Four Critical Factors to Business Web Hosting Success

There are a number of business web hosting services over the internet. It is important to choose a business web hosting service that caters to your needs. Do you require a business web hosting that is a dedicated server, a managed server, or a shared server? A business website could be very simple or complicated depending on the entity. The business could sell one product and may only require a simple e-commerce site or a very complex pay per click engine with complete statistics and payment features.

There are a nearly thousands of business web hosting services you can find online. These business hosting sites offer a number of features. Some may be unfamiliar to you such as Miva Scripting, co-location services, virtual private servers, redundant backbone connections and many others. You must define your aim. Ask why do you need a business web hosting company? This way you will only look for the services that you truly need for your business web hosting. You will not end up paying for the services that you do not actually need.

A business web hosting site can range from $40 - $50 a month to thousands of dollars. The price range will usually depend on the dedicated servers and bandwidth capacity. Choosing a business web hosting service is a major consideration. This is because down time usually means your business is down too.

You must consider a number of factors before committing to a business web hosting service. One factor is a business web hosting service must offer a money back, no questions guarantee. Another is an uptime guarantee. You should also consider the types of backups they offer. A business web hosting service should have redundant backbone connections to the internet or connected to the internet by more than one major backbone providers. A business web hosting service must offer 24/7 technical, phone, and email support. You should also check the background of the web hosting service; how long have they been in business and do they have business references of sites that they host. Also, a web hosting vendor should also make it easy for you to upgrade/down services. And finally, know if the web hosting service requires monthly or annual payments.

Choosing the right business web hosting service is essential for your business to grow. Your web hosting service may spell the difference between success and failure in your business. That is why great care should be exercised in choosing one.

Finding Podcast Hosting

For anyone who wants to begin creating a podcast, podcast hosting is the most important part. Before anyone can begin distributing a podcast, they need a place to store the files and keep the feed file that will tell their subscribers about the new episodes available. The first thing required is a domain name where the site will be located. Many domain registrars are available who will help one register a domain name for a small fee. Once the domain is registered, hosting is required, and again there are many different companies willing to do the hosting for a small fee. One of those is bluehost.com, but many others are available. When looking for a host, the most important thing is to make sure that a lot bandwidth and storage space is available and cheap. Since podcasting deals with large media files, a lot of disk space will be taken up storing the files and bandwidth will be eaten quickly when they are downloaded by the subscribers.

After podcast hosting has been acquired, it needs to be used and the site needs to be set up. The DNS addresses of the site need to be set to the addresses that the host provides you so that the servers that underlie the internet will know where your site is. DNS addresses can be set by going to the domain registrar that was used to acquire the domain and inputting the addresses provided by the host. After that is done, it will take a few days before the master list the domain registar updates will be shared throughout the internet and all name servers know where to find your specific domain. You can then go about setting up your own podcast.

Using the podcast hosting you now have, you will need to look at the disk space allocated to the site using something called and FTP browser. The host may provide one as part of their hosting plan, but if not there are many available free to choose from. Using the FTP browser, log on to the host and upload a file called dircaster.php after editing it to fit the specifics of the site. Dircaster.php is an easy to find piece of coding that generates a feed file by looking at the contents of its directory or folder. The individual episodes to be podcasted can then be uploaded to the same folder as dircaster.php for cataloging. Make sure that all the meta data, or information about the mp3 file is correct before doing so.

The podcast hosting you now have will allow you to distribute a podcast. It would be best to upload more to the site, such as an index page that tells visitors about the podcast and provides the address of the file dircaster.php on your site. When they subscribe to that file, the podcast client thy use will access it and recieve information about the latest podcasts available.

Choosing Your Web Host

It isn’t easy trying to choose the correct and best web hosting plan to best suit your needs. Even though there are so many web-hosting companies out there, some thought and careful consideration should be implemented. Two things you don’t want are:

You don’t want to end up having to pay for extra features that you realise afterwards you needed.
You don’t want your sites not showing up on the Internet due to excessive downtime by your hosting providers servers.

When choosing your web host you also need to consider your requirements. You will need to consider:

How many websites will you need?
How much disk space and bandwidth do you need?
What extras will you need eg email with auto-responders included?
How much do you want to spend on web hosting?

You should compare at least 5 hosting providers to see what they are offering. Here’s what you should look for

A reasonable price for your needs - usually a monthly fee.

Disk space and Bandwidth allowance – is your site or sites going to have audio, video or downloadable material?

How Many Domains – look for unlimited.

Sub Domains – look for unlimited.

Does it have an in-built Website Builder? Comes in very handy if you don’t know much about building websites.

24/7 email and phone support – this is important. Not everyone has this.

At least a 99.5% uptime 99.9% is best

Free set-up – no hidden charges.

Unlimited email accounts allowed.

FTP accounts.

Auto-responders included – you don’t want to pay extra to add on an auto-responder later.

Compare all other special features even though you believe you may not need them like

CGI.
FrontPage.
Streaming Audio and Video.
Hotlink protection.
Web stats.

