Internet Domain Registration - Establishing and Transferring Your Domain Name

If you're in business, one of the most important things to you may be your ability to establish an internet presence. Operating some type of functional web site for your business helps your customers find you, can present additional marketing opportunities through e-commerce, and offers advertising opportunities that you can not get elsewhere. Companies that do not have a web site lose business to companies that do all the time.

Of course the real key to your web site is the internet domain registration. Everybody wants www.mybusiness.com - the problem is that domain names are unique and can be taken by anyone. If you don't register your desired domain name right away, someone else could take it. The fact is that internet domain registration can turn into a sneaky competitive game. In many cases business owners have gone to register a domain name and found that it had been registered years before they every started the company by some group that is in the business of registering domains and then turning around and selling them for exorbitant rates.

A humorous story came from the 2005 municipal election in North Las Vegas, Nevada when one candidate realized that the incumbent mayor had not registered an internet domain name. The incumbent registered the mayor's name dot com and as many variants of it that he could come up with, literally stealing the Mayor's plans for a web site out from under him. The tactic didn't win him the election, but the candidate managed to annoy the mayor quite a bit and still owns the internet domain registration names to this day.

The key to avoiding these sorts of problems lies in early registration of your desired domain name. If you find the one that you want (or a close variant of it), register it immediately. Even if you're not prepared to set up a web site yet or won't be for several years, register the domain right away anyway.

Registering a domain name before being ready to set up its web site will require the domain name being transferred to the servers of your desired host when you are ready to establish the site. Transferring the domain name once you have selected a web host is a very simple process, but does require you to establish the change with both the registration company and the new host. The new host will provide you with the server information that you, in turn, will need to provide to the company with whom you originally registered the domain. There may be a short waiting period (typically 24 to 72 hours) while both servers get the information updated. Once that process is complete, you'll have your domain safely residing on your host's servers and your site (as long as it's been built) will be ready to go.

The internet domain registration and transfer for your business web site is a simple process and can be completed through automated online systems in most cases. Clearly the most important part of this process is the registration of the domain name and this should always be done as soon as possible, even if it is going to be years before you're ready to get the actual web site up and running.

CGI Web Hosting - 3 Essential Scripts for Your Business

If there's one thing that people love it is a web site that has plenty of automated features. Sites that are highly interactive tend to get the most traffic and generate the most business for the companies that run them. Automated features can also play a "behind the scenes" role, making your site easier to use, run smoothly and allow for things like online sales and password protection.

There are many ways to get this type of automation into your site, but all involve either client side or server side scripting. Scripts are written in programming languages specially designed for the web, and there are several languages that are commonly used. Most client side scripts are written in Java which is still one of the best web programming languages around. Some functions of a web site must be completed via server side scripting, however, and the most commonly used languages for server side scripting are PHP, PERL, and CGI. PHP and PERL are newer languages and are gaining a lot of popularity, but there are still plenty of features that can be scripted in the granddaddy of web scripting languages, CGI.

Shopping Carts

No online sales site would be complete without a functioning shopping cart and most of the best ones have been written in CGI script. CGI web hosting is great for shopping cart scripts because it interfaces well with most databases, including the popular MYSQL and MS Access databases, it can be utilized on Windows, UNIX, LINUX, and MACOS servers with equal ease, and can be easily configured for sales tax and shipping cost calculations. Some newer shopping cart scripts are being written in PHP and PERL, but most of the functioning carts on the web are in good old CGI web hosting scripts.

Password Protection

Many web sites require some sort of registration and entry of a password for the user to access the site's features. This is done for a number of reasons from simply a desire to track visitors for marketing purposes to allowing postings on message boards and ensuring that users have paid any required fees associated with use of the site. The automated registration process and user name/password issuance can be written with CGI scripts and many of them have been.

Form Managers

Have you ever wondered how the forms you fill out online are handled? In most cases, they're handled by CGI web hosting. When a user fills in that form and hits the "submit" button, a CGI script takes over and sends the data in email or writes it to a database where it can be accessed later by the site's administrators.

These are just a few of the uses for CGI scripts on today's web sites. There are literally hundreds of others and if there's something that can be done on a web site, it is something that can be done with CGI. PHP and PERL may be gaining a lot of popularity for various reasons, but CGI was with us first and it isn't going anywhere. As long as there are web sites, CGI web hosting will remain king.

How to Choose a Web Hosting Company?

Nowadays, anybody can afford to order a feature-packed web hosting plan for next to nothing; however, affordable price is not the only criterion which should be considered when purchasing web hosting services. In this article, I'll explain the basics of what you should look for in choosing a web hosting company, not just concentrating on the best price and features, but also on reliability and honesty. You're investing your money and effort into finding paying customers and you wouldn't like to lose them in order to save a few dollars per month on a web hosting service.

When looking for a web hosting company, it doesn't matter if this is just for the inception of a web or the move of an established site; you need to consider a large selection of criteria to determine which company to go with:

Customer support

Website hosting service isn't just storage or bandwidth. Based on personal experience and that of others, even a top-notch service is worthless without customer support. If you own a business website, your hosting provider needs to be there for you 24/7 and give you instant access to the technicians you need to solve your problem; otherwise, you may end up losing customers and money.

Downtime guarantee and service monitoring

Having a personal website go down is a minor inconvenience; having a business website go down is a serious matter. What amount of profit would you lose if your site had been down for a week? Long downtime may be very harmful to today's companies which spend large amounts of money on advertising their websites. Essentially, there are two rules regarding reliability that one should look at:

1. You should check if there is an uptime guarantee offered. A truly service-oriented provider will also give a money-back guarantee, offering a discount or free service as compensation for downtime. Any company which avoids taking responsibility won't put much effort into the service.

2. I definitely wouldn't go with a company claiming 100% uptime, as there is no such thing as a server with 100% uptime. If anyone ever claims their server has a 100% uptime they are either lying or they don't perform the necessary upgrades that prevent a machine from being compromised.

Reputable web hosts will post statistics on their site: What is the frequency of interruption? How about the average percentage of downtime? If these aren't posted, ask; if the answer isn't forthcoming, that should be a warning sign. If you still go with a host which doesn't monitor servers, you'll have to do the monitoring yourself. I recommend www.siteuptime.com, as it's one of the best monitoring services available for free in the market today.

Backups

There is no host which is safe against different types of technical and programical failures, so make sure that the company runs scheduled backups. The other advice would be always having a backup of your website yourself, as you never know what might happen. cPanel, which is the most popular web hosting management software at this time, has a very comfortable backup-making tool. It allows you to backup files and databases quickly and easily, so backups are no longer a problem.

Acceptable use policy

Web hosts may have 200-300 or more clients per server; there is no exact number, as companies have different hardware and each hosted website has different resource usage. There always is a possibility that a few of those customers host illegal content. There are web hosts who have had their servers unplugged, resulting in their clients' websites going down. I'm sure you don't want to put your business at risk and have your website hosted on the same server together with illegal pornography and software sites, so check host's acceptable use policy to find out, if the host takes care of what's hosted on their servers.

Hosting your site on an uncared-for server will also result in a low speed. If somebody on the same server sends spam, the server's IP address will be blacklisted and you'll have serious problems as recipients stop receiving your emails. Use the "Spam database lookup" feature on www.DNSstuff.com to check if a web hosting company is blacklisted. Spam is being sent almost everywhere, so having one or two red records isn't that bad; but, if there are more, it may become a problem later on.

Unlimited bandwidth and web space

In web hosting industry, the adage "you get what you pay for" is almost universally applicable. Do not fall for hosts offering unlimited allowances, as there is no unlimited bandwidth, nor unlimited web space. Host's pay for each GB of bandwidth themselves. Hard drives also aren't free, so how can they say it's unlimited? They simply are performing false advertising in order to attract customers. The average website doesn't use more than 1GB of bandwidth per month; the customer is happy as he bought something "unlimited" and the host gets a new customer, which won't cost them any more than $1-2 USD per month. But imagine what would happen if I had a website, burning much more bandwidth than an average site does, and I signed up with a hosting company offering unlimited traffic? The host would simply suspend my account and tell me, that it was using too much bandwidth. There even are companies which offer unlimited bandwidth and have a statement on their terms of service, explaining that unlimited bandwidth means 40GB, for example.

Will you really own your domain name?

When you buy a domain name together with a website hosting package, make sure the host will register the domain name under your name. It usually should be written in their FAQ, but, if there is no such information, simply contact them. This will also give you an opportunity to check how fast their customer support team replies to inquiries. If the hosting company registers domains under someone else's name, you may have problems switching hosting providers later. If you were in such situation, you would have to file for a Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which costs much more than both domain name and web hosting service together.

Control Panel

For ease of maintenance, a feature called a Control Panel is a necessity; this tool will normally allow for regular maintenance, be it email mailbox additions/deletions, password resets, web additions, web count reports, statistics and so on. If the site is for any sort of business, this is an absolute must. The most popular web hosting management software currently available is cPanel. It's a next-generation web hosting control panel system that allows you to manage your domain through a web interface. The idea is to transfer as much of the control of managing your web site to you; you have the ability to manage all aspects of e-mail, files, backup, FTP, CGI scripts, and web site statistics.

