Many businesses, from one-man-bands to multi-national corporations, have a web-presence these days. i.e. They have a website telling their customers about their companies: what they do, where they're based, their company history, how they're different from their competitors, etc. Many of these businesses also sell products and/or services online.
If you own a business and wish to have a presence in cyberspace, then you need to consider buying a package from a web hosting company.
Web hosting refers to the process of renting computer space and bandwidth (data transfer capacity) from a company so that you can make your website visible to the outside world.
Put simply, you buy an allocated space on a computer from a hosting company, then transfer the files of your website to this computer. Your website then becomes available to users around the world, and this enables them to browse your website, as well as download files and buy products and services from you.
Domain Name
First of all, you need to choose a domain name for your website. A domain name is simply an address for your website. Examples are www.microsoft.com and www.yahoo.com. Avoid choosing a domain name which is too long or too complicated for users to remember.
Design Your Website
There are three ways to get your website designed:
1. You can do it yourself. There are many website authoring software packages available on the market. Two popular packages are Microsoft Frontpage and Macromedia Dreamweaver. With these programs, you can design and edit your web pages easily and see instantly how they will look to the users.
2. Some companies offer an easy way for you to create your website by providing templates for you to choose from. With this type of service, all you have to do is choose a layout from a number of pre-defined templates, select some color, font and graphics options, enter some text, and you'll end up with a decent-looking website.
3. Get a web design company to do it for you. This is the most expensive option but you will end up with a more professional and stylish website, looking exactly the way you want it to look.
Getting a web host
Now that you have chosen your domain name and have designed your website, you need to find a web hosting company.
There are thousands of hosting companies out there. Search the web for a company with a good reputation and offers the kind of services you need. Friends may be able to recommend a reputable company. We recommend .
Next, select a web hosting package to suit your needs and sign up for an account. Usually you'll pay for the hosting service by credit card online. If you have not already registered your domain name elsewhere, you'll have the option to do so with your hosting company.
Once payment has been processed, you'll receive a confirmation email with details about your hosting package. Take some time to read this email carefully as it contains information on how to log on to your hosting account.
Next you'll have to upload all the HTML pages, graphics and other files on to your web space. This can be done via the control panel on your website, or by using an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program such as CuteFTP.
Now that your website is online, users from around the world will be able to view it, so make sure that the information it contains (such as your email address and telephone number) is up-to-date. This is particularly important if you will be using your website to sell products and services.
Showing newest 32 of 36 posts from October 2008. Show older posts
Showing newest 32 of 36 posts from October 2008. Show older posts
Monday, October 27, 2008
How VOIP Has Helped Change Web Hosting
There is really no stopping VOIP (voice over internet protocol) and internet telephony in general. This technology has rapidly and relentlessly spread its' tentacles right across the net within a very short period of time and now stands as a clear threat to the old established phone companies around the world and the world of communications and telecommunications as we knew it. In the process VOIP has helped change web hosting in many ways.
Mostly it has placed demands on web hosting that were previously just not there. VOIP requires a stable and extremely reliable link and excellent service from a web host to be able to work efficiently. The fact that the corporate world has quickly embraced VOIP, saving colossal fortunes in phone company bills and associated costs has meant that only the better web hosting enterprises have benefited from the windfall.
With non-VOIP web hosting it is extremely easy to get away with shoddy and unreliable service. But with VOIP, and especially where most corporate companies require communications lines to be left open all the time, shoddy or poor quality web hosting enterprises are usually quickly identified and abandoned. This is a far cry from the early days of web hosting where many web host servers were situated in cellars somewhere and school dorms. They were mostly run by hobbyists as an extremely profitable part-time enterprise that virtually required very little attention that could occasionally be given during their spare time.
They mostly got away with this level of service because the Internet was still relatively new in those days. Besides with the lack of awareness in those days most people hardly cared, let alone fully understood the impact web hosting has on any ecommerce or online venture. Not being able to get through to a website was really not such a big deal.
We have indeed come a long way because these days' webmasters spend fortunes in cash and time to attract traffic and usually get very upset when their hard won traffic cannot access their site for any reason. It means that they are losing money and at the same time damaging their reputations and public image.
Mostly it has placed demands on web hosting that were previously just not there. VOIP requires a stable and extremely reliable link and excellent service from a web host to be able to work efficiently. The fact that the corporate world has quickly embraced VOIP, saving colossal fortunes in phone company bills and associated costs has meant that only the better web hosting enterprises have benefited from the windfall.
With non-VOIP web hosting it is extremely easy to get away with shoddy and unreliable service. But with VOIP, and especially where most corporate companies require communications lines to be left open all the time, shoddy or poor quality web hosting enterprises are usually quickly identified and abandoned. This is a far cry from the early days of web hosting where many web host servers were situated in cellars somewhere and school dorms. They were mostly run by hobbyists as an extremely profitable part-time enterprise that virtually required very little attention that could occasionally be given during their spare time.
They mostly got away with this level of service because the Internet was still relatively new in those days. Besides with the lack of awareness in those days most people hardly cared, let alone fully understood the impact web hosting has on any ecommerce or online venture. Not being able to get through to a website was really not such a big deal.
We have indeed come a long way because these days' webmasters spend fortunes in cash and time to attract traffic and usually get very upset when their hard won traffic cannot access their site for any reason. It means that they are losing money and at the same time damaging their reputations and public image.
Beware of the Hidden Perils of Low Cost Hosting
Some folks classify low cost web hosting on the same level as free web hosting and while this may seem a little harsh, there are certain factors one needs to be very careful about when going for low cost web hosts.
One of these is downtime. There is really no point in spending so much time and money constructing a good site and then ending up in a situation where people cannot access your site. So when choosing your web host from the thousands of low cost web hosts out there, there are a few things you should do to ensure that downtime does not kill your business as you use a low cost web host.
Beware of the bandwidth time bomb
It is important to digest properly how much bandwidth and storage space you are getting for your monthly fee. Bandwidth is a real time bomb because one day your site will become very popular and attract very high traffic that will require more bandwidth. This could happen sooner than you expect and it makes plenty of sense to find out exactly what your options are when you suddenly need a lot more bandwidth. Otherwise you risk having extended downtime when it is most critical that you do not have it, so as to retain the high traffic that you are attracting.
Get technical and you will know if the host has a stable server system
Most good web hosting services will post specifications of their web servers on their sites. Analyzing this information will help a client get a good idea of how stable the web host's server system is. The more stable, the less the likelihood of frequent downtimes. Most people are not technical, but almost everybody knows somebody who can help them analyze the technical jargon at the web hosts' site.
Check your site several times during the day and the night too
Most webmasters get so busy that they hardly have the time to check their own sites. It is absolutely critical that this is done. It is even worth the effort and cash of hiring somebody to do it for you on a regular basis through out the day. Not only should you get your site's accessibility regular tested but you should also test everything on the site and make sure that it works. This is the only way your visitors are going to gauge you and what sort of business you run, so take the trouble to make sure that your site is not only up all the time, but that it is also running properly.
In conclusion, it is possible to get a low cost host who delivers, but it will require a lot of work and checking from your end. A web host directory will obviously be very useful here.
One of these is downtime. There is really no point in spending so much time and money constructing a good site and then ending up in a situation where people cannot access your site. So when choosing your web host from the thousands of low cost web hosts out there, there are a few things you should do to ensure that downtime does not kill your business as you use a low cost web host.
Beware of the bandwidth time bomb
It is important to digest properly how much bandwidth and storage space you are getting for your monthly fee. Bandwidth is a real time bomb because one day your site will become very popular and attract very high traffic that will require more bandwidth. This could happen sooner than you expect and it makes plenty of sense to find out exactly what your options are when you suddenly need a lot more bandwidth. Otherwise you risk having extended downtime when it is most critical that you do not have it, so as to retain the high traffic that you are attracting.
Get technical and you will know if the host has a stable server system
Most good web hosting services will post specifications of their web servers on their sites. Analyzing this information will help a client get a good idea of how stable the web host's server system is. The more stable, the less the likelihood of frequent downtimes. Most people are not technical, but almost everybody knows somebody who can help them analyze the technical jargon at the web hosts' site.
Check your site several times during the day and the night too
Most webmasters get so busy that they hardly have the time to check their own sites. It is absolutely critical that this is done. It is even worth the effort and cash of hiring somebody to do it for you on a regular basis through out the day. Not only should you get your site's accessibility regular tested but you should also test everything on the site and make sure that it works. This is the only way your visitors are going to gauge you and what sort of business you run, so take the trouble to make sure that your site is not only up all the time, but that it is also running properly.
In conclusion, it is possible to get a low cost host who delivers, but it will require a lot of work and checking from your end. A web host directory will obviously be very useful here.
Top 5 Mistakes that May Drive Your Visitors Away in Less Than 2 Minutes
You took the leap. You set up a website to display your importantmessage. Congratulations! As in life, first impressions are importanton the web. Web researchers found that you have about 2 minutes tomake that first impression a good one. Visitors will judge your sitein those few seconds on its professionalism and appropriateness towhat they are looking for.
In fact, a website can lose about one-third of its potentialcustomers due to poor design, according to a recent user studyconducted by Jakob Nielson, Ph.D., a principal of the Fremont Calif.-based Nielson Norman Group.
Take a long hard look at your site. Or ask a friend to give you abrutally honest review of your site. Does it pass the test ofprofessionalism? Are the graphics of good quality and clear? Is theformatting, font size and font colors consistent throughout the site?Or does your site commit design mistakes that speak AMATEUR as soonas it loads?
There are some common mistakes website owners make that may causevisitors to leave early. Correct these top 5 mistakes to make sureyour visitors stay long enough to read your important message:
Mistake #1 They use large, squeezed or out of portion graphics.
Beginning website owners mistakenly post large graphics that seemlike a good idea but usually will bloat the website. Large graphicswill slow your page load and turn away impatient web surfers beforethey have a chance to read your message. Even so, do use them forgraphics and photos help illustrate your communication and sellonline.
Solution: Use optimized, web-ready photos and graphics. Web WitTip: If a larger image is needed to help illustrate your message, adda link that says, "Click here to see larger image." That way largeimages that slow your page load will only be displayed by people whoreally need to see a larger image.
Mistake #2 They use distracting elements that blink, bounce, scrollor turn circles.
Most novice websters are sure this will get the attention of theirvisitors. It's true visitors may enjoy the cutesy elements or flashpresentations. But they may never focus on your important message aswell. Unless the flash empowers your presentation, use the adage"Less is More."
Solution: Limit or eliminate any distracting elements from yourwebsite.
Mistake #3 They use too many different formatting styles
Unless your formatting is consistent throughout your site, it willspell UNPROFESSIONAL to its visitors and may cause them to leaveearly. Inexperienced site owners change formatting with too manydifferent size, colors and styles of fonts throughout the site. Theycreate text blocks that are out of alignment.
Solution: Use a consistent style and size of text throughoutwebsite. CSS style sheets are helpful. Learn basic HTML and exploreCSS style sheets; it will improve your command of webbing for profit.
Mistake#4 They use colored backgrounds and graphics that make textillegible
Some colored backgrounds, graphics or textures make it difficult toread the type on a web page. Anything that hinders the readability ofyour message may cause visitors to give up and leave quickly.
Solution: Choose colors that will enhance readability of your site'smessage. Light backgrounds with dark text improves readability ofyour text every time.
Mistake#5 They use mismatched graphics that are inappropriate forthe content of the site.
Unseasoned site owners will sometimes use graphics or photos that donothing to help illustrate their message. For example, they choosecutesy stars and flowers on a site selling accounting services. Lookfor clipart and photos that will support your important message.
Solution: Select graphics or design elements that will harmonize andillustrate your site's message. Web Wit Tip: For non-techies like theauthor invest in inexpensive clipart/photo sets that will enhance andhelp illustrate your communications. Additionally, unless you aretraining to become a graphic artist look for graphic programs withtemplates to shorten your learning curve.
First impressions are important on the web. Follow the simple designtechniques above and stop turning your visitors away at the door. Useyour first few seconds to impress your visitors with simple designthat delivers your powerful message effectively.
In fact, a website can lose about one-third of its potentialcustomers due to poor design, according to a recent user studyconducted by Jakob Nielson, Ph.D., a principal of the Fremont Calif.-based Nielson Norman Group.
Take a long hard look at your site. Or ask a friend to give you abrutally honest review of your site. Does it pass the test ofprofessionalism? Are the graphics of good quality and clear? Is theformatting, font size and font colors consistent throughout the site?Or does your site commit design mistakes that speak AMATEUR as soonas it loads?
There are some common mistakes website owners make that may causevisitors to leave early. Correct these top 5 mistakes to make sureyour visitors stay long enough to read your important message:
Mistake #1 They use large, squeezed or out of portion graphics.
Beginning website owners mistakenly post large graphics that seemlike a good idea but usually will bloat the website. Large graphicswill slow your page load and turn away impatient web surfers beforethey have a chance to read your message. Even so, do use them forgraphics and photos help illustrate your communication and sellonline.
Solution: Use optimized, web-ready photos and graphics. Web WitTip: If a larger image is needed to help illustrate your message, adda link that says, "Click here to see larger image." That way largeimages that slow your page load will only be displayed by people whoreally need to see a larger image.
Mistake #2 They use distracting elements that blink, bounce, scrollor turn circles.
Most novice websters are sure this will get the attention of theirvisitors. It's true visitors may enjoy the cutesy elements or flashpresentations. But they may never focus on your important message aswell. Unless the flash empowers your presentation, use the adage"Less is More."
Solution: Limit or eliminate any distracting elements from yourwebsite.
Mistake #3 They use too many different formatting styles
Unless your formatting is consistent throughout your site, it willspell UNPROFESSIONAL to its visitors and may cause them to leaveearly. Inexperienced site owners change formatting with too manydifferent size, colors and styles of fonts throughout the site. Theycreate text blocks that are out of alignment.
Solution: Use a consistent style and size of text throughoutwebsite. CSS style sheets are helpful. Learn basic HTML and exploreCSS style sheets; it will improve your command of webbing for profit.
Mistake#4 They use colored backgrounds and graphics that make textillegible
Some colored backgrounds, graphics or textures make it difficult toread the type on a web page. Anything that hinders the readability ofyour message may cause visitors to give up and leave quickly.
Solution: Choose colors that will enhance readability of your site'smessage. Light backgrounds with dark text improves readability ofyour text every time.
Mistake#5 They use mismatched graphics that are inappropriate forthe content of the site.
Unseasoned site owners will sometimes use graphics or photos that donothing to help illustrate their message. For example, they choosecutesy stars and flowers on a site selling accounting services. Lookfor clipart and photos that will support your important message.
Solution: Select graphics or design elements that will harmonize andillustrate your site's message. Web Wit Tip: For non-techies like theauthor invest in inexpensive clipart/photo sets that will enhance andhelp illustrate your communications. Additionally, unless you aretraining to become a graphic artist look for graphic programs withtemplates to shorten your learning curve.
First impressions are important on the web. Follow the simple designtechniques above and stop turning your visitors away at the door. Useyour first few seconds to impress your visitors with simple designthat delivers your powerful message effectively.
How To Have Several Websites But Pay For Only One Websites Hosting
Many online entrepreneurs these days are faced with the problem of running several websites and having to maintain several web hosting accounts for the various sites. Actually there is a very simple and effective solution to this problem. The answer is to run sub domains. Although sub domains are very similar to having a site within a site, they are not simply additional web pages of an existing website. Each sub domain can have a website of it's own and completely separate from the main website.
What is a sub domain?
A sub domain in technical terms will be a folder or subdirectory located within one domain's root directory. Usually by looking at the addresses you will be able to tell that the two websites are really offshoots from the same thing. Sub domains have helped many companies prosper on a large scale online as smart entrepreneurs have established sub domains for various other businesses that are offshoots of their parent company.
What are the advantages of having sub domains?
There are many advantages of doing this, the first being that a business can experiment with dozens of other new businesses at minimal expense, since they will still be paying only one hosting bill all the time. This means that any new business started that does not quite work out can quietly be shut down with minimal trouble or effect. Imagine the pain of having to shut down a business after only few months when you have taken the trouble to register a separate domain name and probably even negotiated a separate web hosting account for a year.
