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Honest guide – choosing the best web hosting provider

admin — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:57:03 +0000

Looking for the best web hosting provider

So why am I writing another article about choosing a web hosting package ? Isn't hosting becoming a commodity these days ?
Well first, from my experience as a beginner a few years ago I was not able to find a reliable article or review (most of them are just paid advertising or Adsense place-holders !), and with so many offerings I didn't have a clue on who to choose and why could two providers offer the "same" service for 2$ or 50$ per month. So if you are building your first web site, or are looking to change hosting providers, I am quite confident this article will be beneficial for you.

As a first thought, there is no such thing as an overall "best web hosting provider". Your needs are unique and so are the service providers, so the idea is to find the best hosting provider for your own unique needs .
In this article, we assume you are looking for Shared hosting. Shared hosting is Web hosting in which the service 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. Although shared hosting is a less expensive way for businesses to create a Web presence, it is sometimes not sufficient for Web sites with high traffic.
In the early days, shared hosting plans were limited in Disk space and Monthly bandwidth, however these days it is not common to find 20 Gb disk space or more on shared hosting, making it a viable option even for medium-to-large websites.

In contrast , Dedicated hosting is basically renting a whole server solely for your use. It is much like having your own server but the biggest difference is you do not need a large initial investment to set it up. Dedicated hosting will not be covered in this article. What you need to know about it is that it gives your more firepower, more bandwidth and CPU, and costs a lot more than shared hosting (serious dedicated servers start between 200$ to 600$ / month)
This article is provided for your convenience by Ace Consulting and Multimedia : web design, logo and graphic design, SEO and e-marketing experts.
You may report this article elsewhere if you retain the link to us only and email us the link
Shared hosting options and reviews

Free hosting:

Some companies offer to host for free a small website, under a sub-domain such as yourname.webhost.com, and may offer you 10 mb or 50 mb free space. They will be placing distracting ads and banners on your site and are betting on the success of your website to force you to upgrade to a paid service. They would also not provide any support, backup or warrantee. For a list of providers , pros and cons see our other article about paid vs free hosting

The bottom line : DON'T USE FREE HOSTING unless you're under 13 and are creating a page to tease your sister These services are simply not useable for a real website project. Besides, hosting is becoming really affordable these days, so if you want to cut costs, you may want to try to cut costs elsewhere.
Free hosting providers will always offer you the option to "upgrade" to a paid service, but in practice their paid services are usually much more expensive and have much less features than the main shared hosting players.

Budget shared hosting (I can't really recommend except for small dead-end websites)
Some people are looking for "the cheapest possible hosting", if this is you, then you need to look fore budget shared hosting. Budget hosting is usually offered for less than 5$ per month, some companies even offer packages at 1 or 2 $ / month, and is usually limited. Limited in diskspace (a few dozen megs to 1 or 2 Gb), limited in power and speed as your website is likely to be found as well as hundreds of others web sites. Limited in terms of mailboxes, domains you can host under 1 account (usually 1), sub-domains you can create (usually no real sub-domains can be created), ftp users , they usually do not allow certain type of content (nudity, gamling )
This type of hosting is usually fine for a personal website, a small company website, a club, association or such. It is usually not recommended if you want to perform e-commerce, host a large on-line community or portal.
Then some people say that you can always start with a budget hosting under 6$ and then expand or upgrade when their site takes off. This is not practical as in reality these hosting providers do not usually have a better offer (for speed and support) , moving to another host is a very tricky situation and even if upgrade is available, it is usually much more expensive .
Also this only works if you plan to host 1 domain and 1 domain only otherwise you end up paying per domain and it will cost you more than the "Mainstream" shared hosting which usually allows you to host multiple domains while paying the same monthly fee
Budget shared hosting main players are :
Godaddy www.godaddy.com (3.99) : good space and bandwidth, slow, support is notoriously slow, they will try to sell you a lot more features, bad control panel
1and1 www.1and1.com (2.99) : good space and bandwidth, slow, support is notoriously slow
Oxito (for French speakers) www.oxito.com (2.99 Euros) little space and bandwidth they tolerate nudity
Ace-Host www.ace-host.net can be 4.99 if you take 2 years or more offer a lot of features including many templates and cpanel. beware of their CPU and bandwidth overlimit policies support may be questionnable
There also many small or regional players. Check the webmaster forums such as www.ozzu.com or www.webmaster-talk.com to see many small companies offering their services.
Important Note: beware not to use these providers if you plan to publish a newsletter as any email sent from an application running on a domain hosted there will be sent to the bulk mail folders of Aol, Gmail , hotmail and yahoo. I've had a bad experience there Also do not trust an offer if it looks too good. Too many people have seen their website vanish as the startup in India, China or the US disappeared after 15 days, having charged them for a full year !
Mainstream shared hosting (highly recommended)

Some people are looking for a good reliable hosting package, to host a serious project such as an online community, a popular free site (jokes, gallery, forum), an e-commerce site, a portal , a corporate website, are looking for a serious uptime and good support yet don't want to spend a fortune on hosting !
These hosting providers will offer you the most "bang for the buck" and you can usually count on them as your website gets more traffic. The usual offers include multiple or unlimited domains hosting, unlimited sub-domains, 5000 or more mailboxes, good speedy support, a good control panel and many updated one-click installs
Many of these providers will offer you a reliable email system that you can use as a professional mail and will allow you to send newsletter and mailing list that will not be rejected by main email providers
The budget usually varies between 8 and 20 $ / month, and get usually cheaper when you take a 1 or 2 years long plan instead of a monthly plan which is usually a good idea as you end up saving a good deal of money.
These providers will also usually allow you a refund for up to 3 months if you are not satisfied
Some of the most popular hosting providers include :
Site5 : between 8 and 10$, 11Gb space, 400Gb traffic, 5 domains and sub-domains, 1 free domain registration, good support, good email system. Site 5 has an excellent reputation for support, speed, scalability . They also have other packages
DreamHost : between 8 and 10$, 20G space, 1 Tb traffic, unlimited domains and sub-domains, 1 free domain registration, good support, good email system, updated one-click installs, nice community, automatic backup and daily snapshots. They also have other packages I recommend this one although others may work for your
HostGator : this is well recognized hosting provider in the industry. Between 7 and 10$, they offer unlimited domains/subdomains, 5 Gb space, a site builder, full control panel, good support, many updated one-click installs
BlueHost: this is a popular hosting provider. Between 7 and 10$, they offer 15Gb space, 6 domains, unlimited subdomains, full cpanel, good email system , many one-click installs, good support and more.
"Expensive" or Premium shared hosting (for special needs)

