Business web hosting is what you need. You have a website you need to put online. When you look around on the internet, there are thousands of choices. How do you choose the right web hosting package for your business?
Reliable web hosting
Business web hosting must be reliable. The last thing you need to worry about is that the provider's service becomes unavailable for long stretches of time. What kind of uptime guarantee do they provide you with? How long have they been in business?
Hosting support when you need it
What level of support does the company offer you? You may not need 24x7 service but is their support desk open reasonable hours? Beware of companies that only offer email web hosting support. Some of these companies will tell you that they only offer email hosting support in order to keep costs down. What they often don't say is that they are doing the business part time and can't possibly be available to answer the phone. When you need help, you may have to wait days to get service.
Ecommerce web hosting
Do you plan to sell online? If so, does the web host have shopping carts available? Are they included for free or are they extra? Get the names of the ecommerce shopping carts they provide, and research their capabilities to be able to determine which one is best for you.
Website response times
Be sure to ask the hosting provider for a list of websites that are hosted on their servers. Enter a few of them into your browser and pay attention to how fast they come up. If all of them take a long time to load, this may indicate that the hosting provider's servers are overloaded. Doing a ping on the website addresses is another way to measure the time it takes for the server to respond. Keep in mind though, that a ping test will be more of a measure of a bandwidth bottleneck than a server problem.
Web Hosting bandwidth: How much do you get?
How much bandwidth does the web hosting service provide you with every month? If it is only 500mb per month and your website is 50 kilobytes in size, this will only allow 10,000 visitors per month to hit your website. If you expect to need more, make sure you can live with the extra charges the hosting provider will levy. If you website traffic explodes, you may be on the hook for large bandwidth overage charges.
Small business web hosting that is reliable is a vital part of any success your company will experience online. Doing your homework ahead of time will save you lots of grief later on.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Choosing a right hosting solution
You have done all the hard works for developing your website but when it comes selecting your host you may face trouble that it does not have all the features which is required by your site. It is important to do some research before choosing a right hosting solution.
A website is an important identity of yours and it is the responsibilities of the host make it visible at World Wide Web. Selecting the right solution for your business will provide greater impact on your business. before hiring any service i suggest you to do a research on web, discuss with hosting providers, take suggestions from other users after all there are quality service providers also exists. Just spending a portion of your time you can find the "Most Suitable Solution" that will match exactly as per your requirements.
Knowledge makes the difference: There are lots of myth spreads about choosing a solution from Dedicated hosting provider or a Hosting Reseller. Some advocates A Dedicated service provider for uninterrupted services and some advocates A reseller hosting who will be able to provide a better support and you can have one to one discussions. It is always better to choose a company who sells straight forward plans with dedicated support and have enough domain knowledge.
Instead it is more important to choose the right hosting package that your site requires. Rather than harvesting the net for gathering database of hosting companies select few good companies and ask them if they have the required features your site needs. Since there are so many hosting companies are around, its hard to find the right solution for your business. Some companies offers unlimited stuffs, but when you go to install a sql database or an htaccess file or require hosting a script which runs server side, you will find those are disabled on your package. Always check the specs before you buy any of the hosting services. Here are brief of following categories of sites which will help you to choose a right solution for your business.
>> If you are a beginner, just calculate your present requirement keeping in mind of any future up gradations. It is essential if in future you go for an interactive site or a dynamic site, your present host must have ability to upgrade the services without any hassles. You should choose a basic package and check the required features available for use. You can always upgrade to higher package in future. This way you can save much of your money and focus on enhancing your site.
>> If your site is a database driven and require custom or readymade script installations, You should check if the components required by site are preinstalled on the server. You can make a checklist and ask your hosting provider if they will be complying with all the requirements. Some companies also provide hosting with preinstalled scripts/software’s which you can install and start using in minutes without spending much time on developing and installing it. It is always advisable to check the complete features of the software’s, which meets your present requirements as well as have the latest version installed. You may choose an advance hosting plan and check the required features.
