Archive for the ‘Hosting’ Category

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3 Things You Must Know About Cheap Blog Hosting

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

People often say that you get what you pay for, but is it true about cheap blog hosting? Not all hosts are created equal, so you need to be able to decide if the deal on offer is a good one or not. Here are three things you MUST know about cheap blog hosting.

1. Will I Have Enough Resources To Host My Blog?

A blog is usually run by scripts, and those scripts will take up disk space. Using WordPress for example (which is perhaps the best overall choice for a blogging platform), starts at around 5Mb. Once you add a few plug ins to make the blog do what you want, then you are probably looking at another 5mb of disk space.

If you plan to run video on blog as well, then you could be looking at higher bandwidth as well, so in short, you need a reasonable amount of resources just to get started. This pretty much eliminates the free hosts, but most good hosts would cover you easily.

2. Will I have Enough Features To Host My Blog?

Again because blogs are usually scripts, your host needs to allow you to execute scripts from your blog. This is not as scary as it sounds because the top blogging platforms such as WordPress can be automatically installed using Cpanel and something called Fantastico, which makes installation child’s play. As long as Fantastico is available and you are able to run PHP scripts, then you have the features to host your blog.

3. Will I Get Help If I Run Into Trouble When I Host My Blog?

Here is a biggy. Will your host help you if you get into trouble? Despite how much easier these things have been made, many people still come unstuck at some stage of the process. What you need is a web host who will try and go that extra mile for you when things get tough. Not everything is straight forward when you are web hosting, and a good web host understands that and goes of their way to help you. If the support from your cheap blog hosting is poor, then it is too cheap, and you should be looking elsewhere.

I have found that some web hosts will go that extra mile for you and will help you with things like third party scripts for example. Not all will do this of course, and nor should you expect it. However when you do receive this kind of help, it does make that particular host stand out from the crowd.

I have also found that some web hosts pay lip service to support. They answer questions quickly, but usually with more question, using time that would have been better spent answering your query. If your host’s support leads you round in circles, then perhaps it is time to look elsewhere for a cheap web host.

So there we have it. If you cover these three bases with your web host, then you can truly say that you have found cheap blog hosting that is good value for money. Good luck with your blogging!

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Posted in Blogging, Hosting, Website Development | 3 Comments »

The Importance Of Reliable Web Hosting

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

There are many ways that consumers form an opinion about a business or product, and key among them is reliability. Is the customer service honest and reliable? Can you trust the product? Is the quality equal to any guarantees or promises made at the time of purchase? All of these questions have to do with reliability, and when you choose a web hosting service you must consider reliability as well.

As the owner of a website it is crucial to include issues such as “downtime”, customer support, and website speed and security when choosing your hosting provider. This is because such factors will greatly affect how your own visitors measure your reliability.

For example, if your web hosting service makes many allowances for downtime in order to perform services, maintenance of technical issues your customers or visitors may not reach the website. If a consumer has to deal with even a single occurrence of an “unavailable” notice at your site, it is likely that they won’t return.

Additionally, if you choose to sign up with a shared server it is important to understand that an “over sold” server might allow for one or two other sites to gobble up available bandwidth and slow down all of the other sites to the point of making them unreliable for both the site owner and their customers.

Really investigating a wide range of potential providers is the surest way to find a reliable web hosting provider. So, how do you determine the best providers as well as the most reliable for your needs?

Consider the following points before making your decision:

Are there low limits on transfer? This is the amount of information that can be downloaded by visitors each month. You really want an unlimited amount of transfer if possible because exceeding set limits generally comes with additional fees.

Guarantee of 99% uptime, or greater. There is no need for a modern server to be down more than one percent of the business day (or night) and it is too risky to work with any other arrangement.

Does the site provide lots of space? If you are in business you are going to require space for additional information, pages or applications and limits in space mean limits in potential.

