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Friday, October 07, 2005
Web Hosting Service
Windows versus Linux for Web Page Hosting
What OS Should You Use for Your Web Pages When looking for a Web hosting server, one of the first things you often have to consider is what operating system the server will run. Now, this article is not about proving that one OS is better or worse than another, and if you already have a bias, then I would recommend you stick to it. This article is not trying to convince you to change.
Several Operating Systems to Choose From Linux Linux is one of the more popular operating systems on the Web, mostly because it is so cheap to install and get up and running. Macintosh Macintosh hosting servers are very uncommon. In fact, if you want to host your site on a Macintosh server, you'll probably have to look into hosting it yourself. Unix Unix is very similar to Linux, but not as common on Web hosting services, usually because it is more expensive and the hardware is more specific. Windows Windows is another popular operating system for Web hosting providers because it has a lot of support. For the purposes of this article, I'll be talking primarily of Linux and Windows Web hosting services.
These are the two most common and readily available operating systems, and there are many good reasons for using both. Unix systems are very similar to Linux (and Mac OSX systems are as well) and as I mentioned above, Macintosh systems are few and far-between. Accessing the Server The first difference that most people notice with Web hosting operating systems is how you access the server. Both Windows and Linux will offer FTP access to your files, but only Linux will generally offer telnet or ssh access. (It's possible to set up telnet access on Windows, but very few hosting administrators offer it.) FTP is a way of transferring your files from your hard drive to your Web server. Telnet or SSH are a way to open a window directly on the Web server and manipulate files right there, usually using Unix command line commands.
Writing Your Pages Both Windows and Linux servers will serve HTML pages and JavaScript. Typically, Windows servers use files named *.htm while Linux servers use files named *.html, but there is no real difference between these names, just what you prefer.
FrontPage extensions are often cited as the reason to use a Windows server. But there are Linux servers that offer this service as well.
CGI CGI and Perl access are often found on both Windows and Linux servers, but it is more typical on Linux. If you need to program forms, you should make sure that your hosting service provides CGI or another way to process them.
Other Server-Side Scripts But you're not stuck with just Perl if you need to process forms. Many hosting systems offer PHP, ASP, and ColdFusion. These server side scripting options give you a lot of flexibility. PHP is more often found on Linux systems, while ASP is more often found on Windows. ColdFusion can be found on both.
Databases If you're going to run a dynamically driven Web site, then you'll want a database. The two most popular are mySQL and Access. mySQL runs on both Linux and Windows, but is more often found on Linux servers. Access is only available for Windows.
Security Many people will argue that Windows servers have more vulnerabilities than Linux servers. But the reality is that they both have security problems. Security is more important at the hosting service's administration level than it is at the operating system level. If you have good administrators, your server will be more secure - regardless of OS.
The Bottom Line The differences between the operating systems is much less than you might think. I would recommend, when choosing a hosting server you find one that has the options you want, rather than worrying about what operating system they are running on the back end.
You need to find a home for your masterpiece. While technically you can run your own server and host your site yourself, this requires a lot of technical know-how, not to mention money and equipment. I don't recommend it.
Free Web Hosting vs Paid Web Hosting
So, one of the first decisions you need to make is whether or not you want to put your Website up on a free service, such as GeoCities, or whether you're willing to pay to have someone host your site. A third option is to take advantage of sites that host designer's portfolios for free, such as .
I recommend that you pay to have your website hosted. Free services tend to have annoying pop-up ads. Also, if something looks to good to be true, it normally is. Today's free service could begin charging you tomorrow.
If you're willing to pay, there's still some decisions to make. You can have your ISP (Internet Service Provider) host your Web page. Most big ISPs, such as EarthLink, include space for a Web site in their monthly fees.
Or you can have your Web site hosted by a company that only host Web sites, and doesn't do any dial-up services at all. The advantage here is that most likely your site will be served faster: there aren't users like yourself dialing into the service to get access to the Internet. The disadvantage is that you'll still need to keep your ISP to access the Internet, so you'll be paying two separate companies: your ISP for your Internet access, and your hosting service for hosting your Web site.
