Are You Ready to Choose Your Web Hosting Provider?

Filed Under (Web Hosting) by Ricardo d Argence on 25-08-2008

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by Ricardo d Argence

Essentially, a webhost will provide you with a server that connects to the internet and allows your site to be accessible to web surfers. How do you choose a hosting provider when there are thousands of hosting companies available online? It’s like going through the yellow pages trying to find burger restaurants. There are lots of them. Hopefully these tips will steer you in the right direction.

When it comes to webhosting, all to often you get what you pay for. As with any resource, remember that you should network and find out what other people have done. Just because a company offers low prices, doesn’t mean it will provide the proper services that a particular customer needs. So, before you choose your hosting provider you have to be sure it will give you what your business needs.

Important factors in selecting a web hosting company include the percentage of server uptime. 98 to 99% uptime is the dream standard for server uptime, 65% is unacceptable. The higher the downtime of a server, the lower the potential for traffic at your web site. Another consideration is how much space is provided for the files that will make up your web site. How much bandwidth is in your package? Monthly bandwidth is the amount of data transfer allowed for visitors to view and use your web site.

After that, you’ll have to choose your domain name, it is often the first thing that a person sees when they search for you, and frequently, there will be an element of it involved in every aspect of your online identity, from usernames to emails. Think of it as your own online brand. Your domain name is the address that people type to get to your website, and it is completely unique to you. Take some time to really think about your domain name and what it can do for you; don’t get trapped into an online brand that does you more harm than good!

With today’s changing trends in web hosting services, it is important to get as much server space and bandwidth as you can. This will allow for necessary updates and increased traffic to your site as it becomes more popular. When you have less bandwidth, your site takes longer to load regardless of what connection your visitors have.

There are many service providers to choose from. If you do your homework, you’ll find some good deals that will fit your budget. Knowing a little bit about related web hosting topics before approaching customer service allows you to get the most out of your questions.

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Affordable Web Site Hosting Services

Filed Under (Web Hosting) by Ade Carone on 24-08-2008

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by Ade Carone

Everywhere you go on the internet today, you can see affordable web site hosting services being offered. The price of hosting has gone down dramatically over the past few years. Now is the perfect time to get yourself a web hosting plan.

Consider this for a moment. Are you paying for bells and whistles in your hosting plan that you are never going to use? Only pay for what you need and in most cases, that shouldn’t come out to more than $12 dollars a month maximum.

Being a professional marketer myself, I only use a small handle of features in my web hosting package. This makes me wonder how many features the “average” web master actually needs.

If you plan to add extra features onto your website in the future, such as a guest book or forum, you will need the ability to have databases. Any decent webhost should offer you plenty of databases within your hosting account.

You want to make sure that your hosting provider guarantees you a 99.9% uptime. This means that your site will basically be live on the internet all of the time. Again, any good host will make this claim so keep a watchful eye for it.

A bad host reflects poorly on your web site or business. People won’t know who you host your website with unless they are tech-savvy. What that means is you will get the bad-rap because your site will always be down.

If you are not talented in web design, I would suggest you look for a hosting provider that gives you templates to pick from. This lets you insert your own text and information into a pre-designed website.

Here is one last item to think about. How many websites have you come across in your years online and thought to yourself, gee this site is poorly designed. Do you really want people to say that about your site?

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Reseller Web Hosting: a Detailed Look

Filed Under (Web Hosting) by Matt Hedges on 23-08-2008

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by Matt Hedges

Once you have chosen a web-host for your site the very next thing that you have to do is to finalize a proper hosting plan. The choice of a web hosting plan mainly depends upon the amount of money that is there at your disposal and as a result, the plan for a smaller and less profitable company will be different from that of a profitable venture.

So it is important that you decide between a starter plan that hosts a large website and a it also provides a over more than one domain. The other choice is of a server, these servers are expensive and they are mainly used for business purposes as they are able to host a network of various sites.

For those venturing into business projects regarding the internet, you will need a larger website as your demand increases. Similarly for a web designer, once you fruitfully design a website you gather more demands for similar stuff. To avoid spending a lot of time while setting up a new project, what you require is a flexible, suitable and affordable plan. And the answer to all these factors is procuring a reseller hosting package.

