Host Gator asked:
This article is useful for understanding the hosting industry and studies its dynamics to know what to look for before selecting a web host.
Firstly it is good to have a proper introduction of web hosting chain. It is termed as chain because here about 3 upstream providers serve the end consumer. First the web-hosting provider, who is in direct contact, then comes the web host’s upstream company who maintains the servers and sells space to web hosts, and above that, the data center that serves the purpose of providing the connection and houses the servers. There are some web hosts who act as the server administrator and liase with the data centers directly.
The growth of the web hosting industry in at saturation point due to the presence of hundreds of web-hosting providers claiming to provide cheaper and better services to businesses and individuals. The reason for this is the availability of resources in abundance and at cheaper costs with reducing disk space and data-transfer prices. Its easy to enter the web hosting business as there are large resellers of server space providing cheap hosting and reselling plans that provides ground to incomers to join the business.
Due to growing number of suppliers with cheaper reselling plans, more and more web hosting businesses are coming up providing web-hosting solutions to business and individual websites due to lower fixed costs and investment. Not only that this increase in supply is not caused by factors in any particular country. As Internet is not limited to the boundary of any country so the data centers present in any part of the world can easily provide the servers and web space for a local hosting company. Due to Internet it is easy to communicate to each other and providers can easily exchange their services in the global space.
Maintaining a proper balance between supply and demand is quite good for the customers. But imbalance has forced several new web-hosting providers to offer extremely low prices for their web hosting plans or packages in order to make them self stand in the tough market. Now it’s time for customers to choose the hosting providers having lowered prices from the vast number of providers.
However, continuous decrease in prices is quite disadvantageous for both the providers as well as the customers. By reduces prices, companies are able to earn nominal profit and are even not able to cover their support costs. Customers suffer by getting less support with their web-hosting accounts. It’s quite obvious if the profits do not justify the costs, web-hosting companies will easily close down and takes their clients’ sites with them.
The following are the factors to consider while choosing a web-hosting provider: -
The most important factor to consider is Support for any individual or small business looking for a web host for their websites. The Internet web-hosting provider who is unable to provide the facility of responding to emails within 24 hours is probably having problems providing fast and reliable support services. One can’t ignore the validity of these services especially for the beginners who needs guidance with publishing their websites on the web hosting account provided. The success of any web hosting business depends upon the relationships between web host and web hosting customers. To make business success, provider should be able to provide services when and where required also its crucial for customers to know when their site is going offline for sake of maintenance.
After support next important factor is Stability. It refers to how much uptime one can expect from the web-hosting provider, which in turn depends upon the providers’ servers and network. If the providers are not having reliable and stable providers, it would affect their servers and cause problems for the website. It is must to have an uptime of about 99.5% in the industry, as there are other external factors, which may be beyond control of the provider.
Third factor to consider is Cost which depends on the purpose of the website and budget. The budget may be smaller in case of Personal /Individual websites and so they opt to go with a cheaper web hosting provider, possibly in exchange for support and stability. But in case of business sites as they need better stability and support they opt for expensive host providers. It is most often observed that cheap web hosting providers are able to attract customers in the beginning by offering low prices but afterwards fails in providing quality support to their customers thereby creating problems for them. Also the large numbers of client sites cause sustained high server loads which leads to server crash thus hampering stability.
Another factor, which is not so important, is Location of the server. It is not considered important as it depends upon a user’s ISP/country’s connection to the data center where the server is located. Pings to the server normally tells the network latency to expect when people can access to one’s site. Lower ping rates leads to loading of site faster.
Last but not least one should take time to identify and contact a web host to check their service. This helps in providing an idea of the kind of support that one might receive and helps in deciding the reliability of the provider.
Web Host asked:
In the era of computerization where most of the work is dependent on computers,web Hosting is serving as a boon for business for any sector or any activity. Web Hosting is a type of internet hosting system that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own websites accessible through world wide web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing internet connectivity, typically in a data center . Webhosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called collocation.
Types of hosting.
Moving further on the above topic , following are some of the commonly known types of hosting.:
- Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers’ accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a colocated server.
- Shared web hosting services: one’s Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.
- Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
- Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when compared to paid hosting Virtual dedicated server: slicing up a server into virtual servers. each user feels like they’re on their own dedicated server, but they’re actually sharing a server with many other users. The users may have root access to their own virtual space.
- Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.
- Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client’s machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.
How to obtain Hosting?
Now-a-days its easy to avail this facility of web hosting due to enormous growth of I.T.sector and more enormous competition among several providers. Web hosting is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan; there are many free and paid providers offering these services.
A customer needs to evaluate the requirements of the application to choose what kind of hosting to use. Such considerations include database server software, scripting software, and operating system. Most hosting providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of different software. A typical configuration for a Linux server is the LAMP platform: Linux,Apache,MySQL and PHP/Perl/Python. The webhosting client may want to have other services, such as email for their business domain, databases or multi-media services for streaming media. A customer may also choose Windows for its hosting platform. The customer still can choose from PHP, Perl, and Python but may also use ASP .Net or Classic ASP.
Web hosting packages often include a Web Content Management System so the end-user doesn’t have to worry about the more technical aspects.
One may also search the Internet to find active webhosting message boards and web hosting blogs that may provide feedback on what type of webhosting company may suit his/her needs.
Web Hosting asked:
Hosts providing low cost services declareDoes cheap means an awful thing? Perhaps not always! However, today’s competitive market scenario demands for sensible customers. to the user that, “he/she will have entire world in the fist just for Rs. 900 per year” but, in reality user even struggle to get basic services. Some of the users may surprise from the previously mentioned statement. But, clarity will be provided in the upcoming statements.
For describing web host in a synchronized manner, one can say that a “web host” is a company involved in the business of acquiring bandwidth (internet connectivity) and servers (glorified computers) with an intention to re-sell it, but in smaller amount, to people who demands for storage space for their concerning e-mails and websites. The process is usually done by renting dedicated servers in the company of a decent hard drive plus bandwidth quota and then employing a control panel to split the server resources up into smaller masses termed as ‘hosting plans’. The key objective is to balance such plans in a way that it can benefit both client and host in terms of reasonability and profit respectively.
A chaos of new web hosts increases by the day, due to easy entry and profitable business in this market. This makes the market competitive providing direct benefit to the customer. There are several cases where it happened that the provider in order to get market share decided to offer cheap prices and as soon as he/she started getting customers he/she revised it. Before anybody realizes it, the game is almost over. This is quite seen in country like Pakistan and that too every 10 months after.
“Nice”, one will say or not? Go on…
Hence, what a web host can conclude from it? Abruptly, all their present clients are paying them half of the complete utilization. It signifies that, in the upcoming year, they need to generate two times new business just to earn the amount equals to last year! A sensible person does not recommend it as expansion!
Unfortunately, it is not essential that the amount of clients will jump tremendously with respect to every price shave. Hence, the user is left with the only choice to cut short the price. Thus in order to save cost instead of 3 people support is made available by one person alone. In the same way if there are 2 servers, the whole load is shared on one server lower operating costs. Now these steps have a positive impact on the host’s service but the service may suffer from lack of support, downtime and slow server response.
Now, if the host is giving preference to its present clients, he/she modifies his/her cost in such a way that every client will get a feel good factor. I should always check whether a web host is in the business of providing best service with long term vision in mind or he/she is quoting less price and good profit just to trap customers. It is often found that there are cases where earlier hosting companies offered cheap services at quite less prices just to attract customers and thereafter turned bankrupt. There are not many people who are aware of this trap and get in trouble afterwards. Things are getting worse due to the fact that now the older hosts are deciding to get better off by reducing prices rather than improving on service. In order to get away from this, the younger companies started following and create problem for themselves as well as to their clients. The resultant of this mess is all the customers just get diverted to foreign web hosts in order to get better services.
User should keep in mind that what all is important is good service and all other things are secondary. The ultimate motto of user is that he/she should get what he/she is paying for. Now it is on user to decide whether to go for cheap web hosting or to opt for good web hosting.
Web Hosting asked:
While choosing ones Web hosting provider one has to confront with thousands of companies, tens of thousands of different plans as out of these thousands of companies and plans only few are suitable for the website and online needs.
In today’s world Webhosting has become a part of the informational revolution brought by the Internet and it has become compulsory for both business and also individuals.
Here we are just going to point on few things related to choosing an adequate web host for a web site as there is no need explaining why a website is a must on World Wide Web. This business might seem very complicated but once one knows what to look for it is easy to find out. Stick to ones requirements after analyzing it properly.
