Choosing Your First Web Hosting Company

Suppose you just finished a great new web site. You have a beautiful design, an awesome domain name, and a large amount of content. The question is, ?what do I do next?? Having a great web host is essential for a successful web site. A great site with a crummy host will be bogged down and will suffer as a result. It is important to consider many elements when choosing your first web host. Too many people are dissatisfied with their web hosting service. The best service is the one that fits your needs. There are several elements that any webmaster should consider before choosing a web host.

The first thing to consider is disc space. Disc space all depends on the size of the web site, and how much money you are willing to spend. Look in your web site folder and see how much disc space it takes up on your computer. You should always get more space then what is taken up on your computer (better safe than sorry). For example, if your web folder is 200MB, you should probably get 250-300MB of disc space. Sites with complicated designs, or flash animation, and sites with a variety of videos and pictures will typically take up a higher amount of disc space than other sites.

You should do your best to estimate the amount of bandwidth your web site will be using. Bandwidth is the amount of data transfer that your web site can use. If you plan on having a massively popular site with a large amount of files, then you should have a high bandwidth. For casual web sites, bandwidth is not as big a factor. Again, consider cost and try to have more bandwidth than you need, not less.

Web site speed is seldom taken into consideration. The fact is that there are many Internet users still on 56k dial-up connections. If your web host has a very slow speed for all of its web sites, then you may not want to go with that host. People won’t sit around at a page forever. If you want many people to visit your site, having a fast speed is very helpful. One technique to check how fast a web host’s hosted sites are is to simply ask the web host for a list of their sites. If the web host is legitimate and wants to have your business, they will comply in no time at all.

All of these elements need to be taken into consideration when hosting a web site. Unfortunately, this does take some time and effort. Taking time searching through web hosts and finding out everything you can about them will be very rewarding. Have a clear-cut view of what you want to accomplish with your web site. The best web host is not necessarily the most expensive, or cheapest. The best web host is the host that fits your needs. For the casual webmaster, cheaper web hosts may be the way to go. However, if your site is intended to ?wow? users, get them to come back again, and tell all their friends about your site, than you might want to consider getting a higher end web host. Without web hosting, no one can see your site. It is important to make the gateway between your site and the rest of the Internet as successful as possible.

About the Author: Paul Herbert recommends Net Explorers ( http://www.hosting-netexplorers.co.uk/ ) for UK web hosting.

Cheap Web Hosting – What To Do And What To Avoid.

If you’re looking to find a cheap Web Hosting company keep reading because you’re about to learn the things you should look for in Web hosting services.

The big problem most customers will find is that it’s not easy to find a cheap Web Hosting company that has real balance. In most cases if you want to have customer support online 24/7, you will generally have to pay for it. It’s not easy to find that balance in affordable web hosting. By balance I am refering to the right combination of all of the benefits, you should aim for a company that has the following:

-Domains Allowed: You may not know this but there are web hosting companies that allow you to host all of the domains you want without paying extra. If you have several domains or are planning on adding more, this is the way to go.

-Web Stats: If you’re building a website, you’ll want to see what keywords are they using to find you, what other websites are linking at you, how often do they come back, and the daily visitors you are getting so you can see the progress of your site.

-Price: Today a web hosting service is a very competitive market, so they are becoming cheaper everyday, so keep in mind this as there are some great option with great added benefits even at low prices.

-Cpanel: This is a feature that easily allows you to install tools like shopping carts, blogs, discussion forums, handling MySQL databases and support centers, all for free. This allows for testing of these tools to be possible without paying anything extra.

Why will most companies won’t offer cpanel? Why don’t they all offer Website stats? And why don’t they offer it at cheap prices? The problem is that these things are not cheap for most companies, and they don’t have enough customers to afford them. This is why it’s important to find Cheap Web Hosting that is already established and can offer these things.

Some companies with a track record are able to offer these things, and they can offer it a low price, mainly because they already have a very large customer base. This means you get to reap the benefits of truly great Web hosting services at an affordable price.

