Southern Energy Solutions of Marietta, Georgia, announced today that it has enlisted Affordable Internet Services Online, Inc. (AISO) to host its Website. Southern Energy Solutions is a dealer of renewable energy products such as solar PV and wind turbines. AISO is a Web hosting company that is 100% solar powered. Roger K. Cone, owner of Southern Energy Solutions, stated, “Employing AISO to host our Web site with 100% solar energy is a perfect fit for our company. Both Southern Energy Solutions and AISO are environmentally conscious companies that are dedicated to reducing our dependence on non-renewable fossil fuels.”
Read more at :
Southern Energy Solutions Website Hosted with 100% Solar Energy
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Make The Move To Multiple Domain Hosting
As a webmaster, you must have been familiar with what the industry calls
"shared hosting plan" which is a cheap way to put your website. A hosting
provider can offers that service cheap because you only use a small amount of
the storage capacity of a server which is shared among many other users.
Unfortunately many of them only let you host one domain under one account. It
will not be a problem if you don't have a plan to build more than one websites.
But the story could be different when you want to do it in the future where you
will have to open an additional hosting account everytime you host a new domain
name. Imagine how much money you have to spend every month just for paying your
hosting service.
On the other hand, using a hosting provider that allows you host all of your
domains under one account will save your money over a host that insists that you
open a new account for each site. That way you can create several websites to
promote different products without having to be upset about any extra fees.
It is entirely up to you what kind of websites you intend to build. You can
build online directories, websites that full of contents and/or websites that
consist of one long sales letter that you can promote with PPC or ezine. Of
course you can promote unrelated products using only one website but it would
not look professional in the eyes of your site visitors. Keep in mind that a
good domain name is usually related to the content of a website.
Some multiple domain hosting companies also provide Fantastico. Building
different type of websites such as classified ads, online directory or blog can
be accomplished very easily by using this feature.
To make it better, you can even register your additional domain names through
a cheap registrar such as GoDaddy. After registering the domain names with the
registrar don't forget to setup the DNS addresses provided by your host. Then go
into the "add-on domain" sub menu in your hosting Control Panel and fill in the
blanks with the name of your new domains and the subdirectories for them. Do it
for each of your domains. Wait a few days (usually less than 48 hours) before
the master list the domain registrar updates will be shared throughout the
internet and all name servers know where to find your new domain.
With multiple domain hosting you can go about setting up specific email
addresses, subdirectories, databases and FTP accounts for each of your domains.
In fact there are no real differences between using a multiple domain hosting
plan and a conventional shared hosting plan.
You can find multiple domain plans starting at about $10 a month. Compared
with a conventional shared hosting, the price is not much different and even
might be cheaper than the price of your current hosting service.
With so many profitable products you can sell online, the move is one you
will never regret. Finally, it is your own decision whether you are ready and
willing to use a multiple domain hosting service and save yourself some hard
earned cash. The choice is absolutely yours.
Source : http://www.developertutorials.com/web-hosting-articles/multiple-domain-hosting-060829/page1.html
Friday, October 26, 2007
Fundamentals of Web Hosting
Before I talk about what it takes to be a cheap and good quality web host, let’s get to the fundamentals first.
What is a Web Host?
A web host is a service provider that places your web site on a computer which is connected to the internet. This ‘computer’ is called a server. A web hosting service provider will typically have a fast connection to the Internet and they may host thousands of web sites on many servers. The web host essentially rents out space to you so that you can get your website up on the world wide web. With a well-managed web host, you can free yourself from worrying the up-keep of complicated server technology and proper technical maintenance. That’s the whole purpose of the web hosting companies. You should leave the technical work to web hosting professionals while you focus on your own internet business.
Features Offered
The features that web hosting companies offer are getting quite standard nowadays. The following are some of the common features you’ll see in most web hosting plans:
· Control Panel
Control Panel is an interface where you can access your site on the web server, allowing you to set-up and subsequently update and customize your web site. Though cPanel is by far the most popular control panel; some hosting providers customize their own so that they can up-grade and expand it at will.
