The Top 15 Essential Ingredients of Every Windows Hosting Plan

Posted by rimel - 16/07/07 at 03:07:21 am

If you deem that you really need a Windows web server to host your web site, you need to select web hosting company who offers Windows Hosting Plan. This article offers 15 advice for select the correct Windows hosting plan.

First things First. Why would you like to have Windows Based Hosting when there are Linux packages for cheaper rates ? The answer is ?it depends on what application you are looking to use for your hosting. Consider the tools and scripting languages you plan to use ?if you use PHP, Perl or MySQL, Linux is the way forward. If apps are Microsoft-specific, then Windows is what you need. Clear? Now let’s proceed with the essential ingredients of any Windows Hosting Plan. 1.ASP Support ?The clear reason why you chose a windows plan is to use Microsoft Specific Languages. Active Server Pages, Microsoft’s technology to enables HTML pages to be dynamic and interactive by embedding scripts. Check all the windows hosting plans and make sure, the host doesn’t charge for this extra.

2..NET Support ASP.net is the next generation of Microsoft’s Active Server Page (ASP), a feature of their Internet Information Server (IIS). ASP.net is different from ASP in two major ways: it supports code written in compiled languages like C++, Visual Basic, and Perl, and, it features server controls that can separate the code from the content, allowing WYSIWYG editing of pages. Most of the hosts give this feature free of charge while few charge extra. Go for it if you really need it.

3.CDONTS - CDONTS stands for ‘Collaboration Data Objects for Windows NT Server’ and it’s a Messaging Component comes along with Windows NT/2000. A windows hosting plan without this is Incomplete. This provides you the easiest solution for your messaging thro?your website ASP pages, provided you have SMTP support.

4.DATABASES Microsoft Access 2000 Database is supported by all the windows hosting plans. This will do if you are a starter. For experienced campaigners, MS-Sql is a must have. This is an advanced feature and most of the hosting companies charge extra. The control for the Databases must be provided in the Control Panel. Check that.

5.DATABASE Connection ?DSN or DSNless Connections, whatever the case may be, please check if the host has provided the option in the Control Panel to create/manage DSNs. (Data Source Name). If DSNs are NOT allowed, ask for the Connection String for DSNless connections.

6.ASP Components Apart from the default components, there are loads of third party software. Check the list of such components that the host provides. ASP Upload, ASPImage, Dundas Mailer, ASPjpeg, ASPEncrypt are few popular components. At times you may require to have your own components (DLLs) installed. This is provided by most of the hosts, but after the DLL undergoes a complete test in the server environment. This does not come free.

7.PHP & Coldfusion ColdFusion is a server-side scripting language web development tool. It uses HTML-like tags called CFML to enable back-end ODBC database connectivity as well as data manipulation and validation within webpages.. This is again an advanced option and NOT every hosting provider provide this. But PHP, Mysql is also bundled with windows hosting plans. Keep an eye on both of these.

8.Control Panel This is the nucleus of your website. In a Control Panel, popularly known as CP, you can literally do anything. The moment you signup for a Hosting Pack, you must be provided with a CP to manage your webspace.

9.POP3 email Ids & Aliases - yourname@yourdomain.com is an example POP3 ID. You must be provided with ample of POP3 email ids and it depends on the Package size.

10.FTP Account This is where you upload your files, delete them, update them. This again comes along with the CP.

11.Backup Most of the Hosts take Automated Backups. But users do not take much care on this while choosing the Hosting Pack. This feature is as essential as anyother in this list.

12.Web Statistics - Analysis of your website visitors plays a key role in the success of your website. Say, your website has been launched and you get NIL Visits or More than 100 Visits per day. Whatever the case may be, you can view the Report using Statistics Application that run in the server backend.

13.Bandwidth Choose the Hosting Plan that gives enough Bandwidth for your website. Even though you cannot judge at the beginning, as time progresses, you can easily deduct the Bandwidth required.

14.Webmail, SMTP & SPAM Email becomes key part in your life once you launch the website. Check if the Hosts provide with WEBMAIL (mail.yourdomain.com) to check your mails thru a web based interface using Squirrelmail or Horde. Corporate Users prefer downloading mails thru Email Clients such as Eudora or Outlook Express. Only if SMTP or IMAP support is enabled you can use this option. Hence check if SMTP support is provided.No email user is free from a spam attack. Hence you need to have Spam Filters installed on the server where your website resides.

