What’s the Difference Between Web Hosting Packages?

Shared web hosting vs Dedicated web hosting vs VPS web hosting

We can often become overwhelmed with the number of options available when it comes to web hosting. There are so many sellers, resellers, oversellers – how do we cut through to find out what we really need?

It all mostly comes down to three kinds of hosting option – Shared hosting, Dedicated Hosting and VPS Hosting. These all refer to the way your site is hosted physically in the host’s server itself. When considering hosting, we’re thinking not only about the amount of space our website needs, but also how many people can look at it at once, plus how much information is allowed to be downloaded from your website per month – that is, server space and bandwidth.

Shared Web Hosting

Shared hosting is a common way to have a website hosted. The server itself is shared amongst a number of websites, relying on the fact that many smaller websites never use their full quota of space and bandwidth. Often hosts offering shared hosting are, in fact, a reseller of server space bought elsewhere – which explains the large number of cheap hosting providers who offer very similar packages.

Shared hosting can be a great option for personal sites and small businesses – it’s a cheap way to get a smaller website hosted, especially if you are looking for a web presence but don’t expect to have a lot of large files transferred (ie media streaming) or lots of people trying to access your site at the same time.

Shared web hosting might not be the best option for larger businesses and e-commerce sites though. Larger businesses may find that they have issues with bandwidth and the shear size of their website in terms of files.

The prevalence of reselling also means that you may not know the physical location of the server your website is hosted on. Because shared host sites all share the same IP address, if your site is sharing space with a disreputable site, simply sharing the same server could mean your SEO ranking is affected. It’s possible to have a site on a shared server with a unique IP, though usually costs more. That’s why you want to trust an Australian Web Host that ensures the best shared web hosting available.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated hosting is just as it sounds – one server dedicated to one website. Dedicated hosting offers more choice regarding the operating system and management of the server, better security – both security of your data and of the physical location of your data – and is good for larger e-commerce businesses, corporations and high-bandwidth websites (such as video streaming websites). Talk to us today about your Web Hosting needs.

VPS – Virtual Private Server

A Virtual Private Server is a server partitioned so that each partition operates as if it is a dedicated server. It’s a compromise between shared and dedicated hosting: cheaper than dedicated hosting, as the hardware is shared – yet appears as a dedicated host.

VPS (and related Cloud technologies) rely, in the same way as shared hosting, on clients not using their total quota of space and bandwidth (which is predominantly the case in the real world). A good host will manage their servers to avoid traffic ‘bottlenecks’ or too much traffic for than the server can handle.

VPS is great  for medium to large e-commerce businesses as it combines price with private service – though not suitable for some clients as some software doesn’t run well in a virtual environment.

Read More

What is Domain Squatting?

The issues with Domain Squatting

You’ve got the perfect idea for a website. You spend months planning and designing the site until you finally decide to go ahead and register the domain name – only to find that it’s not available. But then you visit the site and discover that it’s only being used to advertise itself for sale, for hundreds & even thousands of dollars instead of the usual amount a domain should cost.

You’ve unwittingly become a victim of Domain Squatting!

So what is Domain Squatting?

Domain squatting is the name given to the process of buying a domain name that you think might be valuable to someone else, then selling it to them for a profit. It’s generally frowned upon across the internet community as it ties up millions of potentially legitimate domain names.

Here are a few strategies that domain squatters use:

➥ researching new companies about to expand into different countries and buying their equivalent in that country-ie microsoft.com.au, microsoft.co.nz etc

➥ buying names that people might accidentally type instead of the main name- ie googal, googol, googel, gugl etc

➥ checking for domain names that are about to expire and quickly buying them before the owner can renew it- There is software that automates the checking and registration process that is abused by domain squatters

Often the domain squatter will host advertising on the site, especially if it has a high volume of traffic – some common typos of popular sites have been used in this way. Some domain squatters have been known to post derogatory comments about the site they are targeting in order to encourage their target to buy the domain name from them… but mostly domain squatters will buy up names in bulk that are either recently expired or potentially popular and try to make a profit from them.

What’s the big deal with Domain Squatting anyway?

There are two sides to this argument. There is a wide-spread disgust for squatters throughout the internet community as they make creating your web presence that more difficult, and expensive. Personal names, in particular, are often targeted by domain squatters (though some countries legislate against this practice – see below) as being highly sought-after – especially by people who share that name!

Some people though suggest that this is a legitimate business practice, rather akin to buying property as an investment for future price rises in that area. Up-and-coming localities could have a larger proportion of vacant houses being ‘sat on’ whilst demand increases and prices rise…

➥ Legal – but is it ethical?

Legalities of Domain Squatting

Some countries have created legislation for domain squatting. Australia requires people to have a connection to the domain name they are registering – especially personal names. A case recently involving a model resulted in the domain name www.mirandakerr.com.au being deregistered from the squatter and made available to the model. Many other countries have similar legislation.

