Small And Medium Businesses Embrace Servers Running Linux

Although we are aware of Linux adoption by large enterprises, most people do not know that there are sizeable numbers of installations in small and medium businesses (SMBs) as well. This base is set to grow as server vendors lob tailor made Linux servers and applications at SMBs.

Country manager, pSeries & Open power, IBM says, "Unlike large enterprises, SMBs do not have to face the challenge of migrating legacy applications. The popularity with SMBs has helped Linux grow at 30 percent globally".

The general consensus is that Linux did better in 2004 than anyone had predicted. Director Enterprise Marketing & alliances, Customers solution Group, HP India says, " As per IDC India, Linux in the server market grew by 48 percent in OND, 2004 over JAS, 2004, while the windows and Unix markets showed a modest 3 percent and 3.4 percent growth respectively during the same period."

For any OS to succeed, applications need to be made available. SMBs can be major draw for Linux servers as it offers them lower TCO and tighter control on their IT spends. Since many SMBs already have home grown applications, a proprietary OS will be the single largest area of spending. It is here that Linux offers a big advantage.

The availability of version 2.6 of the Linux kernel in Red hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Novell's SuSE 9 will give a big boost to vertical scalability. As SMBs become a part of the global supply chain, they want enterprise applications on Linux to keep their investment low. This trend will be a key enabler for the Linux server market worldwide.

Why Linux Based servers?

Cost is a factor and Linux offers better security as the source code of proprietary software is always kept a secret. With a community supporting it, any security hole in Linux is quickly found and patched.

Linux not only lets an organization save on software costs, it also offers long term long term saving on hardware. Instead of being forced to upgrade software with Linux, an SMB can take control of its IT strategy. Chief technology officer of IDBI bank says, "You decide when you wish to upgrade, not the vendor, hence you get tighter control on your spending." This can be particularly important for users, such as SMBs that cannot afford to keep up with the pace of change in commercial software.

Business application and Linux

There is credit to Oracle for driving the Linux server market. During the early part of 2004, Oracle came up with a value offering. It offered pre- configured Oracle E-Business Suite special edition on Lintel Boxes for a 10 user License for $36,000USD. The traction of this offering was seen towards the end of 2004 when we closed a dozen deals that were in various stages of implementation, says General Manager, Oracle India. This is a testimony that SMBs are opting for Linux servers. SAP is following Oracle in making application available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Customized and certified

All server vendors including HP, IBM and SGI are throwing their weight behind Linux and each has a SMB specific business strategy with significant initiatives to lure them.

HP has announced that some of its high end computing tools from the HP-UX environment are ported onto Linux and made available to SMBs. This includes a clustering solution called HP service guard for high availability of applications and management tools such as Systems insight Manager(SIM) and open view that offer third party integration. Additionally HP is creating a reference architecture stack, including hardware, OS, database and Middleware. HP certifies a stack so that customers can feel more confident on deploying their core business application on Linux. Linux servers are popular in high performance computing(HPC) environments such as research labs.

IBM has recently launched a new family of eserver Openpower systems based on its Power5 processor specially designed for Linux. The Power5 comes with a micropartitioning technology called Virtualisation Engine(VE) wherein each processor can be sliced into ten virtual partitions with each partition acting as a new server. IBM's eserver Openpower 710 is a single CPU processor with 3 HDDs and 512 MB memory with RAID level 1 and 5. This eserver offers SMBs an affordable alternative to higher priced entry level Unix or Linux system. Openpower offers a 64bit platform at a price point of a 32 bit offering. We believe that it is the right product for the mass market.

Sun Microsystems has the Sun fire V20 and V40 severs based on the 64 bit AMD Opteron processor, which has been successful with SMBs. It also offers the Solaris 10 Opetron combination. Sun is aiming to position Solaris 10 as its trump card to take the fight to commercial Linux with support - email, phone and onsite - available at a small price. Advanced scientific research, elite foods, Sage Design systems, Centre for DNA fingerprinting and diagnostics, are Sun customers running there core application on Linux.

Linux servers are used by SMBs for CAD analysis, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and FEA(Finite Element Analysis). Linux systems are rugged as they come with SGI Propack over and above the standard Linux Kernel. This gives customers the ability to scale there computing environments with independent I/O, memory and power supply.

Managed Hosting

Managed hosting is a dedicated server that is accompanied by a full suite of technical support, maintenance and monitoring services. This differs from dedicated Web hosting, where customers are provided with their own servers but are still responsible for virtually all administrative and maintenance duties.

Managed hosting are meant for those websites that are designed to host busy e-commerce sites and dynamic, database driven Web pages. Perfect for organizations that dont have the time or capital to invest in server administration.

MANAGED SERVER = DEDICATED SERVER + COMPLETE SUPPORT TO SERVER ADMINISTRATION

A managed server will come equipped with all the features of a dedicated server, plus instead of leaving most of the administrative tasks to the customer, a managed provider will typically handle that as well.

Many companies will often assign you a dedicated service representative who will cater only to you and a handful of other accounts. This support also comes in the form of proprietary control panel technology that enables the inexperienced administrator to easily set up and maintain sites on a server. This is achieved through an intuitive and user friendly point and click method rather than by typing complicated commands at a prompt line.

Hosting companies offer a supplementary suite of features and services that related to managed hosting, including application and database management, high-availability services and load balancing. These hosting companies will back up their services with performance guarantees and Service Level Agreements.

Unmanaged services, on the other hand, give the customer complete remote server administration capability and freedom. The downside to this is that unmanaged servers require a large amount of time and technical expertise, as the customer is ultimately responsible for the instillation and management of the server - not the Web host. For this reason, unmanaged servers are only recommended for individuals and companies with extensive server administration resources or expertise, as well as a significant amount of time available to take care of the server.

Conclusion on managed hosting

If you're unsure about which service to choose, give serious consideration to choosing a managed server. While taking the managed route is more expensive, it is also much more reassuring for the inexperienced administrator. Remember, you can always downgrade your account to an unmanaged service later, once you've acquired some expertise in server administration. Though once you opt for the personal attention you will receive through a managed host, you might think twice of turning into an unmanaged service later on.

In Search of Webhosting: First Understand the Industry

In search of a webhosting company for personal or small business purposes? We advise you to take a look at this article to understand the hosting industry and study its dynamics to know what to look for before you make your choice.

First, a brief introduction to the webhosting chain: the end consumer is served by about 3 upstream providers: the webhosting provider that they have direct contact with, the webhost's upstream company who maintains the servers and sells space to webhosts, and above that, the datacenter that provides the connection and houses the servers. Some webhosts are also the server admins and liase with the datacenters directly.

The webhosting industry has been claimed to be near saturation point as there are hundreds of web-hosting providers clamouring to provide cheaper and better services to businesses and individuals. This upsurge of supply is largely due to resources becoming readily available (and at cheaper costs) with plunging diskspace and data-transfer prices. The barriers to entry in the web-hosting space is low as large resellers of server space provide cheap hosting and reselling plans that create opportunites for new webhosts to join in the market. With increasing number of suppliers with ever cheaper reselling plans, more webhosting businesses are sprouting up to provide web-hosting solutions to business and individual websites due to lower fixed costs and investment. In addition, this increase in supply is not caused by factors in any particular country. The internet is global and as such, datacenters in US, or in fact, any part of the world, can provide the server and webspace for a local webhosting company. It is taking place in internet space and consumers and providers can easily find each other and exchange services in the global space.

Increasing the supply is naturally a good thing for the customer who is on the demand side. This inbalance has caused new web-hosting providers to offer extremely low prices for their webhosting plans or packages in order to compete in the tough market. Customers get to choose from a myriad of hosting providers who are constantly lowering their prices. However, this might not be a good thing. By offering low prices, companies are earning small margins that may not cover their support costs. Support is vital in the webhosting business as most customers want to be able to get help with their web-hosting accounts. If the profits do not justify the costs, web hosting companies will easily close down - and take their clients' sites with them.

So what are the factors to look at when choosing a host for your website?

Support is the single most important factor for any individual or small business looking for a webhost for their websites. Any internet web hosting provider that does not respond to emails for at most 24 hours is probably having problems providing fast and reliable support services. These services are essential to customer satisfaction and especially for customers who are new to webhosting will need guidance with publishing their websites on the webhosting account provided. The webhosting business is about relationships between webhost and webhosting customers. You should want to know that you can get help when you need, and want to be informed when your website is going to be offline for maintainance.

Stability comes in second as a factor when choosing a webhost. Stability refers to how much uptime you can expect from the webhosting provider. This actually depends on the providers' servers and network. If they do not have reliable and stable providers, it would affect their servers and cause problems for your website. An uptime of about 99.5% is considered reliable in the industry as there are external factors which may be beyond control of the provider. External agencies like Alerta.com provide server monitoring services that webhosting companies might use to proof their reliability.

Cost is a factor depending on the purpose of the website and budget. Personal /Individual websites might have smaller budget and choose to go with a cheaper webhosting provider, possibily in exchange for support and stability. Business sites might have larger budgets and should definitely place stability and support above all else. The cheaper webhosting deals that offer enormous diskspace and huge amounts of data-transfer at a dollar rates has continuously proven to be a one-off hit that attracts customers in numbers, but fail in providing quality support. Large numbers of client sites also cause sustained high server loads that might cause the server to crash and thus affecting stability.

