The Web Hosting Technologies You Need to Know

By Scott F Simmonds

A web hosting service is simply a type of internet hosting service that allows companies and individuals the facility to make their personal websites accessible through the web. Web hosts basically offer space on a server they own, to their clients, and they provide with internet connectivity as well.

There are various technologies that support web hosting. In this article we provide you with a list of technologies related to web hosting to help you get a better idea about it.

Windows hosting:

Windows hosting refers to hosting of web services that specifically run on the Windows operating system. If you are planning to use Active Server Pages or a database like Microsoft Access as service scripting then Windows hosting is an apt option for you.

Linux hosting:

This means hosting of web services that run on the Linux operating system.

CGI:

Pages on the web can be executed as CGI scripts. These scripts execute on the server to generate interactive web pages. In most cases, internet service providers offer with some type of CGI abilities. The use of CGI is extremely common on Linux and Unix servers.

Unix hosting:

Unix was the first ever web server operating system. It is well know due to its characteristics of being reliable and stable. Unix hosting refers to hosting web services that run on the Unix operating system, this is less expensive than windows.

ASP:

ASP stands for Active Server Pages. It is a server-side scripting technology that was created by Microsoft. With the help of ASP, you can make dynamic web pages simply by putting script codes inside your HTML pages. These codes are first executed by the web server and then the page is sent back to the browser.

You can use both Visual Basic and JavaScript. It is a component which is found in all Windows 95, 98, 2000 and XP. It can be activated in any computer that runs on Windows. Various web hosting providers are offering ASP due to its growing popularity.

JSP:

JSP is a server-side technology which is very similar to ASP developed by Sun. With JSP, you can create dynamic pages by putting Java codes into your HTML pages. Due to the fact that this technology uses Java, it is not restricted to a specific server platform.

PHP:

PHP is another server-side scripting language which allows you to create dynamic web pages, all you need to do is put script codes inside your HTML pages.

FrontPage:

FrontPage is a very popular and common web site design tool which was created by Microsoft. This allows users to create a web site without the need to have any in-depth knowledge about it. If you are planning to use FrontPage, you should consider looking for a Windows hosting solution avoiding both Unix and Linux.

Cold Fusion:

Macromedia developed the technology called Cold Fusion. It is another server-side scripting language which you can successfully use to generate interactive web pages.

Secure Server:

A secure server plays an essential role as it helps to transmit encrypted data. If you plan to send personal information that needs to be protected, it is crucial for your web host to provide you with a secure server.

I hope that this information will help you and now you have a clear idea about the various technologies of web hosting. Go ahead and put up your own website on the net today.

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.

Host Gator Web Hosting Review

By Russell Hancock

I've been blogging for quite a few years now, starting with hosted blogs on sites like blogger and then slowly moving up to my own shared hosting and now a reseller account running a number of blogs and other sites. Obviously, hosting your own site and not having the fallback of a hosted blog creates a lot of choices and things to worry about. First, I've started to really care about reliability and uptime, especially when you've got people visiting your blog daily - every outage is a real inconvenience and can cost you regular readers and subscribers. On top of that, as my blogging has developed I've realized I have a need for more and more features to keep my sites fresh and innovative, for example bringing in a forum or having more advanced stats. Some of my previous hosting plans lacked these features and were aimed at simply hosting one basic blog and nothing more.

That said, I'm not ready to make the big leap up to a dedicated server, let alone a VPS (Virtual Private Server). So, when I look for a host I want a company that will manage my well featured hosting without me having to do too much at all. My current host is Host Gator and I'm pleased to say they're doing that job pretty well. I'm on the baby linux web hosting plan which gives me 600gb of disk space as well as 6,000 Gb of monthly transfer. On top of that I can host unlimited domains all for $7.95.

Host Gator also gives you all the normal features you expect via the fantastic cPanel interface, including denying access to the site by IP, and providing instant blogs and forums. All of this is backed up with great support both by phone and by instant online messenger. This means that you can get instant support for any of your concerns from a staff that are polite and tend to know what they're talking about.

So in conclusion, Host Gator offers a great service, with a lot of good features - perfect for people starting up! They also offer great services for those who want more; be it a reseller account or a dedicated server.

There are hundreds of Web Hosts out there. Find out everything you need to know about how to choose the RIGHT web host for your needs, and see the reviews of this weeks top picks at Five Star Web Host Reviews and at Top Ten Reviews/Webhosting

Free Vs Paid Website Hosting

By Michael Collins

When you're looking to start your own website or blog one of the first decisions you'll have to make is where you will host it. A web hosting service allows you to store your web site's contents and files on their servers so it will be accessible to the world. There are literally thousands of hosting services to choose from and you may be tempted to simply go with the least expensive option. But you can't always let price be the deciding factor. You need to choose a host that offers a good combination of features and reliability for an affordable price.

Let's take a quick look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of free web hosting and paid web hosting.

Free vs Paid Website Hosting

To most people starting out, free website hosting sounds like a no-brainer. They don't see the point in paying for something they can get for free. But once they start using a free host they realize they made a terrible mistake. They have limited space with which to build their site and they quickly run out of room. If they start getting traffic they surpass their bandwidth limit and their site is inaccessible for the rest of the month.

And that's not all. They have no email accounts and their pages have ads all over them (ads for which they do not get paid). Their site seems to be down more often than not and they have absolutely no customer support team to help them. Eventually they smarten up and decide to find themselves a more reliable paid service.

The good news is that web hosting has dropped in price so much that you can now find plans for just a few dollars a month. Most packages will include 24 hour support, user statistics, unlimited space and bandwidth, and even web page design tools. You can also choose your own domain name which will look more professional than the one provided by free web hosts.

Of course you'll want to do a little research before you choose a paid website hosting service. Switching hosts can be a pain so you'll want to be sure your first choice is reliable. Check out online forums and try to find testimonials from their current customers.

Read some customer reviews and comments about various hosting providers. I recommend checking out http://webhosting.youcompareit.com for up to date reviews and ratings written by acutal customers. One or two negative reviews is understandable but if you see a trend steer clear.

What You Should Know About ADSL Web Hosting

By Andrew Carmiel

ADSL stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, this enhanced technology increase the speed of data communication and distribution on World Wide Web. Put it in simple words, ADSL technology provides a high speed internet access.

Therefore, for business that demands high internet data communication and distribution, ADSL web hosting gives a best solution out of the rest of the package for the high pressure demand of today modern business world.

1. High Response

For fast business that demands high speed assistance response, ADSL can be said as the best. Often ADSL web hosting has personal assistance assigned to answer your entire problematic situations 24 hours per day, and 7 days a week.

Some businesses have a demand for their website to be online in 24 hours per day, as we know in internet business world, even 10 minutes shut down can mean a loss of hundreds of thousands dollars revenue, for that kind of business ADSL based web hosting is the best.

2.Read A Review

Before sign up for any ADSL based web hosting the first thing you may want to do is read various online forums and websites that have a review about particular ADSL based web hosting, this will ensure you get the best for your deal. ADSL based web hosting is not cheap, reading reviews from another customers can save you a lot of money later on.

3. Ask For Free Trial

Often the best ADSL web hosting company will offer free trial, you should capitalize on this opportunity and try the service first off, and later if you are satisfied you can continue with peace of mind knowing you have chosen the right place. Also some of the best ADSL based web hosting companies have money back guarantee, this is the kind of company that dares to show their quality and you should pay attention to.

Get your free ADSL web hosting package, no ads, no string attached, comes with all built-in package features you will ever need, and the best thing it is free for the rest of your life and can host as many your own domains as you want. Sign up now - http://www.bestwebhost4free.com

The Truth About Adult Web Hosting

By Andrew Carmiel

Adult website are billions dollars of industry nowadays, no wonder more and more people try to get into this business. However not all web hosting is also adult web hosting meaning some web hosting providers do not allow hosting adult website on their server.

1. Type Of Servers

Depending on your purpose there are two types of servers you can choose from any adult web hosting company, shared server and dedicated server. If you are just barely started unless you planning for hundreds of thousands of dollars campaign, shared server is considered enough, as your website visitors still small in numbers and you might be just have a few website contents.