They also generally require that the defendant of the disputed domain name has acted in bad faith – that is, with the intention of withholding it from the plaintiff. If the defendant can demonstrate a legitimate reason for selecting the domain name then the domain authority will allow the domain squatting to occur.

So what can I do about Domain Squatting?

1. If you think you are the victim of a domain squatter then contact the domain authority in your country.

➥ auDA in Australia
➥ CIRA in Canada
➥ ICANN in the USA

Register alternative Top Level Domains, ie .net instead of .com

Seek alternative domain names that may still be relevant to your website www.johncitizenaccounting.com instead of www.johncitizen.com

There is so much money involved in domain names these days that it is vital to protect your domain name.

Read More

Uploading files using FTP with FileZilla

Ever had to upload a large number of files to your web server?  CPanel has a nice easy interface to do this but when you have more than a few it becomes quite tedious loading each one individually.  FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, is designed specifically to allow files to be sent over the internet.  One of the most popular programs to make this easy is FileZilla.  It’s free and easily downloaded and installed.

Uploading files using FTP with FileZilla

1. Download FileZilla

filezilla-project.org/ is the place to go.  Right on the front page is a big button that says, Download FileZilla Client – click this and select the right download for your operating system.   Then run the installer program once it’s downloaded.  Simply follow the instructions and the installer will put FileZilla in the right place.

2. Enter your host, username and password

Your web host will have sent you a list of all the right terms to use for different protocols.  It’s likely to look something like this:

➥ Web: http://www.rackservers.com/
➥ FTP: ftp.rackservers.com
➥ POP3: mail.rackservers.com
➥ Site Admin: http://www.rackservers.com/cpanel/
➥ Login User Name: rackoo00
➥ Login Password: xxxxxxxxx

And then you get this:

The left pane shows you your computer directory – the right pane shows you the directory of your web server.  To transfer files, you simply drag and drop files from the left pane into the right pane.   Let’s say you want to transfer some images for your web gallery.  Just find the images in the left pane, then find the folder in the web server that stores your web gallery images.  You can even make new folders or move folders around, just like in your own computer.

Read More

Which is best CPanel or Plesk?

CPanel or Plesk

When it comes to control panels, the two biggest names are CPanel and Plesk. They have both been around for long enough to become used widely – but what’s the difference between the two?

CPanel

One of the oldest control panel systems around, CPanel had traditionally been the favourite amongst hosts and clients. Though only available for Linux-based operating systems, its user-friendly interface has been especially popular with beginners to manage their hosting accounts. It’s longevity has resulted in applications being developed to install software directly from the control panel, making it easy to use CPanel in conjunction with other content management systems, shopping carts, blogs and wikis.

Plesk

Available for Windows and Linux-based operating systems, Plesk is flexible in terms of DNS features and scripting and is the most popular control panel choice for Windows servers. Also Plesk allows servers to run in a cluster environment, becoming ever-more important with the advent of cloud computing. The user interface for Plesk is considered complicated by many and more suitable for advanced users.

Conclusion

It’s really interesting to see two systems which have been developed to perform largely the same task – that is, web hosting account management – and yet operate in such different ways. Conversations comparing the two generally result in the conclusion that CPanel is best for beginners and users of simple websites, and Plesk is best for advanced users looking for more specific control – plus the difficulty in moving from one system to the other in terms of finding functions in the actual interface. The latest conversations about cluster environments and cloud computing though suggest that CPanel needs to address this issue soon for fear of losing its market share in the control panel industry.

Read More

What is a Domain Name?

Domain Names and their Extensions

Setting up a domain name is much like setting up a business name. You need to ensure that the name encapsulates what your business is about, is memorable and that no one else has bought the name. In every state in Australia there is a government body that oversees new business name registrations and renewals.

Once you register a new domain name you will immediately be told whether or not the name is taken and what extension is available (if any). As there are simply so many domain names registered these days it will take some time to find the domain name of your choice.

Once you register your domain name you will be sent an automated email with a success / failure notice. Just as there are rules for registering a business name there are rules for registering various domain names.

In order to register a .com.au domain extension you will need an Australian Business Name & number that is either an exact match or very similar to your domain name. Whilst this seems a little over the top it actually protects Australian Businesses from someone registering a domain name for the sole reason of domain squatting and stealing other companies intellectual property & name.

The most common domain is .com – This Top Level Domain was the original domain extension and is not as strictly policed as a .com.au. Basically anyone can register a .com domain without an associated business. This has led to the issue of domain squatting. Domain squatting is when someone registers a domain name of another companies solely for financial gain. As an example the well known bank Westpac has an domain name of www.westpac.com.au but some cheeky person has registered the domain www.westpac.com. This is reputedly a spam site that is trying to a get a % of Westpac banks traffic.

And if someone can do it to Westpac, they could do it to you.

We always suggest that if you are starting your own business, ensure you purchase the domain extensions www.yourcompany.com.au & www.yourcompany.com at the very least.

