Unlimited Bandwidth: Web Hosting Fact Or Myth?

The amount of data transferred over the internet in a certain amount of time is known as ‘Bandwidth’. Most of the web hosting companies set a monthly limit on bandwidth available for your website. You may exceed these limits by making payment for additional bandwidth usage in some cases while in others; your website will be taken off the net if such limits are crossed.

In simple terms, bandwidth measures the amount of data transmitted from your web space. At your website, if 100 users view a webpage of 40 KB in size at one moment, a total of 4000 KB of data is transferred from the web host’s server to the client’s computer.

While selecting a web host, consider the amount of bandwidth required by your website according to two main factors:

• size of website

• customer traffic: existing as well as potential

For small websites with less or no audio/video downloads and low popularity, there is need for about 500 MB of bandwidth per month. Some small websites may be visited by a large number of people. In such a case, you will need higher level of bandwidth. Choose a web hosting package accordingly.

For huge websites providing audio/video downloads and high customer traffic, bandwidth requirements will be considerably higher. It may vary from 10 – 500 GB or different websites.
A lot of web hosting companies attract customers by offering ‘unlimited’ bandwidth as part of their hosting plans. These should be avoided as here is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth. You get what you pay for. So, ‘unlimited bandwidth’ is a myth, not reality as is believed by many gullible website owners.

You can establish this fact by various ways. First, check the terms of service of the web hosting company. These will disclose the amount of bandwidth actually available for your website. Secondly, there will be restrictions on file transfers of various kinds and sizes. Thirdly, this claim is often made by fake web hosting companies that run with your money after a few months of service.

In reality, web hosting companies offer unlimited bandwidth because most websites use very small amount of bandwidth and disk space. in the highly competitive web hosting market, companies use this as a marketing strategy to allure maximum customers. This may not always amount to dishonesty, especially when the web host provides detailed information about the bandwidth in their service agreement.

In short, unlimited bandwidth web hosting plans should be used only if your server space and bandwidth requirements are very low. Otherwise, such plans should be avoided. For ecommerce websites and online businesses, there is need for continuous uptime and reliable web hosting services. You will need to plan extension of bandwidth limits as your business expands with time and rise in customer demand.

The Most Important Element Of Web Hosting

When you go for web hosting package shopping, there are many things that you keep in mind. While some customers prefer bandwidth and disk space, others consider price as the imperative factor.

In this competitive web hosting industry, you will come across thousands of hosts offering different feature packed plans to suit the varying needs of customers. It is important to select a web hosting company that helps your website to stand apart from similar websites and build brand loyalty.

The most important thing to consider while looking for the right web hosting plan is the customer support provided by the hosting company. this service is ignored by most web hosts while they concentrate on giving add-on features for other purposes. If your website goes down, all the attractive features will be worthless when the customer fails to access them.

While selecting a web hosting company, make sure that the technical and customer support system is superlative. These should never be ignored while testing the quality of a web host.

Indicators of an unsuitable web host include:
• One line or one word support responses to your queries
• Frequent resubmission of tickets or emails to get solutions to important issues
• Vague answers to specific questions
• Long time spent in waiting for your calls to be answered
• Customer support personnel being unable to provide optimal solutions in real time
A good web host will notify the customers of potential downtime to enable them to take suitable measures. Your websites may be your bread and butter and you might need to inform customers about inaccessibility during a certain period. This is better than sudden errors in web pages.

The key ingredient to satisfactory web hosting is high quality, prompt customer service. Different requests may need varying amounts of time for giving response. Web hosting companies should keep notifying the customers about the status of their requests while they look for apt solutions.

Even though this element of web hosting s often overlooked by website owners as well as web hosts themselves, there is nothing more important than a reliable support system for making your websites successful and profitable.

Glossary Of Important Web Hosting Terms

Millions of web pages are added to the World Wide Web each day. As the Internet continues to grow in popularity and scope, more and more people are using it to fulfill their varied ambitions. To suit the needs of diverse websites, a wide range of web hosting types are available to support them. You may have a website for personal hobby, informative portal, online business or any other purpose. Web hosting companies have various plans that suit the needs of all kinds of websites.

