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Tuesday 24 November 2009

Fastest Web Hosting

In this highly competitive industry of web hosting, having a faster connection inherently means you are one up against your competitors when advertising your web hosting services. To a web master's perspective, this is a good thing, as the speeds of web hosting servers go up, the benefits they bring to a website, especially a business one, are immeasurable. Of course, there is a limit as to how fast the web hosts can be, but at this point in time, the fastest web hosts are boasting T3 connections which are only loaded at 50% bandwidth. This allows the web host to provide its subscribers with the fastest web hosting available to technology today.

There are many benefits of having a fast web host. A fast loading page is likely to keep the visitors browsing through the website as compared to a slow loading host. This allows for business websites to retain their traffic effectively. This is not the only benefit though. If data is transferred quickly it means that there will be a lower latency on the server, which in turn reduces the lag on your website. This is particularly crucial for various social networking websites and game sites where there is a lot of navigation between various web pages. Of course, there are many other benefits and these two are merely an example of what advantages fast web hosting have over their slower counterparts.

There are many web hosts available these days, and it is often difficult to identify which web host is the fastest. A good method would be to browse through web hosting blogs, forums, and directories. These may be able to give you a general idea or picture of which web hosts are faster or slower. This is just personal opinion though, and you may need a more accurate test in order to get a better idea. Many web hosts advertise a T3 connection with low bandwidth usage, and of course this is in their interest to do so. However, it is not enough just to see what the features page of the web host states, it can be often better to test it out yourself. There are many websites with plugins where you can test out how fast a website loads. Try to find websites of different web hosts which have the same bandwidth usage or web space and then test them out using these online services.

All in all, a fast web host is generally a good thing to have. However you must also take notice of the other parts of web hosting, namely the web space, bandwidth, and other services such as site builder and content management systems. Ultimately, picking the right web host is more important than picking a fast web host, although more often than not, these two will coincide. In any case, you need to take careful note to which web host you opt for. A fast web host is not necessarily a good one especially if it provides poor technical service or features.

Monday 16 November 2009

E-commerce Web Hosting

With the prolification of the Internet, e-commerce is increasingly becoming a solid business model. E-commerce has been growing since the inception of the Internet, and is slated to grow even more as the Internet becomes more popular. E-commerce allows a business to market to a global market rather than simply a local or even regional one. Ultimately, e-commerce seems to have a bright future in the marketing industry. However, as e-commerce grows, it is becoming increasingly dominated by big-time players, leaving the smaller e-shops and affiliate marketers in the dust. It is no surprise though, considering the difficulty of breaking into the ecommerce market. Even the setting up of an ecommerce website is no simple task. However, while becoming successful in the e-commerce arena may be a tricky task, the first step, picking a suitable web host for your ecommerce website, is simple enough.

There are many different web hosts that you can pick from to host your ecommerce website. However, each of these hosts are different and also offer different packages and plans for you to choose from. Being an e-commerce website you would need a high bandwidth and a large amount of web space for your website. This should be a primary concern when you are choosing web hosts. Also, you need to make sure that the web host you are using has a low downtime, preferably of less than 1%. This is because when you are in the ecommerce business, any downtime can lead to less customers and customers being turned away, this is bad for business. The most important thing is also to ensure that the web host that you use has 24 hour service. This is because you do not want your website to crash in the middle of the night with no way of getting it back up. When you are serving a global market, there is no time where you can afford to let your website go down.

Of course there are many good web hosts which offer these. Blue Host is one good web host which is highly reputable in the web hosting industry. Being one of the industry giants, Blue Host offers various good business web hosting plans which are highly suitable for e-commerce web hosting. There are other web hosts which are good as well such as Host Monster and Dream Host. For an ecommerce website it is always better to stick with the tried and tested, more established web hosts in order to ensure that your website is always up and running, and in top form. You cannot take the risk of any downtime or of a high latency on your website.

Ultimately the choice is yours, which web host to choose and which web hosting plan or package to subscribe to. All you need to do is to bear in mind the needs of your ecommerce website and to adapt the web hosting package to the needs of your website. If you can do that, you will clearly be able to pick out which web hosting plan and web host is the most suitable for you.

