Top Web Hosters

Wordpress Hosting

2007-12-19T17:59:00.000+05:30

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

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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

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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!

How to estimate your website hosting needs?

2007-12-19T17:48:00.000+05:30

I write this article especially for people who are new to web hosting. This is why I will only talk about the basic needs (in a shared hosting environment): space, bandwidth. Most of the people looking for advanced features (scripting, databases) already know what they want/need anyway.

So let's start with the space. Web space (disk space) is the amount of data you can store on the hard disk of the web server. Each web hosting accound comes with a certain amount of space, usually over 50 MB and less than 1000 MB.

Obviously, the amount of needed space depends on the size of the website. Most websites are composed of html (text) pages with a few images (gifs or jpegs) or even a little bit of Flash animation. Text is very economical; it occupies very little space. Images and flash are more expensive; they require a lot of space. If you're new to the web you might think it's great to have a lot of colorful images to make your website really beautiful. Don't make this common mistake!

Your aim should be to say as much as you can on a page while maintaining it's size under 50-60 KB including images. The reason? There are still lots of people using slow dial-up connections of under 56 Kbps. For them a 150 KB will take more that 21 seconds to load. A 60 KB page will take more than 8 seconds to load. That's still a lot of time! A good page size is under 30 KB. A maximum page size is 50-60 KB.

Considering an average page size of 30 KB, you can put approximately 33 pages on 1Mb of space. If you have 10 MB of space available, you could host 330 pages. I only wish I had so many pages to put online. Don't worry, I'm working on it!

The idea is this: unless you run a busy forum your needs for space are likely to be rather modest. Just keep in mind to achieve an average of 30KB/page and you should be more than fine even with 10 MB of web space.

Bandwidth is the amount of data that you're allowed to transfer per month. It includes all uploads and downloads regardless of the protocol used (HTTP, FTP, POP etc.). Bandwidth depends very much on the average page size, but it also depends on the number of visitors your website will have and the average number of pages they visit. For an average page size of 30 KB, 20,000 visitors per month and 3 pages per visitor your website will need about 1800 MB (1.8 GB) of bandwidth per month. Most low cost hosting packages include that amount of bandwidth. Not to mention that 20,000 visitors per month is only a dream for most websites. Most don't even have 2,000 visitors per month.

I took you through all those numbers just to give you an idea how to estimate your needs. If you're just launching your website you will not need neither a huge amount of space, neither a huge amount of bandwidth. For 99% of people a hosting account with 10MB of space and 1Gb is more than enough.

Conclusion: Unless you have reasons to believe that your website will definitely have lots of visitors and unless you'll offer movies or music for download (legally of course ), I see little reason for you to worry about space and bandwidth.

Just make your own calculations and also try to make sure that the host you choose allows account upgrades. That is to make sure you will be able to get more space and/or bandwidth if/when you need it without going through all the trouble of changing hosts.

Web Hosting and Hosting Reviews

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We are all aware of the significant role of the Internet in today’s world. Information on everything imaginable can be found on the Internet and it has brought together people from all over the world in creating a global knowledge pool. This has been made possible by the advent of Web Hosting. This term refers to the provision of Web space and Internet browsing facilities given by a server to its client. Individuals or their companies can use the World Wide Web by using this feature and carve out a space for their enterprise functions. The web hosts, who provide their clients with space on their servers so that they can place various matter on the Internet, have to make sure that they provide top Web Hosting to serve the purpose of their clients. This has to be done to give the client a service optimum to the money they are spending.

Many of the Web Hosts claim to give their clients an uptime of 99+% so that they are accessible to potential customers through the Internet. This can vary in trying circumstances due to the host server’s maintenance issues. There is a multitude of Best Web Hosting services available for the customer today. The options include Free Web Hosting and Paid Web Hosting, which offer features suited to the needs of the client. It is evident that the features of paid web hosting will be more as compared to the free web hosting, where revenue generation is generally due to advertisements. You must be able to establish the kind of services you want and based on that, you should search for the relevant web host. While searching for the right host, it is a good exercise to opt for Web Hosting Reviews as they give an insight into the credibility and features of a Web Service Provider. These can prove to be very handy in determining the best provider to suit your customized needs.

