Understanding the Different Types of Web Hosting

Web hosting providers offer many different types of hosting like free web hosting, Shared, Reseller, Virtual Dedicated Server, Dedicated, Managed, Colocation, Clustered, Grid. By glancing through the list, you should get a better understanding on all the different hosting packages available online and which one is the right service for you.

Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when compared to paid hosting.

Shared Hosting: (My personal favorite) is a type of hosting where many web sites are hosted on same physical server. It is the cheapest and easiest way to get a web site up and running. Shared web hosting is perfect for web blogs, personal web pages, small forums, small business and e-commerce sites. Shared web hosting is ideal for establishing simple websites.

Reseller hosting: is a certain kind of web hosting where you buy server space, market it yourself, and sell it on to your own customers. Most of the resellers are web designers, consultants or marketers, who want to offer their customers a complete package with hosting included.

Virtual Dedicated Server: offer many of the capabilities and features of dedicated servers, including admin (root) access and dedicated IP addresses, but at a much lower price. However, as a virtual dedicated server is, indeed, virtually dedicated, the customer in fact shares the server space with a small number of other customers. Virtual dedicated servers meet the needs of web sites that have outgrown garden-variety shared hosting, but which don't yet justify the expense of their own dedicated server. Virtual dedicated servers come with an easy-to-use control panel that offers a highly powerful tool box that allows you easy access to powerful features.

Dedicated server: means you are renting an entire physical server for use all by yourself. Getting a dedicated server means you don't have to share system resources with other websites. Dedicated servers are most often housed in data centers, similar to colocation facilities , providing redundant power sources and HVAC systems. In contrast to collocation, the server hardware is owned by the provider and in some cases they will provide support for your operating system or applications.

Managed hosting: is usually more expensive since the web host will be responsible for managing and maintaining the dedicated server. Managed hosting service can be considered as an upgraded version of web hosting. The managed hosting provider takes the responsibility of hosting the clients website in a well managed way.Managed hosting firms can also help businesses change their network and systems, upgrading, adding options and extending solutions.

Colocation hosting: is like having a server on your own. With colocation you can save time and money because of using shared data infrastructure. Colocation hosting is the next best thing if you are willing to provide the server and manage it by yourself. If you don't have much experience or can't spend a lot of time managing the server or want to buy a server computer, dedicated hosting or a VPS is the best option.

Clustered Hosting : is a group of servers clustered in the same network to perform hosting services. The purpose of Clustered Hosting technology is to eradicate the troubles inherent in typical shared hosting infrastructures.

Grid hosting: is a new approach to a shared hosting environment. Instead of a few websites sharing one server, in the more classic shared environment, grid hosting is a bunch of websites all sharing a bunch of servers.

Affordable Web Hosting - Know Your Buying Criteria Before You Choose

Choosing the right web hosting service for your new or existing website is very important, and can lead to a smooth and hassle free experience, or cause you major grief, and cost you money for months to come, depending on how well you make the decision.

This article will look at three of the important 'buying criteria' you should carefully consider before you take the plunge with any web hosting service.

What is a 'buying criteria' you might ask?

Simply this: The important criteria you should consider that will affect the purchase you make and the degree to which you are satisfied with the results and outcome.

Here are three important buying criteria:

Affordable Web Hosting buying criteria #1:

Is the disk storage space and bandwidth sufficient for your needs?

If you are just starting out with a fairly small website, then this most likely won't be a problem these days. Disk space simply refers to the capacity of available disk space you will have to use. Bandwidth refers to the amount of traffic your server will be able to handle before it slows down or crashes! Again, unless you are anticipating masses of traffic, you will mostly be fine with a standard specification.

Affordable Web Hosting buying criteria #2:

What is the service like?

Service is CRITICAL when it comes to web hosting. You may like to think that you will have no problems, but trust me, this is very unlikely! It's almost certain you will need to use the service facility, so you want to make sure you it suits your needs now, before you buy.

