Web Hosting Companies - Look Before You Leap

By Joseph Nyamache

Of course you do know! That - Web hosting companies are in the business of providing space, bandwidth and the internet connection of their servers to small internet business. Larger corporations may have their own network infrastructure and therefore in most cases do not require these services. But for most of us who want a piece of the web, I guess we have no choice but instead to "rent" web hosting for our sites.

Hosting plans vary widely. There are some which are free; and others which charge as much as $100 and up each month. There are those who offer a very small amount of disk space on their servers and very little bandwidth. Some offer a full complement of services including backup services, administration, design help and much more. In short the choices presented to you by web hosting companies can vary as much as you can possibly think of.

Web hosting companies often provide a choice of shared or dedicated hosting - shared hosting means that you will share server space with other sites, starting anywhere from a few to a few thousand other sites. This lets the web hosting firm to keep its overhead low. A lot of sites are simple enough not to require anything more than this. However, if your site is one which plans to grow, dedicated hosting is something you may want to consider.

As you may have guessed from its name, a dedicated server is one which hosts only one website or domain name. You can put as many sites as you want on this server and you have control and access to the server. If you choose to do so, you may also take over the administration duties of the server. This can save money on the cost of hiring an administrator, but can also take up a lot of your time. Unless you are an expert, you may want to leave the administration to the pros like me...(just playing)

Even thought some web hosting companies promise to provide a little help to help you manage and administer your dedicated server, you'll need a little expertise of your own in order to take care of administration and technical side of managing a dedicated server. You should at the least be aware of how to use FTP, set up email accounts, perform backups and some other common tasks.

If your site is growing rapidly in size and complexity, it may be a good idea to start using a database to keep track of all of the information on your site. This requires even more expertise, both technical and creative. Setting up a database can be fairly simple. However, designing a database which will meet your needs and provide good performance will require careful advance planning. Not everyone is cut out for database development, especially those who are more artistically minded. Of course, not everyone possesses the temperament for any sort of website duties, count me out!

There are plenty of other administrative tasks which need to be done as well. These include maintaining domain names, handling registration, managing disk space and a lot of other duties which are not really to the taste of many people. In order to tackle this work, you will need a basic understanding of the workings of the internet, including knowing how DNS operates. This provides a solid background in how these tasks fit into the broader picture of website administration.

When you are looking for good web hosting companies to get your website going, give consideration to all of these factors and determine what your capabilities and willingness are with regards to the work of administering the site. Be sure to investigate all possibilities, benefits and features of most Web hosting companies before you sign on to any web hosting company.

Here is my list of the top web hosting sites Visit Joseph Nyamache site ecommerce hosting for affiliate marketing business for tips on how to succeed with internet marketing.

How Much Bandwidth Do I Need in My Web Hosting Package?

By Jonas Bebe

Bandwidth is a word that gets thrown around a lot on the Internet, and especially when it comes to web hosting and choosing the right one for you. So how does this whole bandwidth thing work, and how much do you need when it comes to choosing a web hosting package that suits your needs? Those are the main topics that I will discuss in this article. Different people have different needs, so it is important to know exactly what yours are.

First I'll go into what bandwidth is and how it works in a nutshell. Keep in mind that this isn't a definitive guide, but a small summary and overview. Simply put, bandwidth is the amount of "stuff" that is downloaded from the server onto anyone else's browser. For example, when somebody visits your website (including you), your browser is downloading the website from their server to display it on their computer. The more pictures, video and media in general that is on your website, the more bandwidth is being used because more "stuff" is being downloaded from the server. The server keeps track of how much is being downloaded and it counts against your monthly bandwidth limit. Once your bandwidth limit is reached, your website will go down until the next month of service. So your goal is to have more than enough bandwidth to cover the amount of traffic that will be coming from your website.

So how can you tell how much you need? Choose an option that sounds like it has a decent amount of available bandwidth, and usually within your web hosting control panel you should be able to see in real-time how much bandwidth has been used that month. If the web hosting provider provides the cPanel interface, it will be on the left after you log in. From here, you can gauge month by month, whether your package is meeting your specific bandwidth needs and you can adjust from there. Normally web hosting providers allow you to upgrade and downgrade your packages on the fly.

To conclude this article you should now know what exactly bandwidth is, and how to tell how much you need, even if you are unsure at first. It is almost always one of the main things mentioned when it comes to web hosting packages so it is important for you to have at least a basic understanding of internet bandwidth usage.

Learn to make money online the right way, exactly how I do it. This blog focuses on profits earned via blogging and certain affiliate programs. Observe this blog as a live case study and discover insightful tips to help you with your own ventures. Blogging HQ - Discover Proven Ways to Make Money Online.

BlueHost Web Hosting Review

By Johnny Moon

My Experience

I've tried a lot of web hosting services. Some have been so dreadful either in their service or in their hidden costs that I had to drop them. Others have been decent although with some headaches along the way and only a couple have been exceedingly excellent. BlueHost web hosting is a service that I would describe as exceedingly excellent.

What I Look For

There's a few things I look for in a web hosting service. Here they are:

1. The ability to host unlimited domains with one account.

2. No hidden costs.

3. A free domain.

4. Quality tech support when needed.

5. A large amount of space (hard drive) and transfer (bandwidth.)

6. MySql, and other such tools.

7. Very little downtime/Dependable service.

8. Low price.

BlueHost web hosting gets a check mark for all 8 items.

Nightmares With Other Hosting Companies

I've hosted with other services that would spring hidden charges at me for all sorts of ridiculous things. I've had lots of technical problems with other web hosts with horrible technical support. I've had my websites go down repeatedly with other web hosts. I've never had any of these problems with BlueHost. That's not to say that BlueHost is the only good web host out there. But they are one of them. And considering their low cost (only $6.95/month) they are a great choice that I highly recommended.

I don't want to get into a name and blame game with some of the other webhosts I've had problems with. I just want to say that you are always taking a risk when you start up with a new web host that they may not be all that great. If I were you, I would be safe rather than sorry and would go with BlueHost.

CLICK HERE to find out how you can get started with BlueHost web hosting. Web Hosting Reviews.

Determine Your Web Hosting Needs

By John Parks

The web hosting market can be somewhat confusing. There are so many different technicalities involved. Each web hosting service claims to be the very best on the market. The different hosting services are praised with tons of hype, with little factual proof to back it up. It is vitally important to choose the very best hosting provider for your hard earned money, yet the countless options make it quite difficult to do so.

The first step to determining your web hosting needs is to analyze your site. It is not necessary to be a web developer, report writer, or statistical analyzer, just a surface scan is enough. You should consider the website's technical details, the size of the website or sites, and the estimated bandwidth.

A website's technical details can be quite elaborate. It can be created using a variety of web technologies and programming languages. It is not necessary to know all of these details, as the programmers who develop your site will take care of this issue. Ask them about these details. Write them down, and then refer to your notes when you discuss packaging options with different web hosts.

When it comes to the size of your website, today's advanced hard drives and related technology allow for much bigger web pages than ever before. Large hard drives are now available which can handle a huge amount of information. The file sizes have been optimized for smaller image formats, allowing webmasters to host multiple web sites on the same hosting package without difficulty.

When it comes to choosing the right hosting package, the bandwidth limit is also an important factor. As your website gains popularity, increased page hits and visitors will require more bandwidth. If your limit is reached, the site becomes unavailable. Estimating your bandwidth needs will reduce these risks.

Findahost.net has been the premier source for web hosting information and news since 1999. Learn more about web hosting at http://www.findahost.net

Hostgator Web Hosting Review - Is Host Gator the Best Hosting?

By Joanna Joyner

Hostgator is known as one of the most popular hosting companies in the world today.

When you are thinking of hosting a website, you must always bear in mind that if you plan to make money from it, you should spend good money on getting good hosting. You should not buy hosting from an unreliable host because you could wind up losing a lot of money if you experience a lot of downtime with your hosting. Good hosting is a good asset that is worth your time and money investing in.

One of the reasons why Hostgator is a well known market leader of the industry when it comes to providing hosting is because of they offer many different packages and they cater to many different needs out there. Whether you are running a simple blog or you are doing a massive product launch with millions of visitors, Hostgator will suit your needs.

Here is an example of one of their many packages that Hostgator offers:

1. 600 gigabytes of massive storage space. With 600 gigs, you will have no problems uploading huge files like high resolution pictures and even entire movies!