Some of the most common types of web hosting include:

• Shared web hosting
• Dedicated web hosting
• Colocation hosting
• FrontPage web hosting
• Hosting with templates
• PHP web hosting
• Reseller hosting
• Windows hosting
• ASP web hosting
• Budget hosting
• Ecommerce web hosting

It is important to understand the common web hosting terminology before you select a web hosting plan for your website. There are many people who end up buying the wrong package due to ignorance about the meaning and importance of various features included in the web hosting plan.

a)    Cost
Web hosting plans may be cheap, affordable or budget web hosting. This is the single most important determinant of the purchase decision for small website owners. Web hosting plans may start from free hosting and go upto hundreds of dollars for high profile websites. However, most web hosting packages will be available for less than $5 per month.
b)    Coding
You may or may not have any knowledge about the various programming languages that are used to create websites. The most common ones include ASP. PERL, PHP and JSP.

c)    Operating system
Except ASP, all programming languages will work on Windows, UNIX and Linux. This enables flexibility for the website owner while choosing an operating system.

d)    Web servers
Web server is the place where your website will be housed. The web host may offer shared web hosting, dedicated or co-located servers. The price of the web hosting package will also vary according to the server space offered. While shared hosting plans are the cheapest, dedicated hosting can be availed for $50 – $100 per month according to the bandwidth and disk space limits.

The above list is not exhaustive. It only outlines the basic web hosting terms to help beginners in understanding the main elements of web hosting. Apart from these, there are various other factors like security system, email accounts, domain names, and applications that affect the decision regarding the effectiveness of a web hosting plan.

Web Hosting Space Optimization And Add-on Domains

When you want to get multiple domain names registered but don’t want to pay for another web hosting account, creating an add-on domain will be the best solution for your online business.

A new domain added to the main domain will be called an “add-on domain”. A sub directory will be created under the main web hosting directory but it is capable of showing a separate website. The disk space and bandwidth of your main account will only be used by the add-on domain account to collect information. The only difference will be that there is no separate control panel for an add-on domain.

With an add-on domain account, you will get various advantages such as:

• Money and server space savings due to the use of a single web hosting account for multiple domain names
• Ability to make several websites through one web hosting account
• Features like website statistics, shopping cart and FTP manager are automatically added to the new domain
• The add-on directory can be used to upload additional images, forums, scripts and other applications
• Marketing of multiple websites is possible from a common hosting account with the help of keywords

To create an add-on domain, you need to get the new domain registered with a domain name registrar. The next step is to direct the add-on domain account’s DNS of your web hosting company. The DNS will take 24-48 hours to propagate over the Internet before you start uploading your files. Use the control panel to fill in details for the new domain and click ‘add domain’ button to get the new domain added. Once this has been done, you can upload images, pages and other required information.

Selection of a web hosting company should always be done with this feature in mind. A web host which allows add-on accounts will help you enjoy maximum flexibility and save your money and web space. A web host that doesn’t give the option to create multiple domains is not good enough to support a growing online business.

Surely, Add-on domains are a great way to expand your online presence as well as optimize web space.

Technical Support Is A Key Web Hosting Component

If you are one of the many people who think that web hosting is all about bandwidth and disk space, read on. With so many web hosting companies claiming to be the best in the industry, you will find an endless list of attractive web hosting plans as soon as you start looking for one.

But how do you ensure that you’re not a victim of one of those web hosting scams which are so common nowadays? It’s simple. Test the technical support of the web host.

Even though most people think that bandwidth and server space will determine the performance of their website, it is much more important to verify the quality of tech support. When your website faces any problem, you will need fast and reliable solutions. If that isn’t available, your website will suffer significant losses in terms of money as well as reputation.

The technical support staff should be ready to attend any and every query at all times of the day or night. This requires a 24X7 service and any web host which fails to provide the same is not worth your money.

Another aspect is website monitoring. There should be adequate provision for in-house staff which records, analyses and monitors the website performance al the time. This does not include weekdays but also weekends and holidays.

Don’t make the mistake of believing what you see. In the web hosting industry, what you see may not be the same as what you get. So, it is imperative to check the validity of the web hosting company’s claims. This can be done by testing the technical support personnel for business knowledge and expertise.

The best way to ensure tech support quality is to make a call at midnight or send an email at any time of the day. If you get prompt response, this will indicate reliability of the host. However, your calls may not be attended by a human or may be put on hold for a long time. This means that the web hosting company doesn’t’ take their customer service function seriously.