We recommend that you find a service with either phone contact or online chat contact, as well as the usual email. And make sure it's 24/7!

Affordable Web Hosting buying criteria #3:

%"Up-time". This simply refers to an estimate of how much time the hosting is guaranteed to be up. To be honest, I don't know if there's much you can do about it if you find that in reality, it's less than the company claims, except move to another hosting provider, but at least you want to go with a company that is aiming for 99.9% up-time.

There are more important criteria you should check out before you buy. Visit my blog at the link below to view 8 affordable web hosting buying criteria that will help you make the best decision.

Choosing the Right Web Host

Choosing the right web host is a very important process that is all to often hurried through or; simply misunderstood.

Choosing a web host is in fact one the most important parts of setting up an online business. You need a service that is fast; easy to use and understand; provides excellent support; and is serious enough about its operations to guarantee that your website will never be down unless the entire datacenter were completely demolished.

Below is a list of the most common questions and answers to consider when looking for a web host. Understanding the different areas of web hosting and services available will help you to make a better educated decision when you do subscribe to a web hosting service.

What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is the process of putting your web site on a web server or web host, so everyone connected to the Internet can see it. If you have a permanent connection to the Internet you could host your web site on your own computer, but that is in general not a good idea. A good web host is a real server in a datacenter with a fast high bandwidth connection to the Internet. And, to make sure you can move your web site to another web host, if necessary, you need a web hosting provider that supports domain hosting.

What is Domain Hosting?

Most Internet Service Providers (or ISP) will give you a free web site when they provide you with access to the Internet. They do this because they don't want to give you a permanent IP address, which is what you need if you'd like to host a web site on your own computer. Unfortunately, most ISPs don't support domain hosting with their free web sites. Hence, the URL of your web site is an extension of the URL of your ISP. So what happens when you change ISP? You will have to change the URL and nobody can find you anymore.

The use of a domain name for your web site is absolutely necessary for a professional web site, and to host your own domain you will need to find a real web hosting provider with domain hosting. Many web hosting plans actually include the price of a domain registration, so don't register your domain before you have chosen your web hosting company.

What is Virtual Hosting?

Virtual hosting is often used as a synonym for shared hosting, e.g. you host your web site on a web server with hundreds of other web sites and you share the IP address with these web sites.

The term virtual hosting should imply, however, that while you share the web server it looks from the outside world that you are the only web site on that server. That means that with virtual hosting you should not only have your own IP address, but also a dedicated bandwidth to the Internet and a dedicated slice of the computers processing power. So, if a web hosting provider uses the term virtual hosting, have a close look if these features are offered before you decide on paying a premium price above standard shared hosting.

What is Bandwidth?

Bandwidth is a measure that reflects how much data can be transferred over a data communication channel.

In web hosting plans the allowed bandwidth generally indicates how much data can be downloaded from your web site per month, and therefore indicates how many web pages and pictures your visitors are allowed to download. If the average amount of page views per visitor is assumed constant, the allowable bandwidth restricts how many visitors you are allowed to have per month.

Just as important, however, is how fast the communication channel between your web host and the Internet is. The amount of data that can be transferred per second is also called the bandwidth of this channel, and this bandwidth is shared by all the web sites hosted by the same provider. If this bandwidth is insufficient, you'll sometimes notice a slow down in the display of your web pages. In most cases, however, such a slow down is more likely to be caused by an overload on the web server itself.

What is a web server?

A web server is either a special computer or server for reliable hosting of web sites, or the software application that runs on that server. The two main web server applications used by most web hosting providers are

Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) for windows hosting and Apache for Unix hosting. Both use the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to transfer web pages to your web browser.

What is a datacenter?

A datacenter is building, or part of a building, which offers a professional environment for running computer servers. A datacenter will generally have high speed connections to the Internet and other networks, as well as good security to protect against natural hazards, such as fire, and other hazards, such as intruders and hackers.

Web Hosting Summary.