>> If your site is a high traffic one and required concurrent up gradations and installations of the scripts, you should go for a dedicated hosting service. It is always advisable to have a managed dedicated server with all the latest components installed with it. This will give you freedom to upgrade your site or application at any point of time, done by you only. Find out the reliable datacenters and checkout the server specs along with facilities provided by them. There are few datacenters which I can recommend are Rackspace, ThePlannet, Infinology and also you can check with EV1Servers too for some interesting offers.
A website is an important identity of yours and it is the responsibilities of the host make it visible at World Wide Web. Selecting the right solution for your business will provide greater impact on your business. before hiring any service i suggest you to do a research on web, discuss with hosting providers, take suggestions from other users after all there are quality service providers also exists. Just spending a portion of your time you can find the "Most Suitable Solution" that will match exactly as per your requirements.
Knowledge makes the difference: There are lots of myth spreads about choosing a solution from Dedicated hosting provider or a Hosting Reseller. Some advocates A Dedicated service provider for uninterrupted services and some advocates A reseller hosting who will be able to provide a better support and you can have one to one discussions. It is always better to choose a company who sells straight forward plans with dedicated support and have enough domain knowledge.
Instead it is more important to choose the right hosting package that your site requires. Rather than harvesting the net for gathering database of hosting companies select few good companies and ask them if they have the required features your site needs. Since there are so many hosting companies are around, its hard to find the right solution for your business. Some companies offers unlimited stuffs, but when you go to install a sql database or an htaccess file or require hosting a script which runs server side, you will find those are disabled on your package. Always check the specs before you buy any of the hosting services. Here are brief of following categories of sites which will help you to choose a right solution for your business.
>> If you are a beginner, just calculate your present requirement keeping in mind of any future up gradations. It is essential if in future you go for an interactive site or a dynamic site, your present host must have ability to upgrade the services without any hassles. You should choose a basic package and check the required features available for use. You can always upgrade to higher package in future. This way you can save much of your money and focus on enhancing your site.
>> If your site is a database driven and require custom or readymade script installations, You should check if the components required by site are preinstalled on the server. You can make a checklist and ask your hosting provider if they will be complying with all the requirements. Some companies also provide hosting with preinstalled scripts/software’s which you can install and start using in minutes without spending much time on developing and installing it. It is always advisable to check the complete features of the software’s, which meets your present requirements as well as have the latest version installed. You may choose an advance hosting plan and check the required features.
>> If your site is a high traffic one and required concurrent up gradations and installations of the scripts, you should go for a dedicated hosting service. It is always advisable to have a managed dedicated server with all the latest components installed with it. This will give you freedom to upgrade your site or application at any point of time, done by you only. Find out the reliable datacenters and checkout the server specs along with facilities provided by them. There are few datacenters which I can recommend are Rackspace, ThePlannet, Infinology and also you can check with EV1Servers too for some interesting offers.
Does my Business Need a Website?
Does my business need a website? That’s a question many people ask. Well, you see all the time when businesses tell you go to some URL (web address) to find more information, to order products, or to purchase services. That is a question that business owners everywhere should ask themselves. The next question is “How do I do this?” Well, it may not be as hard or expensive as you may think.
When someone learns about your business they look at contact information a lot more than you may think. You own a professional business and your customers expect you to be professional. Even if you don’t generate revenue from going online, it’s still a very good idea. Also, it’s very easy to distribute information such as common questions, contact information, and product information. You don’t have to continuously handle potential customers while they still find out the information they desire. It only costs Rs.500 to 5000 a year to own and run a website, this may even save you money on having to talk to customers and save you a lot of time.
Some web hosts (services that hold your website for the public to see) offer special tools to easily make a website. While also, most word processing software comes with tools to easily design and build your website. So you don’t even need to know how to build a website. For a list of web hosting services you can look at many web host directories, one place I suggest looking at www.webhost18.com to find your web host because they offer more options to help you with your searches, such as being able to list web hosts that offer website builders.