When choosing a web host it’s important you take your time to compare hosting plans before you make the decision. There are some out there that are absolutely useless at web hosting, remember that anyone can become a web host. Your best bet is to go with a company that has been around a few years. Search for online reviews on the company you are considering.
If you are considering a new web host I would recommend you include http://www.hostgator.bloggers-guide.com
in your list of 5 web hosts to compare. – Visit the link. Go to “WEBHOSTING” Take a look at the plans – and when you make the comparison you’ll find that they will come out on top.

Web Hosting: Free or Fee

Why should you pay for a web site when you can get one for free? There are several advantages and disadvantages to consider when choosing between free and fee hosting companies for your web site:

1. Will you have your own domain name? With free web sites, domain names are nearly always structured in a way that it makes your URL difficult to remember, and you may lose sales as a result.

2. Will your web site allow high traffic volume? Free sites have bandwidth restrictions. This means that after a certain amount of people in a given day visit your site, the page will no longer load and potential customers will receive a message such as "This web site has exceeded its bandwidth limit. Please try again tomorrow". Some free sites provide sufficient bandwidth, especially if your site is light on graphics, but many do not.

3. Will your web site be online at all times? Some servers are better than others. With a free site, you run the risk of downed servers showing visitors the dreaded "Error 404: Page Not Found" message when they click over to your site. Most paid sites have precautions to deal with server failure.

4. Will you have to become a computer programmer? Before signing up for any web site service, find out whether they have templates and easy-to-use site building tools or whether you have to create your pages in HTML code. If you plan to use a program like Dreamweaver or FrontPage to create your site, this will not matter. But if you are not, and you do not know HTML, you need to make sure you will be able to put things on your web pages with relative ease.

5. Will your visitors mind outside advertising and/or popup ads? Probably. Most free sites use outside advertising on all their pages. This is how they make money. Banner ads are usually acceptable, but if you have a page with three or four popups that spring out at unsuspecting visitors, they will be quick to leave and never come back. Find out what type of advertising the hosting company uses before signing up for a free program.

This is not to say you absolutely should not go with a free site. Particularly when you are first starting out, a free site may be just what you need, and you can always upgrade to a paid site. For that reason, you should look into a web hosting company that offers both free and paid sites (or just start out with a paid site).

Reseller Web Hosting Explained

Reseller web hosting is a web hosting service that re-bundles services available from real hosts or primary providers. Reseller web hosting could be an individual or small business that makes use of the bandwidth and web servers of a higher tier provider or primary host and resells the same to the customers by offering value added services like web designing, domain registration and web programming.

Most real hosting companies allow reseller web hosting in order to boost their sales. Recently, a significant number of web hosting businesses have infiltrated the internet with an eye on the ever-growing number of people who are jumping online. In order to remain competitive, hosting companies look for ways to market their services to a greater number of people rather than offering their services individually. This leads to the business of reseller web hosting accounts. In reseller web hosting, real hosts are able to generate bulk businesses and delegate individual clients to reseller servers. In turn, reseller web hosting businesses look after some individual client's needs. This is a win-win situation for both, since real hosts will have an intermediary in the form of reseller web hosting to individual customers without having to attend to them one by one. The reseller is also able to put up a business and earn income without having to shell out capital outlays. Although in some instances they do compete with each other for a fair share of the web hosting market, the real hosts can still benefit from this set-up considering they do charge a certain amount from resellers.

The services offered by a reseller web hosting service do not really differ from a real host. As a matter of fact, reseller web hosting offers more features to the customers. Due to the added value services, reseller web hosting can offer web design and programming services to each customer that are often times not possible from real hosts. Real hosts tend to focus on bulk accounts and corporate clients. Reseller web hosting offers value added services to customers in order to maintain a competitive edge against bigger web hosting services.

Reseller web hosting is also better able to establish friendly relationship with their customers that go beyond the contract terms. This is the secret for those successful reseller web-hosting services. They fill the need that bigger hosting servers cannot provide. Those who want to start a reseller web hosting business are advised to look for a real host, such as Hostgator or SpeedHostingZ.com. It is very easy to obtain a reseller account from a real host these days.

If you need simple hosting services for your web site and you prefer to have personal attention from the web host for design and programming then a reseller web hosting account is highly recommended. However, if you have a business website that requires complex e-commerce solutions, have a very large number of customers accessing your web site or you have a large number of websites to be hosted, a reseller hosting would probably not suffice. This is particularly true for e-businesses. For this, you need a real host provider for your web site.

8 Ways To Host Your Site

There are 8 basic types of the web hosting available in the market today. Hosting even by IT standards, is not considered exciting, if it was a country it would be Belgium. If it was another business it would be fleet car leasing, where shared hosting would be company car pooling. Dedicated, leasing of cars to a sales force on a rolling annual rental contract or lease agreement. Like the gold rush in the Sierra Nevada in 49, nobody pays much attention to the stores the picks and shovels, but this is a mistake it can be vital to your sites success. It is crucial to security and in vital if maintaining site integrity, to have a hosting partner who will grow with you and react quickly and decisively to resolve problems when they arise. A good host can even be a source of revenue for your site.

1. Dedicated Server – rental as well as the exclusive use of an internet connection, server and software

2. Shared hosting – Multiple websites are being hosted on just one remote hard drive and server

3. Reseller hosting – reselling of hosting accounts for another web host under a brand of your own. You determine the pricing structure and other aspects of the offer.

