Finding the right host for you

Sooner or later everyone faces the task of finding a good web host. We have compiled a short guide that equips you with the most important things you should look for when evaluating a web hosting company.

The Myth of Unlimited Bandwidth
There is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth. The hosting provider has to pay for its internet connection and prices his packages accordingly. The practice of overselling (assuming that costumers won’t use up their alloted resources and accordingly offering larger, more powerful hosting packages) is very common in the hosting industry and can prove fatal to smaller hosting operations. For the sake of clarity, let us use an example. Hosting company A has one server and 10 clients on it with a package that offers “Unlimited Bandwidth” - As long as each of the clients is using less than 10% of the available resources on average things will operate smoothly. But as soon as one of the customers experiences a traffic explosion, the availability of resources is diminishing. Now assume that a few of the clients start seeing dramatic increases in traffic - The whole venture starts to turn unprofitable and the hosting company is likely to go bankrupt if it were to continue offering these offerings to its clients.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. Everything comes at a price. So if you are being offered incredible amounts at bargain prices you should become very cautious as this occasion may cost you dearly at a later point of time. They are usually what the name implies: Incredible.

Evaluation of the Web Hosting Company
Another thing that is of the utmost importance is to check the company before placing an order. You do that by entering the host name into the search engine of your choice. In most cases you will find a plethora of search results that provide you with ratings and reviews by people that have/had experiences with the company. Evaluate and judge carefully. By doing so you can avoid lots of hassles as customers with bad experiences have a tendency to warn potential customers from bad hosts by letting off steam on sites that feature web hosting reviews.

The Importance of Support
Support is yet another important issue. How savvy is the tech staff? What is the availability of support? Where is the support located? Is there someone able to help you in case your website goes offline on the 24th of December? These are some of the question that come to mind when thinking of tech support. You might want to test the quality of support before placing an order by testing the time it takes them to reply to your requests. In addition, feel free to ask technical questions as well as inquire whether telephone support is available. Our experience has shown that many minor issues are being solved easier over the phone rather than email.

Summarizing, we believe that it all comes down to your needs. In case you are just hosting a site that features photos of your pets, uptime is not as crucial as if you were to operate an ecommerce site. By carefully answering the questions of how much you are willing to spend, how much reliability you need and the features that are crucial to you, the quest for finding a web host will be a successful one.

Rackspace review

I have had a hosting account with rackspace.com for two years now and there is one thing I can confirm: Their customer support is truly fanatic. Each and every time I asked the support team about an issue, the response was not only fast – It was helpful. In the past I have hosted my web sites with various other web hosting companies and one should never underestimate how unfriendly and incompetent a web host can be. No longer am I victim to bad support and I will never go back to these hosts just for the sake of saving a few dollars per month. How many hosting companies do you know that offer to refund 5% of your monthly bill for each and every half hour your server is down? They truly live up to their promise of being fanatically dedicated to support. What I like best is that my account manager calls me up from time to time in order to see whether things are working smoothly and provides me with improvement suggestions for my business. One time I messed up some of the config files of my server and started to panic – By calling up the support center they were able to sort out the issue within minutes. Experiences such as this one are the ones that leave a lasting and positive impression on me.

It is true that their pricing is a bit more expensive than the competition but I firmly believe in the motto that you get what you are paying for. Given the friendliness and knowledge of the staff I am more than willing to spend a bit more to receive the attention I crave from a web hosting company.

In case you are currently looking for a web host, I strongly suggest that you give rackspace.com a try. I have had nothing but good experiences and do recommend this host to every one that is in need of a company that sells peace of mind.

_____________________________________

Hosted at rackspace.com? Had previous experiences of the company? Post a comment on your experiences below!

What Good Web Hosting can mean to your Business.

This is the age of information. Information that is accessible at the click of the computer mouse! The Internet is a very powerful medium of providing information because of world wide accessibility. A strong presence on the Internet can mean a strong presence in the market for any company. For this reason most business organizations have started their own websites to provide users more information about themselves. Today on the Internet, there are thousands and thousands of websites that provide information on an infinite number of topics.

To setup a website, it is necessary to register a domain name and host the domain name at a web host. The quality of web hosting is very important. It can mean the difference between a fast-loading website that is up and running all the time or a sluggish slow-loading website that is down most of the time. For this reason, proper research should be done before hosting your website at a web hosting company.