Many times a new online business becomes much easier to establish and customers get to trust it much quicker if it is associated to an existing successful business. Sub domain addresses will usually clearly show a relation to the main parent company.
What are the disadvantages of having sub domains?
One of the very few downsides of using a sub domain is in the cases where a new business does not want to be associated with the parent website for one reason or another. For example the business could be very different and targeted at a completely different market such that an association with a parent company will only bring about confusion in the market.
Still this does not apply to many online entrepreneurs starting out and even many others who are already established. And therefore sub domains can be a neat and effective solution to many problems.
What is a sub domain?
A sub domain in technical terms will be a folder or subdirectory located within one domain's root directory. Usually by looking at the addresses you will be able to tell that the two websites are really offshoots from the same thing. Sub domains have helped many companies prosper on a large scale online as smart entrepreneurs have established sub domains for various other businesses that are offshoots of their parent company.
What are the advantages of having sub domains?
There are many advantages of doing this, the first being that a business can experiment with dozens of other new businesses at minimal expense, since they will still be paying only one hosting bill all the time. This means that any new business started that does not quite work out can quietly be shut down with minimal trouble or effect. Imagine the pain of having to shut down a business after only few months when you have taken the trouble to register a separate domain name and probably even negotiated a separate web hosting account for a year.
Many times a new online business becomes much easier to establish and customers get to trust it much quicker if it is associated to an existing successful business. Sub domain addresses will usually clearly show a relation to the main parent company.
What are the disadvantages of having sub domains?
One of the very few downsides of using a sub domain is in the cases where a new business does not want to be associated with the parent website for one reason or another. For example the business could be very different and targeted at a completely different market such that an association with a parent company will only bring about confusion in the market.
Still this does not apply to many online entrepreneurs starting out and even many others who are already established. And therefore sub domains can be a neat and effective solution to many problems.
Which Is The Better Server Operating System, Unix or Windows?
Anybody who decides to get a web hosting service or facility for their website will also soon be faced with the tough question of what server they will need. Will their website be run by a Windows server operating system or will they prefer to go for a Unix system?
Typical Windows servers will run on Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP, while Unix servers could be Linux or Open BSD to name just two. The truth is that both systems have there pros and cons.
If site stability and uptime are critical for you and your new website, then Unix should be your choice because they are generally thought to be superior in stability. Windows have the disadvantage that they usually require rebooting much more often. Still Windows are miles ahead when it comes to ease of use. A Windows server operating system will generally be much easier to operate and administer than its' Unix counterpart.
On the other hand, Unix, even with its' stability may not end up being so user-friendly, especially for non-techies. There is also a price to pay for the extra stability which is evident in Unix systems. Usually Unix machines will require their software to be updated on a very regular basis. All in all, Unix server operating systems are favored over windows as they are widely considered to be more stable.
Still if truth be told, when both systems are correctly installed, there is really very little difference and they will give you basically the same results. In effect this does not make this an easy decision to reach. In fact this is the main factor that complicates the issue, causing even more confusion and making it very difficult for the webmaster to make a decision either way. However for many, the final answer to the question of which server operating system is preferable, is quite often made by analyzing and comparing the costs of both and going with the more affordable option.
Typical Windows servers will run on Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP, while Unix servers could be Linux or Open BSD to name just two. The truth is that both systems have there pros and cons.
If site stability and uptime are critical for you and your new website, then Unix should be your choice because they are generally thought to be superior in stability. Windows have the disadvantage that they usually require rebooting much more often. Still Windows are miles ahead when it comes to ease of use. A Windows server operating system will generally be much easier to operate and administer than its' Unix counterpart.
On the other hand, Unix, even with its' stability may not end up being so user-friendly, especially for non-techies. There is also a price to pay for the extra stability which is evident in Unix systems. Usually Unix machines will require their software to be updated on a very regular basis. All in all, Unix server operating systems are favored over windows as they are widely considered to be more stable.
Still if truth be told, when both systems are correctly installed, there is really very little difference and they will give you basically the same results. In effect this does not make this an easy decision to reach. In fact this is the main factor that complicates the issue, causing even more confusion and making it very difficult for the webmaster to make a decision either way. However for many, the final answer to the question of which server operating system is preferable, is quite often made by analyzing and comparing the costs of both and going with the more affordable option.
Where to Get Cheap Web Hosting
First, to see if you can use cheap web hosting you need to know how much disk space you will need. How large is your website? How many pages, video files, music files, etc. do you need? Second, a cheap web hosting company will need to know how busy your sight will be. If your site is going to have a lot of visitors, cheap web hosting may not be for you. Third, how many email accounts do you need? Cheap web hosting companies do not usually provide many. Lastly, how much are you willing to spend? Cheap web hosting is not as technical as the more expensive web hosting.
If you go online, you can find a list of the top 10 cheap web hosting companies. The top 10 cheap web hosting companies are rated by their price, quality, and service provided. The cheap web hosting companies are priced between $4.95 and $19.95 a month. The cheap web hosting company's price varies on what kind of things you need. The disk space provided can be from 3000MB to 5000MB. The bandwidth varies from 40GB to 300GB. If this is not enough for you, then a cheap web hosting company is not an option for you. Most of these cheap web hosting companies offer free set up. This will make things much easier for you. Be aware of cheap web hosting that offers unlimited disk space. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
The top 10 web hosting companies reviewed are: Blue Host, Power Hosting, Pages Garden, Pro Logic Hosting, Easy CGI, Gigabyte Package, Yahoo! Hosting, iPower Web, Lunar pages, and Dot5 Web Hosting. All of these are very cheap web hosting companies. You will find them listed at top10webhosting.com. At this website you will also find customer testimonials and thorough listings about the cheap web hosting company's services they offer to you.
For those of you who still think that this is not cheap web hosting, you can also find free web hosting. It still comes with a price, however. Comcast offers free web hosting to anyone who subscribes to their internet service. You still have to pay for the internet service, but the web hosting is free. That's the best that can be done about cheap web hosting. Weigh the odds, and see which route is best for you.
If you go online, you can find a list of the top 10 cheap web hosting companies. The top 10 cheap web hosting companies are rated by their price, quality, and service provided. The cheap web hosting companies are priced between $4.95 and $19.95 a month. The cheap web hosting company's price varies on what kind of things you need. The disk space provided can be from 3000MB to 5000MB. The bandwidth varies from 40GB to 300GB. If this is not enough for you, then a cheap web hosting company is not an option for you. Most of these cheap web hosting companies offer free set up. This will make things much easier for you. Be aware of cheap web hosting that offers unlimited disk space. If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
The top 10 web hosting companies reviewed are: Blue Host, Power Hosting, Pages Garden, Pro Logic Hosting, Easy CGI, Gigabyte Package, Yahoo! Hosting, iPower Web, Lunar pages, and Dot5 Web Hosting. All of these are very cheap web hosting companies. You will find them listed at top10webhosting.com. At this website you will also find customer testimonials and thorough listings about the cheap web hosting company's services they offer to you.
For those of you who still think that this is not cheap web hosting, you can also find free web hosting. It still comes with a price, however. Comcast offers free web hosting to anyone who subscribes to their internet service. You still have to pay for the internet service, but the web hosting is free. That's the best that can be done about cheap web hosting. Weigh the odds, and see which route is best for you.
Tips About Low Cost Web Hosting Services
Here are some things you should know before finding a "cheap" or or low cost web hosting services.
You should pay very careful attention to the terms of use and the acceptable use policy of that low cost web host. You can find a good deal because cheap web hosting industry is very competitive but if a host is way too cheap for the features it offers compared to others, don't go with them.
Going with a low cost web host requires extra research: read the reviews of that host on this site, look for any information about them in the search engines, see how long they have been in business. Visit the support pages and see if you are comfortable with the level of support offered by this host. You can't expect to get the greatest and fastest support for every little problem you have by paying less than /month.
Such a business would fail soon because qualified support personnel costs money. Larger companies and Windows plans are usually more expensive. Cheap web hosts oversell space and bandwidth, counting on the fact that most people won't use them fully. This is normal and you shouldn't be kicked out if you do use all your allocated space and bandwidth. Low cost web hosts often don't fully control their servers - they might have a dedicated server with another company to make their costs lowest possible, so they are sometimes forced to rely on others to perform some physical tasks like replacing some hardware on the server.
You should pay very careful attention to the terms of use and the acceptable use policy of that low cost web host. You can find a good deal because cheap web hosting industry is very competitive but if a host is way too cheap for the features it offers compared to others, don't go with them.
Going with a low cost web host requires extra research: read the reviews of that host on this site, look for any information about them in the search engines, see how long they have been in business. Visit the support pages and see if you are comfortable with the level of support offered by this host. You can't expect to get the greatest and fastest support for every little problem you have by paying less than /month.
Such a business would fail soon because qualified support personnel costs money. Larger companies and Windows plans are usually more expensive. Cheap web hosts oversell space and bandwidth, counting on the fact that most people won't use them fully. This is normal and you shouldn't be kicked out if you do use all your allocated space and bandwidth. Low cost web hosts often don't fully control their servers - they might have a dedicated server with another company to make their costs lowest possible, so they are sometimes forced to rely on others to perform some physical tasks like replacing some hardware on the server.
Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Servers and Its Benefits!
What is a Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated server and why is it different than normal web hosting. Web hosting offers you limited control of how the server your web site is hosted on behaves. Normal hosting plans put many customers' accounts on a single server and you upload your files to that Server. Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated servers allow you to actually control your own server where you receive Admin access to install and run virtually anything YOU want on the server. You can host multiple web sites on the one server account, and even sell hosting and host other sites on your server.
I have referred to Dedicated and Virtual Dedicated Servers. You may ask, what is the difference? Virtual dedicated servers are similar to Dedicated servers as they offer many of the same features, but at a much lower price.
With a virtual dedicated server, the customer shares the server space with a limited number of other customers using the same server box. Each virtual dedicated server is isolated from the other accounts giving the user full control of their own server. Virtual dedicated servers are useful for companies and individuals that run complex applications that need the bandwidth, consistent performance, and flexibility of a virtual dedicated server.
With a dedicated server, you actually lease a server box that is dedicated to only you and is set up to your preferences. The dedicated server customer has exclusive rights to the server's bandwidth, memory and storage space. Also, a dedicated server account provides full control of any software installation on the server. Dedicated servers are useful for companies and individuals that run very-high-traffic Web sites or applications that need the bandwidth, versatility, and consistent performance of a dedicated box.
Dedicated / Virtual dedicated servers are an excellent choice to use for gaming sites, database management, shared hosting, and hosting of Web sites that receive high amounts of traffic.
Companies now offer your own customization of your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server. This allows you the flexibility to choose one of their popular pre-packaged plans, or go wild and customize and configure your own virtual dedicated server by selecting your own options.
One bonus that can help you decide on where to get your server from is the support they offer, the value they give you when signing up and what system you will actually be running the server on. With support, the standard now is to be offered 24x7 email, telephone and Web-based tech support, as well as you having access to modify your server 24x7. Sometimes a free offering when purchasing the server is given. You should look for companies that offer Free and quick setup of the server, so you may be running in no time.
So you have decided you need a Virtual Dedicated Server or Dedicated Server. Now what? You need to choose a company to purchase your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server from. Here is a company I recommend for purchasing your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server from.
Domains at Retail - offers 24x7 email, telephone and Web-based tech support for your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server, allows you to pick a pre-configured server or to customize your own server and will set up your account for free. Visit Domains at Retail at http://www.domainsatretail.com/wholesalehosting.html for your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server needs!
Good Luck with the purchase of your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server and start running your server today!
I have referred to Dedicated and Virtual Dedicated Servers. You may ask, what is the difference? Virtual dedicated servers are similar to Dedicated servers as they offer many of the same features, but at a much lower price.
With a virtual dedicated server, the customer shares the server space with a limited number of other customers using the same server box. Each virtual dedicated server is isolated from the other accounts giving the user full control of their own server. Virtual dedicated servers are useful for companies and individuals that run complex applications that need the bandwidth, consistent performance, and flexibility of a virtual dedicated server.
With a dedicated server, you actually lease a server box that is dedicated to only you and is set up to your preferences. The dedicated server customer has exclusive rights to the server's bandwidth, memory and storage space. Also, a dedicated server account provides full control of any software installation on the server. Dedicated servers are useful for companies and individuals that run very-high-traffic Web sites or applications that need the bandwidth, versatility, and consistent performance of a dedicated box.
Dedicated / Virtual dedicated servers are an excellent choice to use for gaming sites, database management, shared hosting, and hosting of Web sites that receive high amounts of traffic.
Companies now offer your own customization of your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server. This allows you the flexibility to choose one of their popular pre-packaged plans, or go wild and customize and configure your own virtual dedicated server by selecting your own options.
One bonus that can help you decide on where to get your server from is the support they offer, the value they give you when signing up and what system you will actually be running the server on. With support, the standard now is to be offered 24x7 email, telephone and Web-based tech support, as well as you having access to modify your server 24x7. Sometimes a free offering when purchasing the server is given. You should look for companies that offer Free and quick setup of the server, so you may be running in no time.
So you have decided you need a Virtual Dedicated Server or Dedicated Server. Now what? You need to choose a company to purchase your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server from. Here is a company I recommend for purchasing your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server from.
Domains at Retail - offers 24x7 email, telephone and Web-based tech support for your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server, allows you to pick a pre-configured server or to customize your own server and will set up your account for free. Visit Domains at Retail at http://www.domainsatretail.com/wholesalehosting.html for your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server needs!
Good Luck with the purchase of your Dedicated / Virtual Dedicated Server and start running your server today!
Linux Servers: Do You Understand the Difference?
First of all, some people are worried that they will not be able to use Linux hosting because they run Windows on their PCs. However, what operating system you run on your own PC is irrelevant to which web hosting environment you can use, because the latter is run remotely on a web server, where your website files will be uploaded.
Linux and Microsoft Windows are two different operating systems. Windows is a well-known household name and does not require much introduction. Linux is a new version of the Unix operating system. Both these operating systems make excellent environments for web hosting. However, there are some differences between them.
To help you decide whether Linux or Windows hosting is better for you, we look at the following elements:
Cost
Linux is known as an "open source" operating system. i.e. there is no licensing fees to pay. Therefore, compared to Windows, Linux is very cheap. Starting with Windows XP, Microsoft has begun enforcing software activation. This means that a single copy of Windows can only be installed on one computer. With Linux, once you own a copy, you are free to install it as many times as you wish on any number of computers.
Reliability
Linux is reputed to be very stable and reliable. This means that a Linux server is much less likely to crash than a Windows server. Subsequently, a Linux server will mean more 'up time' for your website.
Experience
Linux has many more years of experience than Windows in hosting.
Speed
There is no real difference in speed between Linux and Windows, but Linux is slightly faster in processing basic web pages.
Functionality
Windows support ASP (Active Server Pages), a Microsoft programming/scripting language, which allows you to build dynamically database-driven web pages by connecting to a Microsoft database such as SQL Server or Access. Linux does not support ASP nor Microsoft databases, but uses MySQL database instead.
If you use Microsoft Frontpage to create your website, it doesn't mean that you have to choose Windows hosting. All Linux accounts come free with Frontpage extensions, which allow you to upload your Frontpage website to your web space on a Linux server.
Scripts
There are many CGI programs available on the Internet. The majority of these are Perl scripts and have been developed on Linux / Unix web servers. So they tend to install more smoothly and operate more reliably on a Linux server. Moreover, many Perl scripts are downloadable from the Internet free of charge.
To summarise, most users find that Linux hosting is easier to use, more reliable, provides free, open source software and is much cheaper than Windows hosting. So unless you particularly need to use Windows specific features such as ASP and an Access database, it is probably a better choice to choose Linux over Windows.
Linux and Microsoft Windows are two different operating systems. Windows is a well-known household name and does not require much introduction. Linux is a new version of the Unix operating system. Both these operating systems make excellent environments for web hosting. However, there are some differences between them.
To help you decide whether Linux or Windows hosting is better for you, we look at the following elements:
Cost
Linux is known as an "open source" operating system. i.e. there is no licensing fees to pay. Therefore, compared to Windows, Linux is very cheap. Starting with Windows XP, Microsoft has begun enforcing software activation. This means that a single copy of Windows can only be installed on one computer. With Linux, once you own a copy, you are free to install it as many times as you wish on any number of computers.