2. There are lots of Hostgator coupons you can indulge in. Not many hosting companies offer affordable hosting like Hostgator, but they take it up a notch by offering lots of coupons that give you massive discount whenever you make a purchase.

3. Excellent service. Hostgator has many support staff that are designed to help you to deal with all your hosting related problems. It doesn't matter if you are doing a huge Internet marketing product launch or expecting huge surges in traffic. All you need to do is contact the staff and they will attend to your problems to the detail.

4. Hostgator also offers tremendous uptime. Uptime means that the amount of time your websites hosted on Hostgator will be operational. You don't have to worry about people going to a blank page when your sites are hosted on Hostgator.

5. Hostgator also comes with a highly optimized content management system (CMS). It doesn't matter if you are dealing with advanced portals, Joomla, Mambo, PHP Nuke, Siteframe, phpWebsites or many others, you will be able to handle your content with ease and lessen the headaches you will have.

6. Hostgator also offers one of the best dedicated servers in the industry.

You can even host your forums on Hostgator and encounter very minimal problems.

For more information about Hostgator and their services, make sure you check out the Hostgator Review right here: http://www.reviewhostgator.com/

Thoughts on Webhosting

By Jens Schubert

Well, let me share some thoughts regarding hosting. You SHOULD get your own webspace if you want to run it professionally. Don't use any free webspace with weird sounding, endless domain names. Don't be stingy and invest a few bucks! There are a whole lot of packages available. For a start you just take a small package, if you consider using Joomla, remember the need for a database in your package!

The idea is to create your own website, then create websites for your customers. You do the job, you charge the customer. Charge them more than you pay for their package, since you will administrate the whole site anyway. If you have reached a certain amount of customers, you might want to think about getting a dedicated server.

The advantage is simple: You are more flexible and able to tailor your packages according to your individual customers needs. Moreover the MySQL - databases are unlimited (of course there is a memory and CPU constraint at a certain point of time).

One CON about an own server is the maintenance. Since I am not a Linux-guru, I decided to get a "managed" server. This option is more expensive than a "root"-server, but the provider will install all relevant updates and security patches for me automatically and even assist me on technical problems. Make sure you have the full root access though and not limited user access rights.

You should do some research for providers before you choose to get a package. Let me tell you something, you still have to have luck....or not having bad luck. Reason? You should be able to find a good hoster due to top ten lists, reviews etc. But signing up with the best hoster doesn't mean you won't have problems....just like signing up with a cheap hoster does not necessarily mean your site will be offline most of the time and the service sucks.

It's not easy, well out of my experience I can say that I have been with both and had my fair share of happy times and not so happy times with them.

Overall you should still get the better service with the quality and more expensive hoster, but if you run into a huge problem, your site might be down just like any other.

If you take a look at the reviews of those hosters, you will for sure find few bad reviews within the top hosters as well. People claiming that their server has been offline for days, the service team is not responding at all etc. At the same time people replying, that this is the best hoster they have ever been with.

Make your choice, but make it wise....any questions, please leave a comment.

whatshotnwhatsnot

Web Hosting Defined

By James Nissen

Before I ever created a website, I was scared to "commit" to paying for something I didn't understand. I didn't know how to buy a domain and even if I did, I didn't know what web hosting was, or how to get it. For those in that situation, today is your lucky day.

What is web hosting?

Think of hosting as renting an apartment. After you buy your fabulous domain name, where is it going to live? It's going to live on a server, or in other words, be "hosted" on a server. That is why the hosting part of this equation is so important to understand and grasp. Hosting rates have come down a ton in the last few years, and with many of them, you can park an unlimited number of domains on top, allowing you to have all sorts of sites all on one account.

Different types of web hosting: When you try to buy a hosting account, it is going to ask you what type of hosting you want. It's important to know the three basic types that you will see so you can make the right decision.

1. Shared Hosting- This is what most people, including myself, will buy at a site like hostgator.com. This means what you think it does: your site is shared alongside other side and consequently, has limited disk space. For our purposes however, we have more than enough. When you make the next Youtube, you may need to switch.

2. Reseller Hosting- This is what you would get if you wanted to resell the hosting yourself, which we do not need.

3. Dedicated-This would be for people with a large number of users per day. This provides exclusive use of a computer and internet connection, so there's obviously much more control. Again, you probably don't need this type.

My favorite Web hosting company is hostgator.com, simply because the user support is great and it allows you to install all types of websites at the touch of a button.

James Nissen is a full time internet marketer and just launched an amazing marketing giveaway at http://www.IMadwords.com

Multiple Domain Website Hosting - Ways You Can Host Multiple Websites in One Account

By J.F. Lucero

Do you ever wonder if you can host multiple domains and sites on a single hosting account? Well, the answer is yes. This could be made possible by using one of the hosting features called "add-on domains." Many web hosting providers will offer you one or more free add-on domains with the hosting account you purchase from them. Having this feature will allow you to add another domain to your hosting account and host it without paying additional fees. This is one way to inexpensively host several domains with only one hosting account.

Getting yourself a reseller hosting account is also a great way to host multiple websites on one account. Aside from this, you can also sell web hosting accounts to other webmasters. Your reseller account provides you a Control Panel which you can use to set-up individual accounts for every customer. If you decide to use it for personal use, you can set-up an individual control panel for every domain name that you have. Selling website hosting is also a great way to make money. That is the reason why a lot of online entrepreneurs already entered the web hosting business. A reseller account also comes with many great features like unlimited email accounts and subdomains. The features that you get will depend on the kind of reseller plan you sign on with.

There are also what we call the virtual private servers and dedicated servers. If you want more control over your hosting options and you need multiple domain support, a virtual server is what you can consider. It is called virtual server because the actual server is virtually located. If you want to run your e-commerce site, host multiple domains, set-up an intranet, and others, a Virtual Private Server is what you need.

The dedicated server on the other hand, is a single computer server which aims to support the needs of a network. A dedicated server hosting plan is normally more expensive than a virtual private server plan. Signing-up for a dedicated server hosting plan will allow you to fully customize or build your own dedicated server. You can also just choose and pay only for the features you need. One advantage of having your own dedicated server is it doesn't put you on the risk of the server being congested because of other people's bandwidth.

So before you sign-up for a web hosting account, it is important that you evaluate first your needs and then decide what kind of web hosting plan that fits for you.

The author of the article is a Filipino web developer and internet marketer. She operates Profitbuilderclub.com, providing reliable small business web hosting packages. and multiple domain website hosting.

Web Hosting - Great Solution to Bring Your Business Online

By Hardik Vyas

Web hosting is a service that allocates space as well as a fast internet connection to the users to post web pages on the internet. It is a primary service which can be used by users after having either dial-up or broadband access to the internet. A web host is a hosting service provider that provides services or technologies required for web sites to be viewed on internet.

Users can distribute their information or services to any other user on the internet who may be interested in accessing them. Web hosting service provides access to the consumers to a web server and client's content or information is passed to recipients on request. Basically, websites are stored or hosted on a server. Further the server allows users to reach your site when they type your domain address. The address follows a path from one computer to another until it reaches your website.

You need to have your own domain name in order to host with the hosting companies. Most of the hosting companies also provide services to buy your own domain name or they will help you to purchase one. If you want to have your own website on the internet you need a web server but it is very costly to have your own web server and technical experts. Therefore these hosting companies have all these resources and they charge a rental fee for storing your websites and allowing visitors to reach your website.

Small businessman or individuals go for web hosting in order to free themselves from maintenance of website infrastructure and from scarce human and financial resources. Web hosting offers many formats to the users based upon their requirements including cost and infrastructure.

There are sites which provide web hosting free of cost, for example Yahoo! Geo Cities. You don't have to pay for their services because they offer limited service and it is subsidized by banner advertising. They will not provide customized hosting where you have personalized domain names whereas paid services ensure good quality of services and domain name personalization.

If a consumer needs something extra they can go for dedicated or managed service. Dedicated hosting provides a website its own server. You will get more flexibility in dedicated hosting because you can have full control over the back hand of the server and in choosing Operating System. In a managed hosting you will get dedicated server with technical support and monitoring services.

With all these opportunities available on internet you can go ahead and start your own website today.

Hardik Vyas, CEO of HV InfoTech providing services like web design, development, ecommerce solutions, content management system, search engine optimization, Hosting services to global clients.

The Benefits of SiteBuildIt

By Fred L Acker

For those of us looking to build websites, the process could actually be a very complicated one. There are many different tools that need to be used when building a website from scratch and the process can become a hassle. SiteBuildIt is a package which enables the user to create websites without the complication of different tools by compiling all necessary components into one.

The SiteBuildIt package comes equipt with special tools that help websites get noticed. Many of these are not available anywhere else and ensure the website will be the best it can. Some of these tools include,

• Search engine ranking tools
• Unlimited auto-responders
• Blogging and RSS tools
• Tracking tools

SiteBuildIt gives the user complete control over how the site is set up and how it will look. This package is preferred over most because it handles all technical aspects of the site while allowing the user to create a personal look that attracts customers and business.

The tools which are available in SiteBuildIt are geared towards those who are beginning work on creating websites. All of the tools are easy to use, as it guides the user through all the steps in creating a site, making the process far more simple. The tools enhance creating websites so much that they are even preferred among experienced website designers.

SiteBuildIt also assists in choosing a domain name and includes web hosting. All the tools help the site to be successful by addressing all things that could go wrong when creating a website. SiteBuildIt allows the user to have custom graphics in order to make the site more appealing and so there is a much greater potential for the site to be noticed.

This is an ongoing review of Site-Sell and it's powerful Site Build It software. To read the full review go to: http://www.site-sell-review.com

Selecting a Web Host For Your Business

By Fernando Pena

Web hosting for your business is arguably more important than a physical location or even a telephone number. Prospects often seek businesses within online search engines or directories. Without a quick and reliable web hosting provider your business can be left behind other firms competing for the same audience. With an overwhelming number of choices however, how does a business owner find the right provider for their needs?

Since web hosting has become pretty much a commodity, price alone can no longer be used as the basis for comparison. Most providers offer pretty much the same price and feature set because their customers have come to expect these services as part of the base pricing. So what else can you use to compare the multitudes of providers against each other? That would be the often stated yet rarely executed term of customer service.

Although creating a web site has been simplified to a point where a novice can come up with a decent web presence, the hosting and maintenance of a site still requires some knowledge and technical assistance when things go wrong. Many providers offer support that leaves a user lacking the personal touch and can often lead to frustration or even worse a web site that doesn't work. As most business owners know, a site that is down translates to dollars being lost by customers who may never return to visit the site again. A good provider will answer questions quickly and deal with any issues with minimal site downtime.

Security is the next important topic but we're not only talking about online security but also the site where the servers themselves are stored. Customers want to be certain that their data is safe and not being accessed by unauthorized users. A competent provider will make sure that their servers are housed in a secure and safe environment and that their online security methods are up to date and proactive. A hacked site can be very damaging to a business especially if the site is high visibility. The damage created by such an intrusion could resonate for years after the actual event takes place.

The last differentiator we'll talk about are the other intangibles that make a difference in the world of today. A provider that practices business ethics and supports local or national initiatives can make a business feel good about who they are partnering with. It can also lead to positive publicity for your business as you'd be associated with a company that is making waves in the industry.

Use these tips and you'll be that much further ahead from your competitors when seeking a web hosting provider.

To read an overview of the best web hosting providers proceed to the Save A Lot Guy web site!

WordPress Recommends Bluehost For Blog Hosting

By Fabian Ramirez

I went on my journey to find out how to host my own blog and not have a generic one like I did with Blogger and Typepad. My results were great and right on target of what I wanted. I am not a computer programmer nor do I want to be, but I did want a customized blog. What I found was the following.

Bluehost had exactly what I needed. This is how basic I am; I started by looking for what wordpress recommended, a fantastico logo that is a blue smiley face. They also wanted to make sure they had what is called cPanel.

Once I went to the website I signed up for one year at $7.95 month which is very affordable and then they gave me a free domain name. So when you sign up, make sure you have a domain name in mind and one that is available for purchase, they will give this to you for free.

The next thing you do is log into your account which will have a lot of icons, this is the cPanel interface. Along the left hand side you will see Wordpress, click on that and then you will have the option to install Wordpress, they will have the latest version ready for you to install. Simply fill in the boxes along with your email and then you are ready to blog.

It's that easy and once you've done it once, you can do it again without a problem. Remember now that you have your space, you can continue to add domains to your web host by adding subdomains. There is no limit to the amount of domains you can add. So go ahead and build your blog empire. I am and I'm going to do it on my Bluehost account.

http://www.monetizeyourblogforfree.com/monetize-your-domains

How to Get the Best Web Hosting Provider For Your Site

By Elridge Jones

Getting a great web host for your site is not an easy matter. A lot depends on what you are designing it for and the niche you will be using for the site. Cost is one consideration and services (like Cpanel or Fantastico) are another. If you are designing a small business website, you may have a structure of several levels of web pages versus a niche web site with one to a few or several pages.

Low cost budgeting hosts often offer no frills hosting at a reduced cost. You can build many websites with these but be aware that may be little in terms of support or services. These type of hosts are great for smaller sites with fewer pages and represent a great value to those who are looking to develop a website quickly or who may be building lots of sites at a time.

Full service internet hosting companies offer a more rounded list of services to their customers. Some offer a la carte options where you can pick the services you want while others offer different packages at several price levels. These are great for the person who wants the extra service of "how to do" when it comes to constructing a site. Also, there are add ons such as Fantastico scripts that can be useful when building content for the site.

I utilize the services of a full service internet hosting company that includes a specific internet traffic package in with the price of hosting. Many companies offer similar package deals with everything from designing your site to offering assistance with listing your site to the search engines and more. So make sure you look around and compare packages as well as cost when considering a host.

So what's the best choice? Some factors to think about when choosing a host:

• What is my chosen niche?

• Am I building the site or hiring a professional to do it for me?

• Will I need additional services such as a blog, forum or other content?

• Will I be building a site with a few pages or will I be building a more complex site?

• What can I afford to pay for hosting services?

Your finished web site should be a good source of traffic for your business if it is selected properly. A little time planning now will save you lots of headaches later down the road. Choosing the best web hosting provider for your new web site will be easy once you take the time to scope out all the details.

Want more information and reviews on choosing the best web hosting provider for your site? I offer more information and reviews at my main site ElridgeJones.com. While you're there, check out my tips on learning search engine optimization

Some Dirty Little Secrets of Shared Web Hosting

By E.S. Lorence

Let me begin by saying that this is not a pitch for any web hosting company. Yes I own websites and yes they're hosted in a decent place, but that is not my focus here. After reading all the articles and ads about how great this and that hosting company is, how much they offer and how cheap, I thought it was time to take the first step and launch a website.

Everybody seemed to say "Look for the most bandwidth and the most disk-space for the least money". Did you know that in reality, those numbers are almost meaningless? Here are just a few of the real numbers you should know about. Let's start with all the hype about Terabytes of disk space, and the reality: "Inodes" will determine exactly how much space you can really use.

Since a complete description of this term will fill several articles, in a nutshell, Inodes (UNIX/Linux) keep track of each and every file in your web-space. Every email, image, script, and file. Inodes are a "resource" and a resource you will find is strictly limited.

I have found the average Inode limit on shared hosting to be around 50,000. That means the total file limit on many shared hosting accounts, including all emails and images will be 50,000, how many emails are in your spam folder?

Host unlimited sites? Let's take a closer look...

Scripts are the software that power many modern websites. Unlike "old school" static html pages, scripts "run" or operate on your server in order to generate the pages that create your website. Some such scripts are Wordpress, and B2 Evolution. PHP is one of many script programming languages.

Processes:

Every time a script executes on your server such as to serve a web page or send an email that is 1 process. My host starts warning at about 10 processes, which is close to the limit on many shared hosts. The process will usually only last a millisecond, but if you expect to have any real traffic, you will find that multiple independent sites will start pushing the processor limit. As an example, some simple and popular Wordpress plug-in's will start to hog your resources in no time if left unchecked. And you can forget about SEO scripts, sitemap builders, P2P, Gaming Servers, etc.

Shared Hosting and the "root" directory:

These hosting plans will usually provide only one root directory for all of the domains and sites you plan to build. You will also be allowed one "primary domain". All other domains will have to be "parked" or added on to the primary domain. Without getting too technical, let's just say that some website scripts don't "play" well with others. And many just don't like being installed in sub-directories!

