Best Value Web Hosting

During tough economic times you are always looking for ways to save money, and this is true even with web hosting. There are many things to consider if you are looking for budget hosting. Here are a few points to consider if you are looking for a new host:

These are just a few tips when looking for web hosting.

This article will provide full information about how to choose a web host. There are many things that one must take care while selecting a reliable web host. Following are the most frequently asked questions and the answers to common questions that help in selection if a right web-host.

Q1.Is web host service really reliable?
One must check for the reliability of the web hosting service as even researches have proved that it is an e-businesses main concern. One must look for at least a 95 percent guarantee uptime, so as to ensure that the service is really reliable.

Q2. What kind of performance to expect?
A good hosting company mostly have their own one or more T3 lines that are always connected to the Internet and not going through someone else’s network operations center. One must check that the servers should be fast, ideally Pentium Pro or Linux. Its also required that one must tell his/her host in advance about the requirement i.e. if he/she is going to use much bandwidth like for audio or video which just kills bandwidth.

Q3.Is the phone support really good?
In terms of phone support one must look for 24/7 phone support and that too free of cost or toll free with live operator available all the time. After checking the availability of such support one must check the response by calling or emailing the technical support line on odd days or time like at 10 o clock on Sunday night then should check if really any response is coming or not.

Q4. How expensive it is?
One must look for the cost as well generally the entry level hosting service with a single domain name, 20 - 30 MB (Mega Bytes) of hard drive space, email services, and up to a 1 GB (Giga Bytes) of monthly bandwidth should not cost more than 50 dollars.

Q5. How powerfully is security handled?
One must check for the security parameters as well. The passwords to one’s website or domain are required to control the host as well as to manage the web site. Every file on the server should also be backed up on a daily basis. One must also look for a host that offers secure transactions as well.

Q6. How much bandwidth required for data transfer?
When taken as rough estimate, 2GB of bandwidth should be considered perfect for a very small personal site. If one were going to run a medium site with text and images but no large files, 5 GB would be enough. On the other hand larger sites with jpg files or videos require 30 GB of bandwidth. If a hosting company is really good then it will inform its client via email for the exceeding limit of bandwidth and also requests for taking measures like upgrading plan before the site go offline.

Q7.How good is a control panel?
Mostly all the hosting packages come with some type of control panel, enabling its client to configure his/her hosting packages as well as settings without having to learn the entire operating system that powers the site. These Control panels can be accessed through a secure web page, and then they will appear in one’s web browser. Some most popular control panels are Helm, Cpanel, Hsphere, Plesk, and Ensim. The most common is Cpanel, which only runs on Linux. Most beginners and other users would be more suited to Cpanel, as its quite economic as it runs on the cheaper platform of Linux.

Q8. What about a POP3 account?
While working with emails, POP3 accounts are very important. These types of accounts can be assigned to individual users as their own email addresses. One needs enough POP3 accounts for the amount of email addresses that he/she wishes to assign to other people. Most of the times this number will be quoted as being unlimited, although there is only many email addresses that one can actually create.

Q9. Is there protection from Spam and viruses available?
Spam and virus protection comes in a separate category that includes auto responders, Spam filters, even anti virus protection. This facility is also very important and actually varies from host to host. Generally most host providers offer these services as free of cost when one sign up for an account.

Q10.How to run own online store?
In one is planning, for running his/her own store on the Internet then there are some factors that have to be involved with that decision. Firstly one need an SSL certificate for his/her own website, so that even credit card transactions can be processed. . Generally, there are 3rd parties that will take care of each and every transaction, after charging a small percent fee, eliminating the need for extra security on server. One must also ensure that the server as well as the software is capable of running the script that one have for his/her shopping cart.

Q11.How to take final decision?
If one plans for having a website that will be relying on for income or storing important data, then one must make sure that he/she must choose a host that will offer a high level of customer support. There are many of hosting companies offering forums as well as their contact numbers; however the forums can be excellent in case of very small problems.

Conclusion
One must not hurry and must act wisely while selecting a host provider, which fulfills all his/her desired needs. There are thousands of hosts and lakhs of different packages out there to choose from, which mean one must not just stick with the one he/she gets first. One must take time to compare plans, costs, and customer service and thereafter can work peacefully with no tensions from the host.

Choosing an appropriate domain name is very important. First and foremost, when it comes to domain names, try to stay away from the silly, stupid, ridiculous or clever. Keep your domain name simple and make it something your customers can remember if they lose the link to your business website.

Take note that, while your domain name on Geocities or AOL may seem like the least expensive way to go, it may also get you dropped from certain search engines. Some search engines ignore domain addresses that reside on these ‘free servers’ or on the ‘cheap’ servers.

Even if your site is recognized and considered by search engines, a professional domain name that uses your primary company name or associated words is likely to get more attention and be considered as a stable business by your prospective customers.

Purchasing domain names are not that expensive which cost about $100 and there are many companies that can register the name for you, provided it is available and has not already been used by another company.

Using one of your keywords in your domain name can increase your score on some search engines. For example, solderingirons.com could be more effective as Electric-soldering-irons.com, if that domain name was available.