15.IP If your website prefers SSL Support (https://) as time grows, makes ure you get a DEDICATED IP. Most of the websites are hosted on shared IPs. Ask your Hosting Provider about the extra charges involved in getting a dedicated IP and SSL Support. Note : For SSL (https://), you need to buy a Digital Certificate.

Unlimited Wealth Creation Through Reseller Hosting

Posted by rimel - 16/07/07 at 03:07:37 am

Do you know you can make money from web hosting even though you do not have your own web servers? How? Through signing up reliable reseller hosting plan from other web hosting company. This article reveals how to make money through reseller account offered by web hosting companies.

Web hosting can be an exciting business start up for aspiring entrepreneurs. All you have to do to set up your business is become a hosting reseller, i.e., provide hosting facilities to website owners. Here as a business owner, you are buying space from a big hosting company, and redistributing the hosting space to other website owners.

Resellers are nothing but entrepreneurs acting as middlemen, offering you hosting services by leasing time and space from another Web host’s server rather than owning their own. Most of the times, the quality of services offered by resellers are so good that consumers do not even have the idea that they are dealing with resellers who do not have servers of their own. Resellers, since they can pick and choose their servers, are basically in a position to provide the customers with the best of services.

Reseller hosting business can be quite a profit making venture once you understand the figures and profit margins involved. Let us go through them. One can buy around 1000 MB space from a major web host at a cost of $25 per month. This 1000 MB space that you now own can in turn be redistributed to site owners who need space for uploading their site. Here you can give about 25 MB space for around $5 per month. Which means your monthly income comes to around $200 when you sell 40 hosting packages.

Want more profit? some web hosting companies allow you to oversell the space and do not charge you extra unless the actual usage of your account exceeds 1000MB. It is seen that a typical user uses less than half of the allotted web space. which means you can double or even triple sell your quota and make unlimited wealth.

And mind well, this income is residual income. It will keep coming to you month after month, year after year. You do the work once. and get paid for it over and over. All you are doing is buying space from a major web hosting company and becoming a reseller host. Your efforts are focused towards selling hosting space and the rest is handled by your web host. Some of them even handle customer service to your customers for a nominal fee. which makes it even easier for you.

If this is not enough. you can earn additional residual incomes by adding recruiting more resellers through you. By doing this you will earn regular commissions on their monthly sales. isn’t this smart business. The profit margins in the business of reseller hosting is quite good and you can start on this exciting business venture even if you do not have the required expertise and access to funds for setting up the required infrastructure. Strange as it might sound, there are also times where a reseller can also be more scalable than a typical hosting firm.

A true Web host is limited by its hardware; if a client suddenly requires an upgrade the host is not prepared for, the only way the host will be able to satisfy the customer is by upgrading its hardware - expensive and time consuming for both sides. The reseller host, however, can simply choose to locate with a different Web host that will better suit the customer’s needs.

Windows Hosting or Linux Hosting

Posted by rimel - 16/07/07 at 03:07:59 am

Windows hosting means the server’s operating system is Windows and Linux hosting means the operating system is Linux. On Internet, there are many web hosting companies. They generally provide either Windows hosting or Linux hosting or both. But which hosting plan suits you? This article suggests way to help you in selecting web hosting company.

The Basics of Linux & Windows Hosting :

Linux (and its close relation Unix) and Windows 2000 (and its close cousin Windows NT) are types of software (known as operating systems) that web servers use to do the kind of things that web servers do. You do not need to know any real detail of either to make a decision as to which you need but here a few guidelines.

Just because you use a windows desktop PC doesn’t mean you have to opt for Windows web hosting (and the reverse is true as well). The operating system you use on your desktop has little to do with your choice of web hosts. As long as you understand how to use your FTP or web publishing software, your can use either operating system.

But what is important is that you know what you want your website to do and what you want to offer on it. This is what will ultimately help determine the type of web hosting that will work best for you. As mentioned earlier, interactive websites usually rely on ASP, PHP, or Perl type languages.

Linux Web Hosting or Windows Web Hosting ? Make your Choice !

