A Guide to the Different Types of Web Hosting Service

By Scott F Simmonds

What is web hosting?

Web hosting is a business of providing web services, file management and server space for websites that are controlled by companies or individuals who do not have their own web servers.

In recent times we have seen how the world has become internet inclined; people have started considering web presence as a necessity and not a luxury. Owning a website is a great way to advertise your products and services to millions of people world wide. This is not only fast but gives your reputation and business a good boost.

Web hosting is nothing but hosting your website and making it accessible to a wide range of people across the globe. There are several kinds of web hosting methods that you need to familiarize yourself with and also learn what makes each of them different for the others to take an educated decision on which technique to go for that would suit your needs the best.

The following are a few web hosting techniques:

* Shared hosting: this is one of the cheapest web hosting methods that allows different clients to share the same server, hence the name 'shared hosting'.

Opting for 'shared hosting' means that it is the web host's responsibility to check that everything is up and running all the time. The only thing you need to do is to sign up with the web host and the rest is all taken care of by them.

* Dedicated web hosting: unlike shared hosting, dedicated hosting allows you to hire an entire server and use it all by yourself. You are provided with the authority to use all the resources and host multiple websites.

* Free Web Hosting service: this option provides you with free hosting services, but the advertisements that are supported by these hosts are often limited compared to the paid ones.

* Reseller web hosting: reseller hosting allows customers to become hosts themselves. These kind of hosting services work in combination with other types of web hosting schemes.

* Ecommerce web hosting: before you decide on a particular type of web hosting service it's very important to know what purpose your web site will serve. Whether your web site is for personal or business use. In case your site is meant for business use, then opting for Ecommerce web hosting may be a good option for you as it provides many helpful features to facilitate business transactions easily over the internet.

* Clustered web hosting: clustered web hosting means number of servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization.

* Home server: the severs installed in private residence for hosting one or more web sites based on usual broad band internet connection, is known as Home server web hosting.

There are more web hosting techniques apart from the aforementioned that provides you with different kinds of services. Whatever kind of hosting you choose it is advisable that you take your time to study what will best suit your needs and then take your decision, so as to make sure you get your money's worth.

Scott F Simmonds has built many websites and had experience of many hosting providers. Visit Scott's site that profiles top web hosting services to discover the best and most reliable hosts around right now.

11 Things to Check Before Purchasing Web Hosting

By Jarret Cade

The web hosting industry is extremely competitive due to the fact of the massive growth of the internet and the fact that people want to have their own website. Web hosts compete against each other by offering more disk space and bandwidth for cheaper prices or free domain names along with your purchase of a web hosting plan. Many people get taken advantage of because they don't know what to look for in a web host to ensure that you are getting the most for your money.

A lot of people fall victim because they don't do their proper research of a web hosting provider before they make a purchase. While the list below is not a comprehensive checklist it does cover some of the most basic things to check for when you are looking to buy web hosting.

Contract Terms/Length

This is a biggie, especially when it comes to those hosts offering unlimited disk space or bandwidth. The fact of the matter is that web hosting providers can't actually afford to offer anything for free. There is always a catch and the catch is explained within their Terms & Conditions. Yeah the big wall of text that you never read because of the length but that you have to agree to. Read through the contract and you will find out just how limited your account really is and how much freedom you truly have.

Server Backups

Considering we are dealing with computers things can go wrong at any time. When they do go wrong it is usually far worse than expected and this is why you should have multiple backups of your files in different locations. Many of the larger web hosting companies offer multiple backups that are automatically done for you but you need to make sure of this beforehand. Just because a host doesn't offer backups does not necessarily mean that you can't purchase from them, you just need to take extra measures to keep your files backed up in multiple locations.

Server Uptime

You have a website because most likely you are trying to draw visitors to it in turn to make money. Having your web site go down can costs hundreds if not thousands of dollars of lost profits. Making sure that a web hosting provider has multiple options for power can decrease the chance that your server will go down. There are many sites dedicated to providing server uptime monitoring for web hosts scattered throughout the internet.

Negative Press/Reviews

No hosting provider is perfect and not every customer is going to enjoy their experience. Before you purchase hosting make sure to do a search for reviews of the web host. There are many sites online that provide you with honest reviews from web hosting customers. Make sure to read over the reviews carefully and to understand the negative reviews. Many times people over exaggerate a situation that could have been simply solved by themselves.

Awards

As stated above, there are many web hosting review sites out there. Some of them may also offer awards to a particular web hosting for having the most uptime or providing the best customer service. It is a good idea to research the awards that have been given to a web host. Some hosting providers like to prominently display the awards that have been given to them while others have the awards tucked away on a sub page on their site. However, just because a web host does not have an award does not make them any worse than a host that does.

