Choosing A Web Host

There are some simple rules to follow when looking for a web host. The first rules is to avoid free hosts whenever possible, it is easy to think that a free service is preferable to paying a monthly fee however with web hosting this is defiantly not the case.
Paid hosting has several important advantages over free hosting. Firstly you will receive more useful features with paid hosting. Technical support will be much better with help available when you need it. Generally speaking Paid hosts will have much faster connections to the internet so your site will appear quicker. Most importantly with paid hosting you won't have to display a banner on each page advertising the Hosting Company and advertising to the world that you are on a free host. With excellent hosting packages starting from $6.99 per month there is no reason why you shouldn't go with a paid host.
The second simple rule concerns what operating system to choose. You will find hosts offering you Windows Hosting or Linux Hosting, it is tempting to choose windows as it's a name everyone knows and many people mistakenly believe that because their PC runs windows they need a Windows Host but in this case they'd be wrong. Whichever hosting package you choose you will receive a control panel through which you administer your site these are graphical environments through which you can control many aspects of your website from configuring your web mail and installing forum software to creating a database. Take a lead from the marble halls of business most major companies host their websites on Linux Servers. Linux Servers generally runs faster and are more secure than a windows server. This is partly due to how the operating systems are built. Windows try to include every possible function in the base package whilst Linux allows the host company to add the functions they need.
The final thing to consider when choosing a host is the list of features they offer. If you don't know much about html you can look for a host that supplies you with free website building software and some of the better ones will even supply free Domain names. You should look at a number of different companies and compare what they offer as standard with their hosting plans. Technical aspects to consider are; the amount of disk space available to you and how much monthly bandwidth you have to use. Look at how many email accounts you can have the more the better. Customer support features should not be overlooked check to see what their response time is and if it's anymore than an hour look elsewhere, also consider if they offer a money back guarantee.
Look to see what additional services they include in the package for example do they offer daily backups? Make sure that they offer support for PHP as this is quickly becoming the programming language of choice with web programmers.
To conclude when choosing a website Host look for a paid host with Linux hosting and then compare the packages on offer from a variety of companies.

5Features Your Web Host Must Have

Gabriel Adams
It is important that your web host has all the greatest features and technologies. However, you may not be aware of what you should look for in a web host. They all say they are the best, most reliable, etc. but how do you decipher who is really telling the truth? How do you find out what is really important when choosing a web host? In this article you will find the 5 things your web host must have. When you are researching a web host and you come across one that does not have these 5 things just click away to find one that does have what you need.
5 Features Your Web Host Must Have –
1. Greatest Control Panel: The control panel is the place you will be visiting most often, so it should be easy to use, have all the features you need, etc. You can find a great control panel with cPanel, which provides one of the best control panel user experiences among all of the others. CPanel offers more than 42 different icons, 50 of the most used PHP scripts, shopping carts, forums, and even a WordPress blog – one of the best blog hosts out there. cPanel also provides an easy to use layout and navigation so when you do use it you can forget about frustration.
2. On 24-7: Your web host should be working for you around the clock. This will keep your website up and running 99.9% of the time, and the server should be able to locate and repair any problems as soon as they appear. It is rare that a server could become inactive, but if/when it does happen, you do not want it to happen to your website. That could mean lost sales, lost visitors, and maybe even lost customers for life. No one wants that. The web host should be working all of the time – no exceptions. It should constantly monitor your website at least every few minutes for problems, check your server load and RAM, and be able to let administrators know immediately so they can instantaneously fix the problem. Your web host should also provide a fire wall to keep your website safe from hackers, viruses, and anything else that could effect your website.
3. An Outstanding Server: If you want to avoid regular problems and too much downtime (all that can be avoided) you need to find a web host with a reliable server. The web host’s server should have multiple hard drives, good RAM, the latest CPUs, the best power supply, quality motherboards, a great cooling system, and a testing system for all new servers.
4. Linux Servers: No, you do not need windows servers. You should get a web host that uses Linux only. You don’t need to have Linux on your own computer to have a web host that uses Linux. Linux has been shown to be more reliable and able to handle larger loads than other server operating systems. It is even better at virus protection and has a better uptime than others.
5. Free Features: Your web host should provide you with a variety of free features, or features that you can use for a small fee. These features should include things that you can use for your website such as graphics, blogs, paid pages, sub domains, interesting facts to add to your website, forums, and more.