The competence of the technical support staff and their ability to provide real time, accurate solutions is key to ensure uninterrupted website performance. The worst thing for your business would be an inaccessible site which may be abandoned by customers in favor of a competitor’s website. To avoid such a situation, choose a web host that is technically sound as well as possesses all the other requisite features.

Why Web Hosting Response Time Is Important For Your Business

Anyone who has used the Internet would have had the experience of waiting for website pages to download while they stare at the computer screen. If it’s the website you are cursing, you don’t know the real cause of such delay.

Every website resides on a server. This is a remote computer system which houses thousands of websites or a single one, according to the kind of hosting in consideration. When you want to access a webpage on a particular website, the browser sends a request to this server. The “Response Time” is the time taken by the server to acknowledge the website query or request.

For website owners, it is imperative to learn the basic of response time and understand how it is measured. This can enable you to improve your online performance and reduce the risk of losing customers to competitor websites.

When you purchase a web hosting plan, make sure that it included website statistics as a feature. This implies that the various data records and related information will be collected and saved by the web host on your behalf. You can access such information and analyze the factors for your website’s performance.

Response time measurements should be a part of these statistics. These are great indicators of web hosting server performance. Response time data should be available for your reviewing as and when required.

Usually, response time measurement is undertaken by web hosting companies or third party services. You need to be technically advanced and capable of understanding complex scripts and codes for accurate measuring of response time. Very few website owners are adept at these tasks. It is better to restrict yourself to analysis and monitoring of response time. Your web host must offer the data in a simple, easy to understand manner. Now, there are also online tools to make a comparison of your website’s response time with other similar websites.

The response time of your website should not exceed 1-2 seconds. Otherwise, you may risk losing customers to competitors if no corrective action is taken. Don’t hesitate to point out slow response time to your web hosting provider. They should improve upon their server performance to enable speedy website loading.

Response time is definitely an important factor for having an efficient website. a website with good response time will have more potential for sales and profits as compared to a highly attractive but slow website.

Emphasize Technical Support While Choosing A Web Hosting Company

While selecting a web hosting company, there are various criteria which must be kept in kind. Commonly, you may look at the disk space, uptime, backup, security, price, etc. most web hosts will offer uptime of 99.9% for your website but very few of them actually perform accordingly. There are many technical issues which will cause downtime when you actually start using the website actively.

For running an effective website, there is need for excellent technical support. You may have adequate disk space, bandwidth, uptime guarantee and latest applications but if you get stuck at any point, all these features will not help you. From basic to complex level, website owners require technical support at various times.

Reputable web hosting companies will offer a 1 hour support guarantee for prompt rectification of your queries. Some problems may take a longer time period to be solved. In such a case, the web host should give a request status report. You should know how much time will be required to get your website up and running again.

Check the service contract for technical support details before purchasing a web hosting package. It is always better to test the customer and technical support staff by calling on the contact numbers provided on the website. If you have to wait for a long time to get solutions to your problems or get repeatedly put on hold, you must look for another web host.

Also, it is imperative that a human answers your queries. Different websites may face different problems and a standard automatic response cannot fulfill every request. There are many people who will be attracted by the cheap, feature packed web hosting packages offered by thousands of hosting companies. However, you must look beyond the “window dressing” and put the claims to actual test.

Your online business may or may not be your source of bread and butter. It is still important to get the best possible support for your website. This is necessary for a rewarding online experience. Remember that only disk space and price aren’t the determining factors for a reliable web hosting company. The quality of technical support is equally, if not more, important.

Understanding Ecommerce Web Hosting Templates

Having basic HTML knowledge may seem to be enough for creating a simple website but it is inadequate to make a professional, sophisticated website. For ecommerce websites, the design incorporates many complex features such as navigation, content, colors, logo, interactive applications, etc.

With web hosting companies offering web design templates as part of their hosting packages, it has become much easier to create a well-designed, impressive website. Simple website templates will cost upto $20 but business-oriented, ecommerce websites are more costly, ranging from $100 – $1000 or even more for high-end websites.

Apart from design templates, ecommerce websites require other features like shopping cart, security system like SSL encryption and online payment processing. All these are offered by reputable web hosting companies at reasonable prices, which vary according to the volume of transactions of the website.

Selecting an Ecommerce web hosting plan involves the analysis of various factors like:

Multiple payment options
The customers should be able to pay through various modes such as credit card, smart card, PayPal accounts, online check, etc.