4. Virtual Private Server - You are not renting a real server, but you are rather splitting hardware with the other virtual servers running on the same machine. Many self contained virtual server can exist on one rented remote server.

5. Free hosting – Service usually offered by ISP’s or compensated with advertisements on your website. Free hosting usually offers little or no support, bandwidth, space, or the free scripts or site building features you enjoy with shared and dedicated hosting.

6. Managed Hosting - Expanded dedicated web server hosting. In dedicated servers, the client has to take care of his or her own server but in managed hosting, the provider would have the responsibility of doing that Unmanaged Hosting - Total remote control administration of your web server. The server's technical aspects are controlled by the designated administrator which you would select to manage and handle your website information.

7. Colocation – Requires that you to bring your server to the data center of your host.

8. Clustered hosting - Used by the biggest and most important websites, you buy manage and physically house the servers yourself. Clustered means that the same content would be served on a number of servers enabling better redundancy and resource. Works well for Google.

As you can see there are many types of hosting account. Whether you are planning business web hosting or you intend to run a school site or maybe you are simply planning on getting a small hobby site up and running, you have a decision to make, what hosting package do you chose.

This article abstract is published on behalf of www.123ftpdirectory.com an online web services company. We are the one stop web shop, everything you need to set up a site under one roof, we trawl through the web and review the best services and then publish just a select list of web services we try to restrict to just six service providers in each category.

To learn more, we have more than 20 articles on design, hosting, analytics, and web development CLICK HERE

Mail Server Blacklists and Spam

A white-list is a list of email senders whom you trust and would like to receive mail from. Conversely, a blacklist contains those that are not to be trusted. Blacklists need to be configured and administered on a server, at the ISP (Internet Service Provider) level or on your network. If you do not have such access, and most people do not, you can use the blacklists by choosing email services from companies that use such blacklisting techniques.

A mail server is designated as having an open relay when mail is processed in a location that is not local to either the sender or receiver. The mail server is unrelated to either party, and as such, has no business processing that email. Think of driving from your home in Washington, DC to your friend's home in Boston. If you pass through New York City on the way, that is to be expected. However, if you stop in Dallas, the route becomes suspect. An open relay mail server, whether intentional or not, is allowing mail to be routed through it that shouldn't be. In this way, spammers distribute large volumes of junk email in order to disguise their actions. Open relays used to be very common, like public mailboxes. You can drop a letter into any one without any notice of who you are. Spammers ruined this by using open relays to surreptitiously send spam without identifying themselves. When blocked by the administrator or ISP, they simply move on. They regularly scan IP addresses looking for open relay servers. When they find one, they exploit it.

Blacklists contain a database of open relay mail servers and those known to be a source of spam, and are used to filter email coming from those machines. The sender will receive a bounce message or mailer deamon telling them that their email is undeliverable. Often, the sender does not realize that they are on a blacklist or that their server is an open relay. They find out only when they attempt to send mail to someone who is uses a blacklist to filter for spam. If the sender is a spammer, the process is working. If the sender is you, the process is also working because it will force you to take steps to close that open relay or complain to the company who is handling your mail. By closing the holes in the email relay network, the spammers will be forced to stop sourcing their spam in this way. This is but one way to slow down, not stop, the spammers.

Blacklists have a very high probability of false-positives if used in blind faith. Depending on those that maintain the blacklist, email sent in good faith could land innocent people and mail servers on a blacklist. This usually happens to one of two ways. The first is through the procedure most blacklist providers use to find open relays. They simply do what the spammers do and scan IP address to look for a server that will allow them to connect and send mail. Once the program finds an open relay they add the server to the blacklist. The system administrator of the server is usually never notified. There can be mistakes made in this process leaving the administrator with a huge problem when mail starts getting lost or bounced back. Second, you may receive an IP from your provider that was previously blacklisted, even though it may no longer be an open relay. To avoid this, check the IP address against the known blacklists and ask your provider for a new one if it indeed appears.

Do you know whether your ISP maintains an open relay? If you discovered that your employee was doing work for someone else while on your time, you would certainly put a stop to it. Open relay mail servers are doing exactly that and need to be confronted. A mail server should be configured to only relay messages from authenticated users on the network. If properly protected, the server will simply tell the sender that they do not work for outsiders and bounce the message back. More and more, administrators of servers are blocking the open relay. This has been instumental in slowing down spam.

Other Features You Could Pack Into a USA Reseller Web Hosting Account

As a reseller, you will probably find your hosting capacities limited by the number of features that are available on the server you are buying space from. But a USA reseller web hosting outfit would have the advantage of having space from state-of-the-art servers at their disposal, with maximum stability and scalability to boot!

More than any other kind of reseller, a USA reseller web hosting account would be able to offer a wide variety of features. As a reseller, you should know which features would draw in more customers, and give them better value for their money. Here are just some of the features you can offer as a reseller:

1. Merchant accounts. This would prove especially useful for people who are into building secure online stores. A more reliable online shopping experience necessitates the inclusion of payment gateways, which would facilitate all financial transactions made online. Without these gateways, transactions may be limited to email exchanges, which are certainly not secure and not recommended for the first-time online store owner!

Getting a merchant account costs a bit extra, so when a reseller offers this option, it is assumed that the customer will shoulder the cost of the merchant account when he or she purchases the web space resellerpackage. Look into the different payment gateways, and see which of the more popular names would prove to be most cost-efficient for you and your customers.