This will ensure a competitor doesn’t take the same domain name with a similar extension solely to undermine you and your business.

Did you know there are over 75 different domain name extensions?

Here’s some of the most important Top Level Domains:

◉ .mobi – denotes that the website is for mobile phones.
◉ .biz – denotes a business address.
◉ .org – suggested for Not For Profit Organisations.
◉ .info – a general information website (not necessarily a company).
◉ .net – a general domain, often used when .com is taken.
◉ .tv – a domain extension for the TV and film industry.
◉ .xxx – for adult sites or you can register to protect your IP.

Most second tier domain names are country specific:

◉ .com.au – Australian.
◉ .co.nz – New Zealand.
◉ .com.fr – France.
◉ .co.uk – United Kingdom.

Purchasing a domain name is one of the most important jobs you need to do when setting up a business. And with domain names starting from $12.50 p/ year it’s probably the cheapest way to protect your companies name and Intellectual property.

Read More

Benefits of FTP

There are a number of advantages of using file transfer protocol. Find out why using a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is the best way for you to transfer large files among many users on a network.

Benefits of FTP

There are many advantages of file transfer protocol (FTP) when it comes to transmitting files over the Internet. Depending on your needs, FTP may be the perfect medium for the types of large files you need transferred across networks locally or nationally. This article will help you decide if FTP will benefit you or if another metric of file transfer such as HTTP or P2P would be more efficient for you.

Understanding File Transfer Protocol

File transfer protocol is a file server that holds large files for downloading by other computers. You upload your file to the file server and then it is available to others on the same network. The file transfer or download happens all at once, which means you don't have to download each individual file if you have a folder of files.

*Important Tip

When using a FTP file server make sure that it supports TCP/IP protocol.

Benefits of FTP

◉ One of the biggest advantages of file transfer protocol is that it is one of the fastest ways to get large files from one computer to another.
◉ It's also efficient because you don't need to complete many operations to get the entire file or files transferred.
◉ Most FTP servers require you to log in with a username and password.
◉ FTP allows you to transfer files back and forth. This means that if you are an owner of a company, you can send information to your employees and they can send information back all on the same server.

Other File Protocols

The other two common forms of file transfer are HTTP and peer-to-peer (P2P). HTTP is a website that users can use to either download files or save entire pages of information. HTTP is the information you see in your web browser anytime you use HTTP at the beginning of your web address bar. Unlike FTP, users cannot upload information to the HTTP web server. This makes HTTP much more secure because it helps cut down on spam and other irrelevant file uploads. The downside of using HTTP is that it's not the best way to transfer large files since the user will have to download each file separately, making it much slower than FTP.

Read More

Benefits and Risks of File Sharing for Enterprises

File sharing refers to the practice of transmitting data and files such as texts, graphics, music, video, and images from one computer to another computer via a network or over the Internet. This can be done in two main ways namely: the peer-to-peer method which entails the transmission of data from one computer to another via a network and the file sync and file sharing devices which entail the transmission of data through websites, applications, Bluetooth connectivity and indeed so much more.

Part 1: The Benefits of File Sharing for Enterprises

● Convenience

File sharing makes the task of accessing the desired piece of information easy, convenient, and instantaneous. This reduces the amount of effort, time, and energy which is in turn deployed to the performance of other organizational tasks.

● Reduced Costs

Since the organizations are not required to own the infrastructure that store, share and maintain the files, the amounts of money that would have otherwise been used to put up and maintain this infrastructure rendered null and void. The organization's operational expenses are therefore reduced.

● Saves on Time

File sharing reduces the amount of time that would have otherwise been used to search and retrieve the required information manually. This time can be further used to undertake other tasks that equally matter insofar as the fulfillment of the corporate objectives are concerned.

● Reduced Storage Space

The adoption of this technique reduces the amount of storage space that an organization is required to put in place in order to accommodate the number of files it requires. This comes along with various benefits among them being the need for less office space, reduced costs of doing business, and the reduction of other overhead expenses.

● Improved Data Integrity

The access of files via a file sharing infrastructure, and especially when all the necessary security precautions are taken, improves the integrity of the data so obtained due to the fact that such data is less prone to loss, manipulations, and other forms of interferences that may hamper its accuracy and reliability. Therefore, any subsequent decisions, interpretations, and conclusions derived from them are more dependable.

Part 2: The Risks of File Sharing for Enterprises

● Increased Insecurity

File sharing predisposes the company documents and data to security breaches. This could be in the forms of unauthorized access (hacking), worms, viruses, and phishing e.t.c. In the unfortunate event of this situation, the confidence that the clients of the organization had on the data are dealt a severe blow, which in turn also affects the integrity of the organization as a whole.