In summary, what are the important things to look for when selecting a web host?

1. Price
2. Datacenter Standards
3. Easy access to a Control Panel
4. Easy to navigate Control Panel
5. 24 / 7 Support
6. Host supports scripting languages / databases required to operate your site
7. Multiple packages available (As your business grows you may need to upgrade. Make sure the web host provider will allow you to do this)

This is really just the basics; although all very important things to consider. Most web host will have a FAQ file or Knowledgebase file available which you can read through before signing up. In most case cheap is not better; in most cases. However I must say the web host I am now using combines an impressive price with impressive services. Over the years I have used approximately 8 - 10 different web hosts and HostGator.com is in my opinion one of the best I have ever used. But you can see for yourself here:

http://www.hostgator.com

Also, a big name in the industry that most everyone is familiar with is Yahoo. Yahoo also provides World Class Hosting services for all sizes of business. Yahoo services can be reviewed here:

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com

Make sure you go through the checklist above while browsing their site and you'll get a better feel for comparing web host services.

Transferring Web Hosting Providers - A Detailed Checklist

Transferring to a new web host provider can be a daunting and complex task, with many areas of risks that must be planned around. This article will both prepare you to tackle this task and provide you with a checklist of needed steps. With proper planning and preparation you can transfer to a new web host provider with virtually no downtime nor noticeable effect on your website users.

There are many reasons why you may be considering a new web host for your website. More often then not it is several things that push you past your frustration limit, but a single problem that is of enough significance can do it as well. Here is a brief list of problems that can arise:

• Billing irregularities - and failure to promptly correct any problems you discover
• Website uptime - inadequate bandwidth to your server or server bouncing
• Sluggish network response time - inadequate bandwidth to your server or over populated server
• Ineffective technical support - unable to communicate promptly or inadequate technical skills
• Lack of features - the package you currently have is missing or lacks enough features for you growing website
• Expense - you did not realize that the cheap website you purchased is only cheap the first year

Often some of the problems can be overcome with your current web hosting provider - with enough escalation through support channels, or upgrading your package, or some other option. But some of these, such as the inadequate bandwidth or inadequate technical support, will never be resolved with your current host. These require research on your part to find a better provider.

Here are the required steps to accomplish a smooth transfer to a new web host provider.

1. Selecting a new host provider
2. Gather all required information
3. Backup up current website
4. Restoring to new website
5. Testing
6. Notifications
7. Transferring DNS
8. Turning off old account
9. Updating applications

1. Selecting a new host provider

With careful research and shopping around, you can find a new web host provider to transfer your website too. Make sure you research the network response time, customer reviews, available packages, and pricing carefully. The problem that you experienced with your current provider will most likely be the primary concern for you, but also research the other areas - you do not want to simply trade in one set of problems for another! You should also think about what features you will need in the future as your website grows so that you can find a provider with a clear upgrade path to meet your future needs.

Also realize that all of the companies say that they are customer focused and have excellent technical support departments, but they are not all equal. I suggest you actually call their pre-sales phone numbers and ask a few difficult questions to help you discern who is actually capable of handling the specific problems you are concerned about.

To make as smooth a transition as possible you should choose a hosting plan with similar features as your current package. You should ensure that if your website requires a specific scripting language or a database type that the new hosting plan supports those features.

2. Gather all required information

You will need to be able to login into your registrar account and change the name server entries to point your hostname to a new IP address. Quite often people will register their domain names with a separate hostname provider than their website host provider, and they have to go through special steps to get their long forgotten login credentials back. If you have forgotten your own name service login credentials or host site, you can perform a query on whois.org for your website name and get the information.

You will need to be able to update the name server, or DNS (Domain Name Server), on your domain registration account to point to the new DNS names on your new hosting service. This means that you need to find where to update the DNS entries inside of your domain registration account management, and you will also need to find what the new name servers are on the new hosting provider. Typically there are 2, and they are usually named NS1 and NS2 followed by the name of the provider.

