Kaiser Webs Solution Blog

Web Design, Web Hosting, SEO and Online Business

There are necessary issues to be resolved when deciding whether to purchase a managed or an unmanaged server. Things like geography, terms of service, backbone providers and lastly, the power supply back ups.

If you only have one server, you may be better off getting a managed server than an unmanaged one for the fact that the cost you have to pay just to hire competent personnel will be telling. You will need to hire people to maintain and monitor your server 24/7. If you decide not to hire, you face the risk of downtime if problems are not solved fast.

The other option, a managed server will free your company from all the responsibilities that come with having a server. Having only one managed server will not cost a lot compared to an unmanaged server. Of course, if you have a cluster of servers, the cost will increase significantly.

See if you have the technical means to do server maintenance and monitoring. If not, you would be better off with a managed server. A managed server isn’t bad at all as it is likened to a dedicated server with many value added services included. You also get the basics plus a lot more which is like having your own team of server and database administrators 24/7.

The Overview

Of all the documents that you will be presented with when selecting a provider, the Service Level Agreement or SLA would most probably stand out as the most important piece of document to have and to study as well. The SLA represents the agreement between you and the provider regarding services.

Levels of Service Defined

The SLA will cover several items such as the services, the responsibilities, the priorities as well as the warranties and guarantees. Definitions may also vary between several points such as availability, serviceability, performance, operation or other attributes of the service.

The term used to refer to the services may either be “target” or “minimum.” The SLA basically gives you some form of leverage regarding the service that you receive from the provider. It also keeps you well informed of what deal you’re getting yourself into. Remember that the SLA is referring to what you are getting and not hot the service is provided by the provider.

The clauses of the SLA should have the following:

Specific area of service that will be rendered
Penalty when service fails
Options for support
Duties and responsibilities of client
Dispute resolution
Conditions for termination of service

The SLA and Its Guarantees

Guarantees differ from every provider. Each of them will give a certain level of guarantee to try to get you to avail of their program. The more common of the guarantees are the money back guarantee and the uptime guarantee. If the client and the provider have a dispute, the SLA will be used as a reference or guide to settle the problem in black and white.

Details of the SLA

When selecting a hosting provider, always make it a point to read through the SLA to keep you well informed on the services as well as your rights. Give special attention the the following when going through an SLA:

30 Day Money Back Guarantee – Are you really getting your money back on the 30th day or are there advance notices that you have to accomplish? Try to clarify this with the provider.

Uptime Guarantee – If there are non-compliance issues regarding the uptime services of your provider, you will find the process to follow right here. You will also find the things to expect regarding the uptime guarantee here.

Permitted Files – There are some files that may not be allowed by your provider for uploading. It may be allowed but on a more expensive plan. Make sure to clarify this.

Finally, other things that the SLA should also cover are the disk space and bandwidth services as well as the arrangement regarding the domain name.

There comes a time for some companies when their web hosting needs become too much for a server or two to handle. It becomes too complex that they would need to step up their service to enterprise-level hosting. Enterprise hosting is a high capacity solution that can provide the needs of a company with a complex requirement. This service is load-balanced and connected to large databases and is handled by multiple servers. It is backed by a security appliance and is usually developed by network architects or designers.

Below is a list of features that companies who need an enterprise-level hosting look for:

More hard drive space
More Bandwidth
Better Technical Support
Need for Advanced Features
Need for Extended Services

Web Space

If you are bent on getting an enterprise hosting package, you should get the best out of your investment. That said, make a list of your present space requirement and how much space you’ll be needing in the near future.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth plays a big part in the quality of exchange between your company and your clients. Getting an enterprise hosting package will make the bandwidth a non-issue. Make sure though, that when looking for an enterprise hosting provider, that they have at least a T-3 backbone connection. A connection like this may be able to pass data at speeds of up to 45Mbps. Also consider how much bandwidth is being used by the current demand in the system or simply the demand of the of the host provider’s customer. Ideally, bandwidth should not be less than 30% utilized during off-peak hours and not more than 70% at peak hours. Lastly, when selecting a provider, choose the one that is the closest to the internet backbone connection. The reason for this is that, the more ‘upstream’ connections a host provider has to the Internet backbone connection, the higher the risk of data loss and bandwidth loss for your website.

