‘World Wide Web’ is simply an excellent place for sharing information. Those interested in owning a little ‘web space’ must have a clear conception about the term ‘Web Hosting’. 

The information that we view from the web browser is basically contained in a number of web pages. The computers that contain these web pages are known as ‘Web Servers’. Australian web hosting is all about storing these web pages for the viewer’s to easily access them. Many people plan to host their websites themselves but usually they find themselves fighting with countless issues related to the right kind of software and hardware in order to host the web pages successfully. Using a web hosting company that offers excellent capabilities on its web server can save you from most of these worries. 

These days there has been a significant elevation in the number of website hosting providers in Australia. When it comes to choosing a web hosting company, we usually find ourselves in a fix with so many cheap web hosting companies available in the market. 

There are several kinds of cheap web hosting companies but Australian web hosting can be broadly divided into following categories: 

Virtual web hosting: It is also known as ‘Shared Hosting’. As the name very well suggests, innumerable websites share the same space on one or more physical web servers.

Dedicated web hosting: In contrast to Virtual website hosting Australia, dedicated hosting allocates a particular web server that can be used only by a particular customer. A dedicated web hosting company provides several benefits to the customer. The customer can host even multiple websites from that particular server, change the software configuration, modify the bandwidth and handle greater traffic on the website.

Co-location Website hosting: In dedicated web hosting Australia the customer rents the web server, which basically belongs to the web hosting company. But in co-location website hosting the customer can own the web server and hence have a full control over it. The charges vary depending upon the rack space and the monthly bandwidth.

Reseller web hosting: In this type of website hosting, a web hosting company provides web server storage to the reseller (i.e. the third-party) at reasonable rates, who then again resell this particular web server to a number of customers. To these customers, it is the reseller who acts as the web host provider.

Undoubtedly, a website plays an important role in building-up any business. Australian web hosting companies can easily be found on internet and you can go through the terms and features of their hosting plans before going for one of them. It is important to note that cheap and reliable often do not go hand in hand, you must evaluate your website hosting options thoroughly.

Choosing the right web host is a very important process that is all to often hurried through or; simply misunderstood.

Choosing a web host is in fact one the most important parts of setting up an online business. You need a service that is fast; easy to use and understand; provides excellent support; and is serious enough about its operations to guarantee that your website will never be down unless the entire datacenter were completely demolished.

Below is a list of the most common questions and answers to consider when looking for a web host. Understanding the different areas of web hosting and services available will help you to make a better educated decision when you do subscribe to a web hosting service.

What is Web Hosting?

Web hosting is the process of putting your web site on a web server or web host, so everyone connected to the Internet can see it. If you have a permanent connection to the Internet you could host your web site on your own computer, but that is in general not a good idea. A good web host is a real server in a datacenter with a fast high bandwidth connection to the Internet. And, to make sure you can move your web site to another web host, if necessary, you need a web hosting provider that supports domain hosting.

What is Domain Hosting?

Most Internet Service Providers (or ISP) will give you a free web site when they provide you with access to the Internet. They do this because they don’t want to give you a permanent IP address, which is what you need if you’d like to host a web site on your own computer. Unfortunately, most ISPs don’t support domain hosting with their free web sites. Hence, the URL of your web site is an extension of the URL of your ISP. So what happens when you change ISP? You will have to change the URL and nobody can find you anymore.

The use of a domain name for your web site is absolutely necessary for a professional web site, and to host your own domain you will need to find a real web hosting provider with domain hosting. Many web hosting plans actually include the price of a domain registration, so don’t register your domain before you have chosen your web hosting company.

What is Virtual Hosting?

Virtual hosting is often used as a synonym for shared hosting, e.g. you host your web site on a web server with hundreds of other web sites and you share the IP address with these web sites.
The term virtual hosting should imply, however, that while you share the web server it looks from the outside world that you are the only web site on that server. That means that with virtual hosting you should not only have your own IP address, but also a dedicated bandwidth to the Internet and a dedicated slice of the computers processing power. So, if a web hosting provider uses the term virtual hosting, have a close look if these features are offered before you decide on paying a premium price above standard shared hosting.

What is Bandwidth?

Bandwidth is a measure that reflects how much data can be transferred over a data communication channel.
In web hosting plans the allowed bandwidth generally indicates how much data can be downloaded from your web site per month, and therefore indicates how many web pages and pictures your visitors are allowed to download. If the average amount of page views per visitor is assumed constant, the allowable bandwidth restricts how many visitors you are allowed to have per month.
Just as important, however, is how fast the communication channel between your web host and the Internet is. The amount of data that can be transferred per second is also called the bandwidth of this channel, and this bandwidth is shared by all the web sites hosted by the same provider. If this bandwidth is insufficient, you’ll sometimes notice a slow down in the display of your web pages. In most cases, however, such a slow down is more likely to be caused by an overload on the web server itself.