Many inexperienced web owners often buy more than required while evaluating their needs in terms of space and bandwidth. Thus many web-hosting providers size their web servers taking this into account as this is exceptionally common and in fact over sell the space and bandwidth assuming that customers will never make full use of it.
Ask ones web host provider per server ration to avoid web hosts that result to just that or crowed their web servers to get an extra profit per customer. To become a clever buyer one should do this with all the other companies one finds interesting to do business with and are eligible to host web site. Never buy a web-hosting plan that fits just perfectly instead always leave some space as website is like a living creature which always grows so buy a little extra space so that when website is expanded one have resources available. Always leave margin for error too as supposing the initial bandwidth evaluation proves itself insufficient then one might not be able to use its website because of exceeded bandwidth. For both knowledgeable and less knowledgeable web owners most web hosting plans come packed with features and some even offer pre-installed scripts and programs that might come handy.
Do not forget things actually required like the OS (Operating System) or the PHP support, as one could consider any extra feature a plus. Do not allow the provider to tell something not required or is less than expected so one should decide of its own what is needed.
Importance of Support: – One might overlook Support facility when one finds an offer which is suitable both in terms of space, bandwidth and has all other facilities which one needs but remember all the good features will go in vein if one does not have good support. If the web-hosting provider is too careless then any technical problem, which arises, will take long hours to be solved even after making many support help calls thus curtailing the work.
If one wants to test the quality and how responsive the support personnel is then one should fire many pre-sales questions through email. Check if the response fact is enough. Now supposing that a conference has to be attended and the site is down and many clicks are expected, check if the website is online to get them and also whether the response one is getting from the support is thorough or is just scratching the surface and is the response understandable.
Look for these qualities when looking for good support: -
-Online support staff, help desk, message boards etc.
-Try to find on forums or discussion boards Information on the reputation of a web-
hosting provider.
-Would one like to be among one those discontented customers there?
Another aspect of the problem is reliability. Company’s web server’s uptime should be asked. Usually 99.9% of uptime is guaranteed by Most of the hosts, as 100% is not a realistic figure in the computer world. This guarantee means that, the money will be refunded for that month or free webhosting will be given for a month as compensation for web site being unavailable if the web site was not available 99.9% of the time.
Our sincere advice to everyone looking for web host provider is don’t try too hard to find the cheapest possible web host though it is true that one has to pay for paid web hosting. Still if one goes for cheaper one then within two weeks from the date of purchase one will stumble upon a better deal and thus will most likely end-up wasting an incredible amount of time. On the other hand paying extra amount to get what one could have got for less is also not a good deal. Getting 200 MB of space with 2 GB of bandwidth for $60 one is getting cheated and at the same time getting same service for $6 or $10 can be a good deal. A thin line between Nightmare of getting slow server response, unreachable support and irritating server downtime and Profitable and enjoyable web presence is drawn by individuals’ themselves.
So we conclude saying one should always choose ones web-hosting provider vigilantly who can live up the promises and can deliver good quality web hosting!
Web Hosting asked:
One cannot deny the fact that, while searching for an ideal web hosting service one should compare his/her requirements with the services provided by the hosting company. No doubt, it consumes valuable time of the user, but the efforts would be worth it. One will get the relief that the choice made by him/her is best as compare to other companies regarding, services and options.
To judge the right one between two web hosts, one should know about the kind of site he/she is going to have hosted. One can divide the majority of sites into personal, small business, information sites or ecommerce business sites. The variations between these sites greatly influence the factor of judgment between two web hosting companies. If a user is going to possess a simple home page, then quality and features of a potential hosting company are not very requirement. However, when it comes to a business web site a huge amount of disk space and bandwidth for whole traffic is an inevitable requirement. That’s the reason it is a foremost step when it comes to measure between web hosting. Of course, nobody knows about his/her hosting needs but the user him/her self.
Few of the crucial aspects which one should keep in mind while finalizing a web host company:
1. Costs and Setup Fees: before dealing to a company one should ensure that he/she has full knowledge of actual charges associated with different things.
2. Customer Support: one should give top priority host’s efficiency in customer support. Whether it is 24/7 or rather just Monday to Friday?
3. Control Panel: control panel according to user’s requirement is must. This is an important aspect to keep in mind especially for beginners.