2. Scripting support. Some customers will want to play around with scripts like PHP, ASP, ColdFusion and Javascript. Scripts are needed to make more dynamic webpages, which is why many web hosts make it a point to make their servers support as many scripting languages as possible.

However, some scripting servers do come at a considerable cost, which is why sometimes resellers take it upon themselves to purchase scripting functionality in lieu of the web hosts. This may be quite expensive on your part, but if you're targeting web developers specifically, the returns may be worth it.

3. Webpage templates. If you're targeting first-time owners of webpages who are quite new to HTML and dynamic scripting, you may wish to offer ready-made templates that they could just fill up. Added services like web design, development and database management may be worth paying for if your client wants a one-stop web solution out of his or her reseller.

If you're adept in DHTML and any other scripting language, you could easily make something like this yourself! But as and good USA reseller web hosting vendor knows, good service can always be found online at the right price.

How To Find Web Hosting That Doesn?t Leave You Broke

If you have an online business or maybe even several like I do, web hosting can be a significant expense not to mention the fact that reliable web hosting is absolutely crucial to the success of your business. All it takes is a server going down during a big marketing promotion and your reputation suffers. In this article we will explore some of the things to look for in a quality web hosting company for a fair price.

First off let?s get some basics out of the way for those who may not fully understand what web hosting is. Web hosting is simply the place that your website?s files and documents are located which allows your site to be pulled up on the internet. This is why it is crucial that the web host be reliable, if there server isn?t working neither are you.

When you are looking for web hosting online there are so many to choose from that it can be an overwhelming task to try to hone it down to a handful to consider. You need to keep a few things in mind before you get started however, and the first is don?t just go with the cheapest because of that reason. They are the cheapest web host because they aren?t giving certain features so you need to identify basic features that you need before you start shopping.

Some of the basic features that you will want from your web hosting company will be a choice of programming languages, databases, email addresses, bandwidth allowance, disk space and how many domains you are allowed to host. You will also want to know what kind of server and administration or control panel is offered, basically your choices will be Linux or Windows based servers. I prefer Linux servers with Cpanel installed because I am familiar with it and it makes my job a whole lot easier. Linux systems are usually less expensive than comparable Windows web hosting services plus they will offer the MYSQL and PHP programs that you will need for your online business. Most Linux based programming and databases are free, which is another reason why servers offering Linux are less expensive.

It is nearly impossible to find inexpensive web hosting with a Windows based server due to the fact that it cost the hosting company so much to get it in the first place and like anything else in life, that expense is passed on to the end user. To get a Windows based system at the same price as a Linux one you will probably have to give up many features so bear that in mind as well.

When assessing the reliability of a web hosting company do a little research on them, don?t just take their claims of 99% up time on their sales page as gospel. There are many web hosting companies out there that allow spammers to operate on their servers and they end up causing problems for everyone on that server, especially if you are on a shared server that is also sharing a block of IP addresses. You could end up having your site delisted and banned and have your emails blocked because of something someone else is doing.

One way that I like to check out hosting companies support is to either email them or if they have it enabled, have a live chat with them and ask them all my questions. If you email a web hosting company and it takes them awhile to get back to you when you are a prospective client what kind of service do you think they will give you once they have your money?

Web Hosting Solution Helps Businesses Grow

You can have the greatest store on the planet offering the best products for the best prices, but if no one travels down the road on which your store is located, your business will fail due to lack of customers. The same holds true with an internet business. Regardless of the quality of your site, you will need a web hosting solution to get you noticed on the information highway.

Numerous websites are built from the ground up and those new to the internet often forget a few basics such as the importance of meta tags and their relevance to the page on which they are attached. Many web hosting solution companies will advise that the tags, which are hidden from view but imbedded in the page`s code, are the first glimpse a search engine has as to the relevance of your site to the information requested in a search.

There a couple of important considerations to keep in mind when searching for a hosting company offering web hosting solutions for you or your business. The amount of space provided for your site and the amount of bandwidth available for your visitors. It may be better to have more available than you plan to use to keep your site up and running and for any additional adjustments you make in the future.

Dedicated Servers Reduce Down Time

If the web hosting solution provider you chose continues to have a lot of down time, you might consider switching to one that offers dedicated servers. That is one who sets aside whatever size storage server you contract for strictly for you. This also prevents what is known as crossover with other sites that may be on the same server as yours.

Additionally, dedicated servers also offer the web hosting solution of potential viruses from getting into your files from another site. Since yours will be isolated into its own dedicated memory, nothing can get in unless you put it there. You can either contract for them with a good web hosting company, or buy your own and set them up in your place of business.

Most web hosting solution services offer help in website design and other services that go along with it, such as form building, shopping carts and others and will often give you a good price on the hosting plan if you also purchase the other services being offered. Whatever your choice of services, carefully research all web hosting company plans before making a long-term commitment.

What You Need To Know About Web Hosting

Choosing the right web hosting is a crucial internet marketing decision. Getting it wrong is not an option!

Once you've chosen your web hosting company and the hosting package, you could be stuck with it for a long time.

Changing web hosts, with all the associated problems of transferring domain names, moving files, ensuring compatibility with the previous host, all combine to make it about as difficult as changing your bank.

