Free Website Hosting Vs. Paid Website Hosting Basics

Web site hosting service companies on the Internet permit the user to make their web site accessible through the World Wide Web. There are huge numbers of companies that offer web space on their server for their customers and also offer Internet connectivity in general in a data center. There can be various types of web site hosting companies. The main classification is the free web site hosting and the paid web site hosting service companies.

In case of free web site hosting, the user has the right to upload his or her web site content on the server space that is provided by the web site hosting company without any cost. This type of web site hosting service is great for people who are new to to internet and plan to get familiar with web site creation and functionality of web servers. On the other hand, to get your web site uploaded on a web space that is provided by a paid web site hosting company, you need to pay the company periodic fees. The fee amount may vary from company to company. The paid web site hosting companies are best suited for professional web site owners. People who need large web space to upload their web sites and who expect a certain amount of web site visitors which is restricted on free hosting accounts to a minimum.

The revenue that the paid web hosting service companies get is through the fee that is paid to the company by the web site owners. In case of free web site hosting companies, the main source of income are the ads and banners that can be placed on their clients web pages.

The main advantage of using a free web site hosting service is that they are free of cost and hence make a perfect choice for people who are new into the business and are just looking to start out. They are perfect for people who just want to display a minimum content on the World Wide Web in small amount of web space. The other advantage of using the free web site hosting service is that most of these companies provide integrated, easy tools to upload the pages on to the hosting account. They do this realizing the fact that the free web site hosting services are generally utilized by the newbies.

There are also certain disadvantages of using the free web site hosting services. When using the free web site hosting service, you are forced to place the ads and banners by the web site hosting company on your web pages. Also the revenue that is obtained by the ads goes to the web site company. In case of paid web site hosting service, ads and banners placed on your web site are according to your will and the revenue of the banners and ads placed on your web site goes in your pocket. Also in some case of free web site hosting, the domain name of your web site starts with the web site hosting company name followed by your web site name. This is not the case of paid web site hosting service. You get a unique web site domain. The web space provided by free web site hosting service is limited whereas in case of paid web site hosting service you can buy the web space according to your requirements.

Understanding The Basics of Web Hosting Services

Web hosting is a basic internet service that allows individuals, organizations and corporations to establish a virtual presence on the World Wide Web. As the Internet continues to grow, increased competition, new marketing methods and ensuring excellent quality service to customers are all obstacles that business owners must face in order to turn a profit. Through web hosting, individuals can create personal web pages that serve as a profile page which can be retrieved online by associates and prospective employers.

It can be used as an access point for client liaison, networking or simply as a means to meet other people through the internet. On the average the cost of the website should not any longer than per megabytes the low cost web hosting companies must provide the maximum bandwidth with minimum time. For entities on the other hand, web hosting services create an online channel that allow their various publics to access company services, programs and pertinent corporate releases in the objective of establishing a virtual database, an information network or an alternative channel for their commercial activities. You can open account with the help of free services or blogger and no experience is needed for such hosting service.

A web hosting contract usually involves the services of a web hosting provider called the web host and a client called the user. If a user anticipates lot of visitors to his site, then he needs a service provider that can handle the traffic without any pester. Under a typical setup, the web host is a company that owns and operates a server. The web host generally provides server space as well as internet connectivity to the user. It is also very important to find that what kind of hosting service is best for you. Web hosting is a cutthroat business. A more intricate and costly web hosting service is termed as collocation. The client is the owner of the server and the web host merely provides physical space for the client’s server while rendering related technical service support.

Hosting services are available in various categories to range from free, advertisement supported hosting which provides limited functionality to the user; There are different types of web hosting services: shared web hosting, paid web hosting, free web hosting, clustered web hosting, and reseller web hosting, file web hosting and dedicated web hosting. The cost effective pooled type of hosting that provides shared services among different clients; and down to the more technical forms of web hosting which includes collocation and clustered hosting. This has drawbacks like reducing speed and making information more accessible to tampering.