Reliability
Linux is reputed to be very stable and reliable. This means that a Linux server is much less likely to crash than a Windows server. Subsequently, a Linux server will mean more 'up time' for your website.
Experience
Linux has many more years of experience than Windows in hosting.
Speed
There is no real difference in speed between Linux and Windows, but Linux is slightly faster in processing basic web pages.
Functionality
Windows support ASP (Active Server Pages), a Microsoft programming/scripting language, which allows you to build dynamically database-driven web pages by connecting to a Microsoft database such as SQL Server or Access. Linux does not support ASP nor Microsoft databases, but uses MySQL database instead.
If you use Microsoft Frontpage to create your website, it doesn't mean that you have to choose Windows hosting. All Linux accounts come free with Frontpage extensions, which allow you to upload your Frontpage website to your web space on a Linux server.
Scripts
There are many CGI programs available on the Internet. The majority of these are Perl scripts and have been developed on Linux / Unix web servers. So they tend to install more smoothly and operate more reliably on a Linux server. Moreover, many Perl scripts are downloadable from the Internet free of charge.
To summarise, most users find that Linux hosting is easier to use, more reliable, provides free, open source software and is much cheaper than Windows hosting. So unless you particularly need to use Windows specific features such as ASP and an Access database, it is probably a better choice to choose Linux over Windows.
Linux based Web Hosting
What is Linux based web Hosting? It is a web hosting account set on a server that runs on a Linux based operating system. A Linux based web hosting plan has several advantages as compared to hosting the server on a windows based operating system.
Some of the advantages of the Linux based web hosting are:
Cheaper: A linux based web hosting plan is always cheaper than the Windows based web hosting plan. The reason that a Linux based web hosting plan is cheaper is because the Linux in itself is a free operating system and so are various distributions of Linux. Hence, the web hosting company does not have to spend money buying the operating system or on licensing cost and the web hosting company transfers this savings in cost on the users that is you. Hence, the Linux based operating systems are cheaper.
Support for PHP/MySQL: PHP/MySQL is the most popular server side scripting language and database combination. It is very easy to create dynamic web site using PHP/MySQL and more over since these are also freely available there is ample support for both of them from the open source community. How is this support helpful to you? there are thousands of code samples and forums that discuss PHP and MySQL which makes coding simpler.
Embrace open standards: Linux, as an operating system in itself is open in nature and hence Linux based web hosting plans support many other open standards or platforms or open programming languages. Hence you can use programming languages like PERL or Python in Linux based web hosting plans. You can also use CGI in these plans if you are a fan of cgi although cgi is largely outdated these days.
Standardized Control Panel: Most Linux based web hosting plans have cpanel as a control panel. This control panel is not standardized but it can be called as a defacto standard as it is most commonly used. The main advantage of this is that since the control panel is standardized you will find it easier if you move from a web hosting company to other or if you want to move your web hosting account to other web hosting company. There will not be any compatibility issues.
Although above factors might make you think that linux based web hosting is the only thing you need to know, linux based web hosting might be difficult to manage if you have a dedicated unmanged linux based web hosting package. One more disadvantage of Linux based web hosting is that you wont be able to use any of the Microsoft technologies like ASP/ASP.NET and the .net framework in your website. Although there are alternatives for everything, .net technologies might be a important factor to consider.Having said above, if you are content with PHP/Python/perl and believe me these languages have libraries for just about everything then Linux based web hosting is best for you.
Some of the advantages of the Linux based web hosting are:
Cheaper: A linux based web hosting plan is always cheaper than the Windows based web hosting plan. The reason that a Linux based web hosting plan is cheaper is because the Linux in itself is a free operating system and so are various distributions of Linux. Hence, the web hosting company does not have to spend money buying the operating system or on licensing cost and the web hosting company transfers this savings in cost on the users that is you. Hence, the Linux based operating systems are cheaper.
Support for PHP/MySQL: PHP/MySQL is the most popular server side scripting language and database combination. It is very easy to create dynamic web site using PHP/MySQL and more over since these are also freely available there is ample support for both of them from the open source community. How is this support helpful to you? there are thousands of code samples and forums that discuss PHP and MySQL which makes coding simpler.
Embrace open standards: Linux, as an operating system in itself is open in nature and hence Linux based web hosting plans support many other open standards or platforms or open programming languages. Hence you can use programming languages like PERL or Python in Linux based web hosting plans. You can also use CGI in these plans if you are a fan of cgi although cgi is largely outdated these days.
Standardized Control Panel: Most Linux based web hosting plans have cpanel as a control panel. This control panel is not standardized but it can be called as a defacto standard as it is most commonly used. The main advantage of this is that since the control panel is standardized you will find it easier if you move from a web hosting company to other or if you want to move your web hosting account to other web hosting company. There will not be any compatibility issues.
Although above factors might make you think that linux based web hosting is the only thing you need to know, linux based web hosting might be difficult to manage if you have a dedicated unmanged linux based web hosting package. One more disadvantage of Linux based web hosting is that you wont be able to use any of the Microsoft technologies like ASP/ASP.NET and the .net framework in your website. Although there are alternatives for everything, .net technologies might be a important factor to consider.Having said above, if you are content with PHP/Python/perl and believe me these languages have libraries for just about everything then Linux based web hosting is best for you.
What is web Hosting?
Web hosting is usually a service provided by hundreds of companies around the world in order for people to have their websites available on the internet. A website as many of you might know is a group of web pages interlinked with each other. A web hosting company helps this website to be accessible from anywhere on the internet. Usually to host these websites you need to have web servers which are always connected to the internet. Now, having your own web server to host your website is very expensive as well as very time consuming and labour intensive. Hence, we give this task of hosting our website to these web hosting companies.
Now, there are several types of web hosting that are provided by several web hosting companies. These several types of web hosting are either based on the type of operating system( Linux or Windows) used on the web server and also the resources and how they are shared among several web hosting accounts!
Based on the operating system used on a web server there are two types of web hosting:
Linux based Web Hosting: A Linux based web hosting uses a Linux based operating system on the web server. The main advantage of the linux based web hosting is the fact that Linux( and its variants) are freely available. So, the operating system costs to the web hosting company is minimal and the web hosting companies usually pass on these minimum costs to you, the user. Hence, Linux based web hosting is cheaper as compared to its counterpart, the Windows Based Web hosting.
Windows Based web hosting: In windows based web hosting, the operating system used on the web server is a Microsoft Windows Server operating system most often Microsoft Windows 2003 Server or Microsoft Windows 2008 Server. The best part about Windows based web hosting is that it can use programming languages like ASP,ASP.NET and PHP, python as well where as in Linux based web hosting it is not possible to use ASP,ASP.NET.
The other major sector by which web hosting can be distingwished is how the resources are divided between the different web sites or between the different web hosting accounts.
Shared Web Hosting: In this type of web hosting, all the resources of a web server like the disk space, the memory (i.e RAM) as well as the bandwidth is shared among several users/ several websites. Now, web servers usually have immense amount of the above resources and hence if your website is the “typical” website then it wont really make any difference if these resources are shared with others. The benefit that the sharing of these resources is that the prices are reduced to a great extend. Shared hosting plans usually start from around 3$ to upto 8$ per month for most companies.
Virtual Private hosting: In virtual private hosting just like shared hosting the resources of a web server are shared among several users. However, virtual private hosting gives a view to the user that his website is the only website hosted on a web server. Some of the features that virtual private hosting gives which shared hosting does not is the access to the root of the server as well as the ability to reboot the server operating system. In virtual private hosting each web hosting account/website is given a separate operating system and you can install various software on it just like you do on your home computer.
Dedicated Web hosting: In dedicated web hosting, the entire web server is yours; just that it is at a different location than yours. In dedicated web hosting, you can have as many websites as you want, you can install the OS and re-install it, you can install and uninstall various softwares. It is your computer at a remote location. Dedicated web hosting is usually used for specific purposes and for high bandwidth websites. There are two types of dedicated web hosting plans:
Managed Dedicated Hosting: In managed dedicated hosting, the web server is managed by a person who is a trained network/system administrator of the web hosting company onsite. This person usually has the required skill and expertise in handling web servers and hence this type of web hosting although a little more expensive prove to be very reliable.
UnManaged Dedicated Hosting: In Unmanaged dedicated web hosting, you or an administrator/system expert from your company has to administer the web server remotely using Remote login.
This article focuses on the basics of web hosting and there are many more types of web hosting which i will be covering in subsequent posts.
Now, there are several types of web hosting that are provided by several web hosting companies. These several types of web hosting are either based on the type of operating system( Linux or Windows) used on the web server and also the resources and how they are shared among several web hosting accounts!
Based on the operating system used on a web server there are two types of web hosting:
Linux based Web Hosting: A Linux based web hosting uses a Linux based operating system on the web server. The main advantage of the linux based web hosting is the fact that Linux( and its variants) are freely available. So, the operating system costs to the web hosting company is minimal and the web hosting companies usually pass on these minimum costs to you, the user. Hence, Linux based web hosting is cheaper as compared to its counterpart, the Windows Based Web hosting.
Windows Based web hosting: In windows based web hosting, the operating system used on the web server is a Microsoft Windows Server operating system most often Microsoft Windows 2003 Server or Microsoft Windows 2008 Server. The best part about Windows based web hosting is that it can use programming languages like ASP,ASP.NET and PHP, python as well where as in Linux based web hosting it is not possible to use ASP,ASP.NET.
The other major sector by which web hosting can be distingwished is how the resources are divided between the different web sites or between the different web hosting accounts.
Shared Web Hosting: In this type of web hosting, all the resources of a web server like the disk space, the memory (i.e RAM) as well as the bandwidth is shared among several users/ several websites. Now, web servers usually have immense amount of the above resources and hence if your website is the “typical” website then it wont really make any difference if these resources are shared with others. The benefit that the sharing of these resources is that the prices are reduced to a great extend. Shared hosting plans usually start from around 3$ to upto 8$ per month for most companies.
Virtual Private hosting: In virtual private hosting just like shared hosting the resources of a web server are shared among several users. However, virtual private hosting gives a view to the user that his website is the only website hosted on a web server. Some of the features that virtual private hosting gives which shared hosting does not is the access to the root of the server as well as the ability to reboot the server operating system. In virtual private hosting each web hosting account/website is given a separate operating system and you can install various software on it just like you do on your home computer.
Dedicated Web hosting: In dedicated web hosting, the entire web server is yours; just that it is at a different location than yours. In dedicated web hosting, you can have as many websites as you want, you can install the OS and re-install it, you can install and uninstall various softwares. It is your computer at a remote location. Dedicated web hosting is usually used for specific purposes and for high bandwidth websites. There are two types of dedicated web hosting plans:
Managed Dedicated Hosting: In managed dedicated hosting, the web server is managed by a person who is a trained network/system administrator of the web hosting company onsite. This person usually has the required skill and expertise in handling web servers and hence this type of web hosting although a little more expensive prove to be very reliable.
UnManaged Dedicated Hosting: In Unmanaged dedicated web hosting, you or an administrator/system expert from your company has to administer the web server remotely using Remote login.
This article focuses on the basics of web hosting and there are many more types of web hosting which i will be covering in subsequent posts.
What is Shared Web Hosting?
What is shared web hosting? A shared web hosting is a service provided by most web hosting providers. In shared web hosting, the resources of a web server are shared among several websites on a web server. A web server usually has massive capacity with hundereds of GigaBytes of storage space and many redundant links to the internet. In most cases, websites dont usually require so much bandwidth and the storage space unless yours is a really popular website and is very graphic intensive or Media intensive( like videos, audios, etc). So, a shared web hosting is a win-win situation for both the web hosting company as well as the customer i.e you.
Let us consider some of the advantages of shared web hosting:
Cheaper: Shared web hosting is a lot cheaper as compared to dedicated web hosting or Virtual private web hosting. It is cheaper because of the fact that all the costs to maintain all the resources and the web server are shared among several websites or customers and hence the cost is less. Shared web hosting can start at as cheap as $10 per month. Hostgator.com currently offers very good shared web hosting plans starting from as low as $4.95.
Managed: In shared web hosting, you dont have to worry about managing the web server, managing about the security of the web server as well as updating the softwares and database packages. This releases a great deal of workload and hence you can concentrate on your website rather than these things.
Ofcourse there are several disadvantages to shared web hosting as well.
Lack of Control: You have less amount of control on the web server. What if you want have a library on which your entire website is based and your hosting provider doesnt have that library installed? Ofcourse you can request your hosting provider to install that library; but your web site hosting provider won’t always accomodate your requests because he has to think about others who are sharing the web server with you.
SSL Implementation: SSL implementation is a problem when it comes to shared hosting. SSL implementation is used for the Secure socket layer and is usually used for payments or transferring sensitive information over the internet. The SSL certificates are installed per server/IP address and hence since there are several domains installed on the web server it can be a problem. Many web hosting companies make you buy a dedicated IP address if you need to install your SSL certificate and a dedicated IP address can cost you anywhere between $10 per year to $35 per year.
Shared hosting is best suited if you want to keep your hosting costs down and dont require any advanced features or extra ordinary storage or bandwidth requirements. It is best suited for most websites that you find on the internet.
Hostgator.com currently offers excellent Shared web hosting starting from $4.95. They provide a lot of additional features and language options both on the Linux platform and the Windows Platform. The most notable feature being the uptime guarantee which is 99.9% and the 45 day money back guarantee. Hence, I recommend HostGator.com if you are planning to buy a shared hosting package.
Let us consider some of the advantages of shared web hosting:
Cheaper: Shared web hosting is a lot cheaper as compared to dedicated web hosting or Virtual private web hosting. It is cheaper because of the fact that all the costs to maintain all the resources and the web server are shared among several websites or customers and hence the cost is less. Shared web hosting can start at as cheap as $10 per month. Hostgator.com currently offers very good shared web hosting plans starting from as low as $4.95.
Managed: In shared web hosting, you dont have to worry about managing the web server, managing about the security of the web server as well as updating the softwares and database packages. This releases a great deal of workload and hence you can concentrate on your website rather than these things.
Ofcourse there are several disadvantages to shared web hosting as well.
Lack of Control: You have less amount of control on the web server. What if you want have a library on which your entire website is based and your hosting provider doesnt have that library installed? Ofcourse you can request your hosting provider to install that library; but your web site hosting provider won’t always accomodate your requests because he has to think about others who are sharing the web server with you.
SSL Implementation: SSL implementation is a problem when it comes to shared hosting. SSL implementation is used for the Secure socket layer and is usually used for payments or transferring sensitive information over the internet. The SSL certificates are installed per server/IP address and hence since there are several domains installed on the web server it can be a problem. Many web hosting companies make you buy a dedicated IP address if you need to install your SSL certificate and a dedicated IP address can cost you anywhere between $10 per year to $35 per year.
Shared hosting is best suited if you want to keep your hosting costs down and dont require any advanced features or extra ordinary storage or bandwidth requirements. It is best suited for most websites that you find on the internet.
Hostgator.com currently offers excellent Shared web hosting starting from $4.95. They provide a lot of additional features and language options both on the Linux platform and the Windows Platform. The most notable feature being the uptime guarantee which is 99.9% and the 45 day money back guarantee. Hence, I recommend HostGator.com if you are planning to buy a shared hosting package.
Windows Web Hosting
What is Windows based web Hosting? In this web hosting, the operating system of the web server is windows based. You might have used Microsoft Windows for years on your home computers. Microsoft also has a server based operating system suite which is used in Windows based web hosting. Usually most web hosting companies today make use of Microsoft Windows 2003 Server and the recently released Microsoft Windows 2008 Server.
Godaddy.com offers very good windows based web hosting on a powerful infrastructure. They have Windows hosting plans from as low as $4.08 per month and if you sign up for an entire year then it is even lower at $3.85 per month; which saves you a good 10% at Godaddy.com along with several features.
There are several advantages of Windows Based Web Hosting. Some of the advantages are listed below.