4. POP Email Account: While comparing web hosting one should verify that whether they access the user email accounts or not.
5. FTC Transfer Limits: while comparing web hosting features one should confirm the presence of FTP transfer limits.
6. Limitless Space Transfer: one should verify hosting company’s Acceptable Use Policies to observe their dimensions regarding unlimited plans. Definitely, nobody likes to get negative response for using excessive space. Can a user upgrade it whenever he/she requires?
This is not an end, there are several other aspects as well which one needs to consider before dealing up with a web host service. With accurate knowledge and investigating on search engines one can compare services and options of related hosting companies in fraction of minutes. One will definitely receive positive results of time devotion and hard work when one reach to the superior level of comparison.
Web Hosting asked:
One cannot deny the fact that, while searching for an ideal web hosting service one should compare his/her requirements with the services provided by the hosting company. No doubt, it consumes valuable time of the user, but the efforts would be worth it. One will get the relief that the choice made by him/her is best as compare to other companies regarding, services and options.
To judge the right one between two web hosts, one should know about the kind of site he/she is going to have hosted. One can divide the majority of sites into personal, small business, information sites or ecommerce business sites. The variations between these sites greatly influence the factor of judgment between two web hosting companies. If a user is going to possess a simple home page, then quality and features of a potential hosting company are not very requirement. However, when it comes to a business web site a huge amount of disk space and bandwidth for whole traffic is an inevitable requirement. That’s the reason it is a foremost step when it comes to measure between web hosting. Of course, nobody knows about his/her hosting needs but the user him/her self.
Few of the crucial aspects which one should keep in mind while finalizing a web host company:
1. Costs and Setup Fees: before dealing to a company one should ensure that he/she has full knowledge of actual charges associated with different things.
2. Customer Support: one should give top priority host’s efficiency in customer support. Whether it is 24/7 or rather just Monday to Friday?
3. Control Panel: control panel according to user’s requirement is must. This is an important aspect to keep in mind especially for beginners.
4. POP Email Account: While comparing web hosting one should verify that whether they access the user email accounts or not.
5. FTC Transfer Limits: while comparing web hosting features one should confirm the presence of FTP transfer limits.
6. Limitless Space Transfer: one should verify hosting company’s Acceptable Use Policies to observe their dimensions regarding unlimited plans. Definitely, nobody likes to get negative response for using excessive space. Can a user upgrade it whenever he/she requires?
This is not an end, there are several other aspects as well which one needs to consider before dealing up with a web host service. With accurate knowledge and investigating on search engines one can compare services and options of related hosting companies in fraction of minutes. One will definitely receive positive results of time devotion and hard work when one reach to the superior level of comparison.
Web Hosting Ghostwriter asked:
Everyday, more people are discovering the benefits and global reach of the Internet. As a result, more online businesses are being established and more websites are going up. Now is the right time to stake your claim in Cyberspace and the best way to do it is with your very own website. Because web hosting is what you need to get a piece of the action, I will help you find a good service in five easy steps.
1.) Determine Your Needs
The first step in finding a web host is determining your individuals needs. Why do you even need a website? Is it just to share photos and info with family and friends? Are you moving your business online? Do you plan to sell products or services? The answers to these questions are very important as they will ultimately determine what type of web hosting you need.
2.) Features
After getting a good idea of what your website needs, it’s time to consider the feature-set that will meet those requirements. Of course, features will vary greatly depending on individual needs but here are a few to keep in mind.
- Disk space and bandwidth
Disk space refers to the amount of space you have on the server for storing your website files. Bandwidth entails how much traffic and activity your site can support. If you don’t have enough of either, your site will be limited and can actually become slow or inaccessible. The good thing is that most web hosts supply more than enough as the average website requires less than 1 gigabyte of each resource per month.
- E-commerce tools
If your goals consist of selling products or services, selecting a web hosting plan with Ecommerce features is a must. Keep your eyes peeled for multiple email accounts, free shopping cart software and SSL encryption to protect your online transactions.
- Control panel
The control panel is one of the most essential web hosting features. This software allows you to control virtually every aspect of your account. From the interface you can access the design tool that allows you to build your site, create email accounts, upload files and much more.
3.) Reliability
Your website won’t be very popular if it’s always down because of technical difficulties. In order to avoid these issues, I suggest searching long and hard for a host that delivers a reliable service. There are many aspects that point to reliability but the most critical is uptime. Uptime refers to the amount of time your site will be available opposed to being down for a wide range of reasons. As of now, 99.9% is the industry standard so anything less should be viewed as unacceptable.
4.) Technical Support and Customer Service
When it comes to web hosting, one should never underestimate the importance of support. Anything can go wrong behind the scenes and when it does, you need to know what’s going on. I recommend looking for a company that offers various means of support including toll-free phone, email and live chat. Support is something that can make or break a web host and also determine how successful you will be online.
5.) Customer Feedback
One can learn a lot about a particular web hosting service from customer feedback. You can find web hosting reviews all over the web, and trust me, they are absolutely golden. A quality review you will tell you what to expect in terms of price, features, reliability and support. Most importantly, it will let you know what service is worth looking into and who should be avoided at all costs.
Bluehost Hosting asked:
If one’s new website is all set to upload, the next desirable thing for him/her is a web host. Conceivably he/she already possesses a web host, but uptime and support are lacking. With several scattering web hosts all around how can the users choose an ideal one? One should be aware of what can go wrong and what to look out for, and investigate prospective web hosts cautiously.
Mistake, which may appear with web hosting
Excessive downtime:
It is inevitable that problems arise in the course of time happen, but even in the condition in which they don’t appear server maintenance results in a minimal amount of downtime. One can not only hope a dependable web host for well maintenance of his/her servers, but also expect monitoring the servers and fixing of problems immediately. With the type of web host one want to avoid, however, his/her site may be down for days.
Features that cannot be put in use:
Once the email of the user doesn’t work, his/her business shuts down. Problems related to databases and other features can also deliberate down or stop his/her business. Such problems are taken into consideration by several web hosts, but a few don’t concern to give high priority on keeping not only the user’s site online but everything working as well.
Ghastic support:
The response time taken by the dependable web hosts to answer tech support questions is utmost a single hour. Other web hosts, however, have been recognized to take several days to give response. And when those responses come, often they’re canned responses that don’t deal with the issue.
Poor communication:
If proper level communication skills are present, it supports people to restrict problems from becoming bigger problems. As told, “Everything looks fine here, so the problem is solved,” promotes irritation. Thus, one’s site can shut down because it has used plenty of resources rather than the web host contacting him/her about the problem first.
Troubles of Billing:
Yet problems persist even after user cancels his/her account. A number of below dependable range web hosts don’t repute their refund policy. Others do not discontinue the automatic billing even after cancellation of account.
Things to watch out for:
One should consider the following as the red flags to warn the user of possible problems that can come on their way.
Untenable pricing:
If the pricing looks to the extent of superb to be true, it perhaps is. Will it be sufficient to pay for server maintenance and tech support? One gets similar what he/she deserve to pay for.
Limitless bandwidth:
There is not anything which is really unlimited in real sense. If one signs up for an account offering limitless bandwidth and then uses a lot of bandwidth, anticipating having the plug pulled on his/her site. The web host may locate further excuse for discontinuing his/her account, but “unlimited” classically represent that “as long as you don’t use a lot.”
A website with unprofessional look:
The user foremost consider how much effort the web host is putting in providing a usable website along with informative content. Does it really mean that user has got full confidence in the web host, or is it overwhelmed of unsubstantiated statements and grammar and spelling mistakes? A web host doesn’t require being a specialist in spelling insertion, of course. But if the company hasn’t advertise much enough to the user about their services, will they be meticulous about matching the clients’ requirements?
Way to research web hosts:
It is quite easy to look out for web hosts. Search engines can be one of the ways to went on the websites of thousands of web hosts. But short listening after going through features and price, how can the customer look out which web hosts are reliable?
Interpret particulars of web host package and TOS:
If the host provider is offering hosting packages with huge amounts of disk space and bandwidth for quite cheap prices, that means something is fishy around. One should not expect that company to be well equipped with enough money for maintenance and support.
If one wants to be sure that he/she can get a refund if he/she want one, should ensure what the Terms of Service (TOS) signify about refunds.
One should examine the web host forum:
User should be aware about the questions like, what is the ambience in the forum. Are clients’ questions answered satisfactorily? The user should not be anxious on seeing a problem but in the condition when they don’t. It is quite common that, some web hosts remove posts that don’t demonstrate their company in a positive light. But if posts about problems stay in the forum, the user can easily monitor the way the host use to tackle the problem.