People may ask, why not use a free web hosting service? Well the answer is very simple. Free web hosts don’t offer enough, and many people don’t trust websites hosted on free services as much as websites that have domain names (a .com .net .org URL) and are on a paid service because it shows that the business isn't serious enough about their products or services to spend money distributing them. Websites that try to look professional won’t if they are put on a free service. Put it on a paid service and people will trust your business a lot more. Not only that, but businesses with websites generally do look more advanced and much more professional.
When someone learns about your business they look at contact information a lot more than you may think. You own a professional business and your customers expect you to be professional. Even if you don’t generate revenue from going online, it’s still a very good idea. Also, it’s very easy to distribute information such as common questions, contact information, and product information. You don’t have to continuously handle potential customers while they still find out the information they desire. It only costs Rs.500 to 5000 a year to own and run a website, this may even save you money on having to talk to customers and save you a lot of time.
Some web hosts (services that hold your website for the public to see) offer special tools to easily make a website. While also, most word processing software comes with tools to easily design and build your website. So you don’t even need to know how to build a website. For a list of web hosting services you can look at many web host directories, one place I suggest looking at www.webhost18.com to find your web host because they offer more options to help you with your searches, such as being able to list web hosts that offer website builders.
People may ask, why not use a free web hosting service? Well the answer is very simple. Free web hosts don’t offer enough, and many people don’t trust websites hosted on free services as much as websites that have domain names (a .com .net .org URL) and are on a paid service because it shows that the business isn't serious enough about their products or services to spend money distributing them. Websites that try to look professional won’t if they are put on a free service. Put it on a paid service and people will trust your business a lot more. Not only that, but businesses with websites generally do look more advanced and much more professional.
Changing Web Hosting Providers
If you would like to cut costs or are no longer satisfied with their current web host provider maybe it is time to think about changing web host providers. Take time to plan your transfer so that you won't lose any files and data.
Web Hosting Change Checklist:
- Domain name:where is your domain registered?
- How do you login and change nameservers?
- Your current IP address________ and your new IP address____________
- Your login username and password for old web host__________ and new control panel or shell access via SSH username and password __________________
- Make a list of email addresses including usernames and passwords
- Make a list of databases, usernames and passwords
- make a list of installed software
Checkout your new web host control panel, get familiar with how things work at your new host and to try everything out, including sending test emails and uploading files.
Change Your Domain Record
Login to your domain registrar and change your name servers. This usually occurs within 72 hours, often much sooner. Dome domain registrars can transfer a domain within 2 hours, so check the new IP address often and upload files as soon as possible to avoid website "downtime".
Transferring the Site to the New Web Hosting Provider:
Download files: Open your FTP program and enter the FTP address at your old web host (e.g. ftp.yoursite.com). Once logged onto the server, right click on your main folder (normally public_html or www) and choose download.
Choose a local folder on your own computer to store the files, Click OK, and watch all your files being downloaded onto your computer. You will still have all your files on the server too. Please downloads can take a quite a bit of time depending on the number and size of files.
Download databases: Login to your old web hosts Control Panel Go to databases ( usually My SQl), and use either phpmyadmin (usually located towards bottom of page) or a similar program . Choose the databases you want to download and click on "export". You will then come to a screen information about the database. towards the bottom of the page look for; "Normal or None", "GZip", or "Zip". chose one and press download or submit. Save this file to a folder on your computer. Repeat for each databases.
Upload files to the new host: Using your FTP program connect to your new web host. Right click on the folder (e.g. public_html or www -- or if not present no folder maybe required- ask your web hosting provider if you are unsure) and choose upload. When asked where to upload these files from, choose the folders and files to upload.
