Webhosting - find a reliable home for your blog.

Here we explain some basic concept of webhosting, some of the simple technicalities, and what to look out for in a webhost.

Now that you have chose a domain, its time to find a server to host your blog/website. Most alternatively hosted blogs such as BlogSpot or TypePad users won't have to worry about this. You are already hosting by Blogger or TypePad, but it is still good to know about webhosting.


Websites & Servers

First off, website are hosted on servers. A server is just a computer(s) which contains your website files that is always on and always connected to the web. This way, the server can send your webpages to people half way around the world even when you are sleeping. The reason why sometimes you receive an unable to connect error from your browser is because the specific server for the website is down or too busy for some reason.

Because of the nature and speed of the modern Internet infrastructure, the location of the web server does not really matter. You can even use a spare computer as a web server. However as your blog/website out grows the capacity of your computer and bandwidth offered by your internet provider, you will be looking for a webhost. Besides, its much easier to let someone else worry about the technical stuff while you write.


Disk Space & Bandwidth

When talking about webhosting and servers there are two technical details you have to understand, disk space and bandwidth. Many people often mix the two since they are similar and both measured in megabytes or gigabytes. The concepts are quite simple, let me illustrate with a MP3 file. Although most bloggers won't offer songs for download, I will use it as an example because everyone is familiar with MP3 files and how its 'exchanged' around the world.

So, say you have a 5 megabyte MP3 file on your server, then you would have used 5 megabyte of disk space. The disk space usage won't change until you add or delete something on the server. As for bandwidth, when someone request the MP3, your server will send the file using 5 megabyte of bandwidth. When someone download the MP3 file again, the server will use another 5 megabyte of bandwidth adding up to 10 megabyte of bandwidth for a total of two downloads of a 5 megabyte MP3 file. Your bandwidth accumulates over the month while disk space quota remains the same until files are added or deleted.

It is important to know these two concepts and understand you pay for webhosting in terms of both disk space and bandwidth.


Type Of Webhosting Packages

Webhosting services rent their servers in two ways. First, shared hosting, which means a number of websites/clients are hosted off one server sharing the space and resources. On the other hand with dedicated hosting you have control over an entire server and its up to you how many websites the server will host. In comparison, dedicated hosting naturally give you more control, disk space, bandwidth. Needless to say, dedicated hosting cost a lot more than shared hosting.

Most webhosts should several different hosting packages such starter, intermediate, pro for shared hosting and different server specs for dedicate hosting. Some webhost also has free hosting packages.


Choose the Right Webhost

There are literally thousands of webhosts out there, so how do you find the one right for you? Some people trust big hosts like HostGator or Dreamhost while others prefer their local webhosts so when they have a problem they can talk to someone in person instead of waiting for a phone call or email reply. To find reviews for webhosting, you can visit http://www.webhostingtalk.com/ where many people share their hosting experience.

When choosing webhosts, make sure you have enough disk space, bandwidth, specific features (eg. PHP & MySql for WordPress) and an option to upgrade later. Also check the reference and reliability of the webhost. You don't want visitor only accessing your site at one o'clock in the morning. In the beginning, the minimal shared hosting package provided by most webhost should be sufficient. Finally, there is one very important advice that should remember: you get what you paid for. Never signup for a host that only offers free hosting or free hosting that give you a whopping amount of bandwidth/disk space.


Never Signup For A Host That Only Offers Free Hosting

Never signup for a host that only offers free hosting? Why? Well, these kind of hosting usually only have one administrator, and one server. In this scenario, some must have server features such programming language or database support may be missing. Additionally, without monthly charges there are really only two incentives for the administrator to offer free hosting.

First, the admin wish to build a large user base so he/she could sell the hosting service quickly. To build a huge user base, administrators offer free hosting and often oversells (covered shortly). After sufficient level of membership, the hosting service will exchange hands. Sometimes there will a lapse of service ranging from days to months as the new owner sets up. When the hosting does return, the new owner most likely will stop overselling and charge for webhosting. Those people who are attracted by free hosting and overselling will probably move on after these changes.

The other reason is just plain good will. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with the good will of the admin. I have found many admins taking hours a day to help people with their webhost. What I am questioning is without monetary incentive, how motivated is the admin to restore the server after it had been hacked or the database crashed. How motivated is the admin to make sure these disasters never happen again? Unfortunately, usually with only one admin, these disaster are more than common.


