Domain Names and Webhosting Explained

When you launch a new website you must register a unique domain name with an authorized registrar. When the internet was first starting, all domain names were registered through one company, Network Solutions. Today, there are hundreds if not thousands of websites where you can register your domain name. Some websites charge as little as $4.95 per year for your domain name while others charge as much as $35 per year for the exact same service. Why pay $35 when you can register your domain name for much less at another website?

The interesting thing is that Network Solutions is still the keeper of the domain name database and the other websites are domain name “resellers. Why does Network Solutions charge $35 per year if they are the keeper of the database? Who knows and who cares! Register your domain with one of the cheaper providers and you'll be fine.

Now when it comes to webhosting, cheaper is not always better. You can get webhosting for free from some companies and the level of service you receive will reflect what you're paying. You're website will be hosted on a server with hundreds or even thousands of other websites. Your website will probably respond slowly and you may have frequent outages. Worse, your email may or may not get delivered because of the slow server and network bandwidth problems. Don't cut costs on your webhosting company. A penny saved will be many dollars of lost business.

Webhosting Explained

Web hosts are service companies that provide space on their servers for internet users. Web hosts provide online systems for internet connectivity and for storing information, image mediums and other internet content. For the company interested in conducting business on the web, the proper choice of web host is a crucial step in any internet marketing plan.

There are several types of web hosting available. Free hosting is the least costly, but the most limited with regard to services and space; though a free web host may be a consideration for an individual professional or small business to start out. The restrictions on advertising, bandwidth and permissible edit sites, may be limiting for a company looking for rapid growth.

Shared hosting places your website on the same server as several (potentially hundreds) of other sites. Although these are less restricted than free hosts, they do impose some limitations on site capabilities. Reseller hosting allows an e-business to obtain a large amount of bandwidth and space on its account and divide the space as it sees fit. This is similar to a shared hosting because your server is placed on the same server as others. But you can decide on the amount of the divisions and with whom to share.

Less Restricted Web Hosting Choices

Dedicated hosting and Virtual Private Server hosting provide very similar results. A dedicated hosting is relatively expensive, but is less restricted than those previously discussed. With dedicated hosting, you, as the user, have a server to yourself. Thus, there are very little restrictions and you are on your own with regard to services.

Virtual private server technology enables one server to host multiple virtual environments. These environments have the characteristics of individual stand-alone servers. Essentially, the results are the same, though a virtual private server hosting is less expensive. With Colocated hosting, the user installs a self-purchased server at the data center of the host. The services often provided for other types of hosting, must be paid for by the colocated hosting user, thus the costs associated with this choice tend to be high.

In order to use a web-hosting service, your e-business must already have an existing website ready to go. So as you develop your website, one of the crucial planning components is deciding what web hosting service your e-business and site will require. Valiss is the internet marketing expert. They will help you design and implement your entire internet marketing plan, and will then help you navigate the many issues involving your web hosting choice.

How To Find The Best Professional Website Hosting Service Provider

A website hosting service provider offers web hosting solutions for both individuals and small and large business organizations. This article will discuss the key to finding the best professional hosting service provider to meet your needs.

When using a website hosting service provider you have the ability to upload and store web pages and HTML documents on a secure web server. Another common name for webhosting is site hosting.

Creating your own web page is only one small part of the job. The next important function is to find a webhosting solution that is right for you and your webhosting needs. Although you can actually host your own site on your own server this is usually very expensive and a lot of technological knowledge is usually required. That is why a professional website hosting service is the preferred option.

There are a number of website hosting service provider options which include a free webhost and also a paid web hosting service. The major disadvantage for hosting your files on a free web host is the number of pop up ads that appear to distract your visitors to your site.

That is why the best professional website hosting service provider is a paid service, though they are much cheaper than first thought.

There are a number of minimum requirements for the best professional website hosting service provider and these would include, but are not limited to:

1. At least 10MB space

2. CGI-Bin access

3. POP3 email accounts or email forwarding

4. Some kind of autoresponder script

5. Some kind of statistical program that you can analyze

6. 24 hour technical support is absolutely essential

7. Guarantees are also expected, especially an uptime guarantee

8. Microsoft Front Page users may want FrontPage extensions

9. It is also a bonus if you can find professional web hosting that includes a range of one click install software programs

When deciding on the best professional webhosting service provide it is important to know the price that it will cost, with no hidden, unexpected and unexplained extras.