Multiple scripts generating multiple websites can cause major headaches to the unseasoned newbie, not to mention the server resources expended by poorly written or installed scripts trying to figure out where they are and how to run.

How's your memory?

1 to 4 gigs on many modern servers, but that number is meaningless for you. Remember, you may be sharing that server with hundreds of other websites. Memory limits will become a problem when running a popular photo gallery, forum, or streaming audio/video.

10 Terabytes of bandwidth monthly? You will never get close. Unless you're streaming video, most web hosts will not allow you to operate any kind of bandwidth intensive site on eight or ten dollars per month, period.

"My" SQL, not really...

Modern "dynamic" web sites such as Wordpress use a "database" to store and retrieve information, such as the text in this article. While your images and program files may be stored in your 1000 gig' root directory, the data, text, settings, etc will be stored on a completely separate database server. This server has limits too, sometimes as little as 25 Megabytes. A large popular forum or directory with thousands of pages can burn through that in no time.

Database Connections:

Every time a visitor loads your web page, a connection is made to the database server. Many hosts will limit this to around 25-50 simultaneous connections. Since these connections last only milliseconds, enough to load the page, well designed scripts and websites can accommodate hundreds of visitors an day while staying below these limits. However, if you ever intend to build traffic in the thousands an hour range, or run several moderate traffic sites, to avoid the dreaded "Database Error- Unable to connect" page, be prepared to upgrade your account.

Email limits:

The fight against spam has led to some Draconian rules and limitations in sending email, including limits of as little as 25 emails sent an hour. Shared hosts are routinely "Blacklisted" for real or perceived "spamming" and this is usually due to only one of those many hundred of server "neighbors" engaging in illegal or unethical behavior. Through no fault of your own, you may find all of your emails being "bounced" with no clue as to why. Have a big list? Use an auto responder service!

Some other important questions to consider:

Is "Mod-Rewrite" Enabled? (Necessary for many scripts to function correctly)

Is "CPanel" provided?

Are regular server backups generated? How much to restore your site from a backup?

Is "Server to Server" transfer supported? (If you ever move to another server)

Allowed to edit .htaccess?

Allowed access to php.ini? (Though uncommon with shared packages)

Do the research before you dive in since these are terms you should become familiar with as an aspiring webmaster.

The bottom line is that it really does cost money to make money. If you plan to own and operate any kind of popular income generating website, plan for a dedicated or Virtual Private Server package to avoid the dreaded shared hosting banishment!

To your web success!

E. S. Lorence is a free lance writer, author, and Internet entrepreneur based in Alpharetta, GA Visit Thought Search Articles for thousands of interesting and informative Articles, News Stories, How-To's, Inspirational Quotes, Ebook Resources, and don't forget, free content for Publishers, Bloggers, and Web Masters: http://ThoughtSearch.com

Which Web Hosting Company is Right For You?

By Dr Ian Smith

What you should look for in a Web Host.

A web hosting package should include facilities to host both your website and its related email. Make sure you have assessed all your potential requirements before committing yourself to a hosting company. As with most things related to the development of your website, there is a whole range of things to consider before making this decision.

1. Web Host Country - Depending on your market, this could be the most important consideration, and often the most overlooked. The physical location of your host servers can have an impact on your business if your target market is in your own country. Google UK, for example offer the option of either a UK only or a world-wide search. If you want to feature in the UK only searches it is far better to have your website hosted by a company who has its actual servers in the UK. Be aware that some web hosting companies who appear to be UK based companies actually have their servers located in other countries. Always ask!

2. Server space - Most hosting packages should provide ample space for all your website needs. However, it is a good idea to choose a host who is able to offer you more space should you need it. This is something most hosting companies should easily be able to accommodate.

3. Bandwidth (the volume of traffic to your website) - All basic web hosting packages have enough bandwidth for most small business websites. However the cost of acquiring extra bandwidth should it be needed can vary enormously. We advise you to check this aspect out.

4. Support - Be sure technical support is available to you when you need it. Make sure it is support that works for you. We all know how frustrating it can be talking to someone who doesn't share the same mother tongue and then talks in jargon and "techie-speak". Often, technical support is only available via email, and waiting for a response can be frustrating.

5. Email Control Panel - Some people don't think they need an email address associated with their website, but it is very important. Having a control panel to manage your email efficiently should be a part of the package.

1. Mailbox - Check how many email addresses you have available for you and your staff, and how easy it is to set them up.
2. Mail redirect - It may be important to be able to redirect email from one address to another, either temporarily or permanently. This should be straightforward, and above all, quick to achieve.
3. Mailing List - A convenient way of emailing an entire batch of email addresses - staff list; subscribers' list etc. Check how many mailing lists your package will allow.
4. Auto responder - An automatic response to an email sent to you. You may well have detailed product information or instructions for use that you don't want to keep on your website. A simple email request to your auto responder will result in the right document being emailed back immediately!
5. Spam Filtering - Vital! You do not want to be inundated with spam, but you don't want to filter out important email, so it is useful to be able to control the level.
6. Anti-virus - Checking both incoming and outgoing email.

6. Tracking - You (or somebody!) will need to monitor how your website is functioning. Your web host should offer you the option to download and analyze your web logs in order to fine-tune your website to produce better results. This information should include:

1. Number of visitors to your site
2. The entry pages they used
3. Search engine keywords used to find you
4. Number of pages viewed
5. Amount of time spent on your site

7. Platform - The two best know platforms are Windows NT and UNIX (which include Linux). The most important aspect of this decision is the kind of applications you will be running.

8. Other Considerations - Depending on what your website needs to do for you, there may be other features required:

1. Does your website use software (Microsoft FrontPage) that uses non-standard features?
2. Does your site offer interactive functions (forms etc) or online credit card facilities/transactions?
3. Do your online credit card transactions need a secure server?
4. Does your website use specialist software (sometimes even different versions of the same software can be an issue)?
   

There is a lot to think about here, and these are all aspect of web hosting that need to be carefully considered, before making a hosting decision. If you are not 100% confident about what you need from web-hosting then it is best to ask for help. A good SEO company can advise you on which are the best options for you. In fact, unless you are well experienced, it is far better to seek the advice of an expert. It can save you a lot of grief later.

MfP offers some sensible and practical advice on domain hosting and website marketing at http://www.consultancymarketing.co.uk/cheap-web-hosting.htm

Is Affordable Web Hosting a Smart Choice For Your Business?

By Colleen Jinkowski

So, you have just created your company's first website. You are very proud and can't wait to get it online to show the whole world. But your business is your baby and you want to take all the necessary precautions when presenting it. You made sure there are no typos on the site, all the grammar is correct, all of the pictures are crisp and clean. Now you have to pick a web hosting company to host your site and you are not sure what to do. There are literally thousands of web hosting companies available and you are not sure which one to go with. They all start looking the same and you don't know the difference between a megabyte and gigabyte. But hey, here is a company offering a gazillion fligabits of this and a million terasqwats of that and, GOSH, does that look like a good price! It sure looks affordable. But is skimping on costs for your site's web hosting a good idea?

During tough economic times like we are having now it is important to watch where every penny is going. Web hosting is one area that you can definitely save a lot of money on. There are price ranges out there from $5 to $50+ per month for web hosting. Deciding on which affordable hosting package to pick from is a difficult choice to make. You will have to make sure that you compare all of the different options available from your web host. Make sure that you compare each one effectively. You should create a checklist to compare each one effectively. You should check on their references and don't always use the lowest priced ones. Definitely make sure their customer satisfaction is high.

Colleen loves everything geeky and she especially loves writing about affordable web hosting at HostingSentinel.com, a discount web hosting authority resource directory.

Web Hosting - Strategies For a Successful Website!

By Arvind Prakash Sharma

Getting a website on the internet is as important as making one. To make a website live, you need to take the right steps and it becomes even more vital when a web owner is new to the industry. In such cases, it is always suitable to get the right website hosting result which is on offer, from many web hosting companies. There are few factors that can be helpful in choosing the right web hosting company. As a beginner, there should be certain methods to be applied when making that tough call on the web hosting service provider. It is always good to chalk out your requirements before starting your hunt for a hosting solution.