Location of the server is generally not an important issue depending on your ISP/country's connection to the datacenter where the server is located. Pings to the server can normally tell you the network latency to expect when people from your area access your site. Lower ping rates means that your site will load faster.

Lastly, take time to identify and contact a webhost to ask about their service. This would give you an idea of the kind of support that you might receive and help you in deciding if you want to go with the web-hosting provider.

10 Helpful Tips to Follow When Switching Web Hosts

You've made your decision to move from your website from your current web host to a new web host. The following tips will help you make the transition easier and make you aware of some potential pitfalls to avoid.

1) Make sure the new web hosting plan you've chosen offers you the storage capabilities to handle all of your current website storage requirements. If your website is 50MB, you need to make sure your new hosting plan offers that much space, or more. If you're not sure how much space your website is using, ask your current host. You can also usually find this information on your web hosting control panel.

2) How does your current web host determine what your storage amount is used for? Find out what your current and new host includes in your plan's storage amount. Are your emails and log files counted towards your total storage, or just your web files?

3) What operating system does your current hosting plan use? Windows or Unix? Sometimes this can make no difference, in other cases it can make the difference between a working website and a broken website. If your site is currently on a Windows server and your website uses ASP scripting, you'll find it difficult to make things work well on a Unix server, as ASP is a Windows based programming language. Find out ahead of time whether your current hosting plan is on a Unix or Windows server.

4) Does your site currently use FrontPage? Find out if your new host supports FrontPage. And make sure your new host supports the same version of FrontPage you currently use.

5) Find out if your new hosting plan offers you the same amount of bandwidth that your current host offers. You don't want to be surprised by unexpected overage charges at the end of the month.

6) Does your new web hosting plan give you the same amount of email accounts, autoresponders and mail forwards that you currently use?

7) Does your site use a shopping cart that your current hosting plan provides? Can you move the cart to your new host? If not, does your new host have a suitable shopping cart replacement?

8) If you are using any scripts on your website, make sure that your new hosting plan supports all of your scripts. Find out in advance if you'll need to make any modifications to your scripts to get them working on the new server.

9) Make sure to set up your existing email accounts on your new server before transferring your domain name to the new server. At MateMedia (www.matemediainc.com) we see this overlooked quite often.

10) Do you know how to upload your website files to the new server? If you don't, you'll need to find out if your new web host will upload your files for you. Some hosts will do this at no charge, some will do it for a fee, yet other hosts won't do it all because of liability issues.

Once all your files are uploaded to the new server, you'll want to double check that the site looks and functions properly on the new server. Most hosts can provide a preview link for you to see how your site looks before the domain name is transferred over. If your host does not provide a method for you to preview your site, you can modify your hosts file to preview your site. The host file tells your computer where to go to look for sites that are listed in that file. This works with any version of Windows. The file name is the same, the location can change. Here's how to modify your hosts file:

The file HOSTS should be in the c:windowssystem32driversetc You might only find a file named HOSTS.SAM (as in SAMPLE). That is OK; we can modify the HOSTS.SAM file as well and do a SAVE AS HOSTS.

In either case, double click on the HOSTS file to open it. You will be prompted by Windows to select an Application (Program) to use to VIEW the file.

Scroll the list and select Notepad. Click the OK button. The NOTEPAD program will now open, displaying the file HOSTS. You will see examples listed (The # symbol is used to comment out line or remarks.), the format is this. IP address (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx SPACE name)

So, to tell your computer that www.yourwebsite.com is at the address (replace with your real IP) 12.345.678.90 add the following entry to the bottom of the hosts file:

12.345.678.90 www.yourdomain.com (As in the example).

Click on FILE, slide down and click on SAVE AS.

In the Save As Type field, select ALL FILES. (Ensure that no .SAM is shown after the filename HOSTS. Click SAVE. You may be warned that the file already exists; this is fine, click YES.

Close Notepad, by clicking on FILE, slide down to EXIT, and click.

Now when you open your web browser, or try to ping the site, your system will go to the IP address you typed in the HOSTS file.

Remember to undo this when finished testing or your machine will always want to go to that IP address whenever you want to go to that site.

After you're satisfied that your site looks ok and functions ok, you can go to your registrar (the company where your domain name is registered) and modify the nameservers associated with your domain name to your new web host's nameservers. If you don't know your new host's nameservers, ask them. Most hosts have that information listed somewhere on their website or in the email you first get after signing up for an account.

Once the dns modification is completed it'll be 24-48 hours before you'll see your site on the new server.

Most whois utilities will display the nameservers of the current host. A good one is at http://whois.sc. Check your domain name and see if the nameservers you added are listed. If so, you have completed the website transfer to your new web host. Only after you've confirmed this is it ok to cancel your old web hosting account.

Web Hosting: Shared or Dedicated - Which Should You Choose?

Before you begin your search for a web host you should first determine whether you need shared web hosting or dedicated web hosting.

A shared web hosting account is an account on a web server that hosts other shared accounts. The number of accounts on one shared server can vary widely; some servers host a few hundred, while others have thousands of sites hosted on one server. Hosting your website on a shared server is a workable solution for many small businesses, as shared hosting accounts are priced much lower than dedicated servers. Shared web hosting accounts have limited access to the core administrative functions of the server. Most web hosting companies offer comprehensive technical support for users of shared hosting plans. Complete technical support is usually included in the price of your account plan.

A dedicated server is usually dedicated to one, or just a few websites, usually for the sole use by one company. The cost of a dedicated server is higher than that of a shared hosting account. With a dedicated server, you have access to the core administrative functions of the server. With most dedicated server plans offered by hosting companies, you're pretty much on your own where technical support is concerned. If you don't have an IT staff or a server administrator to provide support, you may want to find a person to help you manage your dedicated server. Many hosting companies that offer dedicated server plans also offer "per issue" support, meaning that you'll pay a certain amount, usually an hourly fee, for technical support issues. Some dedicated server plans have optional "support tickets" that you can purchase in advance.

Another option is what's called a "managed dedicated" hosting plan. With a managed dedicated plan, you get a dedicated server and the hosting company also provides comprehensive support like you usually find in a shared hosting plan. This is a good alternative for companies that don't have an IT staff or a server administrator and don't want to get involved at all in the technical aspects of running a server. The price for a managed dedicated server is usually higher than for an unmanaged dedicated server plan as you're getting technical support included.

Whatever type of web hosting plan you choose, make sure that the plan you've chosen fits your needs.

4 Critical Things To Look Out For In A Web Hosting Service

1. The reputation of the web hosting company.

Most web hosting companies on the web have been in existence for at least 2 years and they are usually handled by experience and IT savvy network engineers who can provide the necessary support and services to their customers. However, there are also several "mom and pop" set ups out there which are handled by amateurs who are greedy to make plenty of your own money without even knowing how to do something as fundamental as setting up your user account. Be sure to check the credentials of the web hosting firm by either reading their about us or the technology they use for their server farm. Make sure you pick a company that has been around for at the very least 2 years and have a successful track record with 95% up time for all its servers. That's a reasonable expectation as 100% is not a realistic aim in the computing world.

2. How much of storage space are you given?

Most web companies out the offer space that range from as small as 20 MB to as big as 2GB or even more. However, this depends largely upon you the user. Make sure you do not get sold into buying more space then you need. This is a common trend amongst novice web owners who tend to feel that the bigger space the better and the more powerful their website can be. That is the most contorted statement I have ever heard in my 5 years as a IT expert and internet marketing consultant. Personally, I would recommend you to use Host4profit as your hosting company because I find that they provide the most innovative packages that even reward you by paying you to be a member & in many other ways too one of which includes a trip to the Bahamas. Find out more at my website at: http://www.neptune500.com simply click the blue button on your left which is animated when you get there.

3. What is the available bandwidth space for you to transfer data each month?

We all need to transfer data to our website and update its content often in order to stay afresh and also to keep our ratings high up on the search engines right? Well all web hosting companies offer a certain bandwidth or "transfer window" if you will to enable you transport your data from your local computer hard disk drive to your web server. However this transfer window has a limited space. This is set to prevent the servers on their side from having a bandwidth overload from users repeatedly transferring large amounts of data to and fro without any limits being set. A bandwidth space is allocated to enable you to manage the amount data that you want to transfer each month into the storage space allocated. Note that the data you transfer is constantly kept track of until you have reach the transfer limit for that month. Most web hosting companies tend to be stingy on this so as to provide so called "high speed data transfer" to their clients. They usually cap this bandwidth off at 1GB. Host4profit however offers its client a 3GB bandwidth per month. Can you see why everybody is switching to Host4profit now?

4. The support provided both online and offline to ensure you can sleep soundly at night.

This is the area that is overlooked most often whenever the novice webmaster signs up for a webhosting contract. It is absolutely important ( burn this into your head) I repeat absolutely important to ensure that you get a web hosting company that will answer your calls and ensure your website stays up and running even if you call them at 2 am in the morning to request for help. I am talking about 24 hours support everyday of the week and also relevant safety measures implemented in the data center at which your server resides. I highly recommend you find out more about the location of the data center about the power supply facilities, where it is situated and also the safety measures that have been put in place such as fire protection and relevant data backup facilities to a remote location as a safety should a physical destruction occur that literally wipes out the whole data center ( although I think this is highly unlikely unless George Lucas must have been tingling with the wrong button at his huge animation studios and manage to bring Darth Vader back to life).