Domain Name Parking Basics Explained Part 2

Phil Craig from www.domainsintodollars.com interviews Sam Aidun, Director of Client Relations at http about domain name parking basics. Part 2 covers mistakes people make with domain name parking and how to work with a domain name parking representative.

Some Basics About E-commerce Web Hosting

E-commerce is has grown to unseen proportions these past years, and this is seen in the amount of buying and selling of products and services over the internet and other computer networks. E-commerce is starting to turn into a way of life for most people, since more and more people are now starting to do their buying or selling online. If you are planning to jump into the e-commerce bandwagon you need to have a reliable e-commerce web hosting service, as well as other important things.

First things first. You obviously would not be thinking about putting up an online business if you have nothing to sell. Most people who think about going into e-commerce usually already have some selling experience off-line, and want to do the same thing with their products online. The amount of products that you expect to sell on day-to-day basis will have some say on the type of web hosting package that you should get.

If you are expecting to sell a maximum of 20 items online, you can do well with a small hosting account. If you are expecting to sell hundreds of items per day you will definitely need a larger account, with a larger disk space, bandwidth, and a secure connection for financial transactions.

Doing e-commerce necessitates a web site with a secure connection so that you can send and receive important data like PIN numbers, account numbers, passwords, etc. across the Internet without the fear that it can be intercepted and read by anyone on the net. A secure connection means that your website address has an https before it. If your website address does not have this, web-savvy potential customers will surely stay clear of you and your business, since they know that important information like credit card or bank account numbers won’t be safe on your site.

To get a secure site you need to get an SSL, or a Secure Sockets Layer certificate, which will be installed on your website for a small fee once you have complied with the requirements for the certificate.

If you find conducting and managing financial transactions on your web site too much of a hassle you can opt for third party gateways. They can manage your financial transactions for you and you can direct your customers to them for payments. A popular third party gateway like PayPal is free to set up although it takes a small fee from each sale that you make a small price to pay if you want people to trust you and your business.

Shopping carts is also another important feature that any e-commerce venture cannot do without. These are scripts which are installed in your hosting account that will basically provide a structure to your site and will allow your customers to navigate your site easily.

Shopping carts organize your products into categories, which makes it easier for the customer to find the product that he wants. Shopping carts also keeps you posted on returning customers and the products that they have bought, allowing you to make suggestions about other items that they may need.

DNS “Domain Name System” Basics

What is DNS, how it works, a brief history of DNS (Domain Name System)

The Basics of Asp Web Hosting Plans

ASP web hosting would refer to the services provided by web hosting companies which offer support for Active Server Pages or ASP. If you are looking for a website which is dynamic and data-driven, you could opt to embed code to the HTML pages of your website. If a user is browsing on a website which has been developed with the use of ASP, then the pages could change based on the user’s actions. This type of code lets you link the pages of your website to a database, in which users could interact with the pages as they log in and use their personal settings. They could also place orders interactively on your website.

Basically, ASP means Active Server Pages which are HTML pages that have ASP scripts which are embedded and are processed on the web server before the page is displayed for the users. It lets you create dynamic data-driven web pages. This permits users to access the data from a database, as well as interact with objects like Java components or ActiveX.

ASP works like this. As you type a URL or click on a website or a web page, you are basically requesting the web server to start sending a file into your computer. If this file or files are standard HTML, when the browser that you have receives the information of the web page, it would exactly look like it did on the web server. But if an ASP file would be sent by the web server into your computer, the server would initially run the HTML code. After that, it would run the ASP code, For instance, the code might be the current tome or date, or other information.

Web Hosting Basics – What is Involved?

Web hosting is a term that gets thrown around rather loosely these days. Web hosting is not really a term that should be used generally as there are many different levels of web hosting that can range from fairly simple, to extremely complex.

In the most general terms, web hosting refers to the housing of a website. Web hosting basics, or web hosting 101 if you will, requires four basic components. These basic components are as follows:

1.Administrator: The administrator is the individual who is responsible for a number of duties in the web hosting process. The administrator will monitor variables such as the server, security, and site responsiveness and will also run traffic reports and make sure that the website is properly backed up.