The first and the foremost concern of any web owner is the cost of getting the site live. There are a number of companies which offer good web hosting services at an affordable rate, which can prove really beneficial. There are companies that provide shared as well as dedicated servers depending upon a web owner's choice. Shared web hosting gets the upper hand when the funds are limited or the business is small.

Once a hosting service provider is found who matches all the technical specifications such as FrontPage, DreamWeaver, Flash, Email, Autoresponders, POP3, Mail Forwarders, SMTP, IMAP, PHP, Perl, CGI-BIN access, Cron Jobs as well the funds, the next part is to do a check on customer feedback to see how reliable the provider is. Most of the information on uptime, technical assistance of the web hosting company is easily available on major search engines like Google and Yahoo. Choose a company that provides 24/7 technical assistance because it will be required once the website goes public.

Disk space, bandwidth and uptime are as important as any other technical feature. Disk space and bandwidth should be of good amount and there should be an option of increasing the bandwidth as per the demand of a web owner. Any company providing all these specifications is indeed a good deal for any starter. At the end of the day being a website owner you should be satisfied with the services provided by your web hosting services provider - whether you are getting all you need to grow, expand and sustain your business venture.

For more information please visit at IDS Logic - offshore outsourcing company offering web hosting services, web design and development solutions, SEO services in India.

Managed Web Hosting - Total Dedication and Within Your Budget

By Alpana A

Web hosting has really become an important aspect of any business which is taking its steps in to the online market. A good web hosting solution is as important as making a good web site. There are several questions that arise in the mind of a website owner such as, which type of hosting solution to choose? And is it a reliable one? This tends to be confusing about which type of web hosting would be suitable for them. Doing research on various web hosting solutions is an absolute necessity as it can avoid many problems in the near future for your website as well as server.

Managed web hosting services, in a layman's language, means that there is a qualified team to take care of your website requirements; pertaining to all that is needed to build (depending on whether you want your provider to build it or get it done from someone else), manage and improve your website's look and traffic. Depending on your budget and other business requirements, you may either opt for a shared or dedicated web hosting service. Shared web hosting services are much cheaper and apt for a non-security centric and static business. If you choose shared web hosting services, typically it would mean that your site will be hosted on a server shared by many other sites; meaning sharing disk space, CPU usage, IP address as well as taking the load of the traffic of other sites. If cost is the uttermost factor and security and traffic not a concern, then this is a perfect choice. On the other hand a managed website hosting service provider may also offer you a dedicated hosting choice; definitely costlier but worth it if security and traffic are your main concerns. A dedicated web hosting will provide you a dedicated server to host your site and you would not be required to share your IP address, disk space and CPU usage - your site will not bear the burden of traffic of other sites too. Whether you choose either of these options provided by a managed web site hosting services provider, you can at least breathe easy; taking care of your site fully on your own can give you sleepless nights! Because running of your site will always be a dicey game as there are many problems that can occur on the server for which a qualified team is required - so even if the server where your site is hosted is shared or dedicated, there is always going to be a special team to take care of all your issues pertaining to technical or anything else; your site will run smoothly on the server without any problem and uploading or downloading content from web pages will hasten up and will attract more and more customers.

One of the biggest benefits of choosing managed web hosting is that there are so many features that come within this package at an affordable price. You can get uptime guarantee, anti virus/anti spam, unlimited e-mail accounts and mailboxes, etc. which are important for the proper functioning of the website. Some features are not included within other packages that are necessary and required to be purchased separately which in turn costs more money. Some service providers even guarantee power backup so that your site does not suffer in any way, which is really vital.

The author is associated with IDS Logic offering Managed Hosting India and Managed Web Hosting solutions.

Dedicated Web Hosting is the Solution For a Large Or Grown Business!

By Alpana A

How do you know whether it is time to switch from a shared web host to a dedicated one? The answer is sure short. Suppose if you started off with a small website on a shared web host and now your e-business has grown rapidly, your website will require more disk space and bandwidth as well a fully managed dedicated server which does not have too many websites hosted on it - will become your top agenda. And this is where dedicated web hosting comes into play.

Dedicated web hosting might cause a little more money as compared to a shared one, but, once your website is a hit and you are attracting a lot of attention from users, you do not mind paying spending some more money on these services. With such competition between so many web hosting companies to provide better services, you can easily get this hosting service at a lower rate along with packages like Virtual Private Servers or Virtual Servers which offer power as well as flexibility, which are really important. A dedicated hosting can outsmart a shared hosting service on many parameters such as reliability, flexibility and support system.

Firstly, the full focus of a dedicated server remains on customer service for your website and you can be guaranteed to get your issues resolved quickly as compared to a shared web hosting, where you may need to wait for hours and hours for your turn to come as there are a long list of customers who might be getting their solutions. The uptime will also be good which will keep your website running; this will definitely get your website more customers and make it a more reliable source.

Secondly, you can be guaranteed that your information is well protected and free from any virus and spam which can be really harmful for your site and can ruin its future. Sensitive information is protected and treated with topmost priority.

Thirdly, the freedom that you get when you have a dedicated server to choose the softwares you wish to install or remove; as well as which operating system you would like to continue with or want to change as per your business requirements.

With such a lot of benefits available within dedicated web hosting and that too at an affordable price (mainly due to competition of providing better services), there is nothing better than this for a growing company.

The author is associated with IDS Logic offering Managed Server Hosting India and Dedicated Web Hosting solutions.

Sharepoint Services - How to Delete a Web Part From Your Home Page

By Adam Gufarotti

I loathe disorganization! Excuse my assertiveness but this is something that I feel very strongly about. When I have a work environment that is not well put together and you have to dig to find things, the quality of my work drops drastically. If this is also true for you then we are going to get a long just fine.

Actually, you will probably find my entire library of "How To" articles on Sharepoint Services very interesting; which brings me to my next topic; How to delete a web part from your home page.

Class is now in session, so pay attention.

1. Login to your Sharepoint Services account. You DO need administrative access rights to perform this task.
2. After you have logged in, find your "Site Actions" tab in the top right hand corner of your home page. Click on it.
3. Next, you will want to hit the "Edit Page" tab that appears in the drop down menu.
4. Next, you will be taken to a page that allows you to make changes to your home page set up. Now, you will need to find the web part that you want to delete off of your home page.
5. After you have found the web part, notice that in the top right hand corner of the page is an X tab. If you hit the X tab, it will delete that specific web part off of your Sharepoint Services home page.

That's all there is to it!

You have now completed your task and can resume your daily routine.

Class is dismissed!

You can set up your own Sharepoint Hosting account by visiting Sharepoint Services, visit http://www.Alentus.com/hosting/sharepoint.asp

Principles of a Successful Large Scale Website

By Vlad Gregorian

In this day in age with so many websites competing, if one was to launch and run a successful website you must be aware of 2 principle rules that can be carved in stone.

A website must have an angle in order to drive traffic to it. This angle can be one of two types. Either unique content or reasonably unique content or a unique method of delivery. I will explain both of these in more depth since it is not as obvious at it may seem.

1. Unique content. Remember there are millions of websites out there so even if there are 50 websites with exactly the same content the surfer still has to find them all before you need to worry about competition. Due to the nature of finding information through search engines and large large number of sites it is pretty much a given that the server has almost 0% chance of finding even 2 websites with exactly the same content. So this means that you don`t need such original content that it is not available anywhere on the web in order to be called unique content and thus to make money. If your content can easily be found on other sites with a few google key phrases then you are no longer falling in this category. So the point again is, you don`t need to be 100% unique just reasonably unique in the scope of the web.

2. Unique Method of Delivery. The best example I can think of for this is Youtube. Youtube does not have any original content at all. In fact, the videos there can be found everywhere like peer2peer networks, usenet and personal blog websites and where available long before youtube even existed. But no one ever new about the video sharing phenomenon until youtube.
They invented and implemented a unique method to allow content to be uploaded in masses and shared to the masses. Youtube is reported to have a monthly bandwidth bill of over $1 million. There may in fact have been other entrepreneurs who thought of the idea first, but no one had the guts to implement it for the fear of large loss. But you see, youtube made its fortune because it found a unique method of delivery and took the chance. How big is youtube? Well, it was bought by Google a few years ago.

Its never too late to jump in on internet bandwagon and make fortunes as long as your online plan has one of these principles. If you can manage to have both of them present at the same time then you really are one of the very few.