You do not want to actually perform the name server change yet, just need to be ready with the procedure to perform the change later in this process.

You also need to gather credential information of your old website and write them down. You will need email logins, database logins, and website logins used by your website. Some of these may be difficult to track down because the passwords may be in hidden fields, which mean you may need to build new logins on your new host for those accounts. You should still research and find what your website needs to as far as credentials and where they are configured so that you can rebuild them later.

3. Backup up current website

A complete backup of everything in your current website is needed - you should be performing this on a regular basis anyway for emergencies. This backup is going to be used to actually transfer the contents of your website to the new host, so you will need everything - including website pages, website configuration, database structure and data, and email mailboxes.

Moving some of these may prove to be difficult depending on the options available to you on your current and future web hosting provider. Not all of them provide complete backup and restore features, so further research is needed into how to accomplish this on the providers. If the providers are running full featured and well known control panels, such as cPanel or Plesk, then you will be able to perform a complete backup and restore easily.

If you do not have access to everything that is needed in the move, then you will need to perform a manual backup of the pieces, as much as you can. You may be forced to lose some information such as the old emails in your mail boxes. If you are not able to backup and restore email mailboxes then you need to make sure you notify those that will be impacted so they are made aware of the pending loss.

At the very least you need to make sure you do get your website source, configuration, and database. The website source should be easy enough - it is a complete copy of the all the html, php, aspx, perl, or whatever pages comprise your website. The configuration is the .config files, .htaccess (unix), or web.config (windows) files. The database can be manually backed up by using phpMyAdmin (MySql) or Query Analyzer (SQL Server). Research the exact steps to follow to do the database manually, but make sure you get the structure and the data backed up.

After performing this backup it would be best, if you have the ability, to lock down your website from further additions and modifications. Depending on what your website is doing this may be easy or difficult. If you are accepting online financial transactions or have a high volume message board, it may be best to take the shopping cart and new posting features offline for a day. If you are unable or unwilling to take the pieces of you website down for the move, or you are unsure how long the move will take, then you should take this backup and perform the restore and testing steps to familiarize yourself with the process once. Then come back again to this step and do it again as quickly as possible with a forced down time of the entire site while you perform the final move.

4. Restoring to new website

In this step you will take the backup above and restore it to your new host provider. The easiest way is to find the default page that is loaded for your account and replace it with all of the files and folders needed for your website.  There may be an option to upload a backup to your new host provider control panel, which will make things easier, but you also have the option to ftp the files up into the location where the default page is stored.   Either way, be aware that you are mounting your website up and will be accessing it short-term through an IP address or a temporary DNS name until you move your real website name over to point to this new hosting account.

If the database restore is not automated then you will need to manually restore the database. Using either phpMyAdmin or Query Analyzer you will need to run the database scripts to build out your data structure and then insert all of the data into the tables from your backup. You will also need to build database login accounts for you website that you collected in step #2. If you were not able to see the passwords because they were hidden on your old website account, then you will need to create new logins and put the credential information into the website component configuration that needs the database.

5. Testing

At this point you should be able to go the temporary website name or IP address of you new website and be able to use the website completely. There might be a few problems encountered - some of the website code might be referencing the complete URL of the website instead of local paths, which may lead to some frustration around cross-site scripting. It is best if the website source never actually reference the website address itself, but changing a lot of html and source files may be a tall order for you to undertake.

If you run into these types of problems, you will need to work around them by manually checking the references. For instance, if you find a page that fails to load an image that you expect, it may be that the image reference is hardcoded to yourwebsitename address and the remote site does not allow image sharing. You will need to take the yourwebsitename/somedirectory/image.file address, swap out your yourwebsitename with the new website IP or temporary name, and verify that the image will load correctly. Do not do this in the source code, just do it in a new browser window.