Technical Support

It is very important that you choose a provider who are reliable and have 24/7 support. After all, having a reliable tech support will play a major role in your site’s success.

Platform Support

The platform is made up of all the hardware running from internet connectors to the software that is bundled in the system and is simply known as the heart and soul of the web hosting service. Before finally deciding which provider you’re choosing, double check on their track records. See if they have a particular platform that they specialize in. Don’t hesitate to inquire about them from their customers and lastly, consider other technical information to determine the reliability of the platform of a particular provider.

Advanced Features and Add-ons

See if there are add-ons and value-added features provided in the package but remember to look ahead of these add-ons. Also check if they have extra service like developer training, consulting, access to development and design teams. There’s nothing like getting your money’s worth.

E-commerce Concerns

E-commerce software bundles are now incorporated by hosting providers into their packages. Some may offer just the basics while some may opt to offer the complete package. Before finally deciding on your provider, compare the packages that they have that is right for your requirements. Also make sure that they have SSL support.

The Overview

This is the service that is provided for most companies that sell goods or do business on the internet. This type of service is basically the same as other basic hosting plans such as shared, dedicated and the like. What makes this different is that this plan includes the added dimension of a Secure Socket Layer or SSL which companies need to secure their customers privacy.

Basically a customized web hosting service, E-commerce hosting is designed for companies that operate E-commerce websites. These companies are provided software, tools, and other solutions that are required to operate an E-commerce website by the web hosting provider. These tools allow these online merchants to create catalogs, do inventory tracking, and accept orders and secure payments for goods and services offered online.

Keep in mind however that not all hosting plans that are suitable for e-commerce are specified as such. There may be several plans to choose from which includes some or all the features that an E-commerce website would need. There are other hosts as well who operate purely on E-commerce web hosting.

Define Your Needs

It is always important to define what your website needs first before setting out to look for a host or a plan. If you have a one page site where you’re trying to sell a book, then you won’t need an extensive plan. Just enough for one page with modest traffic.

You might need a more definite amount of disk space though if you’re looking for a website that can handle a long list of items to be put on sale. The amount of disk space will be able to dictate the number of pages or sites that you can host. Under these specifications, you will be required a different kind of web hosting package or even a different web hosting provider.

The basic things your website will need would be a shopping cart, a merchant account, a payment gateway, an SSL certificate, a web analytics program, and a mailing list program to send out newsletters and announcements.

Determine the Required Tools and Services

It is important that you identify your needs from an E-commerce hosting plan. Knowing what you need will give you a good idea of what plan you need for your site. There are several questions to ask in order to know what you will require.

1.Type and cost of the services that you will be expecting from your web host
2.Preset template or custom-made template
3.Start with a basic website design and upgrade later
4.Tools, software, features of the website
5.Added services like guestbook or a blog

Common E-commerce Hosting Terms

Here is a list of the more commonly used terms in E-commerce hosting:

Shopping Carts – It is a piece of software that operates like an online store’s catalog and ordering system. It is the interface between the company’s website and its deeper infrastructure. It allows customers to pick out merchandise from the list of items sold online and purchase the merchandise.

SSL, Secure Socket Layers – This is a unique feature of ecommerce web hosting that allows you to safely carry out credit card transactions on your website.

Disk Space and Bandwidth – Your chosen hosting package must provide you with adequate bandwidth and disk space or provide you the option to upgrade when the situation requires for it.

Overview
The amount of space where a website’s data and applications are stored is called the disk space. This is found inside the server. Everyone who is being hosted by a particular provider all have their own alloted space in the server hard disk. Basically, if you want more space, you have to cough up the dough.

Normally, a simplae site will only need about 1mb of space or less. Eventually though, more and more information and data are placed on the website and it starts to grow. When this happens, you will start to need more disk space.