Upload databases: login to the control panel at your new web hosting provider, go to Mysql, and use phpmyadmin or a similar program. Choose the insert or upload option and select the location of the database file you downloaded before that is stored on your computer. Click "ok or submit". During the import you will see some database commands, but towards the bottom it will tell you if it failed or was successful. Be patient, don't interrupt this process, wait for the final statement telling you if the import was successful. Repeat this process for all of your Mysql databases.
Final Steps
Set up email address using your new control panel. Use the "help" if needed to learn how to do this at the new web host.
- check that all your software on your new web host site is working properly.
- you might have to change config files if Mysql databases, username or password are different from your old web host.
- If something doesn't work check the permission rights of your scripts.
- Make sure that all links work.
Recommended Web Hosting: http://www.webhost18.com . Excellent Customer Service Plans for all size websites Rs.500/5000 year
Web Hosting Change Checklist:
- Domain name:where is your domain registered?
- How do you login and change nameservers?
- Your current IP address________ and your new IP address____________
- Your login username and password for old web host__________ and new control panel or shell access via SSH username and password __________________
- Make a list of email addresses including usernames and passwords
- Make a list of databases, usernames and passwords
- make a list of installed software
Checkout your new web host control panel, get familiar with how things work at your new host and to try everything out, including sending test emails and uploading files.
Change Your Domain Record
Login to your domain registrar and change your name servers. This usually occurs within 72 hours, often much sooner. Dome domain registrars can transfer a domain within 2 hours, so check the new IP address often and upload files as soon as possible to avoid website "downtime".
Transferring the Site to the New Web Hosting Provider:
Download files: Open your FTP program and enter the FTP address at your old web host (e.g. ftp.yoursite.com). Once logged onto the server, right click on your main folder (normally public_html or www) and choose download.
Choose a local folder on your own computer to store the files, Click OK, and watch all your files being downloaded onto your computer. You will still have all your files on the server too. Please downloads can take a quite a bit of time depending on the number and size of files.
Download databases: Login to your old web hosts Control Panel Go to databases ( usually My SQl), and use either phpmyadmin (usually located towards bottom of page) or a similar program . Choose the databases you want to download and click on "export". You will then come to a screen information about the database. towards the bottom of the page look for; "Normal or None", "GZip", or "Zip". chose one and press download or submit. Save this file to a folder on your computer. Repeat for each databases.
Upload files to the new host: Using your FTP program connect to your new web host. Right click on the folder (e.g. public_html or www -- or if not present no folder maybe required- ask your web hosting provider if you are unsure) and choose upload. When asked where to upload these files from, choose the folders and files to upload.
Upload databases: login to the control panel at your new web hosting provider, go to Mysql, and use phpmyadmin or a similar program. Choose the insert or upload option and select the location of the database file you downloaded before that is stored on your computer. Click "ok or submit". During the import you will see some database commands, but towards the bottom it will tell you if it failed or was successful. Be patient, don't interrupt this process, wait for the final statement telling you if the import was successful. Repeat this process for all of your Mysql databases.
Final Steps
Set up email address using your new control panel. Use the "help" if needed to learn how to do this at the new web host.
- check that all your software on your new web host site is working properly.
- you might have to change config files if Mysql databases, username or password are different from your old web host.
- If something doesn't work check the permission rights of your scripts.
- Make sure that all links work.
Recommended Web Hosting: http://www.webhost18.com . Excellent Customer Service Plans for all size websites Rs.500/5000 year
Ecommerce Hosting
Ecommerce-hosting is a large choice in any business that you decide to run. Whatever you have to offer, you can do it online. But, in order to be effective in the online markets, you need to choose your marketing strategies wisely. You also need to have effective and in budget hosting solutions as well. Ecommerce-hosting is one important set in getting your business online.
In the various types of ecommerce-hosting you will find large differences but the bottom line is that you need to find the right choice for you based on two things. The hosting company needs to provide you with good quality service that services your needs effectively and they need to also provide for you hosting services that are within your specific budget. Seems like a lot to ask, but when you do your homework, it can become much easier.
