Hosting Information

2006-08-11T22:14:00.000-07:00

Canadian Web Hosting

A website is an invaluable tool for your business. It provides a source of contact between you, the customers, the employees and the business. That is why putting up your website with a reliable web hosting company is such an important decision.

Canada web hosting spans the entire North America continent as well as into Europe. The internet has made communication between people from different continents possible. Even if the Canadian web hosting service is located in a Canadian city or town, it can still effectively serve its clients around the world and provide satisfactory services. However, the first thing you need to know before you can engage the services of a Canadian web hosting is to know what your website is for.

Canadian web hosting is reliable, fast, convenient and affordable. For those in the North American continent, Canada web hosting offers a good alternative to the traditional American based web hosting services. Although it is not encouraged, Canada web hosting is one way to stretch your money's value to the limits. The Canadian dollar has a lower exchange rate compared to the American dollar. This is one important feature for the budget-conscious.

For those who are new to the web hosting business, Canada web hosting could provide a way for the users to avail of the same service at a lower price. If your website has numerous data, generates many hits and heavy bandwidth, it might be faster and more convenient to use Canada web hosting. Canada web hosting offers technical support to customers as well.

There are a number of web hosting Canadian companies that offer great service to clients. Among them is MonsterHosting.ca. Their web hosting plan starts at $6.95. Another Canada web hosting service is IPowerWeb. They have their headquarters in California but have a number of offices in Canada.

ReadyWebsites.com extends website layout and hosting for a total of $8.99 a month. If you want to launch a business website, you can use Canada - based Builder Spot.com. Their site has some building tools that enable you to get your website up and running in no time at all.

If you live in Canada or somewhere near, it is easier to avail of Canada web hosting in order that you will be able to contact your host for technical support when you incur problems related to the Canada web hosting. Customer service is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year through phone or email. Before you engage the company's services, be sure to do some research on Canada web hosting services you are interested in. This way you will know what to expect from them and know if they do offer the services you really need.

2006-08-11T22:13:00.000-07:00

Web Hosting in Mexico

Web hosting in Mexico, just like in any other country, offers a multitude of features to the web hosting Mexico user. For those who are based in Mexico, it is important to take advantage of web hosting Mexico services near you. Since a web hosting company in Mexico near you could offer fast and reliable internet for your website, it is good news for those considering doing business in Mexico.

An important thing to weigh is whether you would get a free or paid web hosting in Mexico. There are a number of free web hosting in Mexico sites that you can choose from. Or, you can make use of a paid web hosting in Mexico service. Whichever web hosting in Mexico service you choose, it is important that you know the features they offer and whether those features are what you actually need for your website.

Probably the biggest drawback for a free web hosting in Mexico service is the number of banner ads that keep popping out as you surf the web pages. Also, you cannot be assured that your business site will continuously have a reliable uptime. Most paid web hosting in Mexico companies offer a 99% guarantee of uptime. Since business sites require continuous customer access at all times, uptime could be an important consideration for your business site. Just as significant downtime will definitely be bad news to your business.

There are a number of paid web hosting services in Mexico to choose from. The paid web hosting in Mexico offers a number of plans to the user too which could range from the very minimum to the maximum web hosting. It could be as low as $2 or as high as hundreds of dollars per month.

Web hosting in Mexico offers a number of important features to the user, including disk space, data transfers, email accounts and many other features. You can request for more features for your website but you have to pay additional costs depending on the kind of features. Linux based web hosting in Mexico is naturally cheaper compared to Windows 2000 web hosting. This is because Linux can be availed of for free while Windows 2000 software needs to be bought, including other software that supports it.

There are a number of bilingual web hosting services in Mexico that can offer English or Spanish web hosting service for a variety of clients. For those in the North America region, web hosting in Mexico could be an affordable way to avail yourself of hosting services.

2006-08-11T06:38:00.000-07:00

Free Image Hosting

Free image hosting is a service which allows people to upload pictures to an internet website for free. The image host service will take the picture and place it on their server, and codes will be provided which will allow others to see the image. Since a large number of people don't have webspace, image hosting services have become quite popular. As blogs, forums, and other forms of interactive media become more widespread, many people are looking for free image hosting. There are a large number of image hosting services online, and many of them are free of charge.

The way image hosting works is relatively simple. The service allows you to browse your computer to select any image you want. Once you select the images you want to upload, you will need to click on a button to place the image on the server. Some image hosting companies will allow yout to upload multiple images simultaneously. Other will allow you to upload ZIP files. Once the image has been placed on the server, you will be shown ways to show it to others. There are three basic ways this is done. These three methods are using a BBcode, a clickable thumbnail, or an HTML code.

There will typically be restrictions placed on how large the image can be, and the bandwidth used by each user may be limited as well. Because of bandwidth costs, services which are free usually place limits on the sizes of the images. Paid services typically allow you to upload images which are much larger in comparison. In addition to uploading your images, many hosting services also allow you to create galleries for your images, while others may offer slideshows. Some will allow you to add notes with the images, and users may also be able to adjust the image size.

The vast majority of image hosting services are free, and may support their service via advertising. Others may allow you to upload smaller images for free, but may charge in order to upload larger pictures. One good service which offers free image hosting is Free Pic Hosting at freepichosting.info. They will allow you to upload files such as TIFF, JPEG, JPG, and GIF. Many free image hosting services offer features which rival services which are paid. Uploading your images for others to see can be fun, and allows you to spread you ideas. Image hosting is very similar to photo sharing, and allows images to be showcased in an organized manner.

Image hosting is an online service which is expected to grow. Photos have always been a great way to express your ideas or emotions, and offer many things that words cannot express. Many webmasters will need image hosting services in order to place photos or pictures on their websites. Because of the cost of bandwidth, many people are looking for free services which will allow them to upload their pictures. Image hosting services are also a great way to advertise your products or services.

2006-08-11T02:32:00.000-07:00

Google Launches Project Hosting

It’s common knowledge that Google likes open source software. With the search engine’s latest move to create an open source repository, it’s getting behind the open source community in a big way. For various reasons, however, it’s getting mixed reviews.

The company unveiled the new service at the O'Reilly Open Source Developers Conference. It's called Project Hosting, and like all Google betas, it's free to use, though you do need to have a Google account. The service is supposed to give open source software developers a web-based ability to track bugs and other issues with their software, collaborate, and otherwise handle the many details involved in working on and coordinating an open source project.

The screen shot above shows the Project Hosting home page. You can see that the company is trying to keep the same clean interface for which it is famous (as you'll see in another screen shot in the next section). It has adopted the "release early, release often" motto popular within the open source community. Judging from some of the comments this particular service has received, however, it's one beta that may have been released just a little too early.

Google seems to be willing to accept the flak as the price it pays to make this work. Project Hosting was created by a regular, small team of Google developers; one wonders if this is one of the benefits of the "20% time" that Google gives its engineers. The goal of the service, according to Google Engineering Manager Greg Stein, is to make issue and bug tracking simpler. "We wanted to get it in peoples' hands and get our feedback so we can shape it as we get informed," Stein explained. "We're launching it very early because we want some feedback."

How Does it Work?

I'm going to start this section by assuming you're interested in posting a project. If you aren't, as you can see from the earlier screen shot, you can always search for projects. It's pretty amazing what some people are up to already; there's at least one open source project that's dedicated to creating a Python shopping cart to work with Google Checkout, for example -- and the latter has been available for less than a month!

Anyway, when you sign into your Google account, the link at the bottom of the screen shot in the previous section that says "Sign in with your Google account to create a project" changes, not surprisingly, to "Create a new project." Clicking on this link takes you to a screen with several text boxes.

The first text box is labeled "Project Name." Google is rather strict about what you can and cannot post into this box. To quote from the instructions: "Your project's name must consist of a lowercase letter, followed by lowercase letters, digits, and dashes, with no spaces. The project name will be part of your project's URL." Indeed, I tried to put something different into this box (accidentally; that's what I get for not reading the directions first!) and was unable to do so.

The second text box is labeled "Summary." Google explains in the directions that "Your project's summary is a one-line description that will be shown when the project's name is shown." That may be true, but Google has clearly decided to keep users' options open for this section. I would have expected a section described as a one-line description to have a character limit, but it didn't appear to. It let me go on for sentences: "This is a test of Google's Project Hosting system. I wonder how much space Google allows me to take up in this box? Should I just keep going until I run out of space or what? Hmmm, very confusing; why would Google allow so much space for something that's supposed to be merely a summary of the project?"

The third text box is for the description of your project. Google wants you to write this in plain text, explaining that it "will be the main content of your project's home page." I didn't even try to see how much I could type into that box, given how much space I had in the summary section!

Below the description is a drop-down menu for you to select your license. Google gives you the option of choosing from seven of the most popular ones. You are only allowed to choose one, however. Stein explained in his talk that "We're taking an actual position and saying that we don't want to encourage license proliferation...In general, we don't like people doing the dual-license thing."

After you have chosen a license, you add labels to the project so others can find it. You can add as many labels as you like. Interestingly, I found that my "Create Project" button became active without any labels at all; it seemed to be choosing the open source license that was required to make it active. Still, I added the label "test," and was able to find it again by searching for that label in the search box on the Project Hosting home page; in fact, mine turned up in the first position! Google displays only a portion of my terribly long summary as a link to the project, so it does behoove those with projects to keep it short and sweet in the summary, no matter how much space Google gives you.

Notes on the System

I have to tell you up front: I'm not a programmer. So I really can't tell you too much about the usefulness of the various features of the service. Fortunately, other people who are programmers have already written about it.

The issue tracking feature has been cited as being particularly useful, but some complain that it still falls short of what's already available with alternative software development project management systems. While Google wins plaudits for the clean interface, it may have gone too far in that direction with this service. Personally, I rather like the way Google sets up project pages, with tabs labeled Home, Issues, Source, and Administer. It gives the site a very straightforward appearance.

Those familiar with the Subversion software version control system may recognize this service as a rebuild of that system (indeed, the web page for projects hosted by Project Hosting mentions the Subversion repository as the place where source code for projects can be viewed). While open source projects can store code with this free service, Stein noted that it cannot handle downloads as of yet, no doubt rather frustrating to many programmers.

There have been other problems reported with the system. As you would expect, there is a Google group dedicated to Project Hosting, where you can check out the threads yourself. One particular problem seems to have arisen from something that was done with good intentions. Google worked with SourceForge, the leading open source software repository, to reserve all SourceForge project names. The intention was to prevent name squatting on Google's new service. However, SourceForge project administrators who have tried to move their SF projects over to Google's service have run into difficulties. Apparently the system isn't letting them grant themselves approval to use the name! This problem might be fixed by the time you read this.

What About the Competition?

Google is not the only company in the open source project hosting space. The aforementioned SourceForge boasts more than 100,000 registered projects and more than a million registered users. And SourceForge is far from alone. There's Tigris and Freshmeat, for example, and IBM and Sun have open source repositories (as do other corporations).

Google insists that it did not create Project Hosting to compete with SourceForge. In fact, Stein cites the company's stance on dual-licensing as one reason that certain open source projects might be better served by other repositories. At least one wag has commented skeptically "The goal is not to compete with SourceForge, but rather to give open source projects an alternative to SourceForge? Yeah, and my goal in writing this is not to be sarcastic, but to show how stupid that statement is with acerbic wit."

There are certainly those who feel that SourceForge needs the competition. Ed Burnette in his blog for ZDNet observed that "Everybody likes to pick on SourceForge. It's slow, CVS is unavailable for days at a time, it took years to add Subversion support, it has an issue tracker not much more advanced than a stone tablet..." He thinks the Project Hosting interface "has several things going for it."

It's hard to tell how Google plans to monetize this latest service, however. At the moment, it isn't ad-supported; that could come later, of course, but one wonders what kinds of ads would fit into a space where developers work on software projects "for fun," in their spare time, and don't charge people for them. Perhaps Google figures that most open source developers (like its own engineers) also have regular full-time programming jobs, and might therefore be a good audience for certain technology-related ads. Time will tell.

What does this mean for those of us who do SEO? If you use open source software at all, or have considered doing so, you'll now be able to find it easier - and heaven knows there are plenty of projects from which to choose. Given that most open source software is actually free to use, this could cut down on your own and your clients' expenses if you're a web designer as well as an SEO.

2006-08-10T19:02:00.000-07:00

Changing Web Hosts - Tips on Moving Your Website

If you have never moved your website before, you will probably think that it is a rather trivial matter. Certainly something that does not warrant an article - after all, it's only a matter of copying files over to the new server. Or is it?

Actually there's more to it than meets the eye. I have moved my other website thefreecountry.com many times in its rather long history, both with changes in the URL (back when it was without a domain name) and when I moved the actual domain ("thefreecountry.com") between web hosts. It seems to me that each time I move, I overlook some important aspect.