Choosing The Wrong Server Will Literally Make Or Break You

Choosing the right web server will be one of the most important decisions you will ever make with your online business. Why? Because the web server you choose will literally make or break your online business.

Today I am going to talk about two types of servers, one is Virtual Web Hosting and the other is Virtual Private Servers.

Over the last couple of years Virtual Web Hosting has been the only way to go when choosing a web server. One of the reasons that Virtual Web Hosting became so popular was because they supported the necessary files and allowed you to have more freedom than other conventional web hosts. But now you can have more freedom than ever before with Virtual Private Servers. Moreover, Virtual Private Servers should not be confused with Virtual Hosts, because they are completely different.

Before I go any further I must explain what the difference is between a Virtual Host and a Virtual Private Server, so that you can fully understand. In this article I will also go over the advantages and disadvantages of both types of servers, to help you decide which is right for you and your business. Let's get started with Virtual Hosting.

Virtual Hosting

Virtual Hosting is also known as Shared Web Hosting, where you are sharing the physical server and a single set of software applications with other users. Virtual Hosting has been extremely popular in the past for it's fast deployment, strong resources, and most importantly for having a very reasonable price. Another advantage to Virtual Hosting is that you have a powerful, reliable, and professionally managed server without having to have advanced technical skills, making it ideal for an individual, small business, or even a beginner webmaster.

The disadvantage of Virtual Hosting is that you are sharing the server with other users, which are configured and controlled by an administrator, not you. So basically you have your hands tied behind your back, because you have to contact the administrator everytime you have to adjust or change your configuration settings. Even if you managed to get a hold of the administrator, they may not fulfill your request. It's up to them, they are the administrator. If you were the administrator you wouldn't have these limitations and would have full control.

Virtual Private Servers

Virtual Private Servers are a hot topic these days and for a good reason. Before I get into the advantages of a Virtual Private Server, let explain what it is first. A Virtual Private Server is a single server that is partitioned at the root into multiple dedicated servers. This allows you to share the cost of the network connectivity, hardware, and system maintenance with other hosting customers, while maintaining your flexibility and freedom.

The real advantage of Virtual Private Servers is that they allow you to have complete control and they have the security advantages of a dedicated server at the fraction of the cost. You have access to the virtual root, Telnet, web configuration files, and full CGI-BIN access. I can't forget to mention that you also have access to your password, aliases file, and sendmail configuaration file. For many reasons you can see that a Virtual Private Server is an excellent solution for small to medium size businesses that have an increasingly complex needs.

Moreover, there is one disadvantage with Virtual Private Servers, you need to have some program knowledge to control and configure the settings. Sounds overwhelming, most businesses that offer Virtual Private Servers have very detailed manuals making them easier to configure and control no matter what your program level is.

Which one is right for you? Well, that all depends on you and the size of your network.

If you have or plan on having just one web site and have absolutely no programing knowledge, then Virtual Hosting is the recommended and economical way for you to go. A Virtual Host can cost anywhere from $20 - $50 a month for an account, rather than a $100 or more for a Virtual Private Server.

On the other hand, if you have a larger network that requires multiple web sites, like ours, and you have some programing knowledge, then a Virtual Private Server is ideal for you. You can host up to 50 web sites on a Virtual Private Server account, instead of having multiple Virtual Hosting accounts, which is not as economical.

When it comes time to get a web server, make sure that the server fits your needs and that it supports the essential software for a prosperous online business.

How Multiple Server Hosting impacts your websites uptime

This article describes the technology behind multiple server hosting and how you may utilize it to maximize your site's security and uptime

Hosting of web sites has essentially become a commodity. There is very little distinguishing one hosting company from the next. Core plans and features are the same and price is no longer a true determining feature. In fact, choosing a host based on the cheapest price can be more expensive in the long term with respect to reliability issues and possible loss of sales as a result of website downtime.

Selecting a host from the thousands of providers and resellers can be a very daunting task, which may result in a hit and miss approach. But although hosting may have become a commodity, one distinguishing feature that you must always look out for is reliability.

At the heart of any hosting company's reliability is redundancy. This ensures that if a problem exists at one point, there will be an alternative which ensures continuity as seemlessly and transparently as possible.

Most hosts do employ redundant network connections. These are the high speed pipes that route data from the server to your web browser. But, redundant 'multiple web servers' have been extremely rare and very expensive, requiring costly routing equipment which has previously been used only in mission critical applications of Fortune 500 companies.

However, a very neat but little known Domain Name Server(DNS) feature called 'round robin' allows the selection and provision of a particular IP address from a 'pool' of addresses when a DNS request arrives.

To understand what this has to do with server reliability it's important to remember that the Domain Name Server (DNS) database maps a host name to their IP address. So instead of using a hard to remember series of numbers (IP address) we just type in your web browser www.yourdomain.com, to get to your website.

Now, typically it takes at at least 2 to 3 days to propagate or 'spread the word' of your DNS info throughout the internet. That's why when you register or transfer a domain name it isn't immediately available to the person browsing the web.

This delay has stymied the security benefits of hosting your site on multiple servers, as your site would be down for a couple of days if something went awry with one server. You would have to change your DNS to reflect your second server and wait days before the change was picked up in routers on the internet.

However, the round robin DNS strategy solves this predicament, by mapping your domain name to more than one IP address.

Select hosting companies now employ the DNS round robin technique in conjunction with'failover monitoring'.

The DNS round robin failover monitoring process starts by a web hosting company setting up your site on two or more independent web servers (preferably with different IP blocks assigned to them). Your domain name will therefore have 2 or more IP Addresses assigned to it.

Then the failover monitor watches your web server(s) by dispatching data to a URL you specify and looking for particular text in the results. When the system detects that one of your IP addresses is returning an error, and the others aren't, it pulls that IP address out of the list. The DNS then points your domain name to the working IP address/s

If any of your IP's come back online they are restored to the IP pool. This effectively and safely keeps your site online - even if one of your web servers is down.

The average failure detection and recovery time with a system like this can be as low as 15 minutes. This time varies depending on the speed of your site and the nature of the failure and also how long other ISP's cache (save) your DNS information.

The time taken for other ISP's caching your information can be manipulated in the failover monitor by lowering the "time to live" (TTL) cache settings. These are the settings that other ISP's will use to determine how long to cache your DNS information.

Of course you must bear in mind the matter of how frequently data is synchronized between your website's servers. This will be the hosting company's responsibility, and this may become complicated where databases and user sessions are involved.

The very expensive hardware based failover monitoring systems that point a virtual IP address to other ISP's, while behind the scenes juggling a number of unique IP addresses on different servers, is of course the most 'elegant' solution to multi server hosting.

That way, the whole issue of ISP's caching your information does not come into play.

Therefore, for site's that need to have true 99.99995% uptime, without huge outlays of money, the technology is readily available and certain proprietory failure monitoring systems are now relatively cheap to apply.

More Profits in Your Website Hosting Business

If you run a website hosting business, you already know the challenges in the business. Thousands of competitors are just a click away, ready to undercut your price.

Potential customers see hosting as a commoditiy and shop by price. Several directories like Hostreview, Acehosts and Hostindex make it easy to comparison shop.

How can you get more profits from your business under these conditions?

FIRST, GET THE CUSTOMER

Calculate the lifetime value of your customer. For example, let's say the average customer stays with you for 15 months and pays 16.95 a month. That means their lifetime value to your company is $254.25. So every customer you acquire makes your business (on average) $254.25.

If a visitor comes to your website, then leaves to comparison shop, you have more than likely lost that sale. Have you invested in sales copy that compels your visitors to buy from you? Does your website help him to see that you are the best choice for his situation? Showcase your credibility, guarantee services and offer incentives to try your service. Make it easy to buy from you.

NEXT, KEEP THE CUSTOMER

Because each customer is hard-won and the value of the customer is so high, you'll want to make sure you have the support services that keep your customers happy.

Once a customer leaves you for another website host, he's gone forever. You probably already make customer service a priority, with email answered in a timely fashion and well-trained technical support. Go the extra mile. Don't wait for customers to contact you. Ask your customer how you're doing.

THEN, SELL MORE TO THE CUSTOMER

The customer has already bought from you. There is familiarity and trust. You can easily offer complimentary items to your current customer list.

The major concern of your customer is how to succeed online. It's easy to offer online marketing tools, ebooks and additional services. It can be as simple as joining an affiliate program for an item your customer may need, then making him aware of the item.

Focus on these 3 areas, getting the customer, keeping the customer and selling more to him. You'll enjoy higher profits in your website hosting business.

Cheap Web Hosting - Choose The Right Company

You have carried out the hard part and that's creating the web site. The next step is to get it hosted as to allow the public find your site. So why do so many first time web host seekers fall into the trap of a bad web host company? Well there are a number of factors to consider and none bigger than the price. We all want cheap web hosting but unfortunately price is not always what you should go for.