As your visitors and website contents grow, you might want to increase your type of server preferably to dedicated server to catch up with your business demand. Especially, if you plan to sell products like video or membership subscription, dedicated server can prevent your site from possible threat such as hacker.

2. Technical Support Performance

Because of the huge numbers of visitors adult websites generally have fast technical support that available for 24 hours per day is needed. Ask how fast usually the web hosting company's technical support will reply your request. Also you might want to ask similar websites' owners about their experiences with particular web hosting company.

3. Legal Concern

Depending on your countries, adult website may be forbidden. You should check the legality issues with your adult web hosting company to prevent any possible problems from arise in the future. Some web hosting company will offer to host your website at overseas server, this might be able to help if your country restricts adult website. The best thing you can do to ensure your business is finding lawyer that specialized in internet business area and asking for his or her opinion.

Get your free adult web hosting package, no ads, no string attached, comes with all built-in package features you will ever need, and the best thing it is free for the rest of your life and can host as many your own domains as you want. Sign up now - http://www.bestwebhost4free.com

Christian Web Design & Hosting

By Andrew Carmiel

A surprisingly numbers of Christian web design & hosting have sprung up recently. If you are looking for web design & hosting service for your local church or Christian store there are a few things you should pay attention to. These will save you a lot of money later on from choosing the wrong hosting service.

1. How Long The Company Has Been In Business

The longer the company generally is better; new company may not have an experience to handle specific issue that you will encounter later on. Do they have proper technical assistant, in case your website crash during the high traffic hour? You can find about how long the company has been in business generally at about us page, if you don't find this information you should be a little suspicious.

2. Ask Fellow Member

Ask fellow members of your church about their experience with particular hosting company. What is the strong point and weak point? This way you can have clear expectation what the company will offer to you.

3. 2 In 1

A lot of good Christian web design & hosting I know have some kind of all in one package. If you host your website at that company, you will get discounted price for the specialized design. This can save a lot of money since web design is not cheap depending on the complexity of your website.

4. What Kind Of Features They Have

Do you need specific database, PHP, MySql or any other website features? You should check if the hosting company has this kind of features right from the beginning. As the visitor of your website growing you may need to upgrade your server capacity or need more features to make your website easier to use and more attractive.

Get your free web hosting package, no ads, no string attached, comes with all built-in package features you will ever need, and the best thing it is free for the rest of your life and can host as many your own domains as you want. Sign up now - http://www.bestwebhost4free.com

Best Web Host - How to Choose the Reliable One

By Andrew Carmiel

Choosing the best web host is crucial for your business since your website is your store in online world. Imagine how much money you will lose if your website is down even if that only for one hour. Let's take a look at some criteria you can use as a foundation to choose the best web hosting that can deliver your needs.

1. Reputation

Is the web hosting company new or has been in this business for quite a while? The longer the web hosting company has been in this business, the better the company knows what to do in case some problems arise.

2. Ask The Experience Of Other Users

You should ask the experience of other users, what is the strong and weak point of this company, how they handle customer's complaint or request?

I would not choose company that has 7 bad reviews and only 3 good reviews; you should pay attention to this since this can save you a lot of money later on.

3. Test Yourself

You should test the company yourself, ask their customer service and technical support how fast the support, and how about the web hosting features good or bad? Some good web hosting companies offer free trial for their customers, you should capitalize on this offer and try the free trial.

4. What Type Of Plan

Generally there are 4 types of plan in any hosting company: shared hosting plan, reseller hosting plan, managed hosting plan, and dedicated hosting plan. At the beginning you may only need shared hosting plan, but as your business growing you may need more advanced hosting plan.

5. Conclusion

You should choose your web hosting company because it is so vital for your business. Refer to the 4 points above in choosing the best web host for your business.

Get your free web hosting package, no ads, no string attached, comes with all built-in package features you will ever need, and the best thing it is free for the rest of your life and can host as many your own domains as you want. Sign up now - http://www.bestwebhost4free.com

Bali Web Hosting

By Andrew Carmiel

Bali is a beautiful island that has an incredible view and becomes a middle section for many tourists from different countries. Let's take a look at some advantages and disadvantages in choosing Bali web hosting over another web hosting in different countries.

Advantages

1. Nearby Location

If you live in Bali, sign up for web hosting services nearby can be very beneficial since you can come to the company office if you have some issues or questions without the need to incur a lot of costs from travel abroad. You also can have an advantage of seeing the company operation yourself to ensure the company meets your expectation.

Disadvantages

2. Reseller Hosting

Generally, Bali based hosting companies don't have their own severs, so they rent it from other companies. This can be a huge disadvantage as you will need to wait longer than usual to get technical support. Also the price can be doubled than the original price since they are reseller hosting company, taking profit from re-selling other servers.

3.Technical Support Issue

Even though the company has their own servers, you should test their technical support capability. Ask several customers experiences whether they offer proper technical support or not. It would be best if you arrange for a free trial with the company for a month, so you can see yourself their capacity in handling various issues.

4. Money Back Guarantee

Also you should see whether the company you choose offer money back guarantee or not. You don't want to spend hundreds of dollars for something useless right?

5. The Clearance

You should analyze the clearance of the company, whether they have proper business background, law issues and so on, as they can run your money away if they are not a valid company, and worse yet, they can rip your website also, if your website is a source of your income this can be quite disappointment.

Get your free 250 MB web hosting package, no ads, no string attached, comes with all built-in package features you will ever need, and the best thing it is free for the rest of your life and can host as many your own domains as you want. Sign up now - http://www.bestwebhost4free.com

Why Your Company Should Have a Bulletin Board

By Adam Hobach

Similar to the almighty blog, a bulletin board is an electronic meeting place and announcement system. This open platform allows a number of users to carry on discussions, make announcements, and share files.

Unlike a blog which is essentially one person's online journal that receives comments from visitors, a bulletin board is designed to enable multiple users to start up conversations or threads, and respond to them as well. Several companies make use of bulletin boards to cater to their audience, as this platform has become a powerful business tool.

Not only do bulletin boards give an online business the ability to analyze perceptions and establish relationships, but it is also time and cost-efficient.

How a Bulletin Board Works

Each bulletin board is typically comprised of anywhere from 18 to 20 respondents - approximately twice the size of your average focus group. Moderators carefully screen respondents who are generally required to meet a set of predefined qualifications. Once approved, they are given a username and password, which give them access to fully moderated discussions that occur over a certain amount of time.

Respondents spend time on the bulletin board answering questions or replying to comments posted by the moderator while reacting to comments from other participates. Although the topics are usually only popular for a couple of days, they can be accessed 24/7 from any computer with an internet connection. Transcripts from the discussions may also be available following each session.

How a Bulletin Board Benefits Your Online Business

Bulletin boards can serve benefits to any online business, regardless of the industry. In fact, many experts have contested that such a system exceeds the use of other marketing strategies, calling it the "original social networking platform." This simply means that a bulletin board is able to provide both you and your customers with more than recreational opportunities, creating a network that helps your online business grow.

The bulletin board works wonders at enhancing your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts. Aside from looking at keywords and content in general, search engines also keep track of how many pages a website contains. Therefore, if your bulletin board becomes extremely popular and spans out over a couple of pages, you are likely to be indexed more frequently and possibly achieve higher rankings in a search engine like Google or Yahoo!

This platform allows you to present information in a creative form while staying on track with the topics of your business. More companies these days are using bulletin boards as an affordable yet effective means of providing technical support. Instead of hiring a full support staff to address critical issues, a bulletin board allows them to set up a Frequently Asked Questions forum, or even a medium where the community of respondents can assist each other.

Numerous online businesses, especially those in the IT field, use bulletin boards so that visitors can download essential updates for software applications or documentation associated with a particular product or service. Other businesses across a wide spectrum of industries use the bulletin for the following reasons:

To provide information about a new product or service

To engage customers to create a buzz in the industry

To gather feedback from customers.