I'll deal with both the mundane aspects - the checklist of things you need to do - as well as the more problematic situation of helping you minimise your loss of visitors.

Note that there are some differences between moving your site when you have your own domain name and moving it when you do not. I'll try to cover both these cases in this article.

1. Copying the Files (the Easiest Step)

The funny thing about websites is that no matter what everyone recommends officially, there continues to be people (more than you think) who actually only maintain only one copy of their website - the one on the web server.

If you're one of those, make sure you make a copy of your website on your computer. This has to be done even BEFORE you inform your old web host that you are terminating. In fact, it may be wise NOT to tell your old host that you're terminating just yet, since some people who run web hosts react badly. They might terminate your account before you're ready, throttle down your bandwidth or other such petty things. If you don't believe that such things happen, just browse the various webmaster newsgroups and you'll see that even worse things occur.

To copy your files, just use the method that you normally take to upload your files, and download them instead. If you do it through FTP, then copy them through FTP. If you use a browser to access your site via your web hosts' online "File Manager" (or the like), then do it that way.

If you're on a free server with advertisements (pop-ups, banners or otherwise), you should not simply connect to your site with a browser and save the page you see. Such pop-ups and banners are normally issued by the server modifying your web pages on the fly to add some additional JavaScript code to generate the pop-ups. When you save it the normal way your visitors do, you're also saving the pop-up code the server adds. Of course you can simply edit the file to delete it later - but why give yourself extra work?

2. Check Your Internal Links

The next step is to check all your internal links to make sure they do not have any hardcoded URLs to the old address. This is not a problem if you have your own domain (since your URL will not change in that case).

You might want to consider making all your internal links relative links to simplify your relocation process. You can always hardcode links again later if that's what you prefer.

If your old web host forced you to add some banner code or text link to your pages, this is a good time to delete them.

Note that your old site is still active. At this point, no one knows you're going to shift yet (except of course you and your new host).

Upload your pages to your new host. Test all your pages. Make sure they work. Remember - you have not yet officially shifted. If you have your own domain name, you have also not yet updated your DNS to point to your new host. The whole point of this exercise is to make sure everything is functional on both ends.

3. Update Your DNS Records (Domain Name Holders Only)

If you have your own domain name, and you're shifting it with your website, update your DNS records with your registrar only when you're satisfied that your new site works as intended.

If you have a new domain name (and you did not have one previously), simply point the domain name to the new host. Do NOT point the domain to your old host first for fun. This will cause additional complications as well as delays in your domain name propagation. Propagation seems to be faster when you're pointing a brand new domain than when you're switching a domain between IP addresses.

Although the registrars tell you that the update should be completed within 48 hours or so, in practice it actually takes about a week for all the name servers around the world to catch up with the new location of your domain. In that interim, only some parts of the world will be able access your domain at your new host; the rest will continue to access the old site. Note that even if you see the new site in your browser, it is not necessarily true that others will see the new site. This is normal - do not worry.

Do not:

i. Do not delete the old site during this interim. This will help you avoid losing visitors. Just maintain two copies of your site. Endure the inconvenience for this period - it's only a short term hassle.

ii. At this point in time, do not put up a page on your old site redirecting people to your new domain. It may seem like a good idea, but it isn't. It was one of the silly things I did in one of my moves and I really regretted it.

Why? While you may be able to follow your redirection page to your new host, it merely means that your ISP has updated their name servers so that your domain points to the new host. People who use ISPs elsewhere in the world may not be in the same situation. Some ISPs are very slow to update their name servers. When your visitors using those ISPs click on your redirection, they'll be redirected back to your old site again (since the domain is still pointing there for them). It'll be like an infinite loop - they'll keep going back to the same page redirecting them elsewhere.

I learned about this because I accessed the Internet using different ISPs. I was able to reach my new host with one ISP, but was trapped in an infinite loop with the other.

In general, if you're moving domains, you will not need to put a redirection page. Period. I had to, because at that time, my website was being accessed via both the domain name, which was new then, and the old URL given by the free web host where the site was situated.

iii. Do not tell your old host just yet. Give it at least one week where both sites continue to run concurrently. This applies even if you're paying both hosts monthly fees. Plan to have both sites up for at least that week.

4. The New Site is "Live" - What About the Old?

After the week (where you maintain identical copies of your site on both your old and new host) is up, what you do next depends on whether you moved your domain name or whether your URL changed when you changed web hosts.

a. If you moved your own domain...

If you had your own domain name previously, which you moved with your site, you have little else to do. You can simply terminate your account with your old web host, and you're done (or if you can afford it, wait a week or so longer to make sure every ISP's and search engine's DNS records have been updated). Your visitors will probably not even know that you changed hosts. Your search engine listings are not affected since they still point to the right place: your domain. Everything is, hopefully, dandy.

b. If you are changing URLs...

If you have been hosting with free web hosts or your old ISP without your own domain name previously, you're now faced with the prospect of losing visitors. Visitors will be lost because they follow old links to your site (whether from search engines or other sites) and will not find it there. Some loss of visitors is actually unavoidable, but you can do much to reduce the number lost.

1. Avoid putting up a redirection page, if possible

The most obvious thing to do is to put a page on your old site redirecting your visitors to your new location. But, as I have found, there are problems with this approach.

For the uninitiated, there are basically two ways to write web pages that redirect your visitors:

o a page that simply provides a link to your new site asking your visitors to click on the link; and

o a page that automatically forwards your visitors to your new site.

The problem with the first variety is that most people don't bother to follow links. If they do not see what they want instantly, they'll just hit the back button and proceed elsewhere. This is a well-documented characteristic of Internet users.

The problem with the second variety is that you might lose your search engine listing (depending on which search engine you're talking about). Search engines generally do not like redirection pages. If they see a redirection page when their spider is returning to check out your site, your old URL will be deleted from their index. You don't want your old URL deleted from their index if possible because your new URL is still new - it takes time before your new URL is listed in the search engines (sometimes it can take a month) even if you immediately index it when your site becomes "live".

2. Modifying your .htaccess file

The best solution I can think of is to modify your old site's .htaccess file. Some web hosts allow you to put a .htaccess file in your web directories telling your web server what to do when a visitor tries to access a file on your site. Check your old web host's documentation to see if this can be done. In general, only web hosts that use the Apache server will have such a facility.

For each page that is under the old URL, put a Redirect statement pointing it to the new location. Take the following line for example:

Redirect permanent /oldfilename.html http://www.newsite.com/file.html

Every time your visitors try to access oldfilename.html on your old site, the server will tell their browser to load file.html from your new site instead. They will then be transparently redirected to the new host without the requirement that they click on a link, etc. If they do not look at the location bar on their browser, they might not even know that they had been redirected.

Search engines like Google, it is claimed, will also follow the link to index the new URL, and transfer the page rank of your old page to the new one. If you don't know about Google's page ranking strategy, see my article Google Search Engine Ranking Tips at http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/google.shtml. I don't think all search engines do this automatically though. Like I said, there will be some losses: you can only reduce them, not avoid them altogether.

If you're afraid that you might accidentally forget to list some page in your list of redirections, you can put a simple catch-all that redirects any remaining URLs to your new main page. The catch-all is probably only useful in catching humans that arrive at your site, and won't help you with your search engine listings. It involves simply redirecting all file not found errors to the main page of your new URL:

ErrorDocument 404 http://www.yournewsite.com/

3. What if I don't have .htaccess?

If you don't have .htaccess support on your old site, I guess the next best thing is to use one of the other less-desirable methods mentioned above. Although there are problems with those methods, having some sort of redirection page is better than having nothing at all.

To set up an automatically redirecting page, put the following META tag in the section of your web page. Keep it all in one line in your page.

The "0" in the line specifies that the browser should wait 0 seconds before redirecting. If you want to display some sort of message, you can always change that to (say) 5 to tell the browser to wait 5 seconds. The tag would then read:

Even if you wait "0" seconds, you should still include some sort of short message in the body of your web page together with a clickable link to the correct page on your new site. This is because some old browsers might not support the META refresh tag that is used here. A visible, clickable link will give your visitors an alternative way to get to your actual page.

Note that "0" and the new URL are part of the same string that is assigned to the "content" attribute. The opening inverted commas (ie, quotation marks) are before the time ("0" in our case) and the closing inverted commas are after the URL. The URL itself does begin with any quotation marks.

5. Updating Links to Your Site

If your web server (old and new) has logs, or if you have a statistics counter that tracks referrals to your website, make a list of all the sites that sent visitors to your site. Visit those sites and see if they are still referring to your old URL. If so, you might want to inform the webmaster of that site of your new URL.

If your old URL is listed in any directories, you should also take the trouble to update them. Likewise, you will want to quickly submit your new URL to the search engines. Note that some search engines take forever to list a new site, so you just have to be patient.

You can also search for links pointing to your old URL by entering either that old URL or the name of your website into the search engine and look at what turns up. In the case of Alta Vista, it is possible to search for links to your site by preceding your URL with a "link:" prefix.

How much time do you have to update the links? It really depends. Theoretically you have as much time as you want, as long as you continue to maintain your old hosting account where you can set up redirections to your new URL. In practice however, free web hosts (especially the smaller ones) sometimes notice that an account has gone dormant and will remove it. Redirection pages also tend to lose some people along the way (not everyone follows the redirection).

My experience is that it is very difficult to exhaustively remove all links pointing to your old URL. Some webmasters can't be bothered (particularly the webmasters of sites that have not been updated for years); some cannot be traced (no email address on the site); and sometimes you fail to notice the odd site or so that rarely sends you traffic. Till this day, I'm still receiving redirected traffic at my very first web host set up in 1996 for (the predecessor of) thefreecountry.com!

Conclusion

In general, no matter what you do, if you're changing URLs, you're bound to lose some visitors. Hopefully, the tips given above will help you reduce your losses in the confusion surrounding the move. At the very least, you will have avoided some of the problems I encountered when I moved my sites.

2006-08-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

The Five Types Of Web Hosting - Part I

Nowadays, there are so many choices when it comes to web hosting. The cost also varies a lot depending on the type of plan you are planning to get. Here is a brief explanation of the different types of hosting available. I will begin with the least expensive to the most expensive.

Free Web Hosting

Some companies offers free web hosting. One of the most famous is Geocities which is managed by Yahoo. Though they are free, there are usually a lot of restrictions limiting what you can do with it. The providers usually offers very small disk space (less than 100 megabytes), small bandwidth (less than 5GB per month), no database allowed such as mysql or msaccess and restricted email/FTP access.

You might be asking why would a company offer such a free service since it will cost them money to host your website? The answer lies in advertising. They will place a banner on your website in exchange, you get free web hosting.

There are also some web hosts who require you to sign up some other services such as registering or renewing a domain name with them before qualifying for it.

I would recommend if you are putting a personal website or a new webmaster, then use it just to play around and learn. Other than that, it is advisable to get a better plan once you become more familiar with it.

Shared Web hosting

Shared Web Hosting means your website is placed on the same server as possibly several hundreds of other websites. It allows you to have more than 1 website per shared hosting account. The cost is pretty cheap usually costly less than ten dollars each month. They have fewer restrictions than free web hosts.

Due to the fact that hundreds of websites could be residing on the same server, a server crash could bring all the sites down. In many instances, some webmasters run high resource intensive applications on shared accounts. This causes the server to be sluggish and slow affecting the performance of all websites on the same server.

I do still recommend getting a shared web hosting account for small business web owners and websites which are still new and do not have a lot of traffic. Once you feel the website is more established and getting more visitors, you can always move to a higher plan.

Reseller Web Hosting

Reseller Web Hosting is similar to shared hosting in that you obtain a fixed amount of disk space and bandwidth from the hosting company and can accommodate more than one website. It allows you to resell web hosting plans to your own customers. The difference is you get to decide how to divide the diskspace and bandwidth for each plan you offer. Cost wise, it is usually about the same as shared web hosting.

