Application Service Providers (ASP often called) has grown rapidly on the site of web hosting companies offering new and innovative services. The term of ASP should not be confused with the Microsoft Software Corporation.
The number of applications via ASP model is increasing. Therefore, the fast growing companies develop software for the ASP market. What types of applications are developed? As remotely-hosted web applications can be inexpensive for businesses to gain access an unique software to provide many applications for infrequent use in terms of use. Others focus on the use by the group to connect over the Internet to an application that is flexible to offer.
ASP software has developed for business functions such as to handle different businesses functionality, materials management, human resources, dealing with financial management and e-commerce solutions.
The range of solutions provided by ASP is enormous. And many ASP solutions are good for the company to the operational needs of companies in different industries and business functions to meet. There are several technical and business issues currently addressed by ASP system to develop and improve system applications.
The big advantage for companies to ASP services are that they have a chance to reduce costs and increase effectiveness. Companies can have access to a wide range of software products with the option of paying less than an outright purchase through usage charges. This enables companies to gain access applications that can service the needs of the enterprise so that business can focus on their core business. Besides developing new ASP software that is suitable for business solutions to operating problems not yet addressed by the software on the personal computer based software. ASP has also remove most of its technical and administrative issues associated with the software by providing updates in real time, remote web hosting, remote access support and customer support and total software management.
Web hosting companies are involved in developing applications. However, most hosting companies running the network and control the application remotely to users. By providing ASP relate services, these companies are essentially related to application infrastructure providers. Web applications for mainframe hosting, asp service providers are inventing a new way to host and maintain business applications.
Friday, July 30, 2010
PHP and MySQL Database Web Hosting by nathan woods
The MySQL database server is really reliable for use. Used with different software languages, including PHP, and some of the families in open source software such as Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.
Any data that you need to store, can easily stored in a MySQL database. For this you require a database management system to add, open, edit and record data in your MySQL database and it is the best package and most well-rounded package on the market. You can also use MySQL as a relational database management system, which means that it can store data in different tables that can communicate with one another instead of everything in one big "storage room" data.
Even you can run a MySQL server on your local computer machine or can access through remote server. All you require to get your MySQL database and MySQL functionality access to your server name likes the name serer of your MySQL web hosting provider or the right IP address. You can then input your different commands, most likely using PHP scripts, to communicate with your different databases. The orders are written on programming web scripts.
When choosing a MySQL web hosting provider, you need to study some extra factors on the far side of the standard Uptime, redundancy backup systems, disk space, email, and bandwidth concern. Hence, you need to search MySQL hosting provider that offers as many data structure as you want. And well established web host who promote himself as the best MySQL hosting provider should provide its clients reliable technical support such as live chat, email support, and phone support.
Also you need to check a web interface because whenever you work with your databases often closely. You will require a MySQL hosting provider that its admin interface designed with the MySQL user friendly. If you have different staff members who are participating in the building and maintenance of your different tables and databases, you can create several users ID's to allow changing degrees of secure access. And to make a smooth operation with MySQL cPanel is a good administrative tool.
You also require helps support for Cron jobs. Usually cron used to run particular scripts for regular, routine tasks are performed at regular intervals. A reliable MySQL web hosting provider should allow you to develop crons from your control panel. Even these scripts are good for maintenance routine.
The most nearest web script programming language for MySQL database is a PHP and a web hosting provider who gives the enabled PHP extensions solution with MySQL is really best and useful for your Website. To check hosting providers PHP capabilities, you can make sure characteristic between your side scripting language and your database management, which will saves you from tons of problems.
Thus, if you are working with MySQL databases, ensure one thing that you choose a web host who is specialized in MySQL web hosting.
This Article Which shows the Importance of MySQL Database Should Helps You to Choose Best PHP Hosting company.
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Any data that you need to store, can easily stored in a MySQL database. For this you require a database management system to add, open, edit and record data in your MySQL database and it is the best package and most well-rounded package on the market. You can also use MySQL as a relational database management system, which means that it can store data in different tables that can communicate with one another instead of everything in one big "storage room" data.
Even you can run a MySQL server on your local computer machine or can access through remote server. All you require to get your MySQL database and MySQL functionality access to your server name likes the name serer of your MySQL web hosting provider or the right IP address. You can then input your different commands, most likely using PHP scripts, to communicate with your different databases. The orders are written on programming web scripts.
When choosing a MySQL web hosting provider, you need to study some extra factors on the far side of the standard Uptime, redundancy backup systems, disk space, email, and bandwidth concern. Hence, you need to search MySQL hosting provider that offers as many data structure as you want. And well established web host who promote himself as the best MySQL hosting provider should provide its clients reliable technical support such as live chat, email support, and phone support.
Also you need to check a web interface because whenever you work with your databases often closely. You will require a MySQL hosting provider that its admin interface designed with the MySQL user friendly. If you have different staff members who are participating in the building and maintenance of your different tables and databases, you can create several users ID's to allow changing degrees of secure access. And to make a smooth operation with MySQL cPanel is a good administrative tool.
You also require helps support for Cron jobs. Usually cron used to run particular scripts for regular, routine tasks are performed at regular intervals. A reliable MySQL web hosting provider should allow you to develop crons from your control panel. Even these scripts are good for maintenance routine.
The most nearest web script programming language for MySQL database is a PHP and a web hosting provider who gives the enabled PHP extensions solution with MySQL is really best and useful for your Website. To check hosting providers PHP capabilities, you can make sure characteristic between your side scripting language and your database management, which will saves you from tons of problems.
Thus, if you are working with MySQL databases, ensure one thing that you choose a web host who is specialized in MySQL web hosting.
This Article Which shows the Importance of MySQL Database Should Helps You to Choose Best PHP Hosting company.
Related Articles - PHP, Hosting,
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Web Hosting Company India: How to Get the Most Out Of the Services Offered By It? by Aman Satphati
Over the past few years, several web hosting companies have mushroomed in India. In order to survive cut-throat competition and to attract customers, most web hosting companies in India have lowered down the cost of their services. If you want to ensure that you gain from this cheap bargain, do look for certain things when selecting the cheap web hosting company in India.
Uptime Server & server speed: When selecting the cheap web hosting company India, make sure it promises uptime server and great server speed. Web users who visit your site must not find few or all of your web pages missing. If it happens, they would not take your online business seriously. Also, they should be able to download the web pages, images, or content quickly. Slow server speed might turn the web users away from your site.
Optimal website space: Do check the web site space offered by the cheap web hosting company. The website space should meet not only your current web hosting needs, but also future. You must be able to add content, images, web designing features, or advanced applications to your site as and when you want. The web hosting company should not impose any restrictions on the website space that you can use.
Server back-up: Ask the cheap web hosting company in India if it offers server back up. Good website hosting companies offer server back up facility to ensure their clients don’t lose any important data or files during server break up.
Customer support system: Make sure that the cheap web hosting company in India has 24/7 customer support system. It should always be ready to help you during server break up or when you are facing any technical problem. Good web hosting companies always have a team of qualified and experienced technicians ready to assist their customers.
One web hosting company in India that offers uptime server, server back up, unlimited website space and bandwidth, 24/7 technical support, and lot more at cheap rates is Manashosting. It is a leading web hosting company in India that has been catering to the web hosting needs of small and medium scale businesses since many years.
To know in detail about this web host in India, the best web hosting services provided by them, and more, you may log on to manashosting.com
The Author generally writes on the topics related to Web Hosting Services, Web Hosting India and Web Hosting Company.
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Uptime Server & server speed: When selecting the cheap web hosting company India, make sure it promises uptime server and great server speed. Web users who visit your site must not find few or all of your web pages missing. If it happens, they would not take your online business seriously. Also, they should be able to download the web pages, images, or content quickly. Slow server speed might turn the web users away from your site.
Optimal website space: Do check the web site space offered by the cheap web hosting company. The website space should meet not only your current web hosting needs, but also future. You must be able to add content, images, web designing features, or advanced applications to your site as and when you want. The web hosting company should not impose any restrictions on the website space that you can use.
Server back-up: Ask the cheap web hosting company in India if it offers server back up. Good website hosting companies offer server back up facility to ensure their clients don’t lose any important data or files during server break up.
Customer support system: Make sure that the cheap web hosting company in India has 24/7 customer support system. It should always be ready to help you during server break up or when you are facing any technical problem. Good web hosting companies always have a team of qualified and experienced technicians ready to assist their customers.
One web hosting company in India that offers uptime server, server back up, unlimited website space and bandwidth, 24/7 technical support, and lot more at cheap rates is Manashosting. It is a leading web hosting company in India that has been catering to the web hosting needs of small and medium scale businesses since many years.
To know in detail about this web host in India, the best web hosting services provided by them, and more, you may log on to manashosting.com
The Author generally writes on the topics related to Web Hosting Services, Web Hosting India and Web Hosting Company.
Related Articles - Web Hosting Company, Web Hosting Company In India, Web Hosting Company India, Web Hosting In India, Web Hosting India, Web Hosting Companies, Web Host,
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Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Free Web Hosting ……not Bad!!
n terms of price, one can find two types of hosting in the market:
1. Paid web hosting and
2. Free web hosting.
Several people run away from free hosting thinking it nothing but making fool of one.
However, it can have its own advantages.
It relies on the use and place of the user.
Why use (purpose)?
When one talk about a commercially meant website, for e.g. an Ecommerce web-store, dependability and uptime is must. As it is well said, downtime for second, high amount revenue in crater. However, some free web hosting assures providers warranty of uptime, still one cannot make them liable if they fail to reach as per user’s requirements. Now one will ask why? Since their clause mention lack of uptime guarantee due to free of cost service. As mentioned above, along with a crucial business website one cannot commit suicide by relying on a free web hosting.
Though, there are several user’s trying something outstanding or different from others on their websites, not assured with positive output. For them free web hosting is the best choice as it does not involve any gamble with currency and both parties can prevent themselves from any unanticipated damage. Each person learns from experiences and what can be the best way to learn as compare to it? One can see free hosting plans as supreme platform for optimistic webmasters to launch themselves to a new helpful scenario. Certainly, it is not free in the real sense, they ask something in return i.e. visiting sponsors, exhibiting ads on hosted pages, reading emails, and not long, sharing in online communities of the free web-host. This final alternative cannot say to be a worse thing as online communities permit several users to interact and discover something new from one another.
At the other hand, there are several users who heir free web hosting for a personal site as they do not think there is any use to denote time and payment for it. Still one can find few free web hosts in the market offering free service for nothing just to deal with. Thus, an apparent objective for going for a free web hosting is quite imperative. If the objective is sensitive and no excuse to problematic situations, then one should not recommend free web hosting. Except that, free web hosting cannot consider as bad.
Why position of the user?
In the present scenario, one can afford Web hosting plans in a reasonable way (some even for $1 a month). Thus, charges are not a big issue regarding web hosting for the people having high standard of living, reserve revenue can be a good option for the people to groom their web site. Further, working people can use a Paypal account as a source of payment. If one talks about students and young people they do not have much revenue to spend. For them, free web hosting plans can be the last and best alternative.
Hence, one cannot consider free web hosting a worse thing as people of some specific category can utilize it to fulfill their goals. So for the students and people trying to learn new things and gaining new experience can select, free web hosting as the best alternative.
1. Paid web hosting and
2. Free web hosting.
Several people run away from free hosting thinking it nothing but making fool of one.
However, it can have its own advantages.
It relies on the use and place of the user.
Why use (purpose)?
When one talk about a commercially meant website, for e.g. an Ecommerce web-store, dependability and uptime is must. As it is well said, downtime for second, high amount revenue in crater. However, some free web hosting assures providers warranty of uptime, still one cannot make them liable if they fail to reach as per user’s requirements. Now one will ask why? Since their clause mention lack of uptime guarantee due to free of cost service. As mentioned above, along with a crucial business website one cannot commit suicide by relying on a free web hosting.
Though, there are several user’s trying something outstanding or different from others on their websites, not assured with positive output. For them free web hosting is the best choice as it does not involve any gamble with currency and both parties can prevent themselves from any unanticipated damage. Each person learns from experiences and what can be the best way to learn as compare to it? One can see free hosting plans as supreme platform for optimistic webmasters to launch themselves to a new helpful scenario. Certainly, it is not free in the real sense, they ask something in return i.e. visiting sponsors, exhibiting ads on hosted pages, reading emails, and not long, sharing in online communities of the free web-host. This final alternative cannot say to be a worse thing as online communities permit several users to interact and discover something new from one another.
At the other hand, there are several users who heir free web hosting for a personal site as they do not think there is any use to denote time and payment for it. Still one can find few free web hosts in the market offering free service for nothing just to deal with. Thus, an apparent objective for going for a free web hosting is quite imperative. If the objective is sensitive and no excuse to problematic situations, then one should not recommend free web hosting. Except that, free web hosting cannot consider as bad.