Value-added services

Hosting companies offer different value-added services in order to set themselves apart from the competition. Of course, these are an advantage, but a common mistake customers make is choosing a host just because it offers many value-added services which won't be used anyway. Some of the really useful features are:

1. Auto-installer script - Auto-installers will save you time if you are going to install a forum, image gallery, content management system, etc. Installation procedures on an auto-installer script take seconds and can be performed by novices without the need of doing difficult tasks usually associated with installations.

2. Online website builder - It lets you design a website in a few minutes without having any creation software and knowledge. One very powerful website builder on the market is Site Studio; this editor allows for ease of use, full control of color schemes and themes, one-click publishing, and an array of templates to use.

The last tip

In this article, I've mentioned only a few warning signs which are worth considering. You should know yourself that price and allocations aren't as important as the quality of service; if the budget is absolutely limited, then the price can be a valid criterion, but otherwise it shouldn't receive much credence.

Dedicated Server Price Check

The price of dedicated hosting services has really come down in the past couple of years. In fact, prices have dropped so much for the "budget dedicated server" market. While competitive conditions in both the hosting industry and the computer hardware industry have contributed to the reduction in dedicated hosting costs, don't think that prices were that inflated in the first place. Budget servers are fantastic but it takes more than a competitive market to offer services at such great prices.

Much thanks to the great overbuilds of networks, data centers and computer hardware in the dot-com days, companies with a bit of buying power can acquire the hard-resources it takes to provide a good quality un-managed dedicated server for a great price. Finding a dedicated server for $199 a month or less these days is not that difficult. When shopping for your dedicated server, consider more than just price.

Managed Services

Before just lining up the amount of ram, the processor speed, the data transfer and the price ask yourself - what else can this company do for me that I need now, or may need down the road. While there are plenty that do it, a 1 person effort to maintain a mission critical or high traffic server is no easy task. It helps to have others helping look out for your interests as well. Check to see if your host provides managed services such as backups, monitoring, firewalls and intrusion detection. Sometime they may be included in the plan but nearly always can be negotiated in at a reasonable price and can be well worth the investment.

Technical Support

The level of support received with your dedicated services is important as well. Some dedicated hosts offer email only support in order to keep costs down while others flat out charge a fee for a support ticket. Your preferred method of receiving support plus the level and frequency in which you will need it should certainly be considered.

The Quality of Your Network

Most dedicated hosting providers these days have pretty substantial internet connectivity. Nonetheless, it is something you should be aware of. Look for a host that has redundant connectivity via multiple providers insuring as much connectivity uptime as possible. Some of the major connectivity providers these days are Sprint, UUNet, Savvis, AT&T, Qwest and Cogent.

Summary

A very cheap server deal does not simply mean you are dealing with an overly generous hosting company or that another provider is ripping you off at a higher rate. While some hosts do price more competitively than others, there are associates costs that must be covered. When shopping for your next dedicated server just keeps in mind you may not always be comparing apples to apples.

Dedicated Server vs. Co-location Web Hosting

So - you know shared hosting no longer cuts it, and your single office connection is not enough to host a web server - so which is best, leasing a dedicated server or buying your own server and co-locating it someone's data center?

Difference

For those that are unsure of the difference, here it is in a nutshell. When you co-locate, you are simply renting space within someone else's facility to store your own server or servers. It's like a high tech gym locker that you are renting all or part of to house your servers. You either ship or deliver your server to your provider. Additional services provided with co-location vary from host to host but it certainly won't include the actual server. With a dedicated server you are getting all the features of co-location, plus the actual web server itself.

Which is better?

While it certainly depends on your particular needs, and there are excellent situations for both the dedicated server option is quickly becoming a better choice in more and more cases. If you already own a web server, or cluster that you prefer to use, then obviously co-location may be your best choice. If you are considering buying new equipment and shipping it off for co-location - please reconsider. The prices and equipment available in dedicated hosting these days are outstanding plus relieve you of the burden of hardware. Most hosts keep identical spare parts on hand for the types of servers used and are quick to react if something fails. Depending on your arrangement with a colocation deal hardware failure could mean paying to have a server shipped back (or you drive to get it), having it fixed yourself then sending it back to the data center.

Managed Vs. Unmanaged Dedicated Hosting

"Unmanaged dedicated servers" - this is a pretty uninviting term to many, especially the non-gurus, but in most cases is not as "non-servicing" as it seems. In fact, I think someone one day soon, ( who knows maybe me ) will coin a new phrase to replace the term "unmanaged" - similar to how "used cars" is now "pre-owned" or how "apartment complexes" are now "rental communities". The truth is that unless you just picked a lousy provider or have unreasonable expectations, unmanaged hosting offers more service and support than most think.

The Difference

While exact definitions vary among providers, generally speaking managed hosting means your provider takes complete or near complete care of your server. This can include anything from basic system maintenance and patches to applications maintenance, security, monitoring, etc. Someone that needs dedicated hosting and wants to rely on their host for pretty much anything and everything regarding their server needs to strike a relationship with a managed service provider. Full blown managed services involve lots of skilled people hours. Not only that, since every managed customer is unique, it's hard for a managed provider to be overly systematic. For this - expect to pay a great deal more than today's budget server provider but if your needs demand it, and you choose a solid provider it should be money well spent.

Unmanaged dedicated hosting obviously refers to dedicated servers with less, little or none of the skilled people support you'd expect to find in managed. You signup, you pay, and in a few minutes to a few hours you get a welcome email with IP address, login, FAQ's, etc. - Beyond that you are pretty much on your own. Relax - you are not really as own your own as it seems.

First off, most unmanaged providers do in fact offer technical support, and most that we've seen is very good. If you choose unmanaged dedicated service you do need to have someone on your team that knows the technical side a good bit, but they don't necessarily have to be experts. While you may have to wait 12 - 24 hours or you may even have to pay extra for it, nearly all the unmanaged providers I know do have high level techs available to handle serious issues. In addition most providers give some sort of immediate reboot service. Unless you've been tinkering with some critical config files or have a hardware failure, a reboot can help with a range of issues. Lastly, unmanaged providers may not support you or whatever you put on your server after you move in, but they do stand by the hardware and software they sell you. If a hard drive crashes they are going to replace it for you (although you had better be doing your backups) and if your system crashes most will fix it for you.

Summary

The bottom line is if you've got mission critical needs and don't have the in-house staff to efficiently keep your servers performing the way they should, then you are going to need managed services. Even still it's a more cost effective route that hiring your own staff and most likely you will receive a higher, more consistent level of service. If your needs are more basic, and or you or your staff has the time and know-how to perform 75% - 80% of your server's maintenance then an affordable unmanaged service should do you just fine.

Virtual Private Servers (VPS) Web Hosting

A Virtual Private Server (VPS), also referred to as Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS), provides the features of a dedicated server for multiple web hosting customers to share. At first instance it sounds contradictory, how can you have a dedicated server if it is being shared by multiple users? Isn't that a regular shared or virtual hosting environment? It is true that with a Virtual Private Server you still share system resources like the CPU and RAM with other users but the resources are allocated in such a way that you cannot tell that the system has anyone else on it, much like a dedicated server. So resources are usually setup in such a way that each hosting client is only allowed to use an allocated percent, meaning that resources assigned to you will always available to you.

Advantages of Virtual Private Server (VPS) web hosting

Most hosting customers would rather have complete control of their server environments. They don't want to be hosted on a server with tens or hundreds of other users, who could easily use up all the resources or cause the server environment to be unstable. But at the same time most websites don't need a dedicated server. The Virtual Private Server (VPS) alternative is a very attractive niche hosting solution for a fairly large chunk of web hosting clients who would like the stability of a dedicated server but on a smaller scale. With the resources setup in such a way that each person can only use what is allocated to them, your site will be more consistent because it will always have the same amount of access to the CPU, memory, and bandwidth. Virtual Private Servers are also more secure since even as you share the memory and CPU time, you are allocated your own file system. If a website on the server is hacked, the hackers will only have access to that particular file system and would not harm the other websites. A VPS is also much cheaper than a dedicated server.

Disadvantages of Virtual Private Server (VPS) web hosting

Now that you have read the pros of a VPS you are probably thinking that this is the best thing since sliced bread. Well, almost - as is the case with every other type of hosting service, not all providers setup or define Virtual Private Servers, also known as Virtual Dedicated Servers, the exact same way. You must make sure that your provider guarantees that their setup is robust enough to handle operations at a peak level. A trick used by many providers in the reselling and shared space is 'overselling'. What this means is selling more in terms of services than what physically available, with the hope that the end users wouldn't use up all the service that were advertised to them. In the realm of VPS this can be a bit more serious, since at least the expectation is that you are operating in a more robust environment and many clients could be running more intensive applications like message boards or custom web applications. A shortfall of resources could end up causing problems for everyone hosted on such a server, therefore negating the benefits of a VPS. In a shared or dedicated environment you might be able to access more resources during peak or spike periods but since the VPS environment limits you to to your slice of the server resources, it can be a drawback.