Another important factor to bear in mind is be sure you don't pay for unnecessary features that you will never ever use.

Having a professional website is a significant way to gain a large amount of exposure for your business. Don't short change yourself and your business by not using the best professional website hosting service provider.

What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is a type of internet hosting service that allows people to make their websites via the world wide web. Web hosting companies provide space on a server and allow access to the website via internet connectivity. Essentially shared web hosting is necessary if you do not want to manage your own server.

There are different types of webhosting services. These include shared web hosting, dedicated hosting and reseller hosting. The main difference for each is control and focus. Each of these different types can benefit your business, but you need to understand the differences between each in order to make the right decision for your business or hobby. Since each type of webhosting service depends on how much control you have and your technical expertise, you need to decide which of these, or if these are terribly important to you.

The basic web hosting service is relatively inexpensive since many websites reside on the same server. This is called shared webhosting. Since several websites reside on the same server, the costs are shared between the individuals on the server. On the server, each website is contained within its own partition and the website owners can create their own script such as HTML, PHP, Javascript or any other script that makes the website useful for the webmaster and the visitors. Shared webhosting is widely used by many businesses and hobbyists on the web.

Dedicated hosting is for individuals that want to have their own server. You get to specify the type of hardware you want and do not share space with any other websites. Additionally, you can host several sites on the same server depending on space capacity and the terms set by the dedicated server webhost.

A third type of webhosting is called reseller hosting. Reseller hosting allows individuals to sell their hosting space. Many reseller hosting companies require that you have a dedicated server for this service. The benefit of reseller hosting is that you get to sell the space. For those starting up an internet business such as website design, reseller hosting has the benefits of allowing you to create a second income besides the service your company initially provides.

Essentially, if you only want to control the content of your website, shared hosting is the right way to go. However, if you want to control the technology that your server has, you want dedicated hosting. Reseller hosting is for those who want to start a business and offer shared hosting to their customers. Once you decide what is right for your business, then you can make your decision for web hosting.

Web Hosting and The Bible

In 1998 I began a webhosting company. While I had the technical expertise to succeed, I knew absolutely nothing about customer service, and very little about business. Over the past eight years, I've learned several principles which have greatly enhanced my customer support skills. Interestingly enough, most of what I learned was readily available in the bible. What's amazing is that the precepts contained in a 2000 year old book work amazingly well in the contemporary world of a technology business.

For the edification of others who work in customer relations, I wish to pass on my ten commandments of customer service.

1. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

All of us have been customers at one time or another. How do we like to be treated? This rule is simple and essential. In order to give your customer the finest service, you must place yourself in their shoes. If you do this consistently, your webhosting customers will absolutly love you.

2. Be swift to hear, slow to speak.

It's very easy, in the webhosting business, to stop listening to your clients. Let your clients talk to you. Listen to them. Really listen. Ask their advice. Find out what they are looking for, and provide it.

3. Keep your cool.

A wrathful man stirs up strife, But he who is slow to anger allays contention. Your customer may be angry, but you don't have to be. by keeping your cool, you can maintain control of a bad situation.

4. A soft word turns away wrath.

At some point, a hosting client will be upset with you, and may unjustly tear into you. Every instinct in you will tell you to fight back. Don't do it. Speak softly and try to understand why the customer is upset. You'll be amazed how quickly your client will calm down as a result of your soft and soothing tone.

5. A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance

Always stay positive and upbeat. People like that and will want to do business with you. Try to always have a smile in your voice.

6. Be honest

"He who walks with integrity walks securely" Honesty is a rare commodity in todays world. Always be honest with your clients, even when it hurts.

7. Project humility

"When pride comes, then comes shame; But with the humble is wisdom"

8. Be diligent

"Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, And attend to your herds" Know your customers well, and keep abreast of their needs. Answer their emails and phone calls quickly and consistently. Nothing pays off in the webhosting business as well as consistent diligence.