Why position of the user?
In the present scenario, one can afford Web hosting plans in a reasonable way (some even for $1 a month). Thus, charges are not a big issue regarding web hosting for the people having high standard of living, reserve revenue can be a good option for the people to groom their web site. Further, working people can use a Paypal account as a source of payment. If one talks about students and young people they do not have much revenue to spend. For them, free web hosting plans can be the last and best alternative.
Hence, one cannot consider free web hosting a worse thing as people of some specific category can utilize it to fulfill their goals. So for the students and people trying to learn new things and gaining new experience can select, free web hosting as the best alternative.
Something About Free Web Hosting
World never ever run on the idea of one-sided benefit, mutual benefit is accomplished one way or the other. This very concept ere is applicable on free Web hosting also. But before that one must what the hosting term is; it is a process of accumulating files onto a web server so that through a web browser visitors can evaluate it.
Webmasters
who have recently built the sites always face a dilemma in choosing an appropriate host for his/her site, they get magnetized towards free host providers which are available throughout the cyber world, however, as discussed previously, the service provided by a free web host is not actually free as it declares, it has it’s own drawbacks such as lack of sovereign domain name for the user.
In the case of a new webmaster, selection of ideal host can be a daunting task and even when it comes to free web host; the choice should be selective one, because the majority of free web hosts aim to exploit their users. Moreover, as user counters some of the drawbacks such as assisting a small server place and inability of utilizing the FTP clients, lack of domain name, and ample amount of ads via the Web Company and scarcity of benefits, needs to be faced while searching for a free hosting. The web hosts attempts to wrap up their costs by publishing their or any other companies ads on their user’s website.
One should account about few things, before deciding about a host, it includes requirements of the user, features offered by the host, space allowed by the host, any statistics, what form of domain name offered by the host, can user use his/her own domain name or rather provide name servers, do the host provide feature of email address, type and location of advertisements on user’s site? Firm answers of all these questions are must before coming to any of the conclusion.
If one talk about the requirements, then now a day’s websites are available in two forms static or dynamic, majority of hosts prefer static hosting and if a user’s website is dynamic then he/she should search for a host providing the potential to host the website with the use of scripting languages. Dynamic services are provided by only few companies but with several restrictions, such as no data availability, etc. Same happens with availability of space which is in the range of 5MB to 50 MB, changing with respect to other factors; companies extract more benefits as they provide more space to the user. There are many free hosts who don’t provide the use of own domain names as it is not beneficial for them. That is the reason why most of the time the user’s web address becomes www.myname.freehosting.com.
Further to long URLs accounts, a further contentious issue is their reliability. It is generally believed that free host providers means hosts with old servers and giving free space wrapping up the amount through free advertisement. This is the reason why majority of free web hosts don’t provide the guarantee of servers running through out the day excluding general breakdowns? Another problem lies in scarcity of bandwidth providing, it may create problem when user’s site starts gathering a large amount of traffic and bandwidth extends its genuine limit.
Hence after judging all the factors one can say that free web hosting is not that bad as it looks, here one can surf without many charges. One may need to counter some of the restrictions but it is a boon to newcomers who want to do something new on the web.
Webmasters
who have recently built the sites always face a dilemma in choosing an appropriate host for his/her site, they get magnetized towards free host providers which are available throughout the cyber world, however, as discussed previously, the service provided by a free web host is not actually free as it declares, it has it’s own drawbacks such as lack of sovereign domain name for the user.
In the case of a new webmaster, selection of ideal host can be a daunting task and even when it comes to free web host; the choice should be selective one, because the majority of free web hosts aim to exploit their users. Moreover, as user counters some of the drawbacks such as assisting a small server place and inability of utilizing the FTP clients, lack of domain name, and ample amount of ads via the Web Company and scarcity of benefits, needs to be faced while searching for a free hosting. The web hosts attempts to wrap up their costs by publishing their or any other companies ads on their user’s website.
One should account about few things, before deciding about a host, it includes requirements of the user, features offered by the host, space allowed by the host, any statistics, what form of domain name offered by the host, can user use his/her own domain name or rather provide name servers, do the host provide feature of email address, type and location of advertisements on user’s site? Firm answers of all these questions are must before coming to any of the conclusion.
If one talk about the requirements, then now a day’s websites are available in two forms static or dynamic, majority of hosts prefer static hosting and if a user’s website is dynamic then he/she should search for a host providing the potential to host the website with the use of scripting languages. Dynamic services are provided by only few companies but with several restrictions, such as no data availability, etc. Same happens with availability of space which is in the range of 5MB to 50 MB, changing with respect to other factors; companies extract more benefits as they provide more space to the user. There are many free hosts who don’t provide the use of own domain names as it is not beneficial for them. That is the reason why most of the time the user’s web address becomes www.myname.freehosting.com.
Further to long URLs accounts, a further contentious issue is their reliability. It is generally believed that free host providers means hosts with old servers and giving free space wrapping up the amount through free advertisement. This is the reason why majority of free web hosts don’t provide the guarantee of servers running through out the day excluding general breakdowns? Another problem lies in scarcity of bandwidth providing, it may create problem when user’s site starts gathering a large amount of traffic and bandwidth extends its genuine limit.
Hence after judging all the factors one can say that free web hosting is not that bad as it looks, here one can surf without many charges. One may need to counter some of the restrictions but it is a boon to newcomers who want to do something new on the web.
A Fact; Canada Web Hosting: the Closer the Server the Faster the Response Times Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/web-hosting-articles/a-fact-ca
Before choosing a Canada web hosting provider, one should realize that it has several advantages that most people may not be aware of at the outset. Obviously, if a company is intending to target a Canadian audience, it would most probably look for a Canadian web host having servers located in Canada to get best site responses as well as best search engine rankings
on Canadian search results. So, being closer to the server will enable one to experience better response timings.
Search Engine Results Page
Another important advantage to using Canada web hosting is SERP or search engine results page which is the page that a search engine returns displaying results of its search. Most leading search engines will normally show four kinds of listings on their SERPs. These are listings indexed by the search engine spider, listings indexed into the search engine's directory by humans, listings that are to be listed and finally, and most importantly, Canadian search results.
However, Canadian bandwidth is more expensive than that of US counterparts who sell bandwidths at less than half the Canadian Internet Service prices. Nevertheless, being close to the server gets better response times and even though this only amounts to milliseconds, it is of importance to a number of webmasters.
Depending on which city or location that the business or individual is located in, the company or individual can select the Canada web hosting server according to its proximity to their own location and, thus get the maximum mileage out of their websites. To find a decent web host one may make use of hosting directories that contain names and addresses of Canadian web hosts and, this is a recommended strategy due to the fact that such sites aggregate a great deal of information pertaining to the Canadian hosting industry as well as its participants.
Leveraging a host directory will enable regular customers to contrast as well as compare different features of several Canada web hosting firms. The best web hosting directories will contain catalogues which allows one to search for hosts that meet specified criteria is it cost based, technology or geography based.
on Canadian search results. So, being closer to the server will enable one to experience better response timings.
Search Engine Results Page
Another important advantage to using Canada web hosting is SERP or search engine results page which is the page that a search engine returns displaying results of its search. Most leading search engines will normally show four kinds of listings on their SERPs. These are listings indexed by the search engine spider, listings indexed into the search engine's directory by humans, listings that are to be listed and finally, and most importantly, Canadian search results.
However, Canadian bandwidth is more expensive than that of US counterparts who sell bandwidths at less than half the Canadian Internet Service prices. Nevertheless, being close to the server gets better response times and even though this only amounts to milliseconds, it is of importance to a number of webmasters.
Depending on which city or location that the business or individual is located in, the company or individual can select the Canada web hosting server according to its proximity to their own location and, thus get the maximum mileage out of their websites. To find a decent web host one may make use of hosting directories that contain names and addresses of Canadian web hosts and, this is a recommended strategy due to the fact that such sites aggregate a great deal of information pertaining to the Canadian hosting industry as well as its participants.
Leveraging a host directory will enable regular customers to contrast as well as compare different features of several Canada web hosting firms. The best web hosting directories will contain catalogues which allows one to search for hosts that meet specified criteria is it cost based, technology or geography based.
No Need to Climb a Hill for the Top Web Hosting
Finding Top Web Hosting
There are many ways in which you might want to go about finding top web hosting. In order to find top web hosting, you should look very carefully at the things certain web hosting places offer you, to see if you are going to get what you need.
Things To Look For
There are several things that you should look for when you are looking for top web hosting. First of all, one of the most important things that you need to be considering is space. When you are building a website, for whatever reason, you are going to want to make sure that you have enough space for everything that you might want to put on it.
You might want to consider having unlimited space, even if you don't think you are going to be using that much space, because having unlimited space is the only way that you can be sure you will have enough room to incorporate any kinds of technologies that come out between the time you have your site and the time you might want to add more to it.
The top web hosting sites will be able to offer you unlimited space, and therefore you will be able to see that you have plenty of room for whatever you want to put on your space.
Another thing that you should keep in mind when you are looking for the top web hosting sites is whether or not these sites come with domain names that you can choose, or if you have to go through another company to find a domain name. If they do come with domain names, can you pick the ones that you want to pick, or does it have to be something that the company chooses?
All of these things are important for you to consider when you are looking for the top web hosting sites. Remember too, that you should always feel comfortable with the web hosting site that you have chosen, so if you don't feel comfortable, it might not be a good place for you and your website to be.
There are many ways in which you might want to go about finding top web hosting. In order to find top web hosting, you should look very carefully at the things certain web hosting places offer you, to see if you are going to get what you need.
Things To Look For
There are several things that you should look for when you are looking for top web hosting. First of all, one of the most important things that you need to be considering is space. When you are building a website, for whatever reason, you are going to want to make sure that you have enough space for everything that you might want to put on it.
You might want to consider having unlimited space, even if you don't think you are going to be using that much space, because having unlimited space is the only way that you can be sure you will have enough room to incorporate any kinds of technologies that come out between the time you have your site and the time you might want to add more to it.
The top web hosting sites will be able to offer you unlimited space, and therefore you will be able to see that you have plenty of room for whatever you want to put on your space.
Another thing that you should keep in mind when you are looking for the top web hosting sites is whether or not these sites come with domain names that you can choose, or if you have to go through another company to find a domain name. If they do come with domain names, can you pick the ones that you want to pick, or does it have to be something that the company chooses?
All of these things are important for you to consider when you are looking for the top web hosting sites. Remember too, that you should always feel comfortable with the web hosting site that you have chosen, so if you don't feel comfortable, it might not be a good place for you and your website to be.
4 Key Guidelines to Locate an Ideal Web Host Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/web-hosting-articles/4-key-guidelines-to-locate-an-ideal-web-host
No doubt, making a web site is not a playing sort of job. However, selection of web host is even more serious decision and cannot be taken lightly. Due to presence of several web hosts in the market of various ranges, it is quite difficult for the user to select out the ideal one. For selecting the best host the user should keep several alternatives in his/her hand and user should possess a clear mind set about the expectations from the host. Next are the four guidelines which make the user’s way to select the top web host a lot easier.
1. One should take the help of search engines like Google and Yahoo through keywords like “web host.” If the user carefully analyzes the search engine output then he/she can get the precise idea of types of web hosting options available in the market. Some category of people may think that the top ranking web hosts are no doubt the best, but this is not obligatory. Proper time devotion in the analysation of search results will provide the user an ample amount of hosts for comparison.
2. One should possess the knowledge of working nature of the site. Puzzled!!!! But it is an unavoidable fact that the user should have the information about the objectives of his/her site. If the user requires a site capable of loading a huge amount of large files, then his/her search ends on a host which offers huge amounts of space. Bandwidth is another factor to consider. Another important question arises is whether the site is a personal site, or a commercial site? If the user plans to produce revenue from his/her website, than doing more investment for ample storage space and bandwidth is an advisable thing. If the user possess an intention to make the site a blog and wishes to host it with a service like TypePad, then the user should search for a web host which provides him/her the facility of domain mapping.
3. The user should have a budget in his/her mind. Knowing about the actual budget will not only help the user to make quick decision but also saves a large amount of time. In the condition when a particular web host seems to be very much expensive, then one can rightly move onto the next one without any problem. Moreover, if the user knows about the budget contained with him he/she can easily select the best option (web host) in that particular price range. As few of the web hosts proposes additional space for $20 as compare to others who do for the same price.
4. At the end, the user should ensure that the web host support should match his/her requirement. If the user is building the web site for the first occasion, then he/she may need a host who is eager to advice on the proceedings of building new sites. Some web hosts offers several sorts of help to the inexperienced users. While several others web hosts simply let users with anything they want to do without much indulging in the work.
