Why should you Consider Secure Web Hosting

Most of us today are well aware that having your presence on the internet through means of your very own website can do wonders for you. The basic requirement for each and every business is a website that is secure and reliable and can be trusted. Trust is the name of the game that is essential for the success of all types of businesses.

Web Hosting security

People who own a website and do online business need to splash around their product and service for a successful business and for this they need to use the service of a secure ad reliable web host that is ready to handle all their website work in an organized and professional way that will so web hosting security is the basic reason that people work with web hosting companies. 

Most of the web hosing companies offer different web hosting security features that make things work out in your best interest and all your payments are handled in a secure way while all your data remains intact and is taken care of. These sites also offer back ups for you confidential data so that things are not muddled up and web hosting security handles all this with ease. Web hosting security is essential for people who are involved in E- commerce websites as with the increasing security threats more and more people are looking out for safe ways to get things done in a secure way.

Web hosting security requires a cage structure that is offered by most web hosting sites because a cage structure gives the website complete privacy from the other sites and no one can interfere with their sites.

Security audits should be done on regular bases so that hackers can’t avail the secure data of their privileged clients.

The website should have a firewall web hosting security so that they can also prevent other websites form initiating attacks.

Regular security checks should be carried out to keep things flowing smoothly without any security leap holes.

Strong passwords should be used to secure your sites and a combination of letters and words should be used.

It is always best to choose your password carefully and avoid using common words. a perfect antivirus and firewall system should be installed for web hosting security so that is no chance of your data leaking out.

People who use a logon exit program really play it safe as this is the most effective way to prevent hackers from to enter your site.

You should always make sure that the server availability is secure enough and the web hosting company offers you a perfect affordable and secure web hosting plan and it also tries to help you out to register your domain name. And the web hosting company should have at least an experience of five years and should be on the alert and continuously try to update the operating systems and kernels to keep in tune.

How much worth my web hosting service

If the term of web hosting means something to you at all, than you already have a web hosting provider or are looking for a new one. Before you choose a web hosting company for personal or business reason, you should know if your investment worth the money.

Web Hosting support

Reviewing a hosting company, what would you put on the first place? Support, price, service? All of these are important, but the primary is the support. Many companies have different kind of support, but how does it work? A good support should be online every day, 24/7 by phone call and email as well. The response time is also very important, because your problem need to be solved fast! Technicians should be friendly and educated to explain and manage you situation, and of course, to speak your language!

The next step is to look for hosting company features, if they can provide that service, what you need, or you should look elsewhere. Some basic things are really necessary for each hosting account like bandwidth amount, the number of domains that you can host or park on the account, the hosting space, free advertising or free designs, but you should look very carefully if the hosting company gives you the ability to put on your account ecommerce websites, blogs, forums, any cms scripts that require database and space.

Web hosting price

The last thing you should consider is the price for a monthly package. In most of the cases, you can buy a hosting service for minimum 6 or 12 months. If you buy for more years, the cost per month could be very different between 12 month plan and 36 month plan. We don’t suggest you to get the cheapest web hosting, or the most expensive. You should search for the hosing plan that satisfy your needs and is affordable. If you don’t need extra options just let them, and why should you pay for what you don’t need. Be careful who you make business with and keep in mind you get what you pay for.

In summary we want to remember that the web hosting service is changing time to time, and if you get a better hosting with more features for lower price, and they have a good customer feedback, don’t be afraid to change your hosting company if you have to.

Do You Really Own Your Web Site?

If you have a web site, chances are you hired someone to help you get it launched. If you did, you have three primary components under the umbrella of "a web site." There is your domain name, also known as a "URL" or your web address. There is your web hosting - the space you rent on a server out there somewhere, to put your web site on. And then there is your web site itself, which is a combination of HTML files and images which are uploaded to that web hosting you rent.

The most cautious rule of thumb is that you should have three separateproviders - a domain name registrar, a web hosting company, and a web site designer. The reason many web experts believe this is that if you have a problem with one, you still have control over the other two. For example, if your web hosting company causes you problems, you have your web content, and you have access to your domain, and you can easily shut off one hosting account, find another, and move your site. If your web designer goes bad, you can at least change access to your site, move it or provide the information to a new designer. Conversely, if you have all three components in one place, you run the risk of finding yourself without a web site, perhaps temporarily, or worst case, having to start from scratch.

Although I'm personally a believer in keeping it all separate, the majority of business people don't think like that and a great many folks have gone for an "all in one" situation where the hosting, domain and web site are with one provider. Whatever your scenario is, there is one absolutely critical piece of information you should take from this article. You MUST have administrative control over all three components of your web presence: domain, hosting and content. You don't have to DO anything with it - except print out the access information and stash it away. You can rely on someone to manage it all for you, like I do for most of my clients. But if you don't have this information, you don't really own your web site!

Even if you have a wonderful relationship with your service provider, stop and ask yourself the following:

Do you know the name of the domain registration company?

Do you have the username and password to access your domain account?

Are you certain that YOU are listed as the legal owner of the domain?

Do you know where your web site is hosted?

Do you have the "FTP" (this stands for file transfer protocol) username and password to get to your web site on the host server?

A frightening number of new clients come to me without this information, and very often, they've already run into trouble and need help. In some cases, they have had to start all over with a new web site. In one situation, a client almost lost her domain name because the "all in one" company she had paid for a web site had made themselves the legal owners of the domain!

Don't wait until you have a problem - make sure YOU own your web site, right now.

Load Balancing And Yahoo!

A high-volume site like Yahoo! knows that the actual quality of service any web server provides to end users basically depends on network-transfer speed and server response time. Network-transfer speed refers to the Internet-link bandwidth while server-response time depends upon resources including fast CPU, lots of RAM and good I/O performance. Once these resources are exhausted and the web-server is encountering heavy traffic, a problem would surely arise. 

The FTP protocol lets you transfer data files from one computer to another. Your web hosting company will give you the information you need to connect to your site with FTP.

You normally would use software like WS_FTP or FileZilla to connect. Your FTP address will usually be ftp.yourdomain.com.

Your web host will also tell you where your files should be uploaded to on the server. There is usually a folder in the root directory of your website called public_html, www or something similar. This is where you need to store all your website files to make them accessible to the public on the internet.

You might have to adjust some settings in your FTP software to make the files upload properly. eg. If you're running a firewall on your computer (or a hardware firewall) you may need to set the transfer method to "passive". And if you're using a proxy server, you'll have to adjust those settings as well.

Files can be transferred with FTP in either ASCII or binary mode. If you use the wrong mode to transfer, you could end up with errors. Your FTP software might automatically determine which method to use by looking at the contents of the files you're transferring. It's possible that you might have to specify the mode manually, however.

Files that should be sent as ASCII include HTML (and variations like HTM, SHTML, etc.), TXT, ASP, JS, PHP, etc. Essentially, any file that you would open with a text editor should be transferred as ASCII.

Binary mode is used to transfer files such as graphics, compiled programs and media files.

With your FTP software, connect to your web server. Open the folder where you're going to upload the files and then find the files on your computer that you're going to send. You can transfer individual files or entire directories using FTP.

Most of the pages on your website can be named anything you want, but the home page or main page in any subdirectories should be named index.htm (or .html, .php, etc.) The name "index" tells the web server that this is the file that should be displayed by default.

So if someone goes to www.mydomain.com, what they're actually going to see is www.mydomain.com/index.html, the web server just displays that file automatically so they don't need to enter the "index.html" part.

If you don't put an index file in each directory on your site, people might be able to browse the directory and see "behind the scenes" on your website. This can be a security issue in some cases, so it's always a good idea to put an index page in each directory, even if it's just a blank page.

What Other Ways Can You Upload Your Website?

FTP isn't the only way to upload your web pages. Many web page creation programs have transferring built-in. Probably the most common example of this is Microsoft Frontpage. If your web host supports Frontpage, you can upload your site from within Frontpage itself and you don't need to worry about how or where to transfer things. Frontpage takes care of everything for you.

Some web hosts also offer online site-builders. These builders work within your web browser and let you layout your web pages. Once your pages are finished, they automatically get saved to the appropriate location on your server.