Want To Be A Web Host

So you want to be a web host? Here are a few tips you could use to get the edge even if you’re starting out new. Start out with the right equipment. A lot of web host drop out of the race so quickly because they didn’t plan out their growth and match it with their operating resources. You’ve got to research, get tips from the best IT people, systems engineers, electricians, and other professionals and get the best telecommunications tested networking gears complete with back up systems to give solid assurance to your clients of continuous 24 hrs service even if you have do some maintenance of parts of your operation.
Back up systems kick in if you have some trouble with some of your servers and clients can continue to retrieve files when needed when there is a temporary system crash. Location of your equipments should be in relatively hazard free environments so these do not cause periodic operational failures for you. Most of your clients would be big businesses who are investing thousands of dollars to have their website hosted by you. So your reputation is at stake. Leading web hosting companies have a solid reputation and they invest heavily to keep their reputation spotless. When you’re starting out, you have to build your reputation from scratch. So be wary.
Clients expect to have the following as part of your services: reliability, bandwidth and speed of access. They don’t want to hear any feedbacks that their website is unavailable, is slow jumping from one page to another. The speed should be uniform for all hours of the day even during those times when the internet traffic is extremely heavy. Allowing for a lot of space for clients to grow whether for business or for personal use will also be important. Make sure that the bandwidth you offer is more than enough for all the types of clients. E-commerce and even some individual clients want to download different sizes of files, the less restrictions you have when it comes to downloading or uploading files, the better.
FTP or File Transfer protocol is an important part of web hosting and you should be ready to assist newbie on this by having a very responsive and patient customer support. A 24/7 online team is a must to answer any concerns of your clients. Some web hosts have a feature called a WEBDISK that allows them to hook up their computer files to the web host so that instead of looking for the files on their computer they use this feature which produces a copy of their computers actual files for easy copy paste maneuvers when they want to add content rather than uploading it from their computer.
If the clients will be needing extra features like video hosting, MP3 Hosting , image hosting make sure your system can provide such services without affecting your whole web hosting operation. It’s better to have a powerful server at the onset with a wide bandwidth. Your features including Pricing will always be an important factor.