2.Software: In web hosting there are several types of software that could be required. Of course you will have to have an Operating System or OS like Windows and a web server, but you may also need software that tracks web traffic, accepts credit cards, or even software that has digital encryption.

3.Hardware: Like with software, there is some hardware that is required for web hosting and some that is optional. Required hardware is servers and networking devices such as switches and routers that allow the connectivity to take place. Optional hardware can range from firewalls to uninterrupted power supplies, and even load balancing, all of which are nice to have but not mandatory.

4.Connectivity: Put simply, connectivity is the manner in which your Internet Service Provider or ISP provides access to your website. Typically, the faster the connectivity the better.
Now that you have a grasp on what web hosting basics entail, you need only choose which level of service is going to be right for your website. Web hosting services are broken down into four categories as follows:

1.Shared

2.Co-Location

3.Managed

4.Developed

Each category will have different levels of administration, software, hardware, and connectivity and as a general rule of thumb, the high up the list you go, the more you can expect to pay. That being said, the most basic for web hosting is shared.

Shared web hosting is common for personal websites that are not very complex. With this basic web hosting it is your ISP that manages the software, hardware, and the Internet connection to your website. This is a good solution for many sites that do not require a lot of bandwidth but generally runs into problems with bigger websites mainly for security reasons. For example, if a company accepts credit cards and then stores those credit card numbers the integrity of those numbers can be compromised as the machine that house those numbers is used by a group of websites. Still for the more basic and personal websites, shared web hosting often does the trick.

Whether you are first starting out in the world of web hosting or you are a seasoned pro, it pays to know what web hosting basics are. If you just looking to establish a personal and rather simple website, then shared web hosting is probably a good route to take, but if your website is going to get more complex, then it is in your best interest to look into one of the other three types of web hosting and deciding which one is right for your website and your wallet.

The Basics About Php Web Hosting

Most of us use turn on our PCs everyday to chat, email, play, and surf. Seldom do we wonder how these pages that we are staring at are formed, or how they came to be available to us. The ultimate computer techie may know the answer to these questions by heart, but the world is not populated by computer techies alone, and so some of us are doomed never to know how these pages and pages of information on the net are available to us with just one click of the mouse, and most of us don’t care. This is fine, but for those whose curiosity cannot be satisfied or are considering a web business, here is what it is all about.

Web hosting is a type of internet hosting service that provides private individuals or organizations their own websites through which they can do business or simply announce their presence to the rest of the world. Web hosts provide other companies or individuals a space on their servers, which is also a way for the customers to get access to the Internet.

The most basic type of web hosting is the webpage and small-scale file hosting; these support the small web pages that almost everyone on the planet now has. Internet service providers usually offer small web pages or home pages for free. Practically anyone with a pc who knows how to type can create his own webpage. Data uploaded to these pages usually do not need a lot of processing and usually is free or very cheap. Web pages for commercial uses usually cost more. Complex sites also need a complex set of software or services and application development platforms, and PHP is one of these.

What exactly does PHP mean and what does it do?

PHP: hypertext preprocessor is a widely used computer scripting language that is used for web development or creating web pages. It runs on web servers and works by taking in web inputs in PHP and generating web pages as a result. Essentially, PHP filters in streams of data and processes it so that it can be displayed to the user. As of now half a million domains are running this language since you can download it for free from www.php.net.

PHP is used by developers to create pages quickly with the use of simple scripts into HTML. Large websites can be managed easier since web page components can now be placed in one HTML file allowing easier access and easier maintenance. With PHP you only need to use one application to generate all the pages of information from a database.

PHP was created by Danish programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in1994 initially as a way to manage his own home page and to display his resume. It was official released on June 8, 1995, under the name PHP (personal Homepage) Tools, which is the first name of the PHP Version 1.0. As of 2006 the PHP has been modified eleven times with new additions and improvements along the way. The latest version, PHP version 5.2.0 was released November 2, 2006.