You have to be more aware of the web hosting company that you choose. If you have a budget stick to it, if you see hosting for little or nothing and find yourself thinking "how do they make money" stay well away, the chances are your web site will be hosted with very little bandwidth resulting in a very slow accessible and unprofessional web site. You may also find that the customer service is little or none.

You need to clearly outline your own requirements to the web hosting company, if you do not do so you are at fault and not in any position to point the finger at others. If you make a list of requirements such as particular files you need etc you can send your requirements to multiple hosting companies and see who comes back with the greater service.

If you have more than one web site to host such as affiliate marketers it is not a good idea to put all your sites with the one web host company server to start with, you need to be 100% confident with the service, so start with one web site first as a test. Remember if you do host all your websites with one host company, all it takes is one problem to bring all your sites down and could result in lose of revenue for you. At least if you have some web sites hosted by another company they will still be online.

Some web host companies offer testimonials on their own web site from valued customers recommending them. Seeing is not believing, call these customers and get a face value recommendation for yourself.

What if I have problems?

Lets be honest, problems can occur and they maybe your fault and sometimes the web host company is to blame. Problems with technology can occur any time but it's how the hosting company react to the fault that will determine if you stay with them or not. If you find your web site dropping off line or downloading slowly at a regular basis simply change to another web host company. On going problems not fixed is a very bad sign and it shows arrogance towards their customers. Support is vital from a web host company and it should be 24 hour if it's a large organisation.

Virus Problems and Hackers

It is up to the web host company to ensure that your files are protected from virus and hackers at all times. There has been plenty of companies who have had their web sites hacked only then to find out that the web host company had not got the latest patches and security software applied. First timers to web hosting should always ask how often updates and what software is used to protect web sites.

Tips:

In business your web site can be a large source of revenue or sometimes your only source. Always do your own backup of the web site. If the web host company experience problems and for whatever reason has no backups available your whole business could be on hold. Backups are vital so do it as regular as possible or face the consequences. Some companies have testimonials on their web site from customers, do not be afraid to call these guys for an up to date reference.

If you where taking on an employee you would check all references, this is similar. Always get the full contact details of the web hosting company, many people simple go online and have an email address only as the contact. If their email goes down and you need to contact them you should have their full details at hand. Always shop around for the different web hosting plans and compare, you will find large differences, after you settle with a budget ask the necessary questions before you sign up.

Web Hosting - Choose Affordable, Cheap Web Hosting

The Basics:

Web hosting offers you the opportunity to put your web site online, when you think about it; it's the only way you can do it. No matter how large or small in content your web site happens to be it has to go onto a web server. A web server is simply a larger and much more powerful computer than your own. Your internet content simply sits on this server for people to access and view your information. The web servers are stored within data centers, all you are simply doing is renting some space on the server.

Why use a web hosting service:

Firstly it's very affordable. Web hosting companies will look after and update all software required to maintain your site, they will also add all security patches making sure your content is safe from hackers/viruses and unwanted spam. Once you register your domain name (web site name) you have to have it hosted for the public to view your information. If you run into any difficulties you will have a full technical support team to help you out. To host your own will cost too much on hardware, bandwidth and ongoing software updates.

I hear of shared web hosting - What is it?

When shopping around for a web host company you will find that many are offering shared web hosting. Shared web hosting is simply a server that has a number of different web sites sitting on it simultaneously. You will be allocated a certain amount of disk space on the server and this may allow you to have a number of web sites hosted on the one server. Shared web hosting is a very secure service even though you could be sharing the server with many different companies. No other company will have access to your files. Many people think that using a shared service will make the web site act very slowly, this is totally incorrect, the information will be displayed and downloaded equally as fast as if it where on the server on it's own. Web host companies offer shared hosting simply to use up all the space on the server, there is no benefit to you or them having empty hard disk space.

What makes a good web host site?

If you have developed a web site for business opportunity or to sell merchandise online you need reliability. Downtime costs you money so the less downtime you experience the better chance of making money. You need to compile a list of questions to ask the web host company when it comes to hosting your site. You need a guarantee response time if the unthinkable should happen and the site goes offline. You need 24 hour access to your files with 24 hour support if you intend selling products online, most of your sales could be made in the evening or night time so you have to have support for any issues that could arise. Statistics are also important; you need to know how many unique hits (people visiting your site) you are getting so you can see the trend of people just visiting to those who are buying. Some web host companies offer very substantial stats while others can be less informative, you should ask for a demonstration.

Word of mouth is a great way to hear as to who is a good host and a bad host. If you know somebody in a similar position to you, ask their opinion from their experience. There are plenty of good honest web host companies out there but like every market there are a few bad apples. Ask the questions and make sure you are confident with the replies before you join up.

Will it matter if I host my web site in my own country or in another?

Generally speaking no. If you are happy with your questions answered and the company have 24 hour support to allow for time differences you should have the same level service as if the web host company was based just down the road. Some people think that by hosting their website outside of their registered country they will lose their domain identity, this is false e.g. if I was based in Ireland and I had a computer website it would be something like www.computerparts.ie The .ie is the identity of Ireland but if I wanted this site hosted in the US I would still keep the .ie, there is no need to change to .com. That's the great thing about web hosting, the world is your oyster and you can shop online globally until your are truly happy with the service.

Provide A Good Home For Your Website

Selecting a web hosting company is like sending one of your children off to college. You may have complete confidence in your son or daughter's abilities but unless they are placed in the proper environment they will not have the opportunity to thrive. Likewise, no matter how sophisticated or impressive the website you have designed may be, if you do not place the site where it can perform optimally you will likely be disappointed in the results.

Selecting web hosting is not simply finding a place where your website can reside. It is finding the company that offers the resources that will allow your website to operate effectively and to grow as the business or public demands. This means that you must be able to store and transfer enough data so that your site functions smoothly but also remains affordable.

Free web hosting services normally require that you allow ads to be placed on your site. These generate revenue for the hosting company by enabling them to display ads to visitors to your website. Only you can determine if the ads are appropriate for visitors to your site. In addition you will have to decide if the amount of storage and the available bandwidth will be sufficient for the type of website that you want to display. A free service may be completely appropriate for a personal website that is periodically modified. But trying to operate a site with significant traffic or a commercial focus may be "penny wise and pound foolish."

All commercial web hosting companies are not created equal. Of course, cost is an issue but reliability and service will likely be major factors in the decision making process. You should expect your host to be up and functioning 100% of the time but you will likely only see guarantees of 99-99.5% uptime. Less than this is unacceptable.

If you will personally be managing much of the activity for your site, make sure that you are comfortable with the Control Panel. Some hosts present Control Panels that are cumbersome and complicated. You want to easily navigate through routine functions. You will also want to make sure that the hosting company has functionality that you may not be using now but will likely use in the future. These would include PHP, MySQL, SSI, .htaccess, SSL, etc. Examine the offers for email and autoresponders also.

Many web hosting services offer very low rates if you commit to a year or more of hosting. While this may turn out to be an excellent value in the long term, it may be advisable to pay each month until you are confident in the service and, quite importantly, the quality of the technical support that they provide. Getting accurate responses to questions quickly will make your life as a webmaster less stressful.

How You Pay More for Unused Web Space and Traffic

"2GB web space with 50GB traffic for $5.95 per month!"

A luring ad-definitely. In fact this ad makes many small business owners feel cheated by their present web hosts.

This is how the small business owners, who have taken small amount of space (say, 5, 10 or 25mb) calculate and feel that they are paying more :

"If 2000MB (2GB) costs $5.95 per month, then 5MB should cost (5.95 x 5 / 2000) = $0.15 only! But my web host charges me $1! A 700% profit!! Oh...I am losing so much money!!"

So, if a small business site shifts to the advertised web host, he should get better value for his money. Right?

Wrong.

Let me explain how:

As a small business owner, how many HTML pages do you have in your web site? 5, 10, 15, 25?

Experts say that you should not have a page of more than 100K including images. Normally the file size of a starndard HTML page is around 10-15K.

Remember that, many of the images linked to your pages are common. If you have a 400x300 pixel image, the file size of that image should not be more than 30K. Buttons are normally between 3-5K.

So, let's take an example of 25 page web site, which has (a) 25 HTML pages, (b) each page has one big image of 400x300 pixel and (c) have 25 buttons.

So, the total space usage is:

25 HTMLs x 15K = 375K
25 400x300 pixel images x 30K = 750K
25 buttons x 5K = 125K

Total : 1250K = 1.25MB

You need space for mail. How many email accounts do you need? 5, 10, 25? How much space you want to allocate for each mail box? Do you get large attachments? Your can set your email software to delete mails from the server (immediately or after few days) after you download them to your computer. So, if you check your mails every hour and keep your mail space clean for receiving further mails, you may safely allocate 1mb for each email accounts. If you are using only one email account, you can use the entire free space for your email.

So, with the above example, if you go for a 5MB space, it's enough for you in the given circumstances.

But, if you go for a 2GB space and use only 5MB of it, you are actually paying $5.99 for using 5MB space. A loss of $4.99 every month-$59.88 every year!

You got it now, right?

You may ask, 'What about Traffic? 50GB!! It's huge man!'

Yes, it's huge. But, do you need it?

