Archive for January, 2007

How to find the right free web host?

January 11, 2007

Free web hosting has always been in vogue. There is no doubt that finding a free web host is as easy as finding a wedding chapel in Las Vegas. Yet, you have to do your research smartly, so that you find a free web host that is compatible with your requirements.

It is reckoned that a free web space directory website is the best place to find a good free web hosting service provider. A free web space website directory lists various free web hosting service providers. Some of the free web space website directories keep on adding new free web hosts every week. However, you got to guard yourself against the directories that hardly update their list.

One of the best free web host directories is Free Webspace (http://www.free-webhosts.com/). This directory is considered to be highly reliable. It has an exhaustive list of more than 800 free web hosting providers. Besides providing you with the list of web hosts, this directory offers searchable database, apt ratings, user reviews, and forums. Furthermore, this directory is updated regularly.

Free web space is regarded as one of the best, for it provides you with useful advanced free web hosting search that has more than forty options. These options enable you to find the free hosting packages that match your web hosting requirements. These packages empower you with almost all the features such as ASP, CGI, MySQL, PHP, SSI, and FrontPage extensions.

Other useful free web space directories include Free Hosting (http://www.Absolutely-Free-Hosting.com/) and 100 Best Free Webspace (http://www.100-Best-Free-Webspace.com/). There is another key free web hosting directory – DistantHost (http://signup.distanthost.com/). It provides you with a lot of features such as 100 MB web space, domain or sub-domain hosting, PHP, MySQL database, FTP or browser upload, FrontPage Extensions, a bandwidth limit of 6 GB/month, and a CPanel 7 control panel.

Special benefits of free web hosting

January 9, 2007

Free web hosting has provided internet users with an amazing option of putting their own website online, and that too, free of cost. Well, it is well known that that free web hosting has stacks of benefits. But, free web hosting is particularly beneficial to certain user segments.
Students can benefit a lot from free web hosting. They can learn some important lessons through free web hosting, as it enables them to comprehend the mechanics of website designing. Besides, free web hosting apprises the students of technical aspects of web hosting. Free web hosting can actually help students understand the processing and maintenance of websites on internet.
Apart from website designing, free web hosting enables students to learn about using the various website design and development tools. Furthermore, with the help of free web hosting, students can acquaint themselves with file management and file upload issues as well.
Certain free web hosts provide you with free shell accounts on their server. This enables you to try and work in UNIX based environment. There are some other free web hosts that allow you to work in some other key operating systems. All this manifests that you can really benefit from free web hosting.
Sharing web content is one of the key benefits of free web hosting. By sharing website content, lots of people and groups can interact with one another. Besides sharing knowledge through shared content, people can share links as well. These links can help their respective websites please search engines.
Free web hosting can be quite useful for voluntary organizations as well. Such organizations do not have the requisite finance to create big websites and host the same by paying huge amounts. However, with free web hosts available, even the voluntary organizations as well as the non-profit organizations can afford to have a decent website, and get the same hosted free of cost.
Free web hosting is useful for personal and family websites too. If you want to have a website just to display photographs, exchange exciting anecdotes, and share personal details; free web hosting services can help you get all that. Thus, free web hosting provides you with some really enticing options.

Tips on selecting the right web host

January 8, 2007

To enable your business to zoom and boom, your website needs to be online 24/7/365.  This accentuates the importance of picking a right web host service provider. If your web host is equipped enough to provide you with the desired services, you can fully concentrate on your online business.

Here are a few tips on selecting the right web host.

•    Do some market research before you zero in on a web host service provider. There are scads of web host service providers offering a wide array of web hosting services. You have to be wise enough to fathom the authenticity of a deal and the reliability of a web host service provider.
•    The problem is that almost all the offers sound the same. Therefore, you can make a right choice only if you exactly know your requirements. You should precisely know the space you want, the speed you require, and the other services you wish to have. Apart from knowing your disk space and bandwidth requirement, you should know your server platform and hardware requirements as well. This will enable you to make a right choice.
•    You should also keep an eye on the other web hosting features on offer. Look out for the web host service providers that support video clips and other web authoring tools.
•    Also check whether or not your web host supports e-commerce features.
•    Reliability and scalability are the other two key factors you need to consider. A reliable web hosting service provider should offer a minimum of 99 percent uptime.
•    Instead of using T1 or T3 lines, your web host service provider should use at least OC3 (Optical Carrier) lines (155 Megabits per second).
•    A reliable web host service provider should be well equipped with backup power generators and firewall software protection.
•    Always ensure that the web host service provider you choose is able to provide 24/7 customer support. Besides, your web host should offer multiple support channels that include live chat, toll-free phone support, 24/7 email support, and online tutorials.
•    Cost is another important consideration. However, you should focus on quality, even if it means raising your budget limit.

Disadvantages of Reseller Web Hosting

January 5, 2007

Reseller web hosting can offer lots of advantages to you; however, it has some disadvantages as well. It is advisable that before deciding on reseller web hosting, you take into account its disadvantages as well. This will help you put things into perspective, and make the right choice.

Here are some of the disadvantages of reseller web hosting.