You know when you found great a web hosting service. You have customer support 24/7, you have easy user interface, you have the comfort of knowing you can add more domains without paying more, and perhaps the most important: you are happy about the price.

We’ve reviewed many web hosting companies. We went from cheap to expensive. We’ve found that some of the best are actually cheap. Be on the lookout for a great company that offers what you want very cheap as they do exist.

About the Author

We have reviewed the top web hosting companies and narrowed it to the top 3. Check out which are these companies at my site ( http://www.web-hosting-review-central.info ). HINT: Their Web Hosting is Cheap .

Multiple Website Hosting – Subdomains are the Answer!

Many business owners find themselves in a quandary over the ways to make the most of their company’s web site. This is especially true of those who have the need to maintain more than one web site but do not wish to pay for multiple hosting accounts. If this is you, a subdomain may be the answer.

Subdomains are sort of a site within a site. They are not, however, simply additional pages of an existing web site. The subdomain can have a web site all its own, completely separate from the site located at the main domain name.

To understand the use and purpose of subdomains, it may be necessary to first understand the concept of an internet domain name. Every web site that is active on the internet (and there are literally billions of them now – it was estimated as long ago as 1996 that there were more web pages in existence than there were people on Earth) has a unique domain name. There can be only one Ebay dot com, for example, on the entire internet. The domain name, however, is really just a way for humans to relate to the site. Internet servers see web site names as unique I.P. addresses. It is the domain name server that translates those numbers into names and back again.

A subdomain is simply an offshoot of your web site’s domain. In terms of the way it appears on the server, the subdomain is simply a folder or a sub directory located within your domain’s root directory. Any sub directory can serve as a sub domain. For example, if your web site is “www.mycompany.com” and you store the images for your site in a directory called “images,” then you could, if you wished, create a subdomain at “images.mycompany.com”. As long as you put an “index.html” page in the folder you should be able to pull it up in a web browser that way. In most cases you will create a new sub directory to be associated with a subdomain and some web hosts do not support subdomains on their servers or put a limit on the number of subdomains you may associate with your site.

The benefits of using subdomains as opposed to opening multiple hosting accounts are twofold. First, you get the obvious benefit of only having to pay for one hosting account. You also benefit from being able to have a completely separate web site, but one that your customers will easily recognize as being associated in some way with your business. Some companies will set up subdomains for various divisions (xyz.com may also have sales.xyz.com or support.xyz.com) and some will use subdomains for various businesses that are all offshoots of the same parent company.

That association could be a downside to using subdomains as well. If you want to keep the relationship between your companies under wraps (like Disney tried so hard to do with Touchstone Pictures so many years ago), you may want to use multiple accounts rather than subdomains. The web address clandestineproducts.megamall.com would clearly betray that there was some connection between Clandestine Products and Megamall, whether you wanted that information to be known or not.

John Michaels is a freelance author for http://www.webhostpacks.com/ where he regularly publishes internet related articles including: http://www.webhostpacks.com/low-cost-web-hosting-services.html

Copyright John Michaels – http://www.webhostpacks.com/

Managed Hosting – What’s It All About?

A new trend, appearing in the Web Hosting industry, is the concept of Managed Web Hosting. Web hosts have been offering dedicated servers for a while now, however, because dedicated servers can be difficult to operate technically, there has been a demand for web hosts to provide extra services such as: reporting and monitoring; managed load balancing; managed security; managed storage; and, managed databases. These extra services are referred to as ‘managed hosting’.

Do you need it?

Before you think about managed hosting you will first need to decide whether or not you need a dedicated server. You will need a dedicated server if you have a high-traffic web site. If you only have a small web site with low traffic levels then a shared hosting arrangement should be fine. A dedicated server is more expensive to rent and more difficult to operate than a shared hosting solution but if your business depends on a steady service then you should seriously consider renting a dedicated server.