Some hosting providers are still offering "1990s" rates nowadays.
It is not uncommon to find companies trying to charge 20 to 50 $ for very little disk space, bandwidth, features or even support
If you are looking for these examples, try the articles on main.addfreestats.com , you can find many ways to get ripped off by a hosting company !

The worst I found was a provider based in Belgium, which charged about 60$ per month for 100 Mb space . For the same money Dreamhost or BlueHost would offer you more than 100 Gb, so they are more than 1000 times more expensive !!!
The only reason you could legitimately pay more for a hosting package is that if you need to host an adult site , or if you need to pay for webmaster services.
For many reasons, I will not list such providers, but contact me by email if you need more information (see end of article)
Hosting Promo codes

When you are set on choosing your hosting providers, you can make some serious savings by using Promo Codes. Promo codes are offered from time to time as special offers to help
Since web hosting is really at core a "recurrent business", these providers will tolerate to lose money on the first year as they know a satisfied customer will stay there for years and refer many people, so they use "promo codes" as a marketing tactic to help convince an undecided customer to choose this "special offer".
Some of the promo codes examples:
Godaddy : gdh0109 will save 10% off the domain name or hosting plan
Dreamhost : FIVE5 will take off 55 $ of your 119$ yearly plan or will waive the setup fee of the monthly plan
Many other providers offer promo codes from time to time, such as SITE5, or others. Entering "provider promo code" on your search engine before buying is usually a good idea
Read the full article on http://www.acemmedia.com/hostingreview.html

Web Hosting Strategy for Managing Multiple Websites

admin — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:57:09 +0000

If you are making a comfortable living from the Internet and the Web or have a plan to achieve that goal, it's likely that you are running more than ten websites. The websites are your virtual offices. You want to your sites to be up and running 365 days, 7 days a week and 24 hours a day. Managing multiple websites is a daunting task if running one website is a hobby.

Proposed Hosting Strategy for Managing Multiple Websites

The hosting strategy we propose is to host your multiple major websites with 3-4 different hosting companies, and open a reseller account with another hosting company for 1) small and new websites, 2) web development and 3) backup. Hosting with too many hosting companies will significantly increase the time and the difficulty of managing sites, and using a single hosting company isn't a smart choice either.

Justification of the Hosting Strategy

Cost – Cost of the Web hosting isn't an issue for running a single web site whether it costs $5 or $25 a month. The difference is only a few hundred dollars or less a year. It's always nice and smart to get the most out of every single dollar in doing business. At least, a few hundred dollars difference wouldn't make or break a business. If you run 10 or even 50 websites, the cost of Web hosting alone will define the success or failure of your online adventure. To cut the hosting cost, the option is to use a reseller hosting account to host as many small or new sites as you want for about $15 a month. You host one or 2 major websites with one hosting company. Shared hosting account costs under $10 a month, and dedicated server will cost $50 or more a month.

Uptime – If your bread-and-butter maker website is down for a few hours, you'll lose hundreds of dollars and more. Even though most hosting companies promise 99.9% uptime, it's not common to see a website down for a few hours. A site could be down for a half day or even more if a hosting company is doing a major update. The hosting company may do the update in a weekend or a major holiday, but that's when many family-oriented and travel sites generate their revenues. If you could afford the loss of revenues, many websites owners can't bear the psychological loss and pressure. Hosting your sites with a few hosting companies will reduce the risk of downtime.

Application Development – For simple web application, webmasters will do development on the same production hosting site. If your ecommerce applications are complex, doing development on the production site may bring down the live site especially if you're in the process of changing configuration files or install customized applications. The option is setup a website on your reseller account for development and testing, and move the applications to production account on another server after the completion.

Backup – If you're not happy with a hosting company, a hosting company is out of business, or the servers will be down for a day or two, you can easily temporarily or permanently switch from one hosting company to other since you're familiar with the site managing tools already. If you have a backup or secondary copy running on another server, all you need for the switch is the transfer of the domain, which will take no more than a minute.

Shop Before You Buy

There're too many hosting plans to choose from a large number of hosting companies – ASP Web Hosting, Budget Hosting, Dedicated Servers, eCommerce Hosting, FrontPage Web Hosting, Hosting With Templates, Managed Web Hosting, PHP Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Shared Hosting, Unix / Linux Hosting, Virtual Private Servers, Windows Hosting or Co-location Hosting. Compare the cost, hosting features, tracking records of hosting companies before making your commitment. Good luck with your online adventures.

About the Author

Bruce Zhang has over 10 years of experience in web development, database design and managing web servers. He currently manages dozens of websites using ASP Web Hosting, Budget Hosting, Dedicated Servers, eCommerce Hosting, Managed Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting for web hosting needs.

What Type of Web Hosting is Best for You?

admin — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 04:57:05 +0000

Copyright Dave Summits. You can distribute this article, but you must keep the author box which is included at the bottom.