•    Resellers do not own the server. And not owning the server means that resellers have limited access to the server. Therefore, there can be some features and services that resellers might not be able to offer to their clients. This is one point that you must take into account while deciding in favor of or against reseller web hosting services.
•    Since resellers have limited access to the server, they will not be able to fine-tune your server requirements. Sometimes your websites need some additions and alterations that call for immediate subtle changes in your server applications. This might not be possible with reseller web hosting.
•    Resellers’ uptime reliability depends upon the reliability and consistency of the actual web hosting service provider. In fact, resellers are also someone else’s clients, so they will give what they get. That is why, at times, people are a little apprehensive about resellers’ uptime reliability.
•    Slow response to your complaints and problems is another niggling aspect of reseller web hosting. In case of any errors cropping up, you report it to your reseller who in turn apprises the actual web host of the same.  Now, this can lead to unnecessary delays and hold-ups, which might cause your website and online processes some serious damage.
•    Actual web hosting service providers keep on revamping their hardware equipment and software applications. However, they might think of providing the benefits of such overhauling to only a few of their clients, and leaving the other ones. This means that whether or not your reseller would get those benefits (which would be passed onto you) is not sure.

Disadvantages of Free web Hosting

January 4, 2007

Free hosting has always been one of the most favored web hosting options. The fact that free web hosting service providers galore makes it all the more feasible and accessible. Free web hosting offers quite a few advantages; however, it has its share of disadvantages as well.

Here are a few disadvantages of free web hosting.

• Free web hosting service providers do not charge anything for hosting your website. But, they put advertisements, banners, and pop-ups on your website. This enables them to make money. But the ads and the similar stuff badly clutter up your website. In fact, these advertisements can disrupt the flow of your website, and defy your business logic.
• The advertisements put on your website not only distract the visitors, but make them move onto another website. Now, this is something that you don’t want. Your website needs more and more traffic, and if you don’t get the same you will surely lose out.
• Free web hosting does not offer swift customer support. Moreover, they provide only web support. You do not get any telephonic support. Thus, in case you face any technical hitch or any other problem, don’t expect the same to be sorted out quickly.
• Free web hosting does not offer any guarantees. You get a particular feature today, but you might not be offered the same tomorrow. Besides, there would not be any technological improvements.
• Most of the web hosting service providers make you have a domain under their primary domains. This makes your domain name to be a long one, which people cannot easily remember.
• Free web hosts do not offer the requisite security. They do not save your website from hackers and spams.
• Free web hosts provide you with a limited disk space. So, if you want to have more disk space, free web hosting will not work well for you.

Benefits of Reseller web hosting to Resellers

January 3, 2007

You can have a lot of advantages of choosing a reseller web host. Likewise, resellers too enjoy the benefits by offering reseller web hosting services. Resellers can do wonders with their business if they act smart enough to offer cost-effective, consistent web hosting services to their clients.

Here are some of the key benefits that resellers enjoy.

• Reseller web hosting provides a lot of small companies with an exciting revenue generating option.
• Reselling web hosting can be hugely beneficial to the companies that cannot afford to spare money, time, and resources to get their own web servers and data centers.
• Reseller web hosting can be a good business option for even those who want to make it their exclusive business. Over the years, reseller web hosting has proved itself to be a real lucrative business option.
• Since resellers do not own the web server, resellers do not have to worry about the server requirements and software processes. They can just focus on your key requirements. Furthermore, resellers can use their time, money, and resources in the other services that they might be providing along with the web hosting services.
• One of the key benefits that resellers enjoy is that web hosting service providers formulate special reseller plans. These special plans enable the resellers to buy web space at a reduced price. This helps them offer enticing proposals to their respective clients.
• Since resellers are not the actual web hosts, they just act as an agent for an actual web hosting service provider. This enables them to relieve themselves of a lot of duties and responsibilities of a web host. This in turn means that resellers can avoid a lot of problems, as all the web hosting problems would be sorted out by the actual web host.

Small Website Web Hosting

January 2, 2007

Different online business requirements have different web hosting requirements. What is good for one may not be the same for others. It emphasizes the importance of understanding your online business requirements, and then picking a right web host service provider.

If you have a small online business, you might not need huge web hosting requirements, but even those small requirements can be distinct in its own way, something that you would understand better. In fact, a small website can at times grate on you. This is for the reason that launching and hosting a small website can have its own long-winded problems.

Here a few tips on small website web hosting.

• Before you move onto getting your website hosted know your website requirements as well as its objectives.
• Small website usually means small budget. This in turn means that you have to look for a web host service provider that can give you the requisite services at a low price.
• Low price services can be quite irritating sometimes. Although, you might not need huge disk space, and your bandwidth requirement may not be that big either; yet, you need your web host to get the basics right. But, the problem is that many of the low-cost web hosting service providers lack the efficiency and the professionalism to satisfy your business requirements. However, this does not mean that you cannot get your small website hosted at a low-price. The point is that you should be ready to search the right web host.
• You have to delineate your requirements with regard to your budget. In fact, even with a limited budget, you can smartly pick a web host service provider that could offer the services and features you want.
• A small online enterprise must keep close tabs on the costs involved in the web hosting process. Apart from the costs involved in getting the disk space and meeting the bandwidth requirements, you have to watch out for any hidden expenses.
• You have to be clear about all the features of the deal. Sometimes, a web host service provider offers an enticing low-price deal, but later on it makes you pay a lot. Such web host service providers may ask for more money for service enhancements and updates at a later stage. Therefore, it is advisable that you check all the aspects of the costs involved.
• A small website may not be that way forever. As your business grows, the website would also expand. Therefore, pick a web host that offers the flexibility to make the requisite additions and alterations in the processes.