I am going to use the technology example of youtube to give you an idea of a great angle you could implement using the unique method of delivery principle.

If you keep an eye on the latest internet communications technologies you could get the scoop on a excellent new video compression. With this you could offer HD video for your new sharing website at the same cost as youtube. Can you imagine what would happen? Or perhaps you find a must cheaper option for bandwidth somewhere offshore that is new. Get the scoop first and there is your angle for unique delivery.

My name is Vladimir Gregorian I am an online marketer now living in the tropical city of Salvador Brazil. Visit my site for tips on legitimate making money tips: http://www.imoneyonline.com

HostGator - Hosting For Once and For ALL

By Veiko Aring

I've been searching a lot for really good hosting. It's not easy task because there are hundreds (if not thousands) of different hosting companies out there.

Most of them have different problems with customer support, with uptime and so on.
And many of them just don't care about their customers. If you have problem then you may have to wait for days or even weeks to get answer to your question or problem. Besides of that many of these hosting plans come with a different headaches.

HostGator doesn't have such problems. It cares about their customers and needs a long relationships with them. I still can't believe that they offer a lot of really good features for very small price. Have you seen such hosting company?

HostGator is one of the world's top 10 largest web hosting companies with more than 1,000,000 hosted domains. It has over 160 employees to provide you around-the-clock superior support. It's the perfect choice whether you are looking for business, personal, or even Fortune 500 hosting.
Every web hosting plan comes with a 45 day money back guarantee, 99.9% uptime guarantee, and is fully guaranteed by the owner himself.

Few examples what HostGator offers:

• 24x7 Support (chat, phone, e-mail, non-outsourced)
• 99.9% Uptime Guarantee
• 45 Day Refund Period: no hassle, full refund in same day
• 4,500 Absolutely Free Templates
• Instant Backups
• Site Builder
• Free / Instant Setup

What's best about it is there are no problems with it. I can't list all of the excellent features in this article that HostGator offers but you may find all about them from their homepage.

STOP wasting your valuable time for searching best hosting solution. It's all already here and waiting you. Find out more by clicking on link below http://best-techreviews.blogspot.com/2008/08/hostgator-hosting-for-once-and-for-all.html

Signing Up the Best Web Hosting Service

By Teddy Low

Bandwidth and storage space is usually the first thing that comes to mind when we want to get a new host for our website. Having unlimited bandwidth would be great but it will definitely cost more. In business, it is all about the return of our investment. Therefore, when searching for a new host, be mindful that practicality is the most important thing. Some things may cause more and provide results while other might only be an extra burden.

Do researches before you decide on which company you choose. There are just too many companies out there that claim that they provide the best service. While it may sound as a nasty sales pitch, there are still many consumers who fall for their trick. To make sure you know enough information about a particular hosting company, do a search on reviews about them in the internet. You will get a clear idea about the company's information and background.

Although some companies do have trial period, it is not worth the try because it will cause you a lot of hassle to get of their deal at the end. This usually happens when you got attach to a lousy provider. You will face many problems with your website. Even when they promise good technical support, it will take a long time for them to have your problem solve. Therefore, be smart and not stingy when you choose a web hosting company.

Among the key points that you should look for in when getting a host is their reputation. Judge a company by seeing how many years they have been around in this industry. The longer they have been in the industry, the more reliable they are. Another way of finding out the reputation of a company is by asking a more experience webmaster. Most of the reputable company should come with industrial grade upgrade. Another important factor which stands for 'Mean Time Between Failure'. This function can calculate the disruption that happened to your website. This function is not detectable and you can only know if the company informs that they have it.

Next, a good web hosting company should have servers in standby and internet connection connected to their network. This will mean that have continuous availability which can provide constant reliability to their customers. Finally, you should consider the price of the website. There is a wide range of choices from budget website for individuals to business purposes website. Get the maximum bandwidth, space as well as tools so that you can manage your website with ease. If possible, go for those which provide 24 hours support to ensure your trouble can be fixed any time.

Hey you, looking for the right web hosting? Hostmonster and Hostgator are the among the top on my list! Read unbiased reviews on each of these web hosting at WebHostingSecretRevealed.com. Article by Teddy.

Review Lunarpages Service - The Truth About Lunarpages

By Teddy Low

Lunarpages was founded back in 1998. The company was then "re-born" from Add2Net in 2000, and the company continues to be managed by Ron Riddle. Later they also increase their service with more types of hosting and also private server hosting. After all these years, they don't provide free web hosting anymore and their customer forum is the most visited forum when it comes to web hosting related services. At the time of writing, the company operates in One Wilshire and Las Vegas and comprises more than 2500 fully-owned servers.

Lunarpages achieved great success for their user-friendly web hosting methods. With their basic package, they offer a lot on support on different types of web languages like PHP, Ruby on Rails, Perl, MySQL, Dreamweaver and Ajax. With Lunarpages, developer's can easily builds an Ajax based website because of the strong support for JSP. To compete with other companies, Lunarpages even throw in a lifetime domain deal with customers enjoying 1.5TB of data storage and 15TB of data transfer. In addition, they can have unlimited email account which they can launch through the popular types of web mails service. For business purposes, Lunarpages even provide various choice of E-commerce tool with free installation of SSL. Furthermore, they use the most trustable cpanel in the website management and they are also coming up with their window based hosting to provide service to more customers.

Nevertheless, the feature that Lunarpages possess is the ability to host different types of media files which can be easily access by their visitors. Streaming of video and audio files can be done with ease. Therefore, many bloggers and forum owner like Lunarpages because they can share much more and not only just text.

Without doubt Lunarpages is among the top on my hosting recommendation list. In case you need to read more web hosting reviews, visit WebHostingSecretRevealed.com. Article by Teddy.

The Best Way to Find Active Web Hosting Coupon Codes

By Stan Martin

If you know the best way to find active web hosting coupon codes, your new website can suddenly cost you a whole deal less. Web hosting is becoming a bit of a cut-throat business, with new companies springing up almost daily. There are literally thousands of web hosting companies online, all vying for your business, and while prices are tumbling, features are improving. That's great for the consumer that is looking for a web host, but it goes further than just tumbling prices.

Web hosting coupon codes are special codes available for specific web hosts, and sometimes specific packages offered by web hosting companies, that you can enter into a box on the sign-up form or at checkout to secure yourself a discount. This discount can be small, such as 5 or 10 percent on a package price, or as high as 100% off your first payment.

Bearing in mind that you normally pay your hosting fees monthly this might not seem a lot, but it means that you get a month to get your website up and running without paying anything. If you can earn at least your next month's payment during the month that you are online free, then you could end up getting all your web hosting without having to spend a cent of your own money. How cool is that?

Not all hosts operate their web hosting coupon codes the same way, and some might ask you to enter their web hosting promo code when you are checking out, and the amount of the coupon code will be deducted from your payment. Make sure the deduction is showing before you complete the transaction. However, there are other ways to operate such discount coupons other than by a flat deduction.

Some might offer you a free trial, or close to it; Hostgator were very successful with their 1 cent trial that you could only get by entering a valid Hostgator web hosting coupon code into the box they provided when you signed up for the trial. You can also be offered either a flat amount of cash off, such as $10 or $50 or even much more than that, or a percentage off your total cost, such as 50% off. That way, the more you spend the more you save, and is a way of web hosts using coupon codes to sell their more expensive web hosting packages.

Your coupon code might entitle you to free domain name registration rather than anything off the hosting itself. This is of value only when you buy the cheaper hosting packages, since each domain costs only around $10 a year, although some web hosting companies offer more than one free domain, making it a more attractive offer. You might be offered free hosting further down the line, such as three months free after paying three months. You don't save immediately, but will later on.

To find the best coupon code for you, you should first decide upon what kind of web hosting package you require. Don't choose your hosting package on the basis of the coupon codes available for it. You could ultimately end up paying more than you need rather than saving. Decide what is most appropriate for you and look for a web hosting coupon code to suit that kind of package. You might have a favorite hosting company, or already know what you need.

Once you find the coupon code, make sure that it is active. Many are past their use by date, so look for an active coupon code that applies to the package you have chosen. However, where should you go to find the best coupon codes? An online search might work, but frequently you find a bewildering array of offers, and it is generally better to look for a web hosting review site that compares web hosting companies and the different packages they offer, and then provides you with coupon codes for each.

That's by far the best way, and that way you can check out a number of popular web hosts, the packages and prices they offer and then get the active web hosting coupon codes available for your choice. That's far better than trawling through page after page of sites all offering the same codes for the same web hosts. Far better!

If the idea of web hosting coupon codes appeals to you, visit the active coupon code page on our web hosting review site at Active Web Hosting Coupons or simply check out our reviews and then find the coupons available on the package that interests you most. Web Hosting Coupons

Understanding Web Hosting

By Stacy Clifford

You've got your new business all established now and you're ready to take the next step and set up a website to tell the online world that you're here and you've got something to offer. You've found a catchy domain name to call your own and now... what next? Well, the answer is that you need to find web hosting for the website you're going to build. So what does that mean and how do you figure out what kind of web hosting you need? First let's start with the basics.

Just what is web hosting anyway?

In simple terms, web hosting is renting space on a web server. A website is not simply a domain name, it is a collection of files linked together by HTML code to display text and graphics on a computer. In order for anybody to see this collection of files you've created, it has to be housed on a computer somewhere that has access to the internet. Not just any computer will do, of course. A web server is a computer set up with special software that allows it to receive requests from the internet for the website files it has stored on it and to send those files out over the internet so that the requesting computer can display them. It is very much like a waiter in a restaurant taking your order and bringing the food that you ask for from the kitchen, hence the name "server."

Along with making sure your files can be seen by internet users around the world, a web server provides other important services as well. First and foremost is the ability to create email addresses based on your domain name and to send and receive email with them. The web server also has various types of software installed on it that allow your website to run programs, create and manage databases, display video, and many other functions you might find useful. Almost any type of computer can function as a web server, but it's the software that's on it that makes it a server.

When you buy webhosting, the monthly fee you pay goes to the continued maintenance and upgrading of the server's hardware and software, the cost of keeping it online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in a secure data center with a fast and powerful internet connection, and to pay for the expertise of the people who do all that work. It is completely possible to turn your own home or office computer into a web server if you really want to, but in most cases it is far more economical to pay someone else who is dedicated to providing this service in a properly reliable manner than it is to try and do it yourself.

What kinds of web hosting are there?

Shared Hosting - Most websites are not huge affairs with hundreds of pages and thousands of files and graphics, and they are targeted toward a particular audience, so they will not get as many visitors as the large general sites like Yahoo! that are targeted at everybody who uses the internet. As such, the average website therefore is not going to require the full resources of an entire web server to run it. Web servers are designed to be able to handle dozens, even hundreds of websites at once because they are powerful machines.

Shared hosting is simply the concept of hosting more than one website on a particular server. Over 95% of all websites on the internet are being run in a shared hosting environment. Since the resources of the server can be split among the clients hosted on it, so can the costs of operating the server, so shared hosting is universally cheaper than any other type. Shared hosting packages are generally designed so that each client is allotted a certain amount of each resource, with different payment levels representing different amounts of resources such as disk space, bandwidth, email addresses, and so on. Shared hosting is also known as virtual hosting.

Dedicated Hosting - If you do have a big, powerful website that gets lots of visitors and has a tendency to hog resources, then you might want to have a web server all to yourself. Some companies also prefer the extra security of not having to share the server with anyone else who could do something accidentally or on purpose to crash it. Renting the use of an entire server is known as dedicated hosting. The web hosting company still owns the machine and takes responsibility for maintaining the hardware and the web hosting software, but you have greater control over the configuration and use of the server. There is also such a thing as semi-dedicated hosting, in which a web server is only split between a very small number of clients, such as 2 to 4, with strong partitions between each to prevent them from interfering with one another. Since the hosting company is still responsible for the upkeep of the server, this type of hosting is also known as managed hosting. For obvious reasons, dedicated hosting always costs significantly more than shared hosting.

Server Co-Location - If you really want complete control over every aspect of your web server, you might very well choose to buy one and maintain it yourself if you have sufficient knowledge. However, chances are that you still don't have the resources to keep your server completely safe from power outages, roof leaks, thieves, unwary employees and other hazards and keep it on the internet on a fast, high-bandwidth connection at all times. You need a data center to provide those services for you. Co-location is the rental of physical security, continuous electrical power and a fast, reliable internet connection for a server that you own. The data center is not responsible for any of the hardware or software maintenance of a co-located server, you are. This can be a cheaper alternative to dedicated hosting if you have the necessary expertise and time to run a web server yourself.

Some web hosts are offering UNIX hosting and Windows hosting. What's the difference?

The terms UNIX hosting and Windows hosting refer to the operating system (OS) that is running on the server. The operating system, of course, is the software that allows the computer to function and manage all of the other hardware and software that is installed on it. Chances are good that you are reading this on a computer running a version of the Windows operating system, the most popular operating system in the world for personal and business computers. Other operating systems that are growing in popularity are Macintosh and various versions of Linux. However, the operating system you use on your computer is irrelevant to which type of hosting you choose. Here are some of the main features of UNIX and Windows:

UNIX Hosting

Most of the web servers in the world today run on one of the many variants of UNIX. The UNIX operating system was originally developed by universities for servers and networking, and many different versions have been written by programmers around the world under the open-source protocol, which means that the code for the operating system is openly available for programmers to customize and make improvements. Linux and BSD are the most popular forms of UNIX and come in many varieties, such as Red Hat Linux, Debian, SuSE, and FreeBSD. Most of these different versions (and much of the software that runs on them) can be obtained for free, which makes UNIX hosting cheaper for a web host than other operating systems and allows them to offer lower prices. UNIX hosting platforms are generally considered to be stable, secure, powerful and fast. Most web programming applications can be performed by software that is available for a UNIX platform. "UNIX hosting" has become a generic term to refer to any platform that is derived from the original UNIX.

Windows Hosting

Microsoft has developed its own operating system for servers as a special version of its Windows operating system, Windows Server 2003. It is a commercial product which requires the operator to purchase a license, which increases the cost of operation for the web host and usually results in higher hosting prices. Windows is designed to be user friendly, but it is generally considered to be less powerful and secure than UNIX for operating in a network environment. ASP, ASP.NET, and ColdFusion are scripting languages which will only run on a Windows server, as will the Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access database programs. These are popular for certain web programming applications, and if you are planning on using them to build your website, you will need to find a Windows host.

What are some of the terms I need to know when I choose a web host?

Disk Space or Storage - Because your website is a collection of files being offered on the internet for viewing, they have to be stored somewhere for retrieval and take up space. Each web server has a finite amount of hard disk memory to divide up and offer to hosting customers. Typically that space is divided up by different package levels so that the more you pay, the more space you are allowed to store pictures, web pages, videos and whatever other files you like on the web server's hard drive. If your website gets bigger than the space you are given, you will need to purchase more disk space from the web host.

Bandwidth or Data Transfer - Whenever you visit a website and view a page, you are transfering a copy of the files that make up that page over the internet from the web server to your computer. If the page you are viewing consists of an HTML file that is 3KB in size and three pictures of 47KB, 100KB and 250 KB, then you have just used 400KB of bandwidth or data transfer, because that is the total amount of data you just downloaded from the web server to view that page. Bandwidth is a commodity like disk space that the web host has to buy from its internet service provider, so it too is divided up and offered to the customers in specific amounts. Bandwidth amounts are usually measured in gigabytes (GB), because while only one copy of your files needs to be stored on the server, thousands or even millions of copies may be downloaded for viewing. If your website is viewed more times than the amount of bandwidth you are allowed can handle, your website may be turned off until the next billing period starts, or you may simply be billed for the excess amount used, depending on your host's policies. You can always purchase more bandwidth as your site's traffic increases.

Uptime - In an ideal world, every web server would be up and running and offering your web pages to the world 24 hours a day, 7 days a week forever. However, web servers are computers, and like any other computer, things happen to make them fail, or they get old and out of date and require maintenance and repair. When a web host gives you a 99% uptime guarantee, they are saying that the web server will be up and running for 99% of the billing period. If they fail to meet this guarantee, most web hosts will refund a certain portion of your money depending on the amount of excess downtime they experienced.