As if the technology rich lingo of regular web hosting wasn't enough, the VPS services add a few new wrinkles. Apart from storage space and bandwidth you must also deal with CPU cycles and RAM. So you will see ads for hosting that might include *** MHz and *** MB RAM to go with the usual hosting related features. It is somewhat harder to figure out how much CPU time or RAM you might need, so seek out a hosting provider that will provide you with some benchmarks and the ability to upgrade or downgrade the VPS service if needed.

Conclusion

- Allows complete control of your virtual server and its resources
- Allows you to run web applications without adversely affecting other clients
- Flexible - cheaper than dedicated hosting, more expensive than shared

Web Hosting Operating Systems Explained

A few time ago appeared a lot disagreements between opinions on the internet regarding, which is the best operating system for web hosting. There are people who hate windows, there are people who love FreeBSD and many others.

The thing is that the best system that suits you depends on what you are doing. The servers and the softwares, all run on a program named operating system. on a personal computer you will probably have windows ME, XP, NT or something similar to those. You can call this program the operating system. Any hosting server also needs running on an operating system. There are 3 different versions.

The first one powered by Microsoft is Windows. So, Microsoft also makes a system designed for servers. Microsoft products can trill integrate in this operating systems. It also allows web sites to run Active Server Pages. The Microsoft servers also allow the integration of SQL databases. The only problem of the Microsof web hosting servers is that they are very expensive. You will probably find one that costs several thousands of dollars.

The second version for web hosting servers is Linux. Linux was created and developed by some individuals who wrote the main part of the Linux operating system. After that, there were added some other parts to customize the operating system for the particular use of any user. There are many companies that market Linux, like Red Hat, Debian. The main advantage of Linux is that is compatible with PHP. Also it's very stable and has a great security. The best thing about it is that Linux is free.

The third version of operating system for web hosting servers is Unix. Unix is almost the same thing as Linux. If we think more, we will find more similarities than differences between the two programs. The most important difference is the way they came to the world. So let's make it clear. Linux is something like a cousin of Unix. There are two main Unix-based operating systems: FreeBSD and OpenBSD. The good thing about this systems is that they seem to be very stable once you manage to install them. But they are very hard to install. OpenBSD is also known to be one of the most secure operating system in the world. But with OpenBSd you will have to sacrifice some features for a plus of security. Again the best thing about these systems is that they are both free.

The best for you depends on what you are going to do with it. If you want great security, you should try OpenBSd. If you are looking for compatibility with all the windows products, then choose Windows. For compatibility with PHP programing language choose Linux.The fact is that one cannot tell which system is best, but employing and using it according to his needs.

Useful Tips When Applying For A Web Host Provider

Once you have considered the design for your website and it is ready to be hosted, there are some matters to be considered when choosing the adequate web host:

I - Accessibility of the site?

Once you have applied for a web host provider you should take several aspects into account such as the time it takes to load or the period of time it is up.These aspects are very important because if there are problems related to them, this can create extreme annoyance and renouncement of the possible visitors.

The same possible visitors can also have problems in finding your web page, as search engines do not show those who are always down or have difficulties in loading.

The best method to acknowledge if a server is usually up would be to take a look over the reviews written by other persons who have applied for the server before you.

II - Does the provider offer SSL??

In the case of a hobby websiter or, in other words, if you will not be making any transactions on that particular website, the SSL protection is not necessary.In the other case, if transactions should be made in the near future it is necessary for you to choose the webhost which includes the SSL protection upfront.

SSL is generally used for encrypting any piece of information such as:credit card codes, names, etc.

Deciding to subscribe to a webhost which does not comprise of SSL protection and choosing afterwards to have it installed, could turn up to be more expensive than having applied for a webhost which provides SSL in the first place.

Websiters which have Automatic SSL protection can be exemplified by www.powweb.com and www.ipowerweb.com

III - Is server side scripting available from the server?

Despite of the fact that these server side scripting is provided by almost all servers, it is still advisable to check out if they do.Pages changing in real time are given the chance to be created by the webmasters due to the server side scripting.

For instance, in the case of running a business and having all products arranged in a database, the server side scripting will give off the pages by means of the ranges the customers choose to see.

You should not think of using a server which does not provide functionality for a server side scripting. www.powweb.com and www.ipowerweb.com can also be shown as examples for sites which comprise of servers side scripting.

IV - Customer Support

The support given to customers is of an utmost importance when choosing a web hoser.Even in the case of an experienced webmaster, I am sure that there are still some questions to be asked when signing up with a website.Some of them have created special forums for frequently asked questions(FAQ-S).Actually the only one of this type I found up to now is www.powweb.com.

Even tough these aspects are widely known, the attention should be drawn anyway, for there are many persons who pay significant sums after having signed to a web hoster on the basis of having ignored these conditions.Taken this into account, the collaboration should be nothing but successfully.

The Ups and Downs of Dedicated Server Hosting

Getting your own dedicated server for your business is a great idea if you are interested in security, being the only business on the server, eliminating potential server problems, and have a budget that includes a substantial monthly fee. If you have a busy commerce website and a lot of visitors, then a dedicated server is probably your best bet, not to mention completely secure. However if you have a smaller site, with less traffic, and a low budget, you should wait until your budget grows as well as your website to use a dedicated server. Consider the following points to help you learn more about the ups and downs of dedicated server hosting.

Ups

Dedicated server hosting is beneficial because you know you are the only one using the server and it is 100% dedicated to your website and information. Shared web hosting is less expensive, but also less secure. If you have your own server your information will be safe and secure and you will not have to worry about security breaches.

Avoid server problems due to others sharing the server, submitting bad information that affects the server, and ultimately you in a negative way. With your own dedicated server you will only deal with your own information. The actions of others on the server will not affect you because you are the only one on the server.

On your dedicated server, you install and use the information and software you need. Space is not taken up for software and programs for other users that you do not need.

With a dedicated server you have less reliance on your Web host and as a result you will save any delays that might occur as well as money that you would possibly lose from being offline.

With your own dedicated server you will be able to offer support to your clients 24/7 if you so desired. This is not an option on a shared server and is a worthwhile benefit to many companies considering a dedicated server.

Frequently increased income is a result of using a dedicated server because you will be able to make changes, assist clients at any time of the day or night which means you make additional money. When you have control over your server you put the power in your hands instead of someone else's.

A dedicated server is faster as well and your web pages will load significantly quicker, which means people will stick around to see what your site is about. With a shared server it might take longer for your site to load and people won't wait for this.

Down

The one major drawback to dedicated server hosting is the price. It is more expensive than shared hosting and as a result not an option for many people.

How to Know When It is Time for Your Website to Move On to Dedicated Servers

Knowing when it is time to move onto a dedicated server includes many variables and requires you to answer a variety of questions. While dedicated servers are great because only you and your business will be using them, they are expensive and require someone to manage them, which costs more money. Evaluate if you have all of the elements required for a dedicated server before making plans to move onto one. Below are several things you should consider first.

Question #1 - Can You Afford It?

One huge question that will play a large role in whether or not you move onto a dedicated server is whether or not you can afford it. You need to do some math to not only figure out how much a dedicated server costs, but how much you will have to pay for an administrator or for a fully managed dedicated server. These can be expensive, especially if you do not have a large budget. Make sure your budget supports a dedicated server before you start looking into one.

Question #2 - Managed or Unmanaged?

Another consideration is will you want a managed or unmanaged dedicated server. An unmanaged dedicated server means you have to have the knowledge and skills set to manage it personally or else you need to hire someone to do it for you. Consider this as well because if you don't, you might find yourself in over your head or spending money you had not budgeted.

Question #3 - Extra Space and Bandwidth, Do You Really Need It?

Do you really need the space and bandwidth a personal server provides? If your web pages are loading rather quickly and you still have plenty of space on a shared server, you should consider why you need to invest in a dedicated server. If you need the space and bandwidth then you should do it, however if you don't there really is no reason to unless you have extremely sensitive information.

Question #4 - Do You Have Sensitive Files?

The number one driving reason why individuals want dedicated servers is because they only hold that persons information, rather than a variety of peoples and businesses. So, if you have ultra sensitive information you cannot risk being stolen, a dedicated server is definitely the way to go.

Question #5 - Do You Need the Tools and Options?

Having your own dedicated server means you have a variety of tools and options at your fingertips you did not have on a shared server. There are no rules with a dedicated server because it is all yours, so whatever you need to do you can do it. Just keep in mind the ever rising prices.

Does Your Host Fight Spam?

Virtually anyone with an email address knows what Spam is, and has, perhaps, considered giving up the speed, convenience, and simplicity of email because of it. Those who have their own websites are more vulnerable than the average person with a single work or home email address from their company or Internet Service Provider. Email addresses visible on a website can quickly become Spam magnets, as automated programs, similar in form to search engine spiders, roam the web, looking for addresses to which new broadsides of Spam may be fired. Website hosting companies generally provide their clients email accounts for use with their domain, but are you with a host that provides those email accounts with Spam and virus protection?

Local Blacklist Filters
Webmasters shouldn't need to seek out local filters for their site's contact email addresses. There are a variety of server level solutions a hosting company can offer to protect their users from unwanted emails. A most basic step is provision of a very rudimentary "blacklist" functionality to their users, allowing them to prevent future Spam emails from arriving from the same address. This type of filter is virtually worthless in today's Spam environment, though, as it is quite rare to see unsophisticated email arriving from the same address multiple times. Spammers have grown far more sophisticated than that. Blacklisting functionality is only really useful in avoiding email from other real people you don't particularly wish to hear from anymore.

