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Shared Web Hosting Plan: Increase Your Traffic

Posted by kk on Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Whether you are a newbie or an experienced webmaster one thing which you will need to have your websites online is a web hosting service. There are various webs hosting services each of which are useful in different ways. A shared web hosting plan is the ideal solution for starters or webmasters with low to medium traffic sites. It proves to be the most popular and cost effective choice for businesses, organizations, or people looking to host a website.

If you seriously want to build some sites then join the bandwagon of shared web hosting plan. The plan is simple and similar to the real life comparison of passengers sharing a same cab and paying a relatively lower fare to reach their destination. Similar the shared web hosting service distribute the server's resources among the accounts holder for a cheap and affordable monthly fee. The another most attractive aspect of shared hosting for most people besides the reduce cost is that though customers share the same physical computer but hard drive space is separated and so there is no interference and therefore no one else has access to your files or data.

Shared web hosting service will provide you with a pre-defined large indefinite amount of disk space, a fixed monthly bandwidth or transfer quota and a control panel to manage your hosting account. You will also come across shared hosting packages that usually come with a simple to use client management interface, that allows them to set up file and FTP access, manage email accounts and other basic functions, giving you control over your website. The features are not confined here. If you want more features such as shopping carts, automated backups, and security certificates, shared hosting packages will offer them as extras to your account but you have to spend some extra bucks.

You can lower the prices even more if sign up for a longer term contract 6, 12, or 24 months than paying at the end of each month. You no need to have any kind of headache with your security and software updates because shared hosting is managed by hosting company where their staff pay special attention to all kind of security, and software updates. Since the CPU and RAM resources are shared among on a single server so, if one tends to utilize a very high amount of CPU or memory, then the others tend to suffer and this factor is also looked after with care by the hosts. They monitor all accounts and take necessary step against the over-using customers. They ask to either leave or upgrade their plans.

Web servers, like every other electronic device that connects with the Internet, are identified by an Internet Protocol (IP) address. So each fax, computer, router, printer, and switch has a distinct IP address. The IP address is made up of four 1-3 digit numbers that are in the range of 0 - 255 and separated by dots. The IP address of a web server is “dedicated,” and that means that the server always has the same IP address. This differs from the situation with shared hosting in which websites that use the same server share the IP address.
Managed hosting service provides you with a dedicated server and a dedicated manager to administer your system. This is a more expensive service than dedicated hosting, in which you are leasing the server while providing your own server manager who will need to solve any problems that arise. Here’s an example of the difference in cost. Dedicated hosting with up to 500 GB of space and around 2000 GB of bandwidth runs from $55 to $215 per month at selected web hosts if the account is paid by the year. Managed hosting with those parameters for capacity and bandwidth runs $99 to $260 per month if the account is paid by the year.
There are several reasons why a dedicated server is the ideal situation. First is capacity. If you need the entire server space for your business or businesses, a dedicated server is an obvious choice. Second is bandwidth. On a dedicated server, you don’t have to be concerned with how much bandwidth anyone else is using: it’s all yours. Third is extensibility. Even if you’re not using the whole server now, but you have plans to expand, it may be preferable for you to have all your holdings on one server (with redundant reliable backup) rather than split over several servers.
Another reason that might push you towards a dedicated server is the behavior of neighbors on a shared server. It has been known to happen that spam blockers respond to the misbehavior of some users by blocking not just those users but an entire IP address. If your online activities require free and unlimited access to other web addresses, then freeing yourself from the repercussions of your server-neighbors’ poor choices might be enough to move you to a dedicated server.
Beyond the value of handing the dedicated server itself, there’s also the value of the dedicated IP address to consider. For one thing, those who seek a Private Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate must have a dedicated IP address. And that comes with having a dedicated server. SSL certificates have an encryption system used for the security of message transmission and are a crucial element of electronic commerce, such as accepting credit cards, as well as other sensitive information.
If you are looking for cheaper dedicated servers, you should be careful while choosing the right specification and package. Things to consider are operating system, data backup and monitoring service, hardware options, space, bandwidth and technical support. Ask the hosting providers to give you a few websites for references, read hosting reviews before you sign up and be sure that the price is affordable. We know that the dedicated servers on this site are the one that will give you the most reliability and flexibility for your money.