You might also choose to establish more than one domain name using keywords and then link your ‘doorway’ domain sites to your primary site. But you will have to pay for each of the domain name and also the monthly hosting fees. It all depends on the type and size of your business and your competition.

Keep in mind that some search engines disregard ‘doorway’ sites. So put at least a page of content on the doorway site with some useful information and then link it to your primary site. But don’t design it as an empty page. The other reason being, you can have one, three, five, or even more email addresses that all contain your business name, and give your business a professional feel. When customers get emails from dominicstone@solderingirons.com they feel as if they are dealing with a stable, professional business operation.

No need for customers to understand how you manage all your email boxes on your domain. They just need to feel your business is dependable and reputable.

Managed dedicated web hosting is for an individual or company that wants storage and bandwidth without the restrictions that you get by choosing a free web hosting service. If you have a site which you want to have more bells and whistles programmed into it, then managed dedicated hosting is the way to go.

Dedicated services give you more email addresses, sometimes up to 500 addresses. It also has storage to support basic database applications on the server side of the web host. This allows for the development of applications that enable you to store data on the server side also and have queries and other types of program and programming scripts embedded into your web-site.

But the key to these kinds of servers are the bandwidth that’s available to the user. Monthly bandwidth can range from 500 to 1000GB for the user.

That’s good for your basic SOHO business or home office because if you’re running a small audio or flash application or database on your site, this type of hosting service should do just fine. Also, you can assign the other email accounts to co-workers, family members or whoever you want to.

When you are running web applications over 1,000GB, that’s when you should consider steeping up your web hosting package. There are various types of web plans based on the types of internet applications that you are developing for your business. For example, if you are developing online streaming video content for your site, then you might want to go past the 1000GB limit on your account and get more bandwidth.

As a SOHO or company grows, the need for more bandwidth is paramount especially if you have an intranet in your office or you have people accessing the back end of your web-site to load data from various locations.

Dedicated web hosting is what the majority of individuals and small businesses use until they start growing out of their bandwidth. They usually upgrade their web hosting packages and buy more storage and bandwidth.

There are various types of web hosting services and it all depends on what you want to accomplish in building your web-site for your business. You should look at the different options which depend on these following factors:

Complexity of your web-site – You may want to talk to a developer on the complexity of your web-site, especially when it comes to graphics and database administration. You may have to consult with an internet specialist on the type of hosting that you need.

Some web hosting services are provided for free but you have to put up with ads that are on the top or bottom of your web site and those ads might not be conducive to the web site that you have developed. If you are going to get a site with ads, then get a free web hosting package that matches with the online ad that’s already there.

Free hosting also has low bandwidth on the internet because of so many people using the free service instead of the paid service. Basically, you also get a free web email account with free hosting services.

Then there is hosting that you pay for that you have more control over when you load and host your web site. You get POP mail access and can create as many emails as you want to which depends on the type of account that you pay for.

Every company has special packages for each and every need. From personal to business servers, even servers for special kinds of operating systems (UNIX, Windows, Linux and Apple) the choices vary depending on what you want to do.

The prices depend on how much space you need on the server to load your applications so you have to take into consideration what you want to put on the server through your web-site.

Triple.com offers low cost website hosting services, domain name registration, and SSL Certificates. Domain name registrations are available for as low as $9.99 per year. Included with each domain name registered are various features including, strong security, an advanced control panel, domain forwarding, email forwarding, and other services. Triple.com offers various shared hosting plans based on your requirements starting from as low as $3.99 per month. Each plan includes a money back guarantee, various security features, and data protection. SSL certificates are also available for purchase. Triple.com offers various SSL certificates based on the security requirements of your site. SSL Certificates allow customers to secure their sites starting from the low cost of $49 per year. Customers can immediately search the availability of a domain name, compare hosting plans, and sign-up for services. Triple.com offers affordable services, allows customers to choose what they need based on their site requirements, and has excellent security and support features.

Triple.com also emphasizes quality around the clock support services. Customers are able to contact Triple.com by phone, fax, or online 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Technicians are knowledgeable and can assist customers or answer any service related inquiries.

CPanel is an easy user-interface site that lets you control your host account environment. The main peculiarity of this operating system is that it so simple to use that your below average computer user can’t mess it up. It’s got great features embedded into its panel and some of the features are listed below.

Site Tools

There are such tools available for your use, which are Web Protect (.htaccess editor), Custom error pages, Redirects, Ability to edit MIME types, Ability to edit Apache handlers, Install/Uninstall FrontPage Extensions, Search engine tool submitting and File Manager.

Email

The email program provides you with the possibility to add, remove, and change passwords while managing email accounts. CPanel is also provided by Webmail for the accounts, Auto responders, Forwarders, Mailing Lists, Spam filtering and some more.

Backup

Backup allows you to create copies of account files and databases. The backup menu also allows you to download any automatic backups that were downloaded by your CPanel administrator.

Stats

Here are different tools to survey your site popularity and efficiency. Those are Webalizer web stats, Webalizer FTP stats, Analog stats, AWStats, View latest visitors, View bandwidth usage and View error log modules.