More detailed benefits of a bulletin board include:

Archived sessions for future reference: Aside from creating an FAQ section, archived conversations can also be used to keep newcomers up to speed. As long as they are easily accessible, these sessions will always have great value.

Visitor interaction: Perhaps the greatest benefit of a bulletin board is the opportunity to interact with your audience. Customers like to know that their opinions matter, and they feel even more valued when their concerns are addressed from someone behind the scenes, whether it's just a staff member or the website administrator himself or herself. Additionally, visitors can ask questions and express concerns about important issues that you may have overlooked.

Consistent updates: A website that is constantly updated with fresh content reaps many more benefits than one that remains the same over long periods of time. Frequent posting on your bulletin board translates into new content for the search engines and shows newcomers that your site is the place to be.

Better absorption: On the web, this is often referred to as "stickiness," which is the key to consistent traffic. Stickiness simply describes a website that grabs and maintains the interest of its visitors, meaning they are more apt to absorb the information you are trying to get across. A bulletin board has this ability as it is dated, archived, searchable and open for conversation.

Moderating authority: When it comes to online business, you want your visitors to be able to express themselves, but there should always be some limitations. This can be done by assigning a moderator to the board to ensure that topics are appropriate and that all participates are adhering to the rules. In the end, it's up to you in regards to what gets posted and what gets deleted.

Conclusion

There are many ways to power your online business, and the bulletin board is one of the most effective strategies. This platform opens the floor to your visitors and lets them feel as if they are playing a major role in the process, while granting you complete control over the operation. Best of all, implementing a bulletin board onto your website is simple and affordable with one-click script installers and a variety of open-source programs.

Adam Hobach is a Network Engineer with "Doreo.com". You can learn more about "Web Hosting " services online at http://www.Doreo.com © 2008 Doreo http://www.Doreo.com You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "Author Biography").

Why Every Company Should Have a Website

By Adam Hobach

Every home-based and brick and mortar business should at least have a portion of their company operating online - meaning they need to invest in a web hosting plan and build a website. A number of businesses in a wide range of industries have realized the marketing value of the internet, from restaurants to department stores. This platform offers endless opportunities and allows you to promote your business in ways that just cannot be achieved offline.

A website can serve benefits to any company looking to establish itself in the marketplace. To compete in today's economy, a website is an absolute must. We could explain for days why you need a website, but here are a few key reasons that come to mind.

Low Startup

Believe it or not, the internet is the most inexpensive way to run your company. Instead of running up the bill on your land line or mobile phone, you can communicate with your customers via email 24/7. The entire process will involve far less paper work and simply make the business much easier to run. Getting a website of your own doesn't cost much these days, as web hosting plans can be found for under $5 per month. This gets you everything needed to build an online presence from email accounts to keep in touch with clients to shopping carts to sell your products.

You're Always Open

Unlike a traditional business that closes at a set time each day, your website is always open for business - 24 hours a day, 365 a year. After posting your content, it will remain on the site until changes are made, meaning your products and services can be purchased at any time of the day. The software integrated into your provider's server will take the order, calculate shipping costs, process it, and send the funds to your account. If the site becomes popular, this could be some of the easiest money you'll ever make.

Worldwide Marketing

Although you might be currently targeting one demographic market, it doesn't have to remain this way. There are millions of people using the internet each minute of the day, with thousands more making connections by the second. Thanks to the World Wide Web, this service is available to people in various countries throughout the globe.

With the convenience of the internet, consumers are shopping online fervently, purchasing everything from airline tickets to used instruments. These same people could be buying your products, growing your client base to new heights. Just think how much it would cost to directly advertise your product in Japan or London - now compare that number to what it would cost to run a website. The benefits here are as clear as day.

Exposure for Your Brand

Perhaps you're not interested in e-commerce and would like to keep the bulk of your business running offline. A website allows you to publish information about your business for the world to see. You can easily post images about your products and services and let potential clients know what you have going on offline. Those who are interested can contact you via mail, phone or that handy email account we mentioned above.

Easy Promotions

Not to say that online marketing is a walk in the park, but launching promotions for your business is much easier with a website. With a few simple strokes of the computer keys, you can present a well designed campaign with discounted prices and special incentives to keep your customers coming back. By keeping your pages updated with fresh content, visitors are sure to stop by from time to time to see what is new with your business.

New Concepts

The internet offers a plethora of ways to take your current business and expand on it. For instance, you can transform your website into a member community where visitors are able to carry on discussions about topics related to the company. This can be done with a blog, bulletin board or guestbook. A perfect example of exploring new concepts is the growing number of authors selling their novels online in the form of eBooks. With new technologies being introduced every year, the possibilities here are endless.

Customer Support

A website is a great way to establish credibility for your company in the form of solid support. Instead of running to the phone every time someone has a question or concern about the service, you have the option of responding via email. Web hosting packages today come with numerous support features, including support ticket systems, bulletin boards and even chat room applications for live assistance. We all expect solid customer support when purchasing something; here is your chance to provide the excellent service you desire. With a thorough support system in place, you can focus your attention on the critical areas of the business.

Conclusion

Granted, not all of us are computer savvy, but having your own website isn't as technically challenging as you might think. Web hosting companies offer intuitive software that makes the task of building and administering your site much easier. If you're looking for ways to expand your business, the internet just may be the answer.

Adam Hobach is a Network Engineer with "Doreo.com". You can learn more about "Web Hosting" services online at http://www.Doreo.com © 2008 Doreo http://www.Doreo.com You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "Author Biography").

Why a Company Should Not Host a Server at Their Office

By Adam Hobach

The beauty of the internet has provided so many businesses and individuals an opportunity to expand their revenues tremendously. People from all walks of life have emerged online with various concepts, established their independence, and achieved notable success. There are, however, times when that very independence can work against you - as is the case you're your company attempts to maintain a web server and entire data center from the limited space of your office.

While IT just might be your expertise and the core of the business, running your own data facility is costly in the terms of time, money and the deployment of physical resources. Aside from all the expenses you are likely to incur, there is the issue of day to day maintenance, which can be enough to overcome even the most successful company.

There is no mild way to put it - server administration and monitoring is a full time job, one that requires trained professionals capable of addressing any problems that might arise. Many companies have learned the hard way and made the move to outsource these tasks to companies with the special skills and forte to manage servers. Such a service is imperative these days, as you are liable to have a number of critical applications operating on your server. If those applications happen to endure problems or the server itself fails, this leads to downtime, which could result in the loss of clients and revenue.

How Does Outsourcing Work?

When outsourcing your operation, you are essentially leasing space on the premises of a third-party company. That company houses your servers, and possibly the servers of other businesses as well. Your equipment is physically protected, typically locked in a cabinet or wired cage. Outsourcing offers great flexibility, allowing you to upscale your operation and its requirements as the business grows - all without needing to pump much additional capital into the cause. When entering such an agreement, the company usually charges a set fee over a fixed amount of time, maintaining your server and all of its associated components while freeing you up for other important matters.

The remainder of this article will entail the disadvantages of hosting your own server and lead into the benefits of outsourcing the operation.

Expenses

Maintaining a server is a very costly procedure; trying to keep up an entire data center is even more so. Caring for a server involves software applications, along with hard drives and resources to keep the equipment running at peak performance. By handing over the management aspect to an outside company, you can enjoy cost savings of anywhere from 20 to 70%.

Limited Space

A thorough operation consists of several components; possibly multiple servers. Having enough room to store this equipment in your office is impractical and essentially a disaster waiting to happen. Outsourcing the equipment enables better utilization of that space, allowing your company to stick with the hardware it is capable of handling.

A Potentially Hazardous Environment

While it offers more capacity, a server is simply a computer, one that requires the utmost care. It's hard to imagine that any office space or in-house computer room would be equipped to provide this nurture. When your hardware isn't properly maintained, it is at the risk of overheating, power failures, and a host of disasters. By outsourcing the equipment, you can ensure better surroundings with precision-controlled ventilation and cooling systems.