Web Hosting Reviews help in segregating the dishonest service providers from the sea of service hosts available in the market today. Many of the Web Hosts in the industry can be deceitful and make false promises to the customers. Such a practice can be brought to light using Web Hosting Reviews so that the future clients can know of the host’ credibility and choose wisely. This exercise also educates the client of other important aspects of web hosting so that they can be armed with better information. You can get the Best Web Hosting services after you have done your research and are finally ready to launch your company on the Internet to make the most out of the present boom in the industry. You must be very careful in choosing the Web Host so that your experience on the Internet is a pleasurable one and gets you the results you aim for. With this piece of advice, it is hoped that the client will choose the Best Web Hosting for his/her needs and benefit the most out of it.

Author: This original article is the property of Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com).

Features of a Web Hosting

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Before hosting a web site on a web server so that millions around the world can view your site, a lot of efforts is made to provide the site with a good content. Experts are hired to provide a good and meaningful content to a site. A meaningful content attracts a user and provides him the necessary information. Millions of dollars are spent so as to promote a site. To continuously get traffic to a site, various techniques are practiced.

Advertisements are posted on the websites, and the sites earn a large amount of money from these advertisements. Companies today pay quite a sum of money to increase the ranking of their site. Apart from advertisements and promotions, a quality web hosting server is a necessity. Web hosting is a technique that facilitates the servers to host the site.

There are a number of companies that provide web hosting facility to users. Some of them provide the service for free while others charge you. However, it is advisable that you select a paid web hosting service as you will be provided with customer service and uptime guarantee, which is not the case with service providers that provide the facility for free. Also, if a person requires saving a large number of images and graphics, a free service will not serve the purpose. There are various kinds of web hosting, they are,

Reseller hosting
E-mail hosting
Clustered hosting
Free hosting
File hosting
Game server hosting
Shared hosting
Video hosting
Blog hosting
Image hosting
Wiki farms
Guild hosting
DNS hosting

Since there are several web hosting companies available, you should select the best web hosting service provider. Narrow down the number of service providers as per your need and budget. The most important point to be kept in mind is not to subscribe for the feature that you may not use. It is advisable that you read blogs and web hosting reviews on the Internet. It will give you a true picture of the quality of the services provided by web hosts service providers.
The sites give rankings to a number of service providers on the basis of the feedbacks provided by the users.

Other factors that must be considered while subscribing to a web service provider are,

reputation
server space
control panel
bandwidth
script access
support

The service providers should be compared on the basis of their customer service support staff, traffic, price and space. The additional features differ from one provider to another. It is recommended that you select the company that suits your needs instead of selecting a top web hosting service provider that may or may not be affordable.

There is a very high possibility that you may face problems in the web hosting process. In such a case, only a company that provides 24 hour customer service will be useful. Server space and bandwidth should be considered as per your usage. It is important to choose a good quality web hosting service provider as it increases effectiveness of your organization.

Author: This original article is the property of Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com).

Changing Web Hosting Companies

2007-12-19T17:44:00.001+05:30

There sometimes comes a time when individuals or companies find that they are no longer satisfied with the services that their current web hosting company provides. Perhaps it’s a matter of not enough storage space or bandwidth, or it may be a simple matter of customer service that makes the individual want to change to a new company. Changing to a new company may sound like the ideal solution but many people shy away from this due to the complexity of switching companies. But it doesn’t have to be that complex and if one isn’t satisfied with their web hosting company, they should definitely make the switch. There are just a few things to keep in mind.

The first thing to keep in mind is to keep the account with the existing company open. This will ensure that the website will always be running while the individual is trying to find someone else. One then needs to create their new account. While doing this, it’s important to make sure that the new web hosting company will be able to provide the things that the old company could not. It’s usually wise to opt for a web hosting service that is well known. This will help enhance your site.

Once the new web host has been selected the individual just needs to move on to finalize what package they want that is offered by the company and to set up their new account. The next step is to download the old account files and then have them uploaded to the new account. This is a fairly easy task and can be accomplished simply by first connecting to the old provider’s FTP and then to the FTP of the new host. It’s still important not to cancel the old account at this time. To ensure that one is still receiving every email, it’s also important to keep the same email addresses.

Next one needs to check the website to make sure that all the files have been properly updated and that any web links are fully operational. The domain name servers can then be changed once the website is showing satisfactory results. The domain name server is usually obtained once the individual is registered with the web host. They can also be provided by domain registrars and if that’s the case, the domain provider should be contacted so they can replace the previous name servers with the new one.

The new domain servers will generally take anywhere between twenty-four and forty-eight hours to be up and running and therefore, the old web host is responsible for the website in the meantime. This is why cancelling the old service should be the very last thing you do. Once the new account has been activated, the old account can be cancelled.

Author: This original article is the property of Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com).

How to Make Money with Web Hosting?

