.


• A way for people to leave comments about the articles.


• A list of links to other related sites, sometimes called a “blogroll”.


• One or more “feeds” like RSS, Atom or RDF files.

Some blogs may have additional features beyond these.

What is wordpress?

WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. What a mouthful. WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.

More simply, WordPress is what you use when you want to work with your blogging software, not fight it.

The Difference Between a Blog and CMS?

Software that provides a method of managing your website is commonly called a CMS or “Content Management System”. Many blogging software programs are considered a specific type of CMS. They provide the features required to create and maintain a blog, and can make publishing on the Internet as simple as writing an article, giving it a title, and organizing it under (one or more) categories. While some CMS programs offer vast and sophisticated features, a basic blogging tool provides an interface where you can work in an easy and, to some degree, intuitive manner while it handles the logistics involved in making your composition presentable and publicly available. In other words, you get to focus on what you want to write, and the blogging tool takes care of the rest of the site management.

WordPress is one such advanced blogging tool and it provides a rich set of features. Through its Administration Panels, you can set options for the behavior and presentation of your weblog. Via these Administration Panels, you can easily compose a blog post, push a button, and be published on the Internet, instantly! WordPress goes to great pains to see that your blog posts look good, the text looks beautiful, and the html code it generates conforms to web standards.

If you’re just starting out, read Getting Started with WordPress, which contains information on how to get WordPress set up quickly and effectively, as well as information on performing basic tasks within WordPress, like creating new posts or editing existing ones.

All about Linux/Unix-based hosting

What is Linux/Unix-based hosting?

It means hosting that is provided on Linux/Unix operating systems platforms. There isn't much difference between these two types of operating systems because Linux/Unix is an improved version of Linux/Unix operating system. When just applying for web hosting companies for web hosting that is based on Linux operating system it doesn't matter which one you are using on your computer as it is commensurable with any operating system.

Usability

Some years ago Linux operating system used to be available only for professionals and if you were not an experienced user you had no future with this OS. In the last couple of years the situation has changed. Providers have done their best to make users' web sites administrating more comfortable and easier. In case you're just a beginner you'll find friendly control panels that include Web- interface. And if you are an experienced user you can control your site by means of shell.

Reliability

Experts claim 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 won't depend on some sudden system bugs and the operating system consistency itself secures your web site operating dependability.

Functionality

In this area Linux differs the most from other popular platforms. It can handle a lot of processes that happen at the same time. This gives you a possibility to get more from the server.

What Scripting Languages Are Available For Unix?

Unix supports a wide variety of application languages, more than any other operating system. The most common applications of such kind include C, C++, Shell, Perl, Tcl, Python, Java and PHP.

What Databases Does Unix Support?

Databases available for Unix are mSQL and mySQL. The one you choose would depend on your own needs and your Host Provider's offers. This is important for you to review when choosing a hosting company.

Cost

Linux operating system was developed by Linus Torvalds as an alternative to other operating systems and is being improved by many specialists all around the world. Most of its versions are free of charge. This circumstance makes Linux-based hosting much cheaper than any other. As for Linux versions they are sometimes called Linux Distributions. The most popular Distributions are RedHat and Mandrake. Which are easy to install have a lot of different utilities and suitable for any web hosting type.

Why choose Linux/Unix-based hosting?

So, as it was mentioned before using this platform is cheaper and more convenient than others. All existent scripts, like PHP, function best when using the Linux-based web hosting. Linux/Unix based web hosting upgrading possibilities increase when using Shell and Telnet access. The Linux/Unix-based platform is probably the most stable and reliable.

The Basic Features of a Hosting Plan

Disk Space

All hosting accounts offer a certain amount of disk space that you can use to store all your files. Exactly what is, and isn't counted towards your disk space usage will vary from host to host; so make sure you check exactly what files you will need to allow for when deciding how much disk quota you will need.

It would be a good idea to have some sort of estimates on what you need for various tasks. How much space will you need for storing your email, web files, databases and log files? By breaking down your usage like this it will be much easier to work out how much space you should go for (once you know exactly what files are counted towards your disk quota).

All plans will certainly include all your web accessible files when calculating disk usage. Some hosts will also choose to include email and/or logs in the quota, which can make estimating your disk space requirements more difficult. While you may have a good idea of the disk space needed for your web files, your email and log file needs change constantly.

Should a host include all types of file storage in the quota, check to see if you can switch off your logs or exclude particular information. If the option is available it will save you a lot of disk space, particularly if you have a busy site. However, if you want to use any statistics package that is available with your hosting, you will need to allow some logging to take place.

If you enable your logs then it is also worth remembering that you might not be able to delete a log file from the server until the server has stopped writing to it. Daily logs are fairly manageable if you remember to log in and download and delete them regularly. Problems with monthly logs can arise if you underestimate your log space needs and you can't delete the file until the end of the month; which could lead to an extra charge if you aren't careful.

If your email settings and inboxes are included in your disk quota, it might be an idea to set the maximum size of each mailbox if it is possible. This will save you from storing too much mail on the server and inadvertently going over your limit.

Email Accounts

Email accounts are a common feature of hosting, particularly if you are hosting a domain. Some hosts will let you have control over your mail settings, putting restrictions on mail activities (for example the number of accounts or maximum size of mail boxes) on the server side. Other hosts will do all the set up for you, even though setting up of new mail accounts can be easier than you think with the right software support.

How you configure your email is a matter of personal preference, but there are essentially four main types of mail accounts; POP3, forwarding, aliases and autoresponders.

• POP3 accounts are the traditional "inboxes", you have space on a server to store your mail, allowing you to use an email program to log in and download your mail; each login and password combination usually equates to one account. This works a bit like an office inbox, the mail is left there until you do something with it; if it is full then your mail can't be stored and bounces.
• Forwarding mail accounts are useful if you want to send your mail to a service like SpamCop or other email filter before you receive it. Rather than store it on your mail server, it will redirect all mail to another single email address where it is dealt with appropriately. This kind of account is useful for redirecting your emails to a common POP3 box.
• Aliases are names that can be used to identify different types of email account, redirecting them to POP3 mailboxes on the server or other addresses, where they are processed again if necessary. What happens to the emails will depend on whom they are being sent to. A catch all alias is often used to collect and deal with email sent to people or departments not recognised by your mail server.
• Autoresponders are not an email account in their own right, however they do have their own email address and simply reply to anyone that emails them for information. They are useful if you want to send out pre-prepared information to people requesting it, as opposed to you replying to all the requests manually.
  

FTP Access

One other thing that is common amongst paid hosting accounts is FTP access. FTP programs allow you to upload files and to edit and delete your content on the server much more quickly than using a web-based interface. If you are hosting on a *nix system, you will also be able to change your file permission settings using FTP.

One of the better features I've seen offered with hosting, is the ability for you to create your own FTP accounts. This is great when you have someone helping out on the site or if you want to share your web space while keeping your user's files separate from your own. How hosts go about this can vary.

Some hosts will let you act like a mini hosting company, where FTP accounts that you create takes them to a special users folder specifically for their files; keeping them from your main files. Other hosts will allow you to create FTP accounts that you can define exactly which folders they have access to, and exactly what they can (and can't) do with them.

While having the ability to create multiple FTP accounts may seem trivial if you don't intend to host other sites on your web space; it can be useful for allowing temporary or permanent access to anyone helping you with your site, without you ever needing to give out your own FTP account details. Now that is a feature worth having!