Known Environment: As I said earlier, we have been using Windows on our home computers for years. Hence, we know the Windows based environment, the windows filesystem( filesystem means the way we have files arranged on our computer in drive:folders\file format in windows). The windows based web hosting also has the same file system and hence we dont have to learn new concepts from scratch. You wont feel the important of this point if you are using shared hosting, however this point is of more importance if you are using dedicated web hosting and you have to manage your dedicated web hosting account on your own from a remote location.
.NET Framework: I believe the .net framework and everything that comes with it, the development environment Visual Studio and several other tools is the greatest Microsoft product after Windows; And with Windows based web hosting you get to leverage this enormous power of .net in your web applications. This will be especially be useful with Microsoft having a range of interesting products under .net in the form of Microsoft Silverlight( which is Microsofts competition to Adobe Flash) and the Windows Presentation Framework and the Windows Communication framework along with several others. You can build really cool Rich Internet Applications from using these. Ofcourse needless to say you can obviously use ASP and ASP.NET with Windows based web hosting which you cannot with linux based web hosting.
Use of both the Worlds: In this type of web hosting you can use all the programming and scripting languages in the windows environment like ASP,ASP.NET, the rich .net framework as well as several scripting languages in Linux world as well like PHP,Python and Perl. The same is applicable with databases, you can use Microsofts SQL and MySQL both on the same pc and the same time. This means that you can have one website that uses asp.net and MS-SQL and another that uses PHP and MySQL. This is the unique advantage of Windows based web hosting. This cannot be accomplished in Linux based web hosting.
Windows based web hosting although very beneficial has its own concerns as well. The Windows based web hosting has the following concerns:
Licensing costs: Windows based web hosting are usually costly as compared to Linux web hosting. This is because Windows unlike Linux is not free and has its own costs and annual licenses. This costs are passed on to you the consumer by the web hosting company. Hence Windows web hosting is relatively costly.
Control Panel: Linux based web hosting has a defacto control panel standard cpanel, there are several control panels in use to manage windows based web hosting. This is essentially important if you want to transfer your website from one web host to another and both the web hosts have different control panels. Care should be taken that there are no compatibility issues with respect to control panels.
These are some of the advantages and disadvantages of Windows based web hosting. The above factors should be taken into consideration when planning to buy a windows based web hosting package. As i mentioned above Godaddy.com offers excellent windows web hosting for as low as $3.85 per month.
Godaddy.com offers very good windows based web hosting on a powerful infrastructure. They have Windows hosting plans from as low as $4.08 per month and if you sign up for an entire year then it is even lower at $3.85 per month; which saves you a good 10% at Godaddy.com along with several features.
There are several advantages of Windows Based Web Hosting. Some of the advantages are listed below.
Known Environment: As I said earlier, we have been using Windows on our home computers for years. Hence, we know the Windows based environment, the windows filesystem( filesystem means the way we have files arranged on our computer in drive:folders\file format in windows). The windows based web hosting also has the same file system and hence we dont have to learn new concepts from scratch. You wont feel the important of this point if you are using shared hosting, however this point is of more importance if you are using dedicated web hosting and you have to manage your dedicated web hosting account on your own from a remote location.
.NET Framework: I believe the .net framework and everything that comes with it, the development environment Visual Studio and several other tools is the greatest Microsoft product after Windows; And with Windows based web hosting you get to leverage this enormous power of .net in your web applications. This will be especially be useful with Microsoft having a range of interesting products under .net in the form of Microsoft Silverlight( which is Microsofts competition to Adobe Flash) and the Windows Presentation Framework and the Windows Communication framework along with several others. You can build really cool Rich Internet Applications from using these. Ofcourse needless to say you can obviously use ASP and ASP.NET with Windows based web hosting which you cannot with linux based web hosting.
Use of both the Worlds: In this type of web hosting you can use all the programming and scripting languages in the windows environment like ASP,ASP.NET, the rich .net framework as well as several scripting languages in Linux world as well like PHP,Python and Perl. The same is applicable with databases, you can use Microsofts SQL and MySQL both on the same pc and the same time. This means that you can have one website that uses asp.net and MS-SQL and another that uses PHP and MySQL. This is the unique advantage of Windows based web hosting. This cannot be accomplished in Linux based web hosting.
Windows based web hosting although very beneficial has its own concerns as well. The Windows based web hosting has the following concerns:
Licensing costs: Windows based web hosting are usually costly as compared to Linux web hosting. This is because Windows unlike Linux is not free and has its own costs and annual licenses. This costs are passed on to you the consumer by the web hosting company. Hence Windows web hosting is relatively costly.
Control Panel: Linux based web hosting has a defacto control panel standard cpanel, there are several control panels in use to manage windows based web hosting. This is essentially important if you want to transfer your website from one web host to another and both the web hosts have different control panels. Care should be taken that there are no compatibility issues with respect to control panels.
These are some of the advantages and disadvantages of Windows based web hosting. The above factors should be taken into consideration when planning to buy a windows based web hosting package. As i mentioned above Godaddy.com offers excellent windows web hosting for as low as $3.85 per month.
Dedicated web hosting
What is dedicated Web Hosting? A dedicated web hosting plan is in short renting out a web server at a remote location. In Dedicated Web Hosting, you can do whatever with your web server as long as it is legal; you can usually have any number of websites, running any programming language, based on any operating system using any database. You can also install custom made softwares on the system for various purposes like monitoring and evaluation of the server performance.
A dedicated web hosting can enable you to have a website which requires loads and loads of storage space or loads and loads of bandwidth. A dedicated web hosting usually comes with a dedicated IP address and hence you can have you dedicated hosting server used as a update server which can be used to update any software that you have distributed to your clients.
Ofcourse, in a dedicated hosting environment, you can have webpages or dynamic websites based on any script including Java, cold fusion to mASP.NET and PHP. You can have any operating systems that you want, provided you have license to these operating systems. Many times, dedicated hosting plans come pre-installed with an operating system.
All the control of the web server in dedicated hosting is done remotely using a Remote administration tools. You can use this tools to reboot the server, install uninstall softwares, perform various security checks and audits and loads of other things. You can also add/remove storage disks or memory to and from the server based on your requirements. The web hosting company usually does this for you since the server is at the web hosting companies location.
Ofcourse, there are some disadvantages with dedicated hosting, the main one compared to the pricing of the dedicated hosting plans. Dedicated web hosting tends to be costly as compared to shared or virtual private web hosting so you need to analyze your needs before you select upon a dedicated hosting company and a dedicated hosting server. Other area of concern is the management of the dedicated web server. Many times the web hosting companies manage the webserver with some extra cost or sometimes due to the cometitiveness of the web hosting market the management of the dedicated web server is included in the web hosting plan.
These are some of the things that should be kept in mind before buying a dedicated web hosting plan. Remember, a dedicated web hosting plan is a major investment and hence you need to be careful before buying a dedicated web hosting plan.
A dedicated web hosting can enable you to have a website which requires loads and loads of storage space or loads and loads of bandwidth. A dedicated web hosting usually comes with a dedicated IP address and hence you can have you dedicated hosting server used as a update server which can be used to update any software that you have distributed to your clients.
Ofcourse, in a dedicated hosting environment, you can have webpages or dynamic websites based on any script including Java, cold fusion to mASP.NET and PHP. You can have any operating systems that you want, provided you have license to these operating systems. Many times, dedicated hosting plans come pre-installed with an operating system.
All the control of the web server in dedicated hosting is done remotely using a Remote administration tools. You can use this tools to reboot the server, install uninstall softwares, perform various security checks and audits and loads of other things. You can also add/remove storage disks or memory to and from the server based on your requirements. The web hosting company usually does this for you since the server is at the web hosting companies location.
Ofcourse, there are some disadvantages with dedicated hosting, the main one compared to the pricing of the dedicated hosting plans. Dedicated web hosting tends to be costly as compared to shared or virtual private web hosting so you need to analyze your needs before you select upon a dedicated hosting company and a dedicated hosting server. Other area of concern is the management of the dedicated web server. Many times the web hosting companies manage the webserver with some extra cost or sometimes due to the cometitiveness of the web hosting market the management of the dedicated web server is included in the web hosting plan.
These are some of the things that should be kept in mind before buying a dedicated web hosting plan. Remember, a dedicated web hosting plan is a major investment and hence you need to be careful before buying a dedicated web hosting plan.
What is Virtual Private Web Hosting
A virtual private web hosting is a type of web hosting that bridges the gap between a shared web hosting and a dedicated web hosting. Typically in a Virtual private Web hosting or Virtual Web Hosting(also called as Virtual Private Server VPS) has a main physical web server and the resources are shared among several indivisual “Virtual web servers”.
A virtual private web hosting gives the customer a view that his website is the only website running on a web server while actually the web server is shared among several other websites like in Shared Web Hosting. But the major difference between a shared web hosting and a virtual private web hosting is that each user in a VPS has his own operating system and he can use it which ever way he wants( ofcourse with some restrictions from the web hosting company from a security point of view). But in general, a virtual web hosting customer can install softwares on his virtual private server or reboot the virtual operating systems and much more.
Given below are some of the advantages of Virtual Private Server:
Freedom: Although virtual private server shares its resources with other users it gives the user a feeling that he is the only user of the web server. This is mainly due to the virtual environment of the server and the operating system installed on that environment. This gives the user a lot of freedom and he can do whatever he wishes to do with his virtual server. He can do anything from rebooting to reinstalling operating system, installing/uninstalling software and a whole lot of things. However, theoritically the user can install any software he wants; practically it has been known that softwares like Firewalls, anti-virus packages etc dont work well on virtual environments.
Dedicated Processing speed and RAM: In a shared web hosting, the processing speed and RAM depends on the load of other websites hosted on the server along with your website. In a Virtual Web hosting plan, there is a fixed amount of processing speed and Memory(RAM) of the processor resources dedicated to your hosting account. This is more important if you have a high computation or high memory usage software installed on your virtual operating system or a high requirement website.
Dedicated Bandwidth as well: A virtual private web hosting account usually has a dedicated bandwidth for each account. This gives reliability with the availability of your site and the number of concurrent connections that your site can handle.
Flexibility: You can virtually install any software on your virtual private server. This means if you have a website coded in a language that is not installed on your server, you can very well install its interpreter on your server and get going. The best example of this is the use of PHP on a windows machine or the use of Apache on a windows machine.
There are certain disadvantages of Virtual web servers as well. They are:
Although theoritically we can install any software in a VPS, firewalls and anti virus clients are known to not work properly on a Virtual Environment. So, you have to keep in mind the various requirements of your code and your website before purchasing a virtual web hosting package.
Managed/ UnManaged: In a managed virtual web hosting package, you have to monitor and manage your website or hire someone to do that. There are several tools and softwares provided to manage virtual web hosts. In an managed virtual web hosting package the Virtual web server is not managed.
Price: The price of Virtual Private web hosting is considerably higher than that of shared hosting. That is understood as well with the freedom and flexibility that it provides over shared hosting. So, you have to take this point into account as well before selecting a VPS Plan.
Virtual Web hosting is used in several applications including specialized torrents trackers, to creating a sandbox environments to test newer scripts on a web server before making it public to various other applications.
A virtual private web hosting gives the customer a view that his website is the only website running on a web server while actually the web server is shared among several other websites like in Shared Web Hosting. But the major difference between a shared web hosting and a virtual private web hosting is that each user in a VPS has his own operating system and he can use it which ever way he wants( ofcourse with some restrictions from the web hosting company from a security point of view). But in general, a virtual web hosting customer can install softwares on his virtual private server or reboot the virtual operating systems and much more.
Given below are some of the advantages of Virtual Private Server:
Freedom: Although virtual private server shares its resources with other users it gives the user a feeling that he is the only user of the web server. This is mainly due to the virtual environment of the server and the operating system installed on that environment. This gives the user a lot of freedom and he can do whatever he wishes to do with his virtual server. He can do anything from rebooting to reinstalling operating system, installing/uninstalling software and a whole lot of things. However, theoritically the user can install any software he wants; practically it has been known that softwares like Firewalls, anti-virus packages etc dont work well on virtual environments.
Dedicated Processing speed and RAM: In a shared web hosting, the processing speed and RAM depends on the load of other websites hosted on the server along with your website. In a Virtual Web hosting plan, there is a fixed amount of processing speed and Memory(RAM) of the processor resources dedicated to your hosting account. This is more important if you have a high computation or high memory usage software installed on your virtual operating system or a high requirement website.
Dedicated Bandwidth as well: A virtual private web hosting account usually has a dedicated bandwidth for each account. This gives reliability with the availability of your site and the number of concurrent connections that your site can handle.
Flexibility: You can virtually install any software on your virtual private server. This means if you have a website coded in a language that is not installed on your server, you can very well install its interpreter on your server and get going. The best example of this is the use of PHP on a windows machine or the use of Apache on a windows machine.
There are certain disadvantages of Virtual web servers as well. They are:
Although theoritically we can install any software in a VPS, firewalls and anti virus clients are known to not work properly on a Virtual Environment. So, you have to keep in mind the various requirements of your code and your website before purchasing a virtual web hosting package.
Managed/ UnManaged: In a managed virtual web hosting package, you have to monitor and manage your website or hire someone to do that. There are several tools and softwares provided to manage virtual web hosts. In an managed virtual web hosting package the Virtual web server is not managed.
Price: The price of Virtual Private web hosting is considerably higher than that of shared hosting. That is understood as well with the freedom and flexibility that it provides over shared hosting. So, you have to take this point into account as well before selecting a VPS Plan.
Virtual Web hosting is used in several applications including specialized torrents trackers, to creating a sandbox environments to test newer scripts on a web server before making it public to various other applications.
Hosting a web site at home?
There are thousands and thousands of web hosting companies out there with redundant storage and redundant bandwidth and various levels of reliability. But, the question that still comes so ones mind is why cant i host a web site at home? Is hosting a website at home beneficial? According to me; nope, its not. Why? Thats what I will try and concentrate on in this post. Why should you invest that small amount of money in a web hosting account and why not host your website on your home server.
Now, to start a website, there are several things that are required; some of them are as listed below along with the problems that you might face if you are planning to host your website at home.
Server Software: Now, there are several server operating systems, but most of the server operating systems are either Linux based or Windows Based. For a Windows Based operating system, you of course have the licensing costs where as in Linux based operating system you have the maintenence costs. If you are good with computers and installation and updation of the softwares then these costs can be saved; although they will take so much of your time that you wont have time to do anything else with your website.
Server Hardware: If you are planning to have a professional always available website then you need to have good and efficient server with enough processing power and memory. Along with processing power and momory you will need redundant storage usually with arrays of disks(RAID levels) along with redundant network access devices so that if at all a device fails the access to your server wont fail. So, what you need is a full fledged web server. Now, web server hardware can come anywhere between $800 to thousands of dollars depending upon your requirements.
Software costs: Apart from the server operating system there are several software costs like database licenses( if you use MS-SQL or Oracle or Enterprise MySQL), developement environment licenses(like Visual Studio etc) and much more.
Personnel: Installation and upgradation of all the above services need expertise. If you are planning to do all the installation and upgradation on your own then it will take almost all of your time and hence you wont be able to do anything else. And website creation and maintenence has a lot of things hence you will also have to bear the costs of hiring people.
But like the above disadvantages or pitfalls, there are also some advantages of hosting a website at home. The main advantage of hosting a website at home is scaling, which means you can increase and decrease the bandwidth, the storage required to host your website and loads of other things more easily and relatively cheaply as compared to hosting companies. But i think these days most of the hosting companies are pretty accomodative and you can change hosting plans very easily and you can upgrade and downgrade very easily as well. So i think you will have to decide if it is feasible for you to host a website from home.
I personally suggest a web hosting company primararily because of their webhosting experience as well as the amount of expertise and the professionalism that these web hosting companies have. so, if you are serious about having a website or an online business, web hosting companies are your best bet.
Now, to start a website, there are several things that are required; some of them are as listed below along with the problems that you might face if you are planning to host your website at home.
Server Software: Now, there are several server operating systems, but most of the server operating systems are either Linux based or Windows Based. For a Windows Based operating system, you of course have the licensing costs where as in Linux based operating system you have the maintenence costs. If you are good with computers and installation and updation of the softwares then these costs can be saved; although they will take so much of your time that you wont have time to do anything else with your website.