What is a web server?

A web server is either a special computer or server for reliable hosting of web sites, or the software application that runs on that server. The two main web server applications used by most web hosting providers are

Microsoft’s Internet Information Services (IIS) for windows hosting and Apache for Unix hosting. Both use the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to transfer web pages to your web browser.

What is a datacenter?

A datacenter is building, or part of a building, which offers a professional environment for running computer servers. A datacenter will generally have high speed connections to the Internet and other networks, as well as good security to protect against natural hazards, such as fire, and other hazards, such as intruders and hackers.

Web Hosting Summary.

In summary, what are the important things to look for when selecting a web host?

1.Price
2.Datacenter Standards
3.Easy access to a Control Panel
4.Easy to navigate Control Panel
5.24 / 7 Support
6.Host supports scripting languages / databases required to operate your site
7.Multiple packages available (As your business grows you may need to upgrade. Make sure the web host provider will allow you to do this)

This is really just the basics; although all very important things to consider. Most web host will have a FAQ file or Knowledgebase file available which you can read through before signing up.

In most case cheap is not better; in most cases. However I must say the web host I am now using combines an impressive price with impressive services. Over the years I have used approximately 8 10 different web hosts and HostGator.com is in my opinion one of the best I have ever used. But you can see for yourself here:

http://www.hostgator.com

Make sure you go through the checklist above while browsing their site and you’ll get a better feel for comparing web host services.

Registering Your Domain? I have always used GoDaddy.com as do many other internet experts I have spoken with. I can safely recommend their service without hesitation.

Good luck and as always feel free to drop me an email if you have any questions concerning this article or most any aspects of starting your own online business.

Best regards,
Joseph Murray

http://www.aitechworld.com

When you start your own website, you want to make sure that you have reliable, decent hosting – if your host is down all of the time, your site might as well not even exist in the first place. So, to keep things smooth and simple for a webmaster-to-be, I have composed a list of tips for choosing the best hosting for your site.

Running a website does not have to be expensive. There are reliable hosts that can handle your site for 5 to 7 dollars per month. So long as you don’t have a huge website, one of these hosts is really all a person needs to manage their site.

It used to be that you had to pay tons of money on a domain name in addition to hosting, but more and more web hosting companies are offering a free domain name when you sign up, so keep an eye out for these – could save you a handful of money right there!

To get an idea of what companies are offering the best bang-for-the-buck at the moment, consider checking out an independent web hosting review site for recommendations. Do be careful though, as there are some review sites out there that are just scams set up by the owners of a hosting company to try to get them more business!

Look out for activation fees. Some hosts seem to be cheap at first – until you read the fine print to find out that they have a 50 dollar activation fee!

Check out the types of customer support a company offers. Web based instant message type support can be very quick and efficient when you have problems.

Think ahead when you buy hosting. Are you going to build a plain HTML based site? Or is there a chance you could want to add a forum or another dynamic feature to your site in the future? If so, you’ll want to make sure the site has PHP and MySQL. CGI might also be a requirement for you.

With these easy tips, you can be on your way to mastering your own website in no time.

The following are some of the questions one should always consider while selecting a web hosting provider-

1. Is the company offering telephone support or 24/7 email support?

It is very important to have 24/7 Email support and one should always get reply within 1-2 hours. Not only is that telephone support also a must.

2. What is the history of the company? Since how long is the company been in existence?

One must very carefully read the company’s profile from their web page. It is important to check for the existence of the company in business. One should also check for the number of users of the company .The way to obtain all this information is by having a look on the host’s website as large number of host providers posts their customer testimonials on their site to reinforce the message.

3. What is the type of software that the company is offering?

The most important tool for a user is control panel which includes statistic, web mail, adding email account, file manager, Database management etc.

Free Scripts Provided – There are several webhosting provides offering free scripts to users. User can install these scripts through control panel. Some examples of Free Scripts are- Oscommerce, Phpnuke, Phpbb, Moodle, Phpwebsite, Xoops, etc.

4. Fees.

One should also check the provider’s service plan carefully before signing up. This service plan is usually made available by all the providers and by comparing them one can find the suitable provider suiting his/her needs. It is necessary to read the provider’s “terms and conditions” and refund conditions as well.