These online site-builders are usually available through the control panel in your hosting account.

Web Hosting and Why Service Is King

If you are an Internet business owner, you definitely have a website. Where you choose to maintain that site makes a big difference. You can’t afford to trust your Internet business to just any web hosting company. You need a web hosting company that understands that service is all they really have to offer.

No one can dispute the fact that server speed and reliability, upgraded hardware and software and web hosting features are all important. After all, these are the features that will determine how fast your Internet business will be able to grow and expand. You don’t want to have to change web hosting companies in the middle of the game. Ideally, you want to stay with the same web hosting company for as long as you own your business. It just makes life easier.

Time Is Money

One important aspect of web hosting that people frequently overlook is the service. Yes, price matters, but service matters even more. Low prices won’t mean a thing if your website is down. If your site goes down, you lose sales – it is as simple as that. Also, when you have an Internet business, time is money. You don’t want to waste time waiting for the web host to provide you with that much-needed support. Every minute, hour or day that you have to wait for answers is another day that you could have spent doing what matters most – providing service to your customers and increasing your bottom line.

Why Service Counts More

These days, it is hard to find a web hosting company that focuses almost entirely on customer service. Yet, if you are able to find one of them, you will have hit the jackpot! A web hosting company that specializes in customer service is very valuable to you. Why? Because their aim is to keep you happy as a customer. This means that they will answer your calls promptly and provide you with the very best service. Additionally, because their focus is on you, the customer, this means that they want your business to succeed as well. It is in their best interest to make sure that they are providing you with the tools that you need for your business to be successful. Instead of trying to sell you a cookie-cutter web hosting package that has been sold to hundreds, perhaps thousands of businesses, they will listen to your needs and be able to customize a web hosting package especially designed for your business. In addition, they will:

Provide customer support 24/7

Give you real-time access to their server status

Give you a money-back guarantee

Assist you with moving your website from another web hosting company

Have a toll-free customer support phone number

Consult with you on customized solutions for your busines

Your Internet business is your livelihood – don’t leave it to chance. Your choice of web hosting company can make the difference between the success and failure of your business. By choosing a web hosting company that focuses on service, you can make the right decision and give your business a fighting chance!

Reseller Web Hosting Explained

Reseller web hosting is a web hosting service that re-bundles services available from real hosts or primary providers. Reseller web hosting could be an individual or small business that makes use of the bandwidth and web servers of a higher tier provider or primary host and resells the same to the customers by offering value added services like web designing, domain registration and web programming.
Most real hosting companies allow reseller web hosting in order to boost their sales. Recently, a significant number of web hosting businesses have infiltrated the internet with an eye on the ever-growing number of people who are jumping online. In order to remain competitive, hosting companies look for ways to market their services to a greater number of people rather than offering their services individually. This leads to the business of reseller web hosting accounts. In reseller web hosting, real hosts are able to generate bulk businesses and delegate individual clients to reseller servers. In turn, reseller web hosting businesses look after some individual client’s needs. This is a win-win situation for both, since real hosts will have an intermediary in the form of reseller web hosting to individual customers without having to attend to them one by one. The reseller is also able to put up a business and earn income without having to shell out capital outlays. Although in some instances they do compete with each other for a fair share of the web hosting market, the real hosts can still benefit from this set-up considering they do charge a certain amount from resellers.
The services offered by a reseller web hosting service do not really differ from a real host. As a matter of fact, reseller web hosting offers more features to the customers. Due to the added value services, reseller web hosting can offer web design and programming services to each customer that are often times not possible from real hosts. Real hosts tend to focus on bulk accounts and corporate clients. Reseller web hosting offers value added services to customers in order to maintain a competitive edge against bigger web hosting services.
Reseller web hosting is also better able to establish friendly relationship with their customers that go beyond the contract terms. This is the secret for those successful reseller web-hosting services. They fill the need that bigger hosting servers cannot provide. Those who want to start a reseller web hosting business are advised to look for a real host, such as Hostgator or SpeedHostingZ.com. It is very easy to obtain a reseller account from a real host these days.
If you need simple hosting services for your web site and you prefer to have personal attention from the web host for design and programming then a reseller web hosting account is highly recommended. However, if you have a business website that requires complex e-commerce solutions, have a very large number of customers accessing your web site or you have a large number of websites to be hosted, a reseller hosting would probably not suffice. This is particularly true for e-businesses. For this, you need a real host provider for your web site.