With the above example, if one person visits all the pages, your site generates 1.25MB traffic. If you get say 100 such visitors every day, you generate only 3750MB or 3.5GB (approx) traffic for the entire month!

So, here again you pay more for the unused traffic.

Check from your control panel, how much space and traffic you are you consuming currently. Are you paying for unused space / traffic? If yes, then browse the web for reliable hosts and find out a plan which fits with your requiremnts. Compare the prices and features. Check the reliability of the host and go for the one you find the best.

Web Site Hosting For Your Business - Free or Paid?

It's time to choose! Should you spend some money to get a web hosting solution for your business or get one for free?

Yes, the big moment has finally arrived. Your business is now on the verge of taking the next step forward. It will establish a web presence. This is an important step as from now on your business is able to reach more customers, is able to get more exposure, and hopefully enjoy online recognition.

Space, bandwidth and domain name all come with a cost, but there is a possibility to get them all for free. Resource management principles will probably tell you to choose the free solution.

Nowadays the cost for web hosting services has a very reasonable reason partially because of the technological progress, partially because of the stiff competition on the web hosting market.

Still? why pay for it when you can get it for free?

Free web hosting

Dozens, even hundreds of free web hosting providers offer their services on the Internet. Could there be one that meets the needs for your business? Hardly, if any.

Please let me state clearly that this article is not intended to attack or discredit hosts or advertisers. It's only purpose is to assess and understand how can be best met the hosting needs of a business. Any business. And yes, in spite of everything stated here, even the author of this article has resorted at some point in time to the services of free web hosts!

You probably learned too, and at a very small age, that in life everything comes with a price. However, there it is ? allover the Internet: Free Web Hosting.

Nothing in this world is free. So how comes there even is free web hosting? The definition of the term "free" according to The New Lexicon Webster's Dictionary, states gives the following definition for the term free:

1. adj. not subject to external restraints or domination; not captive, at liberty; not having to be paid for; unhampered; open to all without restrictions; etc.

2. adv. without expense; without penalty

3. v.t. to release from constraint, set free

Therefore a literally free hosting service would mean no restraints, no expenses and no restrictions for the user. Webmasters would design with only limited by their imagination and skills. All the space and the bandwidth you would possibly ask for at no cost whatsoever. Real-life scenario? Could anyone really think so?

Indeed nothing in this world comes without price. Even it is not apparent. And the price you must pay for free web hosting comes in many forms, as free web hosting providers must pay too for bandwidth, not to mention other costs.

While some free web hosts require you to have one on their banners on your web site, others place pop up adds, or flashing advertising messages. So it's free for you as long as you fulfill their set of requirements and meet their conditions. In addition to this, you should consider that host's service is free with let's say 25 Megs of space; more space means different conditions and you could have to pay for it.

Paid web hosting

If you are billed, it means you own something. There is now a contractual bind between you and your web-hosting provider, which in turn must offer you his services. Ownership gives you more control of your online presence. Important as ownership is, it is neither the only nor the biggest advantage of paying for your hosting solution.

The identity of your business would be clear from your URL down to your web content without banners confusing your customers. Imagine that you deal with What I would say, is ask yourself if you would deal with someone offering a similar service/ product as you are promoting, who was obviously using a free site. If you would, then fine, but if not, don't expect anyone else to deal with you!

You will have usually sufficient e-mail addresses to accommodate the needs of your business. How serious would you take someone who hands you a business card with e-mail like john.doe@afreewebhostingprovider.com. And more important: would you do business with him?

It's almost a standard for paid web hosting providers to offer features like PHP and MySQL, features that allow your site to grow along with your business needs. With such features you can easily have an online store, offer your customers the possibility to track their orders etc. Often the web hosting provider offers guarantees for the uptime of the server, and this avoids unnecessary frustration for your customers. To complement this, support services of higher quality allow your business to overcome possible technical problems easier and faster.

Let's review the main points of each option.

Free web hosting:

(+) It's free. No money for space, bandwidth and domain name

(-) Your URL will contain the mark of the free web-hosting provider and thus would not reflect the identity of your business. Changing providers might result in loosing some or all the traffic to your online business

(-) Required advertising items such as banners, frames etc have a detrimental effect on your content in terms of accessibility and look, making it very unprofessional

(-) If you plan to use banner exchange on your site read carefully their Terms and conditions. Some free hosts doesn't allow it

(-) You will probably have lower bandwidth then a paid host provides and space could also be restricted

(-) Features like PHP and MySQL are rather rare for a free web-hosting provider. Some don't offer FTP access to your website

(-) It's common that free hosting providers change their Terms and conditions at some point in time. Consider that no adds today could mean a banner or a popup tomorrow. Such changes could mean that the free hosting service is canceled and only paid web hosting services are offered. At this moment either you pay, either you loose your web site

Paid web hosting:

(-) You will have to pay for it. Usually you have to pay for hosting (space and bandwidth) and for the domain name

(+) You can host your own domain. With your unique domain name changing web hosting providers don't cause loosing your traffic

(+) Support is offered by most paid web hosting providers. This usually means 24/7 support via email or live chat and, in some cases, toll-free phone support is available

(+) The uptime of the server(s) hosting your web site is better then on free host and more and more frequently the web hosting provider offers uptime guarantee

(+) The amount of enough disk space and bandwidth available is very likely to cover the needs of your business

(+) Features like PHP and MySQL are almost standard for a paid hosting plan. Also you will have FTP access to your website.

It could be tempting to embrace the idea that a free web hosting is good point to start from, but it's not something you would want to consider if you are looking to establish your business as a serious web presence. In the end it all comes down to this one question: How big ambitions do you have with your website?

If you look to make some savings while getting your business online, save time instead and register a domain name. The small amount of money saved on web hosting might cost your business customers, and a loss of image. The cost of a paid web hosting solution is small compared with freedom it gives to your online presence. Yes, freedom of your image, of the way you treat your online presence.

Elements of Web Hosting

When you first start out trying to get a site on the Internet everything seems so confusing. Obtuse acronyms flow freely through the 'Beginner Friendly' information sites and definitions can be hard to come across. The main reason for this is that the Internet and the process of getting a website online is really very simple, and once people get past the first stumbling steps they rarely remember the difficulty they once had, which leads to them being unable to understand the next wave of dot com newbies.

So let's begin with defining some of the basic terms that are commonly thrown around when looking for a web host. You'll quickly realize that computer geeks like using big words for simple concepts. What do you expect from a group of people that decided to call half a Byte a Nibble?

Web Host: These are the people that supply your website with somewhere to sit and be accessed from. They're often a wealth of information, so when you're trying to find your feet it will often be worthwhile to contact their tech support and get your questions answered. Because of this, it's important to contact them BEFORE you sign up for any packages to ensure that you'll receive a timely response. Just fire an email their way and see what happens.

Disk Space: This is the same as the space on your own PC's hard drive. Web Hosts will allocate a certain amount of space to your website, usually in Megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). This determines how much you can store on your site.

Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be retrieved from your site within the bandwidth period. The bandwidth period is the length of time before your bandwidth gets reset once again, usually about a month. Bandwidth is measured in MB and GB, like disk space. Always find out the consequences of exceeding your allocated bandwidth before you purchase a hosting package.

Domain Name: The domain name is your personal identifier on the Internet. This is what gets typed into a web browser's address bar to reach your site. Some hosting companies will offer a domain for free, while others will have the facilities to provide one for a minimal cost.

SQL (MySQL, SQL Server etc.): Structured Query Language. This is the language used to interact with databases. Chances are that if you don't know about it when you start looking for web hosting, you're not going to need to know about it for at least a little while longer.

HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. Basically, how the Internet works. It is the protocol governing the transfer of web pages from one place to another.

HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language. This is (usually) what you'll be using to make your website, whether directly or indirectly. Don't be scared by the name, the 'language' is very easy to learn.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol. This is a method for sending pages and files from your home PC to a server. It is quite simple to use and your host will provide login information if this is the method that they use for file access. Typing "FTP://" into My Computer on a windows box allows you to use FTP as if your server were a regular windows folder.

POP3: This is a common email 'post box' system. It is use to store emails for retrieval.

SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. A common protocol used to send emails.

Personal Web Hosting - Free Or Cheap?

After you have spent some time and creativity on designing your personal web site now it's time to publish it on the World Wide Web for all to see it.

When coming to web hosting, many face the dilemma of choosing between free or paid web hosting. Although the costs associated with paid web hosting is rather small, it's still money.

An easy and money free solution might seem to be registering it with a free web-hosting provider. They come in large numbers today and the 10-20 Megs of free personal space they usually offer sounds tempting. Not to mention that some of them even offer POP3 for your e-mail address on their web site or FTP access to your files on the web site.

So it looks like all this is building up to become quite an alternative to spending dear money for almost the same thing. I mean paid web hosting for an individual's web site sound a little pretentious, doesn't it?

Sure paid web hosting gives some more space, quite a few more features and all that, but do you need them anyway? You probably just need a web server that can feed .HTML and maybe some simple java scripts to your visitor. It's not like you are ever going to need an SQL database, support for .ASP or .PHP. You just want your own web site, not an e-commerce solution or you are ever going to need more than one e-mail address for your own use.