● Plagiarism/ Violation of Copyright Laws

It is the practice of taking up other people's unique ideas and making them one's own. This brings about lots of problems which include but not limited to revenue loss accruing from the sales of the materials that have been plagiarized, penalties from relevant statutory authorities to those apprehended, and diminished confidence in the organization as a whole by its clientele.

● Loss of Privacy

Sharing of files leads to the increase loss of the privacy of individuals or companies because it makes it possible for sensitive information regarding the company to be easily accessible by third parties. These pieces of information may later be used against the organization.

● Call for Action

It is important to note that the benefits and risks of file sharing as outlined above are by no means exhaustive since quite a number could not be discussed due to space constraints. In order to leverage on these benefits and to effectively guard against the potential risks, it is necessary to outsource the services of a competent, professional and experienced online video conferencing provider.

Read More

The Pros and Cons of File Sharing

File Sharing is not itself illegal, especially if used to share files that you actually created and own or collaborated on. Like any medicine, if you abuse the usage, it becomes illegal. Read this article to know the pros and cons of file sharing.

When is file sharing not illegal?

The ability to download files through the Internet has become quite a phenomenon. The tools used in downloading and sharing are no longer removable media and e-mail attachments, but are more likely to be advanced and comprehensive applications such as download managers, P2P clients, and of course, by hosting the file and sharing the link for others to download.

When it is illegal to share a file? It is always illegal to share a file if the object you are sharing includes an instruction that you cannot share or distribute it. Copyrighted files or materials can be shared as long as the license says you can share them or distribute them. An example is music files you have purchased online. Most recording company have agreements with distributors of songs and videos which allows you to transfer and play the music in your computer and in another player e.g.MP3 player, iPod, or Zune. You have the option in sharing or synchronizing your media files from another device to media player software for devices you already own and for non-commercial use in most cases. Copyrighted software with GPL, L-GPL, etc. common in open source software can be shared with others subject to some restrictions such as including the complete source code for the project or program when you distribute it or share it.

What are the pros and cons of file sharing?

Again, file sharing is not itself illegal, as long as you share what is yours and what is not copyrighted by other people or by a company. Part of the answer that It depends on what you share. If, for an example, you like to share your photo album to your friends, it is legal. If you have a project to share that will allow your classmates, colleagues, or people with the same interest in working on your project, it is not illegal to share your work or source code. Most files that can be legally shared have licenses that detail what can be done and cannot be done.

The pros of file sharing is the ability to collaborate using collaboration tools such as e-mail, blogs, or any applications which allow a direct download from the person or computers hosting the files.

There are companies who benefit greatly for having the ability to share their files:

➥ Software developers who want to share their files to testers- it allows them to get free feedback and receive bug or error reports.

➥ Recording company and its registered distributors who allow the use of file sharing are giving their customers a preview of the songs they want to hear before buying. It benefits also the buyers of music because they don't have to purchase the whole CD or album. There is now an option to choose only the songs that you like to purchase.

➥ People at work and school also benefits in sharing files. It allows their colleagues and classmates to work on their project at work or at school. An example is the people who are involved in Open Source projects.

➥ Individuals also benefits in sharing their files via home networks or by sharing their personal files to their family or friends.

What about the cons of file sharing?

When you download files from people that you don't know or from the untrusted source, there is a risk of downloading viruses, Trojans and other types of malware. Some end-users are confident in illegally downloading files if an antivirus program has support to scan the connections and the files, using a P2P application. They don’t realize that their private information is at risk, in addition to facing the law if their ISP has determined that their customer is using the internet connection illegally.

If you will share your files by allowing the P2P applications to open your computer or a folder to other users in the P2P network, you are at risk to sharing your personal and sensitive information.

If you are using a computer at work to share or download files to untrusted source or people, you are putting the whole computers at work at risk. You might be leaking sensitive and private information that your boss will never share with his permission.

Final Words

File Sharing is a great method to collaborate. P2P applications is a great resource to download files but it is important to be aware of the risks, proper usage of any file sharing tools and of course, be aware of the pros and cons of file sharing, before participating.

Read More

Top 5 Benefits of e-Commerce Web Hosting

The market for e-retailers is certainly very promising today, thanks to the internet boom. Through a simple website, they can reach out to an infinite range of customers, beyond physical boundaries.

The power of technology is something that has made all this possible!

A number of entrepreneurs and SMBs are finding glowing opportunities in the e-stores. But, for all those who are in or are willing to be in the online market sphere, there’s more to understand!

What makes an e-store a hit, is a chain of multiple factors. Good website speed with ability to scale according to increasing traffic, a trustworthy payment gateway, a shopping cart, security of customer data and backup are some of those factors that account for a good e-store. All these factors are by and large affected by the quality of the hosting service you choose and thus call for a good ecommerce hosting service.

An e-commerce web hosting can be understood as a system wherein the host company provides an organization the required online space and tools, so that it can run its retail store online. It differs from a simple web hosting as it fulfills some additional requirements of a shopping website like SSL certificate, shopping cart, database support, payment gateways and other ecommerce security requisites.
Now what should make you go specifically for an ecommerce web hosting is a difficult thing to know. So let’s put 5 top benefits of an ecommerce hosting solution that will make you go for one.

