Showing posts with label host. Show all posts
Showing posts with label host. Show all posts

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Important Things to Consider when Choosing a Web Host

A Web host company will provide you with space to host your A domain name and a whole host of scripts from forum software to shopping cart integration.

If you want to be seen on the internet you will need a web host, but do not just go picking any host. You need a reliable web host who offers a quality service. So here comes a few of my own personal needs before i sign up with a web host.

Price, Ok this is not the most significant factor when choosing a web host, but we do not want to be paying stupid prices for a service we can get just as good from someone else at half the price.

Experience, This is one of the things i expect from a web host, Yes every company has to start somewhere but why should you be the one to suffer if someone does not have the experience to keep your site online at least 95% of the time.

Reputation, as anyone who has a buisness knows reputation goes a long way, make sure you choose someone with a good one.

Infastructure & Adaptability, A good webhost will already be planning for the future, they need to be able to upgrade to the latest and fastest equipment as and when it is needed. New things come out on the internet all the time and you want your provider to be able to offer advice and support if needed.

Support, Most websites now offer 24/7 support online and offline, make sure the one you choose also offers the same support, no point having customers if your site is down and your web host is unavailable.

So with all that in mind take your time and shop around, use google and make use of the review sites that are out there.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

3 Options For Hosting Multiple Websites

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

How to Choose a Good Web Host?

You will be overwhelmed when you begin searching for a website host for you new website and if you do not understand what they are offering for the price you may be surprised at what you get.

You will hear words like 25 MB, bandwidth, ftp, email forwarding, php, cgi-bin and fantastico. All of these are things that are offered with different packages that you will find. Before you decide let’s look at what you might need and how to know that you are receiving this.

Most website hosting companies will have their packages grouped by the various things they offer, of course the more you get the larger the price will be. The basic package is usually around 25 MB of web space. This is how much space the hosting company will allow you to have on their web server. This is with shared hosting. There will be other websites also on this server with you, each with their own packages and amounts of space.

Bandwidth is how much data you are allowed to use in a certain amount of time, usually monthly. Bandwidth is used each time you upload web pages, images, or some one visits your website. If you are only allowed a small amount of bandwidth like say 50 MB then you may run out of bandwidth if you plan on adding a lot of pages, or you are expecting many visitors.

Ftp is a way of getting into your website through the backdoor. This will enable you to upload your web pages, images and install scripts in a pretty easy fashion. All you need to do is place the folders in the proper place in the correct folder.

Email forwarding can be very useful. You can have any email that is sent to your website forwarded to another email account that you have. This way no matter how many websites you have you have all the emails forwarded to one main account.

Php is a way in which website are coded. This is used for building scripts and even some template designs. Php is very popular for its fast loading time. Some php scripts will also require MySql database. This is another feature that you can add. These databases are very fast loading and do not require any maintenance after they are up.

Cgi-bin is another way to host different scripts. If you wish to use cgi scripts you must be sure that you have a cgi-bin included in your hosting package. These are some what more difficult than php scripts but many people enjoy these types of scripts.

Fantastico is a compilation of several scripts that can be installed directly from your control panel.

You can search online for hosting companies and remember to compare. If you are just wanting a simple website you will probably not need all the extra goodies and normally no more than 25 MB of web space and around 500 MB of bandwidth should work. You may even wish to try some free hosting until you understand how everything works. But, remember more than likely you will be offered a sub-domain like yoursite.theirdomainname.com. This is not the best way to get web traffic, so I would only use a free hosting company that would allow your own domain name and check out paid hosting as well. Many of these paid hosting companies can give you so much more than a free hosted site and the cost is not always tremendous.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Is my choice of a web host really that important

With such a huge market of web hosts on the Internet you may be lead to believe that they all are basically the same. I would caution you to rethink this philosophy.

There are web hosts that offer huge amounts of disk space for a small monthly fee and there are web host that offer a very limited amount of disk space, bandwidth, and email accounts for a more expensive price.

When searching for a web host there is more important factors to take into consideration.

When searching for a web host please look at the following factors:

What is there uptime guarantee?

May host offer a guarantee of uptime? Please inquire to determine if there are any discounts if they do not meet this guarantee because this is your business and if your website is not visible on the Internet you cannot sell your products or services. For instance, does your prospective web host offer a guarantee of discounts for each hour that your site is inaccessible from their servers or their network?

Ask for information regarding their network

On the Internet there are several interconnected networks. There are some networks that connect smaller networks to larger networks and some networks are top tier networks. It would be a good idea to ask your prospective host for their network diagram or documentation regarding there network backbone. A top-tier provider offers more reliable and faster connectivity while a host that connects via a 3rd party network may experience frequent network issues and reduced speed on there network. For an example please review 561Hosting's network provider info at: http://nsssc.superb.net/information/dca2net-info.php. This is quite a bit of technical information. If you should need an explanation please visit: http://www.561hosting.com. Our support staff will be happy to answer your questions via live chat or email.

Support

Support is a very important factor as well in your decision-making process. Please ask your prospective web host about their support package. Is there support 24/7, do they offer live chat? Is there a cost? At some point you may need support and it is really reassuring to know that your web host is there when you need them.

Above are a few issues to consider when selecting a web host. There are more factors to be considered but the factors above determine if your experience with a web host will be a pleasant one or one that can rivals a natural disaster.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Web Hosting: Web Accessibility

Deep in the heart of an office complex there lies a room that may be filled with floor to ceiling server cages that house multiple web-based servers. In the back of a storefront you may likely find servers working to keep websites operational.

A web host is simply a leasing agent for space on an existing server to allow your business website to be accessible by millions of Internet customers. The use of a web hosting service is similar to leasing a storefront as a showroom – it just costs less.

However, unlike a typical building lease option, a web host can provide a variety of features that you can customize based on the needs of your online business. For instance, you might need the capability of providing File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to business associates to access company data or new manufacturing specs. You might also need other data management protocols.

Most ecommerce websites will also need a shopping cart with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), database support and other similar features. Web hosting may not always be a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution. You should determine what your needs will be in a web hosting solution and seek to find a solution that bundles the most options for the most reasonable price.

Interestingly, many of the sites that provide web design also make web hosting a part of the package. There may be many reasons this is so, but the predominant reason may be the access to the site information through a known or existing server. However, it is possible to work with a web hosting solution to allow the development of a site that is personally built by you. These web-hosting solutions allow the use of an extensive selection of features that can be customized through template rich designs and implemented in less time than other web development options.

You also want to find a web hosting service that can guarantee the greatest amount of uptime. Because the Internet has grown so fast you may also find web-hosting solutions that have no track record, so be careful about selecting a company that has not had ample time to prove their capabilities in maintaining quality service.

Leasing a portal to the web through a web-hosting service is one of the most cost effective ways to unleash your entrepreneurial spirit through a business startup, but you may be best served in looking through a variety of options before settling on a service that will help determine your accessibility on the web.