Connectivity Issues

Trying to run an in-house data center limits the capability of your business, as it's forced to share critical resources with other machines in the network, including the precious internet connection you and your staff rely on to conduct business. When outsourcing the operation, you have the aid of your own T-1 line, supported by multiple backbones that provide a fast and reliable connection to the internet.

Limited Bandwidth

Bandwidth is one resource you simply can't live without. When this resource exceeds its limits, your business is in serious jeopardy, as visitors will experience considerable performance issues. Outsourcing provides you with increased bandwidth at a reduced price. Companies generally offer a robust capacity to ensure that your pages load at lightning speed.

Downtime

All the disadvantages listed above lead to one thing - downtime for your server. Without constant maintenance and updates, your hardware is bound to endure severe problems sooner or later. Outsourcing the server operation means a greater level of redundancy, which gives better assurance that your content will be accessible.

Vulnerability

The fact that you're running an internet-based business leaves your server wide open for exploitation. Viruses, worms, DDoS attacks: these are real threats with the power to cripple your operation. With outsourcing, you can be protected by firewalls and intrusion detection systems, which will identify and immediately neutralize these threats.

Conclusion

All in all, outsourcing your data center is one of the best decisions you can make. Unless you have the space, resources and expertise, such a move is an absolute must for the longevity of your business. The protection of your servers, along with the money you'll save, makes outsourced hosting a clear cut winner.

Adam Hobach is a Network Engineer with "CyberLynk.net". You can learn more about "Web Hosting" services online at http://www.CyberLynk.net © 2008 CyberLynk Network Inc. http://www.CyberLynk.net You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "Author Biography").

Shared Web Site Hosting Vs Dedicated Server

By Adam Hobach

With the emergence of e-commerce, the internet has opened up opportunities for anyone with ideas of making money online. Because of this, a website is essentially your key into cyberspace, and the web hosting company is the entity that holds it. While there are many types of services available, for most webmasters, it all boils down to these choices: shared hosting vs. a dedicated server. The two environments share similarities, but the differences are significant and can play a huge role in the success of your business.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is currently the most popular form of hosting available, sought after by personal users as well as small to medium sized businesses. As the name implies, a shared server supports the businesses of numerous users, possibly housing hundreds to thousands of sites. These users share a single machine, including all of its resources, such as disk storage, bandwidth, memory, CPU and even an IP address. Shared hosting is the preferred choice by many because it is extremely affordable. With the market being so competitive, you can easily find a shared host for as low as $5 per month.

Aside from being inexpensive and widely available, shared hosting simply makes a perfect solution for some users. The low monthly fee gets you a wealth of great features to help create your site and build a web presence. Some of the major attractions include various programming scripts, multiple email accounts, comprehensive web builders, powerful database systems and intuitive control panel software that allows to administer the entire operation with ease. Some companies even provide a number of e-commerce tools, such as shopping carts and free advertising bonuses, to get you off on the right foot.

Share the Server, Share the Risks

Price is important for obvious reasons, and if it's your main concern, then shared hosting may be the solution for you opposed to a dedicated server. Before making the final decision, it is only right that you are aware of the shared risks as well.

Search Engine Problems

Sharing an IP address puts you at the mercy of other users hosting on the server. For example, there could be spam or adult-oriented sites hosted on the server. Since many of these administrators often attempt to trick search engines into giving them undeserved rankings, search engines such as Alta Vista typically counter the attempt by banning the IP address and all of its websites from the index. This could limit the exposure of your site, all for something that has nothing to do with your company. Fortunately, some hosts will allow you to purchase an IP address of your own.

Performance Issues

One of the biggest knocks on shared hosting is attributed to slow server response. Simply a high-capacity computer, the server accepts requests for your files and serves them to the web so they can be accessed and viewed. Due to the fact that the server may be hosting a number of sites, the traffic from other users can have an adverse effect on your business. When the server has trouble responding, your visitors are the first to suffer. In more extreme cases, the pages might time out, or even worse, not load up at all. Because of this, you should always inquire within a provider to get an idea of approximately how many sites reside on each server and how much traffic those sites are receiving.

The Dedicated Server

Hosting your site on a dedicated server is more expensive by far. However, this option offers more benefits in the terms of control, flexibility and stability. Hence the name, a dedicated server is dedicated solely to your business, enabling you to host one or multiple sites without the traffic issues that relate to shared hosting. When placing the two side by side, dedicated hosting would be similar to owning your home instead of leasing an apartment. Following the same scenario, being a homeowner will cost a bit more, but the advantages tend to be well worth it.

More Secure and Stable

In this environment, you don't have to worry about any other users slowing down the operation with their traffic or crashing the server with poor scripting. This gives you greater security, stability, and control over the uptime of your website.

Better Performance

A dedicated server ensures a faster response, even with a high volume of traffic. Since the machine only has to worry about your data, instead of thousands of other websites, visitors can access your web pages and files with ease.

More Resources

With shared hosting, you are typically offered a certain amount of disk space and bandwidth each month. Owners of sites that exceed these resources are charged additional fees for doing so. On a dedicated server, you have the option of choosing a package with enough resources to suit the needs of your business. Understanding that your plan requires a higher capacity, a company will usually provide you with more than enough.

Conclusion

The purpose of this article is not to sway you in one way or the other. Despite the risks, there are a number of businesses using shared hosting with no problems at all. And while the dedicated server offers numerous benefits, this hosting solution is not for everyone. Now that you are more familiar with each service, choosing a provider for your business should be much easier.

Adam Hobach is a Network Engineer with "CyberLynk.net". You can learn more about "Web Hosting" services online at http://www.CyberLynk.net © 2008 CyberLynk Network Inc. http://www.CyberLynk.net You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "Author Biography").

Hosting With Fantastico For Your Small Business

By Adam Hobach

The small business needs to take advantage of all the resources that are available to them. This all begins with the company you choose to host your website. Although there are a number of hosting solutions on the market, not all of them are suited for small businesses. In order for your company to succeed, you need a special set of tools to market your brand, keep in contact with clients, and establish your online presence. One tool that can enable you to do all this and more is a unique program by the name of Fantastico.

What is Fantastico?

As a feature of the cPanel control panel, Fantastico comes with many web hosting plans. This third-party software offers convenience to the user by allowing them to install a variety of scripts and programs to add instant functionality to their website. The program simplifies the installation process dramatically, allowing someone with no programming experience to implement powerful software with a mere click of the mouse. This offers great convenience, as Fantastico makes administering and creating a website much easier.

Hosting with Fantastico has become a popular option for small and medium sized businesses alike. This program is feature-rich and offers many benefits to the webmaster. Its greatest attribute is the wide range of programs available for installation, featuring well over 40 scripts that can be used to enhance your website. The software also receives frequent updates, ensuring that the programs you install are stable and secure.

Below are some of the many scripts that are available when hosting with the Fantastico script installer.

Blogs: The blog has become one of the most powerful tools you can have in your marketing arsenal. With Fantastico, you have access to three of the most popular blogging programs available: b2Evolution, Nucleus and WordPress. These programs allow you to expand your business with customizable skins, SEO tools and support for multiple languages.

Content Management Systems: Content management systems add ease to the process of administering your online community. Web hosting plans with Fantastico give you the power to incorporate the Drupal, Mambo, PHP-Nuke and SiteFrame CMS. These programs enable threaded comments, news feeds and simple file sharing. Whether it's a blog or community forum, a CMS will help the operation run smoothly.

Customer Support: Your business is only as good as its level of customer service. The Fantastico script installer gives you the opportunity to provide the best possible support on various levels. Crafty Syntax is a live chat system that allows your customers to receive assistance in real-time. Help Center Live is an all-in-one support center where customers can fill out support tickets or refer to an FAQ section that you set up. osTicket and Support Logic are also support ticket tickets that support multiple email addresses and HTML tags, as well as give you the ability to assign separate panes for your support staff.

Discussion Boards: Discussion boards can be used as another means of promoting your business while allowing customers to provide important feedback. Fantastico comes included with two of the best bulletin boards with Invision Board and SMF. Both are easy to use, scalable and packed with great features.