PHP is the fourth most popular computer programming languages, next to Java, C, and Visual Basic.

Web Hosts: The Basics

Before you start searching for a web host, you must familiarize yourself with the terminology used in this field. The following terms are also considered key factors in deciding the suitable hosting plan that meets your requirements. You can start learning what does each term mean and how does it affect your selection.

Web Host
A web host, also known as web server, is a computer connected to the internet. This computer is more powerful than normal PCs and is set up to serve up websites. Your website content will reside on this computer, which will give people who surf the internet a way to access your website.

Web hosts can be categorized into three main categories based on the price range and common features for each category:

1. Free Hosts: limited in space, bandwidth and other features. Suitable for personal websites or for temporary usage. Usually enforce pop-up, text or banner ads. They do not provide the best performance and/or reliability. They provide minimum or no customer support. If you register for a free host, your domain will be something like yourname.freehost.com or www.freehost.com/yourname.

2. Shared Hosts: most websites are using this type of hosting. Suitable for personal, small and medium businesses. Prices range from $1 to about $25 a month. Features also range from very limited space/bandwidth to semi-dedicated servers. Your website has its own top level domain (e.g. www.website-hostings.net) The number of websites on a server affects its performance and availability, more websites usually means less performance. Servers hosting less number of shared websites are more expensive, but more reliable. Some companies allow customers to host multiple websites with different domains under a single account.

3. Dedicated Hosts: A full server dedicated to a single customer. Usually used by large businesses and very active websites with thousands of daily visitors. The customer will have full control over the server, and can create as many websites as he likes. Customer can have his own hosting company run on a rented dedicated server. Prices depend on the specifications and services provided with the server, starting from about $100 up to about $800 dollars a month.

4. Colocated Hosts: very similar to dedicated hosts, but the customer owns the server hardware instead of renting it. The server will be housed in provider’s data center. Prices are a bit higher than dedicated servers.

5. Reseller Hosts: providers offer web server storage to customers, who then resell the web server storage to their customers. Providers usually offer resellers a discount price.

6. Other Hosts: there are few other types of hosts such as email hosts, media hosts, data hosts, etc but these are out of the scope of this article.

Domain Name
http://www.website-hostings.net/ is an example of a domain name. It’s a name that points to where your website is physically located. The actual address of your website is a set of numbers that looks like (70.86.135.242). This address is unique for every web server. Domain names are just pointers to the real addresses. It’s easier to remember the domain names than the IP addresses.

Space / Storage
The amount of web server’s disk space available for customer’s website files, images and databases. It can be as small as 5MB in some free hosts and as big as 300GB for some dedicated servers. Space prices reduced significantly during the last few years. Customer can find hosting plans offering 3GB of space for less than $10 a month.

Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the amount of data transferred from web server to clients’ internet browsers. Each time a person view a page data is transmitted from the server to that person’s PC. Audio, video and images contents consume much more bandwidth than text. Bandwidth can be as low as 100MB a month in some free web hosts and as high as 2000GB a month in some dedicated servers. Customer can find hosting plans offering 75GB of monthly data transfer for less than $10.

Server Type
Usually means the operating system than runs the web server. Common types are Windows, Linux and UNIX. Server type determines the server side scripting and database types. Windows usually runs ASP and ASP.NET with Access or SQL Server databases. Linux/UNIX servers usually runs CGI, PHP or JSP with mySQL or Oracle databases. Windows servers are usually more expensive than Linux/UNIX servers.

Databases
As you have seen in server types, there are different types of databases. The most commonly used is mySQL because its an open source GPL (free) software and can serve a lot of online applications’ requirements such as forums, content management, mailing lists, etc. MySQL, however, has some limitations in its features. Complicated large business sites will need more powerful databases such as Oracle or SQL Server.

Server Side Scripting
Most new users prefer to use PHP as server side scripting. The reason is that there are hundreds of open source (GPL) PHP scripts that can meet a lot of webmaster’s requirements. Similar to mySQL, PHP has some limitations in features required by advanced websites, which makes some senior web developers prefer to use ASP.NET or JSP. Other developers still prefer to use Cold Fusion, CGI, ASP or PERL.

