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by Eric Lester

The best deal isn’t always the cheapest. Shopping for the best website hosting can be an easier experience if you think about what kind of resources your website will actually need.

Shopping for website hosting can quickly turn from a careful, measured affair to a frenzied “how low can you go” price hunt. Recent years have seen the concept of a “budget hosting” sphere melt away as many large hosts bring prices down to compete. This does benefit the consumer, as they are more likely to get better service for their dollar. This article will discuss one of perhaps many sets of considerations to make in choosing a website hosting company. To those very serious about their hosting needs, “price” will not be a major factor.

Determine Your Needs
This is the first and most important step. Judging what you need will determine where to look for hosting services and give you a baseline idea of how much you should be willing to pay. This very basic step is where the process will break down if your first instinct is to simply jump online and hunt for the “best bargain”. There are more than enough sites out there that seek to accommodate the bargain hunters. Perhaps your site is suited to a bargain host, perhaps not. Knowing the difference is important.

Start with the 2 core attributes of website hosting, space and transfer. Simply, how large do you expect your site to be and how many people will visit it over a monthly period. If you’re completely new to hosting, you may not be able to accurately gauge either. That’s where you might want to consider actually creating the site, or as much of it as you can, prior to shopping for hosting. Knowing the size of the files you plan to upload will give you a basic idea of the amount of space you need. This will vary wildly depending on the nature of the site. Small, “hobby” sites won’t need a lot of space, sometimes they may not even use 10 or 20 megs of space. Online stores and sites hosting downloads or media files will require much more space.

“Transfer”, or “Traffic”, or sometimes “Bandwidth” on some sites, all generally equates to the amount of information transmitted to the unique individuals who view your site over, usually, a monthly period. Some hosts are moving a daily meter, but most still use a monthly figure. In order to estimate your transfer, a very simple method is to take the total size of your site files in kilobytes or megabytes and multiply by the number of visitors you expect. For a number of reasons, this is not going to be highly accurate, and in many cases will provide a higher number than your traffic in practice will turn out to be. Overestimating traffic is always better than underestimating, since you will always need room to grow with whatever website hosting plan you choose.

What if you have absolutely no idea what size your site will be or how many people will visit? Well, then start small. Though your dreams of domination the web might be strong, you will probably not do so immediately. Popularity and traffic that come with it generally occur over time. Choose a host with a clear upgrade path, and start with a small plan. You can always upgrade as you get a better idea of monthly traffic. Pretty much all webmasters hope their traffic will grow, and a host with a variety of increasingly larger plans is best suited to handle such growth.

Determine Required Features
Though space and transfer are your core attributes, assessing what kind of features you need is also important. This may vary with your familiarity with the web and websites in general. Those who only wish to publish static web pages with content they intend to update personally do not need any kind of exceptionally complex feature set. At its most basic level, the WWW is composed of “HTML” pages, which work on any browser on any kind of computer, be it a “PC”, “Mac”, or run by a different operating system. Novices out there can be assured that HTML pages they create on a PC can be read by someone browsing the web using a Mac.

If your site goes beyond rudimentary HTML, then you will need to pay attention to a host’s feature set. Sites requiring databases and active scripting have to be coded using languages your prospective hosting company’s servers understand. There is a variety of options out there, and it is beyond the scope of this article to go into them, simply be aware of what kind of active scripting you plan to use and make sure your host supports it. Common alternatives are PHP, ASP.net, and ColdFusion. Some of the options will vary depending on the type of server your host uses, most commonly Linux or Windows.

Additional features may also be required. Mailing lists, forum software, and ecommerce software are common features most hosts support. If you plan on setting up an online store, find out what kind of shopping cart, if any, a host provides and be prepared to learn how to use it. Advanced statistics packages like Urchin are also valuable for ecommerce sites. Map out the kind of features you plan to deploy with your site and make sure your choice in host makes them easily available to you.

Support Options
This final component is important, because it is usually the dividing line between quality hosting and less reputable options. One of the first causalities of cut-rate hosting is support. Poor support means that low cost you pay each month isn’t worth much because your site is rarely up. Always check your prospective web host’s site support options. Ideally, they will have phone hours where you can call up and speak directly to first level support. Another “direct contact” option that is popular these days is “chat.” This still allows direct contact with a live person, only through a chat window on your home computer. Ideally a combination of both is one sign a host has invested some money in support.