2006-08-09T22:31:00.000-07:00

Cheap Webhost Comparison

Trying to decide which Web Hosting site to choose can be a very daunting task. There are so many of them out there and so many different factors to compare that it can make your head spin. I have taken a look at a couple of dozen Web Hosting companies and narrowed down the field to approximately 4 that I believe to be the cream of the crop of inexpensive Web Host choices. I have laid out what I believe to be the best 4 choices at www.webhost-comparisons.com . If you don't really need a lot of space and your just putting up a fun home page maybe with family pictures or something simple, most Internet Service Providers offer a free website with your account. It's usually fairly easy to access the free home page and can be sufficient for some people's usage. If however you want to upload complicated web pages or a business web site that may use e-commerce you will need to choose a good Web Hosting company that will be able to handle all of your needs. When broken down, the important things to look for in web hosts are Price, Technical Support, Storage Available, Transfer (traffic) Available, Domains, Email Accounts, and e-Commerce capabilities. Prices vary and but are typically in the $7.95/month range for a 1 year sign up but can go down as low as $3.95/month when signing up for 2 years or more. Most of the technical support is pretty good, with a typical 2 to 10 minute wait for help on the phone or live chat support which in most cases is not as thorough as the phone help. All in all when compared most all Web Hosts are pretty much equal in this area. Typical storage is in the 10 to 15 gigabit range and traffic is typically in the 250 to 500 gigabit range. Most Web Hosts offer 1 free domain with sign up but will allow you a total of 5 to 10 domains managed under your account. Email accounts vary and range anywhere from 20 to unlimited. Most of the companies that I have looked at offer e-commerce in the form of either a Paypal or Agora shopping cart. The bottom line is that you need to figure out what your needs will be before you sign up so that you know that you are getting what you need. Please feel free to visit www.webhost-comparisons.com to see a more detailed analysis of 4 of the best inexpensive web hosting companies on the internet.

2006-08-09T03:13:00.000-07:00

Reseller Hosting

Reseller hosting refers to hosting service in which the service provider is actually an account holder in a shared hosting plan, whereby he splits up his allotted disk-space and bandwidth to resell web hosting. It implies therefore that in reseller hosting, one does not own a grassroots web-hosting set-up.

Reseller hosts do not generally hold responsibility for maintaining and running host server. That job is catered to by actual owner of host server who sells hosting space for reseller hosting. It is indeed possible that in a single host server, several reseller hosting plans are running concurrently, each of which catering further to any number of websites down the line.

Depending on requirement, reseller hosting can be of 2 types - multi-domain account and branded hosting business.

Reseller Hosting - Multi-Domain Account

Here, a reseller hosting account caters to in-house needs. To illustrate, let us consider the following examples:

1. A webmaster may require a network of websites under different domain names to serve different business plans, but all are hosted under a common reseller hosting account. It is not uncommon to find a web business running more than one website for different purposes.

2. A company owns different domain names for assorted departments, all linked to a single reseller hosting account. For example, a travel company requires different websites for different travel destinations.

3. A large company allots different websites for different brands it owns, like a car company that has several branded cars under its fold. Reseller hosting is a good choice for it.

Branded Reseller Hosting

If you have decided to start reseller hosting as a business, you may want to become an unnamed franchisee of a parent hosting company. All you need is to buy a suitable reseller hosting plan and thereafter float your own website that will cater to end-customers. Though a reseller hosting account cuts down your overhead expenses, you may still need to advertise heavily to sell your hosting plans. For a start, you need to focus on getting customers in the city you live or from your immediate locality.

Advantages of Reseller Hosting

A reseller hosting account accrues significant benefits over both short and long term. Here is a look at some of them.

1. Other than hiring charge, there are no additional expense on account of hosting. Since fixed costs by very nature is predictable, reseller hosting is a help for long-term cost layout, specially for small hosting companies.

2. Create your branded hosting company. While your hosting provider remains content allotting you space in their server, you are free to build up branded reseller hosting business. In many cases of reseller hosting, the server owner may agree to naming nameserver after your company name and even allot separate IP address for your nameservers.

3. In reseller hosting, you will have no responsibility to manage and maintain the servers or any component of data center where the servers are located. No technical pullback means more time to devote to business.

4. You can host as many websites as you want with reseller hosting, limited only by disk-space and bandwidth. In a similar vein, your reseller hosting offers may vary from being simple no-frill hosting to one with all paraphernalia, thus allowing you to play with margins.

5. Start small, grow big. Reseller hosting accounts are mostly scalable, so you enlarge your hosting account in tandem with your requirement. This is a perfect recipe to grow your business. If you chalk it out fine, who knows you may as well have your own servers one day.

6. In most cases, reseller hosting is made simple through GUI Control Panels. Some examples are Plesk (Windows / Unix), WHM cPanel (Unix), Hosting Controller (Windows), DirectAdmin (Unix) and so on. A reseller hosting provider can easily monitor all websites located under him, such as increasing or decreasing disk-space and bandwidth, allotting or withdrawing software applications, and even permitting or denying respective control panels.

In a nutshell therefore, to debut with a web hosting business, nothing is better than starting with reseller hosting.

2006-08-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

When It's Time For A Dedicated Server

A shared server works for a good deal of people, but when your website continues to grow and you simply need more bandwidth, software, or ram you need to look at investing in a dedicated server. A dedicated server not only gives you more control, bandwidth, software options, and ram it also gives you the security you need to ensure that your website is as secure as possible for both you and your website users. A dedicated server makes more sense for those that are going places and simply need more from their website.

Much of the problem with shared servers is that you are limited in your storage space as well as your bandwidth, which can turn visitors off from using your website and purchasing your products or services. You may also find with a shared server that there is a lot of down time because the server simply is not big enough for all of its users, especially if many of the hosted sites are high traffic and growing rapidly. This rush of activity often causes bottle necking which doesn't allow your website to be as effective as possible.

E-commerce websites often have a difficult time utilizing a shared server, and a dedicated server can make all the difference. With a dedicated server you have a lot more options as far as software and even hardware solutions so that your Internet business functions a lot more smoothly. A dedicated server allows you to set up your own control panel and really micro-manage your website if that is what you want to do.

Dedicated servers just allow more options for those that have websites that are growing and businesses that are rapidly expanding. If you aren't sure if you can pull it all off on your own when you switch to a dedicated server, you aren't alone. Along with a dedicated server is managed hosting, which is a service provided by those that also offer dedicated servers. A managed hosting system is one that helps you oversee all of the technical aspects of a dedicated server in the way of hardware, software, your control panel, and more.

If you are not happy with the level of service you receive from your current web server in the way of transfer times, bandwidth, ram, and software options you may want to look into a dedicated server. A dedicated server costs a bit more, but the service you get in exchange is definitely worth it.

2006-08-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

How to Choose Your Ecommerce Hosting?

Ecommerce hosting, in simple words, relates to your web host's ability to let you sell your products or services from your website. In its primitive, ecommerce hosting usually means your website has an interface between display of your items and a shopping cart system, proceeding thereon to accepting payment real-time in secured environment. An ideal ecommerce hosting ensures complete buying experience for those viewers of your website who wish to acquire your products or services.

While this is the end-solution for ecommerce hosting, the way the process is arranged differs in more ways than one. This means that while the site users' experience may not vary much, for merchants it will be a trade-off among several possibilities. In the paragraphs below, we will explore various tenets of ecommerce hosting from a merchant's point of view.

Ecommerce Hosting - Where to Start

As briefly touched upon above, ecommerce hosting stands on 3 main pillars, namely display of products, selection and adding them to your virtual cart which then automatically calculates total amount payable, and lastly paying for the items selected for buying.

Since your website resides on host server, you have to choose an ecommerce hosting that ensures your buyer does not suffer inconvenience while making a purchase. At the same time you may be averse to spending on high-end ecommerce hosting, preferring instead to focus on marketing your website.

It therefore boils down to either choosing an ecommerce hosting that only supplies necessary amenities so that you can do it on your own (let's call them 'supplied ecommerce hosting'), or go for 'hosted ecommerce' that does it all for you. The principal difference between the two is how much you agree to pay and why.

Supplied Ecommerce Hosting

Necessary amenities being available, many budding web entrepreneurs short on cash prefer an ecommerce hosting like this. What do you get here? In most cases of supplied ecommerce hosting, among other things common, you will get a full-featured open-source shopping cart system (like oscommerce, zen-cart, agora cart, etc.) free of cost.

All you need to do is install the cart on your website and then dress it up as per your needs. Some programming knowledge may be necessary to make the cart work perfectly for you. If time is a constraint or you feel you are not up to it, you may outsource the small adjustments needed in the cart system. Many web hosts agree to help as a goodwill gesture to their ecommerce hosting customers. Do not forget to explore this.

Once your shopping cart is up and running, the next step will be to tie up with a payment system. If you are frugal, consider availing Paypal service. It is easy and fast to open an account and you can get going in no time. If you have chanced upon Paypal before having installed the shopping cart of your ecommerce hosting, do consider some of the excellent carts showcased there. You may get good value for your money.

Okay, you have tied up your cart with a payment acceptance system. Have you tested it? Do it before going live. It is important.

Hosted Ecommerce

If supplied ecommerce hosting is at one end, the other end belongs to hosted ecommerce. In fact, hosted ecommerce may be the perfect ecommerce hosting if you pay extra. Since the entire shopping cart system comes installed with all bells and whistles, all you need to do is upload your products and start selling. If this sounds good, it indeed is. Examples? Try Site Build It!, ekmpowershop, Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, etc.

In final analysis, you will of course choose what best suits your need, but if you wish to start your e-business, look for a competent ecommerce hosting solution.

2006-08-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

Insiders Guide to Web Hosting

A good friend of mine just could not get her head around the concept of web hosting. She likened it as to some ethereal computer somewhere up in the clouds, with an intimately massive hard disc. Well, in many respects, her concept was partially right.

Web hosting is a business that provides servers or computers for your website to actually reside in. It allows users all over the world to be able to access your website. There are a number of ways you can use web hosting.

One of the methods is to do web hosting on your own. This method allows you to have total control over your website and be able to have control of all hosting services you require.

The biggest drawback for this hosting method is it is very expensive and can be very difficult. It requires a lot of technical skills to do web hosting. Unless you have the money and technical skills required, it is highly recommended that you turn to one of the many hosting services provided by reputable hosting providers rather than doing it on your own.

But if you are determined, you can host your websites on a desktop computer. The disadvantage in doing this though is that all files and accounts on your personal computer can be exposed to security risks, such as hackers.

In order to prevent this you need to install costly software called a firewall and this in itself can prove very time consuming as well - these firewalls sometimes block the very things you want on your computer!

Aside from that, the amount of time you need for web hosting leaves you little time to attend to other business - not a good idea.

Another web hosting option is free hosting. Free hosting can be good if your website is a personal one. Also, if the web hosting features are secondary considerations for you.

There are some disadvantages in using free web hosting though

1. fact that you cannot use customer service,

2. the number of selling banners on your site,

3. uptime is not guaranteed and others...

If you are running a business, it is a huge disadvantage to have no uptime guarantee considering the fact that you are relying on the business site to generate sales or provide necessary info about your products.

Paid web hosting is another viable option. But you need to consider the web hosting costs before you sign the dotted line. You also need to know beforehand what features are you exactly looking for to prevent paying for costs of features that you do not really need.

When choosing a web hosting service, there are a number of things you should look out for:

1. Does the service offer an easy to use control panel. i.e. is it easy to upload your files and so forth.

2. Has it got a stats counter, so you can see what activity is going on on your web sites.

3. Does it support your actual applications. Some sites may only offer Linux, which may not run some applications.

4. Does it offer good levels of technical support

5. Does it run an Affiliate Program ( so if you are happy, you will recommend it, and make a few bob)

6. Does it offer a high percentage of 'Up Time'. i.e do they have a good reputation. You don't want your sites down rally for any time at all. Time is money.

7. Does it offer a fixed number of domain names, or sub domain names, or is it pen ended?

8, What volume of bandwidth can they offer you, or do you have to pay more over certain volumes of downloads per month.

9. Based on personal experience, if you go for a 'branded' web hosting site ( i.e. an affiliate of a large organization (like GoDaddy for instance) make sure that the affiliate is not going to go belly up, or walk away with your money. Check that you are covered at least in some extent from the main web server organization, I once lost all my hosting on such a service provider during 2005, which cost me dear in lost business and relocating dozens of my web sites to another host.

10. Make sure the service is within your budget.

This is not by any means an exhaustive list. There is a Blog on my main site I see the Author Bio Box) if you would like to add any other comments.

Web hosting services could cost you for as low as $10 to as high as $5,000 a month. The cost will depend on the disk space, data transfer, features you add and whether or not you require a dedicated server.

Dedicated server refers to web hosting a single company's web site only. Dedicated servers cater for large companies with complex features in their websites. That would justify their huge monthly charges of $5,000. Chances are you are not looking to something quite that big - not yet anyways!

Payment schemes for paid web hosting are monthly, semi-annually, annually or once every 2 years.

Small companies can use shared server services so as to minimize the costs. $5,000 a month web hosting fee is definitely way too much for individuals or small to medium-sized companies. Shared servers serve the same purpose and are much more affordable.

Most paid web hosting service has money back no questions asked guarantee. They also assure you of 99% uptime. In cases where they were not able to maintain a 99% uptime, some reputable web hosting service will reimburse you an amount equal to the number of downtime minutes.