How to Choose the Right Type of Web Hosting
by Dave Summits
Are you confused with all of the different types of web hosting? Do you know which type is best for you? This guide will try and help you to find out which type of web hosting best suits your needs and budget.

First of all, here are the different terms that will be discussed:

Shared hosting
Reseller hosting
VPS (virtual private server)
Dedicated server
Colocation

What is shared hosting?
Shared hosting is the most common type of budget web hosting. You are hosted on a server with different websites, that you share the server with. One abusive site can slow down the whole server, and on an unsecured server, a malicious user can gain access to your files. The number of sites hosted on a server depends on the web host, and the size of the plans. Users on shared servers often experience slow speeds, due to overselling. Many shared server web hosts oversell their servers. Overselling is assuming that most users will not use up all of their resources, so they put more users on a server than it could hold if every user used up all of their alloted resources. This isn't too big of an issue if web hosts know what they're doing, and oversell responsibly. Shared hosting can start very cheap, as low as a couple dollars per month, but I suggest going with something a little more costly.

What is reseller hosting? Reseller hosting is very similar to shared hosting. Reseller hosting takes place on a shared server. The difference between shared and reseller hosting is that with a reseller account, you can create shared hosting accounts. Depending on the host, you can create an unlimited number of shared users, but of course you cannot use more space and bandwidth than you are alloted. With reseller hosting, you can start your own web hosting business, give hosting away to friends, or make many accounts for yourself. Overselling can still be an issue with reseller hosting, because you still share the server with other resellers and shared hosting users. Reseller hosting usually costs a little more than shared hosting, starting at around $15-20.

What is a VPS?
A VPS is a virtual private server. Also known sometimes as a VDS, or virtual dedicated server. A VPS is very similar to a dedicated server, except that you are still sharing the server with other users. However, with a VPS, you are in an isolated environment. Each VPS user has its own partition of the server, and therefore an abusive user does not effect other users on the VPS. You get root access to the server, and can install your own software. You also have the ability to create reseller accounts. With a VPS, you can do everything that shared and reseller hosting users can, as well as complete control over your slice of the server. VPS costs more than shared and reseller hosting, with usually starting around $40 a month. I can recommend PowerVPS.com with firsthand experience, I am very happy with them. Their lowest price for a cPanel VPS is $44.50 a month with 10GB storage and 150GB bandwidth. I also recommend (without firsthand experience) LiquidWeb.com, which starts at $60/month with 20GB storage and 200GB bandwidth.

What is a dedicated server?
A dedicated server is very similar to a VPS, except that you get the full server. You get full root access and complete control over it. With a dedicated server, however, comes a lot of responsibility. You need to make sure that the server is fully secure. A managed server means that the company you are getting the dedicated server from will manage it for you, but the amount of management that you receive depends on the company. If you are interested in a managed server, you should ask the host ahead of time about the amount of management that they will provide. You can also outsource the management. There are numerous companies out there that you can outsource the management to. The one I've seen with the lowest price that has good reviews is FastServerManagement.com, which is priced at $29.99 a month for full management. I've also read some good things about Rack911.com, but they cost more. You can always manage it yourself, but if using a Linux server you will need a lot of Linux experience, or with a Windows server there are a lot of security flaws that need to be fixed. If managing it yourself, I recommend getting a security scan on your server done to ensure that it is fully secured. For the hosting provider, I recommend ThePlanet.com, a very large hosting company which owns 2 datacenters in Texas. They offer servers with a minimum amount of management starting at $199.99 a month (or sometimes more, when they're not on sale). They also have a cheaper line of servers, starting at $99/month, at ServerMatrix.com. You may also want to look at Ev1Servers.Net, which starts at $99 a month, or LayeredTech.com, which starts at $60/month. You could always also do a Google search for "dedicated servers" and get lots of results.

What is colocation?
I won't go to much into depth here, because I have no experience with colocation. With colocation, you own a server and you pay a datacenter to hold it for you. They will provide the space in the datacenter, bandwidth, IP addresses, etc. Some hosting companies that offer colocation provide on-site staff, but others will require you to have your own staff.

This wraps up my summary of the different types of web hosting. I didn't recommend any shared or reseller providers because there are so many out there. I recommend going to WebHostingTalk.com to read reviews about different web hosting companies. I didn't recommend any colocation providers because I have no experience with any. I hope that I did a good job explaining all of this.

About the Author

Dave Summits is an expert in the field of web hosting. He runs two web hosting information websites, Web Hosting Insider and Hosting Insider Blog

Get started to Virtual Dedicated Web Hosting

admin — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:57:02 +0000

Most webmasters on the net today are familiar with what the industry calls "shared" web hosting accounts. A shared hosting account is where you rent a small amount of space on a server which is shared among many other users.

This is a cheap way to get started online but it has many disadvantages – you will encounter email delivery problems because of spam complaints against other sites on the same server. You will find your site's grinding to a halt when someone else does some heavy database work on your server. You might even find your site going down because of a denial of service attack against someone else hosting hacking or piracy related material on your server (these type of sites attract antisocial elements!)

How can you avoid all of this drama?

By upgrading to a virtual dedicated server. A virtual dedicated server lets you run your sites as if you had your own "dedicated" server, except it is cheaper because you are really just using part of a server that has been split into multiple virtual dedicated servers.

You can find out more about this by searching Google for "virtual dedicated hosting". Virtuozzo is the main commercial software that web hosts use to run virtual hosting services.

You will find virtual dedicated server accounts starting at just $30 a month. You'll get a much larger chunk of bandwidth compared to shared hosting, and none of the problems that go with a shared host. You can also get multiple IP addresses that are exclusive to your sites.

So what's the catch? Not much. You'll probably spend a bit more on hosting each month. The main disadvantage of upgrading to virtual dedicated hosting is that you will need to be more technically proficient so that you can administer the server.

This requires a bit of time learning the necessary Linux skills to make sure your server runs smoothly.