User should examine web host reviews:
There is no lack of cases in which, client feedback at the web host’s site perhaps may or may not be legal. One could not ignore the possibility of manufacturing of feedback and tracing it from other sites. The user should inquire about that via different web sites.
There are several forums which permits people to post their web host reviews. While reading the reviews, one should deem the poster’s credibility. A few people knock their hosts just because of the reason that they’re unhappy about somewhat. If the host posts in response to a problem, the user should inquire the way host tries to resolve it.
Inquire about the background of the company:
The page which displays the points like “About Us” or “Company Background” should disclose the answer of following questions.
1.) The experience of the company in this sector. A new company perhaps is excellent, but it’s good to keep in mind that an ample of businesses fails within the first year.
2.) Does the company use to publish a privacy policy? And does this policy clearly protect clients’ privacy?
3.) Where are the servers located? Ideally, they should be in a datacenter, and not in someone’s basement.
4.) About the server uptime statistics? If the web host doesn’t publish a link to a server uptime monitor, one should ask for a link to one. Uptime of about 99.7 percent or higher is usually considered good.
5.) Does the company publish an address? The user perhaps should not be in the need of it, but when he/she placing his/her company website in another company’s hands, it is his/her right to know that the company is legal and handy.
Email pre-sales queries
Response to user’s pre-sales questions will tell more than enough about the web host. One can easily judge how fast the company responds and about their communication efficiency. One can ask questions about any of the above points as well as questions precise to his/her requirements.
There is no doubt, that, Finding a dependable web host spends time, but dealing with problems and moving one’s site rather takes more amount of time. The time spent searching for a reliable web host is a worthwhile investment.
Web Hosting asked:
While choosing ones Web hosting provider one has to confront with thousands of companies, tens of thousands of different plans as out of these thousands of companies and plans only few are suitable for the website and online needs.
In today’s world Webhosting has become a part of the informational revolution brought by the Internet and it has become compulsory for both business and also individuals.
Here we are just going to point on few things related to choosing an adequate web host for a web site as there is no need explaining why a website is a must on World Wide Web. This business might seem very complicated but once one knows what to look for it is easy to find out. Stick to ones requirements after analyzing it properly.
Many inexperienced web owners often buy more than required while evaluating their needs in terms of space and bandwidth. Thus many web-hosting providers size their web servers taking this into account as this is exceptionally common and in fact over sell the space and bandwidth assuming that customers will never make full use of it.
Ask ones web host provider per server ration to avoid web hosts that result to just that or crowed their web servers to get an extra profit per customer. To become a clever buyer one should do this with all the other companies one finds interesting to do business with and are eligible to host web site. Never buy a web-hosting plan that fits just perfectly instead always leave some space as website is like a living creature which always grows so buy a little extra space so that when website is expanded one have resources available. Always leave margin for error too as supposing the initial bandwidth evaluation proves itself insufficient then one might not be able to use its website because of exceeded bandwidth. For both knowledgeable and less knowledgeable web owners most web hosting plans come packed with features and some even offer pre-installed scripts and programs that might come handy.
Do not forget things actually required like the OS (Operating System) or the PHP support, as one could consider any extra feature a plus. Do not allow the provider to tell something not required or is less than expected so one should decide of its own what is needed.
Importance of Support: – One might overlook Support facility when one finds an offer which is suitable both in terms of space, bandwidth and has all other facilities which one needs but remember all the good features will go in vein if one does not have good support. If the web-hosting provider is too careless then any technical problem, which arises, will take long hours to be solved even after making many support help calls thus curtailing the work.
If one wants to test the quality and how responsive the support personnel is then one should fire many pre-sales questions through email. Check if the response fact is enough. Now supposing that a conference has to be attended and the site is down and many clicks are expected, check if the website is online to get them and also whether the response one is getting from the support is thorough or is just scratching the surface and is the response understandable.
Look for these qualities when looking for good support: -
-Online support staff, help desk, message boards etc.
-Try to find on forums or discussion boards Information on the reputation of a web-
hosting provider.
-Would one like to be among one those discontented customers there?