E-Commerce: If you plan to make any money online, having a shopping cart integrated into your website is a must. With Fantastico, you get three quality programs in CubeCart, OS Commerce and ZenCart. Each shopping cart offers easy customization, allows you to sell hundreds to thousands of products, and supports multiple gateways. Having the luxury to choose which program your customers interact with is a great benefit.

Image Galleries: Photos allow you to spruce up your website with colorful content. When hosting with this amazing script installer, you can upload your pictures with three different programs in 4Images Gallery, Coppermine and Gallery. These programs will help you manage your images, while allowing users to interact with them.

Mailing Lists: Launching an email campaign takes a lot of time and planning. Fantastico gives you the powerful PHPlist program, which simplifies your campaign tremendously. Written in the PHP language, it allows you to keep your contacts organized and supports multiple mailing lists.

Aside from the programs listed above, Fantastico offers even more scripts from the WebCalender application that allows you to keep up with your schedule, ranging from events to PHP Auction, which helps you run an eBay-like auction on your website.

Conclusion

Fantastico is an amazing program that offers a number of benefits to web developers of various levels. To the small business owner, it's absolutely priceless. This program offers the seamless development and administration of your site, a process that will become effortless after learning the ins and outs.

The best thing about Fantastico is that this software and all of its additional scripts are provided for no extra cost with your hosting plan. While it is possible to manually install these programs on most servers, this takes vast programming knowledge and a considerable amount of your time. Because Fantastico makes life much easier, you should inquire within a web host to find out if they provide this program or a similar installer.

Adam Hobach is a Network Engineer with "Doreo.com". You can learn more about "Web Hosting" services online at http://www.Doreo.com © 2008 Doreo http://www.Doreo.com You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "Author Biography").

Benefits of Having a Web Based Support Suite

By Adam Hobach

Addressing customer support issues and service inquires can be an absolute nightmare without the right tools. It doesn't matter what the size of the company is; learning how to balance these issues and manage customer relationships is the key to providing great support and the longevity of your business. For every problem, there is a solution, which brings us to a popular software concept termed as the support suite.

Web-Based Software Solutions

Choosing a program to track and handle your organization's customer relations and technical support details is an important step, one that will undoubtedly affect the business for years to come. When investing in reliable support software, your company can save hundreds to thousands of dollars in regards to the expenses required to maintain a high level of service. Best of all, such solutions give you an edge and the ability to retain what is most important to the business - your customers.

The growing number of online businesses has made support suite applications extremely popular. These solutions are trusted and preferred by Fortune 500 companies, yet often fit into the price range of smaller organizations as well. Aside from receiving a powerful product to effectively manage your customer relations, you also get support of your own in the form of consulting experts.

While there are many different vendors and products to choose from, the primary benefits of support suite software include the following:

Support Issue Tracking

Projects can be easily set up and specified by assigned project managers

Tracks projects along with the status of current issues

Security mechanisms ensure that only authorized persons have access to support data

Backing of a powerful database ensures stability

Flexibility

Web-based environment eliminates the need for desktop installations

Seamless integration with remote offices

Provides staff with easy access to assigned support issues

Fast and easy to deploy, comprehensive and requires minimal training

Customer Interaction

Able to request assistance in various ways (email, support ticket, live chat)

Able to submit, search and view outstanding issues at the user level

Receive automated email notifications

Access to news regarding the organization

Access to self-help resources (FAQ, knowledge base sections)

Able to download essential documentation and updates

Web-based Environment

The core of a support suite is built entirely on a web-based platform, giving you the ability to administer, assign, submit, search and report issues from virtually any web browser. Customers have the luxury of submitting issues themselves or allowing them to be completed by the support staff. Support software enables technicians to be assigned issues from supervisors or higher ranked staff members. Important documentation can be entered into the database and saved for similar instances in the future. Once an issue is completely resolved, it can be closed with ease.

The structure of this web-based platform also reduces the number of phone calls coming into the office, sparing the organization of charges for support calls every day.

Flexible Tracking System

Support suite software is designed with your IT staff in mind. Any issues submitted can be directly tied to configuration components, such as computer software and hardware. They can also be assigned to various categories and subcategories with levels of priority being determined by your company.

Instant Email Notification

Email notification and hyperlink functions ensure that technicians receive messages, directing them to the exact location of the most recently assigned issue. The customer is kept informed as well in regards to the progress of the issue. Whenever a staff member adds to an issue or closes it, the customer is notified instantly.

Flexible Deadlines

Support software offers the easy customization of your entire system. If submitted issues are not completed and closed in a certain amount of time, simple configurations allow them to be automatically extended. Furthermore, one of your staff members can be sent an email as a reminder that the issue is still current and needs to be addressed.

Powerful Search Capability

Having the ability to search the system for issues is a great benefit for technicians and especially the customers. Support suites allow technicians to access this function to quickly resolve issues that are similar to those that have occurred before. The customer can spare themselves of placing a phone call, as the issue could be solvable via the online search. With support software, issues can be retrieved based on various characteristics, including the status, who submitted it, who it was assigned to, and more.

Robust Knowledge Base

One of the greatest benefits of support suites is the integration of other software components, such as the knowledge base. This offers numerous opportunities, as articles can be posted and assigned relative keywords to increase exposure via the search engines. Support software will provide your organization with a knowledge base that is fully customizable, enabling staff and customers to access information by category or particular keyword.

Conclusion

The features offered by a support suite will contribute significantly to the strength of your customer relations and ultimately, the entire organization. Such a powerful solution results in faster response times and reduced costs, along with a happier staff and higher level of productivity.

Adam Hobach is a Network Engineer with "Doreo.com". You can learn more about "Web Hosting" services online at http://www.Doreo.com © 2008 Doreo http://www.Doreo.com You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "Author Biography").

Benefits of a Managed Dedicated Server For Hosted Services

By Adam Hobach

The managed dedicated server makes a sound investment for an internet-based company. Dedicated hosting is suited for the business that desires more capacity, flexibility, security and authority over their operation. This environment enables a business to run more efficiently because the owner has access to an entire server, giving them major advantages over a situation where server space and resources are shared among other users.

Even if the business owner doesn't possess the skills needed to run the operation, a managed dedicated server offers the benefit of having a provider that handles the technical aspects, freeing them from the responsibility of server administration.

Price Value

It is important to know that dedicated hosting in general is far more expensive than conventional shared hosting. The cost for a dedicated server varies based on a range of factors. For instance, a well known provider is likely to be the most expensive. However, a reputable provider is also more likely to be the most reliable.

The cost also varies depending on the level of management required for your business. You will find that most providers offer various levels of management, with features such as software updates, security, monitoring and technical support. While some of these features come along with the service of the managed dedicated server, others require additional fees. Costs for additional services generally range at anywhere from $25 to over $100 per month.

Despite being more expensive, dedicated hosting offers a great value, as handing the bulk of the administration over to the provider also gives you the option to have enough control to effectively run your business. Because you don't have to shell out additional funds on technicians to maintain the equipment, this type of hosting can actually save you money over the long run.

Your Choice of Platform

When making the decision to power your business with a dedicated server, you have the final say on the components that will be used with the equipment; this includes the operating system. There are a number of operating systems available from Windows to Linux and other open-source solutions, such as Debian and Fedora.

Having the luxury to choose the platform for a dedicated server means that you can implement a system that you are more familiar with. The benefit here is eluding the learning curve that comes along with having to adjust to a different environment. It also helps you save time and money, as the costs and complexity between Windows and open-source software is significant. Dedicated hosting grants control over platform support as well. Being able to install upgrades and apply patches allows you to ensure stability and exceptional performance.

Better Security

One of the biggest advantages of managed hosting, whether it's in the shared or dedicated server environment, is that the provider handles most of the security. This includes protecting the system against DDoS attacks and computer crackers.

With authority over software options, you can ensure that your dedicated server is protected with firewalls, anti-malware solutions, intrusion detection systems and encryption software to secure large volumes of data. Furthermore, the company can ensure the security and stability of your business with load balancing, monitoring and disaster recovery systems. Dedicated hosting provides a higher level of physical security, as your critical information will be protected in a data center as opposed to the spare room in your office building.