Here's some of the points to look out for when choosing a new web hosting package:

* Technical support: How good and how fast is it? Email support is fine if you are guaranteed a fast response time. But better still is a local telephone help line. You might need help quickly.

* Technologies supported: As a minimum these days, you'd be looking for web servers which support "PHP" (a web scripting language) and "MySQL" (a web database system). It would also be useful at times to be able to set up and run "Cron Jobs" (which run programs, such as an auto responder mailout system, at regular times).

My advice is to avoid "Windows" web servers, and go for the more popular "Unix" / "Linux" servers. They are much more secure. Most of the hacking attempts I've detected on my web servers have been trying to exploit weaknesses in Microsoft Windows servers!

* Ease of use: If you know how to use an "FTP" program (software which lets you upload files from your computer to your web server), you might not need any more help. But, increasingly, hosting companies are providing their
customers with web-based control panels, letting you do a whole range of tasks through your browser. "cPanel" is the most popular and powerful control panel.

* Domain names: How many domain names are you allowed to set up with your web space? Do you get a free domain name with your account? You may want to run a number of different websites on the same server space - even if some of them are simple two- or three-page sales sites.

* Web space offered: Surprisingly, this is not as important as it used to be. Many hosting companies are offering web space in excess of 500 Mb - and you can get a lot of web pages into even 25 Mb! But, in my opinion, you can never
have too much web space!

* Web statistics provided: Knowing what is happening on your website(s) is vitally important to an internet marketer. You need to know (on a multi-page site) on which pages people are entering your site (it's not always your home page), where they came from (other websites and search engines) and a lot more. Some hosting companies give you goos summary reports. Others just give you the raw log files which you have to analyze using special software.

* Cost: I've left this to the end because it shouldn't be your most important consideration. Free web space is best left for little personal websites, but for internet marketers, "commercial-grade" web space, meeting the points
I've mentioned above, is a must. Having said that, you should be able to get excellent web hosting packages for about $10 to $20 per month. Don't make cost your main consideration!

If you use these criteria to screen prospective hosting packages, you should be able to pick a good one. But before you commit yourself, just do a search for your short listed hosting companies on Google Groups and see if there are any negative comments about the hosting companies you are considering.

ResellersPanel Debuts Dedicated and Virtual Private Servers

ResellersPanel, the emblem of free reseller hosting, announces the launch of its new line of dedicated, semi-dedicated and virtual private servers. A dedicated hosting service means that the client rents an entire server not shared with anyone else, which is typically located in a data center. Besides choosing one of ResellersPanel's five predefined dedicated server packages offering top-notch hardware and the latest cutting-edge processors from Intel and AMD, the more advanced users can also build their own server configuration up from scratch. They are provided with complete root access and thus will be able to install and configure any additional software, and also to reboot the server at any time. Those who do not possess the skills necessary to maintain a dedicated server can consider one of ResellersPanel's Managed Services packages and free themselves of any administration responsibilities.

ResellersPanel has launched three virtual private server packages offering 200, 400 and 800 GB monthly traffic, respectively, as well. A virtual private server implies the division of a physical server into smaller virtual ones, which work as if they were dedicated servers and run their own full-fledged operating systems. The users can choose between Cent OS, Fedora Core 4 and Debian OSs, and between Plesk and cPanel web hosting control panel types. They can reboot their machines independently with the help of the Virtuozzo Power Console, a software-based virtualization environment, and install almost any software that runs on the chosen OS. The semi-dedicated servers, on the other hand, will be accommodating no more than 5-6 accounts each, so that every user will be able to use up to 20% of the CPU resources, perform up to 90 000 MySQL queries per hour and host unlimited domains and e-mail addresses.

Nick Blaskov, CFO of ResellersPanel, said that the semi-dedicated hosting solution is for those who find the resources offered by a shared hosting account inconsistent with their growing online requirements, that the virtual private servers combine the affordability of a shared account with the power and independence offered by a dedicated server, and that the dedicated server solution lets the users host their websites on their own independent server and thus say good-bye to any speed, stability and bandwidth-related troubles encountered with the other types of hosting.

Deciding Between Windows and Linux Web Hosting

Many people recognize Linux as the best type of web hosting solution around, because of the added advantages of this solutions, which provide reliability, security, functionality, and affordability all in the one package.

Linux Servers Advantages
Linux servers have been known to run for long periods of time without technical difficulties or down time being experienced, which is a considerable achievement since many Microsoft servers need to refresh and reboot their operating systems at regular intervals.

Linux installations have no known vulnerabilities in their security operating system; however, it is still considered a priority of Linux to keep their systems running with the best degree of security around.

Linux also offers its customers the added advantage of cheaper Linux based web hosting solutions. This is largely due to open source distributions; hosts generally pass these savings onto their customers, making Linux solutions extremely affordable.

Disadvantages of Linux Servers
With every advantage of a solution, there has to be disadvantages as well, Linux hosting solutions are no exception to this rule. One of the main disadvantages of Linux based applications is that they are unable to accommodate windows applications and the coding conversions. This can spell disaster for websites that have been coded especially for windows based applications.

When choosing a web hosting provider for Linux, make sure he offers all the basics services on security, including firewall, load balance for the servers, Denial of Attack (DOS) protection.