Email
Most hosting plans include the feature of having some email accounts with customer’s domain (e.g. admin@website-hostings.net). The number and size of email accounts depends on the hosting plan. Free plans do not usually have this feature, small plans give about 10 accounts where big plans do not limited the number. Those email accounts are usually web based and accessible through POP3 clients as well.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
A standard way of transferring files across the Internet. Most webmasters upload and download their websites contents using FTP. The upload or download processes are usually performed using FTP client software. To access their web servers, webmasters need FTP username and password. Some hosts give more than one FTP account to their customers. FTP can by anonymous as well, but its not recommended for security reasons.

Control Panel
Most web hosting companies provide their customers with a control panel, a web based application that helps in managing websites. Common functions in control panels are: managing email accounts, providing statistics, managing FTP accounts, managing domains and subdomains and managing databases. The most commonly used control panel application is cPanel. Some companies develop their own control panel application.

Uptime
An important feature of web hosts is their uptime, which is usually measured in percentage. A server that goes down for an average of 30 minutes a day will have an uptime percentage of about 99.98%, which is acceptable for most small to medium business websites. Anything less than this percentage is not suitable for a business website. Mission critical sites cannot tolerate frequent outages, thus they may use web monitoring services to notify web administrators immediately when an outage happens.

Price
With the wide range of options available for customers, the price is also ranges from 0 to $1000 a month. Most personal, small and medium websites shouldn’t cost more than $15 a month. It’s not recommended for business website owners to go for very cheap plans (less than $5) because this price usually means a compromise in the quality of support and reliability of the server.

Web Hosting – the Basics

 

Web Hosting – The Basics

 

In order for your company to have a web site, you first need to design that site, and then find somewhere to put it so that it can be accessed by anyone connected to the internet.
The most cost effective and hassle free way to do this is to use the services of one of the many web hosting providers available on the internet, you can use a web host if you pay a monthly fee and have a domain name. Your domain name provides the URL that people will type into their Internet web browser to be directed to your site and should have some relevance to the content of your site.
You usually have to pay to register your domain name, although most web hosts provide free domain registration services, website building software and analytical tools to enable you to monitor the traffic coming to your site and help you market your web space more effectively.

Storage Space
When choosing a web host you should see how much space your web files take up on your computer before deciding upon a package, taking into consideration the fact that as the business grows so too will the web site.

Bandwidth
Bandwidth is the maximum amount of data transfer that visitors on the site can achieve each month measured in gigabytes.
If you choose a package with an inadequate amount of bandwidth, the owner of the domain may charge you to access more.

E-mail Accounts
Along with your hosted domain you will also be provided with a number of customizable e-mail addresses, how many you need will depend on your requirements and should be thought out before entering into a contract.

Shared Web Hosting
This the most likely way your will host your first web site, your site will be hosted on a sever which is shared by many other sites. Shared web hosting offers an extremely cost effective solution for hosting a home or small business website, but may be too restrictive for a larger business who wish to use large amounts of storage, bandwidth and customized software.

Dedicated Hosting
This option give you much more flexibility to grow your business. A dedicated server can host as many site as you choose, and you have the added advantage that your bandwidth will not be compromised by web users accessing other site as only yours is on the server. Dedicated hosting also provides you with added security as only you have administrative access to the server, and you are free to add your own virus protection software and operating systems.

Support
Another very important feature you need to consider is the level of support offered by your web host, most will offer some form of helpline and/or online support package. But it is worth finding out if this is 24/7 or just limited to working ours, some of the cheaper hosting solutions use the latter to cut costs but this is no good if your site crashes on a Friday evening and you are hemorrhaging money in lost sales over a busy weekend.

Summary
In short there are many options out there, the choice and permutations are literally endless with many more being added each day, so take time and research well, it is often worth paying a little more for reliability as it will pay off in the long term in increased sales.

 

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