Finding a Provider

The web hosting business is one of the most competitive industries today. Managed dedicated server providers are abundant, but there are more factors that need to be considered outside of the price. If at all possible, inquire within a company that has been in service with a documented track record. Be sure to check into their uptime, as this refers to the estimated time your website will be up, running and accessible to your visitors. The industry standard these days is 99.9%, but there are a few managed hosts that offer an uptime guarantee of 100%. Although this may be difficult to gauge, you can ascertain a company's reliability by researching the infrastructure of their data center.

Since managed hosting calls for you to rely heavily on the assistance of someone else, look for a provider that offers 24/7 technical support, preferably via email and phone. If something should go wrong, you should have the confidence of knowing that trained professionals are on standby to make the save.

Conclusion

If you think that a shared host cannot meet the needs of your business, a managed dedicated server is certainly the way to go. Managed hosting gives your business the room it needs to grow, while eliminating the daunting tasks associated with maintaining a dedicated server.

Adam Hobach is a Network Engineer with "CyberLynk.net". You can learn more about "Web Hosting" services online at http://www.CyberLynk.net © 2008 CyberLynk Network Inc. http://www.CyberLynk.net You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "Author Biography").

Advantages and Disadvantages to Using MySQL Vs MS SQL

By Adam Hobach

Two of the most popular database systems used by web developers today are MySQL and Microsoft's MS SQL server. Both are similar in regards to being storage and retrieval systems. The two systems support primary keys, along with key indices which allow you to speed up queries and constrain input. Furthermore, both systems offer some form of support for XML.

Apart from price, which is the obvious difference, what distinguishes these two systems, and which one is right for you? We'll overview both products, point out the major differences and explain the advantages and disadvantages of using them for your business.

Open-source vs. Proprietary

When it comes to these two databases, the differences begin with the open-source nature of MySQL vs. the closed, proprietary structure of the SQL Server. MySQL is an extensible, open storage database engine, offering multiple variations such as Berkeley DB, InnoDB, Heap and MyISAM. On the other hand, with the Microsoft product, you are limited to a Sybase-derived engine through both the good and bad times.

When considering how MySQL integrates seamlessly with a number of programming languages and other web-based technologies, it certainly has the advantage over MS SQL in the way of compatibility, as the SQL Server is known to work better with other Microsoft products.

Licensing

Contrary to popular belief, the MySQL system isn't always free. On the other hand, it is always more affordable. In regard to both products, licensing fees are based on a two-tiered scheme. With MS SQL, the best way to obtain a developer's license is to buy a license for the Microsoft Developer or Microsoft Visual Studio suite. Both provide you with a free SQL Server license for development use. If you want to use the product in a commercial environment, you need to at least purchase the SQL Server Standard Edition - which could set you back over $1,000 for a few client connections.

Because MySQL is an open-source system under the GNU General Public License, developers can use it at no cost as long as the associated projects are also open-source. However, if you intend to sell your software as a proprietary product, you would need to purchase a commercial license, which costs about $400 for up to nine clients. Depending on the project and your funds, MySQL may have the advantage here.

Technical Differences

The open-source vs. proprietary battle alone is a leading cause why some users choose one system over the other. However, there are a few differences from a technical aspect as well.

For instance, MySQL doesn't offer full support for foreign keys, meaning it doesn't have all the relational features of MS SQL, which is considered a complete relational database. Some versions of MySQL also lack full support for stored procedures - the biggest disadvantage being the MyISAM system, which doesn't support transactions.

Performance

In the way of performance, MySQL is the clear leader, mainly due to the format of its default table, MyISAM. MyISAM databases leave a small footprint using little disk space, memory and CPU. While the system runs on the Windows platform without flaw, it tends to perform better on Linux and other UNIX-like systems. Because of its stability, many internet powerhouses such as Yahoo! use MySQL as their back-end database.

When it comes to performance, MS SQL's strength of being packed with more features than other systems is perhaps its biggest disadvantage. Although most of these features are designed for performance tuning, they tend to sacrifice other essential elements. The cost here is complexity and the hogging of resources in the way of storage and memory, which leads to poorer performance. If you lack the knowledge and sufficient hardware to support an SQL server, you would be better off with another database management system.

Security

These two database systems are pretty much deadlocked in regards to security. Both come with adequate security mechanisms by default, bearing you follow the directions and keep the software updated with security patches. Both operate over known IP ports which unfortunately attracts a wealth of intruders, a downside that can be attributed to both products. The good thing is that MySQL and MS SQL allow you to change ports just in case the default becomes too vulnerable.

Recovery

As far as recovery goes, the SQL Server has a definite advantage over MySQL, which tends to fall a little short with its MyISAM configuration. A UPS system is mandatory with MyISAM as it assumes uninterrupted operation. If a power outage should occur, it could result in the corruption and loss of critical data. With the SQL Server, data corruption is more unlikely. The data travels through various checkpoints while passing from your keyboard to the hard disk and through the monitor. Additionally, the SQL Server keeps track of the process, even if the system unexpectedly shuts down.

The Best Choice

As you can see, both systems have their advantages and disadvantages. From our perspective, any product that allows you to be efficient is a good database; anything other than that isn't worthy of your time and frustration. When it comes to MySQL and MS SQL, the decision all boils down to the situation and most importantly, what you're looking to accomplish.

Adam Hobach is a Network Engineer with "CyberLynk.net". You can learn more about "Web Hosting" services online at http://www.CyberLynk.net © 2008 CyberLynk Network Inc. http://www.CyberLynk.net You may reprint this article online and in print provided the links remain live and the content remains unaltered (including the "Author Biography").

Compare Web Hosting Services - Avoid the Bad Ones

By Tom Lane

Choosing the right web hosting provider is extremely important whether you want to put your business online, or just to put up a personal website. There are some very shady web hosting companies out there that you absolutely want to have nothing to do with. This is why it is important that you will avoid the typical mistakes that people make when trying to choose that perfect hosting company that matches their needs.

First mistake people make when they compare web hosting services is that they put too much weight on the price. Now don't get me wrong here, you actually can get some quality hosting services for no more than five or six dollars per month. Of course for a low price like this you will not be able to run a high traffic website, but for many people it is more than they need. Comparing the prices shouldn't though be your only concern when choosing the web host for you, there are much more important things.

Anybody that wants to end up with a quality hosting for their website should definitely concentrate mostly on what the actual customers have to say about the company. This is in my book the most important aspect when comparing web hosting companies and their services.

I have personally searched the web for information and customer reviews for a whole lot of hosting companies. What I can say from my experience is that the results have been astonishing, there is simply putted a lot of bad hosting providers out there. Their customer policies could almost be interpreted as down right criminal. People have had their credit cards still charged after they closed their account and some have had their domain names held hostage by their web hosting company, the list could go on and on. Now do you see why you really want to know what others have to say about the hosting provider, before making a deal with anyone.

I hope that this information didn't scare you too much, since there are some very respectable hosting service providers out there that actually look after their customers. Hopefully you will end up with one of these, I know too many people that have had too much headache because of a bad hosting experiences.

Mr. Tom Lane thanks you for reading and recommends for you to visit http://www.websitehostingcompanies.info/ if you wish to compare hosting services and see the customer reviews.

Business Quality Web Hosting - What to Look For?

By Tom Lane

When you are looking for a company to host your business web site you definitely want to find some quality hosting services. It could be disastrous for your business if your web site fails, so choosing the right web hosting company is one of the most important things when getting your business online. There are a few important things to look for which I will explain to you in this article.

There are many hosting companies out there offering business quality web hosting but the first thing you have to decide on is that what kind of service are you in need for? If you have a small business with not so many daily visitors to your website, it might be a good idea to start with shared hosting. On the other hand if you a have a larger business, or you are looking to expand your business in the near future, you definitely want to go with dedicated hosting. It offers the best quality hosting services that are available. There are some significant differences between the two.