Get a domain name. If you're doing a search for lawyers on the Net, who would you choose: http://www.lawyers.com or http://aol.homepages.com/members/lawyers?
If you register a domain name through Network Solutions, the cost is $70 for two years. After those two years you're billed $35/year. That works out to approximately ten cents a day for your domain name.
With the opening of the domain name services business, you can register your own domain name even cheaper. In fact, one option is to use a company like DirectNIC. They'll only charge you $15/year, and you can have your domain point to any URL on the Net.
See "Domain Name Registration Services and Tools" for more information on registering your domain.
Hosting Services
What should you look for in a hosting service?
You can fit an awful lot of Web pages into 10 MB space. You probably don't need more than this.
Access to CGI-BIN. If you want to install your own counter, guest book, or other custom scripts, you'll need to have access to the CGI-BIN directory. Some Web hosts don't allow this. If yours doesn't, make sure that at least they provide you with a CGI to email script. If they don't and you use a form, the completed forms emailed to you will have a lot of code in them.
Email forwarding or POP3 accounts. You want to look professional, so you want your email to look something like you@yourdomain.com. Even if your ISP is Earthlink, you can still have a you@yourdomain.com email address with email forwarding — you just tell all your email to be forwarded to your Earthlink email address. The advantage is that even if you change providers, your email stays the same. A POP3 email account is what your provider gives you. If your Web site is hosted with a different service, you should still be able to send and receive email by connecting through your ISP.
Autoresponders. You've probably been the recipient of "I'm out of the office until . . " emails. That's an autoresponder. You can take these further, though. Let's say you have something you send out all the time. For instance, you have standard pricing for logos, but you don't want to put it on your site. Prospects can click on "request logo pricing" and automatically receive your pricing. That's an autoresponder.
Statistics. You want to know how your site is doing, right? Your Web host ought to be able to provide you with statistics on how many hits your getting, broken down in a variety of ways.
If you don't want to learn HTML, some of the free/large hosts have their own proprietary systems so that you don't enter HTML at all.
Support. Can you reach a human being 24/7?
How much of the time is your Web site available? Many hosting services will boast something along the lines of "99% up time". There is no service that is up 100% of the time, but they shouldn't be down long.
Some hosting services charge you extra if you go over a certain transfer amount (the number of bytes transferred to the viewer when he calls up your site). Unless you have a very highly trafficked site, chances are whatever the default is shouldn't be a problem for you.
You may be interested in reselling Web space. If you're doing Web design, I highly recommend this. Normally, you buy a certain of space, and then you're free to resell that space pretty much however you want. It's a relatively easy way to make money, and helps you become a "one stop shop" for your customers. Other companies give you a percentage on each new site you sign up.
Other things to consider are FrontPage Extensions, necessary if you're using Microsoft Front Page, and possibly a shopping cart. Chances are you won't need a shopping cart, though (used in online bookstores, for example, to place your books into a "cart" as you shop, and then when you're ready to buy, you proceed to "check out".
You can view a screen capture of this format, or browse my portfolio (please don't email me that it needs work, I know it does!).
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
Now that you've chosen your service, you need to get your files over to the server (upload your files). Your hosting service or ISP should provide detailed instructions on how to do this, so that's the first place you should turn to for help.
Files are transferred or uploaded by file transfer protocol (FTP). Programs like Adobe GoLive and Macromedia Dreamweaver include FTP in the program. There are also popular shareware programs, such as WS_FTP (PC) or Fetch (Mac). All of these programs will ask you for some basic information:
Host Address (this is the URL that you are sending your files to). User ID Password Initial Remote Directory (this is the folder you will be placing your files into). Initial Local Directory (this is the folder your files are stored in on your hard drive). Host-Type (most FTP programs will detect this automatically). In addition, you may need to tell your FTP program what type of file your transferring, HTML or graphics. Most FTP programs can detect this automatically, but if they can't, it's important to chose the correct type: ASCII for HTML, Binary for graphics.
Some services, such as AOL, have their own proprietary systems for uploading files to your server space.