Top 5 benefits of ecommerce web hosting

An ecommerce hosting solution can be really advantageous for anyone who is looking to start an online business. The benefits can be summed up in below mentioned points:

1. High availability and scalability

When you are running an e-store, you should ensure your website’s all time availability. Because no or less-availability would mean lost sales. Unlike a physical store, you can’t see your customers online and a slow loading webpage can irate a visitor so much that he might lose his interest and go away without making a purchase.

An efficient e-commerce hosting service provider will ensure high availability of your website, with no or less downtime.

2. Secure your customers’ transactions

Online business would mean online transactions. When a customer buys a product from your website, he makes online transactions.

Ecommerce hosting providers equip your website with authentic SSL certificates to safeguard your crucial customer data during transit. Also, they secure your website from viruses and hackers through different security applications.

A website with HTTPS gives customers a feeling of trust and thus, a peaceful state of mind while making purchase. An SSL certificate also affects your website search ranking: Google drops the search ranking of websites without a SSL certificate.

3. Ease of shopping with cart

What makes shopping a better and suave experience is a shopping cart. It is beneficial in multiple ways. First, it allows customer to add products which they like and then review all of them and order desired ones from a single place. Second, it provides hassle free shopping with secure checkout process. Easy integrations with payment gateways help customers to place the orders straightaway. Hence, e-commerce hosting services with shopping cart integration should be your preference.

4. Hosting experience with less technical know-how

In ecommerce hosting, the hosting company provides the web server, website design tool, and install special capabilities on your website related to order processing and payment. Thus, what they basically do is provide you with a ready to use framework in form of some virtual templates, which can be used by you to further customize and enhance your website. Thus, even with less technical know-how, you can get started with your ecommerce website.

5. Multiple website management with single admin panel

Every online hosting retailer starts with the aim of expansion; hence you need a hosting provider who will let you manage multiple websites through a single admin panel. This will help you in expanding your business base and earning more customers.

Read More

Web Hosting Types: Advantages and Disadvantages

It is recommended that all businesses have a web presence; and for you to have that, you need to have your own web page up and running. It is acceptable and in the norm to have a Facebook page but at some point, you still need your own page to have creative freedom and to facilitate online shopping.

You will come across different web page requirements, such as getting a team to design the site itself, coordinating with billing gateways and testing the security of the site. All of these will be moot if you do not have a reliable and dependable web hosting service.

What are the different kinds of web hosting services out there? We have summarized the four most common types for you to heavily consider. Think of what your site needs, your users need and what you can easily afford.

Shared Web Hosting

What is Shared Web Hosting?

This type of web hosting service means that your site, where your information is stored and where your applications are running, SHARE resources with other clients. Think of it as your apartment units housed in the same building.

You take up your own designated space in the server and perform your duties within that confined space. iPage is a popular shared hosting platform and they provide a training series as well.

For businesses, certain shared hosts such as InMotion specialize in serving entrepreneurs as they have business features included.

As the name suggests, you will be sharing the bandwidth, Internet connection and memory of the host machine with other fellow customers.

Choose Shared Hosting if you…

➥ Prefer to start small since shared hosting services are the cheapest type of web hosting service you can see in the market today.
➥ Are not picky about sharing resources with other customers
➥ Do not know how to set up your own server and need a host ASAP

Disadvantages of Shared Hosting

➥ Does not give you control on what you can run (what operating system) on your server.
➥ Your site MAY suffer the consequences of sharing the resources with other customers and may lead to performance issues.
➥ May not give you the most dependable and stable server performance since it is dependent on so many transactions within the server.

Dedicated Web Hosting

What is Dedicated Web Hosting?

This type of web hosting, as the name suggests, means that you are NOT sharing the server with any other customer. You are the lone occupant. Think of it as a free standing house in a village. You have the freedom to install whatever you want and you can access the root of the server.

There are dedicated servers that are unmanaged (you are in full control of everything that happens in it, no tech support is on call for you) and there are the managed ones (someone does the set up and tweaks for you).

Choose Dedicated Hosting if you…

➥Prefer being in 100% control of the content and the applications within the server.
➥Know how to set up, maintain and develop additional applications in your server, for example, a load balancer.

Do not want to compromise the performance of the site by sharing it with multiple other sites.

Disadvantages of Dedicated Hosting

➥Expensive! Since you are occupying and maintaining the server on your own, there’s no one else to split the maintenance cost with. Think of spending around $200 per month for this type of hosting package.
➥High maintenance especially for those getting the unmanaged type of hosting machines.

Cloud Hosting

What is Cloud Hosting?