Compare Prices

This is probably the most obvious point of this list. With the industry as competitive as it is, providers are always looking for ways to provide you the most resources for as little as possible. One web host may provide 1000MB of storage and bandwidth for $10 a month while another may provide 5000MB of storage and bandwidth for only $5 a month. Write down a list of what you need and while browsing for hosting plans write down the information from each host. Then once you are done, go over the list and make comparisons to see which host will give you the most for your money.

Look For Coupons

As stated above, the hosting industry is competitive and hosts constantly have to improve their services while keeping the price low. Many providers will offer coupons that give you a free domain name, a discount on a yearly hosting package or a major discount on your first month of hosting. There are many sites and forums on the internet that look for these coupons and provide lists so that consumers can save some extra money.

Programming Language Support

Depending upon your site, you will most likely need some kind of programming language. Most hosting providers nowadays offer PHP as a standard because it is widely used throughout the word. However, your site may require additional languages to be able to function so make sure that you are aware of what languages they do provide or what languages they can provide upon request.

Customer/Technical Support

When things go wrong you need somebody to talk to no matter what time it is. Most of the major hosting companies offer 24/7 phone, live chat and email support. Companies such as HostGator have a great reputation for their customer service and are very eager to go out of their way to help you. While you may not need to contact support everyday, it is nice knowing that if you do ever need to there will be somebody on the other end of the line ready to assist you in any way possible.

Hosting Plan Details

The 2 major details in a hosting plan are disk space and bandwidth. Disk space is the amount of files that your hosting plan can support while bandwidth is the amount of traffic that your site can receive. Knowing beforehand what your site will require is essential in finding the best hosting plan for your situation. Most web hosting providers do provide extra features however they may not always display them on their main page. You might have to go digging deeper into their site to find out just what exactly they do provide with their hosting plans.

Cheapest Isn't Always Best

Too many people get lured into big numbers for low prices. As the saying goes, "You get what you pay for". That works for both web hosting and anything else in life. Low cost hosting plans are almost always setup on a shared server which means that your site is shared with anywhere from 10 to 100+ other websites. Meaning that you have to share the resources between all those sites. If one of the other sites starts using up too many resources your site may experience slow load times or completely crash. It may be wise to spend a few extra dollars a month to ensure the quality of your web hosting service.

This list is by no means complete but it is a great starting point and should be reference when making a decision to purchase web hosting. Knowing the facts beforehand can save you both time and money in the long run while avoiding unneeded hassle.

Find which host ranks the best, visit http://www.webhostsdeals.com A web hosting comparison site dedicated to finding the best deals on web hosting from the top web hosting providers.

Web Hosting Guide - How to Use FTP

By Bedrich Omacka

There are 2 most common way how can web hosting customers upload their websites to the server. Beginners use very often online file manager because it is very easy solution for them. They don't need to set up any connection to the server. They only need to know their user name and password to log in the control panel. More experienced users prefer FTP connection - using this way require some knowledge about the connection setup. But when this step is done then uploading files using this method is many times quicker and more comfortable. In this article I am going to explain step by step how to use the FTP.

FTP means File Transfer Protocol. To connect to your web hosting account using FTP you will need to download and install some of many FTP managers. Personally, I recommend to use Total Commander. The first reason why I recommend this software is the fact that there is a big chance you have already this program in your computer. Total Commander is not only FTP manager but also file manager like Windows Explorer. But comparing with Windows Explorer it is more user friendly. Total Commander 30 days trial can be downloaded for free. After 30 days it will continue to work without any restrictions but regarding the license you should buy it if you are going to use it after one month. If you decide to use another file manager the next steps will be not exactly same but if you will understand the principles you should be able to use any FTP software of your choice.

So, when you installed Total Commander double-click its icon on the desktop. You will see the dialog asking you to press a number (1, 2 or 3). Click the correct number and you will be able to start using the program. In the next step we will setup the connection to your web hosting account. You will see a few icons in the top. Click the FTP icon and on the right menu click New Connection. The first row is called Session. You can fill in this field anything you want - it will be the name of your FTP connection. If you will create more connections the session name will help you to orientate yourself.

To fill in next 3 lines you will need to log in you web hosting control panel. There should be a link called like FTP accounts or FTP access. Under this link you will find the values for host name, user name and password. It is also possible that you will need to create the FTP account first.

The next fields are optional and you will probably not need deal with them. Only using Remote Dir field may be useful time from time because you can save your time by using it. If your files are stored e. g. at public_html folder, fill in public_html there and anytime you will connect to your server you will jump instantly to this folder instead of the root. It is also recommended to check the Use passive mode for transfers like a WWW browser.

Now click OK button and connect to your web server by double-clicking the connection name you have created. Now you can work with files stored in your web hosting storage in the same way how you work with files in your hard drives. Your storage will appear as another drive. Use F5 to upload or download files and F8 to delete them.

Good FTP web hosting which also offers web based file manager can be found at http://www.marblehost.com - With this company it is possible to set up multiple FTP accounts so you can create access to specific parts of your web space for your friends or employees. Good luck!