The only disadvantage with dedicated web hosting is that you will have to do a lot of the server administration yourself, and to do this you will need to possess some technical skills; hence the demand for managed hosting. If you fall into this category of needing a dedicated server but you need your host to provide system administration services such as security, firewalls, monitoring and reporting services, and data backup then most likely you will need managed hosting.

How do you find Managed hosting packages?

Many web hosts who once provided only shared and dedicated web hosting are now beginning to offer managed services too. A good place to start looking for managed hosting is through web hosting directories and search engines, by doing a search for managed hosting you should receive a good list of managed hosting providers. Another key place to start is by contacting hosts who are offering dedicated hosting and ask them if they can provide a managed hosting arrangement as well.

Companies providing managed hosting will either offer managed hosting per item or in a pre-configured plan. Per-item managed hosting gives you the freedom to pick and choose what services you need or do not need; on the other hand, a pre-configured plan will include the dedicated server and the managed hosting services at a monthly fee.

What should I look for in a managed hosting provider?

When choosing a managed hosting provider it is a good idea that your host provides the following qualities:

Reliable and fast support – a good way to find out the response rate and the quality of the services offered by a web host is to send them an email before you sign up with them. If you receive a good response from your web host then this should give you a good indication of the services they are offering.

Freedom – its important to have as much freedom as possible and having the ability to choose from a wide range of services is essential. With managed hosting you might decide that you don’t require firewall support, its important that your web host will provide you with the option of selecting exactly what you need and what you don’t need. Also having the ability to pay monthly is a huge advantage. It will be less of a drain on your budget and you can avoid any expensive yearly contracts.

Fast and reliable connection – You should find out exactly what sort of connection the web host has to the Internet. By asking the web host they should be able to send you their network and connectivity details, you might even be able to find this out on their web site. Also find out where the web hosts Network Operations Center (NOC) is located, it is an advantage for the web host to have its NOC located in the USA as the USA has the fastest and most reliable internet connection in the world.

Competitiveness – When searching for a managed hosting provider it is important to do your research. Each web host will be offering different managed hosting services all at different rates, you might find that one web host may offer one attractive managed hosting service while another doesn’t. However, as many more web hosts are beginning to offer managed hosting, a new competitive market is developing and the prices for managed hosting are becoming much more affordable with many more services being offered.

Managed hosting is ideal for the new online businesses person, looking to build a large online business, and wanting to avoid the extra time and resources spent in-house on managing their dedicated servers. In-turn, managed web hosting has provided a profitable outcome to many online businesses by preventing a waste of valuable resources spent on high skilled employees; months of staff training; and, costs of hardware and software.

Written by Candice Humbley

http://m6.net

Fast, reliable and affordable Windows 2000 web farm hosting.

None

Domain Names and Hosting Companies

There is a way to have a site without sacrificing your first-born. Say goodbye to the company that is bleeding you dry and redo the site yourself. You may not be able to keep the same name and will have to think up another. Look at it this way…. you still have to pay the expensive hosting company for the domain name and for hosting (you may be under a contract), so why not create a site of your own and do your own coding?

Regarding one of my sites, the domain name costs me: $60 total to own the name for 5 years, plus the hosting service at $125 total for two yrs. Some hosting companies are cheaper. Others cost more. It depends on the services they offer.

One company has a service that allows me to see how many times each site is visited, where in the world the visitor lives (I’ve had people visit my sites from New York, Washington, Arizona, California, South America, the UK, France, Africa, India, the Ukraine, China, Canada and Australia, et al), the best day of the week (seems to be Wednesdays), the best hour of the day (seems to be 9 p.m.), the IP address of the person visiting, and the browser used by the visitor. Having stats like this is good for marketing purposes. Marketing is important, otherwise your site just sits out there in cyberspace.

There are many sites that allow you to advertise on them for free. Each site has its own requirements for doing so, like visiting them so many times each day, or allowing a link to their site to be placed on yours, though that’s not always the case. You could start a new kind of site for your area… sort of a show room for others in your area and around the country. Let them advertise on your site for a fee, or at the very least you and all the others exchange links. Why should you pay others to advertise on their site when you can sell ad space on your site? You can do the same thing. Give a better rate.