Keywords and Regular Expressions
More advanced server level Spam filters are available. A small advance is accomplished using keyword filters. Keyword filters merely check for instances of a certain string of characters and deny the message if that string if found. The core problem with keyword-only filters is they can "over filter". Someone who puts "sex" on their keyword filter will find receiving local news and event announcements difficult if they live in a town named "Essex". Some filters attempt to address this deficiency by using "regular expressions" in order to build a sophisticated rule set to prevent Spam from reaching your inbox. Briefly, regular expressions are syntax rules used to identify certain strings of text or numbers. These rules can be set up to identify text patterns that are commonly used in Spam. They can become quite complex, but, as with most any filtering method, are not 100% bullet proof. Some filters that use regular expressions come with a basic set that can be appended by the user. Obviously this kind of feature is of little use to someone not familiar with regular expressions.

Bayesian Filters
Currently the most sophisticated filtering methods use Bayesian inferences. Bayesian filters take a large data set and determine the probability a message is Spam based on its similarity to previous Spam messages. The more emails that are processed and flagged theoretically make the filter more accurate. Services that provide filtering on an ISP or host level, like Postini's "SpamAway", filter billions of emails and provide the highest level of success and fewest "false positives". SpamAway is already highly intelligent about identifying Spam and doesn't require any "learning" commands or examples be provided. The online, browser based interface keeps flagged messages in an easily accessible "quarantine" and allows the user to check for any false positives. White list functionality is provided to aide in the prevention of future false positives. A hosting company offering such an advanced service takes Spam and virus filtering for their customers seriously.

Use Your Hobby To Launch A Successful Website

When you study the really successful websites, you will quickly notice that many are based on seemingly strange subjects, many of which may not easily pass for a serious business.

This clearly underlines the fact that when it comes to online enterprises and ecommerce, the possibilities are endless and you can actually succeed at virtually anything. There seems to be just one condition. You need to be passionate about whatever it is your website is about.

Jeff Bezos had a passion for books and that is one of the reasons why he borrowed money from his parents and launched Amazon.com. The rest is history and today Amazon earns Bezos and his associates millions of dollars.

This is precisely the reason why the first place you should look for an idea for your online enterprise and website, is your hobby. What are you passionate about? Or what do you really care about?

Establishing a successful online venture is hard work and it helps a lot if the subject matter that you are dealing with is close to your heart. It helps transform your chores from work to having fun. The facts are that people usually become wildly successful doing things that they enjoy doing. The more fun you have at your business, the higher the chances of success.

Having selected the hobby you want to turn into a business, It will help tremendously if you carefully analyze the potential online demand for the various businesses related to your hobby. This is easily done by studying popular keywords statistics and is a very important thing to do before launching any online business or website.

For example your hobby could be golf. By studying keywords, you may find that Golf stretch exercises are a very popular subject. This would be a pointer that the right business to start would be something to do with golf exercises. You can, for example, sell golf exercise equipment at your website.

This is the way to cash in on your hobby or passion and birth a hugely successful website or online enterprise.

Unique Features that Leading Web Hosts are Now Offering

Some web hosts are offering more than others for the same price or even for a lower price. There is no denying the fact that as competition increases amongst web hosting services, many are looking for ways and means to stand out and be different from their competitors. The result is that web hosting service standards are constantly on the rise and webmasters are constantly enjoying amazing new features that were previously not there. Let us take a look at a few that some web hosts are now regularly offering to their clients.

There are website hosts that help clients publish and manage their own email newsletters or ezines. This is a powerful marketing tool that helps increase sales. Some hosts go further and also offer an unlimited number of auto responders. This helps a site owner automatically follow up with prospects and thus dramatically increase the chances of making a sale.

We also now have hosting services that help you set up set up your own affiliate program. Affiliate programs are the proven most effective way of getting traffic and profits for webmasters. Pioneered by sites like Amazon.com, this is where you enable other website owners to promote your site and products on their site and in return earn commissions from the sales that result from traffic that they have referred to your site.

Another popular emerging new feature from hosts is the service that helps you protect your download page where you are selling digital products like e-books or software from your site. The number of hackers is on the increase and this is an increasingly vital service for many webmasters.

The Perfect Support

Hosting Support - An Introduction

Imagine yourself as a person running a small-medium sized online store that concentrates on affordablly prized gift items, and say, it's Christmas time. Everybody is on a shopping spree, and you have been waiting for this vacation to arrive, as it is the time of the year when your business really blooms, and with which's revenues you have got to plan for the year to come.

Say, your site goes down due to some sort of problems associated with your server on say, the 23rd of December, or on Christmas eve. You will be contacting your hosting company in frenzy, and just imagine if there's nobody there to provide you with prompt support and resolution for your issue.By the time boxing day arrives, nobody will need to send gifts anymore to anyone. You have lost your business, and now your site and business has got a notorious reputation of not being active when it counts.

The above is just a worse case scenario explained to put forward a point. Quality support is the backbone of a hosting company. It is the pillar on which a hosting firm rests it's credibility. Speedy and accurate customer service is rare and indicates a superior overall hosting service. When choosing a web host, what customers generally look for are Server performance, Space, Traffic allowed, Features, Cost, and most importantly Customer support.

If a hosting company is one which takes it's business seriosly, their technical support must be perfect by all means. Determining whether technical support is dependable is important, because if anything goes wrong with your site, you are going to be contacting your know-it-all customer care rep. However, in the real world, we know that knowledgeable customer care is hard to find.

Most of the hosting companies claim that they have techs working round the clock in their organizations, managing their state-of-the art systems. While this in fact may be true, sometimes, the people working with the support might be the most unprofessional and underqualified ones. Due to the huge demand for information technology professionals today, many web hosts are not able to find employees who are well trained in OS concepts, network technology and control panel specifications. Other firms pump in a lot of money to advertising and marketing and gives good quality customer support only the lowest priority. In both instances, it is the customers who eventually suffers due to the lack of competence in handling their issues related to hosting.

The following is a small article gives a brief insight into the hosting support considerations for the newbies in business, as well as any host who have got high regards for the quality standards of their company. Before proceeding, please keep in mind the fact that Web Hosting Support is not child's play. It is something that is NOT to be taken for granted.

Finding the Right Support for you

Finding the perfect support for your company is not a very easy task. Every webhost who have got serious thoughts about their hosting support would be having certain expectation levels regarding the quality of support. Only if your support matches / outperforms your expectations would you feel relaxed, relieved and be happy with them.

The very first concern regarding support is how to keep things going 24 / 7. Every webhost provides their customers with a 24 / 7 support promise, and some even give their customers a money back guarantee on any failure to keep up the promise. You should be implementing methods to ensure that your support team covers the 24 hours of the day effectively, and co-ordinate between them regarding the technical and administrative aspects of your servers.

Then comes the cost part. There are options for maintaining an inhouse team of technical experts, or outsourcing to an outsourced hosting support company. You should choose your support wisely with efficient computations of your expenditure and profit margin. You should do it in such a way that the quality of support is not compromised, and at the same time you have the decent profit to enhance your business in the long run. Please note that in the very beginning itself, you should set the standards, and should never go below them. Remember - It's a jungle out there, with huge competition. If you have to survive, you have to be the best; and to be the best, you have got to give your customers the best. Manage high standards.... returns would come automatically.

Web hosting support not only means providing technical solutions to your end customers; but the sales / billing support and timely administration of your servers are equally important. You can manage the sales / billing issues yourself, or you can avail the aid of a graduate with good customer skills, and excellent knowledge on the packages / features / options that you provides. Regarding the server administration, you require the service of a good system administrator to perform the timely software upgrades, and the other fine tuning aspects of the server for it's smooth functioning. It is always an additional advantage to maintain a team of technical experts who can perform your technical support as well as server administration; rather than having separate teams for the same. It would reduce the overall costs involved, and will enhance quality of customer support due to the better knowledge of the servers.

In-House or Outsourced??

Now comes the big question. Do you need an in-house team of technicians, or do you want to outsource your support to a support company? There has been disputes over this on most of the web hosting forums. Both the options has got advantages and disadvantages. But on tallying with the positive and negative sides of both of them, my vote goes to outsourced support. A comparison of the advantages is provided in the chart below:

ADVANTAGES

---------------

In-House

1) Direct interaction with the support staff in person

2) Direct recruitment of the support staff yourself, so as to meet your ideal requirements on first-hand

3) Local market knowledge and expertise when it comes to sales and marketing

4) Ready availability-upon-call of your in house team in case of any emergency

Outsourced

1) Far cheaper than what is required to maintain an inhouse support team

2) You can concentrate on your business marketing, while the outsource company takes care of the technical side.

3) Expertise in specific fields related to every server software.

4) No hassles with the planning of shifts or personnel to manage the 24 / 7 support, as it is taken care of by the outsource company.

5) No issues associated with training the support staff.

Outsource companies are able to provide you with high quality, but cheap support due to the low cost of living standards in those countries. Most of the hosting companies are located in the United States, Canada and Europe, and the major outsource companies are located in countries like India. Due to the comparatively lower cost of living in countries like India, the above is made possible. With inhouse support, you have to pay the wages that is par with the living standards in the United States and such; which makes it an expensive option.