Bare minimum support options should always include a “help desk” or support ticketing system. This allows customers to send information about their issue and have that issue, and all the responses to it, tracked in a central location, so your support history is always available. Beware any host that only offers an untracked “email” support. Having all 3, phone, chat, and helpdesk, is a reasonably good sign a host pays attention to customer support. You can always “test” these systems prior to signing up by calling or chatting, but, in the interest of a host’s current customers, please keep any conversation brief, as the intent of a support staff is not, directly, to answer sales questions. Your test, however brief, has delayed the technician from handling a request from an existing customer.

Conclusions
Choosing a host is not something to enter into lightly. We’ve reviewed 3 key concepts that should be addressed when looking for a web host. “Price” was not one of them, and, though certainly important for a number of reasons, should never be the final deciding factor. If your website is important to you, or mission critical to your business, you want to find a host with an excellent reputation and high-uptime. Cut-rate or budget hosts rarely obtain either one of these things. Today, even highly reputable hosts will have “budget offerings” that can provide stable hosting at reasonable rates. Do your homework and don’t rush to the first “unbelievable deal” you come across. You’ll be happier with your service in the long run.

About The Author
Mr. Lester has served for 4 years as the webmaster for ApolloHosting.com and previously worked in the IT industry an additional 5 years, acquiring knowledge of hosting, design, and search engine optimization. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers. Established in 1999, Apollo prides itself on the highest levels of customer support. Click for more hosting articles.

Note: These articles are provided for general interest and content purposes only, and should not be construed as “support” materials. Apollo Hosting does not guarantee the information contained within. All articles are free to reprint so long as they remain unchanged, the “About the Author” section remains, all hyperlinks are preserved, and the rel=”nofollow” tag is not added to the hyperlinks.

by Eric Lester

Hosting a website is not as easy a task as it may first appear. A little foreknowledge can help both when shopping for a new site, and when administering it once the purchase is made. This articles covers some online resources that will provide good basic information.

Website hosting isn’t like basic home phone service. Once a plan is purchased it doesn’t just happen like hooking up the telephone. There are complexities to both buying and maintaining a website, not to mention creating one in the first place. Going blindly into the process can cause problems when things do not go as smoothly as hoped. The web offers a great deal of resources to those unfamiliar with the basic terminology and processes. This article covers a few that are easy to find and provide accessible information.

Completely New to the Internet
Those new to both the Internet as a whole, much less website hosting, have a little catching up to do. The BBC provides a fun visual guide to the absolute basics of the Internet with its “Webwise Online Course“. The course is available both in Flash and text versions. The Flash version is more visually engaging, and the Flash plugin should be fairly simple to obtain if it not already installed by default. Webportal About.com offers an entire section on the Internet for Beginners as well. They provide a variety of articles covering everything from email to web search and introductory netiquette.

Website Hosting Resources
Finding learning resources dealing specifically with website hosting can be difficult among the rather prolific variety of sites that would like to teach you and sell you hosting at the same time. Most significant website hosts have some learning resources on their sites, and these resources are important because they deal specifically with the applications their customers need to learn in order to use their hosting. It is important to choose a host with a solid online learning / tutorial section that clearly explains their tools.

More general information on website hosting as a whole can be found at the Devshed Web Hosters Portal. Along with articles dealing with current topics in the website hosting industry, they provide a variety of FAQs and HowTos that are more suited to the beginner than the seasoned professional. Learning this information is important before setting out to shop for website hosting services, as it will enable the customer to more objectively analyze the claims their prospective host is making.

There are a variety of forums devoted to website hosting, though these may or may not be friendly for the beginner. One of the largest is Web Hosting Talk. It is heavily trafficked and represents a good snapshot of current issues in the industry. There is usually no shortage of posters who will help out someone new to website hosting with answers to their questions.

Website Design Resources
Unlike hosting, the web is replete with forums, sites, and tutorials devoted to website design issues. What one will find useful in these resources is dependent on what is expected. Those seeking to learn the actual code behind websites, HTML, XTHML, and CSS for example, may find the W3Schools online tutorials useful. The W3Schools provide tutorials for everything from basic HTML to advanced scripting and database languages. They are presented in small, encapsulated formats, easy to take in short doses. About.com also has a web design section with various resources that cover not only coding, but common design programs such as Dreamweaver.

Conclusions
The web is well-stocked with resources to give the novice a helping hand. Hosting a website requires some basic skills and knowledge regarding the methods by which the hosting works. The resources listed in this article are by no means the only ones available. Open up your search engine of choice and more will be found easily. The resources provided by the hosting company are important as well, as they provide specific information on the applications the user needs to know in order to administer their account.