Avoid Webhost That Oversells

You should also avoid free hosting that offers a whopping amount of bandwidth/disk space. In other words as described earlier, overselling. The biggest problem with overselling is not that the offer may disappear soon, but the practice itself.

As mentioned before, most free host only have one server and limited resources, yet they advertise as much as 5gig disk space/10gig monthly bandwidth. It would all right if the hosts limit the number of users to how many 5gig accounts their server can take. Instead, these hosts assume that most users use less than the advertised 5gig/10gig. In a sense these hosts are selling more resource than they actually have, hence overselling. There will be serious problems when the host's demand exceed its resources. Stop signups won't solve problem, the users already signed up are expanding beyond their 'actual' limit but far from the 5gig/10gig offered by the webhost.

Overselling is the reason why some webhosts are often down or extremely slow.


Those are the reasons you should never signup for a host that only offers free hosting or free hosting that give you a whopping amount of bandwidth/disk space. People who uses these services usually have to switch hosts every few month. After reading that, you might think that totally against free hosting, but that's not the case. For free webhosting, I recommend signup for a reliable paid hosting service that also offers free hosting. One example is awardspace. It offers 200megabits of disk space. Honestly, in the beginning, that is more than enough. 50megabits for wordpress and a domain name, you are good to go with your blog. When you exceed the limit, you are doing very well and hopefully able to pay for webhosting.

Cheap Web Hosting Plan Cheap Domain Name Registration

Cheap Web Hosting Plan Cheap Domain Name Registration

Are you tired of finding a reliable web hosting company to host your web site? There is a way to go for a several realistic choice. It is web hosing list the present will make it easier for you to right analyze the efficiency of a web hosting company and this services.

In general, web hosting list is a web site that is produced to furnish relevant hints about web hosting providers to prospective customers. The pertinent information furnished includes the names of web hosting companies, web hosting services, value of web hosting service and so on. Thus for people gearing ahead to buy web hosting plan or pertaining services, web hosting directories are ideal proves to rely upon. Other as opposed to this, properties are also proper at conferring information approximately economical web hosting service plan that is currently the want of multi webmasters.

Whether a web hosting establishment offering cheap web hosting solution am able to be able to meet your web hosting demands is a ask worth contemplate over? Nobody serves to even greater solution than a web hosting directory. They facilitate visitors with several alternatives so that properties can compare all available low&wshyp;priced web hosing providers and choose a superlative and market web hosting secret for their website.

The low cost web hosting services available on web hosting register are assorted in different rate market values for the convenience of visitors. Some web hosting directories additionally render alternatives to examine the level of the low&wshyp;priced web hosting services offered by web hosting providers. They will further help you out to identify which web hosting company offer domain registration, technical assistance, website design along with such a economical web hosting services.

However while checking out the cheap web hosting companies, lead sure they are equipped through ample technicians to deal investing in mechanical failures. The other fundamental features that you should never overlook affix password security, uptime and customer care.

Web hosting directories are also the pertinent hints pool to judge the credibility of web hosting providers within reviews. Here you can read reviews of shoppers who have utilized web hosting services offered by this inexpensive web hosting companies so far.
Thus, whenever you decide upon to buy web hosting plan, be it cheap or expensive, never give web hosting listing a mis make online money.

Choose the best hosting

There is many considerations to take into account when looking for a host. Realize that just because a hosting account charges more, doesn’t necessarily mean they are better. The best way of finding a web host is through reading other’s feedback. There are some very good and also some very bad ones out there, all with similiar priced plans.

If you have multiple active or parked domains, then I recommend choosing a web host that allows you to have add-on domains on a shared hosting plan. This is where you can host multiple domains under one account, for usually 10 to 20 a month. This saves you a lot of money, than if you had hosted them seperately.

One important thing to realize, is that web hosts oversell their hosting, so when they say 3000 GB bandwith or some other large number, it is just a advertising gimmick. What will happen instead, is when your traffic gets too high, you wind up using too many CPU resources at once, long before you would hit that bandwith limit. CPU resources is the true bottleneck, not total bandwith used per month. Anytime you hit their 25%(differs by host read the TOS) of the server’s CPU resources, they will shut your account down temporarily. This is caused by large spikes of simultaneous traffic that can happen when you are receiving thousands of unique visits a month. The reason they have to shut your account temporarily is because on shared hosting, you cause every single account on that server to be effected. If it becomes a problem, then you have no choice, but to upgrade to a dedicated server. They are pretty costly, starting at $150-200 a month, but what happens on your server won’t affect others.

I currently host all my websites with Hostgator and highly recommend them. Their servers are fast, their support is friendly, and all their plans come with Fantastico and Cpanel. Fantastico is great because with the click of the mouse, it can install all the free major blog, forum, shopping cart, gallery, mailing list, and content management system software. It will also automatically tell you when there is an update on the software and you can install an update with a click of a mouse. This is especially handy when you have multiple websites. Cpanel is the most common web hosting software administration software, so I recommend using a web host like Host gator to get familiar with using it.

Hostgator’s Hatchling plan will host one domain on the 1 year plan for 84 dollars, but they often have coupon offers on their site which saves you money. If you have multiple domains or plan on running multiple domains or parking them, you can host them all under their Baby plan. The baby plan is $9.95 a month, however you can get it cheaper by prepaying 2 or 3 years in advance or using coupons on their site.

Some people find that they want to sell their unused bandwith to others through the use of a Reseller Hosting account at Hostgator. For example, say you have 4 domains, you can host all of these on a reseller account, and then can sell a few more accounts to someone else. The reseller account costs more, but if you are re-selling to a few at a lower price than what hostgator charges, you can make up for the price difference and make a profit from re-selling your account. You are basically your own miniature web hosting company in the process.

If your website(s) are handling a very large amount of traffic you will have to use Hostgator’s Dedicated Server. plan. This should only be necessary for those with dozens of medium trafficked sites or one very large trafficked sited.

ABOUT DOMAIN NAME SYSTEMS

A domain name is the unique name of a computer on the Internet that distinguishes it from the other systems on the network. They are sometimes colloquially (and incorrectly) referred to by marketers as "web addresses".

Every website, email account, etc, on the Internet is hosted on at least one computer (server). Each server has a unique IP address which is nothing but a set of numbers, such as "214.173.151.255". To access a particular internet service, one can specify its IP address in an appropriate application, such as an FTP client; however because it is difficult to remember numbers, an IP address can be associated with a fully qualified host name (a domain name), such as "www.wikipedia.org". Domain names also provide a persistent address for some service when it is necessary to move to a different server, which would have a different IP address.

Each set of letters and numbers between the dots is called a label in parlance of the domain name service (DNS). There are some rules about the size and make up of labels. Each must start with a letter or number, and then may be made up of letters, numbers, and hyphens, to a maximum of 63 characters. These are the rules imposed by the way names are looked up ("resolved") by DNS. Some top level domains (see below) impose more rules, like a minimum length, on some labels. Fully qualified names are sometimes written with a final dot.

Translating numeric addresses to alphabetical ones, domain names allow Internet users to localize and visit websites. Additionally since more than one IP address can be assigned to a domain name, and more than one domain name assigned to an IP address, one server can have multiple roles, and one role can be spread among multiple servers.

The following examples illustrates the difference between a URL and a domain name:

URL: http://www.freelancefree.com/

Server name: www.freelancefree.com

Domain name: freelancefree.com

Subdomain: www

Second level domain: freelancefree

Top level domain: com

As a general rule, the IP address and the server name are interchangeable. For most internet services, the server will not have any way to know which was used. The big exception to this is for web addresses. The explosion of interest in the web means that there are far more websites than servers. To accommodate this the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) specifies that the client tells the server which name is being used. This way one server, with one IP address, can provide different sites for different domain names. Every domain name ends in a top-level domain (TLD) name, which is always either one of a small list of general names, or a ISO-3166 two character country code.

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has overall responsibility for managing the DNS. It controls the root domain, delegating control over each top-level domain to a domain name registry. For ccTLDs, the domain registry is typically controlled by the government of that country. ICANN has a consultation role in these domain registries but is in no position to regulate the terms and conditions and the operations of how a domain name is allocated or who allocates it in each of these country level domain registries. Since generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are governed directly under ICANN, all terms and conditions are defined by ICANN with the cooperation of the gTLD registries.