Now don't get me wrong, you can find quality hosting whether you go with shared or dedicated. The major difference of course is that with shared hosting you are sharing one server with many other webmasters, while on dedicated version you are the only one using the server. What it means is that with dedicated hosting you have all the control over your server and you'll have a lot more bandwidth and disk space available. Even though some hosting companies are advertising their shared hosting plans with unlimited space and bandwidth, it really isn't true, it's just advertising. There is no such thing as unlimited in web hosting business.

So what should you look for when choosing where to host your business web site? The single most important thing is good customer support. Most people that put their business online are not all that great with computers and when you run into problems it is extremely important that you have help available immediately. Second most important thing is to see what other customers of a certain hosting company have to say about them.

From what I have read from many hosting customers, all I can tell you is that there are lots of bad apples out there and you do want to avoid them. Some of the hosts have really messed up everything for many people and when you are looking to do business online, that's the last thing you need. So make sure you see what other people have to say before making up your mind on where to host your web site.

I know that it can be stressful experience to find the right hosting company, but once you do, it's worth all your trouble. You also shouldn't over think this whole thing, once you feel that this is the right one then just go with it and then you can start concentrating on doing what you love doing the most, business.

If you want to start up with something a bit smaller for your business, you want to get some shared hosting. For larger businesses you might want to check out some quality dedicated hosting.

Affordable Web Site Hosting Services - Can You Trust Them?

By Tom Lane

There are so many web hosting services available today that making a decision on which you should use can be extremely difficult. The prices are also getting lower and lower, and nowadays there are hundreds of affordable web site hosting services being offered to us. The big question is that can you trust the task of hosting your web site to one of these companies that offer low price hosting for just a few dollars a month? There are some things that you should look for before you make that decision.

Many of these companies with their more than affordable hosting services advertise that you get unlimited bandwidth and disk space. Well that's called overselling, there is no such thing as unlimited when it comes to web hosting and definitely not when it comes to affordable shared hosting. Now don't get me wrong, not all the over sellers are bad hosting companies, in fact there are some quite respectable companies among them. They just like to advertise for more than they can deliver. So if you get some low price shared hosting plan, or any shared hosting as a matter of fact, just remember that there are limitations. For example if you get a nice spike in your traffic, you will get your hosting account shut down, for how long depends on your hosting company.

There is a hand full of good companies offering affordable hosting services, unfortunately there are even more companies with less than good reputation. I have heard a lot of horror stories by some of the people using these companies, some customers have really been scammed by their hosting company. I have heard how people have had their credit cards still charged after they have closed their hosting account. I've also heard how some folks have had their domain names being held like hostages by their hosting service provider. Some of these companies just seems to have no respect for law whatsoever and their policies are very close to just being criminal.

If you wish to get affordable hosting you definitely want to look at what customers have to say about a certain hosting company. And I'm not talking about the customer reviews that you find on every companies own web site, but some actual customer reviews. Good luck!

It is recommended that you visit http://www.websitehostingcompanies.info/index.php to see what are the most respectable affordable hosting service providers around. Don't forget to see the customer reviews.

Finding an Affordable Hosting Service

By Scott Bannon

If you have developed a web site for your new business you will need to pick an affordable hosting provider. This gives you somewhere on the Internet to place your files so that traffic can browse in.

Having a hosting account is just buying virtual space on the web which will serve your site. Your domain name is simply the address of that virtual property.

Several key things you'll want to look for in selecting a hosting provider are the totals of disk space and bandwidth which the account offers.

You'll want enough disk space for your site, as well as lots of extra space for email and media storage.

Bandwidth is normally set at a rate of 10 times the amount of disk space you get.

You will also need to plan in advance what add-on sorts of scripts you'll be using for features like forums pages or a shopping cart to sell your products from.

Lastly you will want to learn about the host's reputation based on the opinions of their existing customers.

This is typically simple to find by browsing their customer forum boards. Most web hosts keep a forum for clients to communicate and they are normally accessible by guests for posting pre-sales requests about the service.

Learn what current users of the host are saying about it to give yourself a candid impression.

The only other major thing to weigh is the pricing of the provider. You don't necessarily want the most or least costly service, in-fact you may probably be searching for a cost that is close to average among the hosts you have reviewed.

The reason here is pretty simple, if their pricing is too high then they are probably gouging people. If it's too low they're likely shaving on hardware which can lead to slow performance.

Look for all the features you need or want and stay within the averages on pricing. Affordable hosting isn't the same as cheap hosting, it's quality service that's within your budget.

Scott Bannon earned his first online revenue in 1995 and has made a full time living online since 2000. Get valuable advice and tips from Scott's free blog for webmasters, O'Bannon's Leap, where he chronicles the ongoing leap of becoming a webpreneur. Scott also participates at Build The Dot Com, a free resource for webmasters, by webmasters.

Pow Web Hosting Review

By Russell Hancock

When I sign up for a web hosting plan one of the things I hate is to have to search for hours through dozens of plans to find the one I want. It's a waste of my time and I always expect to be disappointed when I find out later there was a better package for me or a cheaper one. So, when a web company simplifies their product down and makes it easy to understand - it certainly perks my interest.

Pow Web take this philosophy to heart and by developing a solution that suits nearly all needs. It offers unlimited hard disk space and unlimited GB monthly transfer limit which is a huge improvement on their 300gb of bandwidth and 12gb of disk space which hardly blew other companies out of the water. Now they lead the field and what is more important is the way both are handled. All sites benefit from "Load Balanced Hosting" where the load for your site is spread over numerous servers by Pow Web so that each site can be accessed quickly, basically eliminating all single points of failure. This is the same thing that is done by major companies for sites that have to stay live all the time and shows Pow Web's dedication to providing a great service.

As far as price, at the time of writing Pow Web is having a sale and their plan is $5.77 per month which is a great incentive to those who are just getting going online. In a similar vein they offer a script instant installer which they claim is better than Fantastico which can install Wordpress, phpBB and osCommerce quickly and easily - putting Web 2.0 at your fingertips.

Alongside this offer Pow Web is also offering a free .com domain with every account set up and a website builder - making it easier for everyone to get a site online!

In short, Pow Web offer a great product at a really good price. In my time with them I've not suffered any outages and have had courteous support via their forums and live chat facilities - both of which are essential today. One criticism I have is that Pow Web doesn't use cPanel - however with a bit of time I found myself able to use their own control panel easily without any real problems. So, if you want an affordable, easy to get started hosting plan then this is for you!

There are hundreds of Web Hosts out there. Find out everything you need to know about how to choose the RIGHT web host for your needs, and see the reviews of this weeks top picks at Five Star Web Host Reviews and at Top Ten Reviews/Webhosting

IX Web Hosting Review

By Russell Hancock

Paying more than I have to is something I really hate. If I can save some money and get the same service of course I will do that. But the problem is that the money you save is often not worth the extra downtime and problems that you might encounter. So now when I search for a web hosting plan I like to research what people say about them before just shopping for a price. What's more, I learned the hard way that you have to read the feature set very precisely otherwise you can be in for a nasty surprise when you find you can't do what you wanted to do.

IX Web Hosting has a bit of a mixed reputation online and I wasn't sure if I'd go for it but after looking at their feature set I decided I might as well give it a go. The main selling point for me was the unlimited domains, data transfer and web space offered even with the most basic plan. However, this offer must always be balanced against the risk of overselling, and with IX Web Hosting I found that this was an issue. My site was sometimes slow to respond and I did worry that I might have missed out on some visits due to that.

In terms of reliability there was a similar concern, in that my site suffered a few bits of downtime, sometimes lasting more than 5 or 6 hours and frankly this really grated on me and I doubt whether in the future I'd come back. The story was the same even after a number of upgrades I was told about by IX Web Hosting and it made me think that upgrade just meant - broken in another way.

With such problems it might come as no surprise that their support staff are courteous and efficient at all times - I expect they get a lot of traffic! That said, I did get the feeling that they always responded quickly and tried to help me and often did.

