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Website Hosting Plans aims to provide all the information you might need to understand the hosting options available and find the best hosting plan for you.
This includes information on types of hosting:
Below is a video which looks at what Web Hosting is, the types available and how you can make a choice.
An internet website hosting service enables a website/blog to be put online with the hosting provider taking care of the hardware and communications.
The hosting provider will have a data centre (or share someone else's) where the servers are located in a secure and controlled environment (air conditioning etc) with contingencies in place to cover possible failures. Customers can load/maintain their sites on to these servers using FTP. This means that customers do not have to worry about managing and supporting the hardware or supplying connectivity to the internet.
It is possible for an individual user to host a website on a PC at home and serve it over a broadband connection. However this would not be cheaper, would take up a lot of time, would provide a poorer service and may breach the ISP broadband contract.
Large corporates may have the infrastructure to host their own web servers and it may make sense for them to do so, but for everyone else it is best to use an internet website hosting service.
As user requirements vary there are a variety of hosting options:
Shared Hosting (the standard basic service): Here many users are hosted on a single server on a shared basis. This is the most common form of hosting is is fine for the majority of users. The negative is that some hosting providers may be tempted to put too many users on one server thereby degrading performance. It is therefore advisable to look for user feedback before choosing a provider.
Virtual Private Server Hosting: Physical servers can be divided in “mini servers” which gives a user dedicated resources without the need to have their own server.
Dedicated Server Hosting: Here users really do get their own server for their private use. This can be “Managed” or “Unmanaged” depending on how much responsibility the user wants to take on.
Cloud Hosting: This service which is fairly new is based on clustered load-balanced servers. It has the advantage of avoiding a single point of failure and allowing users to specify their resource requirements.
eCommerce Web Hosting: This allows integrating of shopping cart and payment processing functions into a site. Sometimes it is an option within the standard hosting plans.
Some website hosting providers only offer Linux hosting whilst others offer the option of Windows hosting (this is not connected in any way to your PC operating system). Unless there is a specific reason to go for Windows (e.g. site developers specify this) it is best to go for Linux.
It is easy for someone to become a hosting "reseller". This is where the services of a large hosting provider are resold under a third party brand with that third party being responsible for ongoing support. The latter is important and independent user feedback should be sought before signing with a reseller.
When setting up a website, whether it is for commercial purposes or just your own blog, to which you want to generate traffic you need to choose your hosting service carefully.
Your visitors will want your site to load quickly and are less likely to return if it is slow or is not available. Google also takes account of this when deciding how to rank sites. By using one of the large reputable web hosting services you should avoid such problems.
It is not worth considering free hosting, you have no comeback if the service is poor and you cannot expect anything more than email support. Shared hosting, which is the entry level service, is not expensive and there are many good providers but also some that are not so good.
Finding the best hosting package for you can therefore takes some work. You might look at review sites but this can confuse matters because they make different recommendations. You might search out user comments but inevitably will find some complaints about every host (to be expected given the number of customers they have). Having looked at many user reviews and can say that most negative comments are the result of poor support.
To get the top web hosting for your needs you must to be clear what they are:
This includes information on types of hosting:
- Shared hosting
- Virtual Private Server (VPS) hosting
- Dedicated server hosting
- Cloud Hosting
- SEO Hosting
- eCommerce Hosting
- Linux vs Windows Hosting
- Home website hosting
Below is a video which looks at what Web Hosting is, the types available and how you can make a choice.
Web Hosting - How Does It Work
An internet website hosting service enables a website/blog to be put online with the hosting provider taking care of the hardware and communications.
The hosting provider will have a data centre (or share someone else's) where the servers are located in a secure and controlled environment (air conditioning etc) with contingencies in place to cover possible failures. Customers can load/maintain their sites on to these servers using FTP. This means that customers do not have to worry about managing and supporting the hardware or supplying connectivity to the internet.
It is possible for an individual user to host a website on a PC at home and serve it over a broadband connection. However this would not be cheaper, would take up a lot of time, would provide a poorer service and may breach the ISP broadband contract.
Large corporates may have the infrastructure to host their own web servers and it may make sense for them to do so, but for everyone else it is best to use an internet website hosting service.
As user requirements vary there are a variety of hosting options:
Shared Hosting (the standard basic service): Here many users are hosted on a single server on a shared basis. This is the most common form of hosting is is fine for the majority of users. The negative is that some hosting providers may be tempted to put too many users on one server thereby degrading performance. It is therefore advisable to look for user feedback before choosing a provider.
Virtual Private Server Hosting: Physical servers can be divided in “mini servers” which gives a user dedicated resources without the need to have their own server.
Dedicated Server Hosting: Here users really do get their own server for their private use. This can be “Managed” or “Unmanaged” depending on how much responsibility the user wants to take on.
Cloud Hosting: