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From Disabled World Web Hosting Explained for Beginners and Advanced Website Owners By Disabled World
In this part of our putting a website online series we examine the main variations of web hosting. Namely whether to choose shared, dedicated, windows, unix, or co-location web hosting services for your new website. Choosing a Reliable Web Host Today, more people and more are becoming aware of the opportunities offered by the Internet. Home based businesses, web bloggers, and companies are realizing the massive benefits of putting a website online. Just as tenants rent an apartment you will need a space online where your website or blog files will be stored. It is very important to choose your web host wisely. In step 1 of creating an online presence (website or blog) we discussed how to buy a domain name. In this next very important step we will be helping you find a reliable web host for your website or blog and explaining what to look for when searching for the ideal host for your domain. There are 3 main types of paid web hosting, they include: Shared web hosting - With shared website all domains (there could be thousands of domains hosted on the one server) share common server resources. Co-location hosting - This type of web hosting is best suited for highly experienced veterans with a great amount of hosting experience. Dedicated web hosting - Dedicated hosting can be self-managed or unmanaged. Managed dedicated hosting is when your server is maintained and monitored by a skilled web administrator. Unmanaged dedicated hosting is when the server is maintained by you. Dedicated servers can be very expensive to rent and unmanaged dedicated hosting can be very time consuming. (See further down the page for types of web hosting explanations) You will need to evaluate the requirements of your website and applications (any scripts you wish to run) to choose what kind of hosting to use taking into consideration including email, scripting software and operating system (Windows or Linux). Due to the expense of dedicated hosting and the popularity of a Linux box (server) over Windows server hosting, and the fact this series of articles is written with the beginner in mind, we will be studying the most popular, and in my opinion best hosting package, which is shared hosting with php, cgi, perl supported languages and mysql databases. At the end of this article we will recommend some reliable secure web hosts supporting these features. Whether you go with our recommendation is entirely up to you, the choice is yours, however we ask you to keep in mind that what may look to be a good hosting deal may in fact be what is called re-seller hosting. Re-seller web hosting is where someone rents space on a server and then sub divides the space in order to sub-sell web hosting. The main problem with this is if a problem occurs and you need it fixed by your host then it may take some considerable time because the hosting re-seller is not actually the person who manages the server. In order to resolve a problem you need to contact the re-seller (often you will not know you are on re-seller server space), who in turn will contact the server manager. All this takes time and you could find your website is down for hours, if not days, as the problem gets shuffled back and forwards trying to find out exactly what is wrong. It is for this reason we strongly advise you to only host with proven and reliable web hosts.
Things to look for when choosing a web host. When starting out, it is easy to overlook some of the most important factors when selecting a web host while paying too much attention on great features which you may not need at the start. For example, most new webmasters judge a web host by the amount of disk space they offer. The thinking is generally, the more the better. There are many other factors to take into consideration. Each factor can be weighed up according to the features each specific web hosting company offers. Each company may also offer several different plans. The features from plan to plan may also differ. Some deals may look good at first but if one feature that is important according to your needs is missing, then that deal may not be so good in your opinion. This does not cast a value judgment on any particular web host. The deal in and of itself may be good for me for example but not for you. So do your research and compare different companies and plans until you weigh up all the factors that are important to your needs. Tech Support - I don't know about you, but I like the feeling of knowing that support is available when I need it. Test different companies before you sign up by sending them an email with a question or two. If they respond quickly, this is a good sign. Uptime - The more uptime they guarantee, the better. 99% uptime is the minimum acceptable standard. I look for 99% plus guaranteed uptime. Disk Space - Decide how much disk space you will require. A web page with one logo does not take up much web space at all. Calculate how big your web site is in relation to the disk space allotted. Bandwidth - This factor is usually overlooked until the bandwidth limit is reached. If you go over your allotted bandwidth, you will get a hefty bill. If you are running a site with lots of downloads, or a site with lots of images such at a photo post site, your bandwidth will be a lot higher than a site with mainly text. CGI Bin - This is now standard with good hosting companies. If you do not have access to your own CGI Bin, you cannot install scripts and programs. Perl - If you do not have Perl, you cannot run Perl Programs. Many good scripts that you buy or get for free are written in Perl. In my opinion, it would be a limitation not to have the latest version of Perl installed. SSL - If you intend to accept credit cards orders directly from your website, you will need Secure Socket Layer included in your plan. This is one of those easily overlooked features. You might sign up for a plan that looks attractive for whatever reason, then down the track, you might discover that you need this feature. If it is not included in your plan, you might be gob-smacked if the extra monthly charge is $10.00. To