One of the most crucial things is that, the user should be aware about his/her expectations from the host, while searching for it. The service of search engines like Google and Yahoo makes the search a lot easier, as the user know what he/she is exploring for. It is a matter of fact that, every web host offers something outstanding than others. The user should give priority to a web host which passes in the measurement of simplicity and customer service. One should always keep in mind that severely expensive and top most ranking of the host is not the passport of satisfaction of the customer. The user should begin the journey of searching the web host with a clear, sound and informed mind because then only he/she can reach to the desired speculation.
1. One should take the help of search engines like Google and Yahoo through keywords like “web host.” If the user carefully analyzes the search engine output then he/she can get the precise idea of types of web hosting options available in the market. Some category of people may think that the top ranking web hosts are no doubt the best, but this is not obligatory. Proper time devotion in the analysation of search results will provide the user an ample amount of hosts for comparison.
2. One should possess the knowledge of working nature of the site. Puzzled!!!! But it is an unavoidable fact that the user should have the information about the objectives of his/her site. If the user requires a site capable of loading a huge amount of large files, then his/her search ends on a host which offers huge amounts of space. Bandwidth is another factor to consider. Another important question arises is whether the site is a personal site, or a commercial site? If the user plans to produce revenue from his/her website, than doing more investment for ample storage space and bandwidth is an advisable thing. If the user possess an intention to make the site a blog and wishes to host it with a service like TypePad, then the user should search for a web host which provides him/her the facility of domain mapping.
3. The user should have a budget in his/her mind. Knowing about the actual budget will not only help the user to make quick decision but also saves a large amount of time. In the condition when a particular web host seems to be very much expensive, then one can rightly move onto the next one without any problem. Moreover, if the user knows about the budget contained with him he/she can easily select the best option (web host) in that particular price range. As few of the web hosts proposes additional space for $20 as compare to others who do for the same price.
4. At the end, the user should ensure that the web host support should match his/her requirement. If the user is building the web site for the first occasion, then he/she may need a host who is eager to advice on the proceedings of building new sites. Some web hosts offers several sorts of help to the inexperienced users. While several others web hosts simply let users with anything they want to do without much indulging in the work.
One of the most crucial things is that, the user should be aware about his/her expectations from the host, while searching for it. The service of search engines like Google and Yahoo makes the search a lot easier, as the user know what he/she is exploring for. It is a matter of fact that, every web host offers something outstanding than others. The user should give priority to a web host which passes in the measurement of simplicity and customer service. One should always keep in mind that severely expensive and top most ranking of the host is not the passport of satisfaction of the customer. The user should begin the journey of searching the web host with a clear, sound and informed mind because then only he/she can reach to the desired speculation.
We All Know What Web Hosting Is, Right?
What is Web Hosting?
Technology moves so quickly, many of us feel like an ostrich with our head buried in the sand. Often we find that what was new yesterday is suddenly old news today and trying to keep up with the technological advances with concerns to the web hosting industry can be mind-boggling for the common individual.
If you have worked in an occupation that did not move swiftly along with the Internet, your knowledge of even the basics can now be considered illiterate. Now, more than ever before people are utilizing the Internet to advertise themselves and their businesses on the World Wide Web.
In order to establish your own web page on the Internet, it is important to understand some very important terms. The first and most important term to getting your website on the Internet is "web hosting".
Who or What is a Web Hosting Server
A web host is a company or an individual that owns a server that is connected to the internet 24 hours per day, seven days per week and who is willing to sell you a space on that server for a certain number of dollars. The ideal web host is online 99.9% of the time, however, many cannot fulfill this goal. There is a broad range of what hosting services can and will do, so research is a large key to successfully finding the correct server for your intentions.
How Do I Find the Best Web Hosting Server for My Needs?
There are many types of web hosting. It is very important to review, outline and determine exactly what your personal needs in a web hosting company are prior to establishing any type of business relationship. It is also extremely important to research each web hosting company thoroughly to insure that they are capable of providing the type of services you need for a price you can afford. There are many different ways to research a web hosting company.
You can take the time to contact each company personally and inquire as to the parameters of their services; hoping that they will honestly tell you the pros and cons of their business. However, you could access an independent Internet review company that specializes in web hosting and compare their findings with your needs.
Technology moves so quickly, many of us feel like an ostrich with our head buried in the sand. Often we find that what was new yesterday is suddenly old news today and trying to keep up with the technological advances with concerns to the web hosting industry can be mind-boggling for the common individual.
If you have worked in an occupation that did not move swiftly along with the Internet, your knowledge of even the basics can now be considered illiterate. Now, more than ever before people are utilizing the Internet to advertise themselves and their businesses on the World Wide Web.
In order to establish your own web page on the Internet, it is important to understand some very important terms. The first and most important term to getting your website on the Internet is "web hosting".
Who or What is a Web Hosting Server
A web host is a company or an individual that owns a server that is connected to the internet 24 hours per day, seven days per week and who is willing to sell you a space on that server for a certain number of dollars. The ideal web host is online 99.9% of the time, however, many cannot fulfill this goal. There is a broad range of what hosting services can and will do, so research is a large key to successfully finding the correct server for your intentions.
How Do I Find the Best Web Hosting Server for My Needs?
There are many types of web hosting. It is very important to review, outline and determine exactly what your personal needs in a web hosting company are prior to establishing any type of business relationship. It is also extremely important to research each web hosting company thoroughly to insure that they are capable of providing the type of services you need for a price you can afford. There are many different ways to research a web hosting company.
You can take the time to contact each company personally and inquire as to the parameters of their services; hoping that they will honestly tell you the pros and cons of their business. However, you could access an independent Internet review company that specializes in web hosting and compare their findings with your needs.
Start for Web Hosting
Even for a layman , its important to know the concept of web hosting. Visiting any website shows a web page that is downloaded from the web server onto the user's web browser. Generally, web site is made up of many web pages and web page is made up of texts and graphic images. Now these pages are then stored and made available for the visitors on web servers.
So for a layman if his intention is to have is own web site, then the first step would be owing a host provider so as to host the website on web server. As soon as the website is online on the server, online users can browse that website through Internet. All this job of providing host facility is with the providers called web-hosting providers.
Any established web hosting provider can host even thousands of websites example, iPowerWeb is a popular web hosting company that hosts websites in amounts of lakhs i.e. 3 lakhs. Due to this reason only these hosting companies needs large number of web servers for storing the website. Thereafter all these web servers are connected to Internet and are kept in a physical center 'data center'. As these web servers needs to be fully operational all the time so data centers are made fully secure having 24/7 environment and given protection from fire, HVAC temperature control, virus detections, computer data backup, redundant power backup and complete disaster recovery capabilities.
Now after knowing what is web hosting it is also important to know the different types of web host which are summarized below:
Shared Hosting
As the name suggests, in shared hosting several websites share space on the common physical web servers. A physical web server can host thousands of websites at one time depending upon the web host. With so much pressure on web servers it tends to make one think that due to over burden perhaps the performance of web server gets affected. But that thinking is totally wrong as for this reason only web servers are equipped with high-end powerful computer so as to support large number of websites to some extent without any problem. However but it is even possible at time of over burden on web servers that the response is badly effected.
In order to get rid of this problem reputed and experienced host providers constantly keep on monitoring the performance of web servers and keeps on adding new web servers when and where required. As many websites share a same physical web server the cost is generally low with start from mere $5-$20 per month and they also have to accept slower server response time.
Dedicated Hosting
As against shared hosting, in dedicated hosting a specific web server is allotted to one customer only. Due to one server the customer is having option to host his single/multiple web sites, can modify the configuration of software, can handle greater site traffic and can even scale the bandwidth when it is taken as necessary. It is because of this facility that dedicated hosting charges good amount which starts from $50 and can range even upto$200 to $500 monthly. So dedicated hosting is regularly used by extremely important web sites having high traffic.
Co-location hosting
The only difference between dedicated hosting and co-location hosting is that here in this case customers can own the web server hardware whereas in case of dedicated hosting customers can just rent the web server during the hosting period. So Co-location hosting provides more flexibility to its customers in respect of control and maintainence. Here in this case 24/7 server monitoring is also possible which can evade the problem of slow response. Because of all above benefits co-location hosting charges good amount depending upon monthly bandwidth and rack space required which is as high as $500 - $1000 monthly.
Reseller hosting
The third type of hosting is reseller hosting where the provider offers web server storage space to third party at a discounted price, who again resell it to his own customer. Normally resellers include web consultants like web designers, developers or system Integration Company who after charging commission which is even upto 50%(taken as discount) can resell the web hosting. Resellers can set up their own hosting company and can decide for their own pricing structure with establishing their own branding.
In case of reseller hosting for reseller's customers, the reseller is the web host provider. When some technical problem arises like down server or any access problem then in that case the resellers have to settle all with actual web host provider. However this is not the effective way as it leads to unnecessary waste of time due to various channels involved in the communication process like first customer contacts reseller and then reseller contacts actual web host provider and same is with the response it also comes back from the same process, so the problems pertains for a long time. Thus reseller hosting is not considered a good option unless user is having his own personal website or he is having an alternative for poor support from reseller.
Now with growing competition market is having abundant of resellers who are selling their services at a very low price. Due to this and other factors like even some web-hosting providers provide their own toll free numbers to their resellers for co-branded technical support, this makes the decision more difficult to choose which is the right choice.
Thus it is more important to act wisely and to not get attracted with marketing techniques employed by resellers like professional outlook of their website and other strategies like proving technical support in their own name which is actually provided by the provider and not by them but they tend to present it in such a way that they are providing that support.
The general distinguishing feature between resellers and hosting company is firstly the hosting price and secondly the company's information including their balance sheet example iPowerWeb.com get their company's information published where they mention their financial strength, their offices and highly equipped data centers. As against this resellers lack these assets and for price what they quote is generally below $5 per month whereas providers charge between $7 and $10.
Thus considering all these facts it can be concluded easily that due to a minute difference of several dollars one must not get struck in the web of resellers and must go for best facilities instead of getting harassment afterwards.
So for a layman if his intention is to have is own web site, then the first step would be owing a host provider so as to host the website on web server. As soon as the website is online on the server, online users can browse that website through Internet. All this job of providing host facility is with the providers called web-hosting providers.
Any established web hosting provider can host even thousands of websites example, iPowerWeb is a popular web hosting company that hosts websites in amounts of lakhs i.e. 3 lakhs. Due to this reason only these hosting companies needs large number of web servers for storing the website. Thereafter all these web servers are connected to Internet and are kept in a physical center 'data center'. As these web servers needs to be fully operational all the time so data centers are made fully secure having 24/7 environment and given protection from fire, HVAC temperature control, virus detections, computer data backup, redundant power backup and complete disaster recovery capabilities.
Now after knowing what is web hosting it is also important to know the different types of web host which are summarized below:
Shared Hosting
As the name suggests, in shared hosting several websites share space on the common physical web servers. A physical web server can host thousands of websites at one time depending upon the web host. With so much pressure on web servers it tends to make one think that due to over burden perhaps the performance of web server gets affected. But that thinking is totally wrong as for this reason only web servers are equipped with high-end powerful computer so as to support large number of websites to some extent without any problem. However but it is even possible at time of over burden on web servers that the response is badly effected.
In order to get rid of this problem reputed and experienced host providers constantly keep on monitoring the performance of web servers and keeps on adding new web servers when and where required. As many websites share a same physical web server the cost is generally low with start from mere $5-$20 per month and they also have to accept slower server response time.
Dedicated Hosting
As against shared hosting, in dedicated hosting a specific web server is allotted to one customer only. Due to one server the customer is having option to host his single/multiple web sites, can modify the configuration of software, can handle greater site traffic and can even scale the bandwidth when it is taken as necessary. It is because of this facility that dedicated hosting charges good amount which starts from $50 and can range even upto$200 to $500 monthly. So dedicated hosting is regularly used by extremely important web sites having high traffic.
Co-location hosting
The only difference between dedicated hosting and co-location hosting is that here in this case customers can own the web server hardware whereas in case of dedicated hosting customers can just rent the web server during the hosting period. So Co-location hosting provides more flexibility to its customers in respect of control and maintainence. Here in this case 24/7 server monitoring is also possible which can evade the problem of slow response. Because of all above benefits co-location hosting charges good amount depending upon monthly bandwidth and rack space required which is as high as $500 - $1000 monthly.
Reseller hosting
The third type of hosting is reseller hosting where the provider offers web server storage space to third party at a discounted price, who again resell it to his own customer. Normally resellers include web consultants like web designers, developers or system Integration Company who after charging commission which is even upto 50%(taken as discount) can resell the web hosting. Resellers can set up their own hosting company and can decide for their own pricing structure with establishing their own branding.
