Are you planning your web hosting needs for 2008? Maybe you are ready to buy a web hosting plan for a new blog site or that online video family website you're planning? Then it's a great time for you or your company to consider the following tips for a successful year of hosting! By following these simple steps, you can not only save money, but also ensure that your website has its most successful year ever.
Tip #1: Upgrade to an Annual Plan - If you are happy with your hosting provider, consider moving to an annual payment basis. By doing this, you can benefit from a lower prorated monthly rate. If you are looking to transfer to a new web host, you might also wish to consider an annual plan as they often come with no set-up fee. Even better, consider the discount of adding a 2nd year onto that annual hosting plan; sometimes adding the 2nd annual time period results in very little extra cost since you get a web hosting discount on the first year as well. For example, HostMonster offers a 1 year hosting plan which works out to $6.95/month, and a two-year price of $4.95/month.
Tip #2: The economy is growing and Internet usage continues to increase. Is your company website ready for an increase in traffic during 2007? With monthly fees for dedicated servers coming down rapidly over the past year, your business may wish to consider moving to a dedicated environment which will offer more capacity for servicing your online customers. At least be sure that your current plan has adequate bandwidth allowances. Even the shared space now offers close to unlimited bandwidth (considering what the average website actually uses). Take a look at HostMonster - they provide 999GB of monthly bandwidth for as low as $4.95/month. Just like a cell phone, if your current website is experiencing traffic overage charges, then it is time to consider a larger hosting package.
Tip #3: Check out your Hosting Service Agreements. These agreements contain the "legal terms" of your hosting contract and may be changed from time to time. The 'New Year' is a good time to review the latest documents surrounding the relationship between you and your web host. For some customers, you may find that you are on a high-end SLA and could lower your monthly service fee by accepting say a 99.8% uptime guarantee vs. a 99.9% standard.
Tip #4: Secure a support domain for your company. Many companies are now providing technical support and service follow-up online. With Internet access still growing on a worldwide basis, you may wish to consider reserving the domain name for a potential service/support site. For example, usxmodeltrains.com might wish to reserve usxtrainsupport.com. Also, think about registering some of the new top levels domains including .info and .biz - these can be useful in driving more traffic to your website. Most web hosting companies now offer to purchase a free domain for you as long as you purchase their annual web hosting account.
Tip #5: Watch for software upgrades! Each year, many providers of web design and server software launch new versions. For instance, is your web host delivering the latest Windows or ASP.NET versions? Also, make sure your company is using the latest design software to maximize your site visitor's experiences. By checking to see if your provider has the latest server versions, you can verify their technical knowledge, ensure maximum website uptime, and create a website that is more competitive vs. your peers in terms of website interactivity and features.
By following these simple tips, your business can maximize it's online efforts in 2008 by ensuring a stable hosting environment while gaining better knowledge about your web host.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Different Types of Web Hosting
The key responsibilities of a web hosting company are to provide server space, web services and maintenance of servers which host websites owned or controlled by individuals and companies. Most web hosting companies offer shared hosting and dedicated hosting, which are explained in detail below.
Shared Hosting
Another name for shared hosting is virtual hosting or mass hosting. It works as follows: your content and applications are placed on a server which is shared with other customers who also use that web host. The equipment and server are owned and managed by the web host provider, with technicians on hand to monitor and manage the servers.
Companies opt to go the shared hosting route because it is much cheaper and it works well. In other words it’s affordable and efficient. It may be worth your while to ask about shared hosting management tools which will allow you to use shared hosting, but still get the benefits of a dedicated server (described below), It is important to review the control panel which the hosting company provides you. Although popular, shared hosting has its restrictions. It limits you from using some scripting languages and applications, although you are often allowed to customise and add features such as a shopping cart or an online catalogue.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is a much more sophisticated type of web hosting. This type of hosting allows you to rent an entire server yourself and have access to all its resources to host one or more websites. With dedicated hosting there is no transfer of assets or personnel to the web host. Either you or your web host owns the equipment. This is decided on a number of factors, differing from company to company. The web host typically does not take responsibility for anything other than the hosting operations. Business processes, strategic direction and debugging applications, for example, have to be managed by the customer.