What To Look For In A Web Host

Are you looking to build yourself a website? Trying to give yourself a presence on the internet? Then you would definitely be needing a web host to host your site on.
First thing to think about though when looking for a web host is the sort of website you are thinking of creating. Is it going to be a just a personal site about yourself and your CV, Is it going to be a family site with lots of family pictures? Thinking of setting up a busy forum about your favourite hobby, or a game server to play your favourite games online with friends or are you even contemplating having multiple sites? All this questions would have to be answered before you embark on your search for a suitable host.
One thing you would notice straight away is most hosts have plans providing you with gigabytes of space and bandwidth. This could lead you to believe your site would take that much space which could then lead you into comparing hosts by comparing the amount of space made available to you going for the company that offers the largest space. (I have seen a company offering 100Gigabyte of space once). The truth is most websites don’t even use anywhere close to that amount of space. Majority of sites don’t even use up to 1Gb of space. The average website on the internet today uses less than 50MB of space (yes you read that correctly 50MB). Even an album based website for example a family website with family pictures would still use less than 500MB of space. But don’t take my word for it, If you can, build your website offline first of all using a site building software such as dreamweaver or nVU, exactly how you want it to be online with all the images and you would discover how very little space it uses up. It is therefore possible to have several websites on just 500MB of online space.
So I here you ask, why do hosting companies offer as much as 5-100Gb of space in their plans? Well the truth is because they all want to appear competitive.
They know your site wouldn’t use that much space and they know you most likely don’t know that, so they try and prey on the natural human trait known as GREED. Out of greed, people would always want to get the most of something they can even though they wouldn’t use all of it. I have even seen some companies offering Unlimited disk space which is just laughable.
So do these companies have so much space to offer everyone? As you guessed it, the answer is no. What happens is they oversell! Because they know you most likely wouldn’t use anywhere near your allocated space, they oversell to make as much money from you as they can before you finally transfer to someone else.
And if a client comes along with an extremely heavy website and does use even 75% of the space allocated to him, he would most likely get kicked off by the host provider with the reason that he’s using too many server resources.
Another trick of the trade is the amount of sites you can have on your accounts also known as ‘add-on domains’ on your account. One could assume that if you cannot fill 5Gb with a single website, then maybe perhaps you could fill it with several websites. Well these 'overselling' companies have thought about this too and what they do is limit the amount of websites you can have per account. So on say a 5Gb account, you may only be allowed to have 2 websites or add-on domains.
Bandwidth is another thing to look out for. But like disk space, you usually don’t use close to what is being offered, and this is also grossly oversold. Bandwidth is basically the amount of data that is transferred from and to your hosting account everymonth. Technically you can work out the amount of bandwidth you are going to need by using this formula:
[Average size of your webpages + any graphics used] x [The number of visitors you expect each day x Number of pages each visitor would view] x [30 days] = Total Bandwidth for the month.
For example for a 30 page website averaging 8kb per page, and 50kb worth of images on each page. If you get 50 visitors a day viewing an average of 4 pages each, the total bandwidth for the month would be [8 KB + 50 KB] * [50 visitors * 4 pages] * [30 days in a month] = 348,000 KB. Therefore this site would use a bandwidth of approximately 348Mb per month which is well within limitations of any hosting company.
Therefore what should you look for when choosing a hosting company? The most important thing to look at is the server specs the company uses, and just as important the support they provide to their clients. By seeing how much effort a company has put into to develop their support department would tell you the sort of experience you would have with them. Is their support just an email address? If so then you probably wouln’t want to be with them. Does their support have a knowledge base? Ready made questions and answers, video tutorials to show you visually how to solve the most common problems? An email ticketing system so if you do email them, responses can be tracked? Live chat so a quick question can be answered instantly? A good host that is not just worried about their profits would invest the time and energy into making all these available for their current and potential clients.
So when next you are out shopping for a webhost, don't just look at the amount of space and bandwidth you get, also look at the support available to you if a problem arises as it almost always does.

The Host With The Most

When looking for a web host the bottom line is you want a host who will provide a hassle free service with the features and expectations you require for the for the smooth operation of your website.Given the competition for web hosting services, you certainly should be able to get the service you require at a price you can afford.
Our expectations are very important, apart from anything else they change. Often, with limited knowledge, your first site will be quite basic and small, then as expertise develops so do your ideas, expectations, and hopefully your website.
The first thing to remember is that to keep life simple it's much easier to stay with the one host (including domain name registration) if at all possible if and when you decide to spread your wings and expand.
You can keep a mouse in a shoebox but not an elephant, so try and run with a web hosting provider who offers a large amount of storage space. Depending on the nature of your business, you will need varying amount of space so plan accordingly, including for future additions. If you intend to use flash animations and such, you will need more space. If it's all text, not as much. As a rule, pictures, videos, and music will need more space than just plain text. The bottom line here is if you think you may need more storage space in the future for whatever reason, ensure it is available as a free option.
Perhaps your first web site will be on a shared domain. This may be satisfactory for starters but is not generally recommended for commercial purposes for several reasons; such as loading times, web site changes,upgrades,unwanted advertising on your site and security issues.
If you're into internet marketing then as your business develops no doubt you will need more web sites placed under several domain names.A web hosting provider that allows you to register multiple domain names is good. If your web hosting provider allows you to register unlimited domain names, that's even better.
It's common knowledge that net surfers are an impatient lot,they won't hang around waiting for your page to load.This means bandwidth limits become critical in a competitive environment. Bandwidth basically determines how fast your website will load. Lower bandwidths result in slower download times,and fewer page views.
Believe me, web site construction and operation is a very steep learning curve. Mistakes are a a near certainly (unless your names' Bill Gates) Downtime is wasted time and expensive in a commercial situation It's so important that your hosting provider has a user friendly interface (control panel) and provides extensive,continuous technical support and up time.Telephone assistance and a speedy ticket system are mandatory.
The web host you select should also provide extras like traffic logs and a statistics package,e mail accounts,shopping carts, guest books and the like. Determine what extra features you may conceivably require and ensure they are available.
By all means stretch your dollars by choosing a low cost web hosting package that provides as many of the aforementioned extras as possible Keep in mind that cheap isn't always best. Don't wind up having to pay full price for extras later when your personal or business demands need them.
Finally,remember to take your time to compare and thus save a heap of frustration by getting it right the first time.