If you’re not that adept at making your own site, you could buy a website creator that takes you through the process step-by-step. Some go for just under $200. Others go for $400 or more. I use a company that charges a one-time fee of $197. I still use it but have progressed to the point where I can do it all myself if I want to… just no need to right now. The company allows me to make unlimited sites. Other companies are a bit more expensive. You might want to check with your present hosting company. They might offer you the use of a web site creator built right into their service. One important feature is that you need access to the control panel. The control panel is where you can add, delete, or make any changes you want to your site.

I’m endlessly busy teaching myself coding: HTML, CSS, JavaScript. This isn’t mandatory, but you should know some coding if you want to create your own site.

Another advantage of using someone else’s website creator program is that they have the FTP built in. FTP stands for “File Transfer Protocol”. Whenever you download anything on the net, or even send an email, there has to be program somewhere that transfers the file in question. The program that does this is called a protocol. In short, it’s called a FTP, or “File Transfer Protocol”. All good hosting companies should have their own file transfer protocol. I have one with my hosting company, but I also bought my own. Having my own gives me more control. Some companies will charge you approx $300 to make the site for you. Others will charge you $1,000 or more! Or, you can learn how to do it yourself for “free”. I put “free” in quotation marks as just how much you put into your site, whether it’s time or money is entirely up to you.

The reason I said you may not be able to use the same name you have now is that once a name is taken, it’s taken, and your present hosting company may have legal rights to the name. If you can’t use your present name like xyz.com, then try x-y-z.com (yes, the hyphen makes it a completely different name). Also, using:

• .com
• .net
• .info, or
• .org

also makes it a completely different name, so: xyz.net, xyz.com, xyz.info, and xyz.org are all different names from each other and each is considered a different domain… as are:

• x-y-z.net
• x-y-z.com
• x-y-z.info, and
• x-y-z.org.

Also, don’t discount using your own name like: john-b-goode-stuff.com, or johnbgoode-stuff.com, or johnbgoodestuff.com. The chances of there being another John B. Goode in the world are slim!!!

The advantages of using hyphens is that it makes reading the domain name much easier (compare: johnny-be-good.com to johnnybegood.com).

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I have a Master’s degree in Philosophy of Education from NYU. I write short stories. I’m a numismatist and I’ve been researching my own genealogy for the past 26 years.

Thomas T. Klugh

http://www.youcanreadebooks.com

Why Choose cPanel Reseller Hosting?

When you’re about to buy web space with the intention to resell it, you have to look at the software available in that web space. You need to know, for example, what web panel software the web host prefers. Reading up on different web panels will prepare you for the task of managing the reseller space you plan to buy. And if you plan on getting cPanel reseller hosting for the first time, you need to know at least why it is so popular.

Here are just some of the reasons why you should choose cPanel reseller hosting above the other obvious choices:

1. Ease of use. This is always the number one reason uttered by reseller space buyers and vendors alike. The main attraction of cPanel as a web integration software is that it has a pleasant and neat graphical user interface (GUI), similar to a Windows Explorer window set to display files as icons. This allows even people who are not familiar with web space management to be swiftly oriented to the demands of the task.

2. Multiple features. As with every computer program, an easy-to-use software that comes packed with useful features quickly wins hearts. When people use web panel software, they are looking for things that would make their lives easier, such as automated scripts. Automated scripts are commands that simplify complex tasks like backing up and transferring files and entire databases from one server to another. cPanel has plenty of such scripts. With the push of a single button, a user will be able to launch a series of complicated commands.

3. Security. Just because cPanel is easy to use, it doesn’t follow that it has a major downside – such as being easy to hack into. cPanel is recognized as a very secure web panel software, even if like all web panels, it does have its share of minor bugs. You will want security in your web management software, so that just any web-savvy stranger won’t be able to maliciously crack your safeguards, steal your files and deface your websites. Among the many invaluable things that a secure web panel can offer, peace of mind is probably one of the most priceless.