That is why it is important to know how much space you require. Here are the reasons why:

Determine minimum amount of disk space for the web hosting plan they choose:

Anticipate for future needs, i.e. choose a web host
Establish web hosting budget

Disk Space and Bandwidth

Disk space is always an important aspect when deciding on a hosting plan or provider. When estimating your disk space requirements, remember to estimate your current as well as your future requirements. Always look for a plan that is flexible enough to give you the disk space that you need when you need it. Furthermore, you should always relate your disk space and bandwidth because one is useless without the other. Look at it this way, even if your site had enough disk space, it still won’t load fast if the bandwidth can’t handle all the information passing through it.

A few things you can do if you want to speed up your site minus paying for the extra space is to make your site simple. Cut down on the audio streaming and flash presentations. Compress your graphics for web applications before using them to save space. Overall, this will not only be beneficial for you but for your visitors as well, especially those with slow internet connections.

Managing Disk Space Requirements

Providers follow a policy regarding disk space usage and more especially when too much is being used. Always check this policy with your provider to make sure you’re getting a good deal. If your disk space is almost over the limit, make the decision to either upgrade the space or delete some files.

Monitoring Disk Space Usage

Your provider should provide a control panel that you can use to check up on your disk space atatus as well as other concerns regarding your plan and website. This is will you an up-to-the-minute status report which will be very helpful.

Cheaper Disk Space

Normally, a web page would need about 40-50kb of space but then obviously gets bigger with more data and information added. Thankfully though, with the current surge in technology, the price of hard disk space seems to have taken a plunge. But remember, don’t think that just because it has gotten cheaper that you will forget learning and understanding disk space management. It is always better to know what you are doing than just second-guessing.

PHP hosting is one of the types of hosting available to you, if you are looking for a hosting service. In this type of hosting, the PHP programming language is used. You will be able to find highly affordable hosting plans from many PHP hosts on the web. PHP is an acronym for Hypertext Preprocessor, although in the past it used to be known as Personal Home Page. The commands in PHP are written in HTML The execution of the PHP programming language is being carried out server side, and this programming language for web development is also of the open source type. Not only is PHP a highly valuable programming language for many web developers, it is also very dynamic, especially with its wide-range of applications.

Due to the compatibility of PHP with MySQL, this programming language is often a foremost choice for many web developers and programmers. MySQL is one of the most well-known online databases. It can automate sites easily, without much complex procedures. If you choose to get PHP hosting, you will be able to run it not only in Windows servers but in Unix servers as well. The fact that it can be run on both servers is a big part as to why hosting with PHP is being opted for by many website owners and web developers. Moreover, PHP is considered as an open source language in web development, making it one of the most widely-used programming languages available today.

Among the advantages of PHP hosting are speed and reliability. However, you need to find a good host for your PHP-run website. Since this type of hosting is efficient and reliable, it is often used for many dynamic websites, such as e-commerce sites. This programming language can also manage sophisticated and more advanced applications on the web since it is highly reliable.

Many programmers who are already adept at Perl and C programming languages can easily take on PHP. This is why most web hosting providers offer PHP hosting services, especially when it comes to hosting for e-commerce websites. In fact, many of those who are seeking out e-commerce hosting plans should check first if the hosting is executed through PHP. Hosting through PHP is well-suited with almost all of the databases in existence nowadays. Thus, there is no complexity involved when interfacing PHP with these databases. If you are planning to build a functional and dynamic e-commerce site, with database information fully supported by the hosting plan, you can go for PHP hosting services.

When it comes to finding a host for your website, not only should you consider the requirements of your online business. You have to look into the needs of your consumers as well. With the type of hosting provided by PHP, you can customize your site easily, so you can cater to the needs to your clients better. If you are looking for a reliable hosting type which is considered efficient and secure by website owners and programmers alike, you will do best with PHP hosting.

Many companies nowadays want clients to host their sites with them. They offer some great deals, for a standard price. However oversea companies commonly are cheaper for the same services. This is largely because of the fact that living costs may be lower, so cheaper electricity to power servers and the person managing the server may not add loads to the price as he will only add a fraction as he gets food etc cheaper so he needs less money! But in this article we will look at some of the flaws and then will look at the benefits.