A new type of hosting package is called Cloud Hosting. This means that you don’t have one specific machine to act as your server. Your site is hosted across several other machines that have a load balancer shared between them. This means that in the event that one of the host machines goes down, the load is redistributed to other available machines.

Why choose Cloud Hosting?

➥ Pay only for the resources that you use and occupy – no flat fee whether you use the service or not (compared to dedicated hosting packages)
➥ Can be expensive or can be relatively cheaper than dedicated hosting packages
➥ Perfect for colocation requirements

Disadvantages of Cloud Hosting

➥ Can be sensitive to security issues since your data is constantly moving from one server to the other.
➥ May not give you as much control as you want in a dedicated server set up since you have to consider the minimum requirement across all servers sharing the load.

VPS Hosting

What is VPS Hosting?

Virtual Private Server or sometimes called Virtual Dedicated Servers are somewhere in between cloud hosting, dedicated servers and shared servers. In a VPS setup, you can lessen the expenses of running a dedicated server since you are still using one server but can compartmentalize it to act as multiple shared hosting servers.

You can set up with your own preferred operating system and can individually restart the compartments once you’ve set them up.

Why choose VPS Hosting?

➥Perfect for those who can manage their sites independently
➥More cost effective than cloud hosting and dedicated server set ups
➥Allows you to be more in control of the allocation of resources

Disadvantages of VPS Hosting

➥Can still be more costly especially compared to shared hosting packages
➥Can be high maintenance and requires well-trained staff to maintain the set up.

It all depends on what you can maintain, what you can afford and what your site really needs. It is best to spend on reliable servers if your site requires on-time updates and billing. If you require extra security and will be handling sensitive information, then by all means spend on the more robust solution for your product.

Read More

5 Advantages of Choosing a Dedicated Hosting Provider

Business large and small are faced with a wide range of options for hosting their website,  web application, or mail server. The most common option option is shared hosting, where a single server’s resources are shared by a number of different websites.

But a company looking for more power and control may need a service provider who offers dedicated hosting. With dedicated hosting, a client rents a server from a dedicated hosting provider, and has exclusive use of that server’s resources. The provider works with the client to give them the CPU, RAM, and disk space that they need. The provider builds and maintains the server, eliminating a  business’ upfront cost of purchasing their own.

Some advantages of choosing a dedicated hosting provider are:

1. Server resources are not shared

When you choose a dedicated hosting provider, you get the full resources of single server. You don’t need to worry about other websites clogging up the server’s CPU and RAM. With a dedicated server, you can be sure that bad scripts running on another website or spikes in bandwidth usage won’t slow your server down.

2. Enhanced performance and security

Choosing a dedicated hosting provider guarantees maximum uptime for your website. Shared hosting is often best for websites with low to medium traffic. If your website receives a lot traffic,though, dedicated servers provide more stability and reliability than shared hosting.

With a dedicated server, you can also be sure that you aren’t sharing space with a malicious website or a potential spammer. Dedicated hosting allows enhanced security, particularly important for companies handling sensitive transactions over FTP or SSL.

3. Flexibility

A dedicated server allows a client the flexibility of customizing the server to the clients unique needs for CPU, RAM, disk space and software. With shared hosting, a customer is limited to the applications, software and operating environment already loaded on the server. They may either offer software a client doesn’t need or lack things that they do.

A dedicated server allows organizations a customizable server environment that fits their needs. They can choose the platform and software they really need, allowing more control over how their dedicated server is configured.

4. Unique IP address

Each server has it’s own unique IP address. With shared hosting, that means that you are also sharing an IP address with multiple other websites. If one of your neighbors is a spam site or an adult site, this could mean having your websites’ rank pushed down.

With dedicated hosting, you have a dedicated server, which means your own unique IP address. This is especially important if you are a large running an e-commerce site that requires SSL for credit card processing.

5. No overhead for purchasing or maintaining equipment

If a company needs a dedicated server, but doesn’t have the time or resources to manage a server themselves, dedicated hosting is a low-cost way to access the resources of a full server. A dedicated hosting provider handles the cost of building and maintaining server equipment, reducing the overhead for a business purchasing server space, and improving their return on investment.

These advantages come with a cost, however. Shared hosting is the cheapest way for a business to run it’s website, and dedicated hosting is far more expensive in comparison. But sites that deal with a lot of traffic, or have strict needs for customization and security, may find that a dedicated hosting provider is their best option.

Read More

Reseller Hosting Industry Expanding at Rapid Pace

As we live more and more of our lives online, opportunities in web hosting have exploded. Going hand-in-hand with this, reseller web hosting services have also seen unprecedented growth.

As every reseller’s aim is growth, having a long-term hosting partner with outstanding customer service, transparency, and reselling tools is key. Resellers also need to remember that growth requires scalability, not just a one-size-fits-all approach. Fortunately, InMotion Hosting meets all of these criteria, and offers highly competitive prices and other desirable features.