FTP

There is a module that controls FTP accounts (add, remove, change password for its access), Anonymous FTP controls; Ability to change FTP login message and Ability to kill FTP sessions.

Advanced Stuff

You have an ability to add or remove subdomains, Subdomain Redirects and its Stats.

Advanced Tools

You are provided with tools of SSH access tools, Manage GPG keys and Cron jobs.

There are also Pre-Installed CGI Scripts. Those are Interchange Cart, Agora Cart, Bulletin Board, Java Chat, HTML Chat, phpMyChat, CGI Wrapper (for non-suexec installs), Random HTML generator, Advanced Guestbook, Counter Generator, Java Clock Generator, Java Countdown Generator, Secure FormMail clone, CGIEmail, Entropy Search, Entropy Banner. Network Tools are DNS Lookup and Traceroute. Database Management tools includes Managing MySQL databases and phpMyAdmin access.

For beginners, CPanel has a lot of options that are easy to use. CPanel works with most of browsers, such as IE, Opera, Firefox and others.

Most businesses don’t like to use subdomains because they feel like they give them a disadvantage in many areas, such as having a prefix name before your web-site, being ignored by bots and index spiders in search engines and all in all, it just doesn’t look right. So let’s check our facts on subdomains.

A subdomain is substitute or second-level of a domain. A regular domain looks as follows: www.jamesbrown.com . A sub domain looks like this

http://bravenet.jamesbrown.com. Subdomains do not have www on the front of them. All subs start with “http://subdomain/maindomain.com pattern of identification.

Subdomains rank efficiently well. Search engine spiders and bots are not prejudiced when it comes to the ranking of subdomains and regular domains. As long as your site has the right SEO keywords and has been optimized, whether you have a subdomain or regular domain name doesn’t make a difference at all.

Let’s pretend that you site has a lot of categories in it. If you were to submit to a search engine, you could submit each subdomain as its own individual category and still get a good ranking. Each subdomain would be looked at by search engines as a new site with its own index or home page. You may want to try creating subfolders on the subdomain to get around this so that search engines can read the folder as one set of site information.

People worry about their subdomain getting banned if the main domain name is banned. If the main domain is banned, it will have an effect on the subdomain. You see this happen often in adult content sites that have violated certain agreements that they have signed with a provider that does not want a domain used for adult material.

Again, there is nothing wrong with using a subdomain. If you want to develop each subdomain as its own entity, then by all means, do so. If not, get yourself a main domain name and use that as a certified landing page.

If you are a customer that wants total control of your web site administrative functions then you might want to look at unmanaged web hosting services to give you complete remote control administration over your server. The technical side of the server can be controlled by a designated administrator that you pick to handle your web information.

You have to have a technical person to install the server and manage the server if you don’t have the expertise because you as the customer will be responsible for maintaining the server environment. That’s why unmanaged servers are recommended for individuals and businesses with server administration resources.

As far as developing applications and controlling the applications without going through technical support personnel on the managed server side, these types of servers are usually used when companies are developing real time response systems on the internet, such as geographical, science, engineering and multimedia/entertainment applications.

Unmanaged servers allow you to add extra hard disk space to increase your space capacity and many computer companies sell physical servers that are configured for unmanaged hosting applications. Companies like Dell and HP have software programs that not only will run an office network but also handle web server and development applications.

Small businesses that don’t need a server on site and deal with administrative web packages should go with the managed host packages that provide assistance and administrative support. Managed applications will do just fine because of the costs that are incurred with maintaining an unmanaged server. Unmanaged servers need constant upgrades of software and hardware constantly which could cost your small business a big chunk of change.

Unmanaged servers are expensive to maintain and run unless you are a small firm that develops in house web applications. The best advice is to have a consultant draw up an IT plan to see if you need this type of hosting service or not.

Managed dedicated web hosting is for an individual or company that wants storage and bandwidth without the restrictions that you get by choosing a free web hosting service. If you have a site which you want to have more bells and whistles programmed into it, then managed dedicated hosting is the way to go.

Dedicated services give you more email addresses, sometimes up to 500 addresses. It also has storage to support basic database applications on the server side of the web host. This allows for the development of applications that enable you to store data on the server side also and have queries and other types of program and programming scripts embedded into your web-site.

But the key to these kinds of servers are the bandwidth that’s available to the user. Monthly bandwidth can range from 500 to 1000GB for the user.

That’s good for your basic SOHO business or home office because if you’re running a small audio or flash application or database on your site, this type of hosting service should do just fine. Also, you can assign the other email accounts to co-workers, family members or whoever you want to.

When you are running web applications over 1,000GB, that’s when you should consider steeping up your web hosting package. There are various types of web plans based on the types of internet applications that you are developing for your business. For example, if you are developing online streaming video content for your site, then you might want to go past the 1000GB limit on your account and get more bandwidth.

As a SOHO or company grows, the need for more bandwidth is paramount especially if you have an intranet in your office or you have people accessing the back end of your web-site to load data from various locations.

Dedicated web hosting is what the majority of individuals and small businesses use until they start growing out of their bandwidth. They usually upgrade their web hosting packages and buy more storage and bandwidth.