Some things that you should look for when choosing the overall right ecommerce-hosting solution for your business include the following. You will want to look at what comes with the package. Many times you will be purchasing a package of services that should get you up and running. You will find that most will come with a site builder to help you build your website and to do so based on what you want and need. You will also want it to include email addresses so that you can connect with your business affiliates. You will find that some offer support as well. Finding the option that fits your needs should incorporate any of these as well as many other features as well.
Ecommerce-hosting offers many advantages to the business owner. But, in order for you to take advantage of these you need to properly get your website up and running. You need to have quality service to serve your customers but you need it all to come in under budget. The good news is that you will find a wealth of information available to you on the web that will help you to do all of these things.
In the various types of ecommerce-hosting you will find large differences but the bottom line is that you need to find the right choice for you based on two things. The hosting company needs to provide you with good quality service that services your needs effectively and they need to also provide for you hosting services that are within your specific budget. Seems like a lot to ask, but when you do your homework, it can become much easier.
Some things that you should look for when choosing the overall right ecommerce-hosting solution for your business include the following. You will want to look at what comes with the package. Many times you will be purchasing a package of services that should get you up and running. You will find that most will come with a site builder to help you build your website and to do so based on what you want and need. You will also want it to include email addresses so that you can connect with your business affiliates. You will find that some offer support as well. Finding the option that fits your needs should incorporate any of these as well as many other features as well.
Ecommerce-hosting offers many advantages to the business owner. But, in order for you to take advantage of these you need to properly get your website up and running. You need to have quality service to serve your customers but you need it all to come in under budget. The good news is that you will find a wealth of information available to you on the web that will help you to do all of these things.
Web Hosting Strategy for Managing Multiple Websites
If you are making a comfortable living from the Internet and the Web or have a plan to achieve that goal, it's likely that you are running more than ten websites. The websites are your virtual offices. You want to your sites to be up and running 365 days, 7 days a week and 24 hours a day. Managing multiple websites is a daunting task if running one website is a hobby.
Proposed Hosting Strategy for Managing Multiple Websites
The hosting strategy we propose is to host your multiple major websites with 3-4 different hosting companies, and open a reseller account with another hosting company for 1) small and new websites, 2) web development and 3) backup. Hosting with too many hosting companies will significantly increase the time and the difficulty of managing sites, and using a single hosting company isn't a smart choice either.
Justification of the Hosting Strategy
Cost - Cost of the Web hosting isn't an issue for running a single web site whether it costs $5 or $25 a month. The difference is only a few hundred dollars or less a year. It's always nice and smart to get the most out of every single dollar in doing business. At least, a few hundred dollars difference wouldn't make or break a business. If you run 10 or even 50 websites, the cost of Web hosting alone will define the success or failure of your online adventure. To cut the hosting cost, the option is to use a reseller hosting account to host as many small or new sites as you want for about $15 a month. You host one or 2 major websites with one hosting company. Shared hosting account costs under $10 a month, and dedicated server will cost $50 or more a month.
Uptime - If your bread-and-butter maker website is down for a few hours, you'll lose hundreds of dollars and more. Even though most hosting companies promise 99.9% uptime, it's not common to see a website down for a few hours. A site could be down for a half day or even more if a hosting company is doing a major update. The hosting company may do the update in a weekend or a major holiday, but that's when many family-oriented and travel sites generate their revenues. If you could afford the loss of revenues, many websites owners can't bear the psychological loss and pressure. Hosting your sites with a few hosting companies will reduce the risk of downtime.
Application Development - For simple web application, webmasters will do development on the same production hosting site. If your e-commerce applications are complex, doing development on the production site may bring down the live site especially if you're in the process of changing configuration files or install customized applications. The option is setup a website on your reseller account for development and testing, and move the applications to production account on another server after the completion.