Then again you could actually run your own lucrative production of web hosting instead of the facing the manifold troubles of running a web-server. What you gain through this is an abundance of space in your account for various projects, and be able to minimize your costs by (as well as profit) by offering other people the required space for their domains.

Here too the answer you are looking for is reseller hosting. Reseller hosting could turn into a job itself as many people make decent money out of this business. For example, let’s say you purchase a reseller account that provides for a hundred domains/accounts for $60. Now, you can sell each account bought under your account for $10. That amounts to a neat sum of $1000 per month from a $60 initial venture! On the flip side you have to set up the accounts, answer a few queries here and there, but you need not worry about the problems of running a web-server as the hosting company shall take care of it. You may spend a little money to promote your web-hosting business but that is negligible compared to the profit you shall be making!

So what actually do we mean by reseller hosting?

Reseller hosting is a type of web hosting, here you have the capacity to be able to host websites on behalf of third parties by using the hard disk space and band with. As a reseller the main aim is to buy the facilities from the host and then sell it to third parties such that you are able to pocket a decent amount of profit for your own. In this case a fraction of the amount of the hard drive and bandwidth is charged to the account of the reseller. So here it is possible for a reseller to be able to lese a dedicated server from either a hosting company or from a resell collective hosting services.

Some of the web designers and developers, as well as system integrators, act as resellers. Even for the new business-minded people, reseller of web hosting services is a good and a cheap way to start with a new business. It is a very good option to consider for internet consultants, webmasters and anyone who wishes to start up with a good and a high-profit business online. There are many web hosting plans which enable the resellers to provide their own services and decide upon their own fee which they would charge from the customers.

There are many advantages associated with such a system, some of which are mentioned below.

First of all, you need not have a sound and technical knowledge of how web hosting works. The owner of a dedicated server will take care of the server and its configuration, since that’s his responsibility. He prima facie also take the responsibility of security and updates made to it as per your requirement, while the main responsibility of the operator of the data center is to maintain the hardware and the infrastructure requirements. As a reseller, your job would be to provide answers to the problems faced by the customers, but all the problems regarding software, hardware and configuration are forwarded to the provider of the server. The resellers can gain web supervision over the accounts of the customers by using the Control Panels. A soft ware “Modern Bill” provides great help to resellers due to its facility of automatically creating and billing accounts. Some of the listed Control Panels are:

Helm- Windows

Plesk- Windows/Unix

DirectAdmin- Unix

Plesk- Windows/Unix

Ensim Pro- Windows/Unix

Helm- Windows

The reseller gets benefits both for the short term, as well as for the long term. You can actually build your business by making your own rules and get away with giving excuses to the service provider. There are some owners of servers who assign your name servers a unique IP address, which gives you the liberty of hosting as many websites as you wish to, within the constraint of the space and bandwidth, though. Flexibility is a very good feature of most of the reseller accounts, which permits you to expand the hosting account whenever you feel the need to do so.

Most of the resellers provide a package deal to the customers and also provide discount that reach up to 50% to the resellers, this discount is given on the price of the initial reseller hosting account. Reseller hosting is a perfect answer for all the people who wish to have reliable and consistent performance in their business.

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Finding the Best Hosting Control Panel

Filed Under (Web Hosting) by Matt Hedges on 21-08-2008

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by Matt Hedges

Your web host will offer you a control panel. But you can probably guess by the name, but a control panel helps you to manage your website. It keeps all the functions a user may need in one handy place which makes it easier for them. These tools can conclude traffic information statistics, FTP accounts, e-mail account provision, the ability to add sub-domains, file management and much more.

There are a number of different control panels available in the market. These include Cpanel which is among the most popular, Hostopia, Sphera, Ensim, VDeck, NextGenCP etc. They all differ in their look and feel as well as functions. Web hosts usually have their own control panel preferences, which depend upon the platforms they use. The control panels are selected according to their features and ability to perform on a particular platform.