About The Author
Mr. Lester has served for 4 years as the webmaster for ApolloHosting.com and previously worked in the IT industry an additional 5 years, acquiring knowledge of hosting, design, and search engine optimization. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers. Established in 1999, Apollo prides itself on the highest levels of customer support. Click for more hosting articles.

Note: These articles are provided for general interest and content purposes only, and should not be construed as “support” materials. Apollo Hosting does not guarantee the information contained within. All articles are free to reprint so long as they remain unchanged, the “About the Author” section remains, all hyperlinks are preserved, and the rel=”nofollow” tag is not added to the hyperlinks.

by Eric Lester

Tech support is there to help, right? The reality is, it depends. Learn some common misconceptions about tech support’s responsibilities.

You’ve just gotten a new website hosting account. You’re excited to begin your journey onto the web. You’re a novice to all this “web stuff”, but you’re confident and brimming with enthusiasm. Into it you plunge, opening the design program your friend suggested and trying to create some pages. There’s a problem, though, and you can’t make the program work, and you’re not actually building any pages. Well, time to call technical support at your brand new hosting company, right?

Your hosting is providing you the space on its servers to put this information, so shouldn’t they be responsible for making sure you can actually make a website?

This is going to sound disappointing, but the answer to that question is ‘no’. Your hosting company is providing you space and transfer for a website, but the responsibility for populating that space is your’s and your’s alone. What is uploaded to the account and how it is uploaded is the responsibility of the client. The role of technical support at any hosting company is the diagnosis and repair of problems with a site relating to the server on which it is hosted. This article will cover the 2 most common “Tech Support Don’ts,” training and content update, and offer alternate solutions to the “problems.”

Content Update
Many novices enter website hosting with the idea that a hosting company’s technical support is not only a troubleshooting organization, but a teaching and maintenance organization as well. These impressions are due mostly to a misunderstanding of what constitutes “technical support” problems. Customers may classify a need to update a web page with new information as a “problem”, and perhaps, to them, it is, but it is not a problem for which technical support at your hosting company is responsible.

If you need someone to update your website on a regular or even intermittent basis, then you have 2 basic options. The first, and most economical, is simply to find an editing program with which are you are comfortable, learn it, and use it make your own updates. The program you need will vary according to the kind of site you wish to build or maintain. Many hosting companies even provide online “site builder” solutions that can be accessed right through your browser without the need to install separate program.

Alternately, if you lack the time or skills to update a site, consider hiring a outside web design services firm to perform your needed updates. Prices vary wildly, but you will probably be able to find a great number of resources in your local area, and beyond, by doing a search at your favorite search engine. Most web designers are generally knowledgeable, and, with information you provide, can update your site even if they themselves did not initially design it.

Training
Hosting and maintaining a website requires some basic knowledge. It isn’t just another bill you’ll pay monthly, like electric and water. It requires a knowledge both of the programs you’ll use to create the site and of the programs you’ll use to maintain and upload it. When someone arrives to hosting without this general, basic knowledge, they may find themselves lost and believe the only recourse is to call a hosting company’s technical support for what amounts to free training.

Training on software, even commonplace software, is something many people pay a great deal of money to colleges and other professional organizations to obtain. Expecting this kind of service for what equates to a monthly hosting fee is, on reflection, a little unreasonable. In virtually every case, there will be resources associated with the programs you’re using to provide answers and rudimentary training. Answers to more general questions, beyond those specific to a single program, may be found in a variety of places. Most hosting companies can provide an entry level training in website hosting through online resources, like manuals, knowledgebase, or even advanced video tutorials. Always check for these kinds of resources before immediately picking up the phone to ask your question of technical support.
About The Author
Mr. Lester has served for 4 years as the webmaster for ApolloHosting.com and previously worked in the IT industry an additional 5 years, acquiring knowledge of hosting, design, and search engine optimization. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers. Established in 1999, Apollo prides itself on the highest levels of customer support. Click for more hosting articles.

Note: These articles are provided for general interest and content purposes only, and should not be construed as “support” materials. Apollo Hosting does not guarantee the information contained within. All articles are free to reprint so long as they remain unchanged, the “About the Author” section remains, all hyperlinks are preserved, and the rel=”nofollow” tag is not added to the hyperlinks.