Many hosting providers will have a "premium" support offering that includes a bit more hand holding – this is definitely recommended if you don't have much experience with Linux, or are new to virtual dedicated hosting.

With the increased speed and bandwidth that a virtual dedicated host offers, and none of the shared hosting headaches, the move is one you will never regret. So, the question now becomes, are to ready and willing to take-on the challenge of virtual dedicated web hosting and save yourself some hard earned cash? The choice is yours…

About the author:
Scott Morris manages his personal site on computer-hacking and hacking tricks http://computer-hacking.comfor more information, you can visit http://computer-hacking.com

Dedicated Web Hosting Explained

admin — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:57:02 +0000

Why is dedicated hosting such a big hit on the business web hosting market? If you look at the costs it involves, usually ranging from $150 – $1000 per month, another question comes into your mind: Does it even worth it?

When you have one single web server is rented to a single customer by the web hosting provider, you have dedicated web hosting. There are two similar solutions quite common too in the web hosting industry: virtual dedicated servers and co-location web hosting.

To make it easier to grasp the concepts, a virtual dedicated server shares the resources of a web server computer with other customers of the web hosting provider. You don t get an entire computer just for you in virtual dedicated server hosting plans.

Co-locating web hosting also shares some similarities with dedicated web hosting. The main difference is that while in dedicated web hosting the web server computer belongs to the web-hosting provider and is only rented by the customer, in co-locating web hosting the customer owns the web server computer. The web-hosting provider only houses the web server computer and sells bandwidth to the customer.

Real dedicated web hosting a single web server is rented to a single customer.

Dedicated web hosting is the ideal solution for businesses that work with high traffic. The functionalities of your web site as well as the application required for its operation will fall under your precise control.

But with dedicated web hosting there are even more advantages.

Your hosting provider handles all concerns regarding the maintenance, the security, and the reliability of your web server. As your rent the computer, not purchasing it you don t have to bother yourself with maintaining the hardware and the connectivity of the computer. This frees you from replacing the component or solving the problem, as all these fall into the provider s responsibility. Many web hosting providers will even offer you compensations as part of the Service Level Agreement (SLA). Usually, in the event of such failure you will be reimbursed with the cost of your hosting plan for a month or a fraction of it, depending of the severity of the failure. Looks quite good compared to having to pay for the component and for the technical support required for actually replacing the component, all this while your web site in not online. At the end of the day you will only pay for functional hardware.

Think what your business could do with all the resources you have just saved on the above maintenance issues.

As the costs of administering and maintaining the web server you have rented vary depending on your web hosting provider, you can choose between managed or unmanaged service levels.

Should you feel uncomfortable with the technical expertise required by the management of a web server computer, you could opt for managed dedicated hosting. This means that you will have available a control panel . The control panel allows you to perform all the essential tasks required by the proper functioning of your web server via a simply point-and-click user-friendly interface. This way you won t need to know or type any command lines, or poses no in depth knowledge of the operating system, while still being able to setup, administer and maintain all the web sites on your web server.

The unmanaged option is recommended only for those with great degree of technical expertise in mastering a web server as it provides root access to the server. This in turn, offers complete server administration, thus the possibility to configure every service on your web server. Of course, not having the necessary services are configured properly, may result in serious system failure. These are the reasons that make unmanaged dedicated hosting only recommendable for people with solid server administration background or for web developers that need custom applications for their web sites, or a customized environment.

Having a dedicated server means that the stability of the computer will not be prone to the plagues affecting shared web hosting solutions. Just think at overload, server being crowded with applications and components required by the other customers, or even errors in programming usually made by the beginners. Add to that the fact that on a shared web server the processor time and the installed memory is shared with the software applications needed by the other users.

Managed or unmanaged, dedicated web hosting makes it easier for you to provide instant support to your own customers when it is required. This would not be possible on a shared hosting plan or you will be faced with delays and possible additional technical support fees. Needless to say a prompt support service on your side also means happy customers and business growth.

For those running a business in web design for example, the advantages of having their own dedicated web server are invaluable. This is true not because his studio will be able to offer pure hosting services, but because he will able to offer them packaged with the web design activity. Modifying a web site for a customer or uploading a new one is a matter of minutes when you have around-the-clock access to your web server. Another advantage comes from the fact that once a complete web presence solution, design and hosting, is offered by the studio to a customer, there is a higher chance for having that customer become a regular.

The benefits of a good dedicated web hosting solution for businesses translate into sales growth, better customer relationship, improved company image, reduced cost compared with in-house web hosting solution, and the list could go on. A dedicated web server means that you can run a better business and better business reads profit.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Calin Indre is editor at HostPinPin (http://www.hostpinpin.com), a Cheap Web Hosting Directory Resource.

HostPinPin.com is a resource for webmasters and consumers looking to find a web hosting company. Providing web hosting reviews, compare hosting plans, web hosting articles, tips and more.

This article may be reprinted or published without the authors consent as long as the About and weblinks are kept intact.

Get started to Virtual Dedicated Web Hosting

admin — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:57:02 +0000

How can you avoid all of this drama?

You can find out more about this by searching Google for "virtual dedicated hosting". Virtuozzo is the main commercial software that web hosts use to run virtual hosting services.

This requires a bit of time learning the necessary Linux skills to make sure your server runs smoothly.

About the author:
Scott Morris manages his personal site on computer-hacking and hacking tricks http://computer-hacking.comfor more information, you can visit http://computer-hacking.com

The September 2005 Cheap Web Hosting Report

admin — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:57:02 +0000

Below are the top five general purpose cheap web hosts selected for September 2005. All of the following hosting plans include a web control panel, a cgi-bin directory, php, perl, and at least 1 mysql database. Many offer a number of additional features. Our ratings are re-evaluated monthly, with a major re-evaluation of customer ratings every three months.