If you’ve made up your mind to get cPanel reseller hosting for your first reselling account, know that you’ve made a wise decision, which millions of other satisfied users have also made. But feel free to try other web panels – true knowledge comes from one’s inclination to experiment!

About the Author

ResellerShed.com provides you with info on Affordable hosting reseller, cpanel reseller hosting and much more, come take a look at http://www.resellershed.com/

Free Ecommerce Hosting

Finding the right ecommerce host that will match your company’s needs, wants and demands is quite a challenge. Due to the overwhelming demands for web hosting, numerous ecommerce hosting service providers offer many options to choose from, and you should look for the best and most cost-effective ecommerce hosting company out there. Do some research and compare as many ecommerce web hosting service providers as possible.

Ecommerce hosting is one very potentially profitable business. The hosting charge varies based on the services, supports and the types, quality and quantity of the features provided. Even though some of the hosting companies do offer their services for free, there are many varied ways for them to make a profit ? the most popular being that of selling ads to the prospective clients that are hosted on their websites. However, this type of ecommerce hosting offers no security and/or guaranteed service. Records of free ecommerce hosting show the instability, as they tend to close down within weeks, months and first year of operation. There are even those that close down within a span of a day or two. In such cases, the free ecommerce hosting proves to be effective for personal advances such as the posting of personal information, family photographs, and profiles, and for individuals who seek the fundamentals of web hosting by experimenting with programming scripts.

It never fails to verify how quite dependable a certain ecommerce hosting service provider can get by checking out the various websites that are currently owned and being maintained by the company or companies.

Ecommerce Hosting provides detailed information on Ecommerce Hosting, Free Ecommerce Hosting, Ecommerce Hosting Solutions, Canada Ecommerce Web Hosting and more. Ecommerce Hosting is affiliated with Ecommerce Web Hosting .

Linux vs Windows in Web Hosting Services

Although advancements made in recent years towards the overall development of the web hosting industry has brought Linux and Windows hosting features much closer together, the reality is that there’s still a lot to consider for today’s webmaster when choosing what type of web host to use.

How Windows and Linux Work

For those unfamiliar with Windows and/or Linux, it’s only fair that I provide some groundwork – so to you experts, or people who just don’t care, you can skip ahead now.

In many ways, Linux and Windows are very similar. When used for web hosting, both services will interface just fine with anyone’s home computer, whether they’re running Windows, Linux, Apple’s OS X, or just about anything else.

Despite this, some fundamental differences can’t be ignored. Windows and all of its major software is developed by one company (Microsoft), which are virtually all dependent on one common core (or ‘kernal’). This type of interdependence between the various parts of the server is what’s called a ‘monolithic’ design. On a Windows home computer, examples of this sort of approach can be seen in Windows Media Player and Microsoft Internet Explorer. A Windows server typically runs webpage serving software known as IIS, which is actually integrated right into Windows too. Although the alternative Apache software that’s standard on Linux servers is also available to Windows administrators, it’s very uncommon that it’s ever used.

This is where Linux is very different. Linux has been developed completely by what’s known as the open source community – a collective effort by any talented programmer who’s willing to pick up the existing Linux source code to try to improve upon it in some way. This group-oriented approach has created the perfect compliment to the monopolistic approach of Microsoft by creating an operating system made up of parts that are freely independent of one another – a ‘modular’ design, to oppose monolithic design, if you will.

Operating Systems and Feature Support

First, let’s cover what both systems will do. Linux and Windows will each run HTML, CSS, DHTML, XHTML, XML, JavaScript, Java, CGI, Perl, and most other popular web technologies absoutely fine. E-mail, FTP, reporting, and other basic features are supported all the same, too. Conveniently, both operating systems also do an excellent job interfacing with Microsoft FrontPage

Linux excels by offering the best environment for open source development such as PHP and Ruby on Rails. Databases on a Linux hosting service typically use MySQL or PostGresSQL. Most existing applications that are open source (and on the web, that’s quite a lot), seems to come better suited for Linux, or at least end up there first.