Will there be dedicated customer support for you as the owner as well as full time support for those who visit your site? The better web hosting providers offer round the clock support for all visitors and customers, and this is a value added service that should not be overlooked.

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Posted in Hosting, Webcrowd News, Website Development | No Comments »

Checklist for Moving Your Site to a New Web Hosting Server

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

Moving your site to a new server is a difficult decision. It involves downtime and there can be technical issues that can give you anxious moments. However, you need to have a checklist to ensure that all critical and small issues are addressed, timely and efficiently. A few points are recommended that you need to ensure during the switchover.

Coordinate with your new and previous hosts

The payment schedule with new host should be planned in such a way that you do not end up paying to two hosts for the same period. Try to begin it just a few days before the contract with previous host expires. It gives you some time to take back up and to clear payment dues, if any.

Back up

You should take back up of working site in your PC, and in a separate disc. Save a backup copy of all instructions, technical specifications that your previous host provided you such as file update details or email accounts. Besides, take back up of all your databases as well.

Update paths

For Linux hosting, update the paths to your script files, or PHP or CGI files. Your new host may have different way of handling SQL creation. So, update the paths of SQL along with all script files, and note down the instructions carefully.

Uploading files

If there are some scripts that call directories, the new directories on new server should be so named that they match. Remember to upload the directories’ contents that you saved as backup from old server.

Testing

The last important step is to test your site at new server. Verify that all hyperlinks, bookmarks, and interactive features are working as required.

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Posted in Hosting, Website Development | 1 Comment »

How To Select Web Hosting For Novices?

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

Any new person to the world of internet, looking to introduce himself through his unique identity will need a web space provider. Though many web hosting companies are offering their services on internet but novices do not know which one is best for them in terms of their requirements. This problem becomes even more severe when these new comers are not well known to web hosting terms like bandwidth, data transfer, database and many other such things.

Normally, new comers to the world of internet for making their own websites are guided from their friends or some person who is already having his own website in running. This person will definitely advise his friend to go for same web hosting on which he has his own website hosted. This can be a problem for new comer as his needs can be different from his friend. So question arises, what to do for novices and how to select web hosting company for him? This has a very simple answer. Select few web hosting companies and put them on a chart side by side to compare their price, bandwidth, web space and other offers like free advertising credits of Google, Yahoo, MSN.

Making these comparisons are always difficult for novices. In this case they have an easier option of checking web hosting reviews. Lots of websites on internet are offering web hosting reviews of top web host providers. This can be extremely helpful for those who are just looking to get a web host for their first ever online presence. In these websites, web hosts are compared against each other with their prices, space offered and bandwidth options. In addition some of these review sites also include customer reviews about the quality of that web host. It helps to make your decision even simpler and easier by narrow downing the whole industry in one table.

While going through these tables, some of the basics things mentioned there should match your requirements. Just for example, if you are going to launch a company website or small business website, you will have to go with web host provider that offers maximum security. On the other hand if you are going to start a personal website, your bandwidth requirements will not be too high to start with a costly web hosting company. All these measures are necessary to be drawn on a paper before you start your selection. It will make easy to find the exact match of your requirements.

One thing that is most important in this all searching and finalizing is the uptime guarantee and customer relation of that company. If you suffer in terms of website down most of the times, then why you have to stick with that company or in case you have some problem and you do not get a timely reply from your host, why to opt with such provider? As the bottom line of this whole matter, I must say do not compromise on the price of services you are looking for. Cheap web hosting can become a big problem by offering you cheap quality services later on.

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Posted in Hosting, Website Development | No Comments »

Free Web Hosting Plan

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Mostly, new people get attracted towards the concept of free web hosting plan. However, they don’t know about the actual issues involved in a free web hosting plan, until they use it. One must understand that a paid web host provider has got better services to offer, compared to free hosts. Free web hosting facility might be suitable for personal homepages and other types of websites which do not depend on online advertising or sales revenues. more visit to:-www.instant-audio-mastery.com A paid hosting service is ideal for those in business and who are interested in online selling or just want to have a professional web presence with regard to their business.