A more careful look at the matter is likely to make the right decision easier to take. As a matter of fact, depending on the objectives trusted to your personal web site, the decision between free or cheap almost dictates itself. You should also keep in mind that you actually trusting your virtual image to the web host.

In exchange for the hosting you won't be asked for money, but there could be banners, hot links, frames, popup windows or other forms of online advertising that will interfere with the content of your web site, possibly having a bad effect on its look and almost certainly annoying your visitors. Another minus is that your traffic is not likely to attain very high values due to the long domain name. People are not going to return to your web site simply because they forgot its URL. Therefore if people haven't added your site to their bookmarks, and if your web site is not easily reachable through search engine search or fro other linked sites, it is very likely that your traffic scores would not be very impressive.

A personal web site could be very useful asset in promoting your professional image to potential or actual employers and business contacts. Regardless we are considering the URL or e-mail address, what would an employer for example think when handed a business card with an e-mail address like yourname@freeserver.com. Would you feel comfortable going to a job interview and leaving your resume referring to your online portfolio available at www.yourname.yetanotherfreehost.com? All your effort and skill displayed by your web content would be almost surely hurt by as little as your URL. Not fair, but likely.

A part of the image of successful professionals nowadays is a good personal website. It is well known that success generates success. The look of a personal URL and e-mail such us www.yourname.biz or contact@yourname.com would definitely benefit to your image as a professional. As you were diligent enough to have a personal website, the matter of trusting it to a free web host or investing an additional and usual small amount of money might be the difference of being associated with a success story of your career or with the cliché of a quite all right fellow that is barely struggling and would make compromises even when it comes to its image.

Any problems with the web host, possible downtime, and narrow bandwidth will chase your visitors away and will be associated to your web site.

On the other hand, if your are just stating your experience with the World Wide Web, or if your are setting up a web site with only close friends and relatives as intended audience, a free web host might just do it for you. These are just a few of the examples of having a good reason to publish your web site on a free hosting provider.

Free web hosts helped thousands of people to familiarize themselves with the Internet experience, as first cradles for their web presence. This is one of the reasons free web hosts have contributed to the overall popularity of the Internet. As comfortable as cradles are, you can't spend your whole life in the cradle!

So, if you are planning to have a web site to represent you online and you want to be taken seriously, to actually enhance your personal image, make right. Make your web site a living proof of your thoroughness and start with your URL.

Free Web Hosting - Why Might It Be A Bad Idea

When talking about free anything the legitimate question that first pops into your mind is why pay when you can get it free?

And as for free web hosting there are plenty of places to get it from.

As spread as they are, if you are not a stranger to the whole Internet experience, you might even have a web site hosted for free. Are you satisfied with your provider? Is it everything you wanted? Probably not. Anyway it is true that is comes with no cost and no other aggravations? or are there any?

Free web hosting cost no money but what can you expect from one?

Your web site will be turned into an advertising machine that works for the free web host. Expect, banners, pop up windows, frames. They will all mess the look of your web site in terms of design and accessibility for your visitors that might be literally flooded with popups almost after every click-through.

You can't make advertising revenue of your web site, as most free web hosts don't allow it. This is not such a big issue when you are maintaining a personal web site, but the cutting-off advertising revenues can mean significant losses for a business. For this last case, only a paid web hosting solution might be the right answer.

Very little space for your web pages. With free web hosting provider offering 5 to 15 MB of disk space, your site's expansion will severely restricted. Growing your web site above the offered quota would result in transferring to a paid plan offered by the same hosting provider or finding a different paid web-hosting provider. In both cases you end paying for your hosting and you might loose traffic to your web site due to changing hosts.

No online store can go without secure server to enable secure online credit card processing. The great majority of free hosts don't support secure web servers. Customers fearing fraud and concerned about their personal information will make it impossible, at least very hard for an online store to survive on a free host. And anyway, have you ever heard of a successful online store hosted by a free web host? None will hear from yours either.

The uptime of your web site will be like the weather forecast. Hope for good, but prepare for the worse. Downtime through free web hosts is unfortunately very common. As web hosts generate their revenues from advertising, they don't feel very much compelled to care for the web site of a subscriber who doesn't pay them anyway.

To whom will you turn when experiencing the abovementioned downtime or other technical problem with your web site? Free web hosts usually have a limited budget and don't afford to hire large customer support teams, if any. You will find yourself alone, staring at the FAQ page.

Your domain name will be measured in feet and will tell nothing or very little of your business. This obviously results in low traffic scores, as your visitors won't be able to remember your URL. Can you rely only on search engines, linked sites and people bookmarking your web site? If yes, at least consider the fact that in the age when companies try to create a personalized image, your web site will be condemned to be just another subdomain of your free host.

Will your customers trust a business hosted by a free web host? What credibility will your web site inspire? Not a very high one.

The above list is really rather long, but as surprisingly as it might be, it is far from being complete. Other additions to it could be that free web hosts not always offer FTP access to your web site file, or you only have one e-mail address to work with and probably looks like mysite@anotherfreeserver.com.

Yes, paid web hosting requires money, but the prices are lower than they used to be, and the advantages are rather impressive. Just turn all the above you can't? or you have to do without? list around.

You are searching for a solution to host your business or even a professional personal web site, don't look for it at a free web host.

Web Site Hosting - An Easy Guide

Web Hosting - Made Simple
What is web hosting anyway? What do I get when I buy a web hosting solution?

To make thing clear from start let's just say how it all works.
Web pages basically consist of text and images. Generically, the information contained by these files is called content. The look of the web page is called design. In order to be accessible to online users, all these files must be stored on a web server. You can think of web servers as computers storing the files of tens or hundreds of web sites. These computers are all connected to the Internet through high-speed connection. When you access a web page, your browser connects to the web server that stores that page and downloads it to your computer.

So a web server is a must when you plan to share your web site content with online users via the Internet. There are thousands of web servers in the world, and there are companies that own them. Such a company is called web-hosting provider.

A web-hosting provider can have dozens of web servers hosting thousands of web sites. The web server computers are found usually in large numbers and are all housed in special buildings or sections of buildings called data center. Apart from the high-speed Internet connection, these locations are set up to ensure the optimum operational conditions and security for the web servers. HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, & Air Conditioning) control, fire protection, virus protection, data backup facility, power backup, even autonomy in case of disaster. Another term for the web servers in the data center is a web farm.

To be able to run your site properly you need a space on the web server to store your data and an Internet connection to it. The amount of data available to you on a web server is simply referred as space and is usually quantified in MB. The Internet connection needed so that your web site can be accessed online is referred as bandwidth and is also measured in MB or even GB. Having the glimpse of the basics, it must be said that different web-hosting providers offer different space and bandwidth. Space and bandwidth are usually the main characteristics of a web-hosting plan.

The terminology associated with web hosting can be quite dazzling: virtual web hosting, dedicated hosting; co-locating hosting, shared hosting reseller hosting.

Shared Web Hosting
Shared web hosting or virtual web hosting are two terms for the same thing. Shared web hosting means that on a web server are hosted many web sites that all have a defined quota of HDD space and bandwidth. They all run simultaneously and there can be from hundreds to thousands of web sites on the same web server. Given the high number of web sites should you worry about exceeding the performance of the web server, issue better known as slow server response, meaning that your visitors will have to wait too long for your web pages to load. That is usually not a real problem when dealing with serious web hosting providers, because the operational parameters of the web servers are monitored and appropriate actions will be taken in order to maintain the level of service contracted. The greater number of web sites sharing the resources of a web server (HDD space, bandwidth, memory, CPU time), the web hosting provider can afford to offer its services at a lower cost. A minus would be that, even with high level of service, you will have to accept a slower server response time when choosing shared web hosting.

Reseller Web Hosting
When web-hosting providers offer their services, typically with a discount, to a third-party (a reseller that will thus become a web-hosting provider itself) and the latter subsequently offers web-hosting services under his branding. Indeed technically the reseller web hosting is very similar to shared web hosting, as many web sites end up sharing space and bandwidth on the same web server. The resellers usually are web designers or web developers who offer web hosting services as part of their integrated services. As the web-hosting provider offers resellers important discounts, the price they can offer is among the smallest in the industry. Compared with the shared web hosting, this system has technical support problem. It takes time and communication problems may occur on the course of your problem from the reseller to the web-hosting provider. Unless your site is a personal web site or non-commercial one, this poor support issue is enough to not consider this your primary option. Continuing this line of thought, how can you distinguish a reseller from a real web-hosting provider? It's not the professional design of the web site, not even the support contact facilities offered as may resellers might have contracts with the provider on the technical support and the person taking your calls might be working for the provider and identify himself to you as an employee of the reseller. Solid company information is made available usually only by serious providers. The price, that can get as low as under 5$/month is another hint, but you should consider it carefully with prices dropping through the industry.

Dedicated Web Hosting
In dedicated web hosting one single web server is rented to a single customer. Although this is the common belief, web-hosting providers usually divide a single web server computer between up to three customers. On the other hand there are web-hosting providers that actually give an entire web server to a customer. Even with three customers sharing the web server, the dedicated web hosting option offers the customers the option to host more than one web site, configure the software to best meet the needs of his site or scale the available bandwidth. The high prices combined with the availability of resources recommend this type of web hosting for highly important web sites such as e-commerce sites.