What You Should Know About Your Web Host

Yesterday I received a nice email in my inbox, I read that short and interesting email, it was like 5 to 6 lines max, at the end was a link which I was asked to click on. I did exactly that. I wait for about 1 minute but no page downloaded. I think my Internet connection gets down so I checked it but it was perfect.
I refresh the page many times but results were same. I read all other mails and did my routine work. In evening suddenly I remember that mail. Since it was so Interesting, I again read it and click on the link but this time also same results appears. I finally give up and delete that mail.
This whole episode left a question in my mind that why people don't choose their web host wisely. In fact it's the most vital part of Internet business.
A web host is the first important step towards building our Internet business. You can get cheap or even free hosting services but don’t prefer free hosting for commercial sites. Your users are going to get blasted with annoying pop-ups every time they surf to your page, it's going to be impossible to get a decent position in a search engine, and you don't even get a real business URL. No one’s going to remember your web address if they have to type www.myfreehost.com/my_site.
So the question is what points we should consider before select our web host.
1. Space
It's the first point to consider that how much space your host is providing to you. If you have one or two page website with no downloads, it’s not an important point but if you are planning to go for resale right product, you need at least 100 MB space. Most good web host provide minimum 1 GB space to their clients.
2. Bandwidth
It's the most important part to check. Did you know that sites with high downloads causes many people to go over budget on bandwidth and lose their host? Sometimes they have to pay fees up to hundreds of dollars. It's essential to check before buying any hosting services. Most good host provides 25 to 50 GB
Bandwidth.
3. Support System
It's also key point. If you get stuck at any point, how long does it take to get support? Do they provide 24/7 phone support.
Some Additional features we must check:
How many POP email account they are providing?
How many database they are providing?
Do they have Web based e-mail?
Do they have Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus filters?
Can you Password Protected your directories?
Do they take regular backup in case of server get crashed?
Do they have money-back Guarantee, if you don’t like their services?
Do they support Perl, PHP, Crontab and Secure Server Layer? (You don’t require these facilities in beginning but after some time you need it.)
I personally trust "Ultimate Web Hosting Services" for my hosting needs. They have all features that a professional host must have. The must to tell feature of this hosting service is that it gives one hour response guarantee but usually I get response in 5-10 minutes. I prefer this hosting service just because of its speedy response and its tons of superb qualities. You can try their services at: http://www.ultimatewebhostingservices.com
I am not saying that they are the best. There may be other companies that have even better services but in terms of their prices they are the best.
So whatever host you choose you must consider these points so you never get in trouble.
Copyright 2005 Raamakant S.