· Diskspace
A vast majority of sites that don’t have tons of graphics, sound and video clips or downloadable files easily fit in 50 MB of disk space. You should always leave yourself some room for growth or check if the host has a bigger plan in case you need to upgrade.
· Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of data transmitted or received through a unit of time. In web hosting, bandwidth is consumed when visitors make requests for files on your web site and download them to their personal computers.
· Email Account
With POP3 email accounts you can check email from Outlook, Netscape Mail, Eudora or any other Email software.
· Scripting Language
As all our top 10 listings are using Unix and Linux platform, php, perl and CGI are the languages we are talking about here. It is best to choose a host that supports the latest version to maximize the latest web technologies for the fee that you pay.
· Database
If your web site is going to store a lot of data that should be dynamically accessible (like user accounts, stock prices, maps, Interactive news, message boards and forums etc.), you’ll need to look for an account that offers a database. MySQL is a powerful and most popular database program that runs on the Linux operation system. It is able to handle million of entries all at once. Its flexibility and speed allow you to also store logs and pictures. MySQL is designed to scale well under heavy traffic conditions and is ideal for database-intensive or e-commerce-enabled Web sites.
Customer Service/Support
No matter if you are an expert or a novice in web hosting, you need a web host with good customer support system. What is the criteria of an excellent customer support? Let me explain.
· How big is the knowledge base?
This is particularly important for those who want to search for aquick answer without seeking direct assistance from customer support staff. Due to the huge database, normally it’s searchable. Some web hosting providers will even make your life easier by making a video tutorial guiding you step by step in setting up your new account. Very useful for beginners.
· Responsive customer service staff.
If you are too lazy to find the answer out of a big pool of database, get the direct answer from someone who knows it. Direct customer support comes in a few forms.
a. Email support
b. Phone support:
Normally, sales and technical support uses separate phone line. A good phone support staff knows what your problem is and answers with relevance.
c.Web Host like Lunarpages and Hostgator even have live chat support.
However, it’s not how many support channels that are available but how responsive it is of the staff.
Price to Disk Space / Price to Bandwidth Ratio
Are you paying too much for your Web Hosting Plan? Having done the research on hundreds of web hosting companies, in general, we’ve come to this conclusion: the more disk space and bandwidth you are getting, the more expensive is the monthly price.
Popularity
A web host might have the best feature offered, unbeatable customer support and reliability in place but without an effective marketing plan, it will go bust too. Let’s face it. If a web hosting provider does not have sufficient members and steady growth of new members, it’s very difficult to survive in this highly competitive industry. We judge the popularity of a particular web hosting provider by looking at the number of awards won, the reviews of other websites and the Alexa traffic ranking. You can find out the hosting reviews and ratings of all the hosting providers on this blog.
Reliability, Speed and Uptime Guarantee
Nothing can hurt you more than this: your visitors come to your web site only to find that it’s not accessible. You lose credibility and possibly even a sale. If your web host does not guarantee at least a 99% uptime, leave the web host now!
To ensure maximum uptime, installation of redundant back-up systems is essential. Each web host has their own management systems to minimize downtime. “Redundant” means that if any of the Internet connections get interrupted, the alternate Internet connection will take over.
As for speed, even though routing, web server set up and local area networks play a part in determining the speed of a site, the main concern of how fast your site is depends very much on the types of network connections. Many hosting providers still connect to the Internet through T1, or T3 connections. This is not the case for our top 10 hosts- they are using OC (Optical Carrier) lines. A T1 line will offer data transfer rate of 1.5 Mbps (megabits per second), while a T3 line can supply data transfer rates of 43Mbps. OC-1 refers to a circuit that transmits 51.85Mbps. Higher levels are multiples of that speed. Ultra-High Speed OC3 and OC12 lines offers 155Mbps and 622Mbps respectively. Some hosting providers have connections to major internet backbones at the speed of OC48 (2488Mbps) and OC96 (4976Mbps).
Source : http://www.seo-reloaded.com/web-hosting/your-ideal-web-hosting-company/
What is a Web Host?
A web host is a service provider that places your web site on a computer which is connected to the internet. This ‘computer’ is called a server. A web hosting service provider will typically have a fast connection to the Internet and they may host thousands of web sites on many servers. The web host essentially rents out space to you so that you can get your website up on the world wide web. With a well-managed web host, you can free yourself from worrying the up-keep of complicated server technology and proper technical maintenance. That’s the whole purpose of the web hosting companies. You should leave the technical work to web hosting professionals while you focus on your own internet business.
Features Offered
The features that web hosting companies offer are getting quite standard nowadays. The following are some of the common features you’ll see in most web hosting plans:
· Control Panel
Control Panel is an interface where you can access your site on the web server, allowing you to set-up and subsequently update and customize your web site. Though cPanel is by far the most popular control panel; some hosting providers customize their own so that they can up-grade and expand it at will.
· Diskspace
A vast majority of sites that don’t have tons of graphics, sound and video clips or downloadable files easily fit in 50 MB of disk space. You should always leave yourself some room for growth or check if the host has a bigger plan in case you need to upgrade.
· Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of data transmitted or received through a unit of time. In web hosting, bandwidth is consumed when visitors make requests for files on your web site and download them to their personal computers.
· Email Account
With POP3 email accounts you can check email from Outlook, Netscape Mail, Eudora or any other Email software.
· Scripting Language
As all our top 10 listings are using Unix and Linux platform, php, perl and CGI are the languages we are talking about here. It is best to choose a host that supports the latest version to maximize the latest web technologies for the fee that you pay.
· Database
If your web site is going to store a lot of data that should be dynamically accessible (like user accounts, stock prices, maps, Interactive news, message boards and forums etc.), you’ll need to look for an account that offers a database. MySQL is a powerful and most popular database program that runs on the Linux operation system. It is able to handle million of entries all at once. Its flexibility and speed allow you to also store logs and pictures. MySQL is designed to scale well under heavy traffic conditions and is ideal for database-intensive or e-commerce-enabled Web sites.
Customer Service/Support
No matter if you are an expert or a novice in web hosting, you need a web host with good customer support system. What is the criteria of an excellent customer support? Let me explain.
· How big is the knowledge base?
This is particularly important for those who want to search for aquick answer without seeking direct assistance from customer support staff. Due to the huge database, normally it’s searchable. Some web hosting providers will even make your life easier by making a video tutorial guiding you step by step in setting up your new account. Very useful for beginners.
· Responsive customer service staff.
If you are too lazy to find the answer out of a big pool of database, get the direct answer from someone who knows it. Direct customer support comes in a few forms.
a. Email support
b. Phone support:
Normally, sales and technical support uses separate phone line. A good phone support staff knows what your problem is and answers with relevance.
c.Web Host like Lunarpages and Hostgator even have live chat support.
However, it’s not how many support channels that are available but how responsive it is of the staff.
Price to Disk Space / Price to Bandwidth Ratio
Are you paying too much for your Web Hosting Plan? Having done the research on hundreds of web hosting companies, in general, we’ve come to this conclusion: the more disk space and bandwidth you are getting, the more expensive is the monthly price.
Popularity
A web host might have the best feature offered, unbeatable customer support and reliability in place but without an effective marketing plan, it will go bust too. Let’s face it. If a web hosting provider does not have sufficient members and steady growth of new members, it’s very difficult to survive in this highly competitive industry. We judge the popularity of a particular web hosting provider by looking at the number of awards won, the reviews of other websites and the Alexa traffic ranking. You can find out the hosting reviews and ratings of all the hosting providers on this blog.
Reliability, Speed and Uptime Guarantee
Nothing can hurt you more than this: your visitors come to your web site only to find that it’s not accessible. You lose credibility and possibly even a sale. If your web host does not guarantee at least a 99% uptime, leave the web host now!
To ensure maximum uptime, installation of redundant back-up systems is essential. Each web host has their own management systems to minimize downtime. “Redundant” means that if any of the Internet connections get interrupted, the alternate Internet connection will take over.