Web hosting can be a simple or complicated process depending on the kind of features your website requires. Whether you opt for a free or paid web hosting service, the decision would boil down to personal preference and necessity.

Getting on the web can be a profitable and enjoyable experience, I hope this article has helped clear up any issues you had with web hosting information.

2006-08-06T21:32:00.000-07:00

Best Web Hosting?

So you are looking for the best web hosting options. You casually slide on over to google or your favorite search engine, and type in "web hosting" and what do you see? As of this writing, something like:

Results 1 - 10 of about 780,000,000 for web hosting

Hmm. Ok, your on your lunch hour at work, thinking you can knock this out in an hour tops. However, you just realized that if you start now you might wade through those results in a mere... light year or 2.

At this point, most people take 1 of 2 options:

1) Stare blankly at the screen while their brain continues to melt down as they ponder how they will ever figure out which web hosting company to trust with their website and money or

2) Calmly and cool-ly type the words "web hosting review" into their favorite search engine's cuddly little query form. If this is you, then smart move. Come to think of it (wait for the ah-ha moment...) that's probably how you found this article. Pure genius.

Anyway, let's boil it all down. Your decision needs to be driven by a few basic criteria:

How much storage space do you need?

Disk space has gotten so cheap that this is almost moot. For a personal web site, almost any basic package you buy will have more than most people ever need. Maybe even more than most small business websites need. Basically, space is cheap nowadays, but keep it in mind if your site will have vast numbers of articles or content, media files, or in some other way will use lots of space.

How much transfer space do you need?

Ditto. See above. Except, you do have to pay attention to disk transfer space if your site gets to the point of having incredible gobs of traffic each day. If so, and your hosting package only includes a limited amount of transfer space, you will be charged for the extra usage, or else your site will lock up or become unavailable to site visitors. If you do experience this problem, upgrade your account to get more transfer space - and then contact us via our Feedback Form and explain in detail how you managed to get all that traffic ;)

How reliable is the web host?

This means: "what is their guarantee for up time?" And that means: "can they guarantee at least 99.9% up-time?" If not, move on. For a great discussion of web hosting uptime guarantees and what they really mean, take a look at this article.

What features do you need?

Okay, this could get really long, but I will do my best to be brief. Which features you need is driven by what kind of website you are planning. Is it a personal site for friends or family or a professional web site? Will it be created with MS FrontPage? Will it be a forum or community site? Windows based or Linux? Do you require an Apache server? Will you be using SSI's (server side includes)? Will your site contain, or be primarily, a blog? I think you get the idea now, so I will shut up about features. If you don't know what these terms mean, don't worry about it. Basic packages abound that will likely exceed your wildest dreams about the features you actually need.

How competitive is the pricing?

Now this is a good one. It is a buyer's market people, so keep that in mind. Their are thousands of web hosting companies (maybe even millions, as in 780,000,000 ) Regardless of exactly how many, it is a-lot, and if you remember Economics 101, you will recall the law of supply and demand, which states roughly that "...the more saturated the market is for web hosting, the greater the features, disk space, guarantees, and technical support will be for a lower price than you can imagine..."

Web Hosting has become so affordable that you have no excuse not to launch that web site or blog you have dreamt about all of your life (or at least since the mid 90's) with all kinds of professional features and capabilities, for a price that amounts to peanuts (or a mere pittance if you prefer.)

Once you have answered these questions, you will be much better armed to recognize the web host that has the most to offer you for the lowest price.

Now you see? That wasn't so bad, and you probably have another 24 minutes or so on your lunch hour, so go get a sandwich, or better yet, get cracking on reading the web hosting reviews at 5pcom.com - And stop oozing brain all over your keyboard.

2006-08-06T01:14:00.000-07:00

Linux Hosting vs Windows Hosting

Linux hosting traces its birth from 'Linux', an open-source computer operating system based upon the concept of free software available to anyone to freely use, improve, modify and even redistribute. Windows hosting, on the other hand, relates to Windows operating system wherein the software is proprietary item of Microsoft.

Since being an open-source operating system, Linux hosting tends to be cheaper than Windows hosting. Besides, Linux hosting is considered as one of the main pillars of the LAMP server-software combination - Linux, Apache, MySQL and Php/Perl/Python. Popularity of Linux hosting among web developers can be judged from the fact that a great many open-source software have been created and are being continuously created for free use among discerning web enthusiasts.

Whether one chooses Linux hosting or Windows hosting will to a great extent depend on what the webmaster proposes to do with his website. Here is a quick rundown of both Linux hosting and Windows hosting.

Linux Hosting

Linux hosting is a good choice if you consider that you have perpetual options of using open-source software for your hosting needs. Linux hosting would mean that the operating system is fully compatible with PHP, which is steadily becoming the most popular programming language.

It is important to remember that Linux is a breeding ground of practicing programmers all over the globe and innumerable applications are being authored, re-written and tested all the time. What this means in simple terms is Linux hosting will always keep the door open to let in fresh air of new discoveries. For an avid user, nothing beats Linux hosting in this aspect.

The other advantage with Linux hosting is that it is cheap. Why? Since most application software are free to install and use, the hosting cost is reduced to only maintenance of servers. Since proprietary software are not installed, many overhead expenses are avoided in case of Linux hosting. This enables hosting providers to pass on the cost-advantage to its customers of Linux hosting.

Here are some examples of popular open-source application software, mostly in PHP, that can be easily used in Linux hosting.

Ecommerce Shopping Cart : OS Commerce, Zen-Cart
Content Management System : Drupal, PHP-Nuke, Mambo
Blog : Wordpress, Nucleus CMS
Photo Gallery : 4Images, Coppermine

Windows Hosting

Windows hosting makes use of Microsoft's proprietary Windows software for the host server. In contrast with Linux hosting, Windows hosting allows integration primarily with Microsoft's own products and services. For example, if you plan dynamic web content, you have to use ASP (Active Server Pages) or the advanced ASP.NET as your programming language, both created by Microsoft to be linked to SQL databases.

Interestingly, if you choose MySQL as your database, you may opt for either Linux hosting or Windows hosting, but in case your choice for database is MS Access, your option is only Windows hosting.

Windows hosting has limited support for CGI / Perl, so if your favorite scripts are in Perl, it has to be Linux hosting for you. On the other hand, good news for FrontPage users is that though it is essentially a proprietary Microsoft-owned software application, many Linux hosting do support FrontPage extensions.

There is an argument that the user interface for Windows hosting is much simpler between the two. However, of late Linux hosting too has improved on this score.

Coming to cost analysis, Windows hosting is costly not only because of proprietary software, but also due to the fact that Windows servers as such are costly, compared to servers used for Linux hosting.

Summing Up

Glossing over, what emerges is that it is the purpose of your website and its future plan that are the determining factors between choosing Linux hosting and Windows hosting. To be sure, all serious hosting providers will, in varying combination, offer a choice of both Windows hosting and Linux hosting.

2006-08-06T01:12:00.000-07:00

Virtual Dedicated or Dedicated Servers Why?

Administration - management access and install and run virtually anything on the server. Manage multiple Web sites and Host multiple Web sites with one server account.

Versatility! A dedicated server/virtual dedicated server can be used for a wide variety of purposes, including gaming, various open source applications or programs can also be installed, virtual (i.e., shared) hosting, and hosting of traffic-intensive (many hits or visits) Web sites. Free! Very Rapid Setup, World-Class Data Centers, 24x7 FTP Access, Best-of-breed Routers and Servers, Red Hat Fedora Core 4 OS, Intrusion Prevention Systems, 24x7 Email, Telephone and Web-based Tech Support, 24x7 Physical Security and 24x7 Network Monitoring.

Virtual dedicated/dedicated servers offer many of the capabilities and features of dedicated servers, including administration (root) access and dedicated IP addresses, but at a much lower price. However, as a virtual dedicated server is, indeed virtually dedicated, the patron in fact shares the server space with a small number of other customers. But, because each virtual dedicated server is effectively inaccessible from other accounts on the server, the user has full control over the server space. As well, virtual dedicated server plans feature very high performance and available disk space and bandwidth.

Virtual private servers, which enable web hosting providers to offer virtual dedicated servers, are based on the concept of partitions (meaning divided space or parts) on a powerful computer with large storage capacity that has a number of terminals for individual's user's connected to it. This is known as a mainframe that allows each division to function as a virtual standalone (operating independently) server dedicated to a single customer. To ensure very high and very reliable performance for all accounts, our server form case (boxes) are partitioned in such a way that each virtual dedicated server operates almost entirely independently of the other clientele regulars accounts that share the server space. This means that with a virtual dedicated server, you will enjoy consistent, high performance, even when usage peaks on the main server.

Also, build your 'ON' Dedicated Server! This option you do not have to choose a prefigured server. For an example, choose the OS (Operating System - Windows or Linux Red Hat OS 2 or 4), Need More Storage Space, Bandwidth, More RAM Memory, Choose your Control Panel and to Manage from 30 to 100 Domains, Regulate the Space for Each and the Bandwidth for Each Site as well from the Same Admin Account, need to Add More Security - External Hardware Router with a Firewall, Need to Backup with FTP or Use it to Restore if, Changes need to be made, back to your site meaning back to its original state. Mange it!

Virtual dedicated/dedicated servers are particularly useful for companies, businesses and individuals that run higher-traffic Web sites or complex applications and thus need the bandwidth, consistent performance, and flexibility of a virtual dedicated/dedicated server.

Versatility and a dedicated server/virtual dedicated server can be used for a wide variety of purposes. Administration access and install and run virtually anything on the server. Manage multiple Web sites and Host multiple Web sites on one server account

by 101Domainames.com

2006-08-06T01:09:00.000-07:00

Dedicated Web Hosting - When & Why

Dedicated web hosting means leasing an entire host-server - not shared by anyone else - in which to locate your website. Usually the main consideration is security of data while deciding whether or not dedicated web hosting is needed for a website. In this article, we will walk down the aisle and try to understand why you would need dedicated web hosting.

Why dedicated web hosting?

Imagine you are a home-based programmer and you use your desktop computer for your work. Imagine again that your kids too use your computer, when you are not working, to chat online or to send and receive emails. A scenario such as this works fine until one fine morning you discover your computer has stopped functioning and all your data is lost. Not because you did something wrong but because your kids have inadvertently let in a virus that has wreaked havoc on your computer.

What would you do? Logic suggests you stop your kids using your computer so that your hard work is not wasted this way. Dedicated web hosting is similar to this concept. If you choose not to allow any other website to be hosted on your server, you are in fact opting for dedicated web hosting.

Who may need dedicated web hosting?

For many companies, data security is a major issue. Think of multinational banks or credit card companies. Since they store and transmit sensitive data of their customers, it is imperative that any possibility of data theft or manipulation is completely eliminated. Dedicated web hosting is a necessity for them.

Then again, consider big software companies who work on and create software products. They need to test and retest their products before releasing in the market. They have a large stake and privacy is uppermost. For them too, dedicated web hosting is a must.

Resellers of hosting services are another lot who prefer dedicated web hosting. If you are in business of providing hosting solutions, you will not want your server space cluttered with others.

Isn't it costly?

Yes indeed. Dedicated web hosting comes at a price. Starting around $100 a month the cost may top $1000 or more depending on service and amenities needed. Typically, if you settle for lower monthly charge, you get a bare-bone server plus an assurance of routine maintenance and some minimal service like system upgrade, tweaking firewall, configuring control panel and suchlike. In many cases of dedicated web hosting, hosting providers may ask to be compensated for technical support.

If you need more assistance for your dedicated web hosting, your cost will increase. But at the same time, expect greater level of management support from your hosting provider. Before you decide which way to go, it is a good idea to talk over details with a few providers to ensure that you will get what you want.

Advantages of dedicated web hosting

Despite higher cost, dedicated web hosting has certain distinct advantages. First is of course the liberty to tailor-make your software requirements that would reside on your server. You choose only those you need. This means freeing up your server space to a large extent. Second, dedicated web hosting will let you afford not only large storage space but big amount of bandwidth as well. This is crucial because surfers looking for your site can gain access fast.

Third, with dedicated web hosting, you will have direct control on your server. You can quickly attend to your clients, should the need arise.

Summing Up

If paying more than usual for your hosting solution is not a bother, dedicated web hosting will prove eminently viable. More so if your website needs:

- higher security over data storage and transmission,
- large storage space,
- large bandwidth volume, and above all,
- proprietary software to test and implement.

Be independent; be responsive with dedicated web hosting.

2006-08-04T01:24:00.000-07:00

Deciphering Website Hosting

Whether you're an entrepreneur thinking about starting a website business or a website developer who needs to find a good host, its a good idea to know how web hosting works to ensure that your website launch goes smoothly.