What To Look For In A Web Host

The first questions you have to ask yourself are: how much space and bandwidth do I need; do I want one site or several sites; how much will I have to spend; am I going to use an SQL database; how much uptime does the web host offer; does this site host spammy adult sites; what extras are offered; are there script limitations; do they provide a control panel; and if my site gets too big, what is the next level and how much does it cost?
Let's take bandwidth for instance. If you are starting a brand new site and don't have a lot of other sites to link to it, which, by the way, is becoming increasingly less efficient due to changing search engine rules, it may take over a year to build any real traffic to even worry about this point. But, with bandwidth being a lot more reasonable lately, why not go ahead and pay the 6-10 dollars a month for 1 - 4 gigabytes currently available. After all, your goal is to grow right? So get something a few sizes too big and grow into it. Don't think that you necessarily have to pay a lot of money to get a good web host. You could just as easily spend 20 dollars or more a month and have terrible uptime and any number of hassles. Now if your site is going to be filled with images, especially wallpaper size images, then get as much bandwidth as your budget will allow. If you plan on having a growing site and it becomes even moderately popular, you'll need all the bandwidth traffic allowable you can get. Watch out for hosts that claim they have unmetered bandwidth. Read carefully, especially if we're talking about a host that charges below 5 dollars a month. It's better to have a clear number that you can keep track of in your control panel. You don't won't them to come up and give you a generic excuse like "Your site is using an unfair amount of system resources or traffic as compared to our other customers so therefore we have to shut you down". Please note that system resources and bandwidth are two different issues when dealing with a web host. For instance a script that locks up and has a bug could cause a server to use a great deal of system resources that could cause problems between you and your web host if you are on a shared account versus a dedicated server. So do your research on the type of script you want to run. Bandwidth is the amount of traffic going out from your site including your images, clips, pages, etc. As far as images, sounds, and clips this is easily monitored in your control panel as long as you have a clear number of what you are allowed to use. Unmetered bandwidth could mean anything and really is worthless in the long run if you plan on getting a lot of traffic sometime in the future. And why wouldn't you want to get as much traffic as possible for your site?
Some hosts allow to host more than one domain on your account. This could be a very great way to cut costs especially with new sites that may take a while to build up traffic. Once any of your sites grows too large you can always move it. Please be cautious though heavy interlinking between sites on the same i.p. address may get you dinged by search engines.
For the most part 6-10 dollars per month is what I consider great area to be in cost wise. Anything lower than 6 and I would get nervous. Anything higher than 10-15 per month and it better have a lot to offer that I can't get anywhere else like bandwidth, space, etc. That's a very basic rule of thumb from my own experience, but it all depends mainly on what your site needs are.
You need to know if there are any script limitations. Are there scripts like cgi, php, etc you want to use that your web host doesn't allow? Of course most are going to work with php and cgi with no problem. Also find out about how many SQL databases you can get and if they offer it at all. Databases can be a very powerful tool that can save you tons of time and are usually necessary for forums.
Do research. Check out sites with reviews from actual customers. You need to see what your average joe says about the uptime and other factors of the web host you're thinking about using. Remember, most people will complain more than take the time to praise, but a really good host will have a lot more praise then criticism.
A new thing is starting to come up. Certain search engines may penalize sites that are on a server with red flag sites like gambling, spam sites, adult, etc. Gambling and adult sites tend to spam a lot so search engines may be penalizing whole servers that house these sites. Make sure your web host will put you on a server free of these types of websites.
Always think ahead to save time and money having to movie to another web host. Always get as much bandwidth and web space you can get at an affordable price. Ask yourself if your site grows faster than you predicted what is the next level with the web host your using? How much is it going to cost to upgrade if necessary, and what do they offer? Some companies that offer reasonable rates and good plans only offer one plan, but they tend to increase their plan's offerings every year or so. So keep that in mind as well when considering how much bandwidth and space your going to need in the coming year or so.

Why You Should Host Your Website and the Best Choice For a Web Host

Most people have a pretty strange view about this whole business of web hosting. If you ask them what they think about web hosting, they will probably answer that it is just another means for people to put some more cash in their ever-fattening pockets. To them, it is just another internet scheme to get rich quick!
Wonderful, but it is more than that! Web hosting is simply a means by which you can show your business, ideas, and thoughts or even share information on the internet. You get to do this by having a website that is “hosted” by your web host server. A web host, on the other hand, is a person, or group of persons that offer their services for putting your website on the internet. If that has been clarified, might we move on?
Here are a couple of reasons why using the internet and hosting your website might actually be a good thing:
1. You get to tap into the internet to showcase what you are selling. As you well know, the internet is a vast marketplace, and it will definitely be the first and best place to get people to see what you are trying to pass across. The web nowadays plays host to virtually every form of business that exist currently. You might just want to put your business in the list of those who are using the internet via web hosts to maximize profits.
2. It also serves as a source of income to those into the business of reselling their allotted server space to third party users. Alternatively, web hosts pay a certain amount of commission to people who are able to function as server based network or affiliates. Hence, there is a real chance of you making money from using these opportunitie4s provided by your web hosting service.
Even if you argue that web hosting is only a money making ploy, the truth is before your eyes: more and more people and millions of dollars are entering the upstream of web hosting businesses because daily, people are coming to realize the important things they can achieve through this medium, and they are rapidly tapping into it. A client looking to go into this can maximize his by looking for a free web hosts that offers benefits like free domain names, free design templates, free content or commerce scripts and other stuff like that. The only major concern for an intending user is the fact that there are a lot of fakes out there and this makes it a difficult task to separate the good from the bad.
The best step to take in this event will be to make inquiries from other people who already have their websites hosted, getting information about the web host they are using and how efficient they really are.
Do not get carried away with free sites, go for quality too. Quality hosting can cost you a little more but it's worth to get it.