What's New With Google Webmaster Tools

Occasionally, Google sneak through some changes without any fanfare, just quietly going about the business of giving their customers what they want.  In this article, we'll look at two recent changes to Google Webmaster Tools.

Outdated Software Alerts

If your website software becomes outdated, you leave your site open to attack.  Following on from their popular security alert service, Google are preparing to roll out a service to alert webmasters to website software updates and releases.  The service will also alert customers to new modules and plugins for existing programs as they appear.  The alert will be based on inserting software version numbers into the meta-tags.  An alert will automatically be generated when the crawler finds a lower number than the latest version.

PageRank

If you look in Google Webmaster Tools now, you'll notice that the Page Rank function has been removed.  This follows on from Google's continual insistence that webmasters were placing too much emphasis on PageRank, above other, more relevant indexing considerations.  Although PageRank does have a bearing on a website's place in the index, and all webmasters should aim for a "green" ranking, the truth is it's only one out of a couple of hundred factors to take into consideration.  Google are very keen for webmasters to see the whole picture, and have a detailed FAQ on Google and SEO.

PageRank can still be found in the Google Toolbar, for those who wish to use it.

The One Page Guide To Web Hosting

Web hosting is a term that you've almost certainly heard, but which you may not totally understand.  Perhaps you're aware that it's something to do with looking after your website, but you're not sure about all the different types of hosting that are available.  This article will answer all of your questions, and help you to make the right choices if you're about to leap into the world of running your own websites.

First of all, we need to be clear what web hosting actually means.  As the name suggests, it's simply a way of hosting your website on the internet.  You buy or lease server space from a web host company, who host the technical code that makes up your web page on their computers.  If your website is a circus act, the web host is the circus tent, and like circus tents, web hosts come in all shapes and sizes.

Different types of web hosting

Free Shared Hosting

There are companies who will allow you to host your website for free.  If you're just experimenting with websites, or if you just have a few personal projects that you want to get online for fun, this might be a good choice.  Be aware, however, that free shared hosting tends to be very basic, and tends to look quite cheap and nasty, with pop-ups and banner ads and so on.

Paid Shared Hosting

The next step up, of course, is to pay for your shared hosting.  Shared hosting simply means that your website sits on a server alongside hundreds, if not thousands, of other websites.  This is the option that you're most likely to come across.  It's within most individual's price range, and is designed to be easy to access and use.

Dedicated Hosting/Dedicated Servers

Dedicated hosting means that you're paying for exclusive use of your own server.  That means greater security, speed, bandwidth and traffic capacity for your website, but it also means greater expense.  It tends to be the option favored by larger businesses.  Co-location is a type of dedicated hosting, which means that a server is built and designed for your specific needs.  As you might expect, this is a very expensive option indeed, and only used by large corporations, government concerns, academic institutions and so on.

Virtual Dedicated Servers/Virtual Private Servers

This type of web hosting involves dividing up space on one actual server into several virtual servers.  For all intents and purposes, you're buying your own dedicated server, it just happens to physically exist on the same computer as several other users.  You get all the benefits of a dedicated server, but for a fraction of the cost.

All About Dedicated Hosting Providers

Unless overtly listed otherwise, most web hosting packages you’ll come across in your search are what are called shared hosting providers. What this means is that the server or servers that host your website are simultaneously hosting numerous other websites also. This gives you a discounted rate on web hosting services in exchange for tolerating certain technical constraints, like bandwidth, disk space, upload and download speeds, security and privacy, traffic, and probably the most notable restriction -- total control.

f you want total control not only over the administration of your website but also over the very hardware and software used to run it, then you should be evaluating not shared hosting providers, but dedicated hosting providers. If your business is large enough or growing fast enough that it requires its own internet connection and server, you may need a dedicated web host.