When it comes to Web hosting, Linux has, for some time, been widely considered the best OS for Web servers. It’s typically found to be the most reliable, stable and efficient system and, as such, it’s commonly used for the demanding environment of Web and mail servers. Indeed,Most of the clients websites of aalpha NET runs on the Linux OS precisely because of this traditional stability.

The million-dollar question is what application are you looking to use for your hosting? Consider the tools and scripting languages you plan to use ?if you use PHP, Perl or MySQL, Linux is the way forward. If apps are Microsoft-specific, then Windows is what you need.

If your site, like most web sites, is what might be termed “brochure-ware” then Linux servers are ideal. By brochure-ware I mean a site that offers the kind of information that in the past might have been provided on paper in the form of brochures, newsletters or data sheets. Brochure-ware sites will offer some interaction through enquiry forms and can certainly incorporate online purchasing and other routine e-commerce functions.

If however your site incorporates an online searchable database or interactive chat facilities then Windows 2000 or NT will be a better bet in most cases. It will cost a bit more but you’ll get that back in reduced development time and simply better functionality.

The following are the advantages of using Linux based web server compared to Windows based web server :

Stable: Linux/Unix operating systems has traditionally been believed to be very stable and robust. A web site housed on a Linux operating system will have very high up-time (of the order of 99.9%). Of course, other factors such as power supply, network admin skills, and network load etc. also matter when it comes to maintaining the system uptime.

Low cost of ownership: The Linux OS comes free of cost (or at very insignificant cost, usually cost of distribution). Also, it has full fledged server, and desk top applications that comes free along with the OS. These server applications (such as FTP, Web Server, DNS Server, File Server etc.) being free, are also very stable.

Ease of use : When it comes to web hosting, it is easy to host on Linux web servers. The process of uploading and hosting is almost same for both Linux and Windows web servers. If you want to use a Windows based tool such as Front Page for uploading a web site on to a Linux based web server, make sure that the Front Page extensions are enabled. This is only required if you are uploading using HTTP feature (http://www.yourwebsite.com) of Front Page. Front Page also makes it possible to upload a web site using FTP. You need to select ftp://www.yourwebsite.com for up loading using front page FTP option. Note that if you select “Front Page Extensions” during web site design, you must enable Front Page extensions on a Linux web server also. These days, all Linux web servers are coming with installable Front Page extensions, and this should pose no problem for hosting on a Linux platform.

You can use almost all types of file extensions (or scripts) when using Linux web server. Commonly, the following extensions are supported: .cgi, .html, .htm, .pl, .php, .shtml, .xml, and others. Basically it means that you can host web sites that use different types of server side scripts including .cgi, .pl, .php, and .asp (with plug-in).

Easy to move between hosts : A web site designed to be hosted on a Linux based web server can be hosted on a Windows web server easily, where as the reverse is not always true.

Most widely used : Linux/Unix based web hosting is most widely used compared to Windows based web hosting.

Scalability : A web site is dynamic. Usually, a web site starts with a few pages of html and grows over a period of time to suit the customers requirements. It is preferable to design a web site keeping this requirements in mind. A web site designed for compatibility with a Linux/Unix based web server meets the scalability requirement easily without making any site wide design changes.

On the downside, Linux based web server is not fully compatible with Microsoft technologies. If you are using any specialized applications or VB for development of your web site, it is preferable to host with a Windows based web server.

Tips on Domain Name Choice

Posted by rimel - 16/07/07 at 03:07:12 am

Register a good domain name is essential to your internet business. Therefore, this article reveals how to select domain names for registration.

Before buying your domain name, give some thought to the followng:-

1) If possible use your sites name as the basis of your domain name e.g www.tv for .tv domain name registration. This might seem common sense but not every site follows the convention. If you use your name in your URL it will be much easier for your customers to find you.

2) Generic names If you can register a generic domain such as toys.com that is great, but most of these have already gone. Also getting ranked in the search engines is likely to be harder. Selected a domain closer to your market segment will cut down the competition. E.g toyplanes.com

3) Hyphenated Names Its easy to forget the hyphen! Which is the problem, particularly if your customer remembers your name but not your URL. Though on a positive note hyphenated names are less likely to be registered already.

4) If the .com or .co.uk extension is not available then consider the alternative TLD ( Top level domain types) such as register .net or register .biz domain.

If your domain name has already been registered then approach the owner and ask if they’ll sell.