In case of reseller hosting for reseller's customers, the reseller is the web host provider. When some technical problem arises like down server or any access problem then in that case the resellers have to settle all with actual web host provider. However this is not the effective way as it leads to unnecessary waste of time due to various channels involved in the communication process like first customer contacts reseller and then reseller contacts actual web host provider and same is with the response it also comes back from the same process, so the problems pertains for a long time. Thus reseller hosting is not considered a good option unless user is having his own personal website or he is having an alternative for poor support from reseller.
Now with growing competition market is having abundant of resellers who are selling their services at a very low price. Due to this and other factors like even some web-hosting providers provide their own toll free numbers to their resellers for co-branded technical support, this makes the decision more difficult to choose which is the right choice.
Thus it is more important to act wisely and to not get attracted with marketing techniques employed by resellers like professional outlook of their website and other strategies like proving technical support in their own name which is actually provided by the provider and not by them but they tend to present it in such a way that they are providing that support.
The general distinguishing feature between resellers and hosting company is firstly the hosting price and secondly the company's information including their balance sheet example iPowerWeb.com get their company's information published where they mention their financial strength, their offices and highly equipped data centers. As against this resellers lack these assets and for price what they quote is generally below $5 per month whereas providers charge between $7 and $10.
Thus considering all these facts it can be concluded easily that due to a minute difference of several dollars one must not get struck in the web of resellers and must go for best facilities instead of getting harassment afterwards.
Webhosting: Enlightening on Dedicated Web Hosting
Now what is dedicated web hosting? Dedicated web hosting is having one single server rented to a single customer by the webhosting provider. Virtual dedicated servers and co-location web hosting are two similar solutions relatively familiar in the web hosting industry. In virtual dedicated server hosting plans one does not get an entire computer just for oneself this means that the virtual server shares the resources of a web server computer with other customers of the web hosting provider. There are many similarities between both Co-locating web hosting and virtual dedicated servers but the main difference is that, in co-locating web hosting the customer owns the web server computer and web-hosting provider only houses the web server computer and sells bandwidth to the customer whereas in dedicated web hosting the web server computer belongs to the web-hosting provider and is only rented by the customer.
When single web server is rented to a single customer it is called real dedicated web hosting.
For businesses that work with high traffic, dedicated web hosting is the idyllic way out. Application required for its operation and functionalities of web site falls under ones specific control.
There are many advantages of dedicated webhosting:
• Concerns regarding the maintenance, the security, and the reliability of ones web server are all handled by hosting provider.
• One doesn’t have to bother about maintaining the hardware and the connectivity of the computer as it is on rent and not been purchased
• One is freed from replacing the component or solving the problem, as everything is provider’s responsibility
• One gets compensations as part of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) by most o f the web hosting providers.
• In the occurrence of failure one may get reimbursement with the cost of ones hosting plan for a month or a fraction of it, depending upon the severity of the failure.
• When compared to having to pay for the component and for the technical support required for actually replacing the component, while web site in not online all these advantages seems quiet good as at the day end one will just be paying for functional hardware.
Imagine the business with all the resources being saved on the above maintenance issues. One can choose between “managed” or “unmanaged” service levels as the costs of administering and maintaining the web server one has taken on rent will vary depending upon the web hosting provider.
One can choose “managed” dedicated hosting which means one will have access to “control panel” if one is uncomfortable with the technical expertise required by the management of a web server computer. All the essential tasks required to be performed by the proper functioning of ones web server via a simply point-and-click user-friendly interface are allowed by control panel.
This way one can setup, administer and maintain all the web sites on web server without knowing or typing any command lines nor having any in depth knowledge of the operating system.
Those with great degree of technical expertise in mastering a root access to the server can go for “unmanaged” option. “Unmanaged” option offers complete server administration, thus having possibility of configuring every service on the web server. But if necessary services are not configured properly it may result in failure of system. Due to these reasons unmanaged dedicated hosting is recommended for only people having solid server administration background or for web developers who require custom applications for their web sites, or a customized environment. Thus people having dedicated server computer’s stability will not be prone to the plagues affecting shared web hosting solutions.
Imagine-
-errors in programming usually made by the beginners,
- Or overload i.e. server being crowded with applications and components required by the other customers
- Or in a shared web server when the processor time and the installed memory are both shared by the software applications needed by the other users.
Instant support is provided to its customers when required by the dedicated web hosting whether managed or unmanaged which is not possible on a shared hosting plans where one will be facing delays and possible additional technical support fees.
If one is having prompt support service from ones side then the customers will be happy and at the same time there will be growth in business. For those doing business in web designing advantage to have his own dedicated server is priceless not because he will be able to offer pure hosting services, but because he will able to offer them packaged with the web design activity also. When one is having access to web server for 24 hours, then within minutes one can modify a website for a customer or upload a new one.
If complete web presence solution, design and hosting, is offered by the studio to a customer there is chance of that customer being regular this is an added advantage.
The benefits of a good dedicated web hosting are:-
• Businesses solutions being translated into sales growth
• Better customer relationship results to improved company image
• Reduced cost compared with in-house web hosting solution, and so on.
• One can run a better business and better business gives good profit.
When single web server is rented to a single customer it is called real dedicated web hosting.
For businesses that work with high traffic, dedicated web hosting is the idyllic way out. Application required for its operation and functionalities of web site falls under ones specific control.
There are many advantages of dedicated webhosting:
• Concerns regarding the maintenance, the security, and the reliability of ones web server are all handled by hosting provider.
• One doesn’t have to bother about maintaining the hardware and the connectivity of the computer as it is on rent and not been purchased
• One is freed from replacing the component or solving the problem, as everything is provider’s responsibility
• One gets compensations as part of the Service Level Agreement (SLA) by most o f the web hosting providers.
• In the occurrence of failure one may get reimbursement with the cost of ones hosting plan for a month or a fraction of it, depending upon the severity of the failure.
• When compared to having to pay for the component and for the technical support required for actually replacing the component, while web site in not online all these advantages seems quiet good as at the day end one will just be paying for functional hardware.
Imagine the business with all the resources being saved on the above maintenance issues. One can choose between “managed” or “unmanaged” service levels as the costs of administering and maintaining the web server one has taken on rent will vary depending upon the web hosting provider.
One can choose “managed” dedicated hosting which means one will have access to “control panel” if one is uncomfortable with the technical expertise required by the management of a web server computer. All the essential tasks required to be performed by the proper functioning of ones web server via a simply point-and-click user-friendly interface are allowed by control panel.
This way one can setup, administer and maintain all the web sites on web server without knowing or typing any command lines nor having any in depth knowledge of the operating system.
Those with great degree of technical expertise in mastering a root access to the server can go for “unmanaged” option. “Unmanaged” option offers complete server administration, thus having possibility of configuring every service on the web server. But if necessary services are not configured properly it may result in failure of system. Due to these reasons unmanaged dedicated hosting is recommended for only people having solid server administration background or for web developers who require custom applications for their web sites, or a customized environment. Thus people having dedicated server computer’s stability will not be prone to the plagues affecting shared web hosting solutions.
Imagine-
-errors in programming usually made by the beginners,
- Or overload i.e. server being crowded with applications and components required by the other customers
- Or in a shared web server when the processor time and the installed memory are both shared by the software applications needed by the other users.
Instant support is provided to its customers when required by the dedicated web hosting whether managed or unmanaged which is not possible on a shared hosting plans where one will be facing delays and possible additional technical support fees.
If one is having prompt support service from ones side then the customers will be happy and at the same time there will be growth in business. For those doing business in web designing advantage to have his own dedicated server is priceless not because he will be able to offer pure hosting services, but because he will able to offer them packaged with the web design activity also. When one is having access to web server for 24 hours, then within minutes one can modify a website for a customer or upload a new one.
If complete web presence solution, design and hosting, is offered by the studio to a customer there is chance of that customer being regular this is an added advantage.
The benefits of a good dedicated web hosting are:-
• Businesses solutions being translated into sales growth
• Better customer relationship results to improved company image
• Reduced cost compared with in-house web hosting solution, and so on.
• One can run a better business and better business gives good profit.
Concept of Shared Web Hosting
After designing of website next important thing is to get it hosted on the internet. The task is not at easy as there are so many companies offering various types of web hosting packages like shared web hosting, dedicated web hosting, managed web hosting etc. Now the problem is which one to use?
In general it is considered a good idea to go for shared web hosting if the user is in a small business and wants to save cost. However before finalizing the deal it is good to know what is shared web hosting service and what are the merits and demerits of shared web hosting.
Defining shared hosting:
If extremely high performance and high bandwidth are not the points in question, then shared web hosting service can be a most convenient and economic way of hosting web sites.. As name implies, in case of shared web hosting service, the web server that hosts the web pages is shared by several other websites. Talking about number of websites on a shared hosting server, they can be in thousands. Now due to the fact that just one server is fulfilling the requirements of many other websites, the plus point is they can offer cheap prices for their server.
As there are so many websites hosted on a single web server, still there is no pint of worry for the user as the web hosting providers will not compromise on any kind of security and performance issues in case of shared hosting servers. Not only that, shared hosting web servers are operated, monitored and look after around the clock by IT professionals, so as to minimize server downtimes.
Shared hosting servers run on UNIX or other multi-user operating system and each website hosted on the web server is provided a separate account in the operating system. These websites hosted on shared servers are provided unique shared IP addresses and are provided with a fix amount of web resources.
The following are some of the merits and demerits of shared web hosting:
Merits:
1. Cost effective: Due to the fact that many websites are hosted on a single web server, web hosting providers provide economic shared web hosting services. Generally, the cost is as low as $5-10 per month for shared web hosting services. Now-a-days due to cut throat competition in web hosting industry, one can find several web hosting companies offering huge web space and bandwidth with as high as 1000 MB disk space and 40 GB bandwidth.
2. Feasible: Due to the fact that shared hosting web servers are operated, monitored and look after around the clock by IT professionals, who are experts in their respective field, one can concentrate more effectively on his/her web business and the problem of downtime and maintenance will not bother him/her any more.
3. Utility options: In case of shared web hosting, though web resources are shared, utility options are provided by the hosting company so that user can manage his/her website using control panel or similar tools. User is having an option to upload files, modify /remove web pages, add database, check web statistic etc. Not only that, user is also provided facility to create domain name specific e-mails accounts.
4. Efficient: Now-a-days shared web hosting service usually comes with web space and bandwidth that are more than sufficient for small business websites. Efficiency lies in the fact, that in addition to above, one can add more resources and can even overrun the web space or bandwidth usage.
Demerits:
1. Problem with response time: As the web server is shared, websites in the shared web hosting have to face problem of slower server response time as compared to dedicate server hosting.
2. Problem of Reliability: In case of shared web hosting, problem of reliability remains as usually web hosting providers may take care of the security and performance of the shared server but it is also possible that some of websites hosted on the shared server run a nasty program or script or over-utilize the resources, resulting in bringing down the web server. Thus due to fault of one all websites have to suffer downtimes and inaccessibility in case of shared web hosting.
3. Problems related to sharing: As discussed above also, due to fault of one all users have to face the problem for example if there is any one "bad" website in shared web server, due to it all websites on the server can be banned altogether by ISP or search engine due to shared IP address. However it is worth to note that one can always pay extra to get a dedicated IP address to avoid the above problem.
4. Problems related to Security: As many websites shared one server, problem of security always remains in case of shared web hosting as it is quite easy to hack one’s sensitive datas by another on the same server.
Thus in conclusion it can be said that before deciding to deal with shared web hosting, one should consider all the merits and demerits of shared web hosting as highlighted above. One should not forget the success of his/her business depends upon his/her website which in turn depends upon good host provider
In general it is considered a good idea to go for shared web hosting if the user is in a small business and wants to save cost. However before finalizing the deal it is good to know what is shared web hosting service and what are the merits and demerits of shared web hosting.
Defining shared hosting:
If extremely high performance and high bandwidth are not the points in question, then shared web hosting service can be a most convenient and economic way of hosting web sites.. As name implies, in case of shared web hosting service, the web server that hosts the web pages is shared by several other websites. Talking about number of websites on a shared hosting server, they can be in thousands. Now due to the fact that just one server is fulfilling the requirements of many other websites, the plus point is they can offer cheap prices for their server.
As there are so many websites hosted on a single web server, still there is no pint of worry for the user as the web hosting providers will not compromise on any kind of security and performance issues in case of shared hosting servers. Not only that, shared hosting web servers are operated, monitored and look after around the clock by IT professionals, so as to minimize server downtimes.