There are several myths related to outsourcing jobs. According to the trade and foreign aid research conducted by The Heritage Foundation , the American economy has only benefitted from outsourcing jobs to the asian countries, and has not gone down, as the general concept is.

But with outsourced support, you have got to make the right choice. Due to the huge demand for professionals in the ITES ( Information Technology Enables Services ), many webhosts can't find employees with expertise in the relevant fields. You should be doing a research on the work culture and standards of the different outsourced companies before making the right source. A search for the leading outsourced companies in forums like http://webhostingtalk.com can provide you with pro and con views that you'll require to make the decision.

Still, most of the outsourced companies provide you with a testing period of upto a month to test them out. You can utilize this time period to analyze the quality of your support company, if you are not sure about it.

The disadvantages associated with the two types of support are provided in the chart below:

DISADVANTAGES

------------------

In-House

1) Expensive when taking into consideration the living standards in North America and Europe

2) Headaches related to personnel management related with maintaining an inhouse team for support

3) Remedies are to be made by you in case of any immediate non availability of support staff due to reasons like their resignation without prior notice, termination, expiry etc.

Outsourced

1) No direct interaction in person with the support staff. ( overcomed if efficient chat support is provided with a contact person at the company )

2) Have to get accustomed with your support people, as they might keep on changing according to the outsource company's internal policies.

3) Have got to make sure of the written ( spoken too, if required ) language proficiency of the company staff, as English is not the mother tongue in the outsourced companies.

The language barrier could be an issue with only a few cheap quality outsourced support companies. It would be a good measure to talk to their representatives / contact points over chat / telephone to get an idea of how it's going to be overall. With the leading support companies, the language problems should not happen, as they would have required formal training both technically, as well as with customer orientation. Still, it is very important from your part to make sure of their support quality.

To summarize, it is always better to choose a good outsourced support firm, that maintains it's promises and does not comprise on quality, rather than yourself employing separate staff to handle your technical support, sales / billing and server administration. ( Unless you have got the money to roll, and is keen on having all your employees available in person upon your call )

The Quality Factor

Speaking of quality, what do one exactly mean by or point to when talking about the Quality of Support ( QoS ) ? Quality is not an accident, but the collective output of well planned stages of service, with the very best systems to back them up. When we refer to the complete QoS, there are a lot of points that comes into consideration - Being knowledgeable, Polite, Communicative, Honest, Fast, Empathetic, Competent, Responsible and above all, overall Perfection. Let's check out how these becomes important.

Being knowledgeable is the most important part. Always keep in mind that our customers needs competent people at the receiving end of their mails and calls. By being knowledgeable, we mean that the support person should be possessing the proper knowledge level related to the support and service that we are offering. In this case, say, if you are a host who offers Cpanel hosting on Red hat Enterprise Linux servers, the technical support staff that works for you should be having extensive knowledge in the following areas:

Linux Operating System structure

Linux commands - common and advanced

Linux Internet server implementations

Linux server security

Differences between RHEL, and other versions of RedHat Linux, and also other distros and flavors of Linux. Proficiency in Unix / Solaris flavors will be an added advantage.

Cpanel control panel proficiency using both fronted tools ( administrative / user control panel interfaces ) and also the Cpanel control panel specific files in the backend of the servers

Overall, by being knowledgeable, it means that the support team must be well qualified and trained to handle the job that they are doing. Choose your team of experts wisely.

Responsibility of your support team is another important aspect. There is a lot of difference between a person who has undergone years of dedicated computer study in school and college doing this job, and a teenager with some computer background doing it part-time. The support team should be responsible in addressing various heterogeneous issues, and should also be good with the decision making related to the smooth functioning of the servers.

Say, one of your servers is having an issue with the apache server software running in the server being not compatible with PHP, as a result of a latest control panel upgrade. Your support team must not only be able to fix the immediate requests from customers hosted in this server, but should also be taking the necessary steps to identify the root cause of the issue, implement it in the server under question, and also check the rest of the servers ( if any ) for similar compatibility issues, and get them fixed, so that no unnecessary botherations are avoided for both the party - the customer and the support rep.

To sum up things, the support techs should not be just people to see off the day to day issues of the end customer, but they should be responsible so as to ensure that the server is fine tuned to see off any vulnerability associated with it, so that no issues arise from within the server as a result of an exploitation of that.

Then comes the communication part. This is as important as being knowledgeable. A support technician needs to address an issue raised by you or an end customer in grammatically correct language, and also including all the important points related to the issue, that the customer should be made aware of. A polite, consice and communicative reply addressing the various aspects of a support ticket always gives the end customer a feeling of care. A good support tech is one who empathises the client, i.e, think by standing in the client's shoes. When a support person can feel the client's problems, and read in between the lines, it puts the end client at ease, no matter what the issue is. Just take the case of the following scenario. A customer has published the following support ticket:

EBay Pictures Make Money

If you have ever used EBay then you know how important pictures are to a listing. By nature, people tend to pay more attention to the items that have pictures in the items for sale. The old saying "a picture is worth a thousand words" has never been more true but in EBay's case a picture is worth $1.00, $2.00 or more...to EBay! If you want to add more than one picture to a listing or want additional features then you must be willing to pay EBay. Here is just a small list to illustrate the point:

Additional Pictures: $0.15

Picture Show: $0.25

Supersize Picture: $0.75

Picture Pack: $1.00

These fees mean less profits for you. You already pay EBay for inserting the listing or selling the item. An alternative is to use an image hosting service. Quality image hosting sites, such as Image4U.org (http://www.image4u.org), will allow you to upload your pictures and link to them on EBay. This type of service can save you a lot of fees and increase your profits. You pay a set monthly rate and can host as many pictures as you need, up to the limit of your account. Image4U.org even offers unlimited bandwidth so you can be assured that your images will always be available.

What is the difference between bandwidth and disk space? Disk space is where the image is stored within your account. It is fixed to the size of the images that you store. If an image is 250 KB in size then it will always take up 250 KB on your account. Bandwidth is the amount of space it takes to transfer an image to the requesting user each time they want to view an image. Bandwidth used grows larger the more times an image is viewed. Using the previously mentioned 250 KB image, the first time someone views the image it takes 250 KB of bandwidth. The next time it takes another 250 KB for a total of 500 KB. The next time your total is 750 KB and so on. To put this into perspective, If you account allows 500 MB of bandwidth per month then this picture could be viewed approximately 2000 times (250 KB x 4 = 1 MB) before you used up all of your bandwidth for the month.

Services such as Image4U.org allow unlimited bandwidth. Take advantage of the service to post as many images on your auctions as you can. It will help you increase the number of bids received by making the sale more attractive. You simply have to copy and paste the image URL into the EBay form.

Best of all, perhaps, may be the online photo gallery options many sites offer. You can take advantage of this feature to set up an image gallery to display all your items on one page. It will provide a convenient way for customers to browse your offerings. Whether you are a high volume seller or a newcomer to online auctions, take advantage of the service to reduce your selling expenses. Experiment with different techniques to learn what works best to increase sales.

Image4U.org (http://www.image4u.org) is an image hosting service that can be used to store pictures online. Enhance your EBay auctions without paying the EBay picture hosting fees. The service can also be used to upload pictures for myspace, live journal, and other blog websites. Users can create custom photo galleries to be shared with friends and family. Visit the site to learn about all the other features.

Server Uptimes Revealed: The Hidden Cost of Cheap Hosting

We often see server uptime statistics when looking for hosting providers, for example 99.8%, 99%, or 99.99% server uptime guaranteed. Though 99% server uptime may sound good, but is it really and what does it mean?

99% server uptime means that in a year of 365 days, your server will be up 99% of the time, which is 361.35 days (365 days x 99%). This is not really good, because even with 99% uptime your site could be down for 4 days. It would be disastrous if you owned an online store because even an hour's downtime would cost you. Imagine, not only lost revenues, but also customers who switched to your competitors while your site was down.

Here are some server uptime examples with calculations showing what the percentages mean.

100% server uptime
Up = 365 days
Down = 0 days = 0 hours = 0 minutes

99.999% server uptime
Up = 364.9964 days
Down = 0.0036 days = 0.0876 hours = 5.256 minutes

99.99% server uptime
Up = 364.9635 days
Down = 0.0365 days = 0.876 hours = 52.56 minutes

99.9% server uptime
Up = 364.635 days
Down = 0.365 days = 8.76 hours = 525.6 minutes

99.8% server uptime
Up = 364.27 days
Down = 0.73 days = 17.52 hours = 1051.2 minutes

99% server uptime
Up = 361.35 days
Down = 3.65 days = 87.6 hours = 5256 minutes

You can use other tools like ping and traceroute to measure server response times and hops required to reach your server.

Initial hosting offerings of very low prices bundled with a lot of disk space and server features may be lucrative, but when it comes to server uptime, you could be paying a heavy price. If you are just starting off with your own website, then a lower server uptime like 99% may not affect you much. But as you get more and more visitors, you should choose a hosting provider with maximum server uptime like 99.999%.