These are all features that can be found in a control panel:

Parked Domains

Cron Jobs

Addon Domains

MIME Types

File Manager

PostgreSQL Database Manager

SSL Manager

Mail Manager

File Manager

Addon Domains

FTP Manager

Subdomain

MS SQL Manager(Windows only)

Backup

Index Manager

Subdomain

SSL Manager

PostgreSQL Database Manager

Raw Log Manager

CGI Center

Frontpage Extensions

Web/FTP Stats

Raw Access Logs

Hot Link Protection

Index Manager

SSL Manager

There are issues that separate control panels, and one is how it easy the panel is to use. A panel like Plesk may offer simple and friendly tools and options whereas cPanel offers many functions. To ensure you make the right choice of control panel, you need to know what is available. You can find out more by studying the following:

cPanel:

Linux based systems is where cPanel is mainly found. It can offer assistance for over 10 types of Linux the and at the moment does not cater to Windows or OSX. cPanel is helpful in controlling everything your site needs including MySQL database to email issues and much more beside.

cPanel has more features and options than most of the control panels available in the market at present. This is one of the reasons for its popularity, along with the fact that it is quite inexpensive.

Plesk:

Plex is available for Linux and Windows web hosting servers where cPanel is not. Many users find it helpful that Plex has an interface similar to Windows XP. The control panel looks good and offers many features available in cPanel. It can enable any user to build their own site with easy to sue tool. It offers many features but it may be viewed as more expensive than other products, especially cPanel.

H-Sphere:

H-Sphere is also a popular control panel used by web hosts. Just like Plesk, it is also available for Windows, as well as Linux based web hosting servers. It offers a good range of features ranging from complete automation to key functionalities. However when compared with cPanel and Plesk it has less features.

DirectAdmin

DirectAdmin is unique as it offers many services other panels do not but it does lack some of the functions offered by the main panels. It has a limited range of support with only a few Linux versions and no Windows support but it is a cheap option.

Ensim

Available for Windows and Linux, Ensim doesn’t have a lot of features but it has an interface that is adequate.

Interworx

Interworx is purely for Linux web hosts but it has a simple interface and features like usage snapshot which are impressive.

Hosting Accelarator

This service is only for Windows and it can feel a bit cluttered which may overwhelm a number of users who are new to this style or technique.

Helm

This is another Windows only web host server and this offers the ability to view billing details from within the control panel.

CWIPanel

CQIPanel is available for Windows and has no real exciting features.

InsPanel

This control panel has also been made only for windows based web hosting server. This is an average product with standard features.

There are a lot of control panels to choose from but cPanel usually ends up on top due to its price, features and ease of use.

Among the recently developed control panels, Pandela.com has come out with its NectGenCP control panel. It has been in development, since a few years and one must say that it is really impressive.

NextGenCP has been developed with the help of the latest internet technologies. It has a fast and easy to use environment which has been specially built for web hosting clients. It has been designed so well, that even novices can get a hang of it in relatively less time. In fact Pandela.com claims that you can carry out any function with a maximum of three clicks of your mouse. However its simplicity is deceptive, as it hides a powerful range of features, which would be able to manage all web site requirements. At the same time Pandela.com has made an offer to its users, according to which, if they do not find a feature they need in the NextGenCP, then they just have to inform the developers at Pandela.com the needful will be done!

These are some of the features you could use in NextGenCP:

Control of Domain:

Everyone can now have full control over their domains and sub-domains and the ability to register and host these domains is extremely simple.

Learn how to manage your own database:

NextGenCP makes it very easy to create a database for the website. All it takes is a few clicks! The database management is done by phpMyAdmin and the data is backed up by Database Backup Manager.

Take control of the mail accounts:

It is easy for users to control and access their email accounts. An advanced SPAM filtering system is provided by Pandela.com and this will keep your inbox free of junk and unwanted emails. If this isn’t enough, there are also filters for the mail, assistance for accounts and other functions.

Use tools to improve your site:

NextGenCP offers many tools to improve the site and managing a website has never been simpler. Script Installer, Hotlink protection and IP Access Manager are just some of the tools on offer.

Find the statistics behind your site:

This information will provide total knowledge of visitors and show how much bandwidth is being used and the usage of email accounts per day.

Support System

Having full access to a support system is a great feature offered by NextGenCP. Anytime a user notices a problem, they have to submit a ticket and they will be offered assistance from a member of staff as quickly as possible. It usually takes no more than fifteen minutes to be responded to.