Good Time for Resellers

According to a study by Market Research Future, the Web Hosting Services market experienced growth of over 16% last year. At present, the industry generates approximately $154 billion (USD) each year. E-Commerce also continued its expansion online, while mobile technologies — such as smart phone and tablet applications — account for a large portion of the recently booming growth. Emerging “smart” technologies and the so-called “Internet of Things” (IoT) will only add to this demand for Internet real estate.

Combined, these factors mean more people needing to find ways to get their products, messages, and services online. That, in turn, means more demand for hosting, and more opportunities for reseller web hosting services. Intriguingly, one of the fastest growing segments identified in the study belonged to SMEs (small and medium enterprises). SMEs are often perfect target customer bases for resellers.

Where in the World Should Resellers Focus?

According to the study, North America has the highest concentration of web hosting demand in the world. While that may not be surprising, it reveals a great deal of opportunity for reseller web hosting services in other markets around the world. For example, a number of European investment firms have started backing web hosting services. They cite as their motivation the key role such service providers will play in the future development of European businesses moving onto the web. The Asia-Pacific market appears ripe for a similar boom. Here, pioneering companies blaze trails into the US and abroad with mail order over the Internet. These companies sell products (and some services) over the web at prices western companies find difficult to beat.

Although some of these companies will set up web hosting exclusively in their local regions, the better plan often requires servers around the world. This allows for regional sites and traffic routing that serves content to customers in particular areas from nearby servers. Thus, if a Chinese company seeks to make headway in the American market, it may construct a website with American spellings and content and serve those pages from a server located in the United States. This provides the fastest page load times for visitors and helps the company appear to be local. Globalized commerce spells opportunity for reseller web hosting services wishing to cater to companies outside of the United States.

Ready to Get Started?

InMotion Hosting offers some of the best Reseller Web Hosting Plans in the industry. Whether just starting out or a seasoned professional, InMotion Hosting has an option that will work for you – and at affordable prices.

Read More

Important Things To Know Before Choosing Linux VPS Hosting

If you are a new comer in hosting market then you must be confused while choosing your suitable hosting provider, hosting plan and also operating system.

Maximum hosting providers offer some similar types of hosting plans like: Shared hosting, VPS hosting, Reseller hosting, Dedicated hosting, Cloud hosting, Colocation hosting Etc. Shared hosting is the cheapest option but if users can afford little more budget then VPS hosting would be suitable for them. You can follow the following parameters to choose a suitable hosting plan.

A. If you have 0 to 300 visitors per day then shared hosting would be suitable for you.
B. If you have 300 to 5000 visitors per day then VPS hosting would be suitable for you.
C. If you have more than 5000 visitors per day then dedicated hosting would be suitable for you.

VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. In case of VPS hosting, the website owners can share the costs of server maintenance and server uses but it gives the website owners a total control over their server. They can reboot their server individually as they wish.

In case of the operating system, there are mainly two types of operating systems. First is Linux operating system and second is Windows operating system. Linux is cheaper than windows, because Linux is an open source operating system. But before choosing any operating system you have to know which scripts are used to create your website.

Before selecting a VPS hosting plan you have to know some characteristics about that plan. Like:

A. Number of CPU
B. RAM
C. Total disk space
D. Disk Space Allotted
E. Amount of Bandwidth
F. IP Address
G. Administrative Panel Management
H. Backup servers

10 GB Hard Disk Space, 400 GB Bandwidth ( Per Month ), 256MB RAM Guaranteed RAM, presence of Equal Share Of CPU, Control Panel(s) availability, 2 Dedicated Ips, presence Unique IP Addresses – are suitable for any beginner.

You have to choose a reasonable hosting provider but keep in mind that cost is not the only matter. In case of web hosting security, reliability, uptime and support are very important.

Users can customize their Virtual private server as much as a dedicated server is since it runs on its own distribution. Utilizing root access you can do just about anything you want with your Linux VPS hosting which is a biggest advantage.

Last but very important step before selecting hosting plan is “go through customers’ reviews”. Before signing-up with any hosting provider, you have to go through your chosen hosting provider’s customers reviews.

Read More

How to measure reliability of a web hosting company

If you type a web hosting keyword in search engine (Google, Yahoo and Bing) you will find number of web hosting companies in the list. For example if you use US Google to search web hosting keyword you will find 518,000,000 results (0.51 seconds) and it becomes hard for a newbie to make a decision with the right web hosting provider, of course web hosting has become the most reliable business online which helps one to earn unlimited but there are fraud people who makes fake promises to deploy quality services.

And to find a reliable web host lets understand how to measure reliability of a web hosting company,

1) If you are interested in any web host then first just check the website environment. Check if every plan and services they are offering are described properly with the prices.

2) Search for a customer review on website. It’s a good sign of a web host.

3) Check if they are listed in the Google places by typing the company name in the respective Geo based Google.

4) Before making any final decisions initiate a chat with sales representative and ask any questions about SLA, Money back Guarantee and Disaster recovery plans.