There are many website hosting companies on the internet, and each offers a different list of services for different types of websites. Here are some of the common features that you'll see on most web hosts and how to decipher them.

Website Space: Website space is the physical location of where your website files and images reside. Your HTML web pages and also your web programming pages will be stored at this location. Some web hosts offer 100MB and others offer up to 10,000MB or more.

If your website only takes up five to seven pages then even 100mb might be too much space since most webpages take up very little space.

If your website is content based and requires lots of images, text, articles, videos, then you should make sure your host has more then 100mb of webspace. Often though webspace will not be a major factor when searching for a webhost. Most web hosting companies will provide more then enough space for the average website.

Bandwidth / Traffic / Monthly Transfer Rate: Bandwidth is how much information can be transferred from your website.

Think of it this way. If you have 1 webpage that takes up 1mb and you're monthly bandwidth limit is 100mb. This means that once 100 people visit your website, your bandwidth limit will be maxed out. You won't have any bandwidth available until the next month. Usually webhosts offer monthly bandwidth limits of 3,000 MB or 10,000 MB. Don't worry about bandwidth because none of you're webpages will take up 1mb.

Once you start receiving thousands of visitors monthly and see your bandwidth increase then you may have to pay additional fee for that month for the extra bandwidth, and consider upgrading your services. As with website space bandwidth will not be a factor when searching for a webhost because most will provide you with more then enough bandwidth for your website.

Web Programming Language: If you have features such as Comments Form - to email comments from visitors to your email account, Newsletter Signup for your visitors or other dynamic features then you will need a web programming language. There are numerous web programming languages. To find out which one you need for your website ask your website development team or your webmaster. They'll let you know which programming language they plan on using for your website. Common Web Programming languages include ASP.NET, PHP, and ColdFusion MX.

Web Programming language will be a big factor when searching for a webhost because each webhost will offer a different combination of support for web programming languages, so choose wisely.

Database: If you plan on storing your visitor's email address, name and other information, or keep a catalog of your products then you will need to use a database. Some of the common databases that websites use include Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, and Access. Most hosting plans will provide support for atleast one of these databases. As with web programming, you need to ask your website development team which database they plan to use.

Domain Hosting: Usually a website host will allow you to host one domain name such as a .com, or .net, but some website hosts support hosting for more then one website name. This is a great feature because it allows you to host multiple websites on one host, and manage everything from one convenient panel. The downside is that you'll have to share your space, your bandwidth, and maybe even other features with your second website. If you plan on having more then one website then it's a good idea to find out how many domains your web host allows on your hosting plan.

Email: Email should not be a factor when researching a webhost. Most webhosts support some type of email account which allows you to have an email address with your website name: sales@mywebsitename.com or something like that. Keep in mind the amount of space you use in your email might be limited to your overall website space, so get rid of large and unwanted emails.

Customer Support: Customer Support isn't a factor until it becomes one. That's why its a good idea to talk with a hosting representative and see how they respond. Good customer support will become a very important factor, and usually it will be your webmaster that will be working with them.

So how do you decide which website host is right for you?

A good method is to find out which of these features is important for your website. If your website provides business training videos that take up a lot of bandwidth then you will need a website host that can provide you with a lot of bandwidth before it turns into a bottleneck. Videos take up hundreds if not thousand times more bandwidth then your average webpage and in this case your first priority during your search will be to make sure that your host offers adequate bandwidth. Or if you find a host that you like, and if bandwidth does become an issue then make sure that they offer the ability to upgrade your hosting services. Be prepared and make sure to find out the prices for the upgraded plan.

Once you've found your host try hosting your website on a monthly basis instead of the yearly plan. Just as other businesses, web hosting companies offer lower price to entice you to sign up for long term contracts. There's nothing wrong with having a long term contract, but it's not worth it if you decide you don't like this host, or if you find a better host.

If you're still not sure which host to sign up with then talk to your website development team. They can recommend web hosts or offer to host your website with them. You'll also see website hosts provide you with additional features such as shopping cart, website statistics, easy to use control panel software such as Plesk, and other features and software programs to help you manage and profit from your website.

Dedicated Server
If you don't like any of the plans or if you plan on creating a huge website, with tons of content, images, videos, and if you want to be able to install your own custom software then there's another option for you, a dedicated server. With a dedicated server you can install your own software, support for your own choice of programming languages, and as the name suggests it is dedicated for your website or websites depending on what you need. The cost is usually 8 to 10 times more then your average web host, but it will allow you more control and provide you more ways to customize it. And if you plan on hosting dozens of websites then you should consider using a dedicated server.

2006-08-04T01:22:00.000-07:00

Advantages of a dedicated web server

Dedicated web servers provide you with the advantage of renting an entire web server so that you can maintain a large website, while not concerning yourself with the problem of employing the staff to support it. Such a facility can be availed from a dedicated web hosting provider.

The dedicated web server will provide for a high capacity hard disk storage space to serve your business needs and the technical support, provided by the web hosting company is so through and comprehensive that you find not hassles in running it on a 24x7x365 basis.

Companies in which the official website requires a dedicated resource due to of high volume of traffic or which require a web site that has customized options usually go in for a dedicated web server. The dedicated web server provides massive savings, as the overall cost per web-site, virtual web server or domain comes down to drastically. They have the advantage of getting complete control since they can get complete mastery control over all the sites they host on their server.

The inherent features of the dedicated web server make it to be flexible and any company using them can create almost infinite POP3 accounts and FTP accounts without any further cost. A dedicated server provides enhanced security that a shared server and this is advantageous to any business using the server.

In a situation, where a company wants a dedicated server for the benefits of fast access, customer service, and customization, but do not need all the physical space, they can become a web host themselves and sub-lease that extra space to others to set up their own websites and domains.

Upgrading is quite easy as you can simply add new features and facilities and make your website business interesting and unique. You can add your chosen program for web-server management to keep pace with technological advancements. The greatest beneficial point is that when you encounter any problems with the server, the service provider will immediately trouble-shoot and solve your problem.

2006-08-04T01:20:00.000-07:00

Why Choose Dedicated Server Hosting?

A dedicated web server is a server that is dedicated solely to one client which is most often a large business. Companies choose to go in for a dedicated web server because the dedicated server provides them with a great level of security and control, an aspect they cannot get if they were to share the server with other companies. They can get exclusive access to the server and also complete control of the operating system, application configurations and hardware. This ensures more performance reliability.

Using a dedicate webs server enable companies to host multiple websites over the same server. Should they decide to deploy sophisticated applications such as data streaming media solutions and other complex configurations, they have the freedom to do so with a dedicated web server. The dedicate web server has all the necessary configuration, capacity and flexibility to offer such features, which cannot otherwise be availed with a shared web server. Those businesses that are expecting a growth in their volume of work or which are currently experiencing business expansions would do well to go in for a dedicated web server. The dedicated web sever will facilitate them to accommodate significant traffic increase which come with greater volume of business.

Dedicated web servers are suitable for organizations which use RAM intensive applications and where the website traffic is intensive. Organizations that use MS applications with an NT operating systems require the use of a processor's full resources to again high performance and speed levels. This is provided by a dedicated web server. Since such a web server is exclusively accessed only by that organization thy can also store sensitive and propriety material on it.

You can also customize the server to suit your requirement, which is a features that comes in very handy for a business that' going to see a lot of changes in the near future

2006-08-04T01:19:00.000-07:00

Important concerns to understand before taking up a dedicated web server's service

Dedicated web servers are servers that can be rented from a dedicated web hosting provider for online business needs. The most important reason as to why large businesses go in for a dedicated web server is to maintain a large website without having to go take on a large staff to deal with the maintenance issues related to site uptime.

Though taking up the services of a dedicated web service provider sounds good as it provides many benefits, there are equally many points of concern that need to be looked into. If you are going to opt for a dedicated web server service, then you must understand that you depend on the host entirely for this service. You only own the data on the server and this means in the event of any unhappy relations with your web hosting provider you cannot walk away from the situation by simply taking your server.

When working through the server, if data transfers exceed the allowance for data transfer, you have to pay a financial penalty for the excess. Using the services of a dedicated web server can be expensive as the dedicated web server providers usually charge quite a bit for providing this service and for your use of the hardware on which your site is located. Such a cost must be acceptable for you.

Factors such as having a large enough website to justify the cost and the security provided for your data and equipment will influence your decision on taking up dedicated web server services. You work flow must have a requirement for high bandwidth to take up a dedicated web server service.

You must have full confidence in the web hosting provider in providing you with a fully functional service that rarely breaks down. Furthermore they must be able to give you the technical assistance you require in the event of faults or downtime. If any of the above mentioned factors is not satisfied, then defiantly going in for a dedicated web server will not be worth the cost spent on the service.

2006-08-04T01:17:00.000-07:00

Key features of a dedicated web server

Dedicated server hosting offers you the opportunity to rent an entire server for your business needs. Dedicated web servers are usually preferred by large business because of their volume of work that is carried out online. A dedicated web server gives them the advantage of fast data access and provides accommodation for a large volume of internet traffic. Here's a look at some key features offered by a dedicated web hosting service provider to their customers.

One of the important features that must be provided by the web host is a complete set of server management tools that facilitate you to create, modify and delete domains and users and facilitates you to park domains. Such services mostly come with on-location, unlimited, 24x7 live technical phone supports with no wait time. This is vital when dealing with some technical faults or snags. You can also customize the server to suit your requirements.

Some web hosting providers offer risk free contracts where you can use the services of the dedicated web server for thirty days and if you are not satisfied with the outcome you money back is guaranteed. By using a dedicated web server you can eliminate the need for IT-personnel or an in-house systems administrator, since full server administration is included free with every package by the web hosting provider.

Other important features offered are free upgrades of patches, hot-fixes, and service packs and log file rotation. All dedicated web server providers offer highest level of security and free repair and maintenance of your hardware. The dedicated server is placed in a safe and secure environment by the provider and dedicated server rooms have no public access. Packages can also offer bandwidth utilization reports, monitoring of your server 24x7 basis.

If you want to receive the best of features or n attractive package that meets up to your expectation, look around all the service providers, compare prices features and their level of experience in the area before finalizing on a particular provider.

2006-07-26T19:25:00.000-07:00

Web Hosting FAQs

Get the answers to your most common questions regarding Windows Web Hosting. Our Windows FAQs guides you through from the basics to what to look for in a Windows Hosting Company.

What is Windows?
Windows is a personal computer operating system from Microsoft that, together with some commonly used business applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel, has become a de facto "standard" for individual users in most corporations as well as in most homes.

Can I host my site on Windows?
Yes. As a matter of fact, more and more people every day are choosing Windows as their hosting platform. The tools for developing web applications on the Windows platform are quickly gaining momentum in the web design marketplace, in turn making creating websites on Windows more appealing.

What is IIS, and what can it do for me?
IIS (Internet Information Server) is a group of Internet servers (including a Web or Hypertext Transfer Protocol server and a File Transfer Protocol server) with additional capabilities for Microsoft's Windows NT and Windows 2000 Server operating systems. IIS is Microsoft's entry to compete in the Internet server market that is also addressed by Apache, Sun Microsystems, O'Reilly, and others. With IIS, Microsoft includes a set of programs for building and administering Web sites, a search engine, and support for writing Web-based applications that access databases. Microsoft points out that IIS is tightly integrated with the Windows NT and 2000 Servers in a number of ways, resulting in faster Web page serving.

Why should I choose to host my site on a Windows-based machine?
Windows machines should be used when Microsoft technologies are needed or desired. IIS (Internet Information Server) is the standard for utilizing ASP (and ASP.NET), and is required if you wish to utilize Windows databases, such as Microsoft Access and SQL Server. Windows hosting is also required if you wish to use any components (CGI, ISAPI, or COM) that were developed using a Windows-based programming language.

What scripting languages are available for Windows?
There are many options available when it comes to writing CGI scripts on a Windows machine. The most common at the time of this writing are ASP, ASP.NET, and PHP. There are many introductions, tutorials, and even sample scripts available on the Internet when it comes to utilizing these scripting languages.

Can I get pre-made code for my Windows website?
Yes. There are many pre-made programs and objects written for Windows web servers. These programs vary in functionality from small components that you build into your website, to full-blown enterprise applications. Likewise, the price for such varies as well, ranging from free to very expensive. There are a number of websites on the internet that cater to Windows website development, that offer links to both free and purchased software.