9. Be a servant.

Never, ever, forget that your customers come to you for service. Keep a servants heart and countenence.

10. Keep your perspective

Some clients are difficult to deal with. Remember who you are really working for. "And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men"

Classification of Web Hosting Terms

As the number of Web pages grows to trillions of pages on the Internet, Webmasters have too many hosting plans to choose from - affordable web hosting, Cheap Web hosting, 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 and Co-location Hosting.

Those commonly used web hosting terms represent the many faces of web hosting. All web hosting plans and terminologies can be classified in terms of cost, programming languages, operation systems, Web servers and functionality.

Cost - Web hosting plans are referred as affordable web hosting, budget hosting and cheap web hosting. Cost of web hosting is the first thing that many small site owners are looking for. Affordable web hosting, budget hosting or cheap web hosting plan often cost less than $5 per month.

Programming Languages - If you want to add dynamics and interactivity to your websites and you happen to know something about programming, you want to hosting plans that support the programming languages that you know well or want to master. The commonly used wen development languages include PHP, ASP, JSP and PERL. The hosting plans that support those programming languages are referred as PHP Web hosting, ASP Web hosting, JSP Web hosting or PERL Web hosting.

Operating Systems - Once you've picked up the programming language(s) for your Web development, you still have freedom to choose the operating system that hosts your Websites. Besides ASP which works only on Microsoft Windows, other programming languages, PHP, JSP and PERL, work on Windows, Unix and Linux. Hosting plans that support particular operating systems are referred as Window Hosting, Unix Hosting or Linux hosting.

Servers - Apache is the most widely supported Web server in Web hosting industry. ASP works only on Mirosoft Internet Information Server or IIS server. Weblogic or Websphere is needed for JSP hosting. When webmasters are talking about Web servers, they're most interested in the server performance - Managed Web Hosting, Shared Hosting, Dedicated Servers, or Virtual Private Servers (VPS). Shared hosting is the cheapest plan, and you can host as many sites as you like with a Reseller Hosting option. VPS costs around $50 a month, and Dedicated Server plan will cost from $50 - $100 or more a month dependent on storage space and bandwidth of the hosting plan.

Functionality - There're hosting plans out there that either make the site creation easier or offer support for secure online transactions. A simple website can be easily created in hours if you choose hosting plans that support various templates. Ecommerce hosting plan is the choice for sites that provide shopping carts and accept payment online.

Web Hosting For Beginners

Web hosting is a basic internet service that allows individuals, organizations and corporations to establish a virtual presence on the World Wide Web. 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. Moreover, it can be used as an access point for client liaison, networking or simply as a means to meet other people through the internet. 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.

A web hosting contract usually involves the services of a web hosting provider (called the web host) and a client (called the user). Under a typical set-up, 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. A more intricate and costly web hosting service is termed as co-location. Under this arrangement, 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; 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 co-location and clustered hosting.

Clients can choose from the many providers that would meet particular hosting requirements as well as cost and application preferences.

Web Hosting Service

Web Hosting Service is a form of Internet hosting service, which permits organizations and individuals to offer their own websites that are accessible through the World Wide Web. Web hosts are the firms that furnish space on the server owned by them, for the usage of both the clients and also, for providing better connectivity on the internet as in case of a data center. Additionally, they could provide connectivity and data center space to the internet for servers not owned by them to be placed in the data center. This is called as "colocation".

Web Hosting Service Scope:

Web hosting services scope may vary widely. Small-scale file hosting and webpage are the most basic scopes where the files could be uploaded through a web interface or a file transfer protocol. These are usually delivered with little processing to the Web. Most internet service providers extend this service free of cost to the subscribers. They can also obtain hosting of web pages from alternative providers of service. Typically, personal web site hosting is cheap and advertisement-sponsored are free but very often, business web site hosting has a higher expenditure.

Generally, single page hosting is adequate for personal web pages. A more comprehensive package is provided by a complex site providing application development platforms such as ASP.Net, Java, PHP and database support. Such facilities permit the customers to install or write the scripts for applications such as content management and forums.