It is also possible to host the website yourself. If you have a computer that runs fine and a fast connection to the Internet, it is possible to run the website(s) on your own. However, this is not recommended unless you have the required technical expertise to handle things when they get out of hand. There are many things to take care of-uptime, security, software updates and patches. The best option would be to choose a good web host. Web hosting companies have powerful servers that are located in data centers with optimum environmental conditions. Further, they employ experienced staff to take care of everything. Hosting your website at a professional web host can save a lot of trouble.

There are many factors that should be considered before choosing a web host. A simple search in Google can turn up dozens of companies claiming to be web hosts. Usually, most of these are resellers and only few of them are "true web hosts" that have their own servers. Larger web hosts that have a history of providing quality support are usually preferable to smaller ones.

Web hosts offer the following: space for hosting your files, bandwidth, data transfer and support for other things like scripting languages and databases. Space refers to memory on the hard disk of the server. Bandwidth refers to the bandwidth of the Internet connection by means of which the server is connected to the Internet. Data transfer is the amount of data transferred (upload + download). While choosing a web host, it should be ensured that the features provided are sufficient enough to meet all the requirements.

We recommend any of the webhosts advertised on this site. Here is why we chose Lunarpages for our first web host.

Tags: web hosting, hosting, website, shared hosting

Data centres

Computers are so vital for the business in this highly competitive era. For bigger firms for proper housing of the computer related accessories are necessary for the proper functioning of it. Facility for housing computer systems as well as components associated with can be termed, as a data centre. Data centre does the dissemination, storage as well as management of information and data which is important for the operations of organizations. Main associated components are storage as well as telecommunication systems. It includes devices for security, back up power supplies, air conditioners, fire extinguishers, data communications connections that are redundant etc. The size of the data centre depends on the operational needs of the company. Cabinets of size 19-inch rack of servers makes up most of the equipments are arranged in rows. The mainframe computers, storage devices can size up same as that of racks.

In this era for any business organization, it is inevitable to have reliable IT Operations. For effective operations of companies, there is reliance on information systems of its own. There fore the modern data centers should be able to provide secure environment, good functionality, as well as integrity to the computer environment, which is hosting.

Data centers are classified as tier one data center, tier two data center, tier three data centre, tier four data centre etc, with the first one being the simplest while the fourth one being the stringent. In the fourth tier data centre, there are biometric access controls as part of security measures.

Networks based on suite of IP protocol aids the data centers’ communications. Transportation of traffic between outside world and the servers is undertaken by a set of switches as well as routers. Multi homing aids the internet connections redundancy. For the functioning of some internet as well as intranet services, few servers in the data centers are availed. Usage of Intrusion detection systems, firewalls, VPN gateways etc are there for the purpose of net work security related to data centers.

It is important to select the right data centre, as per the requirement of the organizational requirements. Multiple applications, which are necessary for company, may be based on dedicated servers and operating systems. The data centre should be compatible to various servers and operating systems. Companies may be relying on web hosting services like shared hosting, reseller hosting etc. Therefore, the data center should be able to get along with those services. So the datacenter should be having advanced technology to able to perform optimally.

For powering the data centers and saving some money as well as for getting energy credits, companies can look forward for solar power. Solar panels can power the data centre with greater efficiency with the new technology.

Click the banner below to sign up now!

Hostgator Review

To tell the truth I had been looking for more than 2 weeks for a hosting company which would provide me uptime and a lot of bandwidth for a cheap price. I firstly tried 2 of my friends hosts but they were slow and that wasn’t what I was looking for. I had learnt from a friend that I should stay away from big companies as they are overselling. I was going to open a new business and I really needed a perfect hosting which would give me 100 % uptime and a lot of space and bandwidth for a cheap price
I then gave a try to HostGator which so far is one of the best alternatives I have ever found.

I created an account with them and my hosting was up within 12 minutes. Actually I had a problem with my Wordpress which was not related to my Hosting and I asked their Live support and they helped me out even if it was not their fault or anything related with their hosting

Many customers say that HostGator and other big companies are overselling but so far I have never had any single problem with them and among every other thing , they are really cheap (comparing to the quality they are offering and their services)

To tell the truth HostGator so far has offered me a great support for all my problems and they have solved them within an hour.

What I appreciate most at HostGator is the perfect live support and the uptime. Whenever you have any problem (even if its not related to hosting ) you can kindly ask them.

Another great offer that HostGator is offering are the different coupons. You can use those coupons and the price will be halved. Make sure you find a working coupon when (or if) you decide to sign up with HostGator, there are some below to help you save money.

I have had a great uptime since my hosting was created (I can say I never had a downtime) so I hope this will continue for a while.