What’s the downside to going with dedicated hosting providers? In a word: responsibility. In most areas of life, with total control comes total responsibility, and it’s no different with hosting providers. With a dedicated server, the onus is on you to buy, install, and maintain the actual equipment -- the server itself -- mounted in the dedicated hosting providers’ data center.

Fortunately, you still get the benefit of their presumably top-notch, around-the-clock security over the physical premises, but you remain fully responsible for the security of your cyber-premises. Likewise, dedicated hosting providers will ensure that the systems in the building are all provided with redundant uninterruptible and backup power and environmental controls, but it’s you who must keep your machines and cables maintained and functioning in this idyll environment.

How do you identify whether it’s time to switch from a shared host to a dedicated host? There are 3 main indicators to stay alert for:

Speed

If the traffic streaming through your shared server is slowing down your customers’ pace as they browse your site (or your employees, if an in-house site), it may simply be time to look for more unencumbered shared hosting. But if you’ve tried several shared hosting providers with the same results, then it may be time to remind yourself how impatient the average web surfer is. While you’re jumping from shared host to shared host trying to save a buck, your customers are jumping ship. Your ability to respond promptly and effectively to customer transactions and inquiries cannot be overemphasized either.

Reliability

The limits to your control are nowhere more apparent than in the areas of reliability and security. It’s not simply that problems can arise: problems do arise. It’s the nature of the biz. And if you don’t have unlimited access to your own operating system, software and database apps, etc., there’s not much you can do when one arises.

Customizability

If your company is growing fast, you’re going to be changing many aspects of your web presence along with it. You may regularly need to tweak your disk space and bandwidth and experiment with using different applications to better serve your changing needs. On a shared host, upgrading in such a way usually involves leaping from one “package” or “plan” to another. These packages are generally preset and may or may not serve your immediate needs. They may be riddled with programs you don’t yet need, for example, yet lack in the one singular program you do. Or the next leap up from your current plan has way more disk space and bandwidth than you need at the moment. With a dedicated server, you can make changes incrementally, step forward, step back, heck, step sideways if you need to -- and when you need to.

In large part, it’s the size and growth rate of your business that will dictate whether you need a shared or dedicated host. Affordability and personal time commitment are nice secondary considerations, but if your business is booming, you would do it a great injustice to try and save on a few bucks and few extra hours per week of your time in exchange for slower and poorer quality of service for your customers.

By the same token, however, if your business is small enough to function quite smoothly on any of the shared hosting providers out there, don’t squander your precious capital on a dedicated server just so you can have total control. Because sometimes total control isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Free Website Hosting Vs. Paid Website Hosting Basics

CPanel is an easy user-interface site that lets you control your host account environment. The main peculiarity of this operating system is that it so simple to use that your below average computer user can�t mess it up. It�s got great features embedded into its panel and  some of the features are listed below. Site Tools 

There are such tools available for your use, which are Web Protect (.htaccess editor), Custom error pages, Redirects, Ability to edit MIME types, Ability to edit Apache handlers, Install/Uninstall FrontPage Extensions, Search engine tool submitting and File Manager. 

Email 

The email program provides you with the possibility to add, remove, and change passwords while managing email accounts. CPanel is also provided by Webmail for the accounts, Auto responders, Forwarders, Mailing Lists, Spam filtering and some more. 

Backup 

Backup allows you to create copies of account files and databases. The backup menu also allows you to download any automatic backups that were downloaded by your CPanel administrator. 

Stats 

Here are different tools to survey your site popularity and efficiency. Those are Webalizer web stats, Webalizer FTP stats, Analog stats, AWStats, View latest visitors, View bandwidth usage and View error log modules. 

FTP 

There is a module that controls FTP accounts (add, remove, change password for its access), Anonymous FTP controls; Ability to change FTP login message and Ability to kill FTP sessions. 

Advanced Stuff 

You have an ability to add or remove subdomains, Subdomain Redirects and its Stats. 

Advanced Tools 

You are provided with tools of SSH access tools, Manage GPG keys and Cron jobs. 

There are also Pre-Installed CGI Scripts. Those are Interchange Cart, Agora Cart, Bulletin Board, Java Chat, HTML Chat, phpMyChat, CGI Wrapper (for non-suexec installs), Random HTML generator, Advanced Guestbook, Counter Generator, Java Clock Generator, Java Countdown Generator, Secure FormMail clone, CGIEmail, Entropy Search, Entropy Banner. Network Tools are DNS Lookup and Traceroute. Database Management tools includes Managing MySQL databases and phpMyAdmin access. 

For beginners, CPanel has a lot of options that are easy to use. CPanel works with most of browsers, such as IE, Opera, Firefox and others.

Bad SEO Tactics and Common Mistakes

Once upon a time, search engine optimization (SEO), was like the Wild West - no rules, and people could do pretty much anything to get their websites up to the top of the search engine listings.  Those days have long gone, however, and the rule of law prevails.  Search engines know all the tricks, and are not slow to penalize any website that attempts to use them.  In this article, we'll look at the things you should definitely avoid if you're trying to optimize your site for web searches.
Duplicate Content
Copying content from another site and placing it on your site is a definite no-no.  Not only is this bad SEO practice, it's copyright infringement too.  You could find yourself in trouble with the law, as well as in trouble with the search engines.  Be aware that other sites might duplicate your content, so if you suspect this has happened and that your  rankings have suffered as a result, contact the search engine immediately.


Cloaking
This is a way of directing visitors to a different website, by disguising or cloaking the information that appears in the address bar.  Search engines have bots that will detect this very easily - but you can't detect them, since they're unnamed and come from undisclosed IP addresses.  Cloaking is a very quick way to get your site banned.
Invisible Keywords
This is the practice of stuffing apparently blank space on a website with keywords, written in the same color as the background so that you can't see them.  You might also find keywords written in a very tiny font at the foot of a web page.  Again, this is something that search engines can easily detect, and it usually results in a ban.


Javascript ManipulationOverusing javascript is a very poor SEO tactic.  Although search engine crawlers can't read javascript at the present time, if there's too much of it on your site, it will set alarm bells ringing and the search engine will start to look for evidence of other banned practices.  Although you can't avoid using javascript to a certain extent, use as little of it as you possibly can, and keep it in separate file from the main site.


In the end, you can't fool the search engines in the long term, so why waste your energy?  If you can devote all the time and ingenuity that you've put into sneaky SEO tactics into making your site user friendly, content rich and legitimately optimized for keywords, your site will naturally climb up the rankings and you'll never have to worry about being banned.

The principles of good e-commerce site design

If you're looking to sell things to your online visitors, rather than simply providing them with interesting content, your site design will need to look very different from that of conventional information sites.  Your e-commerce site design will ultimately decide how many visitors convert into actual sales, so get it wrong and you will directly affect your cash flow.  In this article, we'll look at the principles you should follow when you design your e-commerce site.

Visitors to an e-commerce site are looking to part with cash, but they will not do so if they feel in anyway insecure about it, or if it's any way difficult.  Over and above a pretty design, therefore, you need to attend to the technical aspects of buying online - a decent shopping cart, a range of payment options, and an emphasis on security.

Securing e-commerce websites

Work on making your visitors feel safe and at ease.  Look at the websites you regularly buy from, such as Amazon.  They constantly emphasize the security of their payment systems and the ease of making a purchase.  Everything is one-click, and designed to flow, with simple access and straightforward navigation.  Think yourself into your customer's shoes, and ask yourself, "what would make me buy from this site?"

Look at branding.  Nobody wants to buy from a website that looks as if it's been slung together by somebody working from their back bedroom.  Use strong logos, taglines and design elements, everything to convey the message that this is a professional e-commerce site that you can trust.

A shopping cart is the program that actually allows e-commerce to happen.  You therefore want a shopping cart that is as comprehensive and as reliable as possible.  It needs to be user friendly, and it will need to fit in with reliable card processors and payment gateways.  It will need to handle all major payment options.  Your customers don't want to grapple with complicated invoicing or press lots of buttons to make their purchase.  They want to be able to put what they want in the cart and pay for it with as few clicks as possible.