Server Hardware: If you are planning to have a professional always available website then you need to have good and efficient server with enough processing power and memory. Along with processing power and momory you will need redundant storage usually with arrays of disks(RAID levels) along with redundant network access devices so that if at all a device fails the access to your server wont fail. So, what you need is a full fledged web server. Now, web server hardware can come anywhere between $800 to thousands of dollars depending upon your requirements.
Software costs: Apart from the server operating system there are several software costs like database licenses( if you use MS-SQL or Oracle or Enterprise MySQL), developement environment licenses(like Visual Studio etc) and much more.
Personnel: Installation and upgradation of all the above services need expertise. If you are planning to do all the installation and upgradation on your own then it will take almost all of your time and hence you wont be able to do anything else. And website creation and maintenence has a lot of things hence you will also have to bear the costs of hiring people.
But like the above disadvantages or pitfalls, there are also some advantages of hosting a website at home. The main advantage of hosting a website at home is scaling, which means you can increase and decrease the bandwidth, the storage required to host your website and loads of other things more easily and relatively cheaply as compared to hosting companies. But i think these days most of the hosting companies are pretty accomodative and you can change hosting plans very easily and you can upgrade and downgrade very easily as well. So i think you will have to decide if it is feasible for you to host a website from home.
I personally suggest a web hosting company primararily because of their webhosting experience as well as the amount of expertise and the professionalism that these web hosting companies have. so, if you are serious about having a website or an online business, web hosting companies are your best bet.
Web Hosting Hosting for open source software
Many times, i have been asked “Do we need any special type of hosting for open source software?” and I each and everytime answer no we dont; but it largely depends on the open source software or the open source script that you plan to host on your website.
Now, open source software come in all sizes and shapes right from the simple wordpress; which is a blogging platform on which this blog is based or to the most complex open source softwares based on which you can build entire social networking sites.
So, the spectrum of open source softwares or the open source scripts is large and hence you can understand that the web hosting requirements of the open source software is also very large. Hence, we have to consider the open source software into account before making any generalized conclusions.
Having written the above paragraph it is a known fact that the requirements of most open source softwares or scripts are not much and usually come under the shared hosting plans that most web hosting companies give. Most of the open source softwares are either PHP based and a few of them are PERL or CGI based. PHP is offered by any Linux based web hosting plan. Also, PERL and CGI as well as these days Ruby or Rails(RoR) is also offered by many web hosting companies in their standard shared hosting plans.
Although most open source softwares will be installed in many standard plans you need to take care of the following things before installing or upgrading your open source software.
Version: Many open source softwares work on specific versions of PHP(most of the times the latest versions). However, since open source software especially one with active developement like the PHP releases newer versions very often. Hence most web hosting companies will not upgrade to the latest version of PHP as fast and will wait until the latest version of PHP is stable and bug free. Hence, make sure the version compatibility when you install a new open source script or software or even upgrade your exsisting open source software.
Restrictions by web hosting companies: some web hosting companies put restrictions on the features of the server or even features of the programming language that you can use. This is done keeping in mind the security of the server and effective management of server resources and load balancing.You should take care of this aspect as well when installing any open source script or software. If your open source software requires any such special features it is better to go for a dedicated hosting package.
Libraries: Many open source softwares will require specific libraries which are not included in the standard web hosting packages provided by web hosting companies;so beware of what libraries are included in your web hosting package.
Databases: Make sure the database that your open source software is based on is available with your web hosting plan. Because, if you install the open source software and then you realize that the database is not supported then its a waste of time.
Hence, the above things are very essential to be taken care of while installing a open source script or open source software although most popular open source softwares are compatible with most popular web hosting plans!!!
Now, open source software come in all sizes and shapes right from the simple wordpress; which is a blogging platform on which this blog is based or to the most complex open source softwares based on which you can build entire social networking sites.
So, the spectrum of open source softwares or the open source scripts is large and hence you can understand that the web hosting requirements of the open source software is also very large. Hence, we have to consider the open source software into account before making any generalized conclusions.
Having written the above paragraph it is a known fact that the requirements of most open source softwares or scripts are not much and usually come under the shared hosting plans that most web hosting companies give. Most of the open source softwares are either PHP based and a few of them are PERL or CGI based. PHP is offered by any Linux based web hosting plan. Also, PERL and CGI as well as these days Ruby or Rails(RoR) is also offered by many web hosting companies in their standard shared hosting plans.
Although most open source softwares will be installed in many standard plans you need to take care of the following things before installing or upgrading your open source software.
Version: Many open source softwares work on specific versions of PHP(most of the times the latest versions). However, since open source software especially one with active developement like the PHP releases newer versions very often. Hence most web hosting companies will not upgrade to the latest version of PHP as fast and will wait until the latest version of PHP is stable and bug free. Hence, make sure the version compatibility when you install a new open source script or software or even upgrade your exsisting open source software.
Restrictions by web hosting companies: some web hosting companies put restrictions on the features of the server or even features of the programming language that you can use. This is done keeping in mind the security of the server and effective management of server resources and load balancing.You should take care of this aspect as well when installing any open source script or software. If your open source software requires any such special features it is better to go for a dedicated hosting package.
Libraries: Many open source softwares will require specific libraries which are not included in the standard web hosting packages provided by web hosting companies;so beware of what libraries are included in your web hosting package.
Databases: Make sure the database that your open source software is based on is available with your web hosting plan. Because, if you install the open source software and then you realize that the database is not supported then its a waste of time.
Hence, the above things are very essential to be taken care of while installing a open source script or open source software although most popular open source softwares are compatible with most popular web hosting plans!!!
cheap hosting V/S traditional hosting
When i started out making websites, as always is the tendancy i started looking for the cheapest web hosting options on the internet. I checked various websites and my google queries often said “$1/mo web hosting”. I knew there will be people like me looking for cheap web hosting companies and hence there will be cheap web hosting companies around to cater to the market demand of people in need of cheap web hosting; people like me!
While searching, i just typed web hosting on Ebay and viola; there were loads and loads of “cheap” web hosting companies out there. I obviously was happy and was very eager to get my site up and running and hence immidiately paid the money and got my account setup and believe me; that was end of all the happiness. Then after that, i faced a lot of problems like frequent downtimes from 6 hours to 4 days to my site getting hacked and defaced by hackers and many such problems.
So, here are a couple of reasons why you shouldnt be buying a web hosting from a cheap web hosting provider.
Frequent Downtimes: When i was hosting my site(not this one) i had many downtimes that ranged from a couple of hours to a couple of days. The worst part is i had adwords ads pointing towards the site and people would click on the ads and my site was down. So, i would lose money and even potential new readers for the site.
Lesser amount of security: Security is another problem with these cheap hosting sites that you find on Ebay or some of the forums. I remember my website being hacked and defaced as many as 3 times in a month and good thing that i had backup of everything and i could bring my site up. But, that might not be the case always especially where there is user generated content.
No Traffic management or Load management: Now, as you might know, shared web hosting involves sharing of server resources with a number of users or websites. However, sharing of server resources has to have a limit. Most of these cheap web hosting companies try and smack as many people as they can on a single server( in most cases they have a single server) and there is no load or traffic management as the professional web hosting providers have it!
So, these are some of the reasons why i refrain from buying cheap web hosting from companies that you find on ebay or other forums who offer to provide a years web hosting for less than 5$. So, believe me some more money paid to a web hosting company can lead to a lot of mental stress being taken away from you; however, you must also beware of those web hosting companies that charge exhorbitant prices per month in the wake of exclusivity!!
While searching, i just typed web hosting on Ebay and viola; there were loads and loads of “cheap” web hosting companies out there. I obviously was happy and was very eager to get my site up and running and hence immidiately paid the money and got my account setup and believe me; that was end of all the happiness. Then after that, i faced a lot of problems like frequent downtimes from 6 hours to 4 days to my site getting hacked and defaced by hackers and many such problems.
So, here are a couple of reasons why you shouldnt be buying a web hosting from a cheap web hosting provider.
Frequent Downtimes: When i was hosting my site(not this one) i had many downtimes that ranged from a couple of hours to a couple of days. The worst part is i had adwords ads pointing towards the site and people would click on the ads and my site was down. So, i would lose money and even potential new readers for the site.
Lesser amount of security: Security is another problem with these cheap hosting sites that you find on Ebay or some of the forums. I remember my website being hacked and defaced as many as 3 times in a month and good thing that i had backup of everything and i could bring my site up. But, that might not be the case always especially where there is user generated content.
No Traffic management or Load management: Now, as you might know, shared web hosting involves sharing of server resources with a number of users or websites. However, sharing of server resources has to have a limit. Most of these cheap web hosting companies try and smack as many people as they can on a single server( in most cases they have a single server) and there is no load or traffic management as the professional web hosting providers have it!
So, these are some of the reasons why i refrain from buying cheap web hosting from companies that you find on ebay or other forums who offer to provide a years web hosting for less than 5$. So, believe me some more money paid to a web hosting company can lead to a lot of mental stress being taken away from you; however, you must also beware of those web hosting companies that charge exhorbitant prices per month in the wake of exclusivity!!
Starting A Web Hosting Company
Rather than use the services of a web hosting company to host your web site you could start your own web hosting company. If your business is successful this could provide secondary income and lower the hosting costs for your own site(s).
Basically, there are two ways to start selling web hosting. The first way involves leasing business space, buying equipment, setting up servers, leasing T1 or T3 lines to connect to the Internet, finding clients, and hiring staff to provide 24 hour support. Quite complicated and not recommended for anyone without the technical know-how.
The second way is to become a re-seller for an established host. For a monthly fee you can have an allotment of disk space and bandwidth which can be used to sell to other people. Re-selling is usually anonymous – there is no visible connection to the parent host and you are free to set your own prices and develop your own ‘brand’.
All that is needed to become a re-seller is the ability to pay the monthly fee. All the technical details are handled by the parent company. The re-seller package usually includes everything – even name servers under your own name. All you have to do is to sign up customers and watch the money roll in. Easy – right?
Signing up customers, though, may not be as easy as you imagine. There are literally thousands of hosting companies competing for customers, and making your web hosting business stand out from the crowd is no mean feat. Just think about the process you went through in choosing your own web host. You probably visited several hosting web sites, maybe asked for personal references from your friends or business acquaintances, and then after narrowing down your choices, perhaps did more in-depth research on each of the companies. Or perhaps you just signed up with the first host you saw.
So, in order for your own hosting company to be successful it has to build up a good reputation or be easy to find. Advertising can make your company more visible, but advertising is expensive – especially in a competitive market like web hosting.
A re-seller account, however, may be ideal for certain situations. If you already have several websites of your own, your monthly costs may be similar to a re-selling account. For the same amount of money you could switch all your accounts to your own hosting company. Sign up a few friends or associates and you are ahead of the game.
If this sounds attractive, make sure you are going with a reputable hosting company. You will be entirely dependent on them for technical support. This relieves you of many of the headaches of running a hosting company but you are still responsible to your clients if their sites go down.
There are many types of re-seller packages. Some require you to operate under the name of the hosting company while others allow you to set up a shop under your own business name. Pay attention to the billing aspect of the package. Some re-seller accounts have everything you need to get started immediately, while others require you to set up your own billing gateway.
Basically, there are two ways to start selling web hosting. The first way involves leasing business space, buying equipment, setting up servers, leasing T1 or T3 lines to connect to the Internet, finding clients, and hiring staff to provide 24 hour support. Quite complicated and not recommended for anyone without the technical know-how.
The second way is to become a re-seller for an established host. For a monthly fee you can have an allotment of disk space and bandwidth which can be used to sell to other people. Re-selling is usually anonymous – there is no visible connection to the parent host and you are free to set your own prices and develop your own ‘brand’.
All that is needed to become a re-seller is the ability to pay the monthly fee. All the technical details are handled by the parent company. The re-seller package usually includes everything – even name servers under your own name. All you have to do is to sign up customers and watch the money roll in. Easy – right?
Signing up customers, though, may not be as easy as you imagine. There are literally thousands of hosting companies competing for customers, and making your web hosting business stand out from the crowd is no mean feat. Just think about the process you went through in choosing your own web host. You probably visited several hosting web sites, maybe asked for personal references from your friends or business acquaintances, and then after narrowing down your choices, perhaps did more in-depth research on each of the companies. Or perhaps you just signed up with the first host you saw.
So, in order for your own hosting company to be successful it has to build up a good reputation or be easy to find. Advertising can make your company more visible, but advertising is expensive – especially in a competitive market like web hosting.
A re-seller account, however, may be ideal for certain situations. If you already have several websites of your own, your monthly costs may be similar to a re-selling account. For the same amount of money you could switch all your accounts to your own hosting company. Sign up a few friends or associates and you are ahead of the game.
If this sounds attractive, make sure you are going with a reputable hosting company. You will be entirely dependent on them for technical support. This relieves you of many of the headaches of running a hosting company but you are still responsible to your clients if their sites go down.
There are many types of re-seller packages. Some require you to operate under the name of the hosting company while others allow you to set up a shop under your own business name. Pay attention to the billing aspect of the package. Some re-seller accounts have everything you need to get started immediately, while others require you to set up your own billing gateway.
Introduction to Web Hosting
Just about anybody can create a presence on the Internet. Building a web site can be as simple as using a word processor, but once you have the site you need a way to publish it on the World Wide Web. This is where web-hosting companies come in.
A web host rents you disk space and provides all the services necessary for others to see your web site on the Internet. Barring technical problems, a web host operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so that anybody in the world can access your web site at any time.
There are literally thousands of web hosts to choose from so choosing an appropriate host can be a difficult task. The prices range from free to hundreds of dollars a year. Hosting companies can offer a multitude of services that can be confusing to a newcomer. This series of articles will help you to sort out all the information available and give you the confidence to make the proper decision about choosing a web host.
Free or Paid?
There are plenty of hosting companies that provide free hosting, so why bother paying for it? The old adage ‘You get what you pay for’ is just as valid in the electronic age as it was 100 years ago. In web hosting, when you pay nothing you sometimes end up with nothing.
Most free web hosts offer limited services. Even though they are not charging you to host your website, they still need to make money. They often do this by placing advertising on your site. You probably won’t have any control over what kind of ads show up – it’s a matter of take it or leave it.
In addition, free hosts may restrict the content you place on your site. You may not be allowed to sell things or have certain content such as videos or music. Finally, your web site could simply disappear overnight. New companies that offer free hosting pop up almost everyday, but they also vanish with astonishing regularity. When your hosting company vanishes, your web site goes with it.
If you are serious about having a web site you need to use a reliable web host. Prices range considerably – some companies offer rates as low as $2 a month while others charge $60 or more. Be careful, though. High rates don’t always translate as high service. Some of the lower priced hosts offer reliable, stable environments that allow your website to be accessed day in day out for years.
Generally speaking the more you pay the more you get. Higher rates should bring you more storage space, more bandwidth to handle Internet traffic, and more services such as databases, email accounts, mass mailers, and the ability to add custom scripts. Higher rates can also mean better technical service if you have problems with your website.
What is a Web Server?
Whichever hosting company you choose, it helps to understand some of the technical details about their service. Every host has dedicated computers called servers which connect to the Internet and ’serve’ pages when they are requested. That is, whenever anyone wants to see a certain web page by clicking on a link the request is sent to the particular server where that web page is stored. The server responds by sending HTML data across the Internet. A web server must have fast connections to be able to serve pages quickly. For the greatest speed and reliability try to find a host that has multiple high-speed connections as well as reliable back up power supplies in case of power outages.
A web host rents you disk space and provides all the services necessary for others to see your web site on the Internet. Barring technical problems, a web host operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so that anybody in the world can access your web site at any time.
There are literally thousands of web hosts to choose from so choosing an appropriate host can be a difficult task. The prices range from free to hundreds of dollars a year. Hosting companies can offer a multitude of services that can be confusing to a newcomer. This series of articles will help you to sort out all the information available and give you the confidence to make the proper decision about choosing a web host.
Free or Paid?
There are plenty of hosting companies that provide free hosting, so why bother paying for it? The old adage ‘You get what you pay for’ is just as valid in the electronic age as it was 100 years ago. In web hosting, when you pay nothing you sometimes end up with nothing.
Most free web hosts offer limited services. Even though they are not charging you to host your website, they still need to make money. They often do this by placing advertising on your site. You probably won’t have any control over what kind of ads show up – it’s a matter of take it or leave it.
In addition, free hosts may restrict the content you place on your site. You may not be allowed to sell things or have certain content such as videos or music. Finally, your web site could simply disappear overnight. New companies that offer free hosting pop up almost everyday, but they also vanish with astonishing regularity. When your hosting company vanishes, your web site goes with it.
If you are serious about having a web site you need to use a reliable web host. Prices range considerably – some companies offer rates as low as $2 a month while others charge $60 or more. Be careful, though. High rates don’t always translate as high service. Some of the lower priced hosts offer reliable, stable environments that allow your website to be accessed day in day out for years.
Generally speaking the more you pay the more you get. Higher rates should bring you more storage space, more bandwidth to handle Internet traffic, and more services such as databases, email accounts, mass mailers, and the ability to add custom scripts. Higher rates can also mean better technical service if you have problems with your website.
What is a Web Server?
Whichever hosting company you choose, it helps to understand some of the technical details about their service. Every host has dedicated computers called servers which connect to the Internet and ’serve’ pages when they are requested. That is, whenever anyone wants to see a certain web page by clicking on a link the request is sent to the particular server where that web page is stored. The server responds by sending HTML data across the Internet. A web server must have fast connections to be able to serve pages quickly. For the greatest speed and reliability try to find a host that has multiple high-speed connections as well as reliable back up power supplies in case of power outages.
Managed Versus Unmanaged Dedicated Web Hosting
If you have a large and complex website that receives a lot of traffic you may find that shared hosting is limiting your growth and the capacity to serve your customers. It may be time to move on to dedicated hosting. Shared hosting involves placing many websites on one server. All sites share the resources of that server such as disk space and bandwidth. Dedicated hosting means that instead of renting space on a server, you rent an entire server for your sole use.
Dedicated web hosting is much more expensive than shared hosting because the cost of operating the server is not divided between various accounts. The advantages of dedicated hosting include the freedom to use the resources of the server as you please. There are many different dedicated hosting packages to choose from. Their prices depend largely on the physical setup of the server computer. Just as with your home computer, faster processors and bigger hard drives cost more.
Another factor influencing the price is whether or not the server is managed. Keeping a server running in top condition can be a time consuming task. A managed hosting service offers the support and expertise to maintain your server and to perform routine maintenance such as software upgrades. This kind of service can be a viable alternative to hiring your own staff to look after your servers. Managed hosting, however, can be a lot more expensive than unmanaged hosting. Whether the price is justified depends on the complexity of your website and whether or not you already have people on staff who can look after the day to day operations of a server.
Unmanaged hosting, despite its name, does not really leave you entirely to your own devices. Most hosting companies will offer a certain level of support for all their dedicated hosting packages. This support of course includes hardware maintenance for things like hard drive failure and extra technical support may be available if you need help with configuration or software installation. You will probably have to pay for this extra support but hiring a tech on an hourly basis from time to time may be cheaper than going with a full managed package.
If you are considering unmanaged hosting check to see how much control you can have over the server hardware. If your server becomes hopelessly locked you should be able to perform a re-boot or to expect someone to do it for you with a minimum of delay.
As with any hosting package the value of a dedicated hosting service depends on the reliability and integrity of the hosting company. If your website has grown to the point where you need dedicated hosting you need a hosting provider that you can rely on to keep your site online as much as possible.
Whether you choose managed or unmanaged hosting depends on the technical requirements of your site and the ability of you or your staff to manage a server so that it is running at peak efficiency. If you prefer to have the re-assurance of having highly trained professionals looking after the server, go with managed hosting. If you or your staff can handle most of the maintenance chores, you would be better off with an unmanaged server.
Dedicated web hosting is much more expensive than shared hosting because the cost of operating the server is not divided between various accounts. The advantages of dedicated hosting include the freedom to use the resources of the server as you please. There are many different dedicated hosting packages to choose from. Their prices depend largely on the physical setup of the server computer. Just as with your home computer, faster processors and bigger hard drives cost more.
Another factor influencing the price is whether or not the server is managed. Keeping a server running in top condition can be a time consuming task. A managed hosting service offers the support and expertise to maintain your server and to perform routine maintenance such as software upgrades. This kind of service can be a viable alternative to hiring your own staff to look after your servers. Managed hosting, however, can be a lot more expensive than unmanaged hosting. Whether the price is justified depends on the complexity of your website and whether or not you already have people on staff who can look after the day to day operations of a server.
Unmanaged hosting, despite its name, does not really leave you entirely to your own devices. Most hosting companies will offer a certain level of support for all their dedicated hosting packages. This support of course includes hardware maintenance for things like hard drive failure and extra technical support may be available if you need help with configuration or software installation. You will probably have to pay for this extra support but hiring a tech on an hourly basis from time to time may be cheaper than going with a full managed package.
If you are considering unmanaged hosting check to see how much control you can have over the server hardware. If your server becomes hopelessly locked you should be able to perform a re-boot or to expect someone to do it for you with a minimum of delay.
As with any hosting package the value of a dedicated hosting service depends on the reliability and integrity of the hosting company. If your website has grown to the point where you need dedicated hosting you need a hosting provider that you can rely on to keep your site online as much as possible.
Whether you choose managed or unmanaged hosting depends on the technical requirements of your site and the ability of you or your staff to manage a server so that it is running at peak efficiency. If you prefer to have the re-assurance of having highly trained professionals looking after the server, go with managed hosting. If you or your staff can handle most of the maintenance chores, you would be better off with an unmanaged server.
Colocated Hosting
You have decided that a dedicated server offers the best features for your online presence. There is no need to share resources and you can set up the server as you please. There remains just one question: Are you going to rent or buy your server? Dedicated hosting means that you are renting a server from a web host. But you also have the option of buying your own server and having the host provide the facilities to house it and connect it to the Internet. This service is called colocated hosting.
The advantages of colocating include all the advantages of dedicated hosting – you have the resources of the entire server and bandwidth to do with as you please. The additional benefit over dedicated hosting is the lower cost. Because you own the server, your monthly fees don’t include charges for hardware maintenance and upkeep. On the other hand, your initial outlay will be larger because you have to buy the server. If the server is good quality and remains in service for a reasonable length of time, however, your overall costs will be lower with colocation.
The cost of colocation depends on the amount of space your server occupies. Data centers house servers in racks that in turn are housed in cabinets. Cabinets are usually 40 rack units in height, with each rack unit equal to 1.75′. The cases of server computers are measured in rack heights – 1U = 1.75′. Typical sizes for servers are 1U, 2U and 4U, so the physical size of your server will determine how much the colocation host will charge per month. Bandwidth is another factor affecting price.
There are several options available when purchasing a server and getting it to the colocation data center. If you live in close proximity to the data center you could buy a server locally and set it up at your own premises. Once it is setup you can personally deliver it to the data center. Another option is to buy the server from a mail order retailer and have them deliver it directly to the data center. This is a good option if you are not located near the data center. It saves you the cost of shipping the server and the retailer will be responsible if the server happens to be damaged in transit. The disadvantage is that you have to set up the server remotely through a web interface. The third option is to buy the server direct from the host. Not all hosts are in the business of selling servers, but those that do may offer financing and setup assistance.
Colocation or Dedicated?
Colocation puts you in charge of the hardware, but that also means that you are responsible in the case of hardware failure. If you have signed up for dedicated hosting you are renting the server, so the host will replace hard drives or CPUs if they malfunction. The initial costs of colocation are much higher than dedicated hosting. You have to buy the server as well as insurance and software licences. All that is included in a dedicated hosting plan. Hardware upgrades are also more expensive with colocation because you have to buy the new equipment outright and pay to have it installed. Dedicated hosting plans usually allow you to upgrade either hardware or bandwidth at a reasonable cost.
The main advantage of colocation is the lower monthly costs when compared with dedicated hosting plans. Other advantages include greater control over network configuration and more flexibility. A colocation provider has to be chosen carefully. After all, they will host both your hardware and your data. Consider such details as security, network redundancy, protection from fire and earthquakes, and backup generators in the case of power outages.
The advantages of colocating include all the advantages of dedicated hosting – you have the resources of the entire server and bandwidth to do with as you please. The additional benefit over dedicated hosting is the lower cost. Because you own the server, your monthly fees don’t include charges for hardware maintenance and upkeep. On the other hand, your initial outlay will be larger because you have to buy the server. If the server is good quality and remains in service for a reasonable length of time, however, your overall costs will be lower with colocation.
The cost of colocation depends on the amount of space your server occupies. Data centers house servers in racks that in turn are housed in cabinets. Cabinets are usually 40 rack units in height, with each rack unit equal to 1.75′. The cases of server computers are measured in rack heights – 1U = 1.75′. Typical sizes for servers are 1U, 2U and 4U, so the physical size of your server will determine how much the colocation host will charge per month. Bandwidth is another factor affecting price.
There are several options available when purchasing a server and getting it to the colocation data center. If you live in close proximity to the data center you could buy a server locally and set it up at your own premises. Once it is setup you can personally deliver it to the data center. Another option is to buy the server from a mail order retailer and have them deliver it directly to the data center. This is a good option if you are not located near the data center. It saves you the cost of shipping the server and the retailer will be responsible if the server happens to be damaged in transit. The disadvantage is that you have to set up the server remotely through a web interface. The third option is to buy the server direct from the host. Not all hosts are in the business of selling servers, but those that do may offer financing and setup assistance.
Colocation or Dedicated?
Colocation puts you in charge of the hardware, but that also means that you are responsible in the case of hardware failure. If you have signed up for dedicated hosting you are renting the server, so the host will replace hard drives or CPUs if they malfunction. The initial costs of colocation are much higher than dedicated hosting. You have to buy the server as well as insurance and software licences. All that is included in a dedicated hosting plan. Hardware upgrades are also more expensive with colocation because you have to buy the new equipment outright and pay to have it installed. Dedicated hosting plans usually allow you to upgrade either hardware or bandwidth at a reasonable cost.
The main advantage of colocation is the lower monthly costs when compared with dedicated hosting plans. Other advantages include greater control over network configuration and more flexibility. A colocation provider has to be chosen carefully. After all, they will host both your hardware and your data. Consider such details as security, network redundancy, protection from fire and earthquakes, and backup generators in the case of power outages.
Virtual Private Server (VPS) Web Hosting
Shared hosting allows thousands of people to host their own sites at a very reasonable cost. It has some drawbacks, however. Since hundreds of sites can be hosted on a single server resources such as CPU, disk space, and bandwidth have to be shared with your virtual neighbours.
Shared resources are usually not a problem for small to medium sized sites. Your main limitation is the lack of control over system level software – http servers, mail servers etc. You don’t have any choice of operating system and you cannot compile programs or do administrative tasks such as setting up Spam filters or firewalls.
Many people would say ‘So what? I don’t want to do that stuff anyway!’ It’s true that the majority of website owners have no interest or ability to handle this kind of work and are happy to leave it to the hosting company. Those who desire more control over their server environment or wish to experiment with new software, however, can get access to this level of management with a Virtual Private Server.
A virtual private server (VPS) is a physical server that has been divided (using software) into several virtual machines, each acting as an independent dedicated server. The physical resources such as RAM, CPU and disk space are still shared, but each VPS acts independently of the others. Each VPS can have a different operating system and can be configured in any way possible.
The key advantage of VPS is allowing each VPS administrator access to the root level of his virtual server. This kind of access allows the administrator to install and delete software, set permissions, create accounts – in short, do everything that the administrator of a ‘real’ sever can.
As well as providing more control over your hosting environment, a VPS is more secure than shared hosting. Websites on a shared server all have the same operating system, so if a hacker were to find access to the root of the server he could damage any or all of the websites on that server. A VPS, on the other hand, is divided in such a way that even if a hacker were to gain entry through one account, there is no way to access the others. Each VPS is invisible to the others and there is no way to set up root level access from one VPS to another.
Virtual Private Servers can be set up in various ways so be sure to understand how the hosting company has allocated resources. The most common configuration is to divide all the physical resources evenly by the number of accounts. Thus, if there are 10 virtual servers, each would receive 10% of the total bandwidth, CPU, memory and disk space.
The disadvantages of VPS are almost the same as the advantages. The control that a VPS account provides can be dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. You have the ability to delete files, set permissions improperly, allow virus-laden software on the system and, in general, really screw things up. If you don’t have the knowledge to administer a server, or are not willing to learn, VPS is not for you.
If your website has outgrown shared hosting, however, VPS offers an affordable alternative to dedicated hosting. When shopping for a VPS host, be sure to find out how system resources are divided up, the number of VPS accounts on each physical server, the method for upgrading, and the choices of operating systems.
Shared resources are usually not a problem for small to medium sized sites. Your main limitation is the lack of control over system level software – http servers, mail servers etc. You don’t have any choice of operating system and you cannot compile programs or do administrative tasks such as setting up Spam filters or firewalls.
Many people would say ‘So what? I don’t want to do that stuff anyway!’ It’s true that the majority of website owners have no interest or ability to handle this kind of work and are happy to leave it to the hosting company. Those who desire more control over their server environment or wish to experiment with new software, however, can get access to this level of management with a Virtual Private Server.
A virtual private server (VPS) is a physical server that has been divided (using software) into several virtual machines, each acting as an independent dedicated server. The physical resources such as RAM, CPU and disk space are still shared, but each VPS acts independently of the others. Each VPS can have a different operating system and can be configured in any way possible.
The key advantage of VPS is allowing each VPS administrator access to the root level of his virtual server. This kind of access allows the administrator to install and delete software, set permissions, create accounts – in short, do everything that the administrator of a ‘real’ sever can.
As well as providing more control over your hosting environment, a VPS is more secure than shared hosting. Websites on a shared server all have the same operating system, so if a hacker were to find access to the root of the server he could damage any or all of the websites on that server. A VPS, on the other hand, is divided in such a way that even if a hacker were to gain entry through one account, there is no way to access the others. Each VPS is invisible to the others and there is no way to set up root level access from one VPS to another.
Virtual Private Servers can be set up in various ways so be sure to understand how the hosting company has allocated resources. The most common configuration is to divide all the physical resources evenly by the number of accounts. Thus, if there are 10 virtual servers, each would receive 10% of the total bandwidth, CPU, memory and disk space.
The disadvantages of VPS are almost the same as the advantages. The control that a VPS account provides can be dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing. You have the ability to delete files, set permissions improperly, allow virus-laden software on the system and, in general, really screw things up. If you don’t have the knowledge to administer a server, or are not willing to learn, VPS is not for you.
If your website has outgrown shared hosting, however, VPS offers an affordable alternative to dedicated hosting. When shopping for a VPS host, be sure to find out how system resources are divided up, the number of VPS accounts on each physical server, the method for upgrading, and the choices of operating systems.
Web Statistics
Now that your web site is up and running you want to know how many people are visiting your site and how they are finding it. Most web hosts give you access to this information (and a lot more) in the form of web statistics.
All visits to your site are logged by the server software. Log files contain information about the origin of the visitor (their IP address), the type of browser they were using, which pages they viewed, how long they stayed, whether or not they arrived from a search engine and if so, what keywords they used to locate your site. All very useful information.
The trouble is, raw log files are scary to look at and impossible to make any sense of. They are long lists of numbers and cryptic words that can only reveal their secrets with the aid of a statistics program. There are a few stats programs to choose from. They take the raw server logs and parse them into readable (and sometimes colourful) charts that are fairly easy to interpret.
Most web hosts will include a stats program as part of their hosting package. You should be able to access it through the control panel which is used to make various settings on your account. Some of the popular web stat programs are AWStats, Analog, and WebAlizer. All three of these programs are free.
Stats programs divide the information of the log files into useful categories. A summary of the data may be included at the top of the readout and tell you information such as ‘unique visitors’, ‘number of hits’, and ‘number of pages’.
Not all this information is important. The number of hits, for example, simply counts the total number of requests for any individual part of your site including graphics, script files and any other files that are part of a page. If your home page has 4 pictures and 2 other files the hit count is increased by 7 each time someone views that page.
The number of page views is important because it tells you which pages are popular. This allows you to fine-tune your site by dropping or modifying unpopular pages and making sure that popular pages link to areas that you want to promote.