October 6, 2005 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- During the dot-com boom, data center operators built out facilities in anticipation of the many communications carriers, ISPs and Web hosts they expected would soon become tenants. But when the bubble burst, these companies were left with vast quantities of unoccupied space and a glaring lack of potential customers.
As a result, colocation service providers began to look at larger corporations, many which have opted to outsource their IT infrastructures rather than handle it themselves. Putting this strategy into action, pan-European data center operator TeleCity (telecity.com) announced last week that international accounting giant Ernst & Young would consolidate three of its European data centers – in Eschborn (near Frankfurt) and Stuttgart, Germany and Rotterdam, Holland - into TeleCity's facility based in Frankfurt, Germany.
TeleCity will provide colocation services while Ernst & Young will continue to handle the network infrastructure, hardware, software, data and applications. The deployment occupies a 600 square meter suite in the facility.
Ernst & Young had previously managed its own IT infrastructure, but it decided to turn over the hosting tasks to TeleCity because it could not accurately project its hosting requirements 10 to 15 years into the future, explains Dr. Béla Waldhauser, managing director for TeleCity. And not being able to do this would make building out a facility, which it was considering, inherently difficult.
"[They said] there are so many uncertainties in IT," says Waldhauser. "Data centers are a project that should last 10 to 15 years and they could not judge all influences. That was one of the reasons why they decided to outsource the colocation part, because I will give them the flexibility with respect to space and power and cooling per square meter."
An outsourced colocation arrangement also brings cost advantages over in-house deployments. Operating three different facilities in three separate cities not only presents a variety of operating problems but also multiplies costs.
"While a dedicated new-build, in-house data center requires high initial investment, and the full benefit of the investment is not achieved for several years, a consolidation in TeleCity's data center allows us to realize considerable savings, because we only pay for the area being utilized at any particular time," Siggi Hauer, chief information officer for Ernst & Young Central Europe, said in a statement.
The Frankfurt location made even more sense financially. Waldhauser says that while other Eastern European locations may be priced even lower, they don't have the networks and carrier presence that Frankfurt offers. "The point is that the demand in Frankfurt is much less than the capacity which was built," he says. This keeps prices down in comparison to places like London, and to a similar extent Amsterdam, where high demand puts strong upward pressure on prices.
The Frankfurt facility's recently acquired BS7799 certification was another important selling point, especially for a company like Ernst & Young, which deals with massive quantities of financial information. Issued by the British Standards Institute, BS7799 is a security standard for benchmarking information security management systems within an organization. In order to be certified, an organization must demonstrate to an external auditor that its security systems comply with ten aspects of the standard. TeleCity prepared four months for its ultimately successful audit.
"Certification to BS7799 was one of the key reasons for choosing TeleCity as the IT service provider with whom to consolidate our data centers," Dr. Harold Klein, chief technical officer of Ernst & Young AG, said in a release.
Waldhauser notes that in Europe, demand for security is growing - with July's terrorist attacks in London serving as a grim reminder. TeleCity's London-based data center has the same certification and the company plans to have all its nine facilities certified in the near future.
While TeleCity is currently providing Ernst & Young with only the essential infrastructure hosting pieces, the two sides have discussed adding managed services such as backup and storage into the arrangement, says Waldhauser.
Managed service is an area of focus for TeleCity and Waldhauser says the company will continue to introduce new managed services to complement its conventional colocation offerings.
With the competition getting tighter, it is a good bet these trends - targeting the corporate market and the addition of more managed services offerings - will continue to shape the competitive landscape of the Web hosting and communications industries on both sides of the Atlantic.
October 4, 2005 - ICANN accredited registrar and domain name reseller, Wild West Domains, Inc., has announced that it is now one of the top-10 domain name registrars worldwide, according to statistics reported by domain industry analyst Name Intelligence.
Name Intelligence's domain portfolio statistics, available at RegistrarStats (http://www.registrarstats.com), now rank Wild West Domains the 9th largest domain name registrar, with more than 1.4 million domain names under management. Statistics were gathered using zone files from each registry (.com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, and .us).