Above all, you need to emphasize security and safety.  Speed and convenience are important, but at the end of the day, nobody will put their credit card details into an online form if they don't think it's safe to do so.  Invest in the most secure payment processor you possibly can, and tell your customers that you have done so.  You can't stress this enough.

In the end, your e-commerce site will live or die according to its ease of use and its security, so make sure your design reflects that.

Free Web Hosting Companies

A web hosting company supplies individuals and companies with the opportunity to store their information regarding their websites on the hosting company’s server. Other people can then access this server when they want to visit a particular website. These web hosting companies will often charge a fee for this service but there are many available that are free.

Before one decides to invest money in a web hosting company, it’s worthwhile to check out all the free services that are available. Not all free web hosting companies are the same, and they sometimes offer very different packages. Depending on if the individual wants to have many different sub-domains or a quick uptime, it’s definitely worth the while to check out many different services. Free web hosting services are not for everyone either. Sometimes, it’s takes a little bit of an investment to get what one is truly looking for.

AeroHostale is a very popular free web hosting company today. This service is offered to individuals that require web space, either for personal or individual use. AeroHostale supplies 200 megabytes of space and the consumer will be provided with FTP, browser, CGI, PHP, FrontPage Extensions, Perl and a domain or sub-domain. For those individuals that don’t need much storage space or bandwidth, this is a very good option.

XetaSpace is another very good choice when looking for a free web hosting company. However, because they only provide fifteen to fifty megabytes of space, it’s best for those that do not have a lot of storage requirements. There are no ads with XetaSpace and the consumer will be provided with upload, browser, PHP, and SSI functions.

275MB is a great free web hosting company. As it’s name suggests, they offer 275 megabytes of space. This company is great for individuals or businesses looking for a web host. There is a banner on top so if this is a downside to the particular website, this is probably not the best choice. 275MB provides the consumer with upload, FTP, browser, CGI, PHP, Perl and a domain or sub-domain.

There is also a company called Gig4Free. This is another free web hosting company, which is suitable for both individuals and businesses. Again, this site has banners so if that’s not what’s needed, another free host may be a better option. However, when the consumer creates an account with Gig4Free, they may be given anywhere from one hundred to one thousand megabytes of space. The consumer will be given upload capability, FTP, browser, CGI, PHP, SSI, FrontPage, Perl and Python.

These are just a few of the free web hosting companies that are available. It is worthwhile to do some research and read everything over carefully when choosing a free web hosting company to know what will be given for the free services. If the individual does not mind having banners and text on their website, there are generally many more companies to choose from.

Why Reliable Web Hosting?

In today's competitive world reliable web hosting is very critical especially for the success of online businesses. Your message or information won't be conveyed on time unless you send it over high-speed network connections backed up by reliable web servers. You need to seek a web hosting company that can provide you with these components and much more.

People usually wonder “why reliable web hosting?” Critical components as listed below are some of the reasons why:

• Server monitoring and 24x7 security to safeguard your site
• Spam filtering
• Firewall protection to protect the site from unwanted trespass
• Daily site backups
• 99.9% uptime guarantee

Reliable web servers with multiple fast connections are critical in ensuring that your web site runs smoothly. Only behind the hosting company's firewall and additional security on their web servers can you seek to keep your website safe from unwelcome intruders. Spam and virus filtering is another essential feature which should be taken into account with all email facilities. This is again possible with only reliable web hosting.

Apart from the above, there are many other useful reasons. Certain components responsible for reliable web hosting not only decrease your stress but also increase productivity. Reliable web hosting is known to provide dependable uptime so that you can make changes on your website and upload it for customers to view in minimal time.

Reliable web hosting is vital for serious business clients who need their web sites to be fully-functional and their domains accessible at all times. These businesses could be any online industry, be it bank, financial institutes, railway and flight online booking sites or even ecommerce sites. Only with help of reliable web hosting can you maintain the highest level of security for discreet user transaction on any website. All ecommerce websites are integrated with payment gateways and if your web hosting is not secure or reliable then anyone can hack your site and you can lose essential online cash flows.