5) Plurals. Very often a domain name will be free in the plural but not in the singular form. It is a personal choice, but if your prefered choice of domain name is not available you might be stuck.

6) Short or Long domains A short domain name is more memorable, but less likely to be available. A longer domain is harder to remember, but can contain more keywords which is important as some of the search engines, use keywords in a domain name as part of the search algorithm.

7) Which Top Level Domain Type - .com, .co.uk , .net etc This is a question I am often asked. There is no evidence that any domain name type is given preference by the search engines. However some search engines such as Google, have local searches e.g www.google.co.uk which do select local content. Customer often get re-assurance from seeing a local TLD as they know they are dealing with a local company etc. You can, of course, register all of them!

8) Variations If your prefered domain name is not available then its always worth trying a prefix my e.g mydomains.com or suffix e.g domains4U.com etc

Register Good Domain Names

Posted by rimel - 16/07/07 at 02:07:54 am

There are many different types of domain names. So register .tv domains, register .biz domains, register .com domain names, or register .fm domains? This article reveals criteria to determine what is a good domain name, and how to register good domain names.

No matter what domain name you buy its unlikely to be worth $ millions straight away, but with some careful though and preparation you can maximise your domain names potential.

Using hyphens Almost every word in the dictionary has been registered already so its more than likely that you will have to register a combination of words.

Should you buy a domain name with a hypen in it?

Generally speaking the answer is no. There are several reasons why not. Describing a domain name with hyphens can be awkward. Customers have a habit of forgetting the hyphen and typing in the wrong URL. It is a misconception that hyphens improve search engine rankings, the leading search engines now concentrate on content and pay only limited attention to the URL itself.

Consider a ccTLD There is no evidence that Country Code Top level domains (ccTLD’s) are treated differently by Search Engines, though there can be advantages and disadavantages if your business is regional Submitting your domain to search engines Once you have configured your domain to point to your Web site, you will need to ensure that search engines are aware of it. If they aren’t, your site will receive very few visitors - even if you have managed to find a memorable, snappy domain name.

To register .tv domain name, you can visit Dot TV for a trendy and good domain names. To register other domain names such as register .com domain name, you can consider another low cost domain registry

This can be achieved by either directly submiting your URL to the search engines through using a submission service such as the free submission service on our site . Free submissions

Please be careful when using automated submission tools as the Search engine are penalising sites submitted in this way. Ours is manual for this very reason.

Or by linking your site to others, this is the preferred way for search engine to cover new sites?

Ensuring you own your domain names

Just because you buy a domain name doesn’t mean you own it. Some less reputable suppliers register domain names in their own name. You can see who owns a domain name by using a lookup call a WHOIS search e.g WHOIS If you look at the registrant details the name here is the legal owner. For example if you enter discountdomainsuk.com you will see the legal owner is us ? Discount Domains Ltd

Selling your domain names

Is your domain name near to expiry? Don’t let it lapse without offering it for sale first, there are lots of good sites who only charge if your domain sells. You might be pleasantly surprised, domain names have fetched a $1 million before now!

How to understand the Domain Name System

Posted by rimel - 16/07/07 at 02:07:17 am

This article let you understand what is domain names, DNS systems, role of ICANN and reserve domain names

Ever wonder why DNS systems came into existence? Efficiency. Every computer has a distinct IP address, and the Internet needed an elite method for obtaining these addresses and for managing the system as a whole. Enter ICANN.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number manages the DNS root of the Internet domain namespace. ICANN’s role is to manage the assignment of identifiers, ensuring that all users have unique names.

The DNS system is run by a series of servers called DNS servers. ICANN manages the root DNS domains, under which are the top-level domains. It also manages:

Organizational domains Geographical domains Reverse domains

Beneath the top-level domains are other naming authorities such as Nominet, the UK’s naming authority.

How does a DNS Query work?

The process occurs in two parts. Firstly, a name query begins at a client computer and is passed to DNS client service for resolution. When the query cannot be resolved locally, DNS servers are queried.

For example, when a web browser calls the fully qualified domain name www.discountdomainsuk.com, the request is passed on to the DNS client service to resolve the name by using locally cached information. If the query is held in the cache, then the process is complete.

If, however, the query cannot be answered locally, the DNS client service uses a server list (ordered in sequence) to query external DNS servers. When a DNS server receives a query, it first checks to see if it is authoritive for that domain name. If it is authoritive, it resolves the name, and the process is complete.

If the DNS server is unable to resolve the query, it in turns queries other DNS servers, using a process known as recursion. DNS servers make use of root hints to assist in locating DNS servers, which are able to provide the required result. In this way, DNS queries are minimised and the Internet is able to operate quickly and effectively.

A typical query may run as follows:

Client contacts Nameserver A looking for www.discountdomainsuk.com.

Nameserver A checks its cache, but can’t answer, so it queries a server authoritive for the Internet root.

The root server responds with a referral to a server authoritive for the .com domains. NameserverA queries the the .com server and gets referred to the server authoritive for www.discountdomainsuk.com.

Nameserver A queries this server and gets the IP address for www.discountdomainsuk.com.

Nameserver A replies to the client with the IP address.

Queries can return answers that are authoritive, positive, negative or referral in nature. In the event of a negative answer, another DNS server is queried.

How To Host Several Websites Under One Account

Posted by rimel - 16/07/07 at 02:07:41 am

If you can host several websites under one account, it can save you some web hosting cost. This article reveals how.

If you operate several websites, each with its own domain name, signing up of separate …hosting accounts can be an expensive proposition. Even if your hosting company offers the add-on domain feature (which will allow you to add different domains to the same hosting account) you will be charged a monthly fee for each domain you add, sometimes costing almost the same as your full hosting fee.

Another one is to use web hosting companies like WebsiteSource where they allow you to host several websites in one account without additional fee.

Another solution is to open a reseller account. Reseller accounts were created to allow web designers to offer hosting services to their customers, to create a one-stop-shop for all their web design and hosting needs. However, you don’t need to be a reseller to buy a reseller hosting plan.

Reseller accounts are usually slightly more expensive than regular hosting accounts, but they will allow you to host different domain names without incurring in the add-on domain fees, making more efficient use of your space and bandwidth.

You want to choose a reseller account that offers:

no limit to the number of domains you can add. the possibility of hosting your main website free, without using any of the space and bandwidth in your hosting plan. If you are a reseller, your main website will be your business website, and the space and bandwidth will be reserved for your customers. If you are not a reseller and just want to manage different websites, you can designate one of your domains as your main website (usually the largest and/or most popular, since you won’t accrue any space or bandwidth for it). the possibility of upgrading to another plan without any penalties or fees. To find out how much space and bandwidth you will need, first determine how many sites you are likely to host, how many pages each site may have, and how many visits will those sites most likely have. If you plan to host 10 sites with 20 pages each, at an average of 50KB per page and 100 page views per site per day, you will need 10MB of space (10 x 20 x 50KB) and 1.5GB of bandwidth per month (10 x 100 x 50KB x 30).

As far as pricing is concerned, there are reseller accounts costing as little as $10 / month up to several hundreds (or even thousands). It all depends on your requirements and the hosting company you choose, so shop around to get the best possible deal in terms of cost and reliability.

What is the difference between Unix and NT systems ?

Posted by rimel - 16/07/07 at 02:07:15 am

To select web hosting company, you need to make a decision: Choose Unix or Linux hosting or NT hosting / Windows Hosting. This article tells you their difference. Hopefully, it can help you to make the correct web hosting decision.

Shared or virtual hosting is usually available in two varieties: UNIX and NT. What is the difference between hosting on these operating systems?

NT servers are designed to accommodate advanced Microsoft applications. NT servers therefore integrate back office offerings such as FrontPage, Access and MS SQL with basic Web services. NT servers also offer specific programming environments such as Active Server Pages (ASP), Visual Basic Scripts, MS Index Server and Cold Fusion, which mainly link database applications to the Web.

NT servers do not provide an interactive shell, but are accessible through GUI-based remote administration packages such as PCAnywhere. Such packages allow you to log into the server’s desktop as chief administrator as long as you have full control over your server.

We only recommend NT hosting if you intend to run your own dedicated server. The quality of hosting degrades rapidly if the Web host attempts to run an NT server as a shared hosting system.

Since NT servers provide unparalleled levels of support, security and integration for the Microsoft family of products, we recommend that you only select NT if you need to link a Microsoft-based service to your Internet hosting requirements.

NT is rather complex and labor-intensive and should only be selected if the webmaster has extensive experience in maintaining Windows systems remotely and requires product/Web integration.