An interface control panel may also be provided by the host for installing scripts such as e-mail and for managing the web server.

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.

Top 3 Free Web Hosting Services

Nowadays, there are many free webhosting services available on the Internet. Sometimes it can be difficult to choose which one is best for you. First of all, you need to bear in mind free wehosting usually have some limitations such as not allowed email accounts, no mysql databases, no perl etc. It varies from each web host.

There are sometimes hidden cost as well for free webhosting. For example, you need to register a domain name from the web host before you can have free web hosting. Other place restriction on bandwidth, disk space and if you exceed them, expect to pay some money.

Another type is some web host will place banners, text links etc on your webpage. Some only occupy a small amount of screen space while others can be as large as one-third. Geocities.com is an example of a free webhosting service that places banners, text links on your webpage.

With that said, if you really have no money, then there is no choice but to get free webhosting. It is also useful if you are new to web design and can use it for testing purposes. I still have one hosted on geocities with my first designed personal webpage.

There are literally thousands of free webhosting services out there but I will recommend the top 3 which I have used before.

#1 Champshost.com

Champhost is in my opinion is the best free webhosting service. They give 1000MB diskspace, no ads on your webpage and allows php, cgi, perl. The only thing they ask for is you contribute some post to their forum which isn’t so hard.

#2 – 100webspace.com

100webspace get my vote as the second best. They offer 100MB space, all full features as a paid web hosting, that includes, email, ftp, php, mysql etc. The only thing I did not like they have ads on your webpage but it isn’t too big to be a distraction.

#3 – Neopages.net

I like neopages because they are actually one of the few webhosting services that do not make any kind of money from offering free webhosting. They offer 150MB space, no ads as well as PHP, cgi, mysql, email, ftp etc.

The only issue is approval is on a case by case by members voting and you must have an existing website published already. It is pretty hard to get in since they only allow 3 each week.

As you can see, these 3 are just my favorites and there are a lot more free webhosting services available. Do remember to read the terms and conditions carefully to make sure you are actually getting free web hosting

Also, once you have some money do consider upgrading to paid hosting as they offer a lot more features and better support. You can go to any web hosting or webmaster forums where from time to time, webhosting companies offer big discounts for web hosting.

Webhosting Tips

Webhosting is needed by anyone who needs a website but what are the things you need to look out for when looking for a webhost? Everyone starts off as newb to the webhosting business but here are some helpful tips to get you started.

1. Look the webhost up in Google to find reviews from other people. Reviews from other people are the best way to find out if your webhost is going to be any good or not.

2. Contact their support department and ask a simple question. This will show you how good their support will be when you are using them.

3. Ask on forums if anyone is/has used them. Reviews from real people are the best. Forums that are about webmastering are the best place to ask as they have to have webhosting for their own websites.

4. Check if they oversell their services. Overselling means that they give you more space and/or bandwidth than they actually have. This can lead to problems if someone uses more than they have and can crash their servers.

Webhosting is a big business and alot of companies out their are looking just for your money and not providing a very good service. This can leave you out of pocket and very frustrated with your webhost.

You have now learnt some useful tips on how to choose which webhosting provider to go to. Hopefully with my tips you will be able to pick the right webhosting company for your website. Put those tips to use!

Web Hosting

Web hosting is a service that allows you to put your website (domain name) on the internet. After you have thought of a name for your website and registered the domain name, the next step is to find a web hosting service from a web hosting provider.

There are basically three types of web hosting services a web host will offer. They are shared web hosting, dedicated server hosting and virtual private server hosting.

A shared web hosting plan is when multiple customers share a server. Each customer has their own unique domain name. This type of web hosting service is generally less expensive and is ideal for those of you who are new to web hosting and are just launching your first website.

Dedicated server hosting and virtual private server hosting are types of web hosing services that would be needed for a web site, or multiple web sites, that generates millions of page views or hits a day. These two web hosting services are generally more expensive than shared web hosting.

If you choose a shared web hosting plan, and want to keep the same web host the entire time you have the website, look for a web host that offers a virtual private server or dedicated server hosting plan as well. This way, you will be able to upgrade as your site becomes popular and accumulates large amounts of traffic.