If your site is integrated with a dependable Content Management System (CMS) through which you seek to update your site on daily basis then reliable web hosting becomes all the same critical. To stay ahead in today's online competition you need a secure and flexible website and this is only possible with help of reliable web hosting.

Variations of Web Hosting and its Benefits

Web hosting is all about making a web page available through the World Wide Web, with an internet connection, for anyone across the world to access. As it is become a necessary need in today’s world, these services are offered for free under many circumstances. These services are offered for free as well as for paid situations.

There are several types of web hosting, as each individual’s requirements will vary. There is the free web hosting, where the user gets to host the web page absolutely free of cost. These companies will be powered through advertisements. Most of the free hosting services will go to the personal web pages as they may not need too much data base support.

Next we can look at the shared web hosting, where a web site will be hosted on the same server as many other sites. It may number from a hundred to many thousands. The server resources will be common in this case. In contrast to this there is the clustered hosting, where several servers will host the same web page.

This will be done to make the utilization of the resources much better. Then there is the managed web hosting. This will allow an individual to host his own web page, but he will not be given total control of the server. The users will not be allowed to modify this, as they may change the configuration settings. In this case the server will be leased to the client and they will not be allowed to own it.

The opposite of this is the dedicated web hosting. With this, the user will be given complete control of the server, and he will be responsible for the management of the web page. Most people who know what they need to know about web hosting, will go in for this option. The virtual dedicated web hosting is very interesting.

In this, the users are allowed use a server, where they will feel that they are using their own servers, but they will be sharing the servers with others. They will unable to access virtual space when they use this type of web hosting. The reseller web hosting is for those who want to host the web pages themselves. The accounts of these will vary in size, and they will also function for individual names.

The most expensive web hosting is the collocation type. The physical space will be provided by the hosting company, and the users will own the colo servers. Only certain facilities will be provided for the user with this hosting like the Internet, and storage. As with all services, these web hosting types can be researched before picking the right one.

Since the requirements will vary from person to person, they may choose the right one before hosting the web pages. The Internet provides all the necessary information, for both simple and complicated web pages. Those who are not familiar with the types can gain access to the information through this method.

Things to Keep in Mind while Changing Web Host

What is Web Hosting? Web hosting is a type of service that lets user to put the website on the internet. The part of web hosting comes after the user has decided the domain name and has registered it too. User has three options possible for choosing a web hosting service that a web host can offer. They are virtual private server hosting, shared web hosting and dedicated server hosting. In case a user wants to switch web host then the user should keep following consideration in mind.

User should start looking for new web host at least few days before user run out of credit for present account. This will help in keeping your website on the air for the maximum time. Before switching to the new web host, first make a backup copy of the website in the same tree structure in which you want to upload it later, only the cgi-bin’s location can vary. Also look for any chmod permissions that you might have set on any folder or file. This is so as these permissions need to be reset when files are uploaded to the new web server. Copy of the database/databases has to be made too.

Another consideration that user has to make is that user should be aware of the hosting requirements like beginner are concern with the amount that they have to pay to the disk space they are provided.

If the user is a professional, entrepreneur or online business then the user can make following requirements, which are:-

1. Choosing the type of web hosting: user has mainly two options, Shared server or dedicated server. If a user expects to get huge traffic then the user must go for dedicated server as it has much greater bandwidth then the shared one. This is also required if you need to have complex app, secure information and customized option in your website.
2. Type of OS for hosting: If your website is build on technologies like JSP, ASP etc and require other Microsoft add like MSACCESS or MS SQL database the one should go for windows hosting. On the other hand if the user is using technologies like Cold Fusion then it can run on Linux as well as Windows platform.
3. Bandwidth and Space Requirements:  Many web hosts are providing 1GB – 3GB of disk space but if your site require more space and/or receives lot of traffic then one should consider other web host as this will then just not be enough.
4. Requirement for number of sub domains and parked domains: Parked domain are advantageous for high traffic websites as they can handle them better whereas dub domain helps in improving reputation of your website on the search engine. Most of the web host charge extra money for them.
5. Active more than 99.99%: Many web hosts are now guaranteeing up time of up to 99.99%, but then they are costlier and should be chosen if you require so like in commercial websites.