Co-location Web Hosting
Co-locating web hosting is similar with dedicated web hosting. The main difference is that while in dedicated web hosting the web server computer belongs to the web-hosting provider and is only rented by the customer, in co-locating web hosting the customer owns the web server computer. The web-hosting provider only houses the web server computer and sells bandwidth to the customer. This gives the customer using co-locating web hosting full control of the web server combined with the security of the data center.

Now you should be equipped with the necessary information to decide on you web hosting. You shouldn't try and find the lowest price possible, but give some extra thought to the quality of service you are buying and to the support offered by a web host provider.

Finding a reliable hosting provider

The website hosting business is very competitive these days with hundreds of thousands of reliable hosting companies out there but what company is best for your needs and that will provide you with a reliable hosting service from customer support to the reliability of there web servers.

The following is what is the most important aspects you need to consider when choosing a web hosting provider:

1)Customer Service - Customer service is a very important aspect of any host if not the most important you will need to check there reliability by:

- Seeing if they have a 24 hour contact phone number

-FAQ section on there website to help you with the most common questions such as what are name servers?

-Ticket support to answer any non urgent questions that you might have

-Live support isn't essential but it is useful for quick help

2)Servers-The serer are the most important part of a web host since without them they can be a host.

-Here are some useful tips for finding a fast reliable server to host your site:

-The processor speed (CPU) e.g. Intel Pentium 2.8ghz (anything over 1.5ghz is sufficient)

-Memory (RAM) at least 512mb of ram

-Space this will all depend on your website needs if you are just starting at least 500mb is enough

-Bandwidth this will all depend on how many visitors your planning to visit your site in any given month. I would say that 5000mb will be more than sufficient for any small website.

-Operating system - Linux is the better and cheaper option for any website and is said to be better than windows in a web server environment. But if you are required to use any windows scripts such as .asp you will need to use the windows server

3)Customer Testimonials - See if other customers have voted for the web host on popular hosting directories or have made comments on the services that are offered by the host on there website.

These are the most important aspects that people look for in finding a web hosting provider these days and don't be afraid to pay a bit more than other companies as this usually reflects the service they offer but also don't be fooled.

How to Achieve # 1 on Free Hosting

A domain name and paid hosting are considered essential for an internet marketer.Majority of the websites that are successful have their own domain name and a paid host.However , is it possible to run a successful website on free hosting ?

A lot of people will answer no to that question.But it is very much possible if the right marketing techniques are applied.First of all , what is free hosting ? A website is basically stored for free on a company's server and in return some will put their ads on your site for free.

This can be very annoying indeed sometimes.In the case where there are two or more pop-up ads displayed , some people will not bother to look at your content.

Another thing to look at is that you will lose some credibility. Having a website on free hosting will not show you up as being truly professional. People will wonder what are you doing with your revenue if you generate any.

Still, this can be overcome to a certain degree. How can this be done ? Simply. By giving your visitors the best quality information as possible. Make that the best original content.

Optimising your website is also key. Title, description and keywords tags are very important to your site's success. The title, description and keyword tag combination can send your ranking mile high. Test several variations and see which one works best.

Link popularity can make or break your website. Almost all of the major search engines use this as the main factor when giving you a ranking. You need to find quality websites similar to yours to link with. The more quality links, the better it is for you.

So, you still don't believe it is possible ? My very first website is hosted free on the Geocities network. It has achieved #1 and top ten positions in dozens of search term categories on MSN, Google, Yahoo, Lycos, Excite and AOL.com.Plus two awards.

A domain name and paid hosting are considered essential for an internet marketer. However, if these are not in place your website can still be successful. All you need to do is apply yourself and the right marketing techniques.

Web Hosting - How To Choose The Right Provider For You

Thousands of companies, tens of thousands of different plans and only a few of them are really suitable for your web site and for your online needs. This is what you are confronted with when choosing a web-hosting provider.

Nowadays being part of the informational revolution that the Internet has brought along, it is compulsory for a business and also for individuals. No need to explain here why having a web site out there on the World Wide Web is such a must, instead we're only going to point out a few things related to choosing an adequate web host for your web site. As complicated this entire business might seem, once you know what to look for, it's really easier to find it.

Analyze your requirements and stick to them

When evaluating their needs in terms of space and bandwidth many inexperienced web owners often buy more than they will ever need. As this is unbelievably common, many web-hosting providers size their web servers taking this into account and actually over sell the space and bandwidth thinking that customers will never make full use of it. To avoid web hosts that result to just that or crowed their web servers to get an extra profit per customer, simply ask them their client per server ration. As a diligent buyer, you should do this with all the other companies you find interesting to do business with and are eligible to host your web site.

A web site is almost like a living creature. It grows. So try to leave some room for it, don't just buy a web-hosting plan that will fit your needs just perfectly. Buy a little more so when the time comes to expand you would have the resources available. Think of the possibility that your initial bandwidth evaluation proves itself insufficient. You might find yourself in the position not to be able to use your web site because you have exceeded your bandwidth. So leave margin for error too.

Most web hosting plans come packed with features and some even offer pre-installed scripts and programs that might come handy for both knowledgeable and less knowledgeable web owners.

As you could consider any extra feature a plus, don't forget to look for the things you actually need like the OS (Operating System) or the PHP support. You decide what you need, don't let the provider talk you into something you don't want or is less than you have expected.

Support - can you get enough of it?

Support is something you might overlook when you consider an offer that suits you in terms of space and bandwidth and is packed with all the other features you will ever going to need. It might be good to understand that the road to all those features goes through Support city. If the web-hosting provider is careless about the support he offers to his customers, any technical problem concerning your web site could be solved only after long hours of waiting and making plenty of irritating support calls.

To test the quality and the responsiveness of the support personnel, e-mail them some pre-sales questions. Is the response fact enough for you? Imagine that your web site is down and your company is just attending a congress? many clicks are expected, but is your web site online to get them? Is the response you are getting from the support team thorough or is it merely scratching the surface? Is the response easy to understand for you?

A provider concerned about the quality of his support, would make available as many as possible ways to communicate with its clients. So find out as much as you can about its online support staff, help desk, message boards etc.

Information on the reputation of a web-hosting provider is something you might find on forums or discussion boards. Any disgruntled customers there? Would you like to be one?

Reliability is another aspect of the problem. Ask for the uptime of the company's web servers. Some hosts offer an uptime guarantee, usually 99.9% (100% is not a realistic figure in the computer world). The guarantee means that if your web site is not available 99.9% of the time, you will be refunded the money for that month or you will receive free web hosting for a month as compensation for your web site being unavailable.

Price

Well, true it's paid web hosting and this means you have to pay for it. My advice would be don't try too hard to find the cheapest possible web host. You will probably end-up wasting an incredible amount of time and is very likely that within two weeks after you have bought it, you will stumble upon a better deal. Apart from the irony of it and the loss of time, cheaper is not always better.

The other extreme, paying big money to get what you could have gotten for less is equally bad. At $50 for 200 MB of space with 2 GB of bandwidth you are definitely getting robbed, but the same service for $5 or $10 is a good deal.

The thin line between a profitable and, why not, enjoyable web presence and a nightmare with slow server response, unreachable support and irritating server downtime is drawn by you. By you choosing the web-hosting provider. Choose carefully: there can be only one a few that will live up to their promises and deliver for you good quality web hosting!

Windows Hosting versus Linux Hosting

The matter of choosing between the operating system (OS) running the web server hosting your web site as old as the web hosting business. The OS controls all the functions of the web server hosting your site, so it comes naturally to pay special attention when choosing one over another. But what are really the options you have?

Mainly you can choose between web hosting based on Windows, Linux or Unix operating systems. A brief description and analysis of the different systems will narrow the list of options to only two.

Microsoft's Windows server operating systems (NT/2000/2003) have a rather friendly and familiar user interface, making IT teams to easier in this aspect. Another plus is given by it's excellent integration capabilities with other applications developed by Microsoft and let's face it their range is absolutely impressive. The main key point of Windows based hosting is its support for .ASP (Active Server Pages) or the advanced ASP.NET. This language for web development was created by Microsoft to facilitate the creation of dynamic web pages linked to SQL databases. It also provides capabilities for integration with other systems.

It can be said that Unix is the OS that powered the beginning of the Internet era and due to his qualities is still used today. Linux OS was developed having Unix as starting point and this is how the two share many features. Today the Linux version of the Unix system is more common on web servers and this has to do with the higher licensing costs and with the rather specific hardware requirements for Unix. This is why we will continue with Linux only, but Unix is taken into account as well. Linux hosting has its strong points in fulfilling one's requirements for a good web server and Web serving, file serving, mailing, and streaming are only a few. It proves itself is a very cost-effective choice from using hardware efficiently, and allowing an increased web sites per server ratio, this ultimately resulting in a decreasing the cost of hosting per account.

So here are our two choices Windows and Linux.

Reliability

In the past Linux OS were seen as more reliable over Windows. However with the release of Windows 2003 server Microsoft has gone a long way and closed the gap in this area. Linux servers are compatible with certain Microsoft extensions and applications and the same is true for Windows.

