Cheap, Fast-Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About WebHosting

Varieties of Web Hosting Services

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There are many varieties or scopes of web hosting. The most basic is a simple webpage and small-scale file hosting, where files can be uploaded via FTP or a Web interface. The files are usually delivered to the Web "as is" or with little processing. Many Internet service providers (ISPs) offer this service for free to their subscribers. People can also obtain Web page hosting from other, alternative service providers. Personal web site hosting is typically free, advertisement-sponsored, or cheap.

Business web site hosting often has a higher expense.

Single page hosting is generally sufficient only for personal web pages not really business related as they are filled with adverts. A complex site calls for a more comprehensive package that provides database support and application development platforms (e.g. PHP, Java, and ASP.NET). These facilities allow the customers to write or install scripts for applications like forums and content management systems. For e-commerce, SSL is also required.

The host may also provide an interface control panel (e.g. cPanel, Plesk or others) for managing the Web server and installing scripts as well as other services like e-mail. Recently, Web.com holds many patents it claims cover broad methods for website building and web control panels. Hostopia, a large wholesale host, recently purchased a license to use that technology from web.com for 10% of retail revenues^[1]. Web.com recently sued Go Daddy as well for similar patent infringement ^[2].

Some hosts specialize in certain software or services (e.g. e-commerce). They are commonly used by larger companies to outsource network infrastructure to a hosting company. To find a web hosting company, there are searchable directories that can be used. One must be extremely careful when searching for a new company because many of the people promoting service providers are actually affiliates and the reviews are biased.

Types Of hosting

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Hosting services limited to the Web:

Free web hosting service: is free, (sometimes) advertisement-supported web hosting, and is often limited when compared to paid hosting.
Shared web hosting service: one's Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources, such as RAM and the CPU. A shared website may be hosted with a reseller.
Reseller web hosting: allows clients to become web hosts themselves. Resellers could function, for individual domains, under any combination of these listed types of hosting, depending on who they are affiliated with as a provider. Resellers' accounts may vary tremendously in size: they may have their own virtual dedicated server to a colocated server.
Virtual Dedicated Server: dividing a server into virtual servers, where each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with many other users. The users may have root access to their own virtual space. This is also known as a virtual private server or VPS.
Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.
Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.
Clustered hosting: having multiple servers hosting the same content for better resource utilization.
Grid hosting : this form of distributed hosting is when a server cluster acts like a grid and is composed of multiple nodes.

Some specific types of hosting provided by web host service providers:

File hosting service: hosts not web pages but files
Image hosting service
Video hosting service
Blog hosting service
One-click hosting
Shopping cart software

How to Choose a Web Hosting Service

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This is the most crucial part that will determine your websites future and success.

Web hosting is often provided as part of a general Internet access plan; there are many free and paid providers offering these services-From free sub domains, to free for life domains!

A customer needs to evaluate the requirements of the application to choose what kind of hosting to use. Such considerations include database server software, scripting software, and preferably the underlying operating system.

Most hosting providers provide Linux-based web hosting which offers a wide range of different software. Most people wonder why linux is preferred but actually this is the major reason. A typical configuration for a Linux server is the LAMP platform:-Linux, Apache, MySQL & PHP/Perl/Python.

The webhosting client may want to have other additional services, such as email for their business domain, databases or multi-media services for streaming media. A customer may also choose Windows for its hosting platform. The customer still can choose from PHP, Perl, and Python but may also use ASP .Net or Classic ASP.

Web hosting often include a package of software called fantastico. This enables the customer to install some crucial software without much pain.

What to check in a web host:-

Uptime and Reliability
Physical Disk space
Cost & pricing
Software Support
Operating system
Live support

Hosting Uptime and Reliability-99% uptime Guarantee? Is it real?

2008-01-04T01:18:00.000-08:00

Hosting uptime refers to the percentage of time the host is accessible.

Many hosting companies claim that they have a 99.9% uptime, but can this be trusted? What if a server restarts? What if there is a a physical problem, or in the unlikely event that there is sep 11 blast?

What if they are doing a maintenance job?

They claim only refers to a server being powered on and doesn't account for network downtime and other downtime. Real downtime can potentially be larger than the percentage guaranteed by the provider. Many providers tie uptime, and accessibility, into their own Service Level Agreement, or SLA. SLAs may or may not include refunds, or reduced costs if performance goals are not met.

One should be very careful to choose a trusted web hosting company, reliable and good uptime that is realistic.

What is a Web Hosting Service?

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A web hosting service is a kind of Internet Hosting Service that enables people, be it individuals, companies or organizations to have their own websites accessible via the World Wide Web

Web Hosts Provide space (bytes) on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity.

Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center, called colocation.

But what is a good web hosting service?

Can it deliver? That is the first question one should always ask before buying a web hosting service.