use this feature you need a merchant account. There is no need to make this a priority if you have no merchant account because you can use a third party credit card processor. SSI - Server Side Includes are great if you want to spend minimal time updating your site. Here's how it works. My site contains SSI's. The left and right nav menus and the little search engine in the left nav menu are "included" with an SSI command in the master page template. If I need to update one of the nav links, there is no need to edit all the pages that contain the menus. I just edit one file which contains the menu HTML and upload it to my site. It's awesome. MySQL - What scripts are you going to run? Some programs require a MySQL database to run. I had this problem with a particular web host. They wanted to charge me $10.00 per month for a MySQL database. WOW. I just took out a new plan with another hosting company for under 10 bucks a month and 5 MySQL Databases are included in the price. Say no more. PHP - Many new scripts and programs require PHP support. Again, this feature can be a $10 extra but most good hosts offer it standard. Imagine if you do not have PHP support but the latest new free Toplist, Blogging script or Shopping Cart requires PHP. Again, this feature is almost standard these days. Domain Name - What's the point in buying web space if you cannot point your own domain name to the site? Some companies will help you register a domain name but you should compare prices and learn how to register your domain yourself. This way you are in control of your domain name if you ever change hosts. FTP Access - Unlimited and unrestricted FTP access to your site is essential. You will need an FTP program to transfer files. Control Panel - Not all control panels are the same. Some are easier to use than others. Some control panels the learning curve is steep while others are easy. If you select a plan where you cannot preview your control panel before you buy, you can always use the 30 day money back guarantee to get out if you are not happy. If they are not offering a working demo of the control panel, maybe they are not proud of it. In my experience, I have always been disappointed with the quality of the control panel when a demo was not available. Statistics Program - A good stats program is handy if you want to keep an eye on how many visitors you are getting, where they are coming from, referrers, top entry and exit pages and so on. Some companies offer excellent stats programs as standard while others offer basic stats but you have to pay extra for advanced statistics. If you find a good hosting deal but the stats program is a bit basic, why not email the company and ask if they can install AWStats before you sign up. AWStats is an excellent FREE advanced statistics program: Be sure your new web host supports the language your scripts are written in, for example: php, perl, cgi, mysql as at a later date, if not immediately, you will need to install program scripts that require your server to have these interpreters installed.
Types of Web Hosting Shared Website Hosting The most common form of web hosting is share hosting, here we explain the pros and cons of shared website hosting. What is shared web hosting? Shared hosting is the most popular form of web hosting, the host provider serves pages for multiple Web sites, each having its own Internet domain name, from a single Web server. Most Web hosting companies provide shared hosting. Unless a company has very high traffic or is just really big, then shared website hosting is the most cost-effective and easiest way to go - I highly recommend beginners or website newbies to start with a shared hosting plan. Larger companies with high traffic need to invest in dedicated web hosting, which is a complete web server just for them. Using Shared Website Hosting is quite cheap and reliable. You will find that there is a range of prices depending on your hosting needs eg. size of website, bandwidth you'll require, databases etc. You should pay for only what you need. Using shared website hosting is the easiest way to have a web presence. You will get the reliability, customer service and technical support that you might not get with dedicated hosting. Pricing for shared hosting services can vary widely from 5 - 60 or more dollars a month. While you can certainly find exceptional values, beware it is also important to recognize offers that are priced too low may not realistically support the revenue requirements of a financially stable company. Their are two basic operating systems you MUST choose from in selecting any hosting service, windows based hosting and Unix / Linux based web hosting. Deciding which plan-type is right for you is often a difficult decision. The majority of all websites on the Internet are hosted on the Linux platform. If you need Microsoft-specific applications, such as ASP, ASP.Net, MS SQL Server or MS Access databases, then you'll need Windows based hosting. A very important issue in determining the value of a shared hosting plan is how often and for how long their servers "go down". Your site can't receive visitors or produce revenue if the server on which it is hosted is not up and running. You want a company who can guarantee the highest up-time percentage possible. Servers are taken down briefly from time to time for maintenance or upgrading, no company can ensure 100% up-time, but you want your site to be hosted on dependable, well managed machines that are not constantly having problems which require them to be down for long periods of time. The more uptime hosts can guarantee, the better. 99% uptime is the minimum acceptable standard. Do your research into hosting requirements by reading our Web Hosting checklist (below) and compare different companies and hosting plans that are important to your requirements. Some important questions to ask yourself. How much money are you willing to spend? (setup fees, monthly/quarterly/yearly charges) How much data storage space do you need? How much bandwidth do you need? Do you require e-mail accounts? How many? Do you need access to a server-side scripting and database solution? (ASP, PHP, Cold Fusion, Perl, CGI, MySQL, Microsoft Access, FrontPage).