All of this came at a fantastically low price and so I did sort of expect some of the problems I encountered but I didn't expect perhaps this low level of service. I'd advise people to steer clear of IX Web Hosting in the future until they clean up their act. Yes they might be cheap, but you have to remember that you get what you pay for.

There are hundreds of Web Hosts out there. Find out everything you need to know about how to choose the RIGHT web host for your needs, and see the reviews of this weeks top picks at Five Star Web Host Reviews and at Top Ten Reviews for Webhosting

Host Monster Review

By Russell Hancock

Web hosting like anything is an investment, and when I want to purchase a plan I prefer to take a look not just at the huge list of features, or a tiny price tag or outrageous claims but also the record of the people who run and work in the company. I want my web sites to be handled by people with a lot of experience, not just a kid in his mum's bedroom. In the past I've suffered far too much from the latter, and so tend to research a lot.

Hours of research later I found Host Monster. They're run by a group of guys who together have enough experience to found their own webhosting company; so they did. And you can feel this influence throughout their company. First, their customer support is fantastic. Most knowledge bases contain the most basic information but with Host Monster you get some great info to help you do an awful lot more. Plus, they offer toll free phone support 24/7 and have email too - so if you've got a problem, you can get it solved quickly and easily.

The experience of the Host Monster team can also be seen in the reliability of their servers and therefore your sites. By building very strong servers, that aren't overloaded or oversold, Host Monster gives you fantastic uptime. What is more, backups are taken with incredible frequency so that if somehow something went wrong with this great system, you'd be back up very quickly.

A few years back one of the big draw backs of Host Monster was a $30 setup fee for short-term contracts but now this has fortunately been removed and you will get a completely free set up and be paying only $5.95 for top service, fantastic reliability and a whole host of features. One feature I forgot to mention earlier is the fact that all Host Monster plans come with cPanel. This is the industry standard in web hosting management, putting a wealth of features at your finger tips and is yet another aspect which shows that Host Monster real understand their user base.

So to sum up; I love Host Monster for their knowledge and dedication to their customers. They offer a wealth of features at a great price and I'd recommend them to anyone.

There are hundreds of Web Hosts out there. Find out everything you need to know about how to choose the RIGHT web host for your needs, and see the reviews of this weeks top picks at Five Star Web Host Reviews and at Top Ten Reviews/Webhosting

Good Avocado Host Review

By Russell Hancock

In the modern world we're always being told to be more eco-friendly. We recycle more, buy energy efficient processors, power saving light bulbs, wash our clothes at a lower temperature so the next logical step online is to want an eco-friendly webhost! Now I can't say this is something I've ever thought I'd want in the past but the way I see it, if an eco-friendly host offers me the same service as a normal host and at the same time helps the environment, then I lose nothing by choosing them.

This is the logic that led me to try out Good Avocado. The folks over at Good Avocado promise that all of their hosting is completely carbon neutral, through the use of wind and solar power. What's more - they say they'll plant a tree every time an account is opened. As I said before, that isn't enough to sell a hosting company to me, they have to provide on features, price and customer support too.

In regards to the first, Good Avocado has a great set of features, the most impressive of which is their cluster technology. This allows the load of a high traffic site to be shared across many servers, allowing for a much improved response time. This is coupled with fantastic uptime - with no outages in my experiences with them. All plans are fully customisable and scalable thanks to the same technology meaning that the hosting can adapt as your circumstances adapt. Their monthly transfer offering is unlimited, which is certainly something of a rarity today. What is more, this is matched by unlimited disk space as well as MySQL databases. Just to make this feature set even more extraordinary - Good Avocado claims you can host an unlimited number of sites too.

Whilst this all seems fantastic, it does lead to big fears of overselling and I'm not sure if you push them on the unlimited nature of their hosting, how they will respond.

As for the price, Good Avocado certainly is not the cheapest at $4.95 for their basic solution. On top of that, they don't offer many features in terms of e-commerce so you would have to buy that individually which will simply push price up.

Finally, customer support really lets Good Avocado down, there is no email or even phone support and you're left to rely upon the knowledge base and support tickets.

So is the world ready for eco-friendly hosting? Well maybe but not with Good Avocado. However, if you are looking for an environmentally friendly hosting solution they do come through.

There are hundreds of Web Hosts out there. How do you separate the good from the bad and choose the RIGHT web host for your needs? Visit Five Star Web Host Reviews and Top Ten Reviews/Webhosting for the answers.

Fat Cow Host Review

By Russell Hancock

My websites simply just need to get a job done. Either provide people information on one of my services or hold my blog or perhaps store some photographs. All I want is for them to work consistently and without me having to learn a hundred and one things before hand! A lot of hosting companies don't make that easy, they'll talk about things I can't understand and needing me to go through a ton of options before being able to do what I want. On top of that I love hosting plans that provide really simple ways to get seemingly complex things done, be it e-commerce with paypal or large shopping carts.

The only problem with some of these sites is that they limit you to sites made via their own site builder program and don't allow you to design your own site and develop from there. Obviously this is completely unsatisfactory for anyone wanting to develop any sort of even remotely advanced site! On the other hand I know I wanted some support in the beginning and still do, especially with things like e-commerce as I said.

The hosting company that I've found which fits these needs as tightly as any other is Fat Cow. For small companies and individuals with more complex requirements, they offer one great package that fits all. Now I know that this may mean that some people will feel they're paying more than they have to for features they don't need but that is a criticism you can throw at most hosting companies and if you take a look at the features Fat Cow offers you'll find that most are relevant to most people. They include up to 1500 POP3/IMAP accounts alongside 150GB of bandwidth and 15Gb of storage. This is supplemented further by a public SSL certificate.

The two sections which let Fat Cow down a little bit are their customer service and control panel. With regards to the former, Fat Cow does not offer 24/7 support either by phone or by messaging and in fact they have no messaging support at all and this can lead to some infuriating waits. Turning to the control panel, I've found it really hard to navigate without much guidance at all.

So overall, what do I think of Fat Cow? They're a good solution but not the best, whilst they do make things easy for those of us who aren't great technically but their relaxed attitude to work has clearly led to some corners being cut in terms of service.

There are hundreds of Web Hosts out there. Find out everything you need to know about how to choose the RIGHT web host for your needs, and see the reviews of this weeks top picks at Five Star Web Host Reviews and at Top Ten Reviews/Webhosting

Fast Domain Host Review

By Russell Hancock

Okay, so you've just bought a new shiny domain, spent however much on a great design and now you just want to get your site up there without it costing you an arm and a leg! We've all been there and personally I really like to find good value hosting plans which still offer me enough features so that I can continue to evolve my sites over time. The problem is that most value hosting tends to be unreliable with unforeseen downtimes. In the past that has been my major problem, be it with VPS solutions or just straight shared hosting and I'd say that reliability is my second major requirement after a low cost!

Early this year I was told about Fast Domain. First of all their price is extremely low with hosting starting from only $3.95 meaning that the hosting is available for anyone! Second, they provide a fantastic range of services. These include e-commerce facilities which are essential now that people increasingly want to earn money from their websites. On top of that they offer a site builder which makes it easy to get started without any experience whatsoever. The same is true of a free bulletin board.

That isn't all, fast domain offers 1500Gb of webspace and exactly the same amount of data transfer per month. For those of us that like to offer hosting for friend's files or perhaps run a video or photography based website such amounts of web space and bandwidth per month are vital.

Turning to email, there is support for over 2,500 separate accounts both POP3 and IMAP. My last project was for a games review website which required a lot of author contributions from different authors who all had to be contactable by the public. Having so many different accounts made this really easy. The same is true of the FTP accounts and Fast Domain offer one thousand per account meaning that you can allow a lot of people to have customised access to different parts of your hosting, meaning that Fast Domain make it really easy for group based projects.

So to sum up, Fast Domain is really a great budget solution which can actually scale to exactly what you want. This means that they are a great choice for anyone, whether just starting out or if you are more experienced.

There are hundreds of Web Hosts out there. Find out everything you need to know about how to choose the RIGHT web host for your needs, and see the reviews of this weeks top picks at Five Star Web Host Reviews and at Top Ten Reviews for Webhosting