As for speed, even though routing, web server set up and local area networks play a part in determining the speed of a site, the main concern of how fast your site is depends very much on the types of network connections. Many hosting providers still connect to the Internet through T1, or T3 connections. This is not the case for our top 10 hosts- they are using OC (Optical Carrier) lines. A T1 line will offer data transfer rate of 1.5 Mbps (megabits per second), while a T3 line can supply data transfer rates of 43Mbps. OC-1 refers to a circuit that transmits 51.85Mbps. Higher levels are multiples of that speed. Ultra-High Speed OC3 and OC12 lines offers 155Mbps and 622Mbps respectively. Some hosting providers have connections to major internet backbones at the speed of OC48 (2488Mbps) and OC96 (4976Mbps).
Source : http://www.seo-reloaded.com/web-hosting/your-ideal-web-hosting-company/
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Free Website Hosting Vs. Paid Website Hosting Basics
Web site hosting service companies on the Internet permit the user to make their web site accessible through the World Wide Web. There are huge numbers of companies that offer web space on their server for their customers and also offer Internet connectivity in general in a data center. There can be various types of web site hosting companies. The main classification is the free web site hosting and the paid web site hosting service companies.
In case of free web site hosting, the user has the right to upload his or her web site content on the server space that is provided by the web site hosting company without any cost. This type of web site hosting service is great for people who are new to to internet and plan to get familiar with web site creation and functionality of web servers. On the other hand, to get your web site uploaded on a web space that is provided by a paid web site hosting company, you need to pay the company periodic fees. The fee amount may vary from company to company. The paid web site hosting companies are best suited for professional web site owners. People who need large web space to upload their web sites and who expect a certain amount of web site visitors which is restricted on free hosting accounts to a minimum.
The revenue that the paid web hosting service companies get is through the fee that is paid to the company by the web site owners. In case of free web site hosting companies, the main source of income are the ads and banners that can be placed on their clients web pages.
The main advantage of using a free web site hosting service is that they are free of cost and hence make a perfect choice for people who are new into the business and are just looking to start out. They are perfect for people who just want to display a minimum content on the World Wide Web in small amount of web space. The other advantage of using the free web site hosting service is that most of these companies provide integrated, easy tools to upload the pages on to the hosting account. They do this realizing the fact that the free web site hosting services are generally utilized by the newbies.
There are also certain disadvantages of using the free web site hosting services. When using the free web site hosting service, you are forced to place the ads and banners by the web site hosting company on your web pages. Also the revenue that is obtained by the ads goes to the web site company. In case of paid web site hosting service, ads and banners placed on your web site are according to your will and the revenue of the banners and ads placed on your web site goes in your pocket. Also in some case of free web site hosting, the domain name of your web site starts with the web site hosting company name followed by your web site name. This is not the case of paid web site hosting service. You get a unique web site domain. The web space provided by free web site hosting service is limited whereas in case of paid web site hosting service you can buy the web space according to your requirements.
About The Author:
Roger McLean is marketing executive of http://www.mojoscripts.com. Copyright 2007 by Tela IT Inc. The article may be reproduced in newsletters or on websites provided that the complete article text is included, unchanged, and that neither the copyright declaration nor this license are removed.
In case of free web site hosting, the user has the right to upload his or her web site content on the server space that is provided by the web site hosting company without any cost. This type of web site hosting service is great for people who are new to to internet and plan to get familiar with web site creation and functionality of web servers. On the other hand, to get your web site uploaded on a web space that is provided by a paid web site hosting company, you need to pay the company periodic fees. The fee amount may vary from company to company. The paid web site hosting companies are best suited for professional web site owners. People who need large web space to upload their web sites and who expect a certain amount of web site visitors which is restricted on free hosting accounts to a minimum.
The revenue that the paid web hosting service companies get is through the fee that is paid to the company by the web site owners. In case of free web site hosting companies, the main source of income are the ads and banners that can be placed on their clients web pages.
The main advantage of using a free web site hosting service is that they are free of cost and hence make a perfect choice for people who are new into the business and are just looking to start out. They are perfect for people who just want to display a minimum content on the World Wide Web in small amount of web space. The other advantage of using the free web site hosting service is that most of these companies provide integrated, easy tools to upload the pages on to the hosting account. They do this realizing the fact that the free web site hosting services are generally utilized by the newbies.