What databases are available for my Window website?
That depends mostly on the web hosting provider you select to host your website. There are many flavors of databases that run on Windows, but the most prevalent among web host providers are Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server (SQL2000), and MySQL. These databases (with the exception of Access) are all relational in nature, and allow highly optimized communication with your website for quick retrieval of information. Microsoft Access databases are actually just database files created with Microsoft Access that the web server can read and write to. Access databases don’t offer the processing power of the other database options.

How does Windows compare to Unix Hosting?
Here is a short comparison of key features, and which are available for the Windows and Unix platforms.

Features

Unix

Windows

MS FrontPage 2000, 2002	X	X
Flash	X	X
Shockwave	X	X
Real Audio/Video	X	X
Cgi Scripts	X	X
Perl	X	X
PHP	X	X
SSH (Secure Telnet)	X	X
MySQL	X	X
Web-Based Control System	X
Anonymous FTP	X	X
Web Site Graphical Statistics	X	X
Web-Based Email System	X	X
SQL 2000		X
Miva/XML	X	X
Cold Fusion	X	X
ASP (Active Server Pages)	X	X
MS Access		X
Visual Basic Scripts		X
Windows Media		X

What should be my main concerns when searching for a Windows hosting provider?
As with any business relationship, it is important that you provider has a solid foundation in the business, and isn’t a fly-by-night type of operation. Many web-hosting providers fail each year, so it is important to find a well-established company to do business with. Next, you want to make sure of their technical abilities. What are their technician’s qualifications, what is their connection to the Internet, what are their guarantees in regards to customer support and uptime? All of these questions are crucial to locating and selecting a quality Windows hosting provider.

What qualifications should my Windows host provide?
It is essential that the support and management staff be properly trained to handle all of the nuances associated with networking and hosting on the Windows platform. The two most acceptable certifications in this matter are the MCSA and the MCSE. The MCSE certification covers the planning, design, and implementation Microsoft Windows server solutions and architectures. The MCSA is more of an administration certification, which covers the management and maintenance of typically complex computing environments of medium- to large-sized companies.

Glossary of terms:

ASP
An Active Server Page (ASP) is an HTML page that includes one or more scripts (small embedded programs) that are processed on a Microsoft Web server before the page is sent to the user. ASP is a feature of the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), but, since the server-side script is just building a regular HTML page, it can be delivered to almost any browser.

ASP.NET
ASP.NET (originally called ASP+) is the next generation of Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP), a feature of their Internet Information Server (IIS). Both ASP and ASP.NET allow a Web site builder to dynamically build Web pages on the fly by inserting queries to a relational database in the Web page. ASP.NET is different than its predecessor in two major ways: it supports code written in compiled languages such as Visual Basic, C++, C#, and Perl, and it features server controls that can separate the code from the content, allowing WYSIWYG editing of pages.

CGI
Common Gateway Interface. In Layman’s terms, a CGI program is a program that can be executed as part of a web server process.

Cold Fusion
Special software package that simplifies the creation of database driven web sites.

Component
A small piece of functionality, that may consist of a script, small program, or even a COM object that can be used within a Windows website.

MCSA
Microsoft Certified Systems Administrators (MCSAs) administer network and systems environments based on the Microsoft Windows® platforms.

MCSE
Microsoft Certified Systems Engineers (MCSEs) analyze business requirements to design and implement an infrastructure solution based on the Windows platform and Microsoft Servers software.

PHP
In Web programming, PHP is a script language and interpreter that is freely available and used primarily on Linux Web servers.

SQL SERVER
This is Microsoft’s SQL based database server. It’s speed and processing power are among the best available in the industry today.

Uptime
Uptime is a computer industry term for the time during which a computer is operational. Downtime is the time when it isn't operational. Uptime is sometimes measured in terms of a percentile. For example, one standard for uptime that is sometimes discussed is a goal called five 9s - that is, a computer that is operational 99.999 percent of the time.

2006-07-26T19:11:00.000-07:00

Web Hosting FAQs

Our Frequently Asked Questions on Colocation hosting gives you insight on what you can expect from a colocation host, when you would need such a service, what is involved and many more commonly asked questions.

What is Co-location?
In general, collocation is moving or placing things together, sometimes implying a proper order. On the Internet, this term (often spelled "colocation" or "co-location") is used to mean the provision of space for a customer's telecommunications equipment on the service provider's premises. For example, a Web site owner could place the site's own computer servers on the premises of the Internet service provider (ISP) who provides co-location hosting services.

Who needs Co-location hosting?
Customers who have full control over all aspects of their website and the way it operates are best suited for dedicated hosting. Those customers who want to supply the hardware, or want the ability at any time to remove their server, or move it to another location are suited for internal hosting, meaning they host the websites themselves and pay for the internet connectivity and networking needs. Those customers who meet the above requirements, but aren’t able to host their website themselves are suited for co-location hosting.

Who actually supplies the server?
When using co-location providers, the server actually belongs to you, the customer. Normally, this entails a server being completely configured and loaded with information, being delivered to the co-location provider ready to go. That being said, some co-location providers offer programs where you can purchase a server, or even have one custom made through them.

Will a co-location provider make sure my machine stays online?
That depends on your provider. Co-location providers typically offer Server Monitoring contracts, which make them responsible for watching your system and making sure it is running properly, within their power, of course. If you have a custom written application on your server and it is causing problems with the operation of your server, it will be your responsibility to fix it.

If something goes wrong with my server hardware, who fixes it
That again depends on the agreement you have with your co-location provider. Most providers offer Hardware Support contracts, which make them responsible for keeping your machines operating mechanically. If you supply your own computer, and would like to have spare parts on site, you will typically need to purchase the parts in advance and supply them to your provider. For a computer purchased through the provider, they will normally have spare parts on hand, and/or a relationship with the hardware provider that supplied the hardware itself. Even though your provider fixes your machines, you will still be responsible for the cost of the associated parts. Now, if you do not have a hardware agreement with your provider, you can either pay them to diagnose and repair the problem, or send your own technician to their hosting facilities for the same purpose.

Is there a limit to the size of my server?
There are limitations and pricing differences in relation to the size of your server(s). For example, rack mount servers come in several sizes depending on the manufacturer and the hardware contained within. A 1U server is half the size of a 2U server; hence it takes up less physical space in a rack, leaving room for more servers. As such, 1U servers are less expensive to co-locate than 2U servers. Mid tower and Full tower cases have similar limitations as well. Some providers only have facilities for rack mount servers, while others provide areas for tower boxes as well.

What things do I need to take into consideration when selecting a provider?
Selecting a co-location provider can be a somewhat complicated process. When selecting a provider, there are several key areas that you will need to take into consideration to make the best choice possible.

• Bandwidth – What are the tiers of bandwidth available, and what does it cost if you exceed your limit for the month.
• Rack Space – What are the price differences, based on the size of server you want to place at the provider? There are several types and sizes available, and most providers charge different amounts for each.
• Hardware Support – Does the provider offer Hardware Support contracts? If so, how quickly is the turn around for a hardware repair, and are parts available on-hand or do they need to be shipped? If the provider does not offer Hardware Support contracts, or you do not wish to utilize them, then what methods are available to repair a down server? Do they offer services to diagnose and repair issues for a fee, or allow a technician of your choosing access to the servers?
• Internet Connectivity – What size connection does the provider have to the Internet? How many connections do they have, in the case of a failure?
• Uptime – What kind of Uptime does the provider guarantee for your presence on the Internet?
• Server Monitoring – Does the provider offer Server Monitoring services, to ensure that your system is running and operational at all times?
• Static IP Addresses – How many IP Addresses will the provider allocate to your servers, and what is the cost of obtaining more, when needed?
• Backup Services – What level of data backups are included, if any? What additional levels of data backups are available, at what intervals, and at what cost?

Glossary of terms:

1U, 2U, etc.
This number represents the actual size of a rack mount server in “rack units”. 1U is the standardized size of a rack mount server. A 2U server takes as much space as 2 1U servers, and a 3.5U server would take the space of 3 and a half 1U servers. Server racks have a finite amount of space available, which is normally measured using “rack unit” dimensions.

Bandwidth
Bandwidth has a general meaning of how much information can be carried in a given time period (usually a second) over a wired or wireless communications link.

Dedicated hosting
The Dedicated Hosting environment provides an exclusive server or servers devoted solely to your web site. You do not share a server with other customers, as with shared hosting.

IP Address
In the most widely installed level of the Internet Protocol (IP) today, an IP address is a 32-bit number that identifies each sender or receiver of information that is sent in packets across the Internet.
Rack mount - Much professional video, audio, and computer equipment can be mounted in standardized 19" racks. Rack dimensions are often given in "rack units."
Uptime - Uptime is a computer industry term for the time during which a computer is operational. Downtime is the time when it isn't operational. Uptime is sometimes measured in terms of a percentile. For example, one standard for uptime that is sometimes discussed is a goal called five 9s - that is, a computer that is operational 99.999 percent of the time.

2006-07-26T19:06:00.000-07:00

Web Hosting FAQs

Learn about database hosting, whether you need it and what is involved in our database hosting FAQs section.

What is Database hosting?
In most cases a database host is a specific kind of dedicated server, which is going to be used to run a database intensive application. The server can either be just for the database itself or it could also run the web site too, it really depends on how much system resources will be needed by the database. A system setup to run intense database applications will have a significant amount more RAM than a regular server. For example, if you are looking at a regular web-hosting server and you think 512 Megs will be enough then you would probably be looking at between 1 Gig to 2 Gigs for a database server.

Who needs a database host?
Anyone who is using a database intensive program like a CRM, ERP, or a custom made application should look into a database host because they have more memory, which will increase the speed and reliability of the application.

Why use a database server?
A database server is just a specific kind of dedicated server. So if a database server fits your needs it is something you should look into.

What are some applications that might run on a database server?
Some examples of applications that are used on database servers are CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems.

Can a database server only be used for a database?
No a database server can be used for anything but it is a specific kind of dedicated server that is setup to get the maximum performance out of a database or applications that rely heavily on a database. To do this the server has a large amount of memory and a few other configurations are done so that the database is the priority over anything else running on the system.

Why do database servers contain more RAM?
Database servers are interesting pieces of software in that they store megs and even gigs of information in tables, which are made up of columns and rows, and yet doing a simple command we can get a result set that match the information we want in a matter of tenths of a second. Just as an example, google.com strives to keep all its searches down below half a second and they have over 3 trillion web pages in their database.

Very quickly, without getting to in-depth on how database software works, I will cover why having more RAM usually speeds up the process of getting data from a database. It is about 10 times faster to get data out of RAM, as it is to get data off a hard drive. This means that if we were to store some of the database data in RAM then getting results from that data in ram would be at least 10 times faster than if we pulled it off of the hard drive. Due to this fact database software developers use special algorithms to figure out what data to store in RAM so that results from queries are faster. The more RAM the server has the more data from the database can be stored in it and that leads to faster results. When the database is the key part of the entire application faster is always better so this is why database servers have so much more ram than a regular web server.

Does my E-commerce site need a database host?
Chances are you do not need a database host for your E-commerce site, you probably just need a web-hosting package/plan that gives you access to a database. The difference here between a database host and having access to a database is significant. When doing database hosting the database is the most important part of the entire application and is where all the processing is done.

What kind of administration is needed?
Just like in a dedicated server there is a lot of work to be done. Unlike a regular dedicated server though there will be more time spent on doing database administration tasks: optimizing tables and other database specific tasks.

If you do not know exactly what needs to be done or don’t have someone to do it for you then you might be interested in a managed system. A managed system is where the hosting company does some or most of the system security patching for you. This also includes general maintenance in most cases but you should ask about specifics.

Other companies that don’t have “managed” database servers are usually able to sell you a service along with your hosting package for a monthly fee, which usually includes patching of the server and regular maintenance. Then beyond that they will do optimization of the tables and check to make sure the tables are setup in such a way that it does not take more resources than it should in terms of how long it takes for queries to finish running. If you needed a database server and do not have the time or desire to do all the maintenance on it then you might be interested in looking for a managed server or at least an add-on service package that will have the hosting company take care of the maintenance for you.

What about custom software on a database server?
The developer of the software should give you guidelines as to how much disk space, memory, and processing power is needed just to run the software. They should also tell you what is required per user beyond just running the server. From this point you will have to figure out how many users will be connected at the same time. Once you know how many users will be connected at the same time and how much resources are needed per user just do the simple multiplication to figure out exactly what is going to be needed. A database server is great for applications that heavily use a database and require a lot of memory so if your results show you need a lot of memory then a database server is the best way to go.

Glossary of terms:

Database
A database is a collection of data in tables and rows arranged in such a way that searching and retrieving the data is quick.

MySQL
“The world’s most popular open source database” as they say. MySQL does not have all the features the other database servers have but because it leaves out a few features it tends to be faster than some of the other database servers.