Also, there are some basics services any service should include, such as MYSQL services, statistics (preferably two scripts), antivirus and antispam services (added or included) and the possibility to add your own scripts via FTP. If provider doesn't include SSH access (this is very common), make sure they can offer you support to install those scripts. Of course, if your script presents a security flaw, your provider may ask you to change it or deny installing it altogether.

Windows web servers
Windows web hosting solutions provide many benefits such as NET support, ASP, visual basic C++ and pearl scripts. Windows are also known for their dynamic page displays. All windows plans, as well as MSSql for more experienced webmasters support the Microsoft Access 2000 database and are generally easy and strait forward to apply codes to.

Be aware that a Microsoft Access database, although simple to use is a limited option, and should not be considered if you are planning your site to grow. However, it is a very good option for small sites with little growth.

Although Windows hosting packages offer a large number of benefits and extras, the fact that they have the odd security problem, are prone to down time, and scheduled rebooting on a regular basis remains a viable disadvantage to using windows servers as an option for your web site.

While the choice of a web hosting provider is an individual decision, those looking for a business solution should consider the benefits and disadvantages of both windows and Linux severs before making a choice.

Don't Let Bad E-Commerce Web Hosting Cost You Business

A reliable web hosting company is crucial especially if you operate a business on the internet offering products for sale the require you to have e-commerce web hosting with shopping carts. Unless you have some mega store it is unlikely that you will need your own servers which could cost you several hundred dollars a month, but you do need e-commerce that is reliable and trustworthy that has a good reputation for uptime. When you are running an online business servers being down is the equivalent of having the doors locked in a brick and mortar business.

One of the great things about web hosting is that you have a myriad of choices ranging from low end shared hosting for less than $10 per month to having high end dedicated servers than run well over $300 per month. Whichever one you choose I still recommend you have someone else do the management of the servers for you unless you are a techno geek.

There are many web hosting companies that offer services with specific e-commerce hosting packages built just for small businesses. Knowing what company to choose is a more difficult decision than trying to find one, not just because of the number of choices of web hosting companies available but because the particular e-commerce web hosting needs vary between different companies. As I mentioned before, it is imperative that you take this aspect of putting your business online very seriously as it can make the difference in success or failure.

One of the key issues that you need to be concerned with when you are looking at e-commerce web hosting packages for your business is how much bandwidth you are allowed. Not having enough bandwidth can hurt your business tremendously especially if you get a good deal of traffic or you sell items that have large downloads as well. The bandwidth is shared by all who are on your server and all the visitors who are on it at any given time so don?t cut yourself short..

Another key issue to look for in e-commerce web hosting is a web hosting company with the fewest "hops? from the internet backbone, hops are basically each server or router that are between the user and the internet backbone, the best of course would be a hosting company that feeds directly from the internet backbone. You should also try to choose a company that has the latest state of the art web server hardware with the most up to date multiple processor servers to avoid any problems.

As mentioned previously reliability is a must as well as redundancy which means they should have more than one backbone provider in case something goes wrong. If you plan on having an online store or large catalogue disk space will definitely be an issue that you will want to address as well. The e-commerce web hosting company you choose should also provide the best security for the online transactions that you will be accepting which at this time is called SSL.

These are the basic e-commerce web hosting features you should have, you may require upgrades such as back end data integration or recurring payment options but those are things you can discuss with the host you choose.

Network Attached Storage; NAS Now An Affordable Data Storage Solution For Small Businesses

In the administration of a large business network, data storage solutions can have significant impact on network speed and user satisfaction. Conventional network data storage systems are attached to servers but as needed storage capacities and connection speeds increase, many businesses are discovering that network attached storage or NAS is an economical and easy alternative to the file server model.

In traditional network data storage, users access data stored on large capacity file servers. These servers are versatile but quite expensive and sometimes difficult to maintain. Servers often also serve other purposes such as running applications or managing printers; and the overhead from these operations slows file access.

Network attached storage uses specialized devices that serve only as dedicated file servers. NAS devices are self-contained units with large network data storage capacity and dedicated data management software. They run a heavily stripped down version of the operating system so are substantially faster than even a dedicated file server.

Installation can be as simple as connecting a network cable and turning on the power. NAS devices are less expensive than servers of the same capacity are since they don't require the same hardware such as video cards or a powerful processor.

Network attached storage provides high density storage capacity that makes the most efficient use of data center space. Even low end NAS systems include features such as RAID and data replication which improves their speed and reliability even further.

As network data storage needs grow, network attached storage easily grows with it. NAS is not limited by the number of ports on a server's data bus. Since each device plugs directly into a network port, any number of devices can be added giving your network a data storage capacity that is potentially unlimited.

Network attached storage is no longer only for large businesses. NAS devices have become so inexpensive that they are a feasible solution even for a home network, costing about the same as an external hard drive but with built-in file management functionality.

Data storage needs are increasing at an exponential rate, particularly when it comes to large amounts of multimedia data, and it seems impossible to have too much space. A home user of limited technical ability might not be capable of adding or replacing a hard drive to their computer, but could manage the plug and play installation of network attached storage.