If you have had a problem with your current hosting company or if your company just doesn't provide the features that you're looking in a hosting account then you might have decided to move from one company to another so in theory all you need to do is to migrate the data from your old server to the new server however, in most cases this is easier said than done. Let's describe all of the steps required to migrate your data from one company to another. 
Getting a hold of the support team in both companies: This step is critical if you're not a very knowledgeable webmaster, if you don't know how to zip and unzip the fate of which is hosted in your old company then doing the migration will prove to be extremely difficult or nearly impossible. If the main reason that you are moving your data from the old company is that you had terrible support then it would be an intelligent move to higher a knowledgeable webmaster who will be able to compress and decompress all of the data necessary. 
Zipping your websites and your databases: Before compressing your data you need to make sure that your databases have a name which will allow you to identify them in order to match them with the corresponding website, if they do not have very descriptive names then you might want to go into the settings of your scripts in order to see which side is using which database. Zipping or compressing your data should be the first thing that you do when you move from one company to another, you can compress your websites in two different formats you can use a .zip file or you can use a .zip.tar extension which will basically allow you to do the very same thing. Compressing your information allows for a faster data transfer from one place to another, this is a step they do not want to neglect or skip because if you did not compress your data you will end up spending hours upon hours transferring your sites from one company to another. Using an FTP program to upload your site and your databases: 
Once you have your site zipped as well is your databases it is time to use the very same FTP program that you used to download the data to upload it to your new server, again getting hold of your tech-support team is extremely important if you do not know how to decompress your sites and databases into the new machine. 
Once you have decompressed everything it is now time to match your databases to your scripts and sites, the step also involves changing the paths to your scripts if they have been hardcoded. You will notice that this is basically the hardest step in the migration process, you will also need to modify your "hosts file" in your computer in order to set the then new IP address of your sites in order to test them and make sure they are working before you decide to change the DNS records, changing "hosts file" will also help you reduce the amount of downtime your sites will experience during migration. Changing the DNS records: In a nutshell, the DNS records are two lines of information which point towards the web server that you're using, when you decide to move from one company to another the DNS records will be pointing to the old company's server, by changing the DNS records you will basically shift the arrow towards your new server. Once you set new DNS information it will take some time to propagate across the web so don't expect your sites to be immediately available, DNS propagation usually takes between 15 minutes all the way to 72 hours so be patient. If you have followed all of the steps described above and everything works fine there is nothing else to say but congratulations!

Web Hosting Guide

Posted by kk on Saturday, August 22, 2009

Web hosting is one of the most important tools to help you build a successful website. If you buy hosting that lacks features and/or functionality, then you are looking at being forced to build a website without having the tools required to do so. A perfect example of this is trying to build a WordPress website on a web host that does not allow SQL databases.

If you’ve got the idea to build a main domain, with several spinoff subdomains, then your new web host that allows you to add subdomains without an additional charge. Otherwise, you’d be unable to build a website the way that it was originally designed. Some of the features you’re going to need to build a successful website are e-mail, FTP accounts, and analytics. Although you could potentially get by without them, you’re far better off paying a little bit more to get the features that you’ll need to build your website the right way.

There are basically three types of hosting accounts, all of which vary in some form or another. Shared hosting means that you are sharing resources with several other websites, which can be dangerous if you have a website with a lot of traffic. VPS hosting is a form of shared hosting, although each website has an instanced server environment that is dedicated for that website. Dedicated hosting means that you have one server dedicated to your website, which in exchange for providing the most efficiency and speed is also the most expensive.

Buying Web hosting can be a lengthy process but it is important that you spend the time to research all of your options so you can get the most bang for your buck. Since it is difficult to transfer a website from one host to another, you’re far better off getting it right the first time then trying to transfer it down the road.