Another aspect of the problem is reliability. Company’s web server’s uptime should be asked. Usually 99.9% of uptime is guaranteed by Most of the hosts, as 100% is not a realistic figure in the computer world. This guarantee means that, the money will be refunded for that month or free webhosting will be given for a month as compensation for web site being unavailable if the web site was not available 99.9% of the time.
Our sincere advice to everyone looking for web host provider is don’t try too hard to find the cheapest possible web host though it is true that one has to pay for paid web hosting. Still if one goes for cheaper one then within two weeks from the date of purchase one will stumble upon a better deal and thus will most likely end-up wasting an incredible amount of time. On the other hand paying extra amount to get what one could have got for less is also not a good deal. Getting 200 MB of space with 2 GB of bandwidth for $60 one is getting cheated and at the same time getting same service for $6 or $10 can be a good deal. A thin line between Nightmare of getting slow server response, unreachable support and irritating server downtime and Profitable and enjoyable web presence is drawn by individuals’ themselves.
So we conclude saying one should always choose ones web-hosting provider vigilantly who can live up the promises and can deliver good quality web hosting!
Host Gator asked:
Selecting the right web server is considered very crucial decision in online business. It is due to the fact that the web server can either make the business or can even destroy one’s business.
There are two types of servers, one is Virtual Web Hosting and the other is Virtual Private Servers.
Since several years Virtual Web Hosting has been the only way to go when selecting a web server. One of the reasons for the Virtual Web Hosting’s popularity is that they supports the necessary files and allows one to have more freedom than any other conventional web hosts. But now one can have more freedom than ever before with Virtual Private Servers. However, Virtual Private Servers should not be confused with Virtual Hosts, as they both are entirely different from each other.
In this article the difference between a Virtual Host and a Virtual Private Server is explained. Moreover the advantages and disadvantages of both the servers are also explained in order to give understanding as to which server should be chosen for business.
Virtual Hosting
Virtual Hosting is also known as Shared web hosting, where one can share the physical server and a single set of software applications with other users. Virtual Hosting was very popular in the past due to features like fast deployment, strong resources, and attractive price. Another advantage offered by Virtual Hosting is that it provides a powerful, reliable, and professionally managed server and it can be easily handled without having to have advanced technical skills, thus making it ideal for an individual, small business, or even a fresher webmaster.
The greatest disadvantage of Virtual Hosting is that the server is shared with other users, which are configured and even controlled by an administrator, not user. Thus there is no control in the hands of the users and in case of adjusting or setting configuration one have to contact the administrator every time. Even if one manages to get a hold of the administrator, then also they may not fulfill the request. It’s all up to them as they are the administrator. Thus these are the limitations faced by users when control is not in their hands.
Virtual Private Servers
Virtual Private Servers are very popular now days for giving the good and satisfactory results. A Virtual Private Server is a single server that is partitioned at the root into multiple dedicated servers. This enables one to share the cost of the network connectivity, hardware, and system maintenance with other hosting customers, with maintaining the flexibility and freedom.
The most important advantage of Virtual Private Servers is that they allow complete control to users and they have security advantages of a dedicated server at very low cost. Thus one can have access to the virtual root, Telnet, web configuration files, and full CGI-BIN access. Not only that, they also provide access to one’s password and send mail configuration files to their users. Thus after considering above advantages it can be concluded that a Virtual Private Server is an excellent solution for small to medium size businesses having complex requirements.
However, there is one disadvantage with Virtual Private Servers, i.e. one need to have some program knowledge in order to control and configure the settings. But this advantage is also evaded by most businesses that offer Virtual Private Servers as they provide detailed manuals making them easier to configure and control. Thus no need to learn the programs as well.
Now one can decide which server is right for him/her. However it all depends on user’s requirement as well as the size of your network.
If one plans on having just one web site and have absolutely no programming knowledge, for him/her Virtual Hosting serves as a best as its quite economical as well. A Virtual Host costs around $20 to $50 per month for an account, as against a $100 or more charged by a Virtual Private Server.
On the other hand, if one is having a larger network requiring multiple web sites and user is having some programming knowledge, then a Virtual Private Server can serves a best. One can host up to 50 web sites on a Virtual Private Server account, instead of having multiple Virtual Hosting accounts, which is quite expensive.
Thus one must make sure while selecting a server that it is as per requirement and it supports essential software for a flourishing online business.