Windows ASP Website Hosting Questions and answers concerning windows web hosting including the pros and cons of windows or ASP website hosting explained. The web hosting servers which run the web sites and the server software all run on a computer program known as the operating system and there are essentially three different competing versions. The version we are discussing on this page is Windows. This operating systems allows integration with Microsoft's products and allows web sites to run Active Server Pages (ASP - basically computer scripts for dynamic web site content). Windows Web Hosting gives a company the capability of designing web sites using the ever-popular Windows Operating System. This allows development using technologies such as Active Server Pages (ASP), COM, and the newer .NET infrastructure. If the script(s) you wish to run are Microsoft-specific applications, such as ASP, ASP.Net, MS SQL Server or MS Access then you'll require a Windows platform server. Evaluate what your windows hosting needs are in terms of bandwidth, disk space and number of databases required (read our Web Hosting checklist) and decide what type of plan will work best for your site. Many times hosting providers will offer various packages to accommodate low traffic sites to high traffic sites. Many hosting providers will offer ASP with or without access databases or MSSQL databases. Windows web hosting tends to be a little more expensive than Unix - Linux web hosting because of software licensing fees. Be sure to ask your potential host about the customer support they offer. Is there someone that will be there 24/7 to assist you with questions and potential future script problems?
Co-location Website Hosting Explanation of co-location web hosting including the pros and cons of co-location hosting explained. The term 'co-location hosting' means locating your server and router equipment in another location. Co-location hosting refers to persons who co-locate their own server/s in another location - usually called a data center. Co-locating your web server gives you the greatest choice. You get to choose the hardware configuration of the server and the software that goes on it. The hosting company maintains the connection to the Internet and deals with details such as uninterrupted power supplies (UPSs), fire controls, and air conditioning. However, you are responsible for that web server's upkeep. In this way, the customer has full control over their web server and simultaneously benefit from the 24/7 server monitoring and maintenance provided by the secure data center. Depending on the monthly bandwidth and the hosting rack space required, typically co-location hosting prices range from $500 - $1000 per month. This type of web hosting is best suited for highly experienced veterans with a great amount of hosting experience. Configuring and managing a co-located server is not an easy task and requires a large amount of technical experience and knowhow. Co-locating your own web server(s) at a data center has a lot of advantages. However there are things to consider, start-up costs, your business strategy, number of web servers you wish to co-locate, bandwidth providers and a lot more. Some companies that offer co-location say they're moving away from this service and encouraging their customers to rent a server, this is also known as dedicated hosting. With co-location hosting you pay for the physical space that your server takes up. The server itself will cost around $3000 for a low-end model, and $8000 for a mid-range server. A half-rack of space at a co-location facility could cost between $500 and $1000 to start up and the same amount again each month. Servers are stored in cabinets on what are called 'racks'. Cabinets can be caged-off, locked, and/or grouped together in 'suites' depending on your needs. Co-location providers charge you for the amount of 'rack space' your servers take up in their cabinets. The more 'rack space' you use, the more it'll cost you per month. Essentially, you are leasing 'rack space' from your provider for a monthly charge. You'll also have to buy a switch or a router, which will cost between $1300 and $1800 at the low end. This would result in an initial outlay of at least $7500 and it doesn't include the costs of staff time for setup and configuration, or the cost of equipment depreciation, insurance, and the standby equipment. Most companies that offer server co-location service also sell service contracts to maintain the server and its connections. These service contracts will guarantee a certain percentage of uptime per month, and the fee will increase as the guaranteed uptime increases.