6. Notifications

You should notify everyone that manages any part of your website of the pending change of hosting providers. This includes anyone that is using your email server, third party developers, or shopping cart services that you are using to handle payments. All of these people may be using IP address that will definitely change, and login credentials may also be changing with the move. If the move is performed smoothly then they will most likely not need to change anything, but you should at least make them aware of the potential impact and be ready to provide them with further details if they run into problems.

7. Transferring DNS

By this step you are comfortable that the new website is running smoothly and it is ready to be opened up for traffic. Log into your domain name registration account and update the old name servers to the new name servers. This update then has to propagate throughout the entire internet, which typically takes up to 24 hours.

During this time both websites will be running, but you do not want any new activity on your old website, since that activity will be lost completely. You should turn off the shopping cart, discussion board new posts, and any other component of the website that allows users to add new content or perform any transaction. If you are unable to disable those features of the old website, then you may want to take the entire site down or place a big warning on the main page or banners about this pending cutover.

If you are unsure if the http://www.yoursite.com address is pointing to the new web hosting site, you can make a small change to the home page that only appears on the new site. Good examples are to put the word "new" in the footer of the site or place an html comment in the code.

8. Turning off old account

Now that you have completed the transfer you need to notify your old hosting provider that the site can be turned off. Make sure you have everything you need off of the site, and also recommend you remove any financial or customer data off of the site manually. After you notify them they may delete the files quickly to make room for other customer data, so make sure you are ready to lose all of the data and source.

Also be sure and remember to notify them that you do not want to continue the account in the future. Quite often the hosting providers will auto subscribe your account for another year, hit your credit card, and you are left with paying for another year of service for a dead account that you do not want.

9. Updating applications

Now you need to sweep through your suite of tools you use to manage your website and read your email, updating them to make sure you have correct credentials and IP addresses. This also includes updating your shortcuts in your browser that may be pointing to the old web hosting account. You may not be updating very much at all depending on the breadth of your management suite and restoring of credentials you were able to perform.

Registering Domain Names - 6 Things to Make Sure You Get When You Register a Domain Name

Thinking about registering domain names for your website? Trying to find a good, cheap domain name?

If you have a look around, you'll find that registering domain names can cost between $2.99 - $34.99 per year. It all depends on whether your domain name ends with .com and what features are included.

As a general rule, good .com internet domain names cost around $10 per year to register. For this price, you should get the following features:

1. Free domain name forwarding and masking. This is when a visitor types in your website address and gets automatically redirected to a different website address.
2. A personalized email account. An email account with your domain name that you can access from both your email program (POP mail) and a website (webmail).
3. Unlimited email addresses (aliases) that you can forward to any email account. For example, you could create three accounts with your domain name (i.e. info@... , sales@..., and feedback@...) and any mail that was sent to these addresses would automatically get forwarded to whatever email address you want.
4. Full DNS access. Be careful with this one. Not all registrars provide you with complete access to your DNS settings. You should be able to point your website to the Domain Name Servers of any web host in the world. For example, if you have a free blog at Blogger or WordPress, you should be able to change your DNS servers so instead of typing in yourdomain.blogger.com, they just type in your domain name. (But if you don't have complete control over your DNS settings, it won't work.)
5. Free Parking. If someone tries to visit your internet domain name, they can be sent to a temporary generic page that says your site is coming.
6. You may or may not get free domain privacy. When you register a domain name, all of your contact information (full name, mailing address, email address, and telephone number) is published in the WHOIS database that can be accessed by anyone. Some registrars offer a privacy feature where they will list their corporate contact information instead of your personal information to protect your privacy from spam and prying eyes. (You still retain full control of the domain name)

If a company is registering domain names for less than $10 per year, then look at the fine print to see which services you are missing. Remember, no registrar will give you a refund when registering domain names.

If you're ready to register domain names [http://domain-hosting-comparison.com/register-domain-names/], we're here to help at [http://domain-hosting-comparison.com] where you'll find this information and a quick comparison tool to find the best prices for domain names and web hosting plans. If you paid more than $10 for your domain name (including privacy registration), you need to look again.