Avoiding Bad Web Hosts

The Internet represents the most powerful communication revolution since the dawn of mankind.

Its communication power can literally create business empires faster and with less startup capital than in all human history.

Yet, with all this power at their fingertips, it amazes me that most businesses and entrepreneurs will put their business in jeopardy just to save a couple of bucks.

Would you build a luxury home on a foundation made for a double-wide trailer?

Would you mount a race car body and engine on a chassis built for a go-cart?

If not, then why would you try to build a legitimate online business to support your family and contribute to your livelihood using $4 a month hosting?

It doesn't make sense, but people do it every day and, unfortunately, the consequences can often cost you a hundred times or more of what you "saved."

When you go to choose a web host, you need to think in terms of the purpose for your website(s).

If you want a little family site or a non-commercial blog, then $5 a month hosting may be just what you need.

If you want to host a basic, but dependable website to sell your own, or someone else's products, then plan on $9-20 a month, depending on how much hand-holding you need from your web host's technical support staff.

If you want to host multiple sites to generate search engine traffic, sell your own products online, and get a moderate amount of traffic, then plan to spend $15-$50 a month, depending on which options you choose.

If you plan to operate a serious e-commerce site and need the flexibility to grow, then a dedicated server for $100- $200 a month may fit the bill.

When evaluating a web host, keep the following in mind.

Will you run scripts on your website?

If yes, then make sure the web host offers a cgi-bin and mysql database. Those allow you to run almost any kind of script you'll need on a basic to intermediate level site.

Will you have your own "dedicated IP address?"

All domain names correspond to an IP address, which is just a series of numbers.

Just like a phone number dials up the correct phone anywhere on earth, each domain has its own number.

However, depending on how your host sets up their server, your domain can actually share an IP address with dozens, even hundreds, of other websites.

If one of those websites misbehaves, it can adversely affect everyone on that same IP address.

My advice: pay a little extra to make sure you get your own dedicated IP.

How much space will you need?

Make sure you get at least 100 megabytes of space from your web host.

Also, make sure you get at least 10 email forwarding accounts and 10 gigabytes of data transfer per month.

Also, the hosting market is so competitive now that you should never pay a setup fee.

If in doubt, shop around, compare and always ask someone you trust or check up on what others have to say about a specific hosting service by visiting sites like http://www.webhostingtalk.com

The moral here?

Understand that your web hosting account is literally the "foundation" for your online business, so don't skimp. You're only hurting yourself in the long run if you do.

Choosing Between Free or Paid Web Hosting

There are a number of things to consider when choosing between a free or paid web hosting service. Setting aside cost for a moment, lets look at some factors that will help you make an informative decision.

The very first thing you must consider is the intent or purpose of your website. Are you looking for a convenient way to share photos of family and friends? Or, are you considering something a little more complex such as adding multiple pages with different content on each? How about a website to promote a product or business?

The purpose of your website will act as a key component in determining which type of web hosting service is best suited for you. For example, if your website will be used primarily for personal postings, your file sizes aren't very large and you don't expect a lot of traffic, you won't require a lot of disk space or bandwidth for your hosting.

If this is the case, a free web hosting service may meet your needs. Free web hosting services are also useful if you're inexperienced in creating web pages. This type of service can provide an excellent opportunity for you to learn and practice your html skills. You could even use a free service as a test site before uploading your web pages to your live website.

Keep in mind that most free web hosting services provide limited features compared to paid web hosting services, but normally offer enough disk space and bandwidth to host a small website. To help offset costs, though, most free providers will place advertisements on your web pages.

With paid hosting, you'll find a variety of available plans to choose from. These plans allow more disk space and bandwidth, and usually include a number of other features such as free domain names, free sub-domains and unlimited email accounts. Some of the more advanced common features are a CGI-Bin, MySQL databases and Microsoft FrontPage extensions.

Compared to free web hosting, you'll also find that the services provided by paid web hosting companies are much more reliable, not to mention offering a higher level of customer support.

Cost wise, there is no charge to register for a free web hosting service, although you may be required to purchase your own domain name. For a basic paid service, you can expect to pay anywhere from $5 to $10 per month - a very small price for the improved service, support and features you receive.

Shared Web Hosting Service Explained!

The next concern for you after designing and developing web pages is to get your web site hosted on the Internet. But with so many web hosting companies offering various types of web hosting packages - shared web hosting, dedicated web hosting, managed web hosting, which type of hosting should you choose?

As a general rule, it is a good idea to go for shared web hosting if you are a small business owner and cost is your major concern. But before you make your hosting decision, let us first understand what is shared web hosting service and what are the advantages and disadvantages of shared web hosting.

What is shared web hosting?

Shared web hosting service is a convenient and economic way of hosting web sites if you do not require extremely high performance and high bandwidth. As its name suggests, in shared web hosting service, the web server that hosting the web pages are shared by many other websites. The number of websites on a shared hosting server can go up to thousands at times. Due to one large and high performance web server is shared by hosting many different websites on it, web hosting companies providing shared web hosting service could offer them at an economic rates.

Even with so many websites hosted on a web server, you can be rest assured that the web hosting providers will not compromise on any kind of security and performance issues on the shared hosting servers. Moreover, shared hosting web servers are operated, monitored and maintained around the clock by IT professionals to ensure minimum server downtimes.

Technically speaking, shared hosting servers are run on Unix or other multi-user operating system and each website hosted on the web server is given a separate account in the operating system. Typically, websites hosted on shared servers are given a shared IP addresses and allocated a fix amount of web resources.

Let's examine the advantages and disadvantages of shared web hosting before you consider shared web hosting service:

Advantages of Shared Web Hosting Service

Economical: As many websites are hosted on a single web server, web hosting providers are able to offer low cost shared web hosting services. In general, you can expect to pay $5-10 per month for shared web hosting services. Today, due to stiff competition in the web hosting industry, you can even discover many web hosting companies offering huge web space and bandwidth (as high as 1000 MB disk space and 40 GB bandwith).

Convenience: Shared hosting web servers are managed and maintained by professionals who are highly skilled with specialized knowledge of the field. As a result, you can concentrate on your web business and let these professionals worry about the maintenance and uptimes of the web server.

Customization: Even though web resources are shared, web masters can manage their website using control panel or similar tools provided by the web hosting company. They are free to upload files, remove web pages, add database, check web statistic and etc. Also they are allowed to create domain name specific e-mails accounts.

Efficiency: Today, shared web hosting service comes with web space and bandwidth that are more than sufficient for small business websites. However, you can always add more resources should you overrun the web space or bandwidth usage.

Disadvantages of Shared Web Hosting Service

Slower Responses: Given that a physical web server is shared, websites in the shared web hosting have to accept slower server response time if compare to dedicate server hosting.

Reliability Issues: In most cases, web hosting providers may take care of the security and performance of the shared server. However, it may happen that some of websites hosted on the shared server run a malicious program or script or over-utilize the resources, can bring down the web server. Your website would have to suffer downtimes and inaccessibility as a result.

Sharing Issues: Moreover, you just need one "bad" website in your shared web server to get your website banned altogether by ISP or search engine due to shared IP address (Note: you can always pay extra to get a dedicated IP address to avoid this problem).

Security Issues: Shared web hosting is more risky and opens up potential security issues as other web masters having an account on the same web server could hacked to your sensitive data.

Before you decide to ink a deal on shared web hosting, be sure to consider all the pros and cons of shared web hosting services above. After all, selecting a right web hosting services may be one of the most critical business decisions for your online business.

Tips on Finding a Hosting Service for Your Business Website

There are so many hosting companies offering to host your website for you that the choice may seem a little bewildering. If you are determined about having a successful internet business then you need to consider seriously which hosting company you are going to use for your website. It is almost expected nowadays that a company should have its own website, no matter how basic, and web site hosting has become an exceedingly competitive area. That is good news for any website owner because the amount of features offered by any web hosting service has increased while the costs have decreased. The only problem you might have is trying to decide which hosting service you want to trust your business with. Every business has its own different needs and it is important to weigh up the options that each hosting company you are considering actually offers.

Before you start checking out your hosting options it is important that you are clear about which services you want your hosting company to provide. Obviously you wouldn't want your website to only be online Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. It is likely that you may be considering a hosting company based in your own country so that you can contact them easily but that is no longer necessary. Website hosting are located all over the world these days and it is often much cheaper to select a company based in another region if they offer 24/7 cover should your website have any technical problems.

The resources that you require from your hosting service will vary greatly depending on the functionality you want included in your website. For example, a purely informational website needs much less bandwidth from the hosting service than a website that is constantly being updated. The more interaction that you have on your website means that you require a greater bandwidth from your hosting company to work. If you do not have enough bandwidth then your website is likely to collapse as the volume of visitors to your site increases. This obviously leads to a higher cost for the website hosting service and a higher requirement for technical expertise from your hosting company. Online transactions or streaming media files on a website require more storage space on the hosting server too.

Some hosting providers will offer a private, or dedicated, server rather than one shared with other businesses if you have dynamic web pages and a lot of interaction for your visitors. A shared server is a more cost effective solution than a private server and may be enough to get your website off the ground but you are likely to have to migrate to a dedicated server with your hosting company at some point so make sure that they offer this service. The inclusion of automated systems by your hosting service is also a consideration to ensure that your business website is still online no matter what time of the day or night it is.