With so many impressive features, there is no doubt that NextGenCP looks one of the best web host control panels ever created. It is also good to hear that Pandela.com is promising to continually improve the service each and every day.

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Web Hosting-Look Before Committing Yourself

Filed Under (Web Hosting) by Ian Hall on 19-08-2008

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by Ian Hall

The companies that provide Internet-connected servers, space and bandwidth for a domain, for one or more web sites, are called Web Hosts. Many large companies have private networks which allow them to host domains on their own equipment and IP address range. A rented web host is a necessity for the majority who want internet presence.

Plenty of hosting plans are available. Some hosting plans are free, while others can charge up to $100 a month or more. Some only offer a tiny amount of disk space and minimal network bandwidth. Everything else is the responsibility of the site owner. A wide range of services like server and email administration, backups, web site design assistance, troubleshooting and more are offered by many others.

With web hosting, you may be sharing a server with one to a thousand web sites. This lets the web hosting company keep expenses down. These arrangements go fine when the web sites are simple and low-volume. You may want to consider a dedicated server to handle a rapidly growing web site.

As suggested by the name, a dedicated server only hosts your domain. You can put one web site on the server, or as many as you desire. The access is something you can control. Much of the server administration can be taken over by yourself, as an option.This will cost you considerable time, but may save you money on support costs. You can end up costing yourself much more than you save if you don’t have the expertise.

If you are going to take on those administrative tasks, even with hired help, you should have some technical background. That knowledge will be useful for day to day tasks as well as emergencies. You will need to be familiar with FTP, email administration backup methods and other technical aspects.

Implementing a database is worthwhile when your web site grows in size and complexity. Higher technical, logistical and /or creative abilities will be required.

It can be relatively simple to implement a database. Creating one that works effectively and stays useful takes a certain type of practical planning and focus. Not everyone has the inclination, especially considering the visual design, content development or the other tasks that lay the foundation for a popular web site.

More low level administrative matters are also necessary. Utilitarian tasks such as managing disk space, maintaining domain names, registration and changes deals, are very tedious ones. It is helpful to have a rudimentary understanding of the workings of DNS with knowledge of the Internet’s design. That provides an understanding to the purpose of some of those tasks.

Consider all factors and look closely, when looking for a web host for your web site. Think about your personality traits and what’s offered and decide if it is a good match. Be sure to look at everything before you dive in.

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New Advances in Web Hosting

Filed Under (Web Hosting) by Matt Hedges on 17-08-2008

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by Matt Hedges

It is obvious that there is a need for every company to have an online presence and the same can be said for those who like to impart information or have technical skills. The growth of web hosting can be seen because of internet savvy people who like to impart knowledge and market themselves whilst offering music, videos and pictures. The ability to do all of this is created by operating systems, the Web Hosting platforms. There have been recent breakthroughs in Web Hosting and the hosts are always looking to improve their services and provide cutting edge technology to clients.

What are Web Hosting Platforms?

The Web Hosting platforms are actually the operating systems that support Web Hosting. The most traditional forms of Web Hosting Platforms used are Linux and Windows.

The first is Linux - Linux is definitely viewed as the Web Hosting Platform that the term traditional can be bestowed upon. Linux is commonly seen as the platform that is highly reliable and provides an efficient return of memory and disk space. Over 70% of web servers around the globe are users of Linux and Unix and this is because of the phenomenal power the platform is able to offer clients. Its popularity is also due to the low cost of the platform.

Windows is the response of Microsoft to provide to web hosting and is rising in popularity all the time with many web developers. This is because it utilizes ASP and ASP.NET. It is also true that the Window operating system works very well with other .NET sever systems like:

* Commerce Server 2002

* Commerce Server 2002

* BizTalk Server 2002

Web Hosting packages used to be bundled with only the minimum features but many of these features are vital to the package and they include:

Disk Space - All the Web Hosting accounts come with a certain amount of disk space that the customer can use to store all his/her files. The space differs from package to package. A shared Web Hosting has less disk space than the customized one.