2007-12-19T17:42:00.000+05:30

We all know that web hosting is the basis of all web sites. It helps us attract visitors, it displays what we are desperately trying to get across, and it allows us to survive in the cut throat internet world. While these are all important qualities that come with web hosting, there are many other opportunities. Dying to make extra cash? Surprisingly, web hosting can actually help with your bills. In a few simple steps, you will be on your way to a richer lifestyle.

Fortunately, there is a new trend in the web industry. Reseller Hosting, which consists of purchasing a web hosting package and reselling it for a larger price, has been making webmasters just a few cents richer. Although this sounds like a daunting task, it actually only requires a large amount of space. Once the webmaster acquires such a large server and bandwidth, he/she is able to divide it up among other people. As long as they are willing to pay a monthly fee, you will never get screwed over.

Regardless of how much money you want to make, purchasing this re-seller hosting does not cost much. For an average of $30/month, you can purchase enough space to make a profit. While all of these websites will be on a shared server, the majority of webmasters do not mind this downside. After all, not everyone can shell out thousands a month just to acquire their own dedicated server. Once you have found a few loyal customers who will not create any illegal material, you will be generating a profit every single month out of the year. Fortunately, until you stop your hosting, you will never be out of a job.

In order to sell this type of hosting, you absolutely need to network. Regrettably, there are many webmasters trying to follow the trend. For this reason alone, you should look in unpopulated areas. Try and find a website or forum that has not yet been tackled by other masses of website owners. For instance, find websites similar to your own. If you do not have one, look on webmaster-related forums such as Digital Point or Webmaster-Talk. These areas are populated with thousands of interested clients, who will be more than happy to jump on the bandwagon, if you do have a great deal.

Still desperately trying to find other ways to market? Many website owners advertise through blogs and buy text link ads. As a result, people will be more apt to find what you are offering. If this doesn't work, you could even start marketing in a local newspaper or a newsletter that goes out to professional companies who are always looking for alternatives. Nevertheless, there are plenty of consumers out there. You just need to be creative and put in the effort, in order to get anywhere.

For years web hosting has been flooding the market. However, it has just recently become a form of revenue for webmasters who just don't own their own web hosting company. It is a wonderful alternative to an additional part time job, especially if this is what you love to do. Networking with others, controlling a server, while working on your website certainly sounds like the perfect occupation.

Author: This original article is the property of Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com).

Web Hosting Instructions

2007-12-19T17:41:00.001+05:30

Web domains. Hosting. Content. These are the three top priorities for any webmaster, regardless of how experienced they are. Unfortunately, these three essentials often leave people in the dark, as there are dozens of companies offering the “same” packages for different prices. With an overflow of routes you could take, it can get mind boggling to figure out the appropriate steps. For this reason, instructions are essential if you are looking for a smooth path.

The first thing you should do is make a list of what your current goals are. If you are making a professional site, you'll need a secure and reliable host. For instance, if you know that your website will reach thousands of people within a few months, perhaps you should find a web hosting package that includes extra bandwidth. You need additional space, especially if visitors are constantly going to be accessing your website. On the other hand, if you are just experimenting, you should stick to the free hosting packages. Geocities or Angel Fire certainly provides a basic package, which will leave you satisfied. After all, you do not need bells and whistles if you aren't serious about the website in the long run. If you do end up changing your mind, you can always switch services and transfer your website.

Once you have made your decision, you need to find a reputable service. While searching for hosting companies on Google may seem appropriate, it often stems bad results. It is important to remember that just because it is listed on a search engine, doesn't mean it is 100% safe and legit. Therefore, if you do find a potential company, you should get a second opinion. It is usually smart to join a webmaster related forum like SitePoint to discuss such matters. This way you can hear about other people's experiences and what companies to avoid. Additional references from friends or family would also be ideal.

After picking a host, you will need to provide your credit card information. For many users, 3ix.org is a favorite, as it rarely charges you much. Surprisingly, there are discount coupon codes you can acquire through the internet, to also help you with your initial fee. Due to the fact that you have to include your private information, it is absolutely crucial to make sure you find a legit business. The last thing you want is to lose any money. Therefore, you should google their name and check out the reviews from fellow users. This will most definitely make all of the difference, especially if you find out that they are a fraud.

For website beginners, web hosting doesn't have to be difficult or even too time consuming. As long as you find reputable sources, second opinions, and a great easy to use package, you are well on your way to website success. With these instructions in mind, there should be no frustrations or year long debates on what company to use. It is quite simple, once you get in the webmaster's frame of mind.