When evaluating network data storage options, network attached storage is economical, fast, and easy. If you need large storage capacities, high speed data transfer, reliable storage equipment, or a scalable storage solution that will meet your future needs, NAS might be the best network data storage option.

Making Net-surfing as Easy as Pie

The Internet is one of our modern-day miracles. It unites us with people all over the world. It allows us to view information that we would otherwise be unavailable to us. Using it is probably easier than "easy as pie". And one of the things that helps us access the Internet, is the proxy server.

A proxy server is something like an arbitrator between the computer you are using and the server that you are trying to access. This concept becomes easier to understand once you understand how it works. Suppose there is a website that is accessed time after time from a particular computer. This site gets saved in the cache of the proxy server. So, when somebody else tries accessing that website, the page is pulled up from this cache.

The advantage of this style of functioning is that the process becomes noticeably faster. This is because the proxy server can do without contacting the real server of that website to view it. The site has already been placed in the proxy server's cache.

Web proxies are proxy servers that limit their job to the World Wide Web. Sometimes web proxies are used to intercede websites that are provocative or offensive. They also serve another, perhaps more important, function of blocking viruses that may be present on the webpages that are being read. In fact, a number of organizations make use of proxy servers to perform these very functions. A company could even intercede its employees from viewing a particular website by making use of a proxy server. Notably, the user is usually unaware that the work is being done by the proxy server.

There are many other kinds of proxy servers that are seen in the web world. These include transparent proxies, split proxies and reverse proxies. Open proxies are proxy servers that are the haunts of spammers and Internet Relay Chat users.

There is also something called an anonymous proxy server. This offers anonymity, and hence, privacy, to the user. It does this by hiding the IP address of the user. As a result, the number of junk mails and spam that one would otherwise get a profusion of are diminished significantly. It is good to use an anonymous proxy server because it keeps you protected from hackers.

Certainly, there is far more to proxies than this. But the next time you are able to quickly access your favorite webpage, make sure you silently thank your good old proxy server!

Virtual Web Servers: Perfect For Mid-Sized Web Hosting Needs

The internet has exploded over the last ten years with many people doing more and more tasks online everyday. As the internet continues to grow, the amount of space available for web sites to expand will shrink. Another very important fact that needs to be considered when creating a web site is how you are going to host the web site.

Large companies can afford to have a dedicated web server or servers, but smaller companies and individuals usually can not afford to have a dedicated server for their web site. For these individuals there are a few alternatives available. They can either use a web hosting service to host their web sites, or they can use a virtual web server to host their web site. Both of these alternatives have strengths and weaknesses.

A web hosting plan usually allows you to upload your web files to their server and then they configure everything so that anyone on the internet can access it. These plans are usually fairly inexpensive, but they are also limited in the amount of options that you can configure on your own.

However since the configuration of these plans are very easy, you do not need to have a large internal I.T. department to implement your plans. Web hosting plans are also a very good fit for your web site if you do not need to have access to a database.

Virtual web servers are a great way to maximize the use of a single server to service many web sites across several domains. The virtual web server uses one server and one operating system to host many different web sites. The difference between virtual web servers and hosting plans is that you have access to mail, FTP, and all of the configuration files on the virtual server.

This gives you quite a bit more control over all of the functions that a normal web server would allow you to do. However you need to know more about configuring a web site if you use a virtual web server. The best thing about a virtual web server is that you have much more control and the ability to do many different things that you can not do with a web hosting plan.

Usually it takes a person with quite a bit of experience to be able to successfully setup, maintain, and configure a web server. The problem with this is that there are not enough of these experienced people to prepare a web server for all of the individual web sites on the internet today.

One way to help fix this problem is to use virtual web servers. A virtual web server allows one very experienced person to setup a single server that will be able to host many different web sites across many domains. This also allows different web sites to be configured individually and be able to use more resources than they would be able to use if they were not hosted on a virtual web server.

Since each web site can be fully configured, you will have quite a bit of control over all of the different features of your web site.

A virtual web server allows each web site to have its email, FTP access, and many other configuration files to be configured exactly the way you want them to be. Also a virtual web server allows access to different types of databases which can make your web site more dynamic.

Many virtual web server plans allow unlimited email addresses and built-in spam filters and virus protection. They also allow unlimited anonymous and non-anonymous FTP sites, so that you can offer file upload and downloads to your clients.

However the best feature of a virtual web server is that you have complete control over how your web site is configured to run, so you can do almost anything that you want to do. You do not have to be an expert, because many of these services offer a management tool, so that you can do all of the configurations without knowing exactly how to do it by hand.

USA Reseller Web Hosting: Unix or Microsoft?

If you're in the USA, and you're planning to get into the USA reseller web hosting industry, you need to consider one major issue, first and foremost: would you like to offer Unix-ready features along with Microsoft-only ones?

Offering Microsoft-only services may seem to be the smart choice, but supporting Unix is its own asset, which could open a world of opportunities for you as a USA reseller web hosting outfit. In fact, if you have avenues to ask for both Microsoft and Unix support from your web host, all the better!

One downside to reselling web space instead of putting up your own server is that you don't get to control the basics. As a reseller, you may be able to change things around via the standard control panel. You may even have limited access to certain features like merchant accounts and secure site hosting. But when you want to switch between operating systems, or OS-es - it's unfortunately not your call, but your web host's.