Security is becoming an extremely important issue due to the amount of hacking and viruses that attack websites on a regular basis. You have to be sure that your hosting service has all the latest defences in place on their web servers to prevent your website from being targeted and possibly destroyed. These include anti-virus and firewall protection. The more protection that your hosting company uses as standard the better.

The personal data that your customers supply when using your website is also subject to strict privacy laws and needs to be protected at all times. This necessity increases greatly if you accept payments on your website by credit card, online check or an electronic transfer. Your chosen hosting service has an obligation to ensure that all data taken from your customers via your website is totally secure. This also applies to the secure storage of backups that are taken of your website by the hosting company in case of severe server problems.

Benefits of Web Hosting and Choice of a Web Host

Well let me start this way, a lot of people don't know why we need web hosting packages, some people feel web hosting ids just another Internet thing, while others feel web hosting is an opportunity for some people to make out something i.e. money making.

But lets ask ourselves what is WEB HOSTING. Web hosting is the ability to move a business or information, product content, research to the Internet. Also a web host is the person who offers web-hosting services to clients, persons or business

Web hosting has many benefits, among them is

1. Advertising your business ideas and potentials on the internet; in today's world more and more people are driven by the need to have Information, on anything from Tourism, to potential businesses, the safest Banks etc

2. Web hosting also provides jobs for people who can act as resellers for web hosting companies or act as server based Network or Affiliates to other web hosting companies who pay commissions to such clients.

So far web hosting is a million dollar business as it attracts more and more people by the day. One good thing you should do is to choose web-hosting companies that will offer you other services like free domains or web space, web designing script management and web templates. The choice of a web host is another great concern. A lot of people have fallen prey to bad web hosting companies, some web hosts are not so efficiency as they seem and kill so many business. I have seen an instance where a web host who had thousand of clients because of Spam killed their business forcing thousands of their clients to go else where, so to solve such problems one has to avoid such crisis.

One great way of avoiding such problems is to listen to people and find out from people who have hosted their services on the Net, how efficient their web host is. Don't be too attracted to web host that are so cheap and fall prey to their services. Some web hosts are very slow to upload while others enjoy great benefits because they had a listening ear. No doubt, there is no site that will enjoy 100% trouble free operation, but a key fact to find out is how often your site is down. Another thing is never be in a hurry to change a web host always lay your troubles to other people who are in the business and find out how they cope with such problems.

For me patience is the key, never be too in a rush in choosing a web host and don't play it down on cost. Of course everyone would love to be very fast and act right in changing hosts as long as the problem persists.

Finally, I would recommend two web hosts that can stand the test of time as having being efficient for a long while.

The Problem with Free Web Hosting Plans

In my opinion, free web hosting is one of the most misunderstood concepts on the web today. Free web hosting plans are becoming increasingly popular as new webmasters bite into the idea without actually analyzing the consequences. I myself spent many years, at the start of my webmaster career, using free web hosting plans. This experience has giving me an insight into the down-side of free web hosting plans that many people seem to miss.

Would Coke promote Pepsi on their website? Although the rhetorical question above seems ludicrous, this concept is one of the fundamental problems with free web hosting plans. Forced advertising is the way that hosting companies can afford to provide "free" hosting. Whether it be through pop-ups, pop-unders, headline ads, or implanted adsense you will be hosting advertisements on your website that generate revenue for your hosting company whether you like it or not. Not only is this annoying it can also ruin the look of your page; the majority of the time you cannot control what the ads look like or where they go, they are simply dropped down onto your site and there is nothing you can do.

Traffic Jams The bottom line in web hosting is that bandwidth (data transfer) costs money and if your plan is free it is most likely your bandwidth will be limited. Too many times I have attempted to access a web site hosted on a free server and been given the message: "This user has acceded their bandwidth limits, please try again next month". As a webmaster this can be infuriating. Imagine building a solid page, marketing it, gaining an audience, and then losing that audience because your page is not allowed anymore hits for the month.

SEO woes This is a problem that caused me a ton of frustration, but in the end taught mea lot about how search engines work and how search engines handle name resolution. In almost every case free web hosting plans do not allow you to point a domain name (www.yoursite.com) to an actual page. Instead you are forced to use a concept called URL redirection. URL redirection allows a webmaster to identify a site that the URL should point to. So if a user types in www.example.com and we have configured it to redirect to www.freehost/users/mysite.html it will end up on that page. This does not seem like much of an issue until you begin trying to get your website indexed in the search engines. So you submit your site (www.example.com) to some directories and you ake some good link partners and then you start to wonder, why am I not being listed in the SE's? I have 100 solid back links pointing to www.example.com, what is happening. The problem is that www.example.com has no data, it has no content, it simply redirects to your actual page at www.freehost/users/mysite.html. SE's not only will not index a page with no data or content but they may even view this as an attempt to fool their algorithm, thus banning your domain name. The only work around is to forget the domain name and optimize for your free hosting address, which is not really an acceptable work around.

But wait! Although I am a strong believer that free web hosting is not the way to go it is possible to find a free web host that works for you. There are some out there that do not force advertising, do not limit your bandwidth, and will allow pointed domains. The problem is finding one that does all three. If you are a serious, or even only slightly serious, webmaster take the hit and pay the money for web hosting. In the end you can get an awesome web hosting plan for as low as $5.95 a month, and trust me this will be WELL worth the money.

Sell Web Hosting for Fun and Profit

The market is good for new Web hosting companies. According to Forrester Research, there is now "positive - if modest - growth for Web hosting and managed IT services, at both the enterprise and SMB levels."

This is an especially good business to be in if you are a web designer or IT consultant. It fits naturally with the business model of such small consulting firms. Why refer out or miss out on selling a service that most small businesses need? Hosting is an excellent source of monthly recurring revenue.

The hosting industry is one of the few profitable sectors of the Internet. As such, large corporations such Yahoo are offering Web hosting services. You, too, can join this highly profitable business and reap the financial awards -- but only if you do it right.

To build a successful Web hosting company, I offer the following two time-tested and proven rules: Focus on offering high-quality services in a two-tiered pricing schedule.

In addition, it is essential an automated infrastructure to create self-sufficient customers. For marketing, it is crucial to maximize intelligent marketing opportunities.

Automation will create a self-sufficient client-base and reduce your expenses down the road. In order to provide the best-possible service, you'll want a minimum of the following processes automated: order forms (for new customer account set up or existing customer updates), billing system, administration system, end-user control panel, and technical support interface.

Order Forms

The front end of your order form should serve an minimum of these four key functions: 1) verify domain information for registration purposes, 2) validate entered results, 3) process the customer's credit card or create an invoice, 4) enter the customer's information into billing database for future use.

The backend of the order form must process the domain registration (if customer needs to register one) and generate the Web hosting account.

Administration System

The administration system is necessary to manage ordered accounts. You may wish to manually add or remove new domains, change passwords, etc.

End-User Control Panel

The end-user control panel is necessary for allowing your customers to manage their accounts. At the very least, customers should be able to set up their own e-mail accounts, view Website statistics, and manage their files.

Billing System

An automated billing system is an absolute must! The billing system should e-mail invoices, charge credit cards, and suspend overdue accounts. The system should also allow the you to issue credit or discounts as needed.

Technical Support Interface

By technical support interface, I'm not referring to a system that merely generates trouble tickets. An effective tech-support interface automatically generates an FAQ-interface that customers can search before submitting trouble tickets. These interfaces can reduce technical support requests by a factor of 10!

Also, be sure that the company you go with offers the option of taking care of technical support on your behalf but branded with your brand. You can then focus your energy on your core competencies and growing your business.

Maximize intelligent marketing opportunities

You know what platform you want to use, you've figured out what packages to offer, and set up a tiered pricing schedule and automated systems. So how do you get the word out about your new hosting service?

Pay per Click

Pay per Click can potentially allow you to reach large numbers of customers. Although you don't pay to list your site, you do pay when a user clicks on your listing and connects to your site. How, then, do you get your site high on the results lists? You must engage in a bidding war over how much you're willing to pay for each person who clicks through to your site. The stakes have recently grown pretty high, so be careful about bidding too high. Just because someone clicks through to your Web hosting site, doesn't mean they'll convert into a new account. Also be sure to select targeted keywords not competing with everyone else for the same keywords. That is a very difficult game to win. Find your niche.

Hosting Directory Sites

There are numerous Web sites known as hosting directories -- that attract Web hosting customers. These hosting directories are an excellent place to advertise, but be selective in your placement. Many offer banner placement, spotlights, search enhancements, and other forms of advertisement. As a general rule keep in mind that banner ads are better for creating brand recognition than generating new accounts, so advertise based on your budget, not on your expectation of new clientele.

Leverage Your Current Client Base

If you run an established Web design firm, information portal, or domain registration service, you can immediately begin marketing to your current clients. A simple e-mail to your customer base can quickly generate a large number of accounts. There are permission-based email marketing services that work very well for earning more revenue from your current customers and gaining additional customers. Try a free trial of one or more of these services to find one that works well for your needs.