You might be hunting for an appropriate host for your website and then suddenly you feel like asking yourself, “why should I pay for a web hosting plan, when I can get easily acquire a free website for myself?” Well, it all depends on the type of website that you are dealing with. With a free hosting plan, you might end up being frustrated due to various reasons. Some of the points are explained as follows:

1) Down time is common in free hosting plans: It is common to experience downtime issues with free web hosts. Since you do not pay for the service, free hosting providers feel less obligated to offer good service. The free web hosting providers don’t really value a free subscriber, since they feel that this group is not really beneficial to them. Hence, free web hosting providers are not bothered if their users are dissatisfied with the service.

2) Free flow of advertisement: In a free hosting service, you will definitely be disturbed by constant, unwanted ads on all your web pages. You may even see a pop up banner as soon as you click a link etc. You can hardly do anything about this situation because many free hosts rely solely on these advertisements in order to make money. So, you must be aware of the fact that these advertisements will reduce your professional image just because you have opted for a free web hosting plan.

3) Bad customer support: Most of the free web hosting providers cannot effort to provide customer support facility to their users. In such a case, it is always better to rely on the FAQ page (frequently asked question). The FAQ can come to your rescue when in case, live or email support is denied by the free web hosting provider.

4) Restricted hard disk space: Think twice before you opt for a free web host. If your website is large enough, you might then experience free web host being quite limited. Mostly, free hosts can provide hard disk space of about 5 to 10MB. more visit to:-www.29-web-design-tricks.com You will experience difficulties when your website is growing and you are thinking of expanding your website beyond your allotted disk space.

5) Lengthy domain names: In a free hosting plan, customers are not allowed to use their own names, as in the case of paid hosts. Those users who are opting for free hosting services are required to choose a sub domain off the host’s name. Thus, you land up having a lengthy domain name for your website. Visitors will find it difficult to remember your lengthy domain name. Hence, you are then likely to loose potential customers. If customers want to access your website, they will have to bookmark your site instead of depending on their own memory.

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Domains and Subdomains

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

Author: Sandi Baker

There are ways to increase your exposure with the power of subdomains but first we need to look at what domains and subdomains are.

What Are Domains?

Domains we are all familiar with. They are our URL which is the full http address. While the Domain name is the name of our website. Keep in mind that in the past theses two where interchangeable and still are with virtual hosting. If you do not have this type of hosting you will be dealing with the fact that there are more websites than there are servers. Many things have changed over the years with so many websites out there now on the internet.

How Does A Domain Name System Work?

The name consists of tow or more labels separated by dots. To the left the label specifies a subdomain.

What Are Subdomains?

This is an extension of your existing, working domain. It is however separate from the domain that it extracts from.

What this means is that a subdomain is considered as it own site.

Why Use A Subdomain?

Some people create subdomains for niches. Others use them to load images that coincide with their main site, There are some businesses that use them to split their departments.

Many uses can be found and the benefits are that you don’t have to start another website, thus incurring another expense. Another benefit is that search engines will count the subdomain as a separate site causing more exposure.

How Do You Create A Subdomain?

Use the topic of your website domain name in your subdomain so that they relate to one another. Go to your web hosting administration panel to create your subdomain.

Let us take a website address such as www.webcrowd.com.au/domains

The subdomain would then become www.domains.webcrowd.com.au

Did you notice the change of the dot and the placement of it?

Most of your hosting will help you with this process or you can purchase some simple software to aid you with this. If you are doing multiple subdomains, I recommended that you purchase the software as this can become tedious.

Important Notes:

You should have at least 4 pages on your subdomain for them to appear as having substantial content for the search engines,

Also keep in mind that this is like any other website. You still must use keywords, content, placement, and submit to search engines, etc. All of these factors must come into play.

You get the idea!

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Posted in Domain Names, Hosting, Website Development | No Comments »

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