Just to mention lightly, there are fundamental issues to consider too. The hosting service should be reliable and not at any time offline as this means that your website that they are hosting is not accessible. They should be established and reliable with maximum server uptime. They should have support for different software and technologies. They should have online available support.

At one time I was trying to add files to a website and they was a problem as I couldn’t overwrite the existing files. It was a simple problem but I guess I really need some support. The guys who host this site luckily for me, have some 24/7 wonderful support. Right from their homepage you have a live chat box, EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT A MEMBER!

Anyway I was able to get it done in no time thanks to their lively helpful support.

I don’t know about their other services and details, since I was doing the job for a client, but I know that this company has a very reliable live support. In fact, they never fail to help you at any one time!

In closing, a reliable web host service should have enough space. I mean, I’ve seen some hosts offering 500GB at a very cheap cost and if you are planning to come up with a youtube kind of a site where you have videos and they require enough space, you gotta be careful!

Cost is another factor to consider too. Cheap is not always good in web hosting.

But hey, Some of the worlds best rated hosting companies are actually some of the cheapest!

Free Hosting -Is It Real?

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read reviews about webhosting here:-

http://reviews.cnet.com/hosting-plans/ipowerweb/4505-6541_7-31448721.html

Free hosting - is it charity?
Does free hosting need an explanation? Unfortunately it does, because what has been advertised and widely recognized as free hosting is not free at all in 99.99% of the cases. I did some serious statistical research on the subject. Just joking, of course.
"Free hosting" is most of the time offered in exchange for placing advertising on your website, meaning that the host will automatically place an advertisement at the top and sometimes at the bottom of every page of your website. Sometimes they don't use banners, they use pop-ups.
No matter what they ask you to do in exchange for free hosting, you have to do something in exchange, so you're not being offered free hosting! It's just a barter. They give you hosting in exchange for placing ads on your website. They call it free because you don't give them any money, but you do pay for it.
They claim and even convince you that they're doing you a favor: they give you free hosting. They know that if you think the service is free you'll not complain for downtime, unresponsive support teams. But the thing is you're not getting it for free!
Now, even if they would offer it for free, the service should be at least acceptable. But it usually isn't. If one offers free lunch to the poor, that food must not be rotten. It's just common sense!
What these free hosting services always seem to forget to mention is the fact that they're not charities. They're businesses and they're always looking for ways to make a profit.
I find it deceiving that they use the word "free" when the right name for it should be "barter hosting" or "trade hosting" or "ad-funded hosting". But, as strange as it might sound, the world doesn't revolve around me , so the so called free hosting will remain "free hosting". Too many people in the hosting industry use this term and too many regular people look for "free hosting" for it to go away.
Common problems with free hosting
It should not be a surprise that free hosting is generally not as good as paid hosting. The problems that are common in the paid hosting section of the hosting industry are almost a rule in the world of free hosting. Timely support is almost out of the question with most free hosts. Excessive downtime and slow servers are almost the norm rather than just seldom occurring problems.
That isn't to say that free web hosting can't be acceptable in terms of quality. There are some companies that offer reliable free web hosting. Don't get me wrong, reliable here doesn't mean paid-hosting-reliable, it means reliable according to the free hosting standards (whatever that means).
Free hosting without the ads
Yes, you can find free hosting that doesn't require the placement of ads on your pages. That doesn't mean the company isn't there to make a profit! The free account will give you only a small amount of bandwidth and space. What the hosting company does is give you free hosting while you're starting your website/business and/or your needs are low.
They figure (bet) that you'll go for their paid hosting packages (many free hosts have paid plans too), as soon as your website will outgrow it's account in terms of bandwidth and/or space. Sure, you're getting a free start, but the host gives you well below $1/month worth of resources, so they're not giving you much, especially if they limit the support you're eligible for.
Some free hosts allow only the use of subdomains or directories, which means that your website's URL will look something like this: yourwebsite.yourhost.com or www.yourhost.com/yourwebsite. That means that if you move your website you'll lose all those hard earned links that point at it, people will send you emails that you'll never read etc. You are stuck with that host.
What's in it for the host in this case? Well, the host gets brand awareness because it gets to be published in the myriad of free hosting directories. It also gets it's name in your URL and in the URL of lots of other websites. Branding again. Also, if the service is at least acceptable it will get a good reputation, which often is worth more than pure gold. All those ultimately mean more business for their business.
It happened and it still does, that some hosts start their business with a great "free hosting" offer. Their name soon gets published all over the web. After a while (usually a year or so) the company stops offering free hosting. Some of their "free" clients will agree to become paying customers, while others will decide to see their work vanish into oblivion, but not pay. By that time though, the host gains immense brand awareness. It might actually get quite a few clients because of those people that were hosted for free and decide to pay in order to keep their websites up and running.
Unlimited bandwidth/space?
Unlimited space/hosting are a no-no in the paid hosting arena. In the free hosting arena it's even worse. It basically spells out that the servers will be overcrowded. Although you might like the idea of having as much space and data transfer as you need, please resist the temptation. Unlimited space/bandwidth is an illusion. It's like when you're seeing water in the middle of the desert. A mirage. You are promised, but you will not receive.
Secret backdoor to quality free hosting
Actually it's not that secret, just not widely known. As I said in the beginning of this article, free hosting is most of the time nothing more than a barter.
Now here's the idea: why settle for lousy "free hosting" when you can barter for quality hosting instead? All you need to do is find a few good paid hosting companies and then ask for hosting in exchange for placing ads on your website.
Your greatest advantage is that you'll be able to make those ads fit your website perfectly. They will not be automatically added to your pages at the top or bottom. You'll have complete control over your website's design.
Sure, you'll have to negotiate where to place those ads. It's normal for the host to ask for the ads to be placed so that they'll get high chances to be noticed by your website's visitors. As long as they don't ask for a big banner to be placed on your pages I don't see a serious problem. I would suggest you though to go for a text ad. It's usually much easier to make a text ad blend-in nicely so that it doesn't scream "I'm an ad!".
This solution for getting great hosting without giving money out of your pocket is not for all websites though. First, the hosting company will want a suited audience. Targeting the right audience will bring them the best results in terms of sales volume.
So your website's audience should have a rather high interest in buying hosting. Web programmers, web designers, webmasters, search engine optimization specialists and web business owners are among those who might be interested in hosting offers. If your website attracts such people, you have significantly better chances to trade ads in exchange for hosting.
One thing to notice is that your chances to barter for hosting are considerably smaller if you're just launching your website. That's because you can't get something for nothing. If you offer advertising and have no audience you're basically offering potential audience and ask for hosting in exchange. The only chance you've got is to convince the host that your site has great potential. That you have a good plan to get visitors.
You might think that if it's just starting, your website will not consume lots of resources. After all, the activity is near zero. However there is more to hosting than just that. You might need some support, which costs the host quite a lot.
One thing to notice is that hosts will prefer to barter hosting with text based websites. Websites offering big files for download are not likely to be accepted.
Conclusions
Free hosting is almost never free - at least in the form in which it exists on the internet today. I have yet to find a free host that is a real charity. As strange as it might sound, you should be wary of free hosts that seem to be completely free (charity-like). A host must have funding. Ask them how they cover or plan to cover their costs. Is there a foundation behind that host? It's highly unlikely, but who knows?
All hosts have to pay for the servers, bandwidth and staff. If they don't have a good plan to cover the costs, the future for them is grim and services will soon degrade due to under funding.
The best option if you don't want to spend money for hosting is to barter for it with a respected, serious, honest web host. But don't ever trick yourself into thinking that you're getting something for nothing. Ads are a form of payment so you are payin'.