Shared hosting servers run on UNIX or other multi-user operating system and each website hosted on the web server is provided a separate account in the operating system. These websites hosted on shared servers are provided unique shared IP addresses and are provided with a fix amount of web resources.
The following are some of the merits and demerits of shared web hosting:
Merits:
1. Cost effective: Due to the fact that many websites are hosted on a single web server, web hosting providers provide economic shared web hosting services. Generally, the cost is as low as $5-10 per month for shared web hosting services. Now-a-days due to cut throat competition in web hosting industry, one can find several web hosting companies offering huge web space and bandwidth with as high as 1000 MB disk space and 40 GB bandwidth.
2. Feasible: Due to the fact that shared hosting web servers are operated, monitored and look after around the clock by IT professionals, who are experts in their respective field, one can concentrate more effectively on his/her web business and the problem of downtime and maintenance will not bother him/her any more.
3. Utility options: In case of shared web hosting, though web resources are shared, utility options are provided by the hosting company so that user can manage his/her website using control panel or similar tools. User is having an option to upload files, modify /remove web pages, add database, check web statistic etc. Not only that, user is also provided facility to create domain name specific e-mails accounts.
4. Efficient: Now-a-days shared web hosting service usually comes with web space and bandwidth that are more than sufficient for small business websites. Efficiency lies in the fact, that in addition to above, one can add more resources and can even overrun the web space or bandwidth usage.
Demerits:
1. Problem with response time: As the web server is shared, websites in the shared web hosting have to face problem of slower server response time as compared to dedicate server hosting.
2. Problem of Reliability: In case of shared web hosting, problem of reliability remains as usually web hosting providers may take care of the security and performance of the shared server but it is also possible that some of websites hosted on the shared server run a nasty program or script or over-utilize the resources, resulting in bringing down the web server. Thus due to fault of one all websites have to suffer downtimes and inaccessibility in case of shared web hosting.
3. Problems related to sharing: As discussed above also, due to fault of one all users have to face the problem for example if there is any one "bad" website in shared web server, due to it all websites on the server can be banned altogether by ISP or search engine due to shared IP address. However it is worth to note that one can always pay extra to get a dedicated IP address to avoid the above problem.
4. Problems related to Security: As many websites shared one server, problem of security always remains in case of shared web hosting as it is quite easy to hack one’s sensitive datas by another on the same server.
Thus in conclusion it can be said that before deciding to deal with shared web hosting, one should consider all the merits and demerits of shared web hosting as highlighted above. One should not forget the success of his/her business depends upon his/her website which in turn depends upon good host provider
Web Hosting, Defined
Web hosting may be defined as renting space on a web server in its simplest form. One should keep in mind that a website is a collection of files linked together by HTML code to display text and graphics on a computer. However website is not complete here until and unless it is displayed on the net. To make it visible for the world it has to be housed on a computer somewhere that has access to the Internet. This is not possible by just a computer rather special device is required termed as web server. A web server may be defined as a computer set up with special software that allows it to receive requests from the internet for the website files it has stored on it and to send those files out over the internet so that the requesting computer can display them.
Web server in addition to making site visible performs several other functions as well like it provides the ability to create email addresses based on one’s domain name and even helps in sending and receiving emails with them. There are several types of software installed on the web server that allows one’s website to run programs, create and manage databases, display video, etc. One must note that almost any type of computer can function as a web server, but it's the software that's on it that makes it a server.
When one goes buying a web hosting, the monthly fees to be paid includes cost for maintenance and upgrading of the server's hardware and software, the cost of keeping it online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in a secure data center with a fast and powerful internet connection, and cost of professional proving these services. It is surprising to know that it is possible to turn one’s home or office computer into a web server if one really desires, but it is just not economical. Therefore it is better to outsource it. There are several kinds of web hosting available which are discussed below:
Kinds of web hosting:
Shared Hosting – Through a shared server one can save a high amount. If one talks about the drawbacks then Spamming and blacklisting from different search engines are the key problems. Such problems arise due to the reason that several sites are assign to one particular IP address. One should demand for a separate IP address for his/her website (on additional monthly charges) to secure the user from such problems.
Dedicated Hosting –Dedicated servers are best for big, highly trafficked websites, which will require large amounts of server resources to run. One of the downsides to shared hosting is that the server’s resources are divided across all the sites it’s hosting and answering page requests for. If you are in a dedicated environment you can better monitor your server resources. The downside is that dedicated servers will run you generally $50 per month or more. Shared hosting can be purchased for as little as 5$ a month. Most small or medium sized businesses will have neither the website size or bandwidth requirements to make dedicated servers cost effective.
Server Co-Location - If one wants to have full control over every aspect of his/her web server, he/she might very well choose to buy one and maintain it himself/herself if he/she is having sufficient knowledge. Still there are possibilities that one is not having enough resources to keep his/her server completely safe from power outages, roof leaks, thieves, unwary employees and other problems and in addition it is not possible for him/her to keep it on the internet on a fast, high-bandwidth connection through out. Thus he/she needs a data center to provide those services for him/her.
Co-location is the center providing facilities like physical security on rental, continuous electrical power and a fast, reliable Internet connection for a server that one owns. However, the data center is not responsible for any of the hardware or software maintenance of a co-located server, rather user his/her self. Thus it is a cheaper alternative to dedicated hosting if one is having the necessary expertise and time to run a web server by own.
There are several web hosts offering UNIX hosting and Windows hosting.
UNIX Hosting
There are several web servers in the world running mostly on UNIX. UNIX is an operating system originally developed for servers and networking. Till now many different versions of UNIX have been written by programmers around the world under the open-source protocol, which means that the code for the operating system is openly available so as to enable programmers to customize and make improvements when and where necessary. The two most popular forms of UNIX are Linux and BSD that comes in several varieties, like Red Hat Linux, Debian, SuSE, and FreeBSD. The best part of UNIX is most of above mentioned versions can be obtained free of cost, making UNIX hosting cheaper for a web host in comparison to other operating systems. Other plus points of UNIX are that UNIX hosting platforms are generally considered to be stable, secure, powerful and fast. That is the reason why most web programming applications can be performed by software that is available for a UNIX platform.
Windows Hosting
Another very popular operating system developed by Microsoft is Windows operating system, Windows Server 2003. Like every thing useful it is having price and can be obtained by purchasing a license, which in turn increases the cost of operation for the web host and usually results in higher hosting prices. This is considered a negative point as compared to UNIX. Plus points of Windows include it is mainly user friendly however it is generally considered to be less powerful and secure than UNIX for operating in a network environment. There are several scripting languages like ASP, ASP.NET, and Cold Fusion, which will only run on a Windows server, as will the Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access database programs. Thus the above are some of the most popular scripts for certain web programming applications, and if one is thinking of using them while building his/her site, he/she will first definitely need to find a Windows host.
Before searching for a web host, it is essential to know some important terms used in hosting. They are discussed as under:
Storage or Disk space –As one’s website is a collection of files being offered on the Internet for viewing, it is necessary for storing them somewhere for retrieval and take up space. For each and every web server there is a limited amount of hard disk memory, which is divided up and offered to hosting customers. Different package levels are there, so as to enable to pay more for more space and vice versa divide specifically that space up. If one’s website expands its space then the user needs to buy extra space from the web host.
Bandwidth or Data Transfer –One of the crucial parts to verify is bandwidth. There are several sites, which loose their host due to excessive downloads causing budget going beyond their expectations. Occasionally, host even charges in hundreds of dollars for the additional bandwidth. One should confirm about this before dealing with any of the host. Usually, ideal-hosting providers deliver initial bandwidth of 25 to 50 GB to the users.
Uptime –It is a universal truth that if one talks about perfect web servers then they are the one, which would be up, and running and offering web pages to the world round the clock, whole year. But, it is also true that web servers are mere computers, and like any other computer, they may fail or needs repairing or updating. Often web hosts gives 99% uptime guarantee, and if they fail they refund a certain portion of user’s money depending on the amount of excess downtime they experienced.
Traffic Statistics – By traffic statistics we mean those programs that track visitors to one’s website. These programs are capable of telling how many times a user visited one site, how many visitors were unique and how many came back more than once, which pages were most popular, from where the visitors came to one’s site, what search terms they used in the search engines etc. In addition they offer several types of information which are useful for marketing one’s website to a target audience. There are several web hosts offering some sort of traffic statistics software with their hosting packages.
CGI Scripts – There are several web hosts offering a variety of free CGI scripts with their packages. CGI Scripts are the things like hit counters, guest books, form mail programs, message boards, and other programs that enable one website to perform commonly desired functions. Most CGI scripts are written in common programming languages like Perl, PHP or ASP.
Thus one should take care and keep all the above points in mind while selecting a web host.
Web server in addition to making site visible performs several other functions as well like it provides the ability to create email addresses based on one’s domain name and even helps in sending and receiving emails with them. There are several types of software installed on the web server that allows one’s website to run programs, create and manage databases, display video, etc. One must note that almost any type of computer can function as a web server, but it's the software that's on it that makes it a server.
When one goes buying a web hosting, the monthly fees to be paid includes cost for maintenance and upgrading of the server's hardware and software, the cost of keeping it online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in a secure data center with a fast and powerful internet connection, and cost of professional proving these services. It is surprising to know that it is possible to turn one’s home or office computer into a web server if one really desires, but it is just not economical. Therefore it is better to outsource it. There are several kinds of web hosting available which are discussed below:
Kinds of web hosting:
Shared Hosting – Through a shared server one can save a high amount. If one talks about the drawbacks then Spamming and blacklisting from different search engines are the key problems. Such problems arise due to the reason that several sites are assign to one particular IP address. One should demand for a separate IP address for his/her website (on additional monthly charges) to secure the user from such problems.
Dedicated Hosting –Dedicated servers are best for big, highly trafficked websites, which will require large amounts of server resources to run. One of the downsides to shared hosting is that the server’s resources are divided across all the sites it’s hosting and answering page requests for. If you are in a dedicated environment you can better monitor your server resources. The downside is that dedicated servers will run you generally $50 per month or more. Shared hosting can be purchased for as little as 5$ a month. Most small or medium sized businesses will have neither the website size or bandwidth requirements to make dedicated servers cost effective.
Server Co-Location - If one wants to have full control over every aspect of his/her web server, he/she might very well choose to buy one and maintain it himself/herself if he/she is having sufficient knowledge. Still there are possibilities that one is not having enough resources to keep his/her server completely safe from power outages, roof leaks, thieves, unwary employees and other problems and in addition it is not possible for him/her to keep it on the internet on a fast, high-bandwidth connection through out. Thus he/she needs a data center to provide those services for him/her.
Co-location is the center providing facilities like physical security on rental, continuous electrical power and a fast, reliable Internet connection for a server that one owns. However, the data center is not responsible for any of the hardware or software maintenance of a co-located server, rather user his/her self. Thus it is a cheaper alternative to dedicated hosting if one is having the necessary expertise and time to run a web server by own.
There are several web hosts offering UNIX hosting and Windows hosting.
UNIX Hosting
There are several web servers in the world running mostly on UNIX. UNIX is an operating system originally developed for servers and networking. Till now many different versions of UNIX have been written by programmers around the world under the open-source protocol, which means that the code for the operating system is openly available so as to enable programmers to customize and make improvements when and where necessary. The two most popular forms of UNIX are Linux and BSD that comes in several varieties, like Red Hat Linux, Debian, SuSE, and FreeBSD. The best part of UNIX is most of above mentioned versions can be obtained free of cost, making UNIX hosting cheaper for a web host in comparison to other operating systems. Other plus points of UNIX are that UNIX hosting platforms are generally considered to be stable, secure, powerful and fast. That is the reason why most web programming applications can be performed by software that is available for a UNIX platform.
Windows Hosting
Another very popular operating system developed by Microsoft is Windows operating system, Windows Server 2003. Like every thing useful it is having price and can be obtained by purchasing a license, which in turn increases the cost of operation for the web host and usually results in higher hosting prices. This is considered a negative point as compared to UNIX. Plus points of Windows include it is mainly user friendly however it is generally considered to be less powerful and secure than UNIX for operating in a network environment. There are several scripting languages like ASP, ASP.NET, and Cold Fusion, which will only run on a Windows server, as will the Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Access database programs. Thus the above are some of the most popular scripts for certain web programming applications, and if one is thinking of using them while building his/her site, he/she will first definitely need to find a Windows host.
Before searching for a web host, it is essential to know some important terms used in hosting. They are discussed as under:
Storage or Disk space –As one’s website is a collection of files being offered on the Internet for viewing, it is necessary for storing them somewhere for retrieval and take up space. For each and every web server there is a limited amount of hard disk memory, which is divided up and offered to hosting customers. Different package levels are there, so as to enable to pay more for more space and vice versa divide specifically that space up. If one’s website expands its space then the user needs to buy extra space from the web host.
