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
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.
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.
Abbas Alafoo is the creator of http://www.website-hostings.net, a collection of articles and tutorials about web hosting, design, development, promotion and administration.
Tags: Web Hosting, web hosts, website hostingWhat to Look for When Searching for a Web Host
Today you can go online and find over 263 million links to web hosting related sites. With all of those links, how do you pick one? Which company is right for you? What do you need and what can you skimp on? This article will go through every option of a typical web host and not only explain what they are, but tell you if you need them or not.
Before you go looking for a host you need to know some basic things. First off every hosting plan will come with a set amount of bandwidth (sometimes referred to as transfer). Bandwidth is how much information is passed between the web hosting server and a visitor’s computer. You will get a monthly allowance of bandwidth and it will most likely be a number in Megabytes (MB) or Gigabytes (GB). When someone visits your website (referred to as a visitor) their computer pulls information from the server you website is located on and transfers it to their computer. This transfer of information uses some of your allocated bandwidth. In general, the more intricate your web page is, the more bandwidth it uses per visitor. Pages with many photos, music, etc use more bandwidth than pages with all text. You only need a lot of bandwidth if you are planning on having a large number of visitors to your site and have an intricate site.
The second thing all hosting planes must include is space. Space is simply the amount of storage allocated for you to place your website in. This number will be in Megabytes (MB) or Gigabytes (GB). The more space you have the more stuff you can put online. If you plan on putting pictures or big files online, make sure you go with a hosting plan with a large amount of space. If you plan on hosting a small site with just a few pages, then pick a plan with less storage. A typical plan would include 500 MB of storage and 1 GB of transfer. This is often more than enough for a small website.
So far we have talked about bandwidth and storage space. Both of these are required to even have a website. Now we move to the extras. Some may not consider email an extra, but in terms of what you have to have for a site to function it is only an extra. Email accounts are almost universally considered a must for website owners. If you have a website you should have an email address for that site. Most sites need only one email address per person. Find the number of people who are “behind the scenes” of a site, and give each of them one email address. For example, if you are planning on having a family website, give one email address to each family member. Business sites are required to have multiple email addresses (addresses like postmaster@example.com, support@example.com, etc), so people seeking to start a business website should find a hosting plan with many email addresses. POP3 email allows you to use outlook, thunderbird, and other email programs like that. I would not look at a hosting plan that does not offer POP3. A typical website needs about 3 email addresses.
Another extra that is very useful is FTP. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) allows you to transfer files between your computer and your website quickly and easily. FTP is not required, and not necessary for small sites or sites that don’t change often. I would suggest picking a plan with FTP access if you are creating a website for business or one that needs constant changes and/or updates.
Sub domains are a great extra that some people like. A Sub domain is simply something.yourdomain.com. You can place whatever word you would like in front of your domain name and have it directed to a different webpage. For example, if you had pictures located on your site at www.yoursite.com/pictures, you could add a sub domain and rearrange that link to look like pictures.yoursite.com. Sub domains are used most often by more experienced users. Most people do not need them, so don’t pick a host based on these.
My SQL Databases are necessary for things like most photo galleries, calendars, shopping carts, etc. Simple sites do not need these databases, but someone looking to place a photo gallery, support system, etc. on their site should get a hosting plan with these included. Each item that requires My SQL will use one database, so pick a plan with enough databases for your specific situation. Only factor databases into a decision if you think you may use them at some point. Be aware of hosts that charge extra if you decide later on that you want My SQL databases. You should try to find a host that is flexible and will allow you to add on to your package at anytime.
The absolute most important thing when considering web hosts is support! A web host that does not have great support should not even be considered. You will run into problem with your website. Unless you are a seasoned webmaster, you will find something you don’t know how to do or fix, and great support is critical then. You will need a host that can reply to your support requests quickly, and correctly. Pick a host that has been highly rated, or that you know puts more emphasis on support than things like marketing or flashy site designs. Beware of hosts that will say anything to get you signed up, and beware of sites that charge for support. A good web host included great support with all of their plans.
There are other features of web hosting not discussed here, but the most important and most widespread are. The last two issues that arise with web hosting are what server operating system to pick, and what type of hosting to pick. 90% of people should be on a shared server (a server with many different hosting clients on it), but some may want a dedicated server. A dedicated server is what big businesses or high traffic sites need, but they are not cheap. Dedicated servers host you and you alone (hence the term dedicated). As for operating systems, I highly recommend Linux servers. They are more stable and often cheaper than windows servers. Do not worry about not being able to find scripts that will work with Linux servers. Linux has a huge following and most scripts are designed to work on Linux servers. In fact, many great scripts are only available for Linux.
So in conclusion, focus on service and support of a web hosting company. Figure out an estimate of what you need (in terms of space and transfer) then search for a reputable host that can provide you with your needs, great support, and good prices. Find a good price, but don’t go with a free host. These are almost always terrible hosting plans, bad service, and older (often slower) servers. You can even ask around to see if anyone you know has a website and can recommend a good host to you. Don’t be afraid to ask a host a question. In fact it’s recommended that you talk to your host before you join. After all, this is the only way to evaluate their support before you join.
Helios Solutions.net (http://www.heliossolutions.net) is one of the top internet web hosts today. We strive for perfect customer support, great products, and prices everyone can afford. We have been in the hosting market long enough to know that it is all about the customer, and we are not afraid to show that. We have been giving people hosting, design, and tech advice for years, and have a great support team in place for any questions our customers ever have. In short, we are all about the customer and would love to help you in regard to hosting, design, servers, or general hosting questions.
Tags: hosting, Web Hosting, web hosting providers, web hostsWhat Features To Look For When Applying For Good Hosting Plan
When looking for a host, it will be useful to obtain as much information as possible about the web hosting company itself and the services they offer. These pre-sales questions are a way to check several things about the web hosting company. You can obtain detailed information about the services they offer - the web hosting plans they have, the features included there, etc.
These days hosting plans on the web are getting very competitive and features of each plan are comparatively the same among web hosting providers. Whether novice or expert, you can find some useful information in this article to learn about some of the considerations to look at when you choose a web hosting service.
In this article I will not talk about things like space ,traffic and prices since there are plenty of related articles nowadays rolling around the net. My goal will be to clarify some of the most important features you have to look for when choosing your web hosting provider.
The following are 10 basic features that can be found in a Unix/Linux hosting plans that every serious hosting provider should offer you.
Tags: host, hosting plans, hosting provider, hosting service, Web Hosting, web hosting company, web hosts