Domain names which are theoretically leased can be considered in the same way as real estate, due to a significant impact on online brand building, advertising, search engine optimization, etc.

HOW TO CHOOSE A HOSTING

How do you choose a hosting provider when there are thousands of hosting companies
available online? It’s like going through the yellow pages trying to find burger
restaurants. There are lots of them. Hopefully these tips will steer you in the
right direction.Important factors in selecting a web hosting company include the
percentage of server uptime. 98 to 99% uptime is the dream standard for server
uptime, 65% is unacceptable. The higher the downtime of a server, the lower the
potential for traffic at your web site. Another consideration is how much space is
provided for the files that will make up your web site. How much bandwidth is in your
package? Monthly bandwidth is the amount of data transfer allowed for visitors to
view and use your web site.
With today’s changing trends in web hosting services, it is important to get as
much server space and bandwidth as you can. This will allow for necessary updates
and increased traffic to your site as it becomes more popular.
It is equally important when purchasing business web hosting that CGI access is provided; along with features such as MySQL, Real Audio, Real Video, and Cold Fusion (which some companies sell as an add on component). A crucial feature necessary for doing ecommerce is SSL, or Secure Socket Layer. This encrypts all order and credit card information until it reaches you. An SSL certificate can be purchased from most web hosting providers. Displaying it on your ecommerce web site verifies that your site transactions are safe and secure.

We’ve talked about this before in other articles. You will need a domain name that reflects the nature of your business. For instance, a sports business might have a URL that is www.coloradosports.com . To get your own unique domain name, you must first check the availability of the name with a domain name search, offered by domain registrars such as Network Solutions.

There are many service providers to choose from. If you do your homework, you’ll find some good deals that will fit your budge

Free Web Hosting Review

Although these blog hosts are free, I do want to warn webmasters that most free web hosting sites put their advertising on your page, or make you do something to their advantage. For example put their back link on your site or put advertising banner or google adsense link for them to make profit. Also, your space and bandwidth are very limited, which could cause some more headaches in the end after you just put in all that time in making your site. I would suggest looking at the affordable hosts rather than free hosts if you are truly serious about your web page. If you are just testing out your site and curious about web sites then free hosting is the right choice for you. Anyway it free at all. But it lack of professionalisms shown on your website or blog. Below is sample of free hosting on the block now a days.

Bravenet Hosting
Specs:
1.5GB of bandwidth Per Month
50mb of Web Space
Web Based FTP
Free Templates
Advertising supported

Probably the most popular free web hosting site. Not only do they have "free" web hosting, they supply you with numerous scripts that are helpful to any webmaster. All of their free services require their advertisements.

Bravenet has tons of extra features, but all of them are filled with ads. Looking around the website, you will soon notice that there are pop up ads flying at you in every direction. Unfortunately, you have to expect that from a free web hosting provider.

DotEasy Hosting
Specs:
10 personalized email addresses
FreeSiteDesigner.Com
100mb Web Space
1GB Bandwidth Per Month
Free Support

A banner less free web hosting site. The only catch, if you consider it a catch, is that you have to buy a domain name from them.

The domain registration is mandatory before you can receive the free web hosting. The domain registration is a little bit overpriced, but, that is the deal with Doteasy. One of the best free web hosting available.

NetFirms Hosting
Specs:
FREE Website Starter CD
25 MB of Disk Space
1 GB Monthly Data Transfer
1 Web Mail Account (with Domain Name)
Optional Free Sub-domain
Microsoft FrontPage Exts. and Perl (CGI-Bin)
24/7 FTP Access
Technical Support via E-mail

Another good free web hosting site. We like this place because they give you the option of having a free account, and also have other note worthy hosting plans that are available through upgrading.

Netfirm automatically puts a advertising banner on the top of your web page. The banner advertising will allow for the free use of their web hosting. Top banner advertising takes away from the sites professional look, and overall performance.

The other free hosting for blog such as
www.blogger.com
www.wordpress.com
www.blogdrive.com
www.okayblog.net

Opening post.

Welcome to my newest blog. This time i would like to share a knowledge and communicate about hosting and domain. What teh best in the net. Offer of the month. The advantage and disadvantage and so on. So keep yourself update for the latest news and info from this blog. See you soon.