Dedicated Website Hosting When should I use dedicated web hosting, the pros and cons of dedicated website hosting explained. What is dedicated hosting? Either ISP or a web host owned computer that is used by only ONE company . Support can be either the customer's or ISP - Host's responsibility . You don't share the disk space, and you pay a monthly fee for both the computer and service plus pay a setup fee and pay for hosting support. The Dedicated Hosting environment provides an exclusive server or servers devoted solely to your web site(s). What is the difference between Managed and Unmanaged dedicated hosting services? Managed Hosting is for customers who prefer to have their web host provider maintain and monitor their dedicated web servers, operating system and all supported applications. Companies or individuals who do not have the required system administration resources on-staff commonly choose this option. Unmanaged dedicated web hosting is for customers who have extensive system administration expertise to maintain and manage their own dedicated servers. This option generally provides hosting customers with full access to their website server allowing them to customize various configurations and install add on specific programs and scripts. What is the difference between a dedicated server and co-location hosting? A dedicated server is a server provided by a web host for you to rent. You have remote access to the server and you can customize the server to your own needs. The web host retains ownership of the server and you don't have actual physical access it. Co-location hosting means you store your own server at a facility of a co-location hosting provider. A co-location provider provides an Internet connection to your web server and allows you physical access to your own server when you need it. Hosting your web sites on your own dedicated server may seem a little expensive in comparison to shared web hosting, but the end result is more advantageous. Shared web hosting, (many sites are present on the one servers hard drive) no matter how well managed, cannot be 100% reliable and stable. On a dedicated server you will install only software and applications you need, while on a shared hosting server you will find a host of other software and applications installed for all other web server users. Why would I need a dedicated server? While simple html type sites are better suited for a shared server, enterprise-level and business web sites operate much more efficiently on a dedicated server because the dedicated hosting environment provides higher reliability, increased performance, greater security and exclusive use of system and network resources. Therefore, those sites that have high traffic, secure information, a high number of visitors or complex applications (e-commerce, dynamic content, database applications and multimedia applications) are far better suited hosted on a dedicated server. If you have or plan on having just one web site and have absolutely no programing knowledge, then Shared web hosting is the recommended and economical way for you to go. A shared hosting plan can cost anywhere from $5 - $50 a month for an account, rather than $100 or more for a dedicated server. Advantages of Dedicated Server Hosting You do not have to purchase or maintain your own server equipment. Better website performance due to dedicated machine(s). No chance of your website being affected by another website on the same server box, as in shared hosting. You also have the ability to remotely administer your web server and its associated applications, depending on the web host provider. Tools such as PC Anywhere and VNC are excellent tools when working with a dedicated Windows server, while shell access is generally used to administer Unix and Linux type servers. It is the web host provider’s job to maintain the hardware for their dedicated servers. It is very important that the provider has the ability to obtain server replacement parts quickly. Disadvantages of using a dedicated server: One disadvantage with website dedicated servers, you will need to have some program knowledge to control and configure the settings. Dedicated server hosting is powerful, but expensive. If your site doesn’t require huge resources or third party applications to operate, you should probably consider Shared web hosting. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disabled World (www.disabled-world.com) provides a large range of worldwide health and disability information. Coming Events related to health and disability can be posted at http://disabilityevents.disabled-world.com Disabled World also operates a worldwide Disability Community at http://community.disabled-world.com © Copyright 2009 - Disabled World |