Web Programming

Even if trying to host a simple personal web site, your might want add some simple scripts to spice up your pages. The issue gets bigger when you are looking to host an e-commerce site supported by some serious server-side programming. So how are our two contenders doing in this aspect?

Supporting java scripts is not a topic to be argued upon as they are executed on the client side (the user's web browser) and both Linux and Windows have no problem feeding this content to your visitors.

It is a whole different matter when discussing server side scripting. For web site owners trying to implement forms on their site it is common knowledge that ASP is supported by Windows and PHP is the tool to do just that under Linux. However both developed solutions to support each other's programming language for web development. This support is not perfect and its limitations recommend Linux for a good PHP support and Windows for ASP, especially when it comes to hosting web sites that require the full use the advantages offered by PHP or ASP.

Linux offers a support for FrontPage extensions. Windows has a weak point in offering only limited CGI/Perl support, so if Perl is the scripting language of your choice, you should opt for Linux.

Databases

Dynamically driven web sites require some sort of databases. Beyond sites employing databases, most frequently you will encounter mySQL or MSAccess. If your web site is relying on mySQL, then you'll have no problems hosting it on either Windows or Linux. For MSAccess databases, look your only option is Windows.

Price

Linux web hosting is cheaper. The reason must be searched in licensing costs, that are lower that for Windows, and in the ability of Linux web servers to support a higher web sites per server ratio without compromising the quality of service.

Although Windows hosting cost a bit more, you will get something for your money. It's reduced development time and functionality

As the option of one over another depends basically of your actual needs and of the plans you have made for the future of your web site. For example will it move from a rather static web site to one relying heavily on server side scripting? And if it is so what would be the programming language used: PHP or ASP? Consequently your web site will be set up on a Linux or on a Windows web server.

Almost all serious web-hosting providers will offer you the choice between Linux and Windows.

How To Change Your Web Hosting Provider - Step-By-Step Guide

Whether you are disgruntled with the level of service your current web hosting provider, or you have discovered a provider that offers you better deal, or your online business has simply outgrown your present provider, any reason is as good as any for changing your web hosting provider. The only concern is how to switch your web site from a web host to another in the right way and no or as little aggravations as possible.

The very first step in changing web hosting providers is to find one that meets all your requirements. Although you should have some experience in finding one from your last search, let's still review the main issues when choosing one. Take a good look at the disk space and bandwidth your future plan will provide you. As you web site's bandwidth requirements may grow in time, purchase a little more than you need and take a good look at the costs of the bandwidth for exceeding your traffic quota. Also make sure that the new web hosting provider will offer you the same tools and installed software as your previous old one. Ask the technical support if the software or scripts in the offer are already installed and configured. It would be a bad experience to find out after you have completely migrated your web site that not everything is working properly just because the not all the software in the offer comes pre-installed and you should have requested its activation. All these are very important and ensure you don't have to go through this whole procedure of changing web hosts real soon in the future.

Sign up for the new hosting plan. It sounds obvious, but the thing you should look after is sign up for the new one while still having about two weeks until your old hosting plan expires. This will give you time to react if anything goes wrong during the migration of your web site and will smoothen the transition for your visitors or customers, your business enjoying as much continuity as possible.

Update your backup copy of your web site - you do have backups don't you? If not this is a very good place to start with. Best thing would be to have a backup copy of your web site burned onto a compact disk CD and store this CD into a safe location. Your backup will include the entire web site: files, images, directory structure, databases.

Upload your web site to the web servers of your new web hosting provider.

Now it is testing time. Most web hosting providers will offer you the possibility to preview your web site before it goes live. Use this feature to test if your web site looks good and its functionalities are all intact on your new web server.

Continue by configuring your existing e-mail accounts on the new web server. It would be a good idea to write down the new POP3 and SMTP you will be using soon.

If you haven't changed your web site design with this move, it will be a good idea to put mark the web pages on your new web server just o differentiate from the old one. In this way you will be able to tell when your DNS information is updated, which is the next step of migrating your web site.

It's time to change your name server. As anxious you might be to transfer, it would be a very good thing to announce your visitors and customers about the imminent change of web hosting providers you are making and to apologize for any possible inconveniences of downtime your web site might encounter. I don't need to tell you how important this announcement is for the overall image of your web business.

Now you can announce your registrar to change your DNS information, or if you can change it yourself, go ahead and do it.

All you have to do now is wait for the DNS information to propagate across all the DNS servers. This entire process could take as much as 72 hours to complete, but it is possible to start seeing the first results after a couple of hours.

Final step would be to update the e-mail client you are using to match the new POP3 and SMTP settings.

You have successfully changed your web hosting provider. Good luck with the new one!

Cheap Web Hosting, What To Look For And What To Stay Away From

"Bargains for sale, Unlimited Hosting for only a Dollar."

"Get your hosting here, 50 cents for the first three months. "

"Use now. Pay later".

In today's world of hosting, instead of who's got the bigger and better thing, it's who has it for the cheapest and don't forget that they usually it at an "unlimited level". But if everyone is offering the same control panel, running off of the same type of servers or even from the same data center, why not get it for the cheapest price you can? The reason is, even though the servers may be the same, the service varies with each company and price. This is not to say that the cheapest can't offer the best service but always remember the old adage "you get what you pay for".

Let's break down the costs involved with running a small hosting company that manages a few, low-cost servers from a reputable data center. The dedicated server business has grown within the last few years and competition has created the availability of unmanaged, low-cost server rentals that can range as low as $49 per month.

For our case study, let's pretend that Bob has leased a server from a reputable data center at an average price of $89 per month. He was even lucky enough to signup during a special that waived the setup fees. At a cost of $89, he now has his own dedicated Unix server running one of the more popular control panels that regular hosting customers like to use. Like many small one or two-man hosting companies, he runs the business out of his house as it would be almost impossible to actually obtain office space on location of the data center, not to mention that he could be in one state and the server might be three states over. Leasing a dedicated server means that he is not responsible for the hardware and only has to maintain the software. This frees Bob up from the added expenses of hardware replacement and allows him to concentrate his investment on marketing, software, scripts and service.

Bob is an extremely good salesman and has a mature understanding of how to run a business. His best friend Billy has a vast knowledge of managing a server and its software, so together; they will be able to manage most common aspects of the business on a day to day basis.

They have purchased or designed a nice website and spent the average of $600 for support items such as tutorials and a customer forum. With the website design and extras, their initial investment averaged at $1000 which they hope to recoup within the first six months of operation. Now, this may be an added cost that some small hosting companies avoid at the beginning, but try to remember, if they are serious about running a company, they will put some type of investment into it. Taking the initial investment spread over 6 months and adding the cost of servers at $89 for the first one, Billy and Bob are spending more than $250 monthly during the first six months of operation on minimum expenses. This does not include other expenses such as their salaries and outside expenses such as phone bills (if they offer phone support), utilities, advertising expenses, etc.

An average amount of customers or domains to have on an individual server is 200 and since Bob is starting out with a new company and no customers, he can acquire 25-30 customers monthly if he works really hard at it. To fill a server, they would need eight months of growth, and that doesn't include the costs involved during that time. The cost of operation during those eight months is estimated at $1700, without any extra expenses and no personal income derived from the venture. If they were to charge $2 per customer on a recurring monthly basis and signed up 25 customers per month, they'd make $100 profit at the end of 8 months. Remember, this is done without any personal income made at all. Once they add in an advertising budget and allotment for person income for Bob and Billy, the cost jumps dramatically. They aren't in the business to make friends, they are in it to make money and $100 spread over eight months is not much.

Let's start adding a small income for Bob and Billy of $1000 monthly each and an advertising budget of $500 per month in order to acquire those customers and calculate what they need to charge to break even after those first eight months. A safe estimate would be $3,000 monthly to cover salaries, server cost, advertising and other miscellaneous items. If they were able to signup 200 customers during the first eight months, they would need to charge $15 per customer to cover the $3000 monthly overhead. If they charged only $2 per customer, they would need to signup an estimate of 2,000 customers to do the same. Because Bob and Billy decided to charge only $2 per customer, they have to support 2,000 customers by themselves because they don't have enough profit to hire any more technicians.

As a customer, you need to realize these things before you start shopping for a hosting company. Now that you are educated on the backend of a hoster's life, you can ask yourself what type of company do you want hosting your website and what kind of website you need hosted. If you are running a small personal site that doesn't need constant uptime and special scripts, then you could choose one of the many free or low cost hosting solutions available. If the company was to go under or lost all of your information due to hardware or software failure, then you are really not at a lost because your website did not contain critical information.

But what if your site does contain critical information and is the lifeblood of your company? Then don't go cheap. Research your options, find the one with the best solutions and don't be afraid to spend more for less. It is very important to find a stable company with quality support and service and that doesn't come cheap. Make sure that if your information is critical, the company offers reliable backup solutions and has a reasonable uptime.

Phone support is a must for quick response and let's not forget the numbers 24/7. Hosting companies with higher price tags can afford to hire the extra technicians to hold your hand as you build your web presence and your company, which can be important in today's market.

But does all of this mean that cheap hosting is a bad venture and should be avoided? Not really, just remember, "You get what you paid for."