Offer New Products and Services

Keep in mind, once you acquire a solid customer base, you can consider developing new products and services to keep your customers happy and to generate additional revenue. But always remember: Quality is key!

Fun with DNS: Three Useful Commands

The DNS is a distributed, hierarchical database where authority flows from the top (or root) of the hierarchy downward.

When thinking of the structure of the DNS, imagine an inverted tree. Each branch of the tree is within a zone of authority; however, multiple branches of the tree can be within a single zone.

The software (Bind being the most common) that stores domain name information is called a domain name server. A single name server can be authoritative for multiple zones. All zones have a primary master and a secondary master name server that provides authoritative responses for their zones.

If you query a name server not authoritative for a particular zone, that name server will most likely have up-to-date information. This is because zone information propagates throughout the Internet at regular intervals, and name servers cache zone information for which they are not authoritative.

DNS Commands

There are three crucial commands that can put all the DNS information you need at your fingertips. The way to use this article is to try each of the commands listed on a domain name, so you can see what the output looks like. Learn by doing!

Zone file database records divide DNS information into three primary types: NS (Name Server) records, MX (Mail Exchange) records, and A (Address) records. NS records indicate the name servers. MX records indicate the hosts that handle e-mail delivery; the priority (pri) number indicates the order in which mail servers are used, with the lowest number receiving the highest priority. The A (Address) records map hostnames to IP addresses, the real names of machines.

host

This is the simplest of the DNS commands. It is a quick way to determine the IP address of a hostname:

: host www.your-domain-name.com

The -a option will return all of the DNS information in verbose format.

: host -a www.your-domain-name.com

Now that you know the IP address for www.your-domain-name.com, try a reverse lookup.

: host IP-ADDRESS

dig (domain information groper)

This command gathers and returns DNS information in a format the name server can use directly. You will find it easy to query specific name servers with dig.

You can quickly determine the Name servers of your host or any other host:

: dig ns your-host.com

Then you check your (or another) website against the host's name servers:

: dig www.your-domain-name.com @ns.your-host.com

Dig can provide output that is in the same format as the zone file itself. Here is how to get the whole zone file:

: dig any your-domain-name.com

Here are the most useful dig query types: dig any (gathers all DNS information), dig ns (gathers name server information), dig mx (gathers mail exchanger information) and dig a (gathers network address information).

The dig command can also do reverse lookups with output formatted for the zone file:

: dig -x IP-Address

nslookup

You can use this tool as a single line command, or you can use it interactively, which distinguishes it from the other DNS commands. Once you have started nslookup, type set all to list the default options. As with dig you can choose the server (name server) you want to query, and you can decide the type of DNS information on which to focus.

Just as you can issue commands to nslookup interactively, you can also change the initial defaults by starting a .nslookuprc file. The format of the .nslookup is one command per line:

set type=NS
set domain=srvns.your-host.com
set timeout=10

Conclusion

These three commands can provide you with most of the information you need about your domain names. They are powerful tools, and this article should provide you enough information to get started or offer a quick refresher if you already use these commands.

Linux Web Hosting: The All You Need to Know

Linux web hosting is so named, based on the operating system on which the web server software, database, and coding conventions reside. The functionality and robust nature of Linux has definitely made it a very viable alternative to Microsoft and Unix-based operating systems. Linux is now recognized worldwide as an enduring network, file/print, and web server operating system. Endearingly called a LAMP server, the Linux web hosting model is based on the server having a LINUX operating system, an APACHE web server application, a MYSQL database, and a PHP server markup coding application. As time has proven, the Linux/LAMP server continues to be a strong option to reliably serving web pages and running web-based applications. Per netcraft.com, "?Apache continued to take market share from Microsoft servers?" during a March 2005 web server survey of 60 million web sites.

==| Advantages: |==

The advantages of Linux-based web hosting surround the premises of reliability, security, functionality, and price.

In the case of reliability, there have been documented cases of Linux servers running for one year without technical difficulty or downtime! This is amazing, considering the fact that web hosting servers with Microsoft operating systems are notorious for needing scheduled reboots to refresh system resources.

Security is a bittersweet advantage. While out-of-the box installations may have known security vulnerabilities, Linux is continually evolving patches to make the operating system more bullet-proof, and overall, provide a greater degree of security than most Windows-based installations.

Functionality is another asset of Linux. Having evolved from almost a "hobbyist" operating system, to one which has vested interests from IBM, Sun, and other major companies, Linux web hosting now possesses phenomenal power and respect.

Lastly, price is a major advantage of Linux based web hosting, as distributions and flavors of Linux come in affordable ranges. Since Linux is available in these open source distributions, savings are generally passed to the customers.

==| Disadvantages: |==

Linux web hosting has the drawback of not being able to accommodate Windows-based applications and coding conventions. ASP coding, modules, and extensions specific to Microsoft generally cannot be run from Linux web servers. This can make a website coded specifically for a Windows platform obsolete, if attempts are made to host the site on a Linux platform.

While most Linux web hosting plans have evolved web management consoles, the "shell-based" views of Linux web servers may be intimidating to novice Linux web hosting customers. Furthermore, administrators of dedicated web servers must often read through obscure, extensive documentation to learn how to perform certain administrative tasks. Luckily, the increasing provision of great administrative consoles and documentation continues to evolve and make Linux server use easier and more ubiquitous.

==| Technical Benefits: |==

The type of development and code in which the site is written will determine the basic operating system, on which the servers are operating. This will directly affect the decision to choose a Linux/Apache web hosting account, versus a Windows/IIS shared server.

The Linux web hosting advantages and technical benefits surround cheaper hosting fees, more reliable servers, readily available free programs and scripts, greater access and control of files and permissions, and ever-evolving control panels for administrative utility.

On the contrary, Windows-based web hosting is generally easier to get started, well supported overall, and of course, integrates better with other Microsoft applications including FrontPage extensions, ASP generated pages, and SQL server installations.

Overall, many web hosting companies will offer a variety of plans and packages. Become familiar with the basics to make an educated judgment on your Linux web hosting accounts and how the accounts will serve the needs of the coding project at hand.

More about the Linux Web Hosting Environment

As mentioned earlier, the Linux Web hosting environment is most commonly seen as a LAMP box. This neat acronym stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, and is the basis for one's decision in choosing a Linux web hosting provider. Here is more information on each component.

Linux - There will be several variants of Linux offered by different Linux hosting vendors. From RedHat to FreeBSD, Linux offers a strong operating system solution through more and more flavors. Per Linux.org, "?Linux is an operating system that was initially created as a hobby by a young student, Linus Torvalds, at the University of Helsinki in Finland. Linus had an interest in Minix, a small UNIX system, and decided to develop a system that exceeded the Minix standards. He began his work in 1991 when he released version 0.02 and worked steadily until 1994 when version 1.0 of the Linux Kernel was released. The kernel, at the heart of all Linux systems, is developed and released under the GNU General Public License and its source code is freely available to everyone. It is this kernel that forms the base around which a Linux operating system is developed. There are now literally hundreds of companies and organizations and an equal number of individuals that have released their own versions of operating systems based on the Linux kernel. More information on the kernel can be found at our sister site, LinuxHQ and at the official Linux Kernel Archives. The current full-featured version is 2.6 (released December 2003) and development continues?" http://www.linux.org

Apache - Per Apache's website, "?the Apache HTTP Server Project is an effort to develop and maintain an open-source HTTP server for modern operating systems including UNIX and Windows NT. The goal of this project is to provide a secure, efficient and extensible server that provides HTTP services in sync with the current HTTP standards?" Furthermore, per the Netcraft Web Server Survey of February 2005, it was recorded that more than 68% of the web sites on the Internet are using Apache. http://httpd.apache.org/

MySQL - As the recipient of the "2004 Developer.com Product of the Year", MySQL has become the world's most popular and efficient open source database. Per MySQL.com, "?over six million installations use MySQL to power high-volume Web sites and other critical business systems - including industry-leaders like The Associated Press, Yahoo, NASA, Sabre Holdings and Suzuki ?. Its award-winning speed, scalability and reliability make it the right choice for corporate IT departments, Web developers and packaged software vendors." http://www.mysql.com/

With PHP and Apache experiencing explosive growth, and while both applications have Windows and Linux-based distributions, Linux is generally the most conducive operating system to extract all utility of these applications. This furthermore validates the importance of Linux web hosting.

==| How to decide |==

The decision to choose a Linux web host is dependant upon the track record of the company, as well as factors such as value, hardware branding, uptime, bandwidth, and the ability for growth.

More specifically, the major decision is related to operating system fundamentals i.e. Windows versus Linux. Again, this is based on the coding conventions of the site, the website database needs, and the need for reliability. The following table very generically lists the differences between Windows and Linux Web Hosting to assist one in making a general decision to pursue Linux Web hosting.

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 Web-Based Control System x Anonymous FTP x Web Site Graphical Statistics x Web-Based Email System x x Visual Basic Scripts x Miva/XML x x Cold Fusion x x ASP (Active Server Pages) x x Windows Media x SQL 2000 x MS Access x

As seen here, Linux web hosting is a very sound choice for hosting needs. The ready availability of open source software and architecture has been a real asset to making a very reliable web hosting option affordable. One should heavily consider the benefits of Linux web hosting when initiating project plans on the web.