Backup - If you're not happy with a hosting company, a hosting company is out of business, or the servers will be down for a day or two, you can easily temporarily or permanently switch from one hosting company to other since you're familiar with the site managing tools already. If you have a backup or secondary copy running on another server, all you need for the switch is the transfer of the domain, which will take no more than a minute.
Shop Before You Buy
There're too many hosting plans to choose from a large number of hosting companies - ASP Web Hosting, Budget Hosting, Dedicated Servers, e-Commerce Hosting, FrontPage Web Hosting, Hosting With Templates, Managed Web Hosting, PHP Web Hosting, Reseller Hosting, Shared Hosting, Unix / Linux Hosting, Virtual Private Servers, Windows Hosting or Co-location Hosting. Compare the cost, hosting features, tracking records of hosting companies before making your commitment. Good luck with your online adventures.
Webhost18.com has over 7 years of experience in web development, database design and managing web servers. Webhost18 currently manages thousands of websites using 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 for web hosting needs.
A Beginner Guide to Web Hosting
What is web hosting? Whenever you visit a website, what you see on your web browser is essentially just a web page that is downloaded from the web server onto your web browser. In general, a web site is made up of many web pages. And a web page is basically composed of texts and graphic images. All these web pages need to be stored on the web servers so that online users can visit your website.
Therefore, if you plan to own a new website, you will need to host your website on a web server. When your website goes live on the web server, online users can then browse your website on the Internet. Company that provides the web servers to host your website is called web hosting providers.
A well-established web hosting provider sometimes hosts up to thousands of websites. For example, the ‘Best Web Host of the Year 2007’ award winner, Webhost18.com, is a web hosting company that hosts more than 2000 websites. For that reason, a web hosting company need many web servers (essentially, these are computers) to ‘store’ the website. And all these web servers are connected to the Internet through high speed Internet connection and housed in a physical building called ‘data center’. In order to guarantee all the web servers are safe, secure and fully operational all time, a data center is a physically secure 24/7 environment with fire protection, HVAC temperature control, virus detections, computer data backup, redundant power backup and complete disaster recovery capabilities.
What are the different types of web hosting? There are different kinds of web hosting companies out there with different characteristics. The main types of web hosts can be organized into the following categories:
a. Shared Hosting
In shared hosting (also known as virtual web hosting), many websites are sharing the space on the same physical web servers. Depending on the web host, a physical web server can hosts a few hundred to even thousand of different websites at one time. You may wonder if a physical web server is shared by so many websites, will the performance of the web server deteriorate? In fact, web servers are usually equipped with high-end powerful computer, therefore it can support up to a certain number of websites without any problem. But when the web server is overloaded and exceeded the reasonable number of websites that it can support, then you will begin to experience a slower response from the web server.
However, a reputable and experience web hosting provider will constantly monitor the performance of the web server and will add new web servers when deem necessary without sacrificing the benefits of the website owners. Since a physical web server is shared (diskspace, computer processing power, bandwidth, memory) by many websites, the web hosting provider can therefore afford to offer a lower hosting price. For the same reason, websites on the shared hosting would have to accept slower server response time. Typically, shared hosting plans start at Rs.500 - Rs.5000 per month.
b. Dedicated Hosting
In contrast to shared hosting, dedicated hosting assigned a specific web server to be used only by one customer. Since a dedicated web server is allocated to only a single customer, the customer has the option to host single/multiple web sites, modify the software configuration, handle greater site traffic and scale the bandwidth as necessary. Therefore, dedicated hosting commands a higher premium and typically starts at Rs.6000 per month and can range up to Rs.40,000 per month. As a result, dedicated hosting is regularly used by high traffic and extremely important website.