Trust me if you are looking for a good hosting where you can host all your businesses then HostGator is the right choice.
Here you have some promo coupons which you can use to get some discounts :
Hostgator Coupon Code : FINDMYHOST
Hostgator Coupon Code : TOPHOST
Hostgator Coupon Code : HGC25
Hostgator Coupon Code : 404PAGE
Hostgator Coupon Code : HOSTGATOR
Hostgator Coupon Code : WORDPRESS
Hostgator Coupon Code : ICEISHOT

Click the banner below to sign up now!

Awardspace review

Awardspace is a very popular host for both paying people and those who appreciate free hosting. Though a bit more technical in comparison to other hosting websites, as long as you don’t mind experimenting with the control panel, you should get used to its interface rather quickly. Awardspace is also one of few hosts of it’s time that keep to their word, offering all they say they are going to offer, no questions asked.

My personal experience with Awardspace has been an enjoyable one. I’ve had four sites hosted there for two years now just on one account, with hardly any problems at all. One of the best features of this host has to be the Customer Service. You actually get an answer back to a problem within 24 hours. Another good feature of this site is that it’s been up for a few good years now, and shows no signs of going down like many hosts before them. It’s obvious to see that they know how to manage their money and run an acceptable web business.

The only problems I’ve ever encountered with Awardspace was the inability to log onto my account a few times. My sites remained up and running, but I couldn’t get into the control panel to edit them. I ended up looking to Support for answers, which they were quick to supply. The problem as a whole only lasted for about a day or two before it was fixed. Also, Awardspace’s control panel can be rather odd. It works perfectly fine, but you need to go through at least 3 separate sections before you can get to the area where you can edit your website. It’s terribly confusing for a beginner at website making in general, so I recommend having at least a bit of experience before trying this host.

Otherwise, I really like Awardspace and all it has to offer. They give you 200 MB Disk Space and 5 GB for a free plan, but the paid hosting is what really makes this company shine. For only $4.99 a month, you can receive 10 GB Disk Space and 100 GB Disk Space. If you need even more, the highest plan at $9.99 a month would give you 30 GB Disk Space and 300 GB Bandwidth. Pricing is very reasonable, and the best part is that if you pay for one of these plans, they put you on an extremely fast server with unlimited subdomains, plenty of MySQL Databases, and every other possible quality you might enjoy in a host.

Awardspace is a winner in my opinion. You can give them a try simply with the free hosting alone, and if you enjoy their service, I definitely recommend upgrading your account to a paid plan. You won’t be disappointed with the cheap prices, the great support, or the different features they add to make your stay with them memorable.
______________________________________________

Hosted at awardspace? Had previous experiences of the company? Post a comment on your experiences below!

Reseller web hosting

Reseller web hosting

Reseller web hosting is a type of web hosting where you can divide disk space and bandwidth into packages and sell them to others. Reseller web hosting can be a steady source of income to you if proper marketing is done. However, the competition is very stiff and so it may not be profitable all the time for everyone. Still, there are many advantages associated with resellers web hosting accounts.

Reseller web hosting is usually costly when compared with ordinary shared web hosting accounts. You can get a decent shared web hosting account for about $10 a month. However the cheapest reseller account costs about $25 a month. At the same time, the disk space and bandwidth that come reseller plans are very low when compared with shared accounts. Despite this, reseller accounts are more advantageous than shared accounts.

Shared accounts run the risk of getting suspended for excessive usage of server resources. Most web hosts mention this in their TOS. However, if you have a reseller account, you can always suspend the domain name under question. Most of the time, these server loads are caused by DDOS attacks, etc and a reseller account allows you complete control. Another advantage associated with reseller plans is that the individual domains gets their own cpanel. In shared hosting, additional domains are hosted as a add-on and this feature is not so convenient.

Along with the reseller web hosting plan, you may also get a domain name reseller account. Using this, you can start a mini web hosting company yourself. Usually, most web hosts provide a free enom domain reseller account with their reseller plans. Reseller accounts also come with additional IP addresses. Though, it is not clearly known whether having a dedicated IP address provides any advantage in search engine rankings, many SEO experts prefer to have dedicated IP addresses for their sites.

There are many hosting companies that offer reseller plans. Some of these include www.resellerzoom.com, www.hostgator.com, etc. I have a reseller account with www.westnic.net and I am very happy with them. They provide 8 dedicated IP address and have excellent support. They will also arrange for class-C IP addresses for free if you need them. While choosing a reseller plan, always research about the company. User reviews and discussions in forums can provide more background information about the company and its services.

Technorati : reseller hosting, reseller webhosting, web hosting, website development