Netfirms - Web Hosting for Small Business

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Netfirms is a good web host provider for small, personal sites. They offer several hosting solutions for all levels, but their most outstanding feature is the rock bottom price of their Plus plan-the least expensive monthly cost among the top ten hosts we reviewed. Netfirms hosting has no-frills in this plan-no database, no ecommerce features and few email perks-but their service includes all the necessities for building and posting a site, including both a good uptime and a fine customer service reputation.
Unique to the hosting world, Netfirms uses a cluster of servers to handle your website's needs. This approach eliminates your site's dependency on any one server. If any server goes down, the others pick up where it left off. This multi-server method improves response time and site availability for your site.

BlueFish Web Hosting

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Blue Host

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I was excited to write a review about BlueHost, mainly because I've heard a lot of good things about them. With so many web hosts, and so few (good and honest) reviews, it's really hard to tell who's good and who isn't.
From looking at the BlueHost.com web site, the company appears to be a serious and professional web host. A visually appealing web site, clearly posted contact information, lots of awards (from legitimate places), and grammatically correct text on site, all help make BlueHost seem like a formidable web host. A great feature (that seems to be awfully rare) is that BlueHost provides a demo of their control panel (a very slightly customized cPanel using the X skin) that actually works and isn't impossible to find. It's a great feature that allows you to review how cPanel works if you aren't familiar with it.

HostMonster Webhosting

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UK2NET web hosting

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iPowerWeb - Special Hosting Offer $7.95/mo and Free Setup

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Hostway WebHosting

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Web.com

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1&1 Internet Web Hosting

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POWWEB-300GB

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Apollo Hosting-Reliable Web Hosting

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Info: Currently Serving over 30,000 clients. Apollo Hosting has been in business since 1999. Apollo Hosting was one of the first companies to introduce 24/7/385 live technical support to their customers. Apollo Hosting claims to have 99.9% server uptime. Apollo hosting offers reseller program as well.
Service Area: Worldwide.

LunarPages-Free For Life Domain

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BlueHost Webhosting

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IXWebHosting

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