5. Marketing Service

There are several web hosting providers providing search engine submission to their customers. Not only that they use to provide paid per click service to their customer.

The following are the lists of 11 most essential questions before choosing a web host-

Q1. On which platform is the web hosting built i.e. on windows or UNIX or Linux etc.

Q2. What about the reliability of the service of the web host?

Q3. What is the kind of performance one is expecting?

Q4. How is the quality of email and phone support?

Q5. How expensive is it?

Q6. How much is the bandwidth available?

Q7. What is a type of control panel available?

Q8. What about a POP3 account?

Q9. What about protection i.e. anti spam and viruses features?

Q10. What about running one’s own online store?

Q11. What kind of Online Marketing Support is made available?

Before You Host Your Website Consider . . .

In most cases, when you are looking for web hosting services, price comes first. It is however equally important that your web hosting plans suit your needs. With many organizations, firms and web users clamoring for web spaces, it is not difficult at all to find a web host that offers you services that you want. After all, competition has forced them to slash prices dramatically and at the same time offer services targeted at offering solutions to target clients. Depending on your web hosting plans, there are many things you will take into consideration when looking for a web host.

One of these is email accounts. In most organizations, there is a need to have many mailing facilities so that mail accounts are properly managed. Advanced web hosting services will usually offer unlimited email accounts. However, the limit on this is imposed by the amount of space available on the server. If you are going to have many departments each with its own or several email accounts, ensure that your web hosting services offer not only unlimited email accounts but also have some bit of extra space on the hosting server.

You may not have realized this but your web hosting plans should also take into consideration connectivity options to the internet and bandwidth usage. Well, what does this mean? Bandwidth is the amount of data that users transfer from your site. Every time people connect to your website, they are offered some bandwidth usage. This means that the more people connect and possibly download or upload content, the more strain it will put on your website. In fact, bandwidth usage is as important as the amount of disk space allocated for your web files in your web hosting plans.

Consider also customer support services offered. Sooner or later you may experience what most web owners get to experience once in a while, a website crash. This happens when your users cannot be able access your website, download or upload content or send you an email. In your web hosting plans, ensure that customer support services are included so that you do not have to experience long downturns while you try to resolve the problem yourself. There are many things to consider before web hosting and the above are just a tip of the iceberg. However, when you know what you want in your website, then you will find it much easier while shopping for a web host.

 http://www.soluzia.net/index.php

It’s attractive. There are several companies offering cheap services full with amazing post-futuristic techno-gizmo features. But does it helps in saving much money?

Answer is no, not at all as the maximum saving would be in some dollars only. If one is running a business site, saving $5, $10 or even $15 per month is not considered a big saving. There is not a single company whose survival is dependant upon 15 dollars but if the wrong web host is chosen by mistake then surely it can destroy the business.

Given below are 3 main reasons to ignore price issue while selecting web host: -

1. Usability. Confession time: Besides other issues usability holds an important place while selecting a new web host. Especially for a beginner it is important to have at least good control panel. There are example where one in the beginning opted for cheap web hosting and there after faced the problem of operating the control panel and often found him/her self traveling in circles trying to enter it.

Thus if one consider this factor of usability and just know little bit of CGI can easily manage his/her emails and can edit html files right on the server. What more is required for a beginner who was earlier not even able to find files on the previous host’s server?

2. Service. Second factor to consider is service. There are cases where in the beginning users were quite happy with their cheap web host as were even getting all the responses via email on time. Problem occurred when some guy with a chip on his shoulder filed a phony Spam complaint. Now the response was suddenly missing from the host when complaint was made. Infact no one was interested in speaking over phone. The remedy came when the user’s ISP responded to the same phony complaint immediately, sharing with user a copy and giving a chance to deal with it. Thus it is again recommendable to pay more but one must look for this feature.

3. Reliability. One must also look for the good uptime and should also check for reliability. There are many problems that occur when one ignores this factor like a form not functioning thereby resulting in lost sales. More worse is that Google comes crawling just when site is down and search engines don’t like sending people to unreliable sites.

Thus it can be concluded easily that paying little more is better than paying a lot more in lost sales and increased stress. One should keep in mind that his/her whole business is dependant upon website and so one must consider all the factors not just price while selecting a new web host.

There are many people who are not switching to new web host due to fear of old web host and so are bound to suffer from old web host. The users are even ready to pay any amount which can be even ten times more than what they are paying just because of fear of switching over process which they think is quite complicated can even lead to loosing of their website.