One last thing to be cautious of when purchasing web hosting, is that the company you choose has good customer service. It does you no good to get cheap hosting if you can’t contact your provider in the event of a technical issue or outage. That is why I’d rather pay a little bit more and have access to customer service and technical support without a hassle.

cPanel Guide

Posted by kk on Wednesday, August 19, 2009


If you’re not sure which web host to purchase, then I have a tip that might help you make a final decision. Most good web hosts have something called cPanel, which is basically the hidden underbelly of the web hosting world. What I mean by that, is that everything you need to tweak or optimize your website, lies hidden behind a special access panel. This access panel, also called a control panel, is where you update e-mail accounts, FTP accounts, subdomains, databases, and practically any other setting that you will need to change in your website.

You can access cPanel by typing your domain name followed by a /cPanel. You’ll then be prompted for a username and password, which will lead you to the cPanel main menu. From there you’ll find hundreds of options related to your domain and your hosting account. The first time that you access cPanel might be a bit confusing, but once you’ve had a chance to play around with the settings and get familiar with the layout, you should build to pick it up pretty easily.

From the cPanel main menu, you can take a look at all of your e-mail accounts, which includes checking your e-mail accounts if they are not forwarded to an external e-mail address. You can also add, update, or delete MySQL databases, which are needed to run more advanced server-based software systems. On the sidebar you should see your storage and bandwidth quotas listed, so you can keep an eye on whether or not you are close to using your allotted space. If you are close to using your storage and bandwidth limits, then you might consider upgrading.

You can change your passwords, ad domain redirects, or take a look at your domain analytics all from the same place. If you’ve ever used a domain or hosting account that did not include cPanel, then you’ll realize just how important it is to have everything you need directly at your fingertips. I had that problem once, but I never made a mistake of choosing a host without cPanel again. Although most web hosts offer similar functionality, cPanel makes adding more selling domains a much more efficient process.

How to Choose a web host.

Posted by kk on

For someone like me, that makes a living building websites, choosing a web host is like buying a car. It takes a lot of time to compare features and price to make sure that you get the biggest bang for your buck. Since every website is different, your needs when buying web hosting will be different almost every time. As a result, you want to make sure that you have a list of the features you need when you begin the process of shopping for a new host.

If you have a business website, then you might need to consider a dedicated or VPS hosting, however if you’ve got just a personal website or blog been shared hosting might be right for you. If you’ve got a very popular website, then you need a plan that offers a lot of bandwidth and storage, otherwise you risk a down website or a traffic surcharge, both of which can be very expensive. Although most shared hosting plans offer unlimited bandwidth and storage, make sure you choose a web host that lives up to their claims.

One of the most important factors for me when choosing a web host is the company’s customer service. I need to know that I can submit technical support claims via e-mail, telephone, and online chat. I want to make sure that the company will respond to my claim any time efficient manner and that my issue will not just fall to the bottom of the queue. Unfortunately, there are very few web hosts that offer this capability, so make sure you take the time to find them.

One last thing to consider is that you think about features you might need in the relative future. If you’re going to lock in a price for a year or more, then you might want to go ahead and add some additional features now, rather than pay for them individually down the road. This can save you a lot of money and will make it much easier to upgrade your website as the traffic and functionality increases. Although you might be tempted to take the best offer that comes along, I recommend that you spend some time analyzing each host to make sure that you get the best price and the most features.

Here is a usefull & simple way to transfer all your accounts/websites, from one virtual private server to another. We will be using SSH to do this.
1. Login to the old server and make sure it has enough disk space for all accounts to be backed up. I recommand using Putty which can be downloaded here: http://www.putty.org/
2. mkdir /home/massbackup
3. for i in `ls -1 /var/cpanel/users`;do echo $i >> /home/massbackup/accts;/scripts/pkgacct $i;mv /home/cpmove-* /home/massbackup;done
4. cd /home;tar zcpf massbackup.tar.gz massbackup
5. scp /home/massbackup.tar.gz root@xx.xx.xx.xx:/home/ ”Replace xx.xx.xx.xx with your NEW server IP”
6. Enter root’s password of new VPS.
7. Now close your putty connection with the OLD VPS and login to the NEW VPS using Putty.
8. cd /home;tar zxpf massbackup.tar.gz;mv massbackup/* /home;for i in `cat /home/accts`;do echo restoring $i;/scripts/restorepkg $i;done
Your done! Hope you find this information usefull :):):)