There are also certain disadvantages of using the free web site hosting services. When using the free web site hosting service, you are forced to place the ads and banners by the web site hosting company on your web pages. Also the revenue that is obtained by the ads goes to the web site company. In case of paid web site hosting service, ads and banners placed on your web site are according to your will and the revenue of the banners and ads placed on your web site goes in your pocket. Also in some case of free web site hosting, the domain name of your web site starts with the web site hosting company name followed by your web site name. This is not the case of paid web site hosting service. You get a unique web site domain. The web space provided by free web site hosting service is limited whereas in case of paid web site hosting service you can buy the web space according to your requirements.
About The Author:
Roger McLean is marketing executive of http://www.mojoscripts.com. Copyright 2007 by Tela IT Inc. The article may be reproduced in newsletters or on websites provided that the complete article text is included, unchanged, and that neither the copyright declaration nor this license are removed.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
How To Choose Your Web Host
1. How long have you been in business ?
Very important, as Web hosting is a business that requires a lot of technical experience. It is very high tech, and a new company might not have had the time to get accustomed to all the many different technologies you'll be using for your Web site.
2. Who are your customers ?
Are their current customers serious business people or just hobby Webmasters with personal homepages? Ask for some URLs of serious ecommerce sites that they host.
3. Do you provide live 24x7x365 support ?
You will definitely require support from your Web host from time to time. Questions will arise that you'll need answers to. Sometimes you'll need these answers as soon as possible, or even immediately. A good Web host must have 24 hour support staff available on hand to take your emails and calls. Your emails should be responded to within 1-2 hours max.
4. Do you guarantee 99% uptime ?
No matter how good a Web host, your site will be unavailable for short periods of times due to routine maintenance work. The best Web hosts however offer a money back guarantee in case your Web site isn't up 99% of the time (over the period of one year usually).
5. What kind of Internet connection do you have ?
You need a fast connection from your Web site to the Internet. The fastest connections are leased lines (includes T-1, T-3, OC-3 and DS-3). You should be looking for a Web host with leased lines. No leased lines? Simply look for another Web host.
6. What features do you offer ?
You MUST be provided with a CGI directory for your scripts. Also, PHP capability is becoming more and more important. Of course, you want the obvious features such as POP email accounts, email aliases, autoresponders (very important) and access to log files.
7. How much data transfer am I allowed per month ?
Unless you're going to purchase a dedicated server, you'll be limited to the amount of traffic you can drive to your Web site per month. Don't worry however, as you'll be offered more than enough transfer for a small-medium site. And if you get so much traffic that you exceed the transfer quota, well then that's a good thing! For it means you can make more money, and so can afford to upgrade to a more powerful server. A quota of 3GB of monthly transfer should be enough to begin with.
Source : http://www.cyberwebglobal.com/hosting_articles/website_hosting_article1.htm
Very important, as Web hosting is a business that requires a lot of technical experience. It is very high tech, and a new company might not have had the time to get accustomed to all the many different technologies you'll be using for your Web site.
2. Who are your customers ?
Are their current customers serious business people or just hobby Webmasters with personal homepages? Ask for some URLs of serious ecommerce sites that they host.
3. Do you provide live 24x7x365 support ?
You will definitely require support from your Web host from time to time. Questions will arise that you'll need answers to. Sometimes you'll need these answers as soon as possible, or even immediately. A good Web host must have 24 hour support staff available on hand to take your emails and calls. Your emails should be responded to within 1-2 hours max.
4. Do you guarantee 99% uptime ?
No matter how good a Web host, your site will be unavailable for short periods of times due to routine maintenance work. The best Web hosts however offer a money back guarantee in case your Web site isn't up 99% of the time (over the period of one year usually).
5. What kind of Internet connection do you have ?
You need a fast connection from your Web site to the Internet. The fastest connections are leased lines (includes T-1, T-3, OC-3 and DS-3). You should be looking for a Web host with leased lines. No leased lines? Simply look for another Web host.
6. What features do you offer ?
You MUST be provided with a CGI directory for your scripts. Also, PHP capability is becoming more and more important. Of course, you want the obvious features such as POP email accounts, email aliases, autoresponders (very important) and access to log files.