Bandwidth or Data Transfer –One of the crucial parts to verify is bandwidth. There are several sites, which loose their host due to excessive downloads causing budget going beyond their expectations. Occasionally, host even charges in hundreds of dollars for the additional bandwidth. One should confirm about this before dealing with any of the host. Usually, ideal-hosting providers deliver initial bandwidth of 25 to 50 GB to the users.
Uptime –It is a universal truth that if one talks about perfect web servers then they are the one, which would be up, and running and offering web pages to the world round the clock, whole year. But, it is also true that web servers are mere computers, and like any other computer, they may fail or needs repairing or updating. Often web hosts gives 99% uptime guarantee, and if they fail they refund a certain portion of user’s money depending on the amount of excess downtime they experienced.
Traffic Statistics – By traffic statistics we mean those programs that track visitors to one’s website. These programs are capable of telling how many times a user visited one site, how many visitors were unique and how many came back more than once, which pages were most popular, from where the visitors came to one’s site, what search terms they used in the search engines etc. In addition they offer several types of information which are useful for marketing one’s website to a target audience. There are several web hosts offering some sort of traffic statistics software with their hosting packages.
CGI Scripts – There are several web hosts offering a variety of free CGI scripts with their packages. CGI Scripts are the things like hit counters, guest books, form mail programs, message boards, and other programs that enable one website to perform commonly desired functions. Most CGI scripts are written in common programming languages like Perl, PHP or ASP.
Thus one should take care and keep all the above points in mind while selecting a web host.
Important Tips for Web Hosting
After the registration of domain name selection of web host is another rational step a user need to consider. Though, finding an ideal host is a daunting task. One can find several companies offering web-hosting services to the clients. While locating keyword web hosting in the search engines one will find more than 100 million outputs!
One cannot deny the fact, for a successful online presence a dependable web hosting is must. Online presence and accessibility of a web site is must. If not, one should remain ready to loose clients and prospects. For an instance, if one compare this with a traditional business.
CATEGORIES OF WEB HOSTING:
One should select a web hosting deal according to his/her site. One cannot fulfill his/her requirements from same hosting deal for a personal web site, web site meant for email newsletter subscription and archives, e-commerce site or web forum. Web hosting can be divided into four prime categories:
1. Virtual (shared) hosting,
2. Dedicated server,
3. Collocation server and
4. Reseller hosting.
Two most applicable hosting are virtual (shared) hosting and dedicated server.
What is Virtual (shared) hosting? It is a condition in which several web sites share one server. It is a low cost hosting because price is divided between several users. One can locate a standard virtual hosting at a rate of $100 a year.
In a Dedicated server hosting company lease the whole web server from a particular web hosting company. The site of web server is the web hosting company. One can opt dedicated server as a suitable option who does not wish to share a server with other web masters. One can find a dedicated server in two forms managed and un-managed. If one talk about managed server, company will take care of all the setups of user’s server. However, in unmanaged server user needs to take care of all these by him/her self. The benefit of this sort of hosting is that one can fully lodge web hosting as per his/her requirements. Moreover, for a site with ample amount of visitors a dedicated server is the only rational choice. Due to higher cost, starting from $100 per month, those companies that know the worth of Internet business generally use it.
One can say that Collocation server is quite identical to dedicated server. Disparity lies in the fact that company doesn’t take the web server on lease. Their own web server is placed in the web hosting company. In addition to it, company has material access to their web server, which is not available while talking about a dedicated server.
If one mention about Reseller hosting it is aimed to those companies only wishes to begin their own web hosting business.
ASPECTS, WHICH ONE NEEDS TO CONSIDER:
There are many factors which a user needs to consider to prevent any future miss happens:
Web space:
Requirement of Web space vary from site to site. Off course, if user requirement is only a web site containing basic information about him/her and his/her work excluding the use of web applications, then space of 50 MB is quite sufficient. However, a complex e-commerce site along with numerous products in one’s database demands a capacity of 1 GB.
Bandwidth:
The term Bandwidth refers to data transferred from user’s web site and that comprise of graphic details, images, banners and files for download. One should have accurate knowledge of Content before going for an amount of bandwidth. When one talks about the majority of sites, bandwidth of 10 GB a month is quite sufficient, though for few other sites like sites related to desktop wallpapers can frequently consumes even hundreds of GB a month.
Up time or visibility:
It symbolizes time articulated in percents displaying the period a site remained online. One should not be cheerful because someone assured him/her to provide say for 98% up time because it is not going to fulfill his/her requirement. One should get at least 99.7% uptime. Believe it or not, it definitely matters.
Email accounts:
Email accounts are an integrated and crucial part of web hosting package. It is quite interesting to know for how much will one get only a so called catch –all forwarding which means that all emails sent to somewhere@mydomain.com will arrive to one’s email address or one can set-up email accounts for several users? Also the thing is for how much? Is it intended for 5, 10, 100 or limitless email accounts? In addition to it, there is no harm to verify whether user get a so-called POP3 email address (“real” email address), web mail or rather both? If one has a POP3 email address then he/she can check his/her emails via favorite email client and web mail facilitate the user to inquire his/her emails at any place demanding just a computer and Internet connection.
Form of Server, tools and control panel:
When one mention the two generally utilized hosting then the name of Unix-based or Windows platform comes first. It matters for the result program languages, databases and scripts that one can apply. When one talks about Unix-based platform, general selection is relayed to PHP language along with MySQL, however, when it comes to Windows platform ASP or ASP.NET language will be along with SQL Server. One should enquire that is database is available with package or not, if yes, then how many? Nowadays, contemporary web site must be database-driven.
Too, one should have full knowledge related to tools coming along with web hosting package, if there is only applications for web statistics, file manager and things it is not an concern issue.
Technical support:
A crucial aspect while selecting a web hosting particularly for a user without having adequate technical skills is technical support. A proper technical support does not take a responsive time more then a day. This is not liable only to selection of web hosting company, but, crucial to any of the company selling products and services, Software Company can be one of the examples.
The coordination of few of the companies is so well thought-out that it takes only 1 hour to give response to user’s queries! Through their source of contact one can predict about the future response. Do the concern company has only email support or also have phone support? Does they provide a toll-free number? Do they offer the facility of trouble-ticket system? Working time is another crucial aspect. What is their strategy of providing technical support is it during working hours only i.e. 9 to 17 or does they provide the facility of 24x7 technical support? An ideal way to detect their professionalism one can create a list of fake queries, drop a line to them and hang around to know their reply time.
Testimonials:
Several web hosting and software companies have this smart way to increase their customer strength. Testimonials section contains the approval of satisfied customers, attracting more people to their service. This section is not completely reliable. Several hosting companies offer their clients to analyze their portfolio, instead of doing that one should contact webmasters who are taking the service of concern host and register their opinions. One can take help of several sites for further information regarding best web hosting deals and suggestions.
One cannot deny the fact, for a successful online presence a dependable web hosting is must. Online presence and accessibility of a web site is must. If not, one should remain ready to loose clients and prospects. For an instance, if one compare this with a traditional business.
CATEGORIES OF WEB HOSTING:
One should select a web hosting deal according to his/her site. One cannot fulfill his/her requirements from same hosting deal for a personal web site, web site meant for email newsletter subscription and archives, e-commerce site or web forum. Web hosting can be divided into four prime categories:
1. Virtual (shared) hosting,
2. Dedicated server,
3. Collocation server and
4. Reseller hosting.
Two most applicable hosting are virtual (shared) hosting and dedicated server.
What is Virtual (shared) hosting? It is a condition in which several web sites share one server. It is a low cost hosting because price is divided between several users. One can locate a standard virtual hosting at a rate of $100 a year.
In a Dedicated server hosting company lease the whole web server from a particular web hosting company. The site of web server is the web hosting company. One can opt dedicated server as a suitable option who does not wish to share a server with other web masters. One can find a dedicated server in two forms managed and un-managed. If one talk about managed server, company will take care of all the setups of user’s server. However, in unmanaged server user needs to take care of all these by him/her self. The benefit of this sort of hosting is that one can fully lodge web hosting as per his/her requirements. Moreover, for a site with ample amount of visitors a dedicated server is the only rational choice. Due to higher cost, starting from $100 per month, those companies that know the worth of Internet business generally use it.
One can say that Collocation server is quite identical to dedicated server. Disparity lies in the fact that company doesn’t take the web server on lease. Their own web server is placed in the web hosting company. In addition to it, company has material access to their web server, which is not available while talking about a dedicated server.
If one mention about Reseller hosting it is aimed to those companies only wishes to begin their own web hosting business.
ASPECTS, WHICH ONE NEEDS TO CONSIDER:
There are many factors which a user needs to consider to prevent any future miss happens:
Web space:
Requirement of Web space vary from site to site. Off course, if user requirement is only a web site containing basic information about him/her and his/her work excluding the use of web applications, then space of 50 MB is quite sufficient. However, a complex e-commerce site along with numerous products in one’s database demands a capacity of 1 GB.
Bandwidth:
The term Bandwidth refers to data transferred from user’s web site and that comprise of graphic details, images, banners and files for download. One should have accurate knowledge of Content before going for an amount of bandwidth. When one talks about the majority of sites, bandwidth of 10 GB a month is quite sufficient, though for few other sites like sites related to desktop wallpapers can frequently consumes even hundreds of GB a month.
Up time or visibility:
It symbolizes time articulated in percents displaying the period a site remained online. One should not be cheerful because someone assured him/her to provide say for 98% up time because it is not going to fulfill his/her requirement. One should get at least 99.7% uptime. Believe it or not, it definitely matters.
Email accounts:
Email accounts are an integrated and crucial part of web hosting package. It is quite interesting to know for how much will one get only a so called catch –all forwarding which means that all emails sent to somewhere@mydomain.com will arrive to one’s email address or one can set-up email accounts for several users? Also the thing is for how much? Is it intended for 5, 10, 100 or limitless email accounts? In addition to it, there is no harm to verify whether user get a so-called POP3 email address (“real” email address), web mail or rather both? If one has a POP3 email address then he/she can check his/her emails via favorite email client and web mail facilitate the user to inquire his/her emails at any place demanding just a computer and Internet connection.
Form of Server, tools and control panel:
When one mention the two generally utilized hosting then the name of Unix-based or Windows platform comes first. It matters for the result program languages, databases and scripts that one can apply. When one talks about Unix-based platform, general selection is relayed to PHP language along with MySQL, however, when it comes to Windows platform ASP or ASP.NET language will be along with SQL Server. One should enquire that is database is available with package or not, if yes, then how many? Nowadays, contemporary web site must be database-driven.
Too, one should have full knowledge related to tools coming along with web hosting package, if there is only applications for web statistics, file manager and things it is not an concern issue.
Technical support:
A crucial aspect while selecting a web hosting particularly for a user without having adequate technical skills is technical support. A proper technical support does not take a responsive time more then a day. This is not liable only to selection of web hosting company, but, crucial to any of the company selling products and services, Software Company can be one of the examples.
The coordination of few of the companies is so well thought-out that it takes only 1 hour to give response to user’s queries! Through their source of contact one can predict about the future response. Do the concern company has only email support or also have phone support? Does they provide a toll-free number? Do they offer the facility of trouble-ticket system? Working time is another crucial aspect. What is their strategy of providing technical support is it during working hours only i.e. 9 to 17 or does they provide the facility of 24x7 technical support? An ideal way to detect their professionalism one can create a list of fake queries, drop a line to them and hang around to know their reply time.
Testimonials:
Several web hosting and software companies have this smart way to increase their customer strength. Testimonials section contains the approval of satisfied customers, attracting more people to their service. This section is not completely reliable. Several hosting companies offer their clients to analyze their portfolio, instead of doing that one should contact webmasters who are taking the service of concern host and register their opinions. One can take help of several sites for further information regarding best web hosting deals and suggestions.
Basic Concepts of Web Hosts
The one who wants to enter in this web world and desires for a long time survival, then he/she should be familiar with each and every terminology used in this field. If user considers all the important factors before choosing a hosting plan then only he/she will be able to have a successful future in this world .User should not choose any of the plan, rather he/she should opt the best and most suitable one and this can only be made possible by fetching more and more informations and also by studying properly all the requirements. New comers should start from the basics .They should learn the meaning of each and every term used and also in addition those factors that can affect his/her selection.
Web Host
Web host refers to a computer connected to the internet. Web host can also be termed as ‘web server’. The computer that is playing the role of the web server needs to be more powerful than normal PCs and the function of this web server is to serve up websites.
The website content of the user will remain will on this computer, so as the people who are surfing on the internet can get a way to access his/her website.