Traffic Statistics - Website traffic statistics programs try to track visitors to your website. They can track how many times your site was visited, how many visitors were unique and how many returned more than once, which pages were most popular, where the visitors came to your site from, what search terms they used in the search engines, and many other types of information which could be useful to you in marketing your website to a target audience. These statistics can be displayed in tables, graphs and charts by hour, day, week, month or year. Some statistics programs are better than others and offer more types of data, better displays, easier navigation or other useful features. Most web hosts today offer some sort of traffic statistics software with their hosting packages.

CGI Scripts - Many web hosts offer a variety of free CGI scripts with their packages. These are things like hit counters, guestbooks, form mail programs, message boards, and other programs that allow your website to perform commonly desired functions. You can use the ones your host provides you with or you can upload and run custom CGI scripts written by yourself or somebody else to perform different tasks like conducting a survey or processing customer information to produce an automatic price quote. Most CGI scripts are written in common programming languages like Perl, PHP or ASP.

You could spend a long time trying to learn everything there is to know about web hosting, but if you've read this far then you should be armed with the basic knowledge you need to understand what different web hosts are offering you. Your next task is to figure out what you need and go out and find a host that wants to give it to you at a great price!

ฉ Copyright 2005-2008 by Stacy Clifford Stacy Clifford is the founder of ChiliPepperWeb.net and has been assisting customers in understanding how their web services work since 2001.

How to Get Better Technical Support

By Stacy Clifford

Whenever you have a technical question that needs answering, you want that answer as fast as possible, right? In the instantaneous world of the internet, patience has become a rare commodity, and the time you spend unable to send or receive email or waiting for your website to come back online can mean lost revenue. If you want to get a timely response from your support technician, there are things you can do as a customer to speed up the process:

1. Define the problem as accurately as possible

   The more detail you can provide, the more quickly the technician can identify the source of the problem and correct it. Try to determine the following information if possible:

   • What were you doing when the error occurred?
   • What program were you operating that produced the error?

     Note the version of the program and the operating system that you are running on your computer.

   • If there is a specific error message, what does it say? Be prepared to give this information to the technician by phone, email or fax.
   • What are the steps you take to reproduce the error?
   • What time did you first notice the error?
   • Did the error occur only once, consistently over a period of time, or only when you do a certain thing?
   • Can you reproduce the error on a separate computer?
   
   
2. Know the priority status of your request

   Support technicians get many requests during the course of the day, often at the same time, with varying levels of urgency, and these requests take time to resolve. If a request cannot be resolved immediately, then it will be assigned an appropriate priority level based on the type of problem to be resolved as soon as possible.

   • Outages - Always top priority. If your website or email is down, any good technician should drop all other projects until this is resolved.
   • Breakages - If a critical part of your website becomes inoperable due to a server error, such as a database for a shopping cart, this should always be addressed with high priority.
   • Time Sensitive Operations - If you need something to be done within a certain time frame, such as enabling or disabling a feature of your account, then you should make this clear to the technician. The operation should be performed within the prescribed time frame as long as a higher priority issue does not arise.
   • Ongoing Problems - If a particular problem continues to occur for an extended period of time, its priority should be raised as necessary the longer the problem goes on.
   • Non-Critical Operations - If your request does not adversely affect the function of your services or contain a time-sensitive element, it will receive the lowest priority, but it still should be handled as soon as reasonably possible.
3. Allow an appropriate response time

   As stated previously, most technicians have more than one problem to handle at once, so once you have an idea of the priority level of your request, allow a reasonable amount of time for it to be resolved. Server errors should be resolved within hours to same day, depending on the circumstances. Lower priority items which can be quickly resolved should usually be handled by the next day. If a request will require several hours of work to resolve, expect it to take longer. A technician's job is to be constantly interrupted all day, so such requests will usually be saved until time permits or passed off to another available person to be completed. Understand that any completion time estimate given to you is assuming the absence of any higher priority requests intervening in the process.

   Most types of technical support requests should be answered with an acknowledgement of completion. If you do not receive one or are unable to determine on your own that your issue has been resolved within a reasonable amount of time, then you should contact the technician again to inquire about the status of your request.

4. Be a pest if you have to, but be courteous

   If your request is taking an unreasonable amount of time to be resolved, then there is some truth to the old adage that "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." If the technician can give you a reasonable explanation for the extended time frame, such as resolving a higher priority issue, then try to give them an appropriate extension to resolve your request. If the explanation for the delay is unsatisfactory and the problem continues to go unresolved, you may need to ask for the assistance of another technician. You should be assertive because you are paying for your services, but do not be abusive. Technicians are human beings too, and not all of them are going to respond well to your unpleasant remarks. If the situation becomes bad enough that you truly believe your anger is warranted, ask to speak with somebody else, describe the unsatisfactory response you received, and request that your issue be handled with the highest priority possible. If this doesn't work, then it's time to consider switching service providers.

5. Know the technician's responsibilities

   A support technician at a hosting company is not necessarily responsible for every possible problem you can have on the internet. He is only responsible for resolving problems with the services that his company provides to you. If the company only provides web hosting and domain registration services, then they cannot be held responsible for problems caused by website design flaws, internet connection service outages, email addresses obtained through other providers, or office network problems. Most good technicians are willing to give you a limited amount of assistance with these types of problems anyway, but it should not be expected of them and you should know who else to call if the technician determines that the problem is not within his realm of control.

6. Don't be a hypochondriac

   You should learn to help yourself whenever possible, because it's almost always faster than asking somebody else for help. If you are constantly asking for the same password or asking the technician to perform the same task over and over again when you can learn to do it yourself, you are wasting the technician's time and preventing other people from being helped quickly and efficiently. Learn from your mistakes and try not to repeat them. If you are always making the same mistakes and asking somebody else to fix them, you will quickly find yourself at the bottom of any body's priority list. If the technician explains to you how to do something, make sure that the procedure is recorded and stored where you can find it again. It's worth your extra time and his to do this if it saves you both time later on a repetitive task.

Although every case is unique, we believe that by following these guidelines you will consistently receive faster and friendlier assistance on most of your technical support requests.

ฉ Copyright 2005-2008 by Stacy Clifford Stacy Clifford is the founder of ChiliPepperWeb.net and has been assisting customers in understanding how their web services work since 2001.

HostMonster Reviews - Why It's Exceptional

By Sean Raymond

HostMonster is a leader in the web hosting industry and it's famous for providing high quality service to the customers at very reasonable price. You can get almost everything you will need to setup a web site from their one-size-fits-all web hosting with a price close to the cost of a lunch.

HostMonster has been in the industry for more than 10 years, and win a lot of awards from the top web hosting review sites for their great service. For me, I have used their service for 2 years, below are 6 reasons I think which make it exceptional within all the shared web hosting companies.

Top 6 Reasons to User HostMonster

1. Affordable Web Hosting, all-in-one package

There is only one solution provided by HostMonster.com. This One-Fits-for-All solution will give you everything you will need to host a web site. You can host unlimited domain, use unlimited disk space with unlimited monthly transfer there. Besides those normal features of a web hosting, it will also pre-install almost all the popular scripts for you, such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc. It's e-Commerce enabled features also make it a great solution for a small business web site.

2. It's reliable

HostMonster is a reliable web hosting. It will guarantee 99.9% up time, and according to the monitoring data from the 3rd-part web site up time monitoring companies, the actual data of HostMonster is larger than what it has committed, which is more than 99.95%.

3. Excellent Customer Service

HostMonster is one of the very few companies which you can get the support by Live Chat support, email support, toll free call support, and online knowledge base. And what attracts me most is its Live Chat support which will allow me to chat to them and display to them the problem I have immediately, from my perspective, this is much better than toll free call actually.

4. Fast Connection

The connection from HostMonster is very fast and stable. All accounts come with an OC-48 backbone connection and customized Apache web server and high-performance Quad Opteron servers with UPS power backups, mirrored storage backups, and a backup generator. The data center where your hardware is stored is monitored by a professional security staff 24/7.

5. It's Recognized

HostMonster can consistently deliver the high quality service to their customers, and this has been recognized by their customers and many web hosting review web site. For example, it has been awarded as the Best Web Hosting service provider in webhostingclue.com.

6. It's Safe

Your web site is safe because of its world-class level security data center. Your data is safe since HostMonster has very good backup plan in place. And your money is in safe as well, it will give you 30 days money back period, if you don't satisfy with their service, you can request your money back.

Want to know more about HostMonster, please access the HostMonster Review in Web Hosting Review from the best Affordable Web Hosting directory.