7. How much data transfer am I allowed per month ?
Unless you're going to purchase a dedicated server, you'll be limited to the amount of traffic you can drive to your Web site per month. Don't worry however, as you'll be offered more than enough transfer for a small-medium site. And if you get so much traffic that you exceed the transfer quota, well then that's a good thing! For it means you can make more money, and so can afford to upgrade to a more powerful server. A quota of 3GB of monthly transfer should be enough to begin with.
Source : http://www.cyberwebglobal.com/hosting_articles/website_hosting_article1.htm
Friday, August 24, 2007
36 Questions to ask your Web Host before you buy
We have put together 36 questions across 10 areas that you should as any hosting company before you purchase a website.
Technical Support:
Technical support should be readily available. Your average hold time should not exceed a couple of minutes. If the hold time for support is long, this means that there are a lot of problems with the product or there support is understaffed.
1. How strong is their technical support division?
2. What do they provide?
3. When are they available?
4. Does tech support cost extra?
Security:
The website hosting servers should be hosted at a remote location with multiple backup across multiple locations. The servers should also be dual firewall protected. If the websites are hosted in this type of an environment, it means that you are protected against any power failure, natural disaster, or people trying to steal your information. You can check how many servers a company is hosting by asking them for the address of one of the companies they host. Then go to http://whois.sc, and look up that name. Whois will tell you how many sites they are hosting. Use a company that is hosting several thousand websites.
5. How secure is the site?
6. What type of protection do they offer?
7. How can they insure that unauthorized users will not compromise the integrity of your Web site?
Storage:
The amount of storage your website hosting offers is related to how large your website can become. You want to make sure that you have enough space to not only to build your current website, but to expand in the future.
8. How much storage do they offer ?
9. A typical Web site uses between 20-30 MB.
10. Do they offer enough extra megabytes to for your business to grow into? 100MB is a good starting point.
Domains:
Getting a Domain name for your business is one of the most important things you could do. To find out more about domains, read our article ?
11. Will the hosting company register your Domain name?
12. How long will it take?
13. Is there any extra cost to you?
Design:
There are 3 basic website design options.
1) Hire a web developer to design the entire website.
2) A template solution that is inexpensive, but modifications are limited.
3) A table based solution where the initial content is provided by the hosting company but everything including the entire layout can be changed. Make sure which type you are purchasing and if this is the correct solution for you.
14. Do they have a builder that you can manage easily?
15. What type of computer background do you need to design your site?
16. Do you have internal control over content and updates?
Email:
There are 2 types of email. The first is POP 3. This email type is attached to the domain name, and the email can be viewed from a web mail Internet browser window, or downloaded to a program such as Outlook or Eudora. The second email type is a forwarding address or email alias, where you have an email address that is @YourDomain, but it forwards to a different email address. POP 3 is usually more desirable because you can view your email from a variety of applications, and it strengthens your company image.
17. How many email aliases comes with your package?
18. Will they have your domain name in them for a more professional appearance?
19. What is the cost to add extra emails?
20. Are there any additional costs?
Search Engine Optimization:
You should submit your website to the search engines, such as Google, about once a month. This will help to rank you higher in the search rankings
21. Are search engine submissions included in your package?
22. How does it work?
23. Do you have internal control over content and updates?
Cost:
Make sure there are no hidden costs. Some companies will give you a low price knowing that they can charge you for additional services latter on.
24. What are the costs involved?
25. What are the initial setup fees and what do you get exactly?
26. What are the monthly maintenance fees are what do they cover?
27. Are there any additional charges?
28. If so, what are they and why?
Contract:
29. Am I locked into a contract?
31. May I cancel at anytime?
32. Are there any penalty fees for switching or closing my account?
33. What happens to my content?
Value:
34. What makes them better than their competition?
35. Do they offer extra features, storage space, better technical support?
36. What exactly sets them apart?
For help or questions about Web Hosting, contact G2Apex at contact@G2Apex.com or call 408-454-6543
Source : http://www.articlealley.com/article_93092_2.html
Technical Support:
Technical support should be readily available. Your average hold time should not exceed a couple of minutes. If the hold time for support is long, this means that there are a lot of problems with the product or there support is understaffed.