#1.Support
Have you noticed that people get up and go to sleep at different times, depending on where they live? That is the problem here! People may not be awake when you try to call them, despite maybe offering 24/7 support. This can be annoying as if your site is down, they won’t fix it for several hours or more!

#2.Location
Because you are hosting is India or Pakistan, your site will be slower to the majority of people you maybe targeting. Because the physical location of a server affects how fast a server is to load the page for you. Most people target the United States of America or Europe and so having a server not near either of them is silly!

#3.Because of bad Support there can be a lot of downtime
If people are asleep when the server breaks and goes down then the person won’t even notice until they get up. This will mean a lot more downtime than American companies like Host Gator, who have true 24/7 support and monitor your server.

Now we get onto the benefits of hosting offshore.

#1.The Price
Lets face it, we like to pay as little as we can for as much as possible. And so this is a very good upside to offshore hosting as why pay more for the same thing? Yet we like to earn as much as possible! But in this economy it comes in handy if you can save money on your hosting bill along with other things people are doing to save on money!

#2.Location
Yes I mentioned it up there in the downsides, but it can be helpful if the people you are trying to market to live in India or another offshore country. Remember however, if you live in Europe or America then expect to experience slow loading time to edit your site. So it is a double edged sword.

#3.Quality of Support
They need to try and help you a lot as you are not one of one million clients. No you are probably one of fifty or a hundred clients, so your business is crucial to them. They won’t be mean or annoying on support as if they cause you to terminate your contract with them, they have lost a bit of money, albeit a higher percentage than a huge hosting company who would have lost a lot less percentage of money if you go. They may not even notice you have gone!

Where you host your sites is important. You don’t want to be on a host that is too small for your needs, yet spending too much and getting a load of space, bandwidth and CPU that you don’t need.

Shared Hosting is the first hosting type we shall be reviewing today. This is the cheapest option and is great for small sites. You commonly get unlimited space and bandwidth or near to that at least. However you cannot host a site like YouTube on it as you are limited by CPU and RAM usage as well which will shut you off before you run out of the allotted space and bandwidth

As the name implies you ’share’ the server with other people, up to around 50 or 100 on a paid host, but if you are on a free host maybe 10,000 other sites. The main problem is all it takes is one person who may not know about memory limitations on shared hosting, who runs a memory intensive script and the whole server crashes, causing everyone’s site to be down.

Next is VPS hosting. This is better and thus more expensive than shared hosting, yet dedicated hosting is faster however dedicated hosting is far more expensive. VPS hosting starts at around $45 a month, which may seem a lot compared to shared hosting $5-10 a month.

You however can do what you want with it. Think of it one part of a computer. You have an eighth of the memory, CPU, hard drive and bandwidth. This allows you to use much more memory etc and the space is guaranteed space compared to shared hosting, where overselling is too common and if you use jut 10% of the space you get banned.

Finally we reach Dedicated hosting! This is where your sites and your sites only are hosted. You can do whatever you want on these as you have no limitations and if your site won’t go down from some idiot installing a memory intensive script such as a proxy or the rapid leech script (A script that downloads files from RapidShare to the server, and then provides a link to download from-this is how Rapidshare Premium link Generators Work).

This is only recommended for those that host very large files such as a flash arcade or a wallpaper site. This is very expensive and usually start at around $150 a month for the basic ones and around $300 a month for the expensive top of the range servers. You can do whatever you want with these servers, provided it is legal. You could run 10 or 20 proxies and nobody would shut your account down!

As you can see the difference between the plans are huge, however I personally advise everyone to go with shared hosting and work their way up. You shouldn’t pay for things you don’t need! Hosting is cheaper now than it has ever been and you can find loads of great hosts offering great priced shared hosting for around $5 a month easily.

You see advertisements all the time for free and paid hosts alike and some people question having to pay for their hosting when you can get web hosting for free. Well to be frank there is a lot of differences to free and paid hosting. In this article we shall cover the basic reasons why to pay for your hosting!