Popular entry and exit pages are also worth tweaking. Visitors will not always arrive at your site through the home page, especially if they’ve found your site through a search engine. Make sure that popular entry pages contain relevant information and adjust exit pages to be more appealing. Exit pages should provide one last chance for them to buy or bookmark your site for future reference.
Referring sites show you where people are coming from. If they have found you from a search engine you will also see what keywords they used to find your site. This information tells you which keywords are important for optimizing your site. You can then design new content based on these keywords to attract even more visitors in the future.
Rather than rely on the stats produced by your server, you can hire a third party service to monitor your web site. These services range from basic ‘counter’ that usually offer less information than your server does, to comprehensive client-side stats collection.
Stats services can be useful if you need more precise information about your visitors. For example, visitors from a large organization may all appear to be the same because they all have the same IP address. Stat services can break down IP addresses into individual users.
These services can be useful for more precise monitoring of your website and for targeting specific niches. Most site owners, however, will find enough useful information in their server’s statistics.
All visits to your site are logged by the server software. Log files contain information about the origin of the visitor (their IP address), the type of browser they were using, which pages they viewed, how long they stayed, whether or not they arrived from a search engine and if so, what keywords they used to locate your site. All very useful information.
The trouble is, raw log files are scary to look at and impossible to make any sense of. They are long lists of numbers and cryptic words that can only reveal their secrets with the aid of a statistics program. There are a few stats programs to choose from. They take the raw server logs and parse them into readable (and sometimes colourful) charts that are fairly easy to interpret.
Most web hosts will include a stats program as part of their hosting package. You should be able to access it through the control panel which is used to make various settings on your account. Some of the popular web stat programs are AWStats, Analog, and WebAlizer. All three of these programs are free.
Stats programs divide the information of the log files into useful categories. A summary of the data may be included at the top of the readout and tell you information such as ‘unique visitors’, ‘number of hits’, and ‘number of pages’.
Not all this information is important. The number of hits, for example, simply counts the total number of requests for any individual part of your site including graphics, script files and any other files that are part of a page. If your home page has 4 pictures and 2 other files the hit count is increased by 7 each time someone views that page.
The number of page views is important because it tells you which pages are popular. This allows you to fine-tune your site by dropping or modifying unpopular pages and making sure that popular pages link to areas that you want to promote.
Popular entry and exit pages are also worth tweaking. Visitors will not always arrive at your site through the home page, especially if they’ve found your site through a search engine. Make sure that popular entry pages contain relevant information and adjust exit pages to be more appealing. Exit pages should provide one last chance for them to buy or bookmark your site for future reference.
Referring sites show you where people are coming from. If they have found you from a search engine you will also see what keywords they used to find your site. This information tells you which keywords are important for optimizing your site. You can then design new content based on these keywords to attract even more visitors in the future.
Rather than rely on the stats produced by your server, you can hire a third party service to monitor your web site. These services range from basic ‘counter’ that usually offer less information than your server does, to comprehensive client-side stats collection.
Stats services can be useful if you need more precise information about your visitors. For example, visitors from a large organization may all appear to be the same because they all have the same IP address. Stat services can break down IP addresses into individual users.
These services can be useful for more precise monitoring of your website and for targeting specific niches. Most site owners, however, will find enough useful information in their server’s statistics.
Website Monitoring Services
If you have gone through the trouble of building a web site and hosting it with a reliable company you obviously want your website to be available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Downtime can result in lost sales and customer frustration.
Unfortunately, there are many technical problems beyond your control that can cause your web site to go down or become sluggish. Server hardware and software can fail and your host may schedule downtime for maintenance chores. Speedy recognition of failures is the best defence to getting things back on track, so many companies offer website monitoring services that automatically alert you if your site goes down.
There are hundreds of companies that provide monitoring services. Some are free while others charge anywhere from $5 to $60 per month. The paid services usually offer more features and allow you to use the same service with several different web sites. Web monitoring is not done continuously – time intervals range from every 3 minutes to every hour. The paid services usually offer the most comprehensive monitoring.
Monitoring works by sending an automatic request to your website and checking the response. These requests are the same as a web browser makes and the response to the request determines whether the site is up or down. Requests are usually sent from several different geographical locations to ensure that the site is available from various parts of the world.
If the response code is OK (200, 301, 302, 401, 403) nothing happens and the monitoring software waits for the next scheduled check. If the response code indicates that the web site is unreachable, there will be a second check a few seconds later from another location. There may be 3 or more of these checks before an alert is issued.
An alert can be sent to one or several email addresses or to a mobile device such as a pager or cell phone. This allows you to get in touch with your hosting company as soon as possible to ensure they are aware of the problem and are working to resolve it. As well as HTTP traffic, some website monitors can also check HTTPS, FTP, SMPT and POP3 so that all the functions of your website are covered.
Besides alerting you to downtime, these services can also provide useful statistics in the form of log files that indicate how often a site goes down. This third-party information can be used to demand better service from your web host or a refund in the case of severe amounts of downtime.
If you find that your site has an unacceptable amount of downtime, you should look for a more reliable hosting company. The best way to find a good host is to ask for recommendations from other web site owners. If they are happy with their service they will usually be glad to direct more business to their host.
Unfortunately, there are many technical problems beyond your control that can cause your web site to go down or become sluggish. Server hardware and software can fail and your host may schedule downtime for maintenance chores. Speedy recognition of failures is the best defence to getting things back on track, so many companies offer website monitoring services that automatically alert you if your site goes down.
There are hundreds of companies that provide monitoring services. Some are free while others charge anywhere from $5 to $60 per month. The paid services usually offer more features and allow you to use the same service with several different web sites. Web monitoring is not done continuously – time intervals range from every 3 minutes to every hour. The paid services usually offer the most comprehensive monitoring.
Monitoring works by sending an automatic request to your website and checking the response. These requests are the same as a web browser makes and the response to the request determines whether the site is up or down. Requests are usually sent from several different geographical locations to ensure that the site is available from various parts of the world.
If the response code is OK (200, 301, 302, 401, 403) nothing happens and the monitoring software waits for the next scheduled check. If the response code indicates that the web site is unreachable, there will be a second check a few seconds later from another location. There may be 3 or more of these checks before an alert is issued.
An alert can be sent to one or several email addresses or to a mobile device such as a pager or cell phone. This allows you to get in touch with your hosting company as soon as possible to ensure they are aware of the problem and are working to resolve it. As well as HTTP traffic, some website monitors can also check HTTPS, FTP, SMPT and POP3 so that all the functions of your website are covered.
Besides alerting you to downtime, these services can also provide useful statistics in the form of log files that indicate how often a site goes down. This third-party information can be used to demand better service from your web host or a refund in the case of severe amounts of downtime.
If you find that your site has an unacceptable amount of downtime, you should look for a more reliable hosting company. The best way to find a good host is to ask for recommendations from other web site owners. If they are happy with their service they will usually be glad to direct more business to their host.
Web Hosting and Databases
Most web hosting packages include one or more databases. What can you use them for? How will they help your website? Read on for the answers to these questions. A database stores data, but more importantly, allows that data can easily be accessed. Data can be product information, customer names and addresses, sales records, or even the information that appears on web pages. Using a database to retrieve that information can allow you to better serve your visitors and provide them with a more interactive experience.
The most common use of databases in an Internet environment is to serve information dynamically as it is requested. In a large eCommerce site, for example, the actual product information is maintained in a database so that updating the site is a simple matter of changing the data. Without this system, website managers would have to create static pages for each product. When dealing with hundreds or thousands of products, this task would be almost impossible to manage in an efficient manner.
Dynamic pages use a template for the static content of the site such as headers, menus and footers. The contents of the database are inserted into the template by the server software before the page is sent to be viewed in a browser. Any content from the database can be placed anywhere on a dynamic page. This allows you to set up visually appealing pages which include text and pictures and also add shopping suggestions like: ‘Customers who bought this also bought…’
Databases can also be used for storing and accessing customer records. This allows you to tailor your pages according to your customer’s previous purchases. Each page could have a personalized greeting (Welcome back Peter) and when they make another purchase all their personal data including address and credit card number could be pulled from the database so they don’t have to fill in the same form again.
Another use of a database is mailinglists. Many websites send out information to their visitors to remind them about the site and encourage them to visit again. Email addresses can be stored in a database for the purpose of sending out announcements and newsletters. Also the newsletters can be archived in a database so that visitors can browse or search through previous mailings.
Each database can be divided into tables which are a complete set of data, so one database could be used for most of your website information by setting up a number of tables.The number of databases that your site needs depends on how many applications you are going to run.
It’s one thing to have a database, it’s another to access that data. There are several ways to retrieve information from a database so that it can be usefully applied to your website. One of the most popular combinations is PHP along with MySQL. PHP can be used to create dynamic web pages that pull data from a MySQL database. The programming language is quite straightforward and can be used to set up complex interactive forms. Other database applications include MySQL with ASP, MSSQL with ASP, and PostgreSQL with PHP.
The most common use of databases in an Internet environment is to serve information dynamically as it is requested. In a large eCommerce site, for example, the actual product information is maintained in a database so that updating the site is a simple matter of changing the data. Without this system, website managers would have to create static pages for each product. When dealing with hundreds or thousands of products, this task would be almost impossible to manage in an efficient manner.
Dynamic pages use a template for the static content of the site such as headers, menus and footers. The contents of the database are inserted into the template by the server software before the page is sent to be viewed in a browser. Any content from the database can be placed anywhere on a dynamic page. This allows you to set up visually appealing pages which include text and pictures and also add shopping suggestions like: ‘Customers who bought this also bought…’
Databases can also be used for storing and accessing customer records. This allows you to tailor your pages according to your customer’s previous purchases. Each page could have a personalized greeting (Welcome back Peter) and when they make another purchase all their personal data including address and credit card number could be pulled from the database so they don’t have to fill in the same form again.
Another use of a database is mailinglists. Many websites send out information to their visitors to remind them about the site and encourage them to visit again. Email addresses can be stored in a database for the purpose of sending out announcements and newsletters. Also the newsletters can be archived in a database so that visitors can browse or search through previous mailings.
Each database can be divided into tables which are a complete set of data, so one database could be used for most of your website information by setting up a number of tables.The number of databases that your site needs depends on how many applications you are going to run.
It’s one thing to have a database, it’s another to access that data. There are several ways to retrieve information from a database so that it can be usefully applied to your website. One of the most popular combinations is PHP along with MySQL. PHP can be used to create dynamic web pages that pull data from a MySQL database. The programming language is quite straightforward and can be used to set up complex interactive forms. Other database applications include MySQL with ASP, MSSQL with ASP, and PostgreSQL with PHP.
eCommerce Web Hosting
One of the fastest growing sectors of the Internet is eCommerce. People are becoming accustomed to buying things from Internet store fronts and every year the volume and value of sales increases substantially. If you would like to open up your own eCommerce web site here are a few basics to get you started.
The first thing you need, obviously, is a product or service that you can sell. If you already have a brick and mortar store you can offer the same items for sale on a web site. The number of products that you sell is a big factor in the type of hosting package you need. If you have let’s say less than 20 items, you could set the whole thing up on a very small hosting account. Listing hundreds of products is a different story – you will probably need more disk space, more bandwidth, and more features such as databases and a secure connection for accepting payments.
Since the most important part of eCommerce is getting paid, let’s look at the various payment options available. There are two basic options – collecting payment information directly or hiring a third-party service to process credit cards.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
If you are planning to get or already have a merchant account that enables you to process credit cards you need to have a web site with a secure connection. This provides a way to encrypt sensitive data so that it cannot be intercepted and read as it travels across the Internet. If you don’t have a secure connection (indicated by https at the start of a web address) forget about collecting credit card numbers – customers are too web savvy to post sensitive financial data on an unsecured web site.
In order to get a secure connection, you need to apply for an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. These are issued by companies such as Thawte which require you to supply verifiable information concerning your identity and location. Once you have the certificate it must be installed on your web site. For this you need to have a unique IP address – available at an extra cost from most web hosts. There may also be a fee to install the certificate.
Third Party Gateways
If all this sounds too complicated, you have the option of going with a third party service that handles financial transactions for you. To complete a sale, customers are usually redirected to the web site of the payment service where they provide their credit card details. Some of these services have setup fees and charge a commission on each sale, while others (like PayPal) are free to set up and simply take a percentage of each sale.
Shopping Carts
Shopping carts are scripts that can be installed in your hosting account. They can automate the whole eCommerce experience by organizing your products into categories, creating pages that describe categories as well as individual items, allow you to keep track of returning clients, suggest other items for the customer to buy before they check out, and allow them rate the products they have bought.
Shopping carts can provide a more satisfying shopping experience while providing a structure for your online business. Many hosting packages include free shopping cart scripts such as Miva, Agora, osCommerce, and Zen. When choosing an eCommerce package, make sure it supports your preferred method of payment gateway. For example, if you already have a merchant account with your local bank, use that as your starting point for choosing a shopping cart which supports that particular payment method.
The first thing you need, obviously, is a product or service that you can sell. If you already have a brick and mortar store you can offer the same items for sale on a web site. The number of products that you sell is a big factor in the type of hosting package you need. If you have let’s say less than 20 items, you could set the whole thing up on a very small hosting account. Listing hundreds of products is a different story – you will probably need more disk space, more bandwidth, and more features such as databases and a secure connection for accepting payments.
Since the most important part of eCommerce is getting paid, let’s look at the various payment options available. There are two basic options – collecting payment information directly or hiring a third-party service to process credit cards.
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
If you are planning to get or already have a merchant account that enables you to process credit cards you need to have a web site with a secure connection. This provides a way to encrypt sensitive data so that it cannot be intercepted and read as it travels across the Internet. If you don’t have a secure connection (indicated by https at the start of a web address) forget about collecting credit card numbers – customers are too web savvy to post sensitive financial data on an unsecured web site.
In order to get a secure connection, you need to apply for an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. These are issued by companies such as Thawte which require you to supply verifiable information concerning your identity and location. Once you have the certificate it must be installed on your web site. For this you need to have a unique IP address – available at an extra cost from most web hosts. There may also be a fee to install the certificate.
Third Party Gateways
If all this sounds too complicated, you have the option of going with a third party service that handles financial transactions for you. To complete a sale, customers are usually redirected to the web site of the payment service where they provide their credit card details. Some of these services have setup fees and charge a commission on each sale, while others (like PayPal) are free to set up and simply take a percentage of each sale.
Shopping Carts
Shopping carts are scripts that can be installed in your hosting account. They can automate the whole eCommerce experience by organizing your products into categories, creating pages that describe categories as well as individual items, allow you to keep track of returning clients, suggest other items for the customer to buy before they check out, and allow them rate the products they have bought.
Shopping carts can provide a more satisfying shopping experience while providing a structure for your online business. Many hosting packages include free shopping cart scripts such as Miva, Agora, osCommerce, and Zen. When choosing an eCommerce package, make sure it supports your preferred method of payment gateway. For example, if you already have a merchant account with your local bank, use that as your starting point for choosing a shopping cart which supports that particular payment method.
Disk Space
Every hosting account has a certain allotment of disk space. The disk space is used to hold all the files which make up your web site – HTML files, graphics, scripts, and multi-media content. Usually the more expensive the hosting package the more disk space and the more bandwidth you receive.
A basic web site with just a few pages requires less than 1 MB of disk space. As you add more content and include things like downloadable files, pictures, music, and video you will require more disk space. Email also takes up disk space. If you have an account with a small disk allotment you may find that unsolicited SPAM may be eating away at your disk allotment. It’s always a good idea to go through your inbox from time to time to delete unnecessary emails.
What will happen if you use too much disk space? Each web host has their own policy about this but it’s safe to say that you will be charged for the extra space. Often this penalty is much higher than regular rates for disk space so it’s important to keep an eye on how much space you are using and if you are approaching the limit, either purchase more space or delete some files.
How can you tell how much space you are using? Most hosting packages have a control panel for making adjustments to almost every aspect of your account. These control panels usually tell you how much disk space is being used and may also rate it against your allotment so you can see at a glance if you are approaching your limit. If your hosting account does not have this feature you can judge the amount of space by downloading your entire site to a folder on your personal computer in order to check how much space it takes.