1. How strong is their technical support division?
2. What do they provide?
3. When are they available?
4. Does tech support cost extra?
Security:
The website hosting servers should be hosted at a remote location with multiple backup across multiple locations. The servers should also be dual firewall protected. If the websites are hosted in this type of an environment, it means that you are protected against any power failure, natural disaster, or people trying to steal your information. You can check how many servers a company is hosting by asking them for the address of one of the companies they host. Then go to http://whois.sc, and look up that name. Whois will tell you how many sites they are hosting. Use a company that is hosting several thousand websites.
5. How secure is the site?
6. What type of protection do they offer?
7. How can they insure that unauthorized users will not compromise the integrity of your Web site?
Storage:
The amount of storage your website hosting offers is related to how large your website can become. You want to make sure that you have enough space to not only to build your current website, but to expand in the future.
8. How much storage do they offer ?
9. A typical Web site uses between 20-30 MB.
10. Do they offer enough extra megabytes to for your business to grow into? 100MB is a good starting point.
Domains:
Getting a Domain name for your business is one of the most important things you could do. To find out more about domains, read our article ?
11. Will the hosting company register your Domain name?
12. How long will it take?
13. Is there any extra cost to you?
Design:
There are 3 basic website design options.
1) Hire a web developer to design the entire website.
2) A template solution that is inexpensive, but modifications are limited.
3) A table based solution where the initial content is provided by the hosting company but everything including the entire layout can be changed. Make sure which type you are purchasing and if this is the correct solution for you.
14. Do they have a builder that you can manage easily?
15. What type of computer background do you need to design your site?
16. Do you have internal control over content and updates?
Email:
There are 2 types of email. The first is POP 3. This email type is attached to the domain name, and the email can be viewed from a web mail Internet browser window, or downloaded to a program such as Outlook or Eudora. The second email type is a forwarding address or email alias, where you have an email address that is @YourDomain, but it forwards to a different email address. POP 3 is usually more desirable because you can view your email from a variety of applications, and it strengthens your company image.
17. How many email aliases comes with your package?
18. Will they have your domain name in them for a more professional appearance?
19. What is the cost to add extra emails?
20. Are there any additional costs?
Search Engine Optimization:
You should submit your website to the search engines, such as Google, about once a month. This will help to rank you higher in the search rankings
21. Are search engine submissions included in your package?
22. How does it work?
23. Do you have internal control over content and updates?
Cost:
Make sure there are no hidden costs. Some companies will give you a low price knowing that they can charge you for additional services latter on.
24. What are the costs involved?
25. What are the initial setup fees and what do you get exactly?
26. What are the monthly maintenance fees are what do they cover?
27. Are there any additional charges?
28. If so, what are they and why?
Contract:
29. Am I locked into a contract?
31. May I cancel at anytime?
32. Are there any penalty fees for switching or closing my account?
33. What happens to my content?
Value:
34. What makes them better than their competition?
35. Do they offer extra features, storage space, better technical support?
36. What exactly sets them apart?
For help or questions about Web Hosting, contact G2Apex at contact@G2Apex.com or call 408-454-6543
Source : http://www.articlealley.com/article_93092_2.html
Saturday, August 11, 2007
Choosing a Web Host
Choosing a web host seems to be a daunting task at first. For a beginner it would seem that the selection of a web host is more difficult that actually building a website. This is not the case; however there are a few items that need to be considered when choosing a plan. Understand that this guide is for novice webmasters, and that it is assumed advanced hosting requirements such as MySQL or other Windows Web Hosting specific applications will either not be required or already understood. Although we will touch on this information, it will not be covered in-depth.
Here we will look at number of visitors and download requirements, necessary formats, uptime, and the service level agreement.