#1.Your site is on a free subdomain-
You may think this isn’t bad but it is. When I see professional looking vans go past with a email address like windows4u@btinternet.com then I laugh. It looks tacky and stupid. Would you buy off a site that was cheapsoftwareprograms4u.freewebhosting.com.
The simple answer is no.

#2. Ads are placed on your site
Yes some hosts advertisement free, but they will rapidly change to a ad-supported host when server bills arrive! Ads are obtrusive and they annoy users. Yes many sites have ads, but they are positioned well on the page, compared to a flashing banner at the top of the site.

#3. Lots of downtime
Don’t think that 99.9% uptime guarantee on the homepage of your chosen free host is real. Whereas paid hosts are paid, anyone can set up one site or one thousand sites on a free site. They don’t care if they get banned as its just a free host. Where as people lose their money if they are banned on a paid host.

#4.Slow page loading
A free host probably gets around 10x the amount of page loads compared to a paid host. And free hosts will not spend lots of money on servers whereas paid hosts can afford to spend several hundred dollars on a server. Shouldn’t it be the other way round. So you are asking a server to do 10x as much work as someone who is almost two times better!

#5.They will close anytime they want
Free hosts come and go very quickly. The ones that have been established such as 110mb and Freewebs are the only ones that won’t disappear overnight. I see some advertisement for a free host offering near unlimited space and unlimited bandwidth or sometimes it is so bad they do offer unlimited storage and bandwidth. Then their page takes ages to load or simply doesn’t load as abuse on free hosts is so high that they can’t afford to stay open. Ads don’t cut it! So hosts are forced to close down!

#6.They won’t care about your experiences
If your site is down, then they are not interested! It’s as simple as that. They aren’t making any money off you so they won’t help you. My Dad always says “No such thing as a free lunch!”
I have to admit in the hosting world anything for free is a recipe for disaster!

This comes from a guy who has been to well over 20 free hosts and had enough. True life experiences here, not some made up garbage! So take my advice and do not use free hosts! FREE WEB HOSTING REALLY SUCKS

A domain name registrar is a service that officially registers desired website domain so that it becomes unique to an individual or organization. The domain name identifies and locates computers and resources connected to the world wide net. Each domain name is unique and no two organizations can share a domain name.  Online viewers can easily access any domain name and make use of its services like a website or email system.

Domain name registrars started with only one company but have since evolved into hundreds, who all call themselves domain name registrars.  The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the licensing body that accredits legitimate domain registrars. ICANN is a private, non-profit corporation responsible for allocating IP addresses and managing the Domain Name Systems (DNS).

To handle the registration of gTLDs (generic top-level domains) such as those with.com, .net, and .org extensions, the domain name registrar must be accredited with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Many domain name registrars are accredited by both ICANN and national ccTLDs authorities who handles both gTLDs and ccTLDs. ccTLDs (country code top-level domains) are two-letter domain extensions that represent a specific country, such as .ca, .in, and .uk. ccTLDs are accredited by national ccTLD authorities, and each ccTLDs follow their own set of rules.

Organizations and companies usually go directly to an accredited domain name registrar to register their domain names. But the common practice now is for these same entities to hire the services of a web hosting provider who will then register the selected domain name as part of their web hosting package. This is by far more economical than for an individual or organization to independently register their domain name then choosing a web hosting company as that often requires payment of a transfer fee.

If you have a hard time choosing a domain name or the name you’ve chosen is already registered, which is usually the case, then all you have to do is get the services of a domain name reseller. Name resellers are individuals or organizations that resell domain names for a fee. The domain names are still registered through the domain name registrar but resellers offer and even advertise their domain name registration services in their websites and earn a profit from each name registered.

Most web hosting providers are domain resellers. These same web hosting providers offer domain name registration as part of the web hosting package they offer to web hosting clients.

If there are resellers then there are drop catchers.  Drop catcher is the term used for domain name registrars who offer a special service of registering a domain name for a client as soon as it becomes available, somewhat like catching a dropped name.

Drop catchers usually secure and obtain domain names when the current owner of the domain name does not want the name anymore.  Or, which sometimes happen, because they failed to renew the name on a domain name registrar before it expired.