c. Co-location hosting
In dedicated hosting, the web server belongs to the web hosting providers and customers only rent the web server during the hosting period. While in co-location hosting, the customer owns the web server hardware and only housed their web server within the web hosting provider’s secure data center. In this way, the customer has full control over their web server and simultaneously benefit from the 24/7 server monitoring and maintenance provided by the secure data center. Depending on the monthly bandwidth and rack space required, typically co-location hosting range from Rs.6000 per month.
d. Reseller hosting
In reseller hosting, a web hosting provider offers web server storage to third-party (i.e. reseller) at a discount price, who then resell the web server storage to their customers. Typically, resellers are web consultants including web designers, web developers, or system integration company who resell the web hosting as a add-on service to complement their other range of services. Commonly, resellers can receive up to 50 percent discount on the price of a hosting account from the web hosting provider. And resellers are allowed to decide its own pricing structure and even establish its own branding (in other words, reseller setup its web hosting company on the Internet and start selling web hosting plans under its brand).
To the reseller’s customers, the reseller is the web host provider. In cases when technical problems such as server down and access problem arise, the resellers will have to correspond directly with the actual web host provider. Due to the communication process taken place between customer to reseller and from reseller to actual web host provider and back and forth, undoubtedly problems will take longer time to resolve. Unless you are running your own personal website or non-profit website and willing to take the risks of poor support from the reseller, reseller hosting is generally not a good option.
However, the web hosting market today is filled with resellers that sell lowest price web hosting plans. So, how do you tell between a genuine web hosting provider from a reseller? You don’t judge by the availability of toll-free number alone because some web hosting providers even offer their resellers with their own toll-free number for co-branded technical support. When the reseller’s customer calls the number for technical support, the web host uses the reseller’s name so the customer thinks that the support is coming from the reseller directly. Likewise, don’t be fooled by the professional designed website alone because it is extremely easy to create a professional looked business website nowadays.
In general, resellers can be distinguished from their hosting price and company information. In most cases, a genuine web hosting provider has solid company information such as Webhost18.com where they publish its financial background, offices and data centers. In contrast, resellers usually do not have solid company background (here is just an example out of thousands out there). Moreover, the hosting price by resellers is generally below Rs.100 per month. So, why settle for resellers when you can find genuine web hosting providers offering superb quality web hosting at the hosting price ranging between $Rs.500 to Rs.1000
Therefore, you should not strive to find the lowest price web hosting companies without first considering the quality of the service and support provided. Don’t expect to find any top-level support if you choose to pay only Rs.100 or Rs.250 per months for your web hosting plan. On the other hand, by paying just slightly more for your hosting plan, you can now discover a list of low cost yet high quality web hosting plans to host your important website. Look at our high quality and cheap web hosting services review and recommendation here.
Therefore, if you plan to own a new website, you will need to host your website on a web server. When your website goes live on the web server, online users can then browse your website on the Internet. Company that provides the web servers to host your website is called web hosting providers.
A well-established web hosting provider sometimes hosts up to thousands of websites. For example, the ‘Best Web Host of the Year 2007’ award winner, Webhost18.com, is a web hosting company that hosts more than 2000 websites. For that reason, a web hosting company need many web servers (essentially, these are computers) to ‘store’ the website. And all these web servers are connected to the Internet through high speed Internet connection and housed in a physical building called ‘data center’. In order to guarantee all the web servers are safe, secure and fully operational all time, a data center is a physically secure 24/7 environment with fire protection, HVAC temperature control, virus detections, computer data backup, redundant power backup and complete disaster recovery capabilities.
What are the different types of web hosting? There are different kinds of web hosting companies out there with different characteristics. The main types of web hosts can be organized into the following categories:
a. Shared Hosting
In shared hosting (also known as virtual web hosting), many websites are sharing the space on the same physical web servers. Depending on the web host, a physical web server can hosts a few hundred to even thousand of different websites at one time. You may wonder if a physical web server is shared by so many websites, will the performance of the web server deteriorate? In fact, web servers are usually equipped with high-end powerful computer, therefore it can support up to a certain number of websites without any problem. But when the web server is overloaded and exceeded the reasonable number of websites that it can support, then you will begin to experience a slower response from the web server.