There can be three main categories in which the web host can be classified based on the economic factor and common features:
1. Free Hosts:
The users who are not professional but are making website only as a hobby then for them free hosting can be a good option. In free hosting space, bandwidth and other features provided are very limited. With free web hosting one can not only make his/her website successful but is also suitable for personal websites or for temporary usage. Generally free hosting enforces pop-up, text or banner ads. Reliability, best performance and customer support lacks in case of free hosting as well. When a user registers for a free host then the word free host gets added with the user’s domain name that gives an adverse effect in the eye of the visitors.
2. Shared Hosts:
The next type of the web hosting to be discussed is shared hosting. This hosting service is used by many of the web sites .This type of hosting service is Suitable for personal, small and medium businesses. This service can be used by paying $1 to $25 per month. The features provided by this service vary from very limited space/bandwidth to semi-dedicated servers. The users host their website by this type of hosting service and it has its own top level domain facility. No doubt that shared web hosting is quite better than free hosting but still it does not provide 100% satisfactory services. In case of shared hosting one server is shared by the number of websites so its performance and availability gets affected. More websites usually means less performance. If less number of websites are hosted by one server then it will be more expensive, but in this case there are more chances of reliability. There are many companies allowing customers to host multiple websites with different domains under a single account.
3. Dedicated Hosts:
The next type of hosting is dedicated hosting. This type of hosting is most reliable hosting. In this type of hosting a full server is dedicated to a single customer. Generally this type of hosting is used by large businesses, professionals and very active websites dealing with thousands of visitors daily. The customers having dedicated hosting can have their total control over the server as well as able to create as many websites as they like. Customers can run their own hosting company on a rented dedicated server. Payment module is mentioned according to specifications and services provided with the server, which varies from $100 up to about $800 dollars per month.
4. Collocated Hosts:
Now the other type of hosting service to be discussed is collocated hosting. This service is very much similar to dedicated hosting. The difference between collocated hosting and dedicated hosting is that in collocated hosting the customer owns the server hardware instead of renting it. In this service the server will be placed in provider’s data center. This service is more expensive than dedicated hosting.
5. Reseller Hosts:
In reseller hosting the providers offers web server storage to their customers, and resells the web server storage to them. Generally providers offer resellers a discount price.
6. Other Hosts:
Including the above type of hosts there are also many other hosts such as email hosts, media hosts, data hosts, etc but these hosts will not be discussed in this article.
Domain Name
Domain name is the name which shows the place where one’s website is located. The actual address of the website is a set of numbers. Each and every web server has its own unique address. Domain name indicates the real addresses of every websites. One can easily remember the domain name of any of the website. Remembering domain name is easier than recalling the IP addresses.
Space / Storage
Space is one of the services provided by the web host. It plays a very important role in the website development. It happens many times that the customer requires more space but the host fails to provide it, so customer should be very careful while choosing the web host. Storage is the amount of web server’s disk space available for customer’s website files, images and databases. Space can be according to the requirement; it can be as small as 5MB in some free hosts and as big as 300GB for some dedicated servers. Earlier prices of the space were very high but prices reduced significantly during the last few years. The hosting plans offering 3GB of space for less than $10 a month can be easily available.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth can be defined as the amount of data transferred from web server to clients’ internet browsers. When ever a person outlook a page the data is transmitted from the server to that person’ PC. If any one is having audio, video and images in his/her website then the bandwidth consumed is more in comparison of the website having only text contents. The bandwidth available in free hosting can be as low as 100MB per month where as in some dedicated servers the bandwidth available is as high as 2000GB a month. The customers who don’t want to pay more for bandwidth can easily find hosting plans offering 75GB of monthly data transfer for less than $10.
Server Type
Generally server means the operating system than runs the web server. Some common types are Windows, Linux and UNIX. Server type refers the server side scripting and database types. The difference between Windows server and Linux/UNIX is that Windows runs ASP and ASP.NET with Access or SQL Server databases where as Linux/UNIX servers usually runs CGI, PHP or JSP with MySQL or Oracle databases. The other difference is that Windows servers are more expensive than Linux/UNIX servers.
Databases
As server type is discussed earlier also, we are able to know that there are different types of databases available. The mostly used is MySQL as it is open source GPL (free) software and can serve a lot of online applications’ requirements such as forums, content management, mailing lists, etc. MySQL, rather its features are limited. MySQL is sufficient for small concern but it is not powerful for the complicated large business sites. Large business requires more powerful databases such as Oracle or SQL Server.
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Server Side Scripting
Usually the new comers prefer to use PHP as server side scripting. The reason behind this is that there are hundreds of open source (GPL) PHP scripts that are able to fulfill the webmaster’s requirements. However PHP also has some limitations in features required by advanced websites same as in the case of MySQL, due to this limitation some professional web developers prefer to use ASP.NET or JSP. Some other developers still prefer to use Cold Fusion, CGI, ASP or PERL.
Email
Now the next very important aspect to be talked about is Email. At present no one can move further in this computer world with having his/her Email account. The one who is planning to do any kind of activity through computer such as to run a business or to provide any kind of service, then the first thing he/she need to do is to open an Email account. There are many hosting plans that include the feature of having some email accounts with customer’s domain. The availability of number and size of email accounts totally depends on the hosting plan one opted. Generally this feature is not included in free hosting. Small plans provide only about 10 accounts where as big plans do not have the limited number. Usually those email accounts are web based and accessible through POP3 clients as well.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
The other service is FTP. File Transfer Protocol is a usual way of transferring files across the Internet. Most of the webmasters used to upload and download their websites contents through FTP. The process of uploading or downloading is performed by using FTP client software. Webmasters require FTP username and password so as to access their web server. There are any hosts who use to provide more than one FTP account to their customers as per their requirement. Rather FTP is unspecified; it is not advisable as per the security reasons.
Control Panel
Control panel is the service available by many of the web hosting companies to their customers. It is a web based application that helps in managing websites. Some important functions performed by the control panel are that it used to manage email accounts, providing statistics, managing FTP accounts, managing domains and sub-domains and managing databases. The control panel application that is mostly used by the user is cPanel. There are many companies who use to develop their own control panel application.
Uptime
Now after having all the services, the thing of concern which remains is how the user keeps his/her website uptime most of the time. If anyone is having a website with excellent features but it remains down most of the time it will be of no use, as when ever the visitors visit his/her website and found it down then later on they will think twice before visiting it. In result he/she will suffer the loss of visitors. Uptime is very important feature of web hosts and that is usually measured in percentage. If a server remains down near about 30 minutes a day will have an uptime percentage of about 99.98%, which is acceptable for most small to medium business websites. If any of the business website is not having at least this percentage of uptime then that website is not suitable for a business website. Mission critical sites cannot tolerate frequent outages, thus they may use web monitoring services to notify web administrators immediately when an outage happens.
Price
Finally the factor left is price. In this option also there is a great variability found like for example customer is having option to choose between the prices ranging from 0 to $1000 per month. For most personal, small and medium websites the total amount of cost involved is just $15 per month. Thus its not at all advisable for business website owners to select very cheap plans let say less than $5 because this price can lead to huge cost indirectly afterwards.
Web Host
Web host refers to a computer connected to the internet. Web host can also be termed as ‘web server’. The computer that is playing the role of the web server needs to be more powerful than normal PCs and the function of this web server is to serve up websites.
The website content of the user will remain will on this computer, so as the people who are surfing on the internet can get a way to access his/her website.
There can be three main categories in which the web host can be classified based on the economic factor and common features:
1. Free Hosts:
The users who are not professional but are making website only as a hobby then for them free hosting can be a good option. In free hosting space, bandwidth and other features provided are very limited. With free web hosting one can not only make his/her website successful but is also suitable for personal websites or for temporary usage. Generally free hosting enforces pop-up, text or banner ads. Reliability, best performance and customer support lacks in case of free hosting as well. When a user registers for a free host then the word free host gets added with the user’s domain name that gives an adverse effect in the eye of the visitors.
2. Shared Hosts:
The next type of the web hosting to be discussed is shared hosting. This hosting service is used by many of the web sites .This type of hosting service is Suitable for personal, small and medium businesses. This service can be used by paying $1 to $25 per month. The features provided by this service vary from very limited space/bandwidth to semi-dedicated servers. The users host their website by this type of hosting service and it has its own top level domain facility. No doubt that shared web hosting is quite better than free hosting but still it does not provide 100% satisfactory services. In case of shared hosting one server is shared by the number of websites so its performance and availability gets affected. More websites usually means less performance. If less number of websites are hosted by one server then it will be more expensive, but in this case there are more chances of reliability. There are many companies allowing customers to host multiple websites with different domains under a single account.
3. Dedicated Hosts:
The next type of hosting is dedicated hosting. This type of hosting is most reliable hosting. In this type of hosting a full server is dedicated to a single customer. Generally this type of hosting is used by large businesses, professionals and very active websites dealing with thousands of visitors daily. The customers having dedicated hosting can have their total control over the server as well as able to create as many websites as they like. Customers can run their own hosting company on a rented dedicated server. Payment module is mentioned according to specifications and services provided with the server, which varies from $100 up to about $800 dollars per month.
4. Collocated Hosts:
Now the other type of hosting service to be discussed is collocated hosting. This service is very much similar to dedicated hosting. The difference between collocated hosting and dedicated hosting is that in collocated hosting the customer owns the server hardware instead of renting it. In this service the server will be placed in provider’s data center. This service is more expensive than dedicated hosting.
5. Reseller Hosts:
In reseller hosting the providers offers web server storage to their customers, and resells the web server storage to them. Generally providers offer resellers a discount price.
6. Other Hosts:
Including the above type of hosts there are also many other hosts such as email hosts, media hosts, data hosts, etc but these hosts will not be discussed in this article.
Domain Name
Domain name is the name which shows the place where one’s website is located. The actual address of the website is a set of numbers. Each and every web server has its own unique address. Domain name indicates the real addresses of every websites. One can easily remember the domain name of any of the website. Remembering domain name is easier than recalling the IP addresses.
Space / Storage
Space is one of the services provided by the web host. It plays a very important role in the website development. It happens many times that the customer requires more space but the host fails to provide it, so customer should be very careful while choosing the web host. Storage is the amount of web server’s disk space available for customer’s website files, images and databases. Space can be according to the requirement; it can be as small as 5MB in some free hosts and as big as 300GB for some dedicated servers. Earlier prices of the space were very high but prices reduced significantly during the last few years. The hosting plans offering 3GB of space for less than $10 a month can be easily available.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth can be defined as the amount of data transferred from web server to clients’ internet browsers. When ever a person outlook a page the data is transmitted from the server to that person’ PC. If any one is having audio, video and images in his/her website then the bandwidth consumed is more in comparison of the website having only text contents. The bandwidth available in free hosting can be as low as 100MB per month where as in some dedicated servers the bandwidth available is as high as 2000GB a month. The customers who don’t want to pay more for bandwidth can easily find hosting plans offering 75GB of monthly data transfer for less than $10.
Server Type
Generally server means the operating system than runs the web server. Some common types are Windows, Linux and UNIX. Server type refers the server side scripting and database types. The difference between Windows server and Linux/UNIX is that Windows runs ASP and ASP.NET with Access or SQL Server databases where as Linux/UNIX servers usually runs CGI, PHP or JSP with MySQL or Oracle databases. The other difference is that Windows servers are more expensive than Linux/UNIX servers.
Databases
As server type is discussed earlier also, we are able to know that there are different types of databases available. The mostly used is MySQL as it is open source GPL (free) software and can serve a lot of online applications’ requirements such as forums, content management, mailing lists, etc. MySQL, rather its features are limited. MySQL is sufficient for small concern but it is not powerful for the complicated large business sites. Large business requires more powerful databases such as Oracle or SQL Server.
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Server Side Scripting
Usually the new comers prefer to use PHP as server side scripting. The reason behind this is that there are hundreds of open source (GPL) PHP scripts that are able to fulfill the webmaster’s requirements. However PHP also has some limitations in features required by advanced websites same as in the case of MySQL, due to this limitation some professional web developers prefer to use ASP.NET or JSP. Some other developers still prefer to use Cold Fusion, CGI, ASP or PERL.
Now the next very important aspect to be talked about is Email. At present no one can move further in this computer world with having his/her Email account. The one who is planning to do any kind of activity through computer such as to run a business or to provide any kind of service, then the first thing he/she need to do is to open an Email account. There are many hosting plans that include the feature of having some email accounts with customer’s domain. The availability of number and size of email accounts totally depends on the hosting plan one opted. Generally this feature is not included in free hosting. Small plans provide only about 10 accounts where as big plans do not have the limited number. Usually those email accounts are web based and accessible through POP3 clients as well.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
The other service is FTP. File Transfer Protocol is a usual way of transferring files across the Internet. Most of the webmasters used to upload and download their websites contents through FTP. The process of uploading or downloading is performed by using FTP client software. Webmasters require FTP username and password so as to access their web server. There are any hosts who use to provide more than one FTP account to their customers as per their requirement. Rather FTP is unspecified; it is not advisable as per the security reasons.