About the CWHR Rating: This number (from a low of 1 to a high of 10) is a weighted average of customer ratings of the web host (80%) and the staff evaluation of the web host (20%). Customer ratings are themselves weighted by the length of time the person has been using their web host. Customers who have hosted with a company for years count more than a customer who has hasted there for a couple of months. As our rating is mainly determined by customers of web hosts, our rating is less likely to be gamed by staff evaluators playing favorites or web hosts giving our staff special treatment. The CWHR Ranking determines the sites we list each month and the order in which we list them. A CHWR Rating of "NA" means not enough customers rated this host for a meaningful result. This rating is only found in the special needs hosting section.

Top Five General Purpose Cheap Web Hosts for September 2005

#1 — Dreamhost http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zdreamhost.php

Price: 1m: $9.95 1y: $9.95 2y: $7.95 Setup: 1m: $49.95 1y: Free 2y: Free Bandwith: 120 GB Disk Space: 2400 MB Mailboxes: 600 CWHR Rating: 9.6

Special Features: 75 shell/ftp accounts, php4/php5/cgi/fastcgi/ unlimited mysql databases, ruby-on-rails, zend optimizer, Frontpage available, host 3 domains and 15 sub-domains, 1 free domain name. Excellent customer support (with public customer forum).

Comments: Dreamhost has long been — and still is — listed as the best affordable web host for unusual content (as they will host just about anything legal) in the Special Needs Hosting section of this report. Improvements in their plans in the last year have made them very competitive in terms of bandwidth, web space, and features offered for the price, and they are extremely well-rated by their customers.

New and improved features are announced in the Dreamhost newsletter almost every month, for example, the June 2005 newsletter announced the availability of PHP5 and MySQL 4.1 and the July 2005 announced the availability of Ruby on Rails, FastCGI, Miva 5, the Zend Optimizer and bandwidth/disk space amounts that grow slightly every week you are with Dreamhost (by 1 GB and 20 MB disk space for the account listed here).

Dreamhost's customer support is the best we've seen in the low cost hosting industry. If you are looking for low cost, high quality web hosting with few content restrictions, truly excellent tech support, and very friendly people, check out Dreamhost. Dreamhost offers a 97-day money back guarantee, see their web site for details. (The Cheap Web Hosting Report hosts with Dreamhost.)

#2 — Lunarpages http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zlunarpages.php

Price: 3m: $9.95 1y: $7.95 Setip: 3m: $30.00 1y: Free Bandwidth: 40 GB Disk Space: 1000 MB Mailboxes: unlimited CWHR Rating: 9.1

Special Features: Storage can be increased to 3000 MB in steps, php4/cgi/1 mysql database, Frontpage available, host 1 domain and 15 sub-domains, Fantastico script library. JSP and ASP available for additional charge. Public customer forum.

Comments: Lunarpages has been in the low cost web hosting business since 2000 when Add2Net expanded into shared hosting. While their customer rating fluctuates more than most hosting companies we list, it is alway high and long time customers seem very loyal. Their support for controversial content is second only to Dreamhost among low-priced web hosts. Lunarpages offers a 30-day money back guarantee, see their terms of service for details.

#3 — InMotion http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zinmotionhosting.php

Price: 6m: $9.95 1y: $9.95 Setup: 6m: $30 1y: free Bandwidth: 100 GB Disk Space: 8000 MB Mailboxes: 400 CWHR Rating: 9.0

Special Features: php/cgi/5 mysql databases, Frontpage available, host 1 domain and 5 sub-domains.

Comments: InMotion Hosting is an employee owned and operated company founded in 2001. Their employees average over 4 years of hosting experience while their senior staff average over 10 years of hosting experience. This shows it their higher than normal customer rating. The Power plan listed here is actually InMotion's intermediate plan. (InMotion offer an ever lower priced plan, Launch, but it lacks some features most people consider critical, such as access to your web sites log files for traffic analysis.) The Power plan offers evey features most web sites need and comes with InMotion's reputation for reliability and toll-free telephone support. InMotion offers a money back guarantee, although its terms are somewhat unclear — if these terms were not so vague, InMotion's CWHR Ranking would be slightly higher.

#4 — HostRocket http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zhostrocket.php

Price: 3m: $11.95 1y: $7.95 Setup: 3m: Free 1y: Free Bandwidth: 50 GB Disk Space: 1000 MB Mailboxes: unlimited CWHR Rating: 8.1

Special Features: php/cgi/10 mysql databases, Frontpage available, host 1 domain and unlimited sub-domains. 50 preinstalled scripts.

Comments: Founded in 1999, HostRocket is a popular web hosting company that is well-rated by its customers. They greatly expanded their offerings in 1994 and are now very competitive in bandwidth, disk space, and features. HostRocket often runs very nice short-term specials, check their web site for details. HostRocket offers a 30-day money back guarantee, see their terms of service for details.

#5 — Netfirms http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/znetfirms.php

Price: 1y: $9.95 Setup: 1y: Free Bandwidth: 100 GB Disk Space: 2000 MB Mailboxes: 100 CWHR Rating: 7.8

Special Features: php/cgi/10 mysql databases, Frontpage support, two free domain names, free CD with NetObjects Fusion 7.

Comments: Founded in 1998, Netfirms rapidly acquired a reputation for affordable, reliable web hosting. Although aimed at business hosting, Netfirms hosts sites of all types" personal, hobby, business, weblog, and more. Their Netfirms Advantage plan is full of useful features and should handle almost any personal or small business web site. Netfirms offers a 30-day money back guarantee, see their terms of service for details.