5) You cal also visit web hosting review sites to hire a web hosting service.

6) Price and Features: Compare the costs of different hosting providers, see if the features offered correspond to the needs of your web site or blog.

7) Consider the certifications of the company: A major label that validates the quality. Now, if you already have a provider , some tools to measure the effectiveness of it are:
Check the operation of your site is stable
Check the company to make backups of the sites on a regular basis
Check you have the latest security updates installed software on your server

8) You can also make a call to support of the company to find the reliability
service provider.

9) You can use any domain testing toll to find that the web host is not reseller of any other web hosting company because there are vendors who plays a role of reseller and pretend to be the hosting service provider.

10) Check the official site forum and if they want have then ask them why shouldn’t they have a forum on site? Because a reliable web host should always have forum on site so customer can post their queries on it and people from respective department can solve it within specified time.

11) Check the support and server setups are free or not.

12) Ask for SLA and check every possible described thing in the SLA.

The above listed points are must but you can also ask any doubts about service provider directly by phone or on live chat.

Read More

Important Things To know Before Choosing Windows VPS Hosting

What is windows VPS hosting : 

VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. In case of VPS users share their server maintenance cost and also resources but they get the good performance like dedicated server. There are mainly two operating systems in the web hosting market: Linux (open source) and windows (developed by Microsoft ). If any user chooses windows operating system for his VPS then that is consider as a windows VPS hosting. Windows VPS supports Windows applications like ASP, ASP.NET and Sharepoint web pages as well as Microsoft SQL and Access databases.

Advantages of Windows VPS hosting:

1. In case of Windows VPS hosting, Windows is developed by Microsoft that’s why it is more secure.

2. In case of Windows VPS hosting, hosting providers provide dedicated IP address for their customers.

3. Users can access their servers with their control panel.

4. Users can reboot their servers as they wish.

5. Linux VPS hosting can’t support any Microsoft’s products like, ASP, ASP.NET, Sharepoint etc. but Windows VPS can support ASP, ASP.NET, Sharepoint, Microsoft SQL, Access databases etc.

6. If users have high traffic websites then windows VPS would be suitable for them.(shared hosting is a cheap option but shared hosting can’t support high traffic.)

Check before you select Windows VPS hosting : 

Assurance about backup:

There are many windows VPS hosting providers in the hosting market. Many hosting providers get server backup on a weekly basis or many hosting providers get that in monthly basis. You have to decide what kind of backup you want.

Server management : 

Your hosting provider would be responsible for any kind of technical issue. You don’t have to spend your time to manage your server. You can manage your core business with full concentration. So, you have to make sure that your server is fully managed.

Support :

You have to choose a hosting provider who provides 24/7 support by phone, live chat or email with experienced technical staff. If the support quality of your hosting provider is good then you don’t have to suffer too much hassle.

Security : 

In case of web hosting security is a very important point. You have to ensure that your server is fully secure.

Read More

Top Advantages of Cloud Server Hosting

Moving to cloud? That’s great! Cloud computing industry is speedily growing and over past 5 to 10 years, there has been remarkable growth in this sector. Cloud is a structure where you save in maximum costs. Around 72% of companies have moved on to cloud and this percent may increase to 91% within three years from now. It is considered to be one of the essential solutions for those companies that aren’t technically expertise.  Though there are various benefits of cloud server hosting, a business can experience them only when it moves to cloud computing.

Here we list some of the major advantages that one can have by moving to the cloud.

1. Reduces Investment

As all data is stored on cloud, the need to maintain your IT infrastructure is minimal. The money spent on hardware, software and other equipment is saved to great extent. No extra storage resources are required as all the data is safely managed on cloud.

2. Low Cost of Operation

As there is minimum infrastructure setup the need to maintain and upgrade it is also reduced which allows you to save on the maintenance expenses as well and you can operate with less cost which further enhances your productivity. You do not have to spend on expensive software or licenses either which allows you to operate efficiently on a budget.

3. Better Collaboration

When you have your data in the cloud it can be accessed remotely as well allowing your employees to get the desired information from anywhere and collaborate with their peers easily on different tasks along with saving time and cost.

4. Increase Efficiency

As there is less equipment you need less people to manage and look after it which allows you to reduce your expenses further and with less amount of people you can be equally efficient. You can prune the support staff and still be equally productive.

5. Better Accessibility

The cloud can be easily accessed with an internet connection from anywhere and you can have your data wherever you want which makes things a lot easier for you. You can have access to your files without having to be present in your office.

6. Reduced need for training

Since the cloud software is the responsibility of the service provider the employees need not be trained for upgrading to new software which saves a lot of time which would otherwise be spent on training.

7. Better Management

Cloud web hosting allows you to monitor your resources in a better manner. You can always keep track of your projects and plan the resource needs in advance to avoid future problems. This way you can keep a tab on your budget and better manage your projects.

Read More