A lot of hosting solutions are also provided on the UNIX platform. This is because the UNIX platform is specifically designed to accommodate heavy Web traffic and server load. UNIX servers are robust and are recognized for their ability to host multiple sites and serve out gigabytes of traffic.

Unix hosting or linux hosting is also preferred by most webmasters due to their technical requirements. Most webmasters outsource their e-commerce solutions, and therefore don’t need to configure complex database systems on their pay Web sites.

UNIX servers also provide a wider degree of flexibility due to their shell environment. Shell environments are interactive, text-based systems that allow webmasters to interact and customize their services in real-time from any computer system worldwide. Unlike NT systems, UNIX is not limited to special remote administration programs. A typical UNIX system can be accessed from any computer connected to the Internet without special or expensive software.

But the most favored reason that most webmasters choose the UNIX platform is because of its uptime. Most UNIX systems with heavy traffic can provide 99 per cent uptime. NT servers with heavy traffic usually cannot make this same claim, unless specially configured. For this reason, average webmasters should select UNIX as their OS.

If you don’t know which platform you need, then most likely you do not require NT hosting and you should select one of our UNIX hosting plans. The only time you would need to use NT hosting is when you are using the specific NT applications noted above. Microsoft FrontPage may be used on both the UNIX and NT platforms as since most hosting firms support the Microsoft FrontPage server extensions on both.

7 Key Points to Consider When Choosing a Web Host

Posted by rimel - 16/07/07 at 02:07:42 am

How to select web host? This article reveals 7 tips to select web host that suits you.. Happy web hosting!

With literally thousands of web hosting companies in the industry all vieing for your business, carefully consider these key points to ensure you make the most well informed decision possible.

1. Server Space

First, think about how much space your site will take up on a server. Unless you are planning on running a software repository or an image gallery, the files that make up your website will probably only use between 1 and 5 megabytes of disk space. Many companies will offer several hundreds of megabytes of webspace for a very reasonable price in attempt to out perform their competitors, but ask yourself “Do I really need that much space?”. Though it’s true that you should allow your site “room to grow”, don’t opt for what seems like a great deal on a massively sized account if you’ll never use all of the space offered. Chances are you’ll find an even better deal on an amount of space more suitable for your site size.

2. Data Transfer Allowance

This decision should be based on the same principal as above. Though you may be convinced that your site will be the next Amazon or Yahoo and receive a gazillion visitors a day, you really shouldn’t need an extremely high data transfer allowance unless, as stated above, you’re running a software download site or a large image gallery. Even heavily trafficked normal HTML sites usually only use a few gigabytes per month in bandwidth allowance. Don’t go overboard just because it seems like an awesome deal. You may also want to be wary of companies who offer “unlimited” data transfer as there are usually some fine-print stipulations that make this claim not entirely true. Be sure to read their terms and conditions very carefully before opting for this type of account. A five or ten gigabyte bandwidth allowance is usually plenty enough for a small to medium sized business or personal site.

3. Technical Support

A very important point to consider when choosing a web host is the types of technical support offered by the company and how easy they are to contact when you need them. Ideally, a company should offer 24/7 toll-free telephone support and email. I have seen companies that do not even offer a telephone number on their website. You should look for a company that is very easily accessible in your time of need. Nothing is more frustrating than being in the middle of working on your site and needing an important piece of information to finish the job and not being able to contact your hosting company to find it out.

4. CGI-Bin Access

No matter what type of site you are planning on running, chances are you will eventually need to install some type of CGI script. Whether it be a mailing list management script, contact form processor, or maybe even a fancy credit card processing script, your hosting account will need to allow you to install and run them. This requires access to a special folder on your server called “CGI-Bin”. Some hosting accounts will only allow you to use “pre-installed” scripts as a security measure. These are scripts that the owners of the company have installed and configured so that they know that they will work properly and not adversely affect their server’s performance. That may be all you need, but if you have the knowledge, it’s always nice to have the ability to install your own scripts and configure them to suit your individual needs. You should also be sure that the account you choose supports the language in which your scripts are written, such as PHP, Perl, etc.