Honorable Mention

The following web hosts also rated quite well in customer ratings and might also be worthy of consideration: * BlueHost (CWHR Rating: 7.4) http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zbluehost.php * PowWeb (CWHR Rating: 7.1) http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zpowweb.php * APlus (offers both Unix and Windows hosting; CWHR Rating: 6.5) http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zaplus.php * iPowerWeb (CWHR Rating: 5.8) http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zipowerweb.php * StartLogic (CWHR Rating: 5.6) http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zstartlogic.php

Special Needs Cheap Web Hosting

Fewer Content Restrictions

Dreamhost http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zdreamhost.php Price: 1m: $9.95 1y: $9.95 2y: $7.95 Setup: 1m: $49.95 1y: Free 2y: Free Bandwidth: 120 GB Disk Space: 2400 MB Mailboxes: 600 CWHR Rating: 9.6

Comments: In an effort to avoid arguments and complaints, most web hosting companies are fairly restrictive on questionable content — to the point that some will terminate a site for displaying a picture of a classical (but bare breasted) statue from ancient Greece. Dreamhost not only has an excellent, cheap web hosting package but is far more liberal than most web hosts on acceptable site content. Basically, if your content is legal in the US, Dreamhost will probably have no problems hosting it.

For more information on Dreamhost, see the description above.

Windows Hosting

Easy CGI http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zeasycgi.php Price: 1m: $9.95 1y: $7.96 Setup: 1m: Free 1y: Free Bandwidth: 50 GB Disk Space: 3000 MB Mailboxes: 50 CWHR Rating: NR

Comments: Easy CGI provides Windows 2000 servers instead of the standard Unix servers. Their accounts come with ASP and one Access Database. They are one of the most affordable and most popular Windows hosting providers. Customer service reports are spotty, however. Most people report excellent service but minority report major problems

Virtual Dedicated Server Hosting (Root Access)

Jumpline http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zjumpline.php Price: 1y: $9.95 Setup: Free Bandwidth: 5 GB Disk Space: 500 MB Mailboxes: 75 CWHR Rating: NR

Comments: Jumpline uses special technology to provide each account with its own virtual server. You have your own Apache web server, your own email servers, your own database server, etc. and you have root access to the virtual machine running them. These types of accounts can be more stable and provide better control, but are best used by Unix experts who understand the ins and outs of running servers.

Dedicated Server Hosting

ServerPronto http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/zserverpronto.php Price: 1m: $29.95 Setup: $149.00 Bandwidth: 200 GB Disk Space: 40 GB Mailboxes: unlimited CWHR Rating: NR

Comments: A dedicated server gives your site its own physical computer as a server. The upside is that you have full root access so you can install whatever software you want on it and have very few restrictions on scripts (even if they hog CPU time). The downside is that you have to maintain the system yourself. ServerPronto has some of the most affordable dedicated server prices we have seen (and they often have sales that cut the price of the setup fee), although there are many options that can increase the monthly price or the setup fee. Windows and Windows 2003 dedicated servers are also available at higher prices.

The information in this report was checked for accuracy on August 31, 2005. Web hosting companies, however, can change their pricing and plans at any time so the information may no longer be accurate when you read this report. The Cheap Web Hosting Report and its staff are not responsible for errors nor for what use you may make of this information. For updated information, check The Cheap Web Host Report web site at http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/

Looking for more information on designing, hosting and promoting a web site? Download a copy of our free ebook/newsletter, the CWHR Web Site Design Guide. This guide is updated monthly with additional articles and the current edition of The Cheap Web Hosting Report's current monthly report. Download it at http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/freewebdesignguideebook.php

Notes:

The prices listed are the monthly price based on the shortest prepayment period offered (1m = one month, 3m = three months, 6m = six months) and for annual pre-payment (1y = annual rate)

The setup fees listed are for the shortest prepayment period offered and for the annual pre-payment plan.

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You are free to publish the September issues of The Cheap Web Hosting Report on your web site or in your newsletter, so long as all links are included as published here and are clickable if this article is placed on a web page or in an HTML newsletter. Minor corrections of spelling or grammar are allowed so long as the article's intent is not altered.
About the Author

Randall Stukey is the chief editor of the monthly The Cheap Web Hosting Report (http://www.cheapwebhostingreport.com/) which lists the top five low cost web hosts and several special purpose web hosts along with articles on web hosting, web site design, and site promotion.

Virtual vs. Dedicated vs. CoLo: Which Web Hosting Do I Need?

admin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:57:11 +0000

You know you need a web host, but you don't know where to start. So you do a web search to research potential solutions and get a bit overwhelmed with all the jargon: UNIX, dedicated servers, POP3, CoLo… the list goes on.

Step back a bit. You don't need to learn everything about web sites to choose a host. You do however need to know what a web host is, and the basic types of web hosting. This knowledge will lead you to know what type of hosting you need, and ultimately you can make a sound decision.

To begin, let's define the term. Web hosting is a service that hosts web pages on servers that can be accessed through the Internet. There are three primary categories of web hosting providers that cater to the requirements of site owners; these include virtual web hosting, dedicated web hosting, and co-located hosting. There are various sources online that offer detailed information and reviews on these services, but there are several details you should pay most attention to. The points to consider before selecting a web hosting provider include the number of clients they service, years in business, customer service reputation, hardware specifications, and backup routines. With that out of the way, let's jump in and explore the basic types of web hosting.

Dedicated hosting

A dedicated web server is basically like the name sounds: it's dedicated to your site only. Typically it is leased to a site owner. The hosting company is responsible for the maintenance, backing up, security, and power management. The site owner manages the software-related issues.

Dedicated hosting is useful for websites that need extra bandwidth and system resources because of the use of technologies such as e-commerce software, customized server applications, and heavy traffic. Such websites are often better served by a dedicated hosting provider rather than developing and running an in-house solution. Dedicated hosting is possible with Windows, Mac, and Linux servers. A dedicated server can cost upward of $100 / month.