Obviously more is better, but planning for traffic is important. If the site is very new and little to no marketing is actively driving traffic to a site then obviously it is of little concern. Of course if the site is new and you plan to run an ad during the Super Bowl, then you better be ready to take on some serious traffic. This is an extreme example, but it is relevant. Most young sites will receive no organic traffic until they make it into the search engines and begin to show up for searches. Email campaigns are a way of driving traffic without search engines, but this is known as “burst traffic” and occurs at regular intervals controlled by the webmaster. It is important to understand how much traffic should be expected and plan accordingly. Bandwidth costs money, so if you don’t need it, don’t buy it. 50 GB of transfer (downloads and uploads) will usually cost less than $10.00 USD per month so use that as a starting point.
The format of the website in question is important. Although the various scripting languages that can be used are a topic outside the scope of this guide, we will touch on it as some information is needed. Certain software is required to run certain applications. Most notably Widows specific applications will almost never run in Linux based servers. Popular examples of Widows Hosting specific applications are ASP, .NET, and MySQL. Linux has apps that will serve similar purposes so the need for a specific host can be overcome. CGI and PHP are popular examples of Linux based apps.
Most hosting companies will guarantee a certain amount of uptime. For small personal sites this isn’t much of an issue, but for business sites that are designed to earn money this is a big deal. Look for more than 99% uptime in a reliable host, and make sure this is in writing (electronic or otherwise). 100% is not reasonable even with appropriate redundancy in a system, so the best host around will offer 99.9% uptime.
A service level agreement should come with any hosting plan offered by a reputable firm. The less expensive the hosting plan is, the less service will come with it as a rule. Often a $10 monthly plan and a $50 monthly plan look almost identical till it comes down to what type of customer service is available. All plans come with some level of service, the least expensive being almost entirely email support. As the price tag goes up phone support becomes available, and at the highest end corporate and co-location support tends to be on-site. Don’t shy away from email support. It’s 24 hours and almost all issues can be dealt with in this format.
Jon Norwood is founder and managing partner of AccessHosts, a site dedicated to providing information on Windows Hosting as well as guides on how to best choose a service.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Norwood
Here we will look at number of visitors and download requirements, necessary formats, uptime, and the service level agreement.
Obviously more is better, but planning for traffic is important. If the site is very new and little to no marketing is actively driving traffic to a site then obviously it is of little concern. Of course if the site is new and you plan to run an ad during the Super Bowl, then you better be ready to take on some serious traffic. This is an extreme example, but it is relevant. Most young sites will receive no organic traffic until they make it into the search engines and begin to show up for searches. Email campaigns are a way of driving traffic without search engines, but this is known as “burst traffic” and occurs at regular intervals controlled by the webmaster. It is important to understand how much traffic should be expected and plan accordingly. Bandwidth costs money, so if you don’t need it, don’t buy it. 50 GB of transfer (downloads and uploads) will usually cost less than $10.00 USD per month so use that as a starting point.
The format of the website in question is important. Although the various scripting languages that can be used are a topic outside the scope of this guide, we will touch on it as some information is needed. Certain software is required to run certain applications. Most notably Widows specific applications will almost never run in Linux based servers. Popular examples of Widows Hosting specific applications are ASP, .NET, and MySQL. Linux has apps that will serve similar purposes so the need for a specific host can be overcome. CGI and PHP are popular examples of Linux based apps.
Most hosting companies will guarantee a certain amount of uptime. For small personal sites this isn’t much of an issue, but for business sites that are designed to earn money this is a big deal. Look for more than 99% uptime in a reliable host, and make sure this is in writing (electronic or otherwise). 100% is not reasonable even with appropriate redundancy in a system, so the best host around will offer 99.9% uptime.
A service level agreement should come with any hosting plan offered by a reputable firm. The less expensive the hosting plan is, the less service will come with it as a rule. Often a $10 monthly plan and a $50 monthly plan look almost identical till it comes down to what type of customer service is available. All plans come with some level of service, the least expensive being almost entirely email support. As the price tag goes up phone support becomes available, and at the highest end corporate and co-location support tends to be on-site. Don’t shy away from email support. It’s 24 hours and almost all issues can be dealt with in this format.
Jon Norwood is founder and managing partner of AccessHosts, a site dedicated to providing information on Windows Hosting as well as guides on how to best choose a service.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jon_Norwood
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