Saturday 7 November 2009

Difference between Linux and Windows Hosting

Previously the difference between Linux and Windows hosting made a huge difference. Picking which operating system to host your website made a huge difference in what you could do with the server and what you could accomplish with the website. However, in today's context of cross-system web hosting, there is little that practically separates these two operating systems: Linux and Windows.

The first unique difference is how you access the server. Generally, both offer FTP access to your files, however, Linux is the only one that offers telnet or ssh access. This is probably due to the target audience that each operating system targets. While windows is targeted to the mass public, linux is probably more focused in that it provides many more features that would only be demanded by programmers and people familiar with computing and programming. In any case, while this may seem like a fundamental difference, there really is very little to separate FTP from telnet or ssh in the practical sense. While FTP allows you to download the file to work locally, telnet and ssh allows you to modify the root file on the web server by using unix commands.

The second difference between linux and windows hosting is that windows and linux support different languages. Linux tends to be associated with PHP, Perl and CGI while Windows is usually associated with ColdFusion and ASP. The database languages are also usually different, with Windows favoring Access while Linux users use MySQL. Windows also writes its pages in .htm format while Linux writes its web pages in .html. Ultimately these differences are minor, but can make significant difference if you are not prepared for it. Trying to modify Access files while you are using a computer that only has Linux can often be a surprising exercise in futility for the beginning programmer.

In terms of security, people tend to argue against Windows, citing a whole host of vulnerabilities. This is correct in a sense; while Linux tends to have the same amount of vulnerabilities, it is patched and updated faster due to its open source and free nature. This is in stark contrast to Windows vulnerabilities which are usually patched every time a new service pack is released. However, security also depends largely on your network administrator. With good administrators, your website is safe regardless of OS.

Ultimately, the choice is yours to make, whether you prefer windows or Linux. It is better to pick a web host based on its features and service rather than on what operating system it is running on its web servers. As the difference between the two is very little. However, if your website particularly requires a certain language due to the programmers you work with or any other language, it would be prudent to check for system compatibility before subscribing to a web host. If you do not require such specific details, you should simply sit back and let the web host handle these complicated technical details and focus on your website itself. After all, the content is way more important than the programming language or the OS of the web servers.

Tuesday 3 November 2009

Cheapest Web Hosting Company

When setting up a website, the most important thing would be to pick a good web hosting company. The web host is literally the foundation for the website, without a good one, the website will end up running into all sorts of trouble and problems later in the future. Thus, picking a quality one is of utmost importance. However, cost is also a major factor in picking your web host. It is not always practical nor feasible to pick the most expensive or best web host because of cost limitations. Thus, picking cheap, but reputable web hosts would be the way to go.

If quality of web hosting is not of paramount concern, for example for personal blogs or other non-business related websites, then using a free web host would definitely be the best option. Web hosts such as 007sites and 0catch are among the better ones that offer free web hosting. While the free providers often are funded by advertisement banners and texts, they nevertheless offer a free service. Thus if you have no requirement for formal web hosting with 24 hour technical help then you may want to opt for a free service.

However, the free services may not always be the choice. There are many cheap web hosts these days, with costs going as low as $2.00 a month. It is prudent to pick the cheapest possible web host that is of suitable quality, however it is also wise to check for any additional fees. Most cheap web hosts charge a fee for the domain, as well as a fee for starting up and other associated costs. However, these cheaper web hosts provide better service with higher bandwidth and more web space than the free ones, which often provide a minimal amount of resources to their subscribers. However, the cheaper web hosts usually provide little more than the standard web space, bandwidth, and perhaps the occasional site builder or content management system.

The mid range web hosts would likely be the most suitable choice for anyone who wishes to have a proper website hosted. Websites like Host Monster and Blue Host offer cheap web hosting for just $5 and $6 respectively. This is a relatively minimal cost for top-end quality service. Furthermore, there are no start up costs associated with these plans if you opt for a 12 month plan. As expected, these higher end plans offer much more than their cheaper counterparts. With Host Monster you are entitled to various domain privacy services as well as technical help, site builder, and many more services. This obviously is ideal for anyone who wishes to set up a formal web site and yet keep the hosting costs low.

In any case, picking which web host you want to subscribe to would be a matter of personal opinion and website needs. For a low-end private blog the free web hosts would likely suffice, however for formal, nonprofit and even certain smaller business websites, the cheaper or mid range paid services would be ideal. The cheapest web hosting company is not always the best for the website after all.

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