Pros and cons: 24/7 tech support is available. Speed, dependability, and customizability of website are often enhanced. The response time of dedicated servers is fast as compared to shared servers where the activity of other sites affects server speeds. Reliability and customizability of websites are improved as dedicated hosting offers greater storage capacity and greater freedom in terms of hardware configurations and software installations; hard drives can be upgraded and bandwidths increased with growth.

Shared servers and CoLo hosting are cheaper alternatives to dedicated hosting. Moreover, as the server is not owned by the site owner, security of sensitive data can be an issue.

Virtual hosting

Virtual hosting, also called shared hosting, is a popular and cost-effective web hosting solution. The hosting provider leases the website hosting server, services, and bandwidth to more than one website. Small and medium-sized websites, which do not have high traffic and have limited bandwidth requirements, benefit from virtual hosting. A virtual hosting offer by a service provider usually includes features such as Internet connection, domain name registration, file storage, email account, and may also include website design assistance. The cost of virtual hosting is in the range of $5-40 per month. It can be more or less depending upon the package selected.

Pros and cons: Virtual hosting enables the establishment of an online presence with no expensive equipment purchases required on part of the site owners and therefore is the perfect solution for SMBs.

One of the limitations of virtual hosting is that sites compete for the provider's service; this may result in slow server response times in periods of heavy traffic and make browsing inconvenient. Since websites hosted on a server may be grouped under a single IP address, there is a chance that a site owner may have to share an IP address with adult or scam sites. This can lead to debarring from search engine placements which will have an adverse effect on the traffic. As the software components are shared between websites, a site owner may not be able to personalize the website as per his business objectives and target audience.

While purchasing virtual hosting services, it is useful to have an idea of the total anticipated traffic during the day as well as the visits during the peak period. This helps in obtaining a package with sufficient bandwidth for immediate and near term needs. Also, the cost of an upgrade and changes to the package should be understood.

Co-location (Co-lo) hosting

In Co-location hosting, the server is owned by the site owner and it is leased at the co-lo facility, where it is installed along with other servers in the facility. A co-lo service enables site owners to make maximum use of network access points and the freedom to choose between telecom lines provided by the hosting company and other telecom lines. Co-location hosting enables site owners to utilize high bandwidth at a cost that is not significantly higher than that of a normal web hosting package. The site owner maintains the server while the hosting provider ensures smooth running by providing regular power supply and IT support.

Co-location hosting services can be standalone data centers or companies that operate by leasing server space from a co-location web hosting reseller. The cost of the server and the volume of rack space required by the servers of a site owner influence the cost of co-lo hosting. Servers that fit in with the dimensions of the racks can help to save costs; co-locating tower servers usually cost more. Additional services provided by the hosting provider and insurance are other factors that affect cost. The monthly cost of a co-lo service for a half-rack of server space can be up to $1000.

Pros and cons: The benefits of co-location hosting include temperature and humidity controlled environment for the servers; security from hacking, fire, and theft; provision of redundancy and backup. It enables the site owner to control the critical features of web hosting such as bandwidth allocation, routers, VPN, server space, and VLAN.

Site owners may not find it easy to locate a co-lo service that is situated close enough to facilitate easy and safe transfer of servers and at the same time provide the best connection speeds. Co-lo hosting is of greater advantage to those who have hosting experience and consequently are better placed to recover the costs involved.

Ultimately, it is the requirements of the site that dictate the choice of web hosting solution. Online stores and sites with heavy traffic are better off with dedicated hosting, personal blogs and small sites without ecommerce activity that do not have high bandwidth consumption can function with virtual hosting, and websites that require a high degree of customization and deal with sensitive data benefit from a co-lo hosting arrangement.

To determine what type of host you need, ask yourself what type of site you have, and it should all flow naturally from there.

About the author:

John Hasson writes for Find a Web Host.

Web Hosting Strategy for Managing Multiple Websites

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 21:57:10 +0000

Proposed Hosting Strategy for Managing Multiple Websites

Justification of the Hosting Strategy

Shop Before You Buy

About the Author

Confessions and Tips from a Top Web Hosting Salesman

admin — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 04:57:05 +0000

Have you ever gone car shopping with a former car salesperson? Their industry and sales knowledge is powerful information vital to the average buyer. Gaining their street smarts and savvy gives the buyer an edge. This "edge" can be the difference between getting good value and being taken advantage of.

As a former top web hosting salesman, I have decided to come forward and shed some light on the industry. The rapidly growing world of web hosting, domain names, and basic web design is still a mystery to many interested people. My intent is to help you understand basic "do's and don'ts" in order to help you make a better more-informed decision.

When I got into this business several years ago a close friend if mine had paid $35 for a domain name and had monthly expenses of $20 for simple hosting. By quickly checking the domain name I discovered it was in the hosting company's name and not the actual owner of the website! I also quickly realized that this $275 annual expense was available at less than $100.

Not controlling your domain name can become a huge problem to website owners even though it is the smallest annual expense. You can be "held hostage" by hosting companies who control your domain name. This is how they keep you paying more than you should monthly, because you cannot leave! Make sure you are dealing with a reputable reseller or actual Registrar when you buy your domain name. Also consider buying the name for 5 or 10 years for $40-$80. If your email address changes or the credit card expiration changes, you can accidentally lose the name and have fines of $200 to get it back. Be wary of free domains and free web hosting, as you still get what you pay for. For more info on the subject refer to DomainInformer.
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Not having the username and passwords to access the web hosting accounts is another huge mistake many buyers make. If your web designer turns up missing, and you cannot gain access to the files you bought and paid for, then you cannot leave that web host. This is the most common problem I encountered in my selling names, sites, and design! By the time you realize you are over-paying, you are frustrated because you are powerless. Do not trust anyone to keep this information for you. The relationship may change and you will be glad you are independent, informed, and in control of the situation.
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Finally you also need to keep a copy of the files on your hard drive and/or backed up on a CD. This way if the web host loses the files or your designer is MIA you have a backup plan. Be sure the domain name is registered with you as the administrative contact, and that you have all username/password combinations for names and hosting accounts.