Temporary Domain Name

Temporary is not necessarily the most adequate term to be used in this situation, however I did not find another better one. It is not about getting a domain name and then just releasing it back to the registrar - this service is not out there yet. It is actually about getting a cheap domain that will be yours to use for as long as you extend the registration, in order to get a better flexibility.

Please consider the following situation:

• You need to host 10 websites
• There are a lot of hosting providers that allow hosting an unlimited number of sites, they even provide unlimited disk space and lately unlimited traffic. You get one of these packages
• When you buy the hosting, they ask you about a domain name. Since you have 10, you just choose one and go ahead with it.
• Everything nice so far, but when you install the second domain, you see that technically they install it in a subdomain of what they consider the main hosted domain
• That has multiple issues, as follows:
  • Your other nine domains will be now related to the first domain, you want it or not. Sometimes you don't care, sometimes maybe it is not such a good idea
  • You cannot just go ahead and move the first domain, because the other ones will also become non operational. That's a big issue already

So what do you plan to do to avoid this situation? You can go to a web hosting that does not go by this approach, however most of the Linux based web sites, at least the ones that you can get at a decent price and have very good reviews actually use this structure.

The best solution is to get a separate domain name, that does not have anything to do with the domains you need to host. You associate this domain with your hosting account, then add each of the above mentioned 10 domains one by one. The will be all subdomains of this separate domain name but that will be the only dependency.

What kind of domain you can get for this purpose:

• Search for domains on sale - they are always available. Name does not matter. For example the info domains were always on sale at Go Daddy, however there are other providers who will even beat this price
• Get the free "for life" domain offer from your hosting provider. Normally I would tell you to stay away from this kind of offers, because the domains will be registered in your hosting provider's name, however here it is an exception: you get this domain specifically for bridging your domains with this particular hosting provider, so you can safely leave this domain behind

As you can see, the solution is pretty simple, however it requires some planning and few people think about it before actually getting the hosting and starting the installation - when it is already too late.

The same thing should apply to servers. Attach your new VPS to a dummy domain you purchase specifically on this purpose and not to any of your "live" domains.

Taking Full Advantage of Domain Name Benefits

There is far more to a domain name than just a catchy title that sounds pleasing to the ear and looks good on a business card. Of course, the general appeal of domain names is an important element of how they function, but it's not all that they do.

Choosing a name on a whim, or simply choosing to register domain name rights to your company's business name, is not the best approach for getting the most possible benefit out of the name. You should have a plan, run a name search or domain name checker, and choose your ultimate names based on a number of criteria. There are several elements you should consider before buying domains for any website.

Functions of a Domain
Web names, as noted above, do have several functions. When you do domain names search, you can easily find thousands of names; some will be cheap names and others will be quite expensive. Some are informative but boring, and others are catchy but vague.

The two key purposes of a web name are to appeal to search engines and to appeal to visitors. Search engines like you to buy domains that contains your primary SEO keyword target as well as a primary geographic location, if indeed your business works in one area. Users want names to be informative yet appealing. They want to have confidence that the website they choose to click on will give them what they're looking for in a way that they enjoy.

Choosing a Domain for Web Hosting
So when you go to buy name rights, before you get worried about expensive vs. cheap names and all the rest, consider the primary targets of your domain: search engines and customers. You can run a domain search, using any number of free name checkers, to find out what sorts of domains are available. The company you choose for website hosting may also be able to offer suggestions as to available names that are appropriate for the site you want to build. They may even offer free or cheap names if you sign up for website or web hosting with them. Once you've found your ideal name (or names), it's time to register name rights, so that you can start building your website at what will hopefully be an appealing and highly successful web names.

Choosing a domain name on a whim, or simply choosing to register domain name rights to your company's business name, is not the best approach for getting the most possible benefit out of the domain. You should have a plan, run a domain name search or domain name checker, and choose your ultimate domain names based on a number of criteria. There are several elements you should consider before buying domain names for any website.