Source: WebhostingReview.biz

Operating a Web presence can become very involved once a company’s hosting requirements progress beyond simply needing a dedicated server. Managed services are therefore geared toward organizations that don’t have the time or capital to invest in server administration.

Managed services normally provide equipment procurement, provisioning and installation, and network monitoring and management backed by Service Level Agreement. Managed services also provide end-to-end network management and maintenance support for locations around the world.

Think of a managed server as a glorified dedicated server armed with extended features and support. A managed server will come equipped with the features one would expect from a dedicated provider, including choice of OS, routing equipment, network connectivity and complete administrative control. However, instead of leaving most of the administrative tasks to the customer, a managed provider will typically handle that as well. Many companies will often assign you a dedicated service representative who will cater only to you and a handful of other accounts.

This support also comes in the form of proprietary control panel technology that enables the inexperienced administrator to easily set up and maintain sites on a server. This is achieved through an intuitive and user friendly point and click method rather than by typing complicated commands at a prompt line.

Many hosting companies offer a supplementary suite of features and services that related to managed hosting, including application and database management, high-availability services and load balancing.

Most reputable Web hosting firms will offer managed Web hosting services, and will back up their services with performance guarantees and Service Level Agreements.

Unmanaged services, on the other hand, give the customer complete remote server administration capability and freedom. The downside to this is that unmanaged servers require a large amount of time and technical expertise, as the customer is ultimately responsible for the instillation and management of the server – not the Web host. For this reason, unmanaged servers are only recommended for individuals and companies with extensive server administration resources or expertise, as well as a significant amount of time available to take care of the server.

If you’re unsure about which service to choose, give serious consideration to choosing a managed server. While taking the managed route is more expensive, it is also much more reassuring for the inexperienced administrator. Remember, you can always downgrade your account to an unmanaged service later, once you’ve acquired some expertise in server administration – though once you opt for the personal attention you will receive through a managed host, you might think twice when the time comes to change.

Source: WebhostingReview.biz

Rapid growth happens often with popular Web sites. They start out using a simple shared account, only to consume so much of the server’s resources that they are forced to a dedicated server. Other times, a company will simply want the flexibility a dedicated server offers, even if they do not operate a high-traffic Web site.

Put simply, a dedicated server is a computer located in a data center that is used for a single Web hosting account, whereas shared accounts can potentially share a server with hundreds of other sites. A site on a dedicated server has the same Internet connection as all the other servers, but it doesn’t have to share it with anybody. This can be a tremendous boon for anyone who operates a large site.

One of the things that dedicated servers provide is customizability. Since the client is going to be leasing the entire computer rather than just a portion of it, many Web hosts allow the client to select the components used in the server. These can range from hardware, such as disk size and the amount of memory, to software. Most hosts can set up dedicated servers with Unix or Windows-based Operating Systems – the choice is typically left to the site owner.

There are typically two categories of dedicated servers: managed and unmanaged. Managed servers are usually operated by the Web host, while the client provides the Web site data. In these cases, a good host will fully monitor the server and have technicians standing by in case of difficulty. An unmanaged server is operated and maintained by the client; the Web host provides the storage space, physical security, and bandwidth. However, often a Web host will have a consultant available to assist clients operating an unmanaged server – this is usually provided at a nominal fee.

Looking for a suitable dedicated server is something that takes time and research. Not all Web hosts are created equal, and neither are all dedicated servers. There are several issues that must be addressed before a client can choose the best server.

First of all, what does the Web site actually need, and how much space will it need to grow? This is an incredibly important question, as any computer has limited capabilities. Before one can select a dedicated server, one has to know exactly how much disk space the site will require, along with memory and bandwidth.

Second, what amount of customization and upgrades will the Web host allow? Many Web hosts offer specific dedicated hosting plans, and have the client choose between them. Some offer full customization of the Web server. What works best depends on the Web site.

Upgrades, however, are another matter. If a Web host doesn’t upgrade its machines on a regular basis, there is something wrong. Technology is infamous for moving extremely quickly, and a Web host that doesn’t keep its machines up to date will quickly find itself, and its clients, falling behind.

Third, where is the server stored? A good host will keep the server in a safe, secured environment, usually at a data center. A Web host that stores a dedicated server elsewhere is usually a bad sign.

Finally, what support does the host offer? Even for unmanaged servers, there should always be an account representative available to handle client concerns. There should also be a managed hosting plan that one can opt into, just in case managing the server solo is too much. Also, upgrades and customizations should be seamless, with little or no impact on the users of the site.