Choosing A Web Host: From A Web Host’s Perspective

James Adams
Anyone who has ever browsed a forum related to web hosting is sure to have seen a topic or two on how to choose a quality web host. These articles are generally written by someone who has some experience in the matter, but are seemingly always written by hosting clients, or the people that are purchasing the hosting. This article will be different, and will provide you with another perspective on choosing a web host – the web host’s perspective.
There are quite simply only two major attributes one need to look for in a web host: Server speed and uptime, and the quality of customer service. While we all want our web sites to be up and available to our viewers at all times, it is crucial to choose a host with a quick and knowledgeable customer support team.
When viewing a web host’s site, check to see if they have a link to a third party uptime monitoring site. Examine how long the server has been monitored for and what the monthly uptime average is. If you don’t find a link to such statistics available, contact the web host and ask them if they have such monitoring set up.
The most accurate way to evaluate a web host’s customer service is to call them, e-mail them, or open a support ticket two or three times at different times of the day and week. Be sure to ask some technical questions, such as, “do you have the IMAP module compiled into PHP,” when contacting the support department. Evaluate how long it takes them to answer your question and decide if this is quick enough for you.
It also never hurts to do a Google search on the web host’s name and search for the host in popular web hosting forums such at http://WebHostingTalk.com. - If a certain web host takes too long to respond to your inquiries that should be a big enough sign to look elsewhere. Do not sell yourself on the first host to come along, there are many out there that will suit your needs, all you need to do is take the time and look.

Review Web Host - To Prevent Web Host Shut Down

This article is based on a true experience that took place with my web host. I am not here to blame or try to give my web host a bad name, I am here to give an honest web host review, that makes sense to you before choosing a web host provider that is right for your business.
All web host are created equal in my eyes, that is, or that used to be, until I got shut down without warning. It was very hard for me to understand how I could start a new website from scratch and eat up 40 Gigs of bandwidth in that short span of time (3 months, and I was shut down).
You should do a web host review, before you make a choice. The problem online today is, how can you make a sound web host review with all the thousands out there.
It is impossible to review the thousands of web host out there, but it is in your best interest if you base your web host review on high in demand providers. Many of the top marketers have their own server, and you can't afford to pay $200 or more monthly for your own server.
For you to prevent web host shut down, you will have to learn how to use the forums to find recommendation for choosing your web hosting provider. I didn't do my own research and that is why my web host shut me down without notice.
After being shut down, I went to two of my favorite forums and read a couple of post regarding my hosting company, and realized that no one had any great experiences with that company. They gave poor web host review grades for that host, well life is a learning process, and I know what not to do when choosing a web hosting provider.
Here are four tips you should follow to get a web host review:
1) Don't ever go for unlimited domain names.
One other point worth mentioning, don't ever go for unlimited domain names, whenever you create a new account they automatically divide up your hosting bandwidth. That means that if you have just 40 Gigs of bandwidth and you divide it up by four domain names, you have used up all your bandwidth.
So, any other new domain name you add will make you exceed your bandwidth, please understand I am just showing you the rip offs that takes place with some low cost web hosting providers. They say that they will warn you when your exceeding your bandwidth, but they just never do. They make you pay extra for unlimited domain names, but you being new to the Internet, you won't ever need more than three to six domain names to get you started.
2) Don't go with any web hosting provider that requires the full amount up front.
They offer low cost web hosting if you pay the yearly price up front. Well, once you have paid for the year, you are tied to this company, should their service be not worthy, you will loose your initial yearly payment. Go with a company that has a 3 month or monthly payment plan, with a money back guarantee.
3) Test by sending a simple email to your web host first.
Just send off a simple email telling your web host that your interested in their hosting, this is a must for you to review web host that are unknown. The response time to your email will let you know what type of service they offer.
4) Ask for a charge back.
As you know, the client is supposed to be king, keep all your receipts in place, and should you ever be shut down by your web host after paying a yearly plan, just go to your credit card provider and file a complaint for a refund. Don't let anyone scam you out of your money.
The final conclusion, your the one to blame if you get scammed, so make sure you follow my web host review tips before handing out your credit card.