As a rough guide, consider that an average web page (3 graphics and 2 screen lengths of text) takes about 20 kb (to be generous). At this rate, a hosting package with 10 MB can have about 500 pages. Since most small sites are less than 50 pages 10 MB should be plenty to get started. But what about databases? They are usually calculated separately from your disk allotment but check with your web host to see what their policy is.
If you place music or video files on your website your need for disk space (and bandwidth) starts to take off. A typical 3 minute MP3 file takes about 2.5 to 3 MB of disk space. A short video (very poor quality) can take 1 MB. A good rule of thumb for those wishing to host multimedia is to estimate the total size of the files and get an account with double that space. This will allow for future expansion. Always check with your web host, though, before placing sound or video files on your website. Some have policies against this type of content because it places a strain on the bandwidth allotment – a serious consideration with a shared hosting package.
A basic web site with just a few pages requires less than 1 MB of disk space. As you add more content and include things like downloadable files, pictures, music, and video you will require more disk space. Email also takes up disk space. If you have an account with a small disk allotment you may find that unsolicited SPAM may be eating away at your disk allotment. It’s always a good idea to go through your inbox from time to time to delete unnecessary emails.
What will happen if you use too much disk space? Each web host has their own policy about this but it’s safe to say that you will be charged for the extra space. Often this penalty is much higher than regular rates for disk space so it’s important to keep an eye on how much space you are using and if you are approaching the limit, either purchase more space or delete some files.
How can you tell how much space you are using? Most hosting packages have a control panel for making adjustments to almost every aspect of your account. These control panels usually tell you how much disk space is being used and may also rate it against your allotment so you can see at a glance if you are approaching your limit. If your hosting account does not have this feature you can judge the amount of space by downloading your entire site to a folder on your personal computer in order to check how much space it takes.
As a rough guide, consider that an average web page (3 graphics and 2 screen lengths of text) takes about 20 kb (to be generous). At this rate, a hosting package with 10 MB can have about 500 pages. Since most small sites are less than 50 pages 10 MB should be plenty to get started. But what about databases? They are usually calculated separately from your disk allotment but check with your web host to see what their policy is.
If you place music or video files on your website your need for disk space (and bandwidth) starts to take off. A typical 3 minute MP3 file takes about 2.5 to 3 MB of disk space. A short video (very poor quality) can take 1 MB. A good rule of thumb for those wishing to host multimedia is to estimate the total size of the files and get an account with double that space. This will allow for future expansion. Always check with your web host, though, before placing sound or video files on your website. Some have policies against this type of content because it places a strain on the bandwidth allotment – a serious consideration with a shared hosting package.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is a term that has several different meanings depending on the context. When talking about bandwidth in terms of Web Hosting it refers to the amount of data that transfers into and out of your web hosting account. Incoming data can include requests for web pages, email, FTP requests, and FTP uploads, while outgoing data includes file transfers, web pages, and email. Each hosting account is allocated a certain amount of bandwidth per month. Common figures for bandwidth range from 3 GB for small personal sites up to 200 GB for large business systems.
How much bandwidth do you need? This depends on the amount of traffic your website receives as well as the content. Web pages made up of text and a few pictures are very small in size but if you get thousands of visitors each day you may need a lot of bandwidth. On the other hand website content consisting of downloadable files such as software, music or video is much larger in size, so even if your traffic is fairly low you may need extra bandwidth.
The best way to calculate the amount of bandwidth you need is to calculate the size of your downloadable content and multiply by the number of visitors you receive each month. Add to that the number of emails sent and received and other content such as FTP uploads. The figure you come up with should be pretty accurate because it is unlikely that every visitor to your site is going to download every file or view every page. This will give you a bit of margin to play with.
As your web site grows and as you receive more traffic you may have to increase your bandwidth allotment accordingly. It is better to plan ahead and arrange with your web host for a larger hosting package rather than wait until you go over your limit. Check with your host to see what their policy is in regards to exceeding your bandwidth. Some will allow you to go over by a certain amount while others will shut down your site and demand that you upgrade your account before resuming service. It is always best to keep track of how much bandwidth you are using and anticipate when you need to upgrade.
If you feel that you have sufficient bandwidth and would prefer not to upgrade you may be able to ‘throttle’ traffic if you are approaching your monthly limit. Some hosts offer this service as a way to limit incoming requests or to exclude requests once a certain number has been reached.
There are several throttling options. You can limit the number of incoming requests by specifying an idle time between requests. This causes incoming requests to be delayed by a specified amount of time if too many are arriving at once. Other options are to impose a limit on data transfer within a certain time period or to limit the number of requests for a certain file. The speed of transfers can also be capped at a certain level. Throttling may not be a good idea if you depend on web traffic for your business. If your pages are slow to load or if users can’t access files they are looking for they may give up and move on to another site. If you have a lot of free content, though, throttling can be useful for keeping your hosting budget within a certain amount.
How much bandwidth do you need? This depends on the amount of traffic your website receives as well as the content. Web pages made up of text and a few pictures are very small in size but if you get thousands of visitors each day you may need a lot of bandwidth. On the other hand website content consisting of downloadable files such as software, music or video is much larger in size, so even if your traffic is fairly low you may need extra bandwidth.
The best way to calculate the amount of bandwidth you need is to calculate the size of your downloadable content and multiply by the number of visitors you receive each month. Add to that the number of emails sent and received and other content such as FTP uploads. The figure you come up with should be pretty accurate because it is unlikely that every visitor to your site is going to download every file or view every page. This will give you a bit of margin to play with.
As your web site grows and as you receive more traffic you may have to increase your bandwidth allotment accordingly. It is better to plan ahead and arrange with your web host for a larger hosting package rather than wait until you go over your limit. Check with your host to see what their policy is in regards to exceeding your bandwidth. Some will allow you to go over by a certain amount while others will shut down your site and demand that you upgrade your account before resuming service. It is always best to keep track of how much bandwidth you are using and anticipate when you need to upgrade.
If you feel that you have sufficient bandwidth and would prefer not to upgrade you may be able to ‘throttle’ traffic if you are approaching your monthly limit. Some hosts offer this service as a way to limit incoming requests or to exclude requests once a certain number has been reached.
There are several throttling options. You can limit the number of incoming requests by specifying an idle time between requests. This causes incoming requests to be delayed by a specified amount of time if too many are arriving at once. Other options are to impose a limit on data transfer within a certain time period or to limit the number of requests for a certain file. The speed of transfers can also be capped at a certain level. Throttling may not be a good idea if you depend on web traffic for your business. If your pages are slow to load or if users can’t access files they are looking for they may give up and move on to another site. If you have a lot of free content, though, throttling can be useful for keeping your hosting budget within a certain amount.
UNIX versus Windows Hosting
When browsing through the offerings of various web hosting companies you are sure to notice that some offer UNIX hosting and others offer Windows. Some hosts even offer a choice of the two operating systems. What are the differences and which one is better?
First of all, when choosing a host, it doesn’t matter what kind of operating system you develop your web site on or what you use on your own computer. Web sites hosted on both UNIX and Windows servers are universally accessible because the data they serve is identical. The difference lies solely in the software used to serve that data.
In terms of reliability UNIX systems have a slight advantage. They are known to extremely stable and able to run for years without rebooting. Windows is also very reliable – slightly less so than UNIX but still able to handle the demands of modern web sites.
The majority of web hosts use various flavours of UNIX like Linux and FreeBSD. These operating systems are free and reduce the costs of a hosting operation. Windows costs thousands of dollars so some hosts charge extra for Windows accounts if they offer both types.
As well as being free, Linux and the other UNIX varieties are open-source software. Anyone can alter the source code and make improvements, updates, and additions. There is a large pool of dedicated enthusiasts who use their free time to work on this software. Windows, on the other hand, is Microsoft proprietary software so users are dependent on Microsoft to release updates. There is no way for an individual user to modify the code.
The main difference between the two types of operating systems is the type of software each can run. Windows is suitable for Microsoft products such as MS Access databases, ASP for delivering dynamic content, and VBScript for site enhancements. UNIX cannot accommodate these technologies so if you absolutely need ASP or VBScript you should pick a Windows host. UNIX hosts deliver dynamic content by using software such as PHP, CGI, and MySQL – technologies which are also available on Windows hosts.
Windows is necessary for hosting Windows media files such as videos and audio. Other types of media such as MP3, Flash, Shockwave and Real can be handled by either UNIX or Windows. Websites created in Microsoft FrontPage (a graphical HTML development package) can also be hosted on either type as long as MS databases or dynamic content are not included for use on a UNIX host.
Which is Best?
Before deciding which type of hosting to use for your website, consider carefully what kind of technologies you will need. Do you need a dynamic site? Will you have multimedia content such as streaming video or audio?
Both UNIX and Windows can provide dynamic content with PHP, MySQL, as well as CGI, and there are thousands of dynamic scripts readily available. Multimedia can also be hosted by either type of server, although Windows media (WMA and WMV) need to be hosted on a Windows server.
If you absolutely need Microsoft databases, ASP, and Windows media you have to go with a Windows host. Otherwise most websites are probably better off with a UNIX host. The advantages of UNIX over Windows include greater choices in web hosts, slightly better reliability, and (sometimes) cheaper hosting costs.
First of all, when choosing a host, it doesn’t matter what kind of operating system you develop your web site on or what you use on your own computer. Web sites hosted on both UNIX and Windows servers are universally accessible because the data they serve is identical. The difference lies solely in the software used to serve that data.
In terms of reliability UNIX systems have a slight advantage. They are known to extremely stable and able to run for years without rebooting. Windows is also very reliable – slightly less so than UNIX but still able to handle the demands of modern web sites.
The majority of web hosts use various flavours of UNIX like Linux and FreeBSD. These operating systems are free and reduce the costs of a hosting operation. Windows costs thousands of dollars so some hosts charge extra for Windows accounts if they offer both types.
As well as being free, Linux and the other UNIX varieties are open-source software. Anyone can alter the source code and make improvements, updates, and additions. There is a large pool of dedicated enthusiasts who use their free time to work on this software. Windows, on the other hand, is Microsoft proprietary software so users are dependent on Microsoft to release updates. There is no way for an individual user to modify the code.
The main difference between the two types of operating systems is the type of software each can run. Windows is suitable for Microsoft products such as MS Access databases, ASP for delivering dynamic content, and VBScript for site enhancements. UNIX cannot accommodate these technologies so if you absolutely need ASP or VBScript you should pick a Windows host. UNIX hosts deliver dynamic content by using software such as PHP, CGI, and MySQL – technologies which are also available on Windows hosts.
Windows is necessary for hosting Windows media files such as videos and audio. Other types of media such as MP3, Flash, Shockwave and Real can be handled by either UNIX or Windows. Websites created in Microsoft FrontPage (a graphical HTML development package) can also be hosted on either type as long as MS databases or dynamic content are not included for use on a UNIX host.
Which is Best?
Before deciding which type of hosting to use for your website, consider carefully what kind of technologies you will need. Do you need a dynamic site? Will you have multimedia content such as streaming video or audio?
Both UNIX and Windows can provide dynamic content with PHP, MySQL, as well as CGI, and there are thousands of dynamic scripts readily available. Multimedia can also be hosted by either type of server, although Windows media (WMA and WMV) need to be hosted on a Windows server.
If you absolutely need Microsoft databases, ASP, and Windows media you have to go with a Windows host. Otherwise most websites are probably better off with a UNIX host. The advantages of UNIX over Windows include greater choices in web hosts, slightly better reliability, and (sometimes) cheaper hosting costs.
Multiple Domain Web Hosting
Thanks to the low cost of domain names and hosting fees it is possible to own several websites without breaking the bank. There are several ways to manage multiple domains so it is important to know what your options are and the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
The most basic choice when administering multiple domains is whether or not to do so with the same host. Most hosts offer packages which can be set up to allow several sites on one account, or allow individual sites to be operated under separate accounts.
You may have an existing website and are happy with the services your host provides. If you decide to start a new website using the same host, you will have the reassurance of dealing with a company you are familiar with and trust. You may also get a discount for each additional account you open with the same host. On the other hand, using a new host for a second (or third or fourth) website can allow you to compare the quality of hosting offered by different companies. In addition, separate hosts will provide each of your web sites with a different IP address.
Having different IP addresses can be an important factor if you plan to link the sites together to aid in search engine optimization. Incoming links are an important indicator of the importance of a website, so a site with a lot of incoming links can get a higher position in search engines like Google. If all the links are coming from the same IP address, however, their value may be discounted. Hosting your various sites with different hosting companies guarantees that each site has a different IP address. Individual IP addresses, however, are available as an extra from most web hosts. For a yearly fee each website can have its own unique IP address. This can help with search engine ranking and is also needed if you want to have a secure connection (https) on your site.
If you decide to host all your sites with the same company, there are three basic ways to go. Each site could have its own account; you could sign up for a re-seller account; or you could get a dedicated server account.
As a re-seller you are acting as an agent for the hosting company. You are allocated a certain amount of disk space and bandwidth and you are free to use them as you please. There may be a limit to the number of websites you can host with your re-seller account, but if there is space left over after using this account for your own sites you could earn some extra income by selling accounts to other people. The advantage of a re-seller account is that all the technical details are taken care of by the hosting company. Some will even provide gateways for billing your customers.
A dedicated server account gives you control of all the resources of an entire server. You are free to setup as many websites as you wish and allocate disk space and bandwidth as you see fit. The downside to this type of account is that you are responsible for maintaining the server. This can require a significant level of technical know-how so if you don’t have that knowledge or don’t feel like learning about it, dedicated servers are not for you. You can, of course, go with a managed dedicated server. The downside of this is the higher cost involved.
Hosting all your sites with one host can offer lots of advantages but there is one major disadvantage – if your server goes down, all your sites go down. If you are depending on your sites for income this can be a disastrous situation. For this reason, it is a good idea to have at least one of your sites with a different host. If your sites are essential for your livelihood and you can’t afford any down time whatsoever, you would be advised to host everything with (at least) two hosts.
The most basic choice when administering multiple domains is whether or not to do so with the same host. Most hosts offer packages which can be set up to allow several sites on one account, or allow individual sites to be operated under separate accounts.
You may have an existing website and are happy with the services your host provides. If you decide to start a new website using the same host, you will have the reassurance of dealing with a company you are familiar with and trust. You may also get a discount for each additional account you open with the same host. On the other hand, using a new host for a second (or third or fourth) website can allow you to compare the quality of hosting offered by different companies. In addition, separate hosts will provide each of your web sites with a different IP address.
Having different IP addresses can be an important factor if you plan to link the sites together to aid in search engine optimization. Incoming links are an important indicator of the importance of a website, so a site with a lot of incoming links can get a higher position in search engines like Google. If all the links are coming from the same IP address, however, their value may be discounted. Hosting your various sites with different hosting companies guarantees that each site has a different IP address. Individual IP addresses, however, are available as an extra from most web hosts. For a yearly fee each website can have its own unique IP address. This can help with search engine ranking and is also needed if you want to have a secure connection (https) on your site.
If you decide to host all your sites with the same company, there are three basic ways to go. Each site could have its own account; you could sign up for a re-seller account; or you could get a dedicated server account.
As a re-seller you are acting as an agent for the hosting company. You are allocated a certain amount of disk space and bandwidth and you are free to use them as you please. There may be a limit to the number of websites you can host with your re-seller account, but if there is space left over after using this account for your own sites you could earn some extra income by selling accounts to other people. The advantage of a re-seller account is that all the technical details are taken care of by the hosting company. Some will even provide gateways for billing your customers.
A dedicated server account gives you control of all the resources of an entire server. You are free to setup as many websites as you wish and allocate disk space and bandwidth as you see fit. The downside to this type of account is that you are responsible for maintaining the server. This can require a significant level of technical know-how so if you don’t have that knowledge or don’t feel like learning about it, dedicated servers are not for you. You can, of course, go with a managed dedicated server. The downside of this is the higher cost involved.
Hosting all your sites with one host can offer lots of advantages but there is one major disadvantage – if your server goes down, all your sites go down. If you are depending on your sites for income this can be a disastrous situation. For this reason, it is a good idea to have at least one of your sites with a different host. If your sites are essential for your livelihood and you can’t afford any down time whatsoever, you would be advised to host everything with (at least) two hosts.
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