Web hosting in simple terms is defines as a space given for rent for your hosting your domain and your website. There are numerous service providers in the internet market that provide this facility and boost the business of online entrepreneurs.
Depending on your particular needs, there are several choices that you can make when it comes to choosing the best type of web hosting. The most popular type of hosting is the shared web host which is ideal for most web sites. However, for accommodating sites which involve heavy traffic and those which contain sensitive information, managed web hosts are preferred.
Why shared web hosts?
When multiple websites share the same space on a single server, it is called shared web hosting. This is ideal for smaller websites which do have large amount of traffic congestion. It is inexpensive and effecting hosting solution as purchasing a dedicated server or even leasing it would be expensive for smaller websites.
There are packages offered by the web hosting companies for a certain amount which include a particular amount of space and bandwidth on the company’s server. Multiple web sites can be hosted on these web host servers as they have sufficiently large space and bandwidth to accommodate them.
Unless you experience sudden hike in traffic, the bandwidth and space provided by these hosting companies, granted according to the shared hosting agreement, is enough to fulfill your needs. There is also an option to negotiate additional space and bandwidth capacity just in case your website grows faster than expected.
In such cases, if your web hosting company doesn’t agree to provide extra space to accommodate the additional traffic, then you can purchase a higher level of hosting or even upgrade to managed web host dedicated servers.
Why managed web hosts?
There are certain websites which contain confidential and highly sensitive information and also are heavily trafficked. Such websites are better suited on managed web hosts which allocate one server particularly for your site. In this way, you will never share a web space with any other website ruling out the possibility of hacking and loosing confidential information.
Managing their own servers is quite difficult for companies who need dedicated servers for their websites. Instead, they opt for managed web hosting solutions. It becomes a time-consuming task when it comes to managing and administering your own servers. It will also hold the owner of the server responsible for all the maintenance aspects of this server, which might create security issues too.
It is difficult for companies with large websites to maintain their own dedicated servers as they themselves will be busy with their own business aspects. Instead, companies prefer to enter into a web hosting agreement in which hosting company takes the onus of the maintenance and management of the host server.
Which one is the best?
The decision of investing on any of the types of web hosting must depend on your specific needs and interest. If your website is large enough to require dedicated host servers, then you must always opt for managed hosting. However, it is necessary to cross-check and look if the shared web hosts will satisfy your needs.
Shared web hosts have fewer options than the managed web hosts. However spending on managed web hosting is not advisable if it is not necessary as share web hosts are sufficient for most of the websites.

When it comes to web hosting, most people are only familiar with personal web hosting, which is also called shared hosting. Although shared hosting is the cheapest form of web hosting, it is also the least efficient because several domains are hosted on the same account. This is where VPS and dedicated become much more useful because they allow you to dedicate resources specifically for your website. In this article, we will talk about the benefits of each and what the differences between the two of them are.
The great thing about both dedicated and VPS hosting are that they are much faster and much more efficient than shared hosting. They are both relatively expensive compared to shared hosting, but this is because they have more resources and storage dedicated to them.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting is the term used to describe the situation in which you have 1 server dedicated to 1 website. It is the most expensive form of web hosting, but it is also the fastest and most efficient. When you have a dedicated web host, your uptime is practically guaranteed and you will have a huge amount of storage and bandwidth specifically dedicated to your website. As opposed to share hosting, which shares the storage and bandwidth of a server, dedicated hosting devotes an entire server’s resources to your website.
VPS Hosting (Virtual Private Server )
VPS hosting differs from dedicated hosting in that it is a form of shared hosting, being that several sites are still hosted on a single server. The difference between VPS and shared hosting is that every site on a VPS server has dedicated resources, including bandwidth, memory, and hard drive storage. With VPS servers, the web hosts sets up an individual system environment on a server that is cut-off from the other sites on the server. As a result, even though the sites are on a shared server, there are individual resources allocated for each website, which boosts speed and efficiency.
Although VPS is slightly cheaper than dedicated hosting, it might be worth your while to purchase dedicated hosting if you have a popular business or e-commerce website. If you don’t need a dedicated server, then VPS hosting might be perfect for your situation.

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