* Accounts relating to emails - The actual amount can depend on the physical cost of the package but there will be a provision of email accounts with a Web Hosting package. Amongst all of these packages, the provision of email accounts is extremely common and come in useful when hosting a domain. Having control over the email account can be offered to the customer if the Web Host wants to but there are many Web Hosts who will perform all the set-up processes for the customer. Whilst different users may have their favorite type of email account and their own preference there are 4 key types of email accounts and there are auto responders, aliases, forwarding and POP3 accounts.

FTP Access - Another common feature of all the paid hosting accounts is the FTP access. The FTP programs allow the users to upload files, edit and delete the contents on the server much more quickly than using a web-based interface.

Modern breakthroughs in Web Hosting:

As technology surges onwards and more companies find a presence online, the needs and wants of individuals and companies are evolving rapidly. This means that Web Hosts also have to progress to be able to deliver the most modern technologies to their clients.

The level of service and technology that is bring offered by technology today, for instance the Windows Server technology and the Windows 2003 Server, is probably at the highest it has ever been. Modern technology ensures there is a tremendous level of support for website developers and they can continue in confidence knowing that Microsoft, a single vendor, is wholly committed to this continual development of technology.

One area where the advances have brought many changes is with regards to the Linux and Windows operating systems and the features provided by the two have never been closer. There used to be key differences between the two, allowing users to make a distinct choice between the two but this is no longer the case and the differences are now minimal. It is now the case where a hosting company does not have to make a massive choice over which operating system to offer as it is not a major concern to a client. Nowadays, it is more likely a client will base their choice of web host on the range of features and price they offer as opposed to the operating system they have in their package.

Web hosting software

The entire web hosting industry has greatly benefited from advances in the development of software for Web Hosting. This new level of software has created a far greater level of effectiveness and efficiency for a huge number of sites. These positive changes have been able to benefit their clients in a number of ways:

* Enabling account setup to be done automatically

* Allowing users a better quality of management with regards their dedicated servers

* Automation of monotonous tasks that used to consume the time of system administrators

The company is aided by the software in a number of ways. Automation can reduce the time it takes to provide control and services from hours to minutes and the whole process becomes easier to control.

Some of the dedicated software packages for the Windows server include Plesk for Windows, Helm for Windows, Cold Fusion MC, Anti Virus & Security Software and Easy Admin Echange Control Panel amongst many others.

The Linux dedicated server software are centOS Linux, Red Hat Enterprise, cPanel / Web Host Manager, Fantastico De Luxe, Plesk for Linux, Anti Virus Software and Security Software.

Voice over Internet Protocol technology in Web Hosting

As the Web host industry continues to go from strength to strength, there is a growing need to develop new products and technologies to ensure customers remain satisfied. The Web Hosting industry is fiercely competitive and rival firms know they have to push technology forward to be in a position to best serve their clients and win customers. One key development in recent times in the Web hosting industry revolves around Voice over Internet Protocol technology. These advances has allowed any computer user who also has access to a broadband Internet connection to be able to communicate with other people all over the world without being charged the level of fees that is normally associated with this level of communication.

The beauty of VOIP is that it adds an increased level of service without any difficulty which makes it attractive to firms. This means there is a large number of firms offering the service in an attempt to cash in on it.

The Web hosting industry is not far behind and is beginning to follow suit. Many of the top rated Web Hosts have come up with the plan to launch VOIPo, a VOIP telephone service. The hosting provider hopes to extend this offer to all over the world.

> Launching the provision of the Virtual Rack:

The “virtual rack solution” was created by one popular web host and it offers the benefits of rack solutions to customers who may have as little as two servers running. The chief goal of this product is to enable customers to have 100% customization on their own web hosting.

Once the customers are in a private rack, they can pick the servers they want. They can also pick which advanced network and security technologies they prefer, whether it’s advanced firewall from the line of Cisco ASA firewalls or load balancers from server iron. With Virtual Rack, the customers can tell the Web Hosts how they would like their configuration to be, and exactly what IP arrangement they want.

There is no doubt that the advances and improvements in Web Hosting have greatly increased the efficiency and effectiveness of the industry. All of these steps have played a part in fulfilling customer needs and serving the consumer purposes in a far better manner and one which may have exceeded expectations.

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