Web hosts determine the kind of OS-es that run on their servers. Many web hosts offer both Windows and Unix features, by using Unix machines as servers, and then just running Windows programs and servers within these machines. Over time, Unix server OSes have become increasingly tolerant of Windows programs, which makes a Unix server a sweet deal for web hosts and resellers alike.

Unix servers are cost efficient because they are ideal for running open source programs. Preferring open source programs help save on operational costs, since they're mostly free for use, depending on the specifications of the persons or outfits who developed the codes to be used. When you run paid programs or servers on your machines, you don't only need to think of the cost of buying the software - you also need to consider the potential costs of license renewal.

There is, after all, no assurance that software licensing will cost the same throughout the years! And you have to consider that in your profit projections if you are running a webhost. Thankfully, you don't need to be concerned with that as a reseller. However, as a reseller, you should be aware of what software your potential customers will need.

If your web host only supports Unix and open source features, you run the risk of losing a big part of your clientele. But you run the same risk if your host only supports Microsoft and Windows! As a USA reseller web hosting outfit, you should be intimately aware of the needs of your target market.

Data Recovery From Server Computers

Computers are of many types depending on their size and use. Desktop computers are an assembly of various units such as a monitor, input devices and a CPU. It typically resides on a desk, as their name suggests. Laptops are very small computers that integrate the CPU, monitor and keyboard into one portable unit. Palmtops are even smaller than laptops.

One of the most important computer systems is what is called a server. It is a central computer, or an application running on it, that “serves” other computers (“clients”) and responds to their service requests. Servers are very important machines that run mission-critical programmes. They are designed to be rugged and able to run for a long time on their own with minimum supervision.

Servers use modified operating systems that have special modules built in to ensure a more efficient running of various applications and programmes. The most popular operating systems for servers – all derived from UNIX – include Solaris, Linux and FreeBSD.

Servers that are not running mission-critical applications or do not have much load can be built using commonly available computer parts similar to the ones used in desktops. However, for servers which handle a large amount of traffic and are mission-critical, there exists an expert and more robust hardware that is optimised for their particular needs.

Servers are of many types:

Web Servers: These form the backbone of the Internet and host all the websites that you see on the World Wide Web. They have website files stored on their hard disks and provide a file at a time across a network on the demand of the web browser installed on client computers.

Mail Servers: These servers are very common and store and transfer emails over a corporate or international network such as the Internet.

FTP Servers: The FTP servers are tailor-made to move data files securely from one computer to another on the Internet using the File Transfer Protocol.

Application Servers: These servers host various applications and software programmes and typically act as a mediator between a huge database and the client computers.

RAID

RAID is short for “Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks.” Because the data-storage needs of servers are huge, the most popular way to fulfil this requirement is to wire up a large number of commonly available hard disks together so that they function as one unit but still deliver more functionality than one single disk having a huge capacity. The disks can be arranged in different types of array architectures, from RAID 1 to RAID 5. RAID 0 is referred to denote an architecture which is not redundant.

Data Loss

Servers can suffer data loss in various ways. They may become unbootable or the RAID architecture may become corrupt. Viruses, worms and Trojans are quite common reasons. Other causes of server failure include deleted partitions, corruption of the controller card, natural or man-made disasters and human error.

Protecting Your Server

Servers hold mission-critical data whose loss can be a tremendous setback to businesses. It is therefore essential to take all precautions to keep the server data safe. There are many things you can do on your own to secure the data or try to recover it in case of data loss.

The first thing you should do is to check that all cables are connected properly to various components. In normal operations or servers, lot of subtle vibrations are created as hard drives and fans do their job. Connections can become loose due to this.

Servers have to be protected from excessive heat. Heat has a slow but devastating effect on integrated circuits (ICs), memory chips, processors and hard drives. You should take care that the room where the servers are kept remains cool at all times. Also, ensure that the fans inside CPU are set at the correct RPM.

Apart from heat, dust and other contaminants suspended in the air are the biggest enemies of servers. They prevent proper connectivity and hinder free circulation of air inside the CPU. You should clean the insides of the servers regularly with an air blower to wipe dust off all vents, ICs and ports.

Server Host: Where Does My Web Page Go?

For those of you who don't really understand where or how your web page is sitting on your hosting server, this is a basic over view of how it works.

A server is basically hardware and software and protocol. We will go over these three basics of your hosting server.

Server hardware.

Server hardware is so similar to your old PC hardware that the price of server hardware has come down considerably. Down enough that it's tempting for a lot of us to host our own server. But that's a whole different article. All a server is:

Very fast processor.
A large amount of RAM.
A vast amount of Disk Space.
Connection to a T1 line (access to the outside world).

The hardware is housed in very large office buildings. There are many racks of servers filling these climate controlled rooms. Most of the server host brag of their 99% or better uptime. This is very impressive and another reason to use a server host. How often have you re-booted your PC in the past?

Software. (Operating system)

There different operating systems on the market. Most likely the software on your server is running Apache on Linux, an open source product. Servers need to be secured and an open source application is more likely to be less buggy and more secure then their larger competitor Microsoft. These servers use an interface for you to access and configure them, a control panel. Some control panels are more complicated then others. Depending how technical you are, this is a point of concern when picking a server host.