Windows excels by offering the best environment for ASP and other Microsoft proprietary applications such as Microsoft Exchange. When used on the web, databases on Windows typically rely on MS SQL.

Operating Systems and Security

The Windows VS Linux security debate is a very old one, which the nerd community will likely never agree on. The reason is simple – in the end, nothing on a computer is gauranteed secure. Some things we can’t change – such as unskilled server administrators, brute-force password crackers, unsecured PHP or ASP scripts, social engineering risks in large companies, and more. In the end, these variables vastly outweigh the security risks existing within either operating system.

The most common argument against Windows security is that because of its monolithic design (mentioned previously), it is easier for hackers to compromise an entire server. For example, if a security exploit is found in the IIS web server, it could potentially be used in compromising the entire Windows server, as IIS is deeply interconnected with the core of the Windows. It’s for this same reason that external browsers such as Mozilla FireFox tend to be seen as safer for a Windows PC than the integrated Microsoft Internet Explorer.

The most common argument against Linux security is exactly the largest argument for Linux security – that it’s entirely open-source. With potentially the entire world with its eyes on Linux security, Linux has both the largest, most educated security team, and logically the most educated community of hackers, too.

Future Development

As if this isn’t enough to soak in, we’re now left to think about the future. As Microsoft has become increasingly dominated in the web hosting industry, we can expect future releases of Windows server to become increasingly like Linux with modular design; at least according to Microsoft representatives at last year’s HostingCon.

In closing, if things continue on the course they’re on now, it’s also safe to assume that both sides will continue working to accommodate one another as much as possible, but your best bet is to pursue the type of web applications are important to you, as either side will probably be around for a long time. For open-source applications, your best choice will likely always be Linux, and for closed-source applications, Windows should remain a safe bet for years to come.

About the Author

Corey Northcutt is a webmaster and decision maker with a prominent Linux hosting provider with years of experience in web hosting industry.

For more information visit http://www.ubiquityhosting.com/web-hosting/linux.html

Free Web Hosting: Is It Worth It?

If you are just looking into getting your feet wet in the area of web hosting, it may be tempting to take up one of the various offers from sites who are offering free web hosting services. They offer a certain type of site with a certain list of amenities and you have to go through a series of changes to make your free web host offer work to your advantage.

Free web hosting companies make their money differently than the average web hosting company, that charges you a set amount for your site. They usually make their money offering you a poor site with the option of upgrading to a whole new site, which of course is not free. If this is not the case, these free web hosting sites place banners and pop up ads all around your site, and that is the way they make most of their money.

With the latter usually being the case with free web hosting sites, ask yourself who these companies are to be making any profit off of your traffic? If people travel to your site and decide to click on certain sponsors, that should count towards the pennies in your pocketbook, not theirs. If you are not depending on yoru site to generate traffic and any type of income or reward for you, free web hosting may be okay for you. If you at all depend on your website for your financial stability and survival, forget about being cheap and pay for a good quality web host. That way, any ads that are found on your site are ads that you are aware of and that pay you for traffic you direct from your site to theirs.

There are numerous web hosting services and free web hosting services on the web. A great deal of the free web hosting sites offer adequate web hosting for a price in lieu of the generic, free version.

About the Author:

Professor Jeff has been inspiring and teaching students for years. He began his career in the public schools and since has served on the faculty of many prestigious institutions including the University of Michigan. His passion for helping others has helped him to establish a strong presence on the internet and a firm foundation in marketing. To learn more about Professor Jeff’s winning MyWorldPlus team,visit: http://www.MyWorldPlusPro.com http://www.MyWorldPlusPro.com/info

Managed, Affordable Website Hosting.

My company will provide, or flex to provide, any client that wishes to use our services. With free unlimited bandwidth and large amounts of space for only $5.00 a month, you will save money and get great hosting at the same time.

Come to our website and check us out today!

Come to our website and check us out today!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Owner/Manager Open Source Rules, LLC

Currently the website administrator, and network upkeeper.

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