Product restrictions
some web hosting packages may restrict the number of products and categories which can be put in a website. This reduces your website’s flexibility and variety available to the customers. You must also enquire about additional charges to setup new categories or add new products.

Emails
ecommerce websites use email accounts for marketing as well as communication purposes. There should be automatic notification to the customers about the order placement, status, processing, etc.

Costs involved
ask about the fees charged for the ecommerce hosting and design plan and the system for payment; monthly, quarterly or annually. Also, check whether there is any additional cost for setting up a new online store under the same account.

Analyze the transaction volume of your website before selecting a web hosting plan. Keep all the above stated factors in mind and make a smart choice for hosting your online business.

What Web Hosting Downtime Means For Your Online Business?

One of the most dreadful situations is customers failing to get requested information at your website due to downtime error. This may lead them to look for desired data from competitor websites and result in loss of profits as well as reputation for you.

Downtime refers to the amount of time for which a website remains inaccessible. This occurs due to excessive load on the server on which the website is hosted. It involves both hardware and software failure. You risk losing existing customers, drive away potential clients, incur additional support costs and losses and above all, your business image.
Definitely, your business can’t afford downtime!

It all comes down to the reliability and functional efficiency of the web hosting company chosen by you. a reliable web host will ensure minimal downtime for your website. Look for a host offering at least 99.9% uptime guarantee, not just service availability. If they do not fulfill their claim, the hosting company will have to compensate you for losses incurred due to downtime.

However, many web hosting companies use a single server to handle all requests. If this server crashes or suffers from a power or software failure, the entire collection of websites housed on it will go offline. Make sure that you choose a web host that has redundancy measures in place. They should be able to deal with network downtime instantly rather than keeping website owners and customers stranded for hours or even days.

Reputable web hosting providers offer High Availability network. This ensures connectivity to surplus resources like routers, switches and carriers. Backup generators also enable continuous running of websites in case of power failures. There should be provision for temperature and humidity control to avoid excessive heating up of servers.
Another feature of High Availability servers is RAID. Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks implies the use of multiple hard disks as a single combined disk. One disk failure does not affect the performance of the entire array of disks in the server.

Clustering is an advanced technique to avoid downtime and increase server performance substantially. It allows connection of two servers wherein one is a primary server handling all active requests while the other is a backup. In case of server failure, the second server takes over within seconds. This eliminates hardware failure, file corruption and software errors.

Maximizing web hosting uptime involves provision and monitoring of redundant network, hardware, power and server. For personal or simple websites, downtime may not be a critical issue. However, ecommerce websites with substantial web traffic should select a web hosting company with all the above features to reduce downtime and enhance online business time, customer access and profitability.

Web Hosting For Multiple Websites

It has become a common practice for enterprises to own more than one website. This is due to the significant reduction of domain name registration and web hosting.

Firstly, you must decide whether you want to host all the websites with the same web hosting company. Commonly, web hosting providers offer web hosting packages that include this feature. This means that you can set up multiple websites through a single account or get a number of accounts, each for every site you setup.

It is better to stick to a reliable web host for multiple website hosting rather than trying a new one which has not been tested yet. You can avoid wastage of time and money which may occur in case of an inferior web hosting provider. Check for discounts offered by your current host on multiple accounts or sites.

In contrast, if you are not satisfied with your present web hosting company’s services, hosting a new website with another web host is a good idea. This will give you an opportunity to test the new host and compare their services with the current one.

Your sites may rank higher in search engine results by hosting them with different web hosts. This happens when you get a different IP address for each website. An important factor for getting your website ranked well is the links from other websites. If these are from the same IP address, search engines may not assess your website as valuable.

However, if you have decided to host all the websites with a single web host, you can do this in three ways:

1: Individual Account
Your web hosting company may provide a separate account for each website rather than a single one for all websites.

2: Reseller Account
In this case, you are an intermediary between the web hosting company and the customer, which is you, in this case. This enables you to host your own websites by becoming a reseller for the web hosting provider.

3: Dedicated Server
If you want total control of your websites, this option will be suitable for you. You have the power to use any operating system, install any software and data bases for your websites. Remember that you will be responsible for maintaining the website and regularly check its performance, update various features and provide technical support yourself. Also, this is a much more expensive alternative as compared to the other options.
Analyze your budget and the requirements of your websites before deciding the kind of web hosting option which suits you most. Multiple website hosting is provided by most web hosts at competitive prices, so it should not be a problem to find the best one for you.