When you are a prospect everyone acts professionally, but what about after you are a customer? To be really comfortable with your web host make sure they give a 30-day money back guarantee. Load the files and see what kind of performance and customer service you get for a few weeks. If they promised 24/7 customer care on the 3rd ring and you are getting voice mail or being on hold for 15 minutes… you will be free to leave!

Web hosting is simply space in a computer where your html documents and jpeg. images are stored. Good web design allows for easy navigation through the written words and the pictures you want the world to view. What you need to be concerned with is the speed with which your website loads and the amount of uptime your host claims to give. When traffic is a heavy a slow loading website will frustrate interested viewers, and cause them to leave. In addition the host needs a backup plan for power and Internet connectivity. Many top hosts claim 99+% uptime year round. Get details about top hosts at HostReview.com.

Things to consider when buying web space are as follows: Will you utilize a database for a dynamic searchable site? Are you going to have a store, selling products online in a shopping cart? Are you going to have Unix or Windows based hosting? Do you need a secure site (static IP) needed to enter sensitive information like social security or credit card numbers safely? How much space do you need for large audio and video files, versus pictures and text only? And what is the difference between shared and dedicated hosting?

To answer all the above simply I will paint some broad stokes below. More knowledge about technical info can be found at WebKnowHow.net http://www.webknowhow.net. People are unclear on the differences between shared and dedicated hosting. Most everyone starts with shared hosting as it is more affordable and works fine. In a shared hosting environment, the computer space is sliced up and "shared" among many small sites. Shared hosting ranges from a few dollars a month for a simple site to as much as $30-50/mo if you are selling online. Dedicated hosting usually begins at $59 and can easily reach $200/mo. and more.

If your site ever gets really popular and/or you have many transactions happening you to will move to a dedicated server. Dedicated meaning that all of that computer's resources are allocated to you alone. If you do not know how to configure the server then you will need technical assistance in the form of an IT employee.

This technical expert will monitor the data center operations; of your hosting company to make sure data is backed up and protected by firewalls. Firewalls protect your computer from being "hacked" into unauthorized people. Another option you may consider is an emerging trend known as "managed dedicated servers". The host helps to manage the servers daily operation, in order to help the novice operator.

Both shared and dedicated hosting requires a decision between Unix and Windows. This has been compared with people's preference to Ford or Chevrolet. Some people grow up and get used to one and prefer it for some reason. Others know both and utilize what will be best in each situation.

From the viewer's perspective, both Unix and Windows look the same. If you are going to use ASP (Active Server Pages) you will need Windows. Unix utilizes PHP instead of ASP, and is generally more stable and affordable. This is because the license fees paid to Microsoft increase the hosting company's overhead and they pass that on to the consumer.

Many PC users have Front Page design software from Microsoft included as a gift in their original purchase. Unix hosting now includes front-page support for well under $10/mo. So you can utilize design software you already have, and host for under $100 per year.

Dreamweaver is the other popular design software program you should investigate if you are thinking about doing website design. Be wary of friends or relatives who will do the design for free. If they are gainfully employed, the tasks that they are paid for will take priority, which places unnecessary strains on the relationship. More info on web design and search engine optimization can be found at PromotionWorld.com http://www.promotionworld.com/.

We also need to understand the relationship between the static IP address, using a database, and using eCommerce features to sell products online. IP addresses help identify where the actual end user is located physically. This is important if we need to locate to the original sender of a message or a live user creating havoc on the Internet.

Many of us have bought an airline ticket online by now. You may have noticed the screen that alerts you to the fact your connection is secure. This secure certificate assures a computer user that it is safe to enter credit card info and buy without fear of someone intercepting your sensitive data.

The static IP allows authorities and credit card processors to track storeowners and their computers to insure 100% honesty. Most shared web hosting sites share IP addresses as well. This is fine for a simple informational website with just pictures and text.

Dynamic sites are capable of storing your name and user profiles at an initial visit. This allows the site to "recognize" you on a subsequent visit and quickly load the profile for instant access. Dynamic sites also search for products or names in the company's stored database. Searching for different items quickly and the site saving all your personal information, is a direct benefit of a database.

Most initial sites will not use static IPs or databases unless you are going to be selling online. These stores are referred to as eCommerce web hosting and are the most expensive of all. Monthly charges can easily exceed $50/mo when you consider all expenses of the static IP, payment gateway, merchant account, and shopping cart.

Buyers add items to their "shopping cart"; it totals shipping and taxes and charges your card. Merchant account banks process your buyer's online purchase, charging 2-3% fee total to send money to your bank. You are then free to ship the product they bought.

My personal website has lots of pictures and text, yet is barely over 50 MB in size. 1 GB (1000MB) of storage, now is available for $10/mo, and has 20 times the storage I need. Large video files such as streaming video and audio are the largest users of space. 200MB and 10 email addresses are going to be as much as many small sites will ever need. Often of you prepay the year you can get a free month or the setup fees waived. Also find a host who pays you to refer friends, and you can get free months that way.

I hope this information helps you better understand the power of the Internet. We are all connected through this World Wide Web, and it is your right to benefit in every way possible. Come on, jump in, the water's fine…

Jamie Chantiles is Director of Sales for DevStart. He has been featured in magazines and on TV as an expert in peak performance. His speciality is in increasing productivity and attaining peak performance by harnessing the power of your own brain. Jamie has worked in the web hosting industry, selling and training for the last 2 years. Read more stimulating, probing and revealing articles on HostReview (www.hostreview.com).

jamie@devstart.com

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