Author: This original article is the property of Web Hosting Geeks (http://webhostinggeeks.com). Web Hosting Geeks provides independent customer and webmaster reviews of top 10 web hosting providers. Top web hosting reviews, best web hosting awards, web host rating, web hosting articles and more.

Which Web Hosting is Best For You?

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With thousands of beginners trying their hand at websites, it is certain that the market is becoming quite crowded. From music blogs to gossip communities and technological havens – these online avenues can be a wonderful hobby for people who just want an audience. After all, who wouldn't want to be heard among thousands of visitors every day? For this reason alone, websites are one of the most popular forms of entertainment. While making a website is essential, the majority of beginners do not realize that web hosting is even more important.

In simpler terms, web hosting provides you with the space to create your masterpiece. When you design your layout, post thousands of pictures, and even set up a chat room, you absolutely need a place to do so. For instance, if you were to do something like this outside of the virtual world, and build a theatre, wouldn't you need your own space? Luckily, web hosting is extremely affordable and can be easy for even the beginners to use.

After you purchase a domain name, the next step is to find a company that will host your website. There are many different paths you can take to do this, but it depends on your main goals. Therefore, the first thing you need to do is ask yourself why you want to create a website. Is it for personal use – simply to post your pictures from college? Or perhaps your dream is to create the most popular music website on the internet. Regardless of your priorities, companies have built specific web hosting packages based around your needs.

If you are looking to just post pictures or create something for fun, a free web hosting company is the way to go. There are many of these around the web, including Geocities and AngelFire. These two companies are dedicated to helping beginners. As a result, new webmasters do not need to know extensive HTML or CSS. In this day and age, it is quite easy to build a masterpiece. While these hosts give you a large amount of space and freedom, there are downsides. The majority of companies will stick pop up advertisements on your space, in order for them to market their company. Unfortunately, this is an annoyance for most, and can cause visitors to leave immediately. Luckily, Geocities lets you close the box when you enter the website. Nevertheless, if you are looking for an easy website and do not care about visitors, you simply should try it out.

On the other hand, if you are looking for something a bit more professional, you should be emptying your wallet. Providentially, 3ix.org and GoDaddy are two companies that offer extremely cheap website hosting. This means that you can easily pay $12/year just for an abundance of space. Still looking for more features? These companies will let you add on everything from FrontPage Maker to extra bandwidth. If you are serious about your venture, these are places to check out.

Web hosting may sound like a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be difficult. With so many beginners flooding the internet, companies have put it upon themselves to make these programs much easier to use. As long as you can type in your name, have overflowing creativity and an e-mail address, the opportunities are endless.

Web Hosting Guide

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Looking for and buying a reliable web hosting solution is an imperative decision. Whether you are doing online business, providing important information or sharing views online on a common interest, you need a reliable web hosting service that will allow online visitors to browse through your site effortlessly. It is only powerful web hosting that allows your website to be downloaded, browsed and updated in minimal time.

Trying to identify a web host can be a very daunting task especially when there are so many available nowadays and all of them promise one thing or another. Hence, it is crucial that before you jump in, you do your own homework or research for selecting the most appropriate web hosting company for your website.

With the changing trend of technology, web hosts are also changing. Most of them provide various services in addition to their basic ones. Say if you are running an e-commerce website, then of course you need high end security and a medium through which you can manage your web content efficiently. There are many tools that facilitate this, however if your web hosting service is not reliable then you can miss out on serious revenues and prospective clients.

Once you have determined and identified what web hosting services you require for your online business, it is then time to enlist certain web hosting features and options you must consider. You can find below some of the most important aspects of web hosting:

Disk space and bandwidth

You should know how much space your website would need and approximate data it will generate. When we talk about disk space, well, it’s actually the amount of storage assigned to you by the web hosting provider. The bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is allowed to access and leave your website. In case your website has a lot of graphics then you would require higher storage area and greater bandwidth.

Programming tools and the OS

You need to be sure that your website is uploaded through secure servers using the latest Operating System. Most web hosts run on a UNIX based operating system, usually Linux or BSD. For the running of various web applications you would require ASP, .NET, MS SQL, SBS and for these you need a Window based host.

Pricing Aspect

You need to compare pricing before you finalize a web hosting service. Some may provide you better services but at low pricing. It’s not always true that the best hosting services are always the most expensive. Do your research and then finalize.

Support, Security, Guaranteed uptime and Backups

Security and backups are two very important aspects that you need to consider. You should always choose a web hosting service with reliable telephone support. Some also offer 24/7 support through local or toll-free numbers. In case you are running an ecommerce website then security is one aspect that you just cannot discard. Your web hosting service provider should be such that they can monitor things round the clock and ensure no unwanted intruder can hack your site. After all it’s your website and it is really worth looking into this aspect of web hosting.