MS SQL
“The enterprise relational database management and analysis system” as Microsoft calls it. Microsoft’s SQL server runs on the Windows operating system.

CRM
Customer Resource Management systems usually run on database servers because they are database intensive applications. While there are some web based CRM systems most are not web based and therefore require a special client to connect to the system. CRM systems are used to manage issues with customers to make sure no one is left unhappy.

ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning systems usually run on database servers much like CRM systems because they are database intensive applications. Much like CRM systems, ERP systems are not usually web based either and require a special client to connect to the application. ERP systems are used to help companies manage their resources from money to personnel to make the most of what they have.

Dedicated Server
The Dedicated Hosting environment provides an exclusive server or servers devoted solely to your web site. You do not share a server with other customers, as with shared hosting.

2006-07-24T23:49:00.000-07:00

ASP Web Hosting Services for E-Business

ASP web hosting enables the company to create a customized web solution using the Active Server Pages (ASP) technology. Active Server Pages (ASP) is defined as a specification for a web page with .ASP extension that uses ActiveX scripting which could be a VB Script or Jscript code. These are HTML pages with embedded ASP scripts that are processed on the server before pages are being sent to the user. An ASP is similar to CGI scripts only they enable Visual Basic programmers work with the usual tools. A browser's request for an ASP will generate the web server a page with HTML code and sends it back to the browser. ASP allows you to create database driven pages; user can access data in a database and interact with page objects.

ASP web hosting is when a web hosting company provides support for ASP (Active Server Page). ASP code used in ASP Web hosting is intended for a data-driven web site. In this instance, ASP code should be embedded into your web site's HTML Pages. A website developed using ASP can change pages depending on the action of the user. ASP code enables the user to link web pages to a database, where he/she can interact with the web page by logging in and using their own personal settings or they can place commands on the website. Clicking on a web page or typing a URL in the address box is requesting the web server to send you a file to your computer. If the file used a standard HTML, the web page will look exactly the same as it did on the web server. But if it is an ASP file, the server will need to run the HTML code then the ASP code.

ASP Web hosting service for ASP files must use Windows 2000 server. ASP pages are safer to host on a Windows 2000 server. Not only do Windows 2000 server used in an ASP web hosting more stable, they also have IIS (Internet Information Services) that work well with ASP components. If your web site uses a database such as SQL, Access, etc. make sure that your ASP web hosting service provides support for the type of database your web site uses.

It is important to do some research on the ASP web hosting company before you commit. You should study the features and functions the ASP web hosting offers. Choosing the right ASP web hosting could spell huge difference to your web site especially on a business website.

2006-07-24T23:45:00.000-07:00

3 Options For Hosting Multiple Websites

The prices of domain name registration and web hosting have dropped to the point that it's possible to own multiple websites without going broke. If you plan to operate multiple websites, here is some information on the different options available to you.

The first thing to consider when setting up multiple websites is whether or not to host them all with the same web hosting company. Many web hosts offer packages that let you set up multiple sites on a single account and almost all will let you set up multiple accounts, one for each site.

If you are happy with the hosting company you're using for your existing website(s), one advantage of using them for another site is the fact that you know they offer good service and support.

They might also offer discounts for multiple sites, so your costs might be lower if you stay with them again.

On the other hand, if you choose a different host you'll be able to compare the quality of another company with whomever you're currently using. If you ever run into problems with them, you'll have an alternative. It's wise not to "put all your eggs in one basket" as the saying goes.

Another advantage of using a different host is that you'll get a different IP address for each of your sites. If your sites are related to one another and you want to link them together, having different IP addresses can sometimes help your site rank higher in the search engines.

Links from other sites are one of the most important factors in getting your site ranked highly. If those links come from sites on the same IP address, it is a signal to the search engines that they are quite likely all owned by the same person, and they may discount the value of those links.

If you do choose to host all your sites with one company, there are essentially 3 choices - separate accounts for each site, a reseller account where they are all hosted or a dedicated server, again where they are all hosted.

Separate accounts are self-explanatory, so let's look at reseller accounts. As a reseller, you are basically acting as an agent for the hosting company - a middleman between them and the end user.

The idea is that you can set up your own company offering web hosting that is ultimately hosted by the company. You don't have to resell this hosting however - you can use the hosting services for your own websites, essentially "reselling" the hosting to yourself.

A reseller account is nice because all your websites are "under one roof" and you have a single point of contact for any technical problems.

Hosting on a dedicated server gives you complete control of the computer that is the web server. You can install any software you want, any operating system you want and you can allocate resources like memory and hard disk space however you want to divide it up between your sites.

The disadvantage of a dedicated server is that you are responsible for maintaining the server and sometimes even for the technical side of things. If you aren't familiar with the technical side of running a web server, you may need to choose a managed dedicated server, where the hosting company looks after these issues.

Dedicated server are, of course, more expensive than the other options, so unless your websites are well established, with a lot of traffic, they may not fit within your budget.

2006-07-24T23:44:00.000-07:00

1planhost changes name

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Morristown, Tennessee (July 24, 2006) - 1PlanHost.com WebWeavers Internet Services, a useless provider of Windows 2003 web hosting announced today that due to the cancellation of 78% of their customer accounts following a disastrous 'migration' they would no longer be honoring their refund promise.

"We cant afford to pay back all the people p!ssed off with us, " said Darren, 56, CEO "I'm sorry, but we are just a bunch of cowboys. This is Texas, after all".

Designed to serve the needs of professional web developers and Internet entrepreneurs, the 1PlanHost.com Windows 2003 web hosting resellers plan assists customers in starting their own profitable private label hosting business, 1planhost have never really managed to provide a half decent service. Either their servers are down, or their support staff are drunk or just plain dippy.

Despite charging the ludicrous sum of $99 a year for a single domain, 1planhost never really managed to make it work, and their fire sale acquisition by Web Host Plus ('Cowboys you can trust! Yeehaaaa!) was the final nail in the coffin.

"We have decide to rename ourselves '1scamhost' " said Darren, over a large jug of whisky. "Or maybe 'noplanhost'. Aw, fvck it. We've already got our customer's money, so they can all get lost. Now p!ss off - I've got to go to the strip joint".

Companies and individuals interested in partnering with 1PlanHost.com through the resellers program are out of their minds, and should visit 1planhostsucks.blogspot.com

WebWeavers Internet Services is a Tennessee based Windows Web Hosting Company founded in February 1996. The company was privately owned, was debt free and had experienced some growth in the past eight years. Now owned by Web Host plus, 1planhost not only can't keep your website running, they won't refund your money, despite the 'no quibble' so-called 'guarantee' on their website.

Contact Information Website: 1planhostsucks.blogspot.comE-mail: resellers@noplanhost.com Phone: 865-251-1920

2006-07-05T23:47:00.000-07:00

All About Dedicated Hosting Providers

Unless overtly listed otherwise, most web hosting packages you'll come across in your search are what are called shared hosting providers. What this means is that the server or servers that host your website are simultaneously hosting numerous other websites also. This gives you a discounted rate on web hosting services in exchange for tolerating certain technical constraints, like bandwidth, disk space, upload and download speeds, security and privacy, traffic, and probably the most notable restriction -- total control.

If you want total control not only over the administration of your website but also over the very hardware and software used to run it, then you should be evaluating not shared hosting providers, but dedicated hosting providers. If your business is large enough or growing fast enough that it requires its own internet connection and server, you may need a dedicated web host.

What's the downside to going with dedicated hosting providers? In a word: responsibility. In most areas of life, with total control comes total responsibility, and it's no different with hosting providers. With a dedicated server, the onus is on you to buy, install, and maintain the actual equipment -- the server itself -- mounted in the dedicated hosting providers' data center.

Fortunately, you still get the benefit of their presumably top-notch, around-the-clock security over the physical premises, but you remain fully responsible for the security of your cyber-premises. Likewise, dedicated hosting providers will ensure that the systems in the building are all provided with redundant uninterruptible and backup power and environmental controls, but it's you who must keep your machines and cables maintained and functioning in this idyll environment.

How do you identify whether it's time to switch from a shared host to a dedicated host? There are 3 main indicators to stay alert for:

Speed
If the traffic streaming through your shared server is slowing down your customers' pace as they browse your site (or your employees, if an in-house site), it may simply be time to look for more unencumbered shared hosting. But if you've tried several shared hosting providers with the same results, then it may be time to remind yourself how impatient the average web surfer is. While you're jumping from shared host to shared host trying to save a buck, your customers are jumping ship. Your ability to respond promptly and effectively to customer transactions and inquiries cannot be overemphasized either.

Reliability
The limits to your control are nowhere more apparent than in the areas of reliability and security. It's not simply that problems can arise: problems do arise. It's the nature of the biz. And if you don't have unlimited access to your own operating system, software and database apps, etc., there's not much you can do when one arises.

Customizability
If your company is growing fast, you're going to be changing many aspects of your web presence along with it. You may regularly need to tweak your disk space and bandwidth and experiment with using different applications to better serve your changing needs. On a shared host, upgrading in such a way usually involves leaping from one "package" or "plan" to another. These packages are generally preset and may or may not serve your immediate needs. They may be riddled with programs you don't yet need, for example, yet lack in the one singular program you do. Or the next leap up from your current plan has way more disk space and bandwidth than you need at the moment. With a dedicated server, you can make changes incrementally, step forward, step back, heck, step sideways if you need to -- and when you need to.

In large part, it's the size and growth rate of your business that will dictate whether you need a shared or dedicated host. Affordability and personal time commitment are nice secondary considerations, but if your business is booming, you would do it a great injustice to try and save on a few bucks and few extra hours per week of your time in exchange for slower and poorer quality of service for your customers.

By the same token, however, if your business is small enough to function quite smoothly on any of the shared hosting providers out there, don't squander your precious capital on a dedicated server just so you can have total control. Because sometimes total control isn't all it's cracked up to be.

2006-07-05T23:00:00.000-07:00

ASP.NET Web Hosting

ASP means Active Server Pages and it is a server-side technology built by Microsoft to allow website owners to build dynamic web pages. An ASP.NET web site hosting service is a server that supports applications build in ASP.

What Can ASP.NET web hosting Do For You?

An ASP.NET web hosting service allows you to create dynamic web pages. If you are the owner of an online business, you can use ASP.NET to create order forms for your customers to fill in. Another way to use ASP.NET is to create a contact form or make a survey on your site. It also offers you the possibility you to display time, date and other types of information in various ways.

How To Choose an ASP.NET web hosting Service?

The first thing you have to do is take a look at the files you need to host and determine how much storage space you need. The average price for 1GB storage space is less than $10 a month and you have to make sure you don't overpay. Try not to spare your disk space, no matter how much you have. Keep all your ASP.NET and HTML files optimized and compress your images. The smaller they are, the faster will your web pages load.

Another important thing in choosing an ASP.NET web hosting service is bandwidth. If you have included only a few pictures on your website and your files are small, you don't need too much bandwidth. However, if you have larger files, such as big images, MPEG or MP3 files, bandwidth is very important for your pages to load fast.

While some ASP.NET web hosting services provide only basic database options, such as MySQL or Access, others offer MSSQL as well. If you own a small business, Access or MySQL should be enough. However, if you can predict you will have to handle high traffic, an ASP.NET web hosting service is better.

Connectivity is yet another important issue when choosing an ASP.NET web hosting service. Ask your potential provider about the Internet connection they have and the number of ISPs they are connected to for preventing downtime. Ask what their uptime guarantee is and look over customer reviews to see if their clients are satisfied.

Don't be tempted to stop at a very cheap ASP.NET web hosting package. Check if you are dealing with a reliable provider, preferably one that has been in business for several years. Find out about the type of technical support they are offering. You should be able to learn about this from their website. Find out if they have a 24/7 service and a hotline as well. Top ASP.NET web hosting Providers

Discount ASP.NET This is a world leader in ASP.NET web hosting, with three awards from prestigious hosting publications in only one year. You can choose from several ASP.NET packages with advanced features all at affordable prices.

Maximum ASP

Maximum ASP is another reliable ASP.NET web hosting provider, offering a wide range of hosting packages and the most advanced Microsoft technologies.

Seek Dot Net

Seek Dot Net is another worldwide recognized hosting provider, with offices in United States and Australia. They offer a wide range of hosting solutions, such as shared, dedicated and enterprise packages, and provide a high level of technical support. With just a little information on what you need to look for in an ASP.NET host, you will sure find the right provider that will help you develop a strong online business.

2006-07-05T22:58:00.000-07:00

Dedicated Web Site Hosting

A dedicated web side hosting is an Internet hosting service through which you rent an entire server in a data center and you have full control over it.

What Can Dedicated Web Site Hosting Offer You?