Jay Westerdal, CEO of Name Intelligence Inc. commented on the developments, "This has been quite a year for The Go Daddy Group. Earlier this year, GoDaddy.com became the largest domain name registrar worldwide in terms of domains under management. Now, its sister company, Wild West Domains, has risen to a top-10 ranking. This is the first time that two sister companies have ever held top-10 positions simultaneously."
Barb Rechterman, Executive Vice President, Wild West Domains added, "We're very proud that both Wild West Domains and GoDaddy.com are now among the top 10 registrars in the world. It's a true testament to our team approach, our resellers' hard work and our continued 'day-in-day-out' commitment to customer satisfaction."
Wild West Domains has made a name for itself by providing resellers easy, affordable access to the domain industry. Wild West resellers receive the industry's lowest buy rates, do not have to pre-fund accounts in order to participate in the program, and are not required to engage in revenue sharing - which means they retain the entire profit for each item they sell. Wild West resellers receive free marketing tools, such as Google Ad Words, and Traffic Blazer (search engine submission), as well as numerous other products, including a Secure SSL Certificate, a web site builder, a deluxe email account, and more. Wild West resellers and their customers also receive 24x7 support, at no additional cost.
"We're dedicated to what our customers need, and have proven that we deliver our products and services better than the competition," added Rechterman. "We offer resellers the best, most profitable way to join the fast-paced, lucrative domain name and services business. And if the recent numbers from Name Intelligence are any indication, our resellers and their customers agree!"
A business that provided server space, web services and file maintenance for individuals or companies that do not have their own servers
A company that uses a web server to provide storage space for many web sites. A good hosting company allows you unlimited access to your web site files and has their server online (up and running) 99% of the time.
A business that share its servers with clients so their web sites can be accessible at any given time A networked computer dedicated to providing a certain kind of service. Usually refers to a computer that stores the website files and has a web server running on it.
A Web host is in the business of providing server space.
Web Hosts offer a service where their "server" stores your web site's HTML files, and graphics (generally for a monthly fee). Their server allows your web site to be accessed / viewed over the Internet. Renew Or Register does not offer Web Hosting. You can use any search engine to locate a Web Host. You do not need to have a web host to register a domain name! A company that owns web servers hosting websites for other businesses, organizations or people, usually for a fee. Internet Service Providers often offer their clients a small amount of web space for a personal website as part of their account. There are companies who offer free hosting but at the cost of having advertising appear on the site over which the client has no control.
Web hosting is a service that provides Internet users with online systems for storing information, images, video, or any content accessible via the web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center. Web hosts can also provide data center space and connectivity to the Internet for servers they do not own to be located in their data center.
The term "website hosting" or "web hosting" means the storage, retrieval and technical maintenance of web pages. "Web hosting" or "affordable web hosting" is hosting in the public domain, making content available to all web viewers. As any other service it could be cheap and affordable or it could be expensive. But this doesn’t mean at all cheap web hosting and affordable website hosting is non-reliable with poor customer service and technical support and services. Actually, cheap web hosting and affordable web hosting is such kind of services when you know what you’re paying for.
The quality of various web hosting, website hosting service or services, in spite of they're either cheap and affordable or expensive, differs in many ways. Free web site hosting is not the right choice for any commercial or business related web site, because you might end up with less web space and poor bandwith speeds. A domain name and paid, but cheap and affordable web hosting, web site hosting is a must for any serious website starting on the internet. There are a lot of web hosting service and services on the Internet, but if you want to have real speed, and web space with fast and affordable and cheap web hosting services with 24/7 online tech support than your choice should be clearly well thought out!
Web hosting, website hosting service is when you rent space from a website hosting company. This space is generally used to store all files in the form of images, html files and all other file formats related to your website. These files include html, javascript, gif, jpg, png, audio or video files, etc. The web hosting bandwidth and space will be set in advance. A web hosting, website hosting service company will normally give you a limited amount of web space. You will also receive a certain amount of bandwidth, usually measured in GB, which accounts for how many times all your files are served to visitors. For instance, someone downloading a 1MB ebook will count for 1MB of bandwidth. They will also generally provide you with support for your hosting account and ensure uptime. Often, more expensive hosting accounts have better support, such as telephone support (as opposed to strictly online or email support) with 24 hour support available.