How to Choose Good Webhosting?

2007-12-12T00:41:00.000+05:30

The world wide web is made up of techies as well as non-techies. Many websites are designed and maintained by non techies. While some seek professional help in hosting and maintaining a site many like to handle most of the work themselves.

What every successful web site needs is a web host who is affordable, dependable, and provides all the little things a site needs. There are so many providers each with positive as well as negative opinions. It is very hard to say who is the best and which one will suit your needs.

As a concerned individual you must try and learn how the web works and make a list of important criteria. Resist believing in advertisements, self promotional blurbs, sites that serve as affiliates to web hosts, web hosts that feature top 12/25 listings, and so on.

* The first step is to know what you need in terms of a web host. Write down what the most important features are.

* Study what different web hosting plans provide. Think present needs as well as future. If your site is small but poised for growth then you would need to select a plan accordingly.

* Consider aspects like server type, disk space, bandwidth, and other facilities like back ups and email accounts provided by each web host you are considering.

* Read all you can about free web hosting, shared hosting, dedicated hosting, and collocated hosting

In order to select the right web host you must make comparisons. State your needs and ask for details from several web hosts. Ensure that the plans include features you will need.

Evaluate each plan based on price; uptime, service, and customer support. To have a successful website the most important role is that of your web host. Choose one that will not just have the site running but will have online support in terms of a great indepth FAQs section, a 24/7 support for serious problems, and a system which assigns priority to problems. This innovative channel will ensure that among the main complaints or glitches the severe or serious ones will be attended to first.

Important considerations are security with threats like hacking, DNS poisoning, cross site scripting, spam, phishing and more it is absolutely necessary that the web host is multi-layered. Convince yourself about security before signing up.

Always view things in relation to the efficient functioning of your web site and ensure that the contract has leeway for you to change a plan or host when the need arises with no loss at all to your site and business. And to begin with take a short term contract even if a long term offers you great savings. Once your site is functional and all problems non -existent there should be no problem at all taking on a long term contract.

Before signing on the dotted line seek answers to questions like: reliability do they offer a 95% uptime guarantee; performance, does the host have T3 lines connected directly to the internet; what kind of servers do they have, Pentium Pros, Sun Sparc Stations, running windows NT, and so on; concerns about control and ability to utilize background applications like custom CGI scripts; check compatibility of running systems as well as software.

Choose a web host with care and you will be able to enjoy the challenges of the World Wide Web.

Web Hosting? What is it?

2007-12-12T00:15:00.000+05:30

Web hosting is a type of internet hosting service that allows people to make their websites available to the public via the world wide web. For the most part, visitors come to your web site via a search engine through an organic search or through paid advertising. However, regardless how they reach you on the internet, you are available on the internet because you have a web host. Web hosting companies provide space on a server and allow access to the website via internet connectivity. The type of web hosting service you have depends are on your needs in terms of the amount of control you want over the technology used to host your site and the maintenance. The cheaper the web hosting service you have, the less control you have. However, regardless of how affordable or expensive the web hosting service is does not indicate the benefits you might have from the service.

There are several different types of webhosting services. The main types are shared webhosting and dedicated webhosting. Shared webhosting is the most basic web hosting service and you have the least control over the technology that hosts your site. Dedicated webhosting, otherwise known as a dedicated server or managed web hosting, allows you a bit more control in that you can choose the technology and hardware that your server has. Below is a description of each type along with a description of another type of web hosting service, reseller hosting.

The basic web hosting service is relatively inexpensive since many websites reside on the same server. This is called shared webhosting. Since several websites reside on the same server, the costs are shared between the individuals on the server. On the server, each website is contained within its own partition and the website owners can create their own script such as HTML, PHP, Javascript or any other script that makes the website useful for the webmaster and the visitors. Shared webhosting is widely used by many businesses and hobbyists on the web.

Dedicated hosting is for individuals that want to have their own server. You get to specify the type of hardware you want and do not share space with any other websites. Additionally, you can host several sites on the same server depending on space capacity and the terms set by the dedicated server webhost.

A third type of web hosting is called reseller hosting. Reseller hosting allows individuals to sell their hosting space. Many reseller hosting companies require that you have a dedicated server for this service. The benefit of reseller hosting is that you get to sell the space. For those starting up an internet business such as website design, reseller hosting has the benefits of allowing you to create a second income besides the service your company initially provides.