Dedicated hosting is specialised and the customer gets dedicated hosting benefits such as secure, high quality physical infrastructure and high speed internet connectivity. Hosting packages are often customised to fit the needs of the customer with regards to bandwidth, memory and storage space needed. Because you “own” an entire server and are not sharing with another company, it allows for CPU-intensive applications to operate smoothly and prevents your website performance from being disrupted by others. This makes a dedicated hosting plan the ideal package for companies with larger, high-traffic websites and gives them total control over the hosting environment.
Root Server hosting
Another name for Root Server hosting is Semi-managed hosting. This is a form of dedicated hosting which allows you control over your server by access to the root, while providing various benefits, such as reliable infrastructure, security and maintenance of hardware. Root Server hosting gives redundant (uninterrupted) internet connectivity and flexibility for you to choose operations systems and hardware specifications most suitable for your needs.
Since a Root Server is a semi managed server, the hosting provider will manage the installation and hardware, but you, the client, manage all other aspects of it, including backups and software upgrades. As the client you will also have root access or administrator access, enabling you to do virtually anything on that server.
A Root Server is a very versatile server, where you can do whatever you wish, including hosting your own web server or mail server. Root Server hosting is intended for people who need more flexibility and customisation than a managed Dedicated server.
Reseller Hosting
This type of hosting is ideal for entrepreneurs and businesses who wish to host on behalf of their own customers. Reselling web hosting services means that you can take out a contract with a web hosting provider and then sell their services on under your own brand. Web hosting companies do this because they are able to sell more of their dedicated hosting space this way. The customer pays a set fee for the use of services from the web host, which they can then resell under their own brand. Different hosting companies offer different contracts and agreements.
Shared Hosting
Another name for shared hosting is virtual hosting or mass hosting. It works as follows: your content and applications are placed on a server which is shared with other customers who also use that web host. The equipment and server are owned and managed by the web host provider, with technicians on hand to monitor and manage the servers.
Companies opt to go the shared hosting route because it is much cheaper and it works well. In other words it’s affordable and efficient. It may be worth your while to ask about shared hosting management tools which will allow you to use shared hosting, but still get the benefits of a dedicated server (described below), It is important to review the control panel which the hosting company provides you. Although popular, shared hosting has its restrictions. It limits you from using some scripting languages and applications, although you are often allowed to customise and add features such as a shopping cart or an online catalogue.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is a much more sophisticated type of web hosting. This type of hosting allows you to rent an entire server yourself and have access to all its resources to host one or more websites. With dedicated hosting there is no transfer of assets or personnel to the web host. Either you or your web host owns the equipment. This is decided on a number of factors, differing from company to company. The web host typically does not take responsibility for anything other than the hosting operations. Business processes, strategic direction and debugging applications, for example, have to be managed by the customer.
Dedicated hosting is specialised and the customer gets dedicated hosting benefits such as secure, high quality physical infrastructure and high speed internet connectivity. Hosting packages are often customised to fit the needs of the customer with regards to bandwidth, memory and storage space needed. Because you “own” an entire server and are not sharing with another company, it allows for CPU-intensive applications to operate smoothly and prevents your website performance from being disrupted by others. This makes a dedicated hosting plan the ideal package for companies with larger, high-traffic websites and gives them total control over the hosting environment.
Root Server hosting
Another name for Root Server hosting is Semi-managed hosting. This is a form of dedicated hosting which allows you control over your server by access to the root, while providing various benefits, such as reliable infrastructure, security and maintenance of hardware. Root Server hosting gives redundant (uninterrupted) internet connectivity and flexibility for you to choose operations systems and hardware specifications most suitable for your needs.
Since a Root Server is a semi managed server, the hosting provider will manage the installation and hardware, but you, the client, manage all other aspects of it, including backups and software upgrades. As the client you will also have root access or administrator access, enabling you to do virtually anything on that server.
A Root Server is a very versatile server, where you can do whatever you wish, including hosting your own web server or mail server. Root Server hosting is intended for people who need more flexibility and customisation than a managed Dedicated server.
Reseller Hosting
This type of hosting is ideal for entrepreneurs and businesses who wish to host on behalf of their own customers. Reselling web hosting services means that you can take out a contract with a web hosting provider and then sell their services on under your own brand. Web hosting companies do this because they are able to sell more of their dedicated hosting space this way. The customer pays a set fee for the use of services from the web host, which they can then resell under their own brand. Different hosting companies offer different contracts and agreements.
Web Hosting
A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation.
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