However, a reputable and experience web hosting provider will constantly monitor the performance of the web server and will add new web servers when deem necessary without sacrificing the benefits of the website owners. Since a physical web server is shared (diskspace, computer processing power, bandwidth, memory) by many websites, the web hosting provider can therefore afford to offer a lower hosting price. For the same reason, websites on the shared hosting would have to accept slower server response time. Typically, shared hosting plans start at Rs.500 - Rs.5000 per month.
b. Dedicated Hosting
In contrast to shared hosting, dedicated hosting assigned a specific web server to be used only by one customer. Since a dedicated web server is allocated to only a single customer, the customer has the option to host single/multiple web sites, modify the software configuration, handle greater site traffic and scale the bandwidth as necessary. Therefore, dedicated hosting commands a higher premium and typically starts at Rs.6000 per month and can range up to Rs.40,000 per month. As a result, dedicated hosting is regularly used by high traffic and extremely important website.
c. Co-location hosting
In dedicated hosting, the web server belongs to the web hosting providers and customers only rent the web server during the hosting period. While in co-location hosting, the customer owns the web server hardware and only housed their web server within the web hosting provider’s secure data center. In this way, the customer has full control over their web server and simultaneously benefit from the 24/7 server monitoring and maintenance provided by the secure data center. Depending on the monthly bandwidth and rack space required, typically co-location hosting range from Rs.6000 per month.
d. Reseller hosting
In reseller hosting, a web hosting provider offers web server storage to third-party (i.e. reseller) at a discount price, who then resell the web server storage to their customers. Typically, resellers are web consultants including web designers, web developers, or system integration company who resell the web hosting as a add-on service to complement their other range of services. Commonly, resellers can receive up to 50 percent discount on the price of a hosting account from the web hosting provider. And resellers are allowed to decide its own pricing structure and even establish its own branding (in other words, reseller setup its web hosting company on the Internet and start selling web hosting plans under its brand).
To the reseller’s customers, the reseller is the web host provider. In cases when technical problems such as server down and access problem arise, the resellers will have to correspond directly with the actual web host provider. Due to the communication process taken place between customer to reseller and from reseller to actual web host provider and back and forth, undoubtedly problems will take longer time to resolve. Unless you are running your own personal website or non-profit website and willing to take the risks of poor support from the reseller, reseller hosting is generally not a good option.
However, the web hosting market today is filled with resellers that sell lowest price web hosting plans. So, how do you tell between a genuine web hosting provider from a reseller? You don’t judge by the availability of toll-free number alone because some web hosting providers even offer their resellers with their own toll-free number for co-branded technical support. When the reseller’s customer calls the number for technical support, the web host uses the reseller’s name so the customer thinks that the support is coming from the reseller directly. Likewise, don’t be fooled by the professional designed website alone because it is extremely easy to create a professional looked business website nowadays.
In general, resellers can be distinguished from their hosting price and company information. In most cases, a genuine web hosting provider has solid company information such as Webhost18.com where they publish its financial background, offices and data centers. In contrast, resellers usually do not have solid company background (here is just an example out of thousands out there). Moreover, the hosting price by resellers is generally below Rs.100 per month. So, why settle for resellers when you can find genuine web hosting providers offering superb quality web hosting at the hosting price ranging between $Rs.500 to Rs.1000
Therefore, you should not strive to find the lowest price web hosting companies without first considering the quality of the service and support provided. Don’t expect to find any top-level support if you choose to pay only Rs.100 or Rs.250 per months for your web hosting plan. On the other hand, by paying just slightly more for your hosting plan, you can now discover a list of low cost yet high quality web hosting plans to host your important website. Look at our high quality and cheap web hosting services review and recommendation here.
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