Control Panel
Control panel is the service available by many of the web hosting companies to their customers. It is a web based application that helps in managing websites. Some important functions performed by the control panel are that it used to manage email accounts, providing statistics, managing FTP accounts, managing domains and sub-domains and managing databases. The control panel application that is mostly used by the user is cPanel. There are many companies who use to develop their own control panel application.
Uptime
Now after having all the services, the thing of concern which remains is how the user keeps his/her website uptime most of the time. If anyone is having a website with excellent features but it remains down most of the time it will be of no use, as when ever the visitors visit his/her website and found it down then later on they will think twice before visiting it. In result he/she will suffer the loss of visitors. Uptime is very important feature of web hosts and that is usually measured in percentage. If a server remains down near about 30 minutes a day will have an uptime percentage of about 99.98%, which is acceptable for most small to medium business websites. If any of the business website is not having at least this percentage of uptime then that website is not suitable for a business website. Mission critical sites cannot tolerate frequent outages, thus they may use web monitoring services to notify web administrators immediately when an outage happens.
Price
Finally the factor left is price. In this option also there is a great variability found like for example customer is having option to choose between the prices ranging from 0 to $1000 per month. For most personal, small and medium websites the total amount of cost involved is just $15 per month. Thus its not at all advisable for business website owners to select very cheap plans let say less than $5 because this price can lead to huge cost indirectly afterwards.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Web Hosting Through Windows
Microsoft announced the Microsoft Solution for Windows-based Hosting Version 3.0 on Tuesday, touting it as a flexible, modular platform with new out-of-the-box services that enable users to roll out hosted offerings faster and cheaper.
Microsoft also lowered the barriers for its Service Provider License in an attempt to encourage smaller companies to consider adding Windows hosting services.
"Version 3.0 is focused on being easy and fast to deploy," said Mark Jewett, product manager for Windows-based Hosting. "And it can apply to hosting providers of all different sizes, not just the large providers."
Windows-based Hosting Version 3.0 comprises eight modular components, each designed to easily integrate with existing environments, preserving investments while providing the flexibility to add new modules as needed. There are infrastructure modules for building, provisioning, patching and monitoring servers, as well as three new service components.
It also includes templates for service plans to let service providers quickly develop packages of features. There are three out-of-the-box hosted services components for Windows SharePoint Services, data hosting with SQL Server and Web hosting with Internet Information Services. The latter includes support for ASP.NET, SSL, FTP, e-mail and FrontPage Server Extensions.
Version 3.0 automates 85 percent of installation and maintenance tasks for the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) Deployment Tool, the company said, with upgraded documentation that includes both scenario-based and graphical-based navigation, demonstration videos and usability improvements. It includes scripts and framework necessary to perform an unattended installation using automated deployment services, which makes for shorter server building times.
The product is licensed under the company's Service Provider License Agreement, which Jewett characterized as aggressively priced and based on actual usage reported on a monthly basis, "so there's nothing sitting on the shelf."
Microsoft removed the licensing requirement of being a Microsoft Certified Partner; to take part in the program, hosting companies merely need to be a registered partner. "Essentially, it's an e-mail address," he said.
Although IT research firm Forrester expects only "modest" growth overall in hosting and managed IT services in 2005, Jewett said that Microsoft is seeing growth in Windows hosting that reflects analysts' estimates of 30 percent year-over-year.
"We're seeing tremendous growth in Windows hosting overall, in terms of revenues for services and server growth," he said. "Service providers are seeing that having a compelling Windows hosting offering out there is important and drives revenue."
At the same time, Microsoft is seeing strong competition from Linux server software. In an August report detailing second-quarter 2004 shipments, research firm Gartner found that, while Windows remained the operating system of choice, its share of the market dropped from 35.1 percent to 34.4 percent. At the same time, Linux shipments increased 61.6 percent and represented 9.5 percent of overall server revenue.
While Jewett denied that lowering the barrier and enhancing community features were specifically intended to combat the Linux threat, he said, "We want to make sure hosting providers have an easy way to meet the demand for Windows hosting. And we want to make sure Windows hosting providers are successful."
Support is based on the Windows Web Hoster Program launched 18 months ago. Its 3,500 members participate in online technical support webcasts, live seminars and bulletin boards. Free technical assistance is available at Microsoft's Windows Hosting Forums within the ASP.NET forums.
"Certainly in the open source world out there, one thing being done that's exciting is building community," Jewett said. "Microsoft is doing a good job of recognizing that we can build a community, support our products and get an excited community out there in much the same way."
Microsoft also lowered the barriers for its Service Provider License in an attempt to encourage smaller companies to consider adding Windows hosting services.
"Version 3.0 is focused on being easy and fast to deploy," said Mark Jewett, product manager for Windows-based Hosting. "And it can apply to hosting providers of all different sizes, not just the large providers."
Windows-based Hosting Version 3.0 comprises eight modular components, each designed to easily integrate with existing environments, preserving investments while providing the flexibility to add new modules as needed. There are infrastructure modules for building, provisioning, patching and monitoring servers, as well as three new service components.
It also includes templates for service plans to let service providers quickly develop packages of features. There are three out-of-the-box hosted services components for Windows SharePoint Services, data hosting with SQL Server and Web hosting with Internet Information Services. The latter includes support for ASP.NET, SSL, FTP, e-mail and FrontPage Server Extensions.
Version 3.0 automates 85 percent of installation and maintenance tasks for the Microsoft Provisioning System (MPS) Deployment Tool, the company said, with upgraded documentation that includes both scenario-based and graphical-based navigation, demonstration videos and usability improvements. It includes scripts and framework necessary to perform an unattended installation using automated deployment services, which makes for shorter server building times.
The product is licensed under the company's Service Provider License Agreement, which Jewett characterized as aggressively priced and based on actual usage reported on a monthly basis, "so there's nothing sitting on the shelf."
Microsoft removed the licensing requirement of being a Microsoft Certified Partner; to take part in the program, hosting companies merely need to be a registered partner. "Essentially, it's an e-mail address," he said.
Although IT research firm Forrester expects only "modest" growth overall in hosting and managed IT services in 2005, Jewett said that Microsoft is seeing growth in Windows hosting that reflects analysts' estimates of 30 percent year-over-year.
"We're seeing tremendous growth in Windows hosting overall, in terms of revenues for services and server growth," he said. "Service providers are seeing that having a compelling Windows hosting offering out there is important and drives revenue."
At the same time, Microsoft is seeing strong competition from Linux server software. In an August report detailing second-quarter 2004 shipments, research firm Gartner found that, while Windows remained the operating system of choice, its share of the market dropped from 35.1 percent to 34.4 percent. At the same time, Linux shipments increased 61.6 percent and represented 9.5 percent of overall server revenue.
While Jewett denied that lowering the barrier and enhancing community features were specifically intended to combat the Linux threat, he said, "We want to make sure hosting providers have an easy way to meet the demand for Windows hosting. And we want to make sure Windows hosting providers are successful."
Support is based on the Windows Web Hoster Program launched 18 months ago. Its 3,500 members participate in online technical support webcasts, live seminars and bulletin boards. Free technical assistance is available at Microsoft's Windows Hosting Forums within the ASP.NET forums.
"Certainly in the open source world out there, one thing being done that's exciting is building community," Jewett said. "Microsoft is doing a good job of recognizing that we can build a community, support our products and get an excited community out there in much the same way."
Shared-Hosting Perils
Shared hosting can be a cost-efficient solution for many Web sites, but you may end up paying a different sort of price. As always when sharing with strangers, there's a risk of the unknown. A well-designed and -managed operating system along with other system software may be able to protect applications and users from one another, but things do go wrong at times.
Consider what happens when an attacker goes after one of the other sites on your shared server. Vulnerabilities such as the MySQL Password Handler Buffer Overflow Vulnerability or the PHP wordwrap() Heap Corruption Vulnerability may occur. If the attacker gains control of the server or the database, you're all just as vulnerable.
And the attacker may not even be an outsider—it could be another customer.
Mike Prettejohn of the Internet research firm Netcraft Ltd., which follows the hosting market carefully, said he thinks "strongly themed shared hosting—such as the Yahoo storefronts"—are the best type of shared hosting. They define a rigid but easy-to-use environment for the customer, limiting the damage the customer can do accidentally or otherwise, and they scale brilliantly for the hosting company. Such hosts usually focus on product and service sites because they have better potential for sharing facilities, such as a shopping cart program and tax and shipping calculation. In a sense these features may make those sites bigger targets, because there will be customer records with credit card and other valuable data. But good management by the hosting service and restrictions on the customers can limit the exposure.
Generic shared-hosting accounts, on the other hand—the ones with access to Perl, PHP, and (shudder!) shell accounts—are potential disasters. It's very easy for one customer to impact all of the others with a badly written program. And you know how Linux vulnerabilities are often described as not such a big deal because only local—not remote—users can exploit them? Those shell accounts make the users local! Again, good management can prevent those users from uploading and executing arbitrary and exploitative code, but good management isn't built into the operating system.
Moreover, DoS attacks against hosting services seem to be increasing. If your sites are in the wrong IP range, you get to suffer along with everyone else.
Mail servers aren't immune to death by association, either. If one of the major RBLs (Realtime Blackhole Lists), such as Mail Abuse Prevention System decides to block e-mail from the mail server you share, because some other domain on the same server had been spamming, it won't be your fault, but you'll pay the price all the same.
In general, you should consider your site more vulnerable to attacks from other sites in the same data center than from outside. You know how in the movies the bank robbers rent the basement next door and break in at night? If you want to attack an Internet site, maybe even an Internet bank, rent a logically nearby server.
There's nothing nearer than another site on a shared server. A dedicated server is a good solution, but even if security is a real concern, you may not be able to afford one. Shop around before you sign up. Look for a shared-hosting service that has some malware protection, like antivirus. If you're keeping personal user information, you should also look for one that supports SSL for your site, not shared with everyone else on your server. This means you'll need your own IP address, so it may cost more. But it's better to pay a little more up front to be sure you're safe.
Consider what happens when an attacker goes after one of the other sites on your shared server. Vulnerabilities such as the MySQL Password Handler Buffer Overflow Vulnerability or the PHP wordwrap() Heap Corruption Vulnerability may occur. If the attacker gains control of the server or the database, you're all just as vulnerable.
And the attacker may not even be an outsider—it could be another customer.
Mike Prettejohn of the Internet research firm Netcraft Ltd., which follows the hosting market carefully, said he thinks "strongly themed shared hosting—such as the Yahoo storefronts"—are the best type of shared hosting. They define a rigid but easy-to-use environment for the customer, limiting the damage the customer can do accidentally or otherwise, and they scale brilliantly for the hosting company. Such hosts usually focus on product and service sites because they have better potential for sharing facilities, such as a shopping cart program and tax and shipping calculation. In a sense these features may make those sites bigger targets, because there will be customer records with credit card and other valuable data. But good management by the hosting service and restrictions on the customers can limit the exposure.
Generic shared-hosting accounts, on the other hand—the ones with access to Perl, PHP, and (shudder!) shell accounts—are potential disasters. It's very easy for one customer to impact all of the others with a badly written program. And you know how Linux vulnerabilities are often described as not such a big deal because only local—not remote—users can exploit them? Those shell accounts make the users local! Again, good management can prevent those users from uploading and executing arbitrary and exploitative code, but good management isn't built into the operating system.
Moreover, DoS attacks against hosting services seem to be increasing. If your sites are in the wrong IP range, you get to suffer along with everyone else.
Mail servers aren't immune to death by association, either. If one of the major RBLs (Realtime Blackhole Lists), such as Mail Abuse Prevention System decides to block e-mail from the mail server you share, because some other domain on the same server had been spamming, it won't be your fault, but you'll pay the price all the same.
In general, you should consider your site more vulnerable to attacks from other sites in the same data center than from outside. You know how in the movies the bank robbers rent the basement next door and break in at night? If you want to attack an Internet site, maybe even an Internet bank, rent a logically nearby server.
There's nothing nearer than another site on a shared server. A dedicated server is a good solution, but even if security is a real concern, you may not be able to afford one. Shop around before you sign up. Look for a shared-hosting service that has some malware protection, like antivirus. If you're keeping personal user information, you should also look for one that supports SSL for your site, not shared with everyone else on your server. This means you'll need your own IP address, so it may cost more. But it's better to pay a little more up front to be sure you're safe.
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