Dedicated web site hosting is a good option if you do not have the resources to keep a server inside your company. You might not have the money to buy a server or the time and trained staff to maintain it.

With dedicated web site hosting you rent a server in a data center and you have full access over the operating system, you can partition the space to suit your needs and install other software packages if you find it necessary. Other advantages include large bandwidth, large storage space, high security and high connectivity.

The dedicated web site hosting provider is responsible with maintaining the server equipment and the connectivity. They should take care that the hardware components work properly and sort out any hardware problems that might occur.

How To Choose a Dedicated Web Site Hosting

It's important to choose a dedicated web site hosting provider that allows you to choose the hardware components, operating system and applications that suit your needs best. You also have to be able to make future upgrades, such as larger bandwidth, faster processor and more storage space easily and for a moderate price in case the needs change.

If you don't have the qualified staff to administrate the server, you should probably look for a dedicated web site hosting provider that offers administrating services as well. They should also offer 24/7 technical support, as well as consulting services.

Price Range

A dedicated web site hosting service can cost from $100 to over $1000 a month. The price depends on the management services that they provide. If you don't have the resources to manage the server, you should pay for their technical assistance.

You might find some providers that offer dedicated web site hosting services for less than $100, but you would probably have to manage the server yourself with little or no support from them.

Top Dedicated Web Site Hosting Services

Hostway Corp Hostway Corp is a leading dedicated web site hosting provider that has been in business for several years. They provide flexible web hosting packages that respond to a large variety of needs, such as Dedicated Server Web Hosting, Ecommerce and Business Web Hosting.

Value Web Value Web is a top dedicated web site hosting provider which has been awarded Editor's Choice in PC Magazine, as well as ranked A with the Better Business Bureau. The hosting packages feature Microsoft FrontPage extensions, AddWeb site promotion tools, Urchin graphical web statistics and Macromedia design software. They provide a wide range of hosting packages to respond to their customers' needs.

HostMySite Also a leader in dedicated web site hosting, HostMySite offers a high level of technical support, by e-mail, chat and phone. Their hosting packages include collocation services and managed dedicated server hosting.

If you have a growing online business, a dedicated server is definitely the right choice. It provides you with the flexibility given by your own server, without the responsibility of maintaining it by yourself.

2006-07-05T22:56:00.000-07:00

How To Choose A Quality Web Host

There are thousands of web hosting services available online, and some of them are more reliable than others. When you are looking at the number of options available, it is easy to become overwhelmed. It is important to look at potential problems with hosting companies prior to using them. This can save you a lot of time, money, and headaches.

You should avoid hosting services which have servers which are constantly down. A good hosting company should be able to monitor its servers and quickly fix problems. Some hosting services may be down as long as a few days, and these are companies you will want to avoid. It is also important to make sure all the features offered by the company work. If your email is down, this prevents you from being able to run your business. This is something you can't afford, and you will want to make sure you stay away from companies which do this.

Another thing which is important for you to look at is tech support. How long does it take the tech department to answer your phone calls or emails? A good company should answer within a few hours. Some hosting companies take many days to answer your questions, and the answers they give you may not solve the problem. Hosting companies like this should be avoided. You should also look for hosting services which communicate well with their customers. A lack of communication is one of the leading causes of business failure. You don't want to do business with companies that don't effectively communicate.

Sometimes when you cancel your account, the hosting company will continue billing you. This is a very frustrating situation, and you may have to file claims with your bank in order to get your money back. Most hosting companies take out automatic payments, and you will want to do research to make sure they stop billing customers once the service is cancelled. When you look online at hosting companies, always look at the price. If it is too good to be true, it probably is. The prices charged should be enough to pay for their service maintenance and other fees.

Any hosting services which advertise unlimited bandwidth should make you suspicious. If you use a lot of bandwidth, you may have your website taken down. Hosting websites which don't look professional should also raise red flags. Websites with lots of spelling errors or no information about the company are unlikely to provide quality service.

2006-06-23T00:13:00.000-07:00

Think Before You Purchase Domain Names

Here we will try to give you some tips that may be help you to purchase domain names you need.

Purchase domain names in the extension that is as much relative to your business organizational model as possible. For example, .ca means your business is based in Canada and .de clearly explains your German location. However, there are global domains, such as .com or .net.

Be careful when choosing a domain name registration service provider. Some of them are scammers and after you tell them the name you want to register, they do it themselves and then make you buy it from them. They may also charge you for more money than you though from the initial offer. Do some research - scammers are usually mentioned at least once on the Internet. Telephone support availability is a good sign your domain name registration service provider is a serious business and it is simply comfortable to settle up problems instantly by placing a call. Besides that, look for accreditations, for example from ICANN. Serious companies try to gain as much accreditations as possible so that it improves their image and guarantees their security. If a domain registration service doesn't have any accreditations, it shouldn't be considered to be a scam or alike, but it is a warning sign.

Try using keywords when choosing your domain name. Some search engines, like Google for example, do take keywords in the domain name into account so this may help you rank a little bit higher in search results. However, choose the shortest name possible so that it is easy to spell and remember.

Make sure you purchase domain names that are not potentially dangerous to be sued for. Avoid trademarks infringement and don't try to squat someone's domains. This is simply not fair and may cause problems.

If the domain name you want is available in several extensions, we recommend you to consider buying as much of them as possible so that no one can take advantage of your success.

Let's imagine you've found a company you like. Hit Google to search for example for "domain registration" or "domain names purchase". If you find information about the company your chose in the first several pages of results, it means the company has been operating in domain registration business for quite a long period of time. If you can't find any traces of the company in search results and/or observe it only in AdWords, for instance, this is just another reason to check everything once again.

Therefore, when you purchase domain names, remember to go through careful planning and research. Choose the companies you trust not only because you want to. Register domain names that will appeal to your visitors and won't infringe someone's rights.

2006-06-23T00:09:00.000-07:00

Picking A Domain Name

In this short article I'll be discussing a few ways to pick domain names and why picking the right one is vital to your success.

You may not realize it, but picking the right domain name can make or break your website. You not only have to consider how easy it is for people to type in, but you also have to think about how easy it is to remember and spell, and most importantly, how well you'll rank in the search engines with that name.

Don't Replace Letters With Numbers:

Don't ever replace letters with numbers, this will only confuse people, and will damage how well you rank in the search engines (I'll talk about how search engines play their part later in this article). For example, this website is called makeagreatsite.com, I could have replaced the letters "e a and t" with an 8, to look like this makeagr8site.com. Although it might seem clever to do this, it's actually quite the opposite. Remember, people will talk about your site verbally (At least you want them to anyway), so if someone says "Hey I found this amazing website called makeagreatsite.com" their friend will type in makeagreatsite.com, they wont even think to use an 8. Therefore, you'll get far less traffic (People) to your website than if you just spelt it correctly.

Use keywords:

Ok this section will be quite long because there is a lot to explain. The short version is to put words that your visitor are likely to search for to find your website, in your domain name. That sounds easy and it is, but ONLY if you know where to start. Simply guess what your visitors are likely to search for is a good start, but unlikely to get you much success.

I recommend you use overture's search term suggestion tool. What you do is type in a word that is related to your site, so for this site it might be "website", then it will come up with a large list of keywords that people typed into search engines, relating to the keyword "website". Not only that, but it also shows how many people typed in each specific keyword. More often than not, you can't just use the top few keywords in the list as a domain name, they are normally already taken. So you'll have to use your imagination.

Look at the top few keywords and copy and paste them into google, see how many website's have that search term. If it comes up with more than 1 million results, you're probably going to have a hard time competing with the other sites to get to the top. If this is the case, try a few keywords down and see what you come up with.

Use Geo-Targeted Keywords:

This sound complicated, but it's not at all. A geo-targeted keyword is a keyword related to a specific area. For example london-repairs.com would be an excellent example of a geo-targeted domain/keyword combination. If your audience is global then you wont need to do this, but if you're only serving a specific area, then Geo-Targeted is for you.

An even better example of a good domain name for the above would be london-boiler-repairs.com if the website or business specialized in boiler repairs. This is just to give you an idea of the possibilities, the more specific you are, the better.

Don't Overuse Keywords:

It's very important that you don't overuse keywords in your domain name, for example london-boiler-radiator-plumbing-electrical-repairs.com contains many great keywords, but it's far too specific and very long to type in and probably very difficult to remember. The shorter it is, the easier it is to remember and type in, 4 words maximum, even that's pushing it a bit.

Make It Catchy:

That's about all you need to know for usability and keywords, now you need to mix that all together and think of something catchy. For example, my site is called makeagreatsite.com, it's descriptive and does exactly what it says, not only that but it's got a few keywords in there too. It's hard to give advice on being catchy as this will vary from industry to industry. It's probably a good idea to get a notepad, write all your top keywords down, then right a bunch of descriptive words and words related to your website. Then you can just randomly pick a few words and see what you come up with.

2006-06-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

All About Dedicated Hosting Providers

How do you identify whether it's time to switch from a shared host to a dedicated host? There are 3 main indicators to stay alert for:

by Sage Kalmus

2006-06-21T20:52:00.000-07:00

Finding and Comparing Website Hosting

If you are looking for a provider to host your website, you can find many website hosting providers that seem to offer similar services and products, usually within a close range of prices. But beware! Not all website hosting providers are created equal. Take time to compare and evaluate providers so that you can find the best fit for your needs and wallet.

Finding a website hosting provider is relatively easy since there are many on the market today. By searching on the internet, looking in your local yellow pages book, or by asking friends or local businesses, you can quickly come up with a list of sites and prices that are available. Choosing the right provider can be more of a challenge.

You typically get what you pay for with website hosting, so ask yourself a few questions about your service expectations. Are you hosting for a business or personal website? What kind of uptime do you expect for your website? Will downtime result in lost business? What kind of customer service and technical support do you want? Do you expect 24 hour x 7 day coverage, or is support during business hours sufficient? What kind of security and privacy do you need? If your business grows, will your service provider support your needs? Does your service provider give support for e-commerce, domain name registration, and virtual private servers (VPS) hosting? What kind of website tools, control panel, and user interface are offered?

Website hosting providers typically offer monthly rates based on a package of services and features. As the rate goes up, additional features and services are added. A lower end rate will usually support a personal website and smaller business, while middle and higher tiered packages are targeted for medium to large businesses.

Evaluate the features of each plan, and find one that best fits the level of service you need to support your personal website or business. If you aren't clear about what the services are, call or email to get clarification. A good website hosting provider will be more than happy to spend time with you in order to get your questions answered and possibly gain your business.

Reliability in terms of uptime and performance is crucial for your website hosting provider, so make sure that you do the research to find out if the hosting providers you are evaluating have 100% uptime (or close to), and that their performance is fast and consistent. Ask for references, and talk or email them about their experience with a particular provider; search online for comments regarding reliability and support. Determine if the provider is overseas or in the U.S. This may affect performance and technical support capabilities.

Security and privacy are very important, especially if you plan to use the website hosting provider for a business, so talk with the service providers about their security and privacy features, and compare these between different website hosts. Make sure that Spam and virus filtering is part of the basic service.

Whether it is for personal or business use, your website is important, so take time and compare the features, capabilities, and costs from several website hosting providers. There is a higher chance for satisfaction the first time around if you do your homework and evaluate providers for more than the just cost.

by Cathy Seiler

2006-06-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

Tips for Starting a Web Hosting Business

Starting a web hosting business can be a great way to earn an income online. A web hosting business generates recurring income on a monthly basis. In order to start a successful business there are many steps that need to be completed during the planning phase. One of the most important steps to take when starting any business is to create a business plan. A web hosting business is no different and needs to begin with a well thought out business plan. An excellent resource for learning about starting a business is the United States Small Business Administration (SBA). The SBA covers such topics as business plan basics and how to write a business plan. When writing a business plan it is important to think of such things as how you want your business structured, what type of customers you are targeting and how you will acquire customers.

When writing a business plan it is also important to figure out a budget and financial plan. Where will you get money to fund your business venture? Will it come from money saved, a bank loan, or from a joint partnership? One of the many benefits of running a web hosting business is it can be started on a very small budget.

Besides legal and insurance costs all that is needed to start a web hosting business is a reseller hosting plan. By purchasing a reseller plan you can setup your own web hosting plans, create a business website and begin selling web hosting services.

There are thousands of companies that offer reseller hosting plans. It is important to do some research and write down a list of possible web hosting companies that offer the services you need. One excellent source of information for reviews on reseller companies is Web Hosting Talk http://www.webhostingtalk.com. It is a very active community on all topics related to web hosting. Make sure to find a company that has an excellent reputation for service and support. It is important that the company has stable servers with minimal downtime. Also excellent support is important for when you have any problems.

by Ryan Hill