5. Up-Time Guarantee

Another very important issue in determining the value of a hosting company is how often and for how long their servers “go down”. No matter how good a deal you get on server space or bandwidht allowance, or how wonderfully the company’s tech support takes care of you, your site can’t receive visitors or produce revenue if the machine on which it is hosted is not up and running. Naturally you want a company who can guarantee the highest up-time percentage possible. Servers are taken down briefly from time to time for maintenance or upgrading, so no company can ensure 100% up-time, but you want your site to be hosted on dependable, well managed machines that are not constantly having problems which require them to be down for long periods of time.

6. Email Accounts

Again, like data transfer allowance and server space, some companies will offer you loads more email accounts than you will ever use. Some offer hundreds or even unlimited email accounts as a selling point. This is an important factor if you are Bill Gates and have thousands of employees, each who need their own email box, but not such a big deal if you’re just one person or a small company. You should be okay with 10 or 15.

7. Reputation

This is probably the most important factor to consider when choosing a web host. Do your homework. Pay attention to any negative feedback you may hear or read about a particular hosting company. There are several sites arount the Web that feature discussion forums that allow people to discuss and critique various hosting companies. Ask specific questions about any company you might be interested in using to see if anyone else has had any negative experiences with them. As a beginning webmaster, I had initially contracted the services of a particular web hosting company to host my first site, who promised very good, dependable service for a very cheap price. Then one day, for no apparent reason, decided to delete my entire site without warning or explanation. Only then did I visit some hosting forums and find that many others had similar negative experiences with that company. Don’t make the same mistake I did, find out for sure from the start that your hosting company is not going to let you down.

Shared, Reseller, VPS, or dedicated Web Hosting

Posted by rimel - 16/07/07 at 02:07:53 am

What kind of web hosting service is suitable to you. This article expalins several choice for you: shared web hosting, VPS hosting service, reseller web hosting plan, or dedicated web hosting service. Read it and then select the right web hosting plan for yourself..

When it comes to choosing a plan or upgrading, there are usually four options in the web hosting world to choose from: Shared hosting, Reseller Hosting, Virtual Private server, and dedicated server. If your wondering “which one should I choose”, then this article may help you decide. First off, lets get the definitions of these 4 straight.

Shared Web Hosting

– This usually refers to buying a bit of space on a server. You are sharing the server with tens, maybe even hundreds of other people.

Reseller Web Hosting Plan

– This is really for people who have multiple domains or who want to host other people. Depending on the size of you reseller package, you may be sharing the server with lots of other people.

Virtual Private Server Web Hosting (VPS)

– This is for people who need root access to the server to install their own software. Basically a chunk of the server is blocked off for each VPS user. There are usually not that many people sharing a server with VPS plans.

Dedicated server Web Hosting

– This is where you get the whole server to yourself and share it with no one. This is for large or intensive CPU or RAM sites.

Shared Web Hosting

Shared hosting is for small to medium sized sites. Shared hosting is the cheapest of the four but has many drawbacks. You are probably sharing the server with many,many other people so performance may sometimes be an issue. With shared hosting you risk more downtime since if any of the accounts on the server you are hosted on generates excessive CPU or RAM usage, it will slow your sites down. If you own a large site or a busy forum, you may want to think about upgrading your hosting. Shared plans usually limit the number or domains you can host per account.

Reseller Web Hosting Plan

Resellers are for people who host multiple sites or want to start their own hosting company. You are sharing a server with several other people. Unlike shared account, most reseller accounts come with a generous number of domains hosted allotment or unlimited number of domains. You and the people you host also risk the chance of suffering performance setback if any of the accounts on the server drains too much CPU or RAM usage.

VPS Server Hosting

VPS(Virtual Private Server) is for those people who need the control of a dedicated server but cannot afford the price. In a VPS, you are guaranteed a certain amount of CPU usage and RAM usage. While this may be restrictive at times, it saves the risk of other people on the server bogging your site down. VPS accounts generally have full root access and can install their own software. VPS acts as a dedicated server except with less space, CPU, and RAM. You are usually sharing a server with a few others on a VPS account.

Dedicated Server Hosting

A dedicated server is a server fully to yourself. You do not share the server or resources with anyone else. This is generally for high-intensive sites or sites that have alot of visitors. With a dedicated server you have full root access,can install your own software, and can do pretty much whatever you want with the server. Dedicated servers are generally pretty costly in terms of price. This kind of hosting is best suited for a busy portal or forum.

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