The new entries of the customers in this web world will themselves presume that expensive and branded names such as yahoo or MSN or MasterCard can definitely provide the best service.

But there is need to think again.

One should never choose the hosting plan only in terms of money whereas he/she should opt the plan on the basis of return he/she is getting from it.

One can easily find sufficient space for his/her site with all the required features for a mere amount of less than $10 per month – with discounts for paying quarterly or yearly.

The following are the aspects to be looked at while choosing a hosting company-

SPACE: There are several websites, which uses less than 100 Megs of space. However 50-100 megs of space is quite sufficient even if one is planning to build a large community or upload entire albums of photos. By keeping this point in mind one should be able to upgrade with no additional charge.

EMAILS: One should check for a new host that can at least offer 10 Pop3 emails. If one is running a home based business, he/she needs at least 10 addresses or even more if there are many members like own staff or family and friends who would love to use email address and effectively advertise for him/her every time they send out an email. The new host should also offer web-based emails, so as to enable to check emails anywhere.

SUPPORT: One should check if the new host could answer to questions within 24 hours. If this facility is not available then surely it is not the right choice. The host to be selected must offer some sort of live chat capability during regular business hours as well, and a 24-hour a day help desk where one can email in questions. One should also check before signing the contract that proper physical address and phone numbers are available. To ensure one must Email their support or use their chat live capability before agreeing to their service. Thus support is another feature to be taken as serious issue before signing a contract.

USER FRIENDLY RATING: Most important feature to look at is the kind of control panel new host is providing. One should also ask for a demo and should also check if he/she is having a free 24-hour FTP access so as to make modifications as per choice when required. Also it is necessary to have a site builder, bulletin boards, or chat rooms so as to enable one to interact with his/her customer using a new host’s services. One more thing to check is that, if one is having access to popular features such as PHP, CGI, ASP, Java scripts, Perl scripting then will the new host can handle all this?

Now after deciding to shift to new host, there are still some things to take care of like firstly one must make sure that all of the files that have created his/her current site are on his/her computer so that they can be moved. If one has created own pages using something like FrontPage or Site Builder or Dream weaver, then surely he/she is having these files. However if one uses a web based builder, then there is need to download each and every page of his/her site along with their dependent files to a folder on his/her PC.

It seems to be a complicated process but it is not so. One can either use an FTP tool to download files or can download them using the “File – Save As” method outlined below. If one chooses to FTP own files down to own computer, all what is required is just availability of an FTP tool.

In case one opts for another method i.e. to choose the “File – Save As” method, then the following steps must be followed-

The first thing is to do is to go to one’s own browser can be Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or Mozilla. Thereafter find the toolbar and look for the “File” button, as this will be required. Now simply one should go to the first page in his/her website. After it is fully loaded, one must click on “File” then “Save As” and save the file and all dependent files to a folder on his/her website. This procedure is required to be done for every page. After completion of that the possession comes in the hands of owner. It is always advisable to keep one’s site backed up to his/her own computer in a separate folder, as well.

Once one is having all the files the second thing is to make sure that any other files on one’s web host are backed up. In case one is using web-based mail, then he/she should forward emails to an ‘off-network’ email address or even should archive emails to the computer’s hard drive. As soon as user switched to new hosts his/her all mails get deleted. Deleted. Now it’s required to upload all of the new files to the new host’s servers. Also the new host should provide with the FTP info needed and to do this and/or live support one should keep in mind the following things in order to play safe. The next thing to do is to create an email account to match each email account from the old web host. If case one is having 3 email accounts then it is must to have matching accounts on the new servers as this will prevent to have bouncing emails later when the switch goes through. Now one can change the domain name’s name servers and for this the new host will give the

information. Thereafter one will probably have a primary and secondary name server.

If a user is registering own domain name then the registrar should have a management area. However if one registers his/her domain name through the current host, then one must make sure that he/she is having the access to change these items once.

It will take around 24-48 hours for the name server change to propagate so that the domain name is pointing to new servers instead of the old ones. Now one must make modifications as early as possible lets say within a week time else he/she have to suffer from a long waiting period problem. Before canceling the old host one must allow at least a week so that one can make sure that everything works properly on the new host, all the files and email accounts are there and to check if the new host is working as per expectations or not.

However one has to be very careful if he/she is leaving the current host before next billing cycle, as if the cancellation date falls after the normal monthly billing cycle date, then he/she will be billed again for that month’s service and worst is most of the hosts do not give refunds for less than a month of service.

Now after knowing all the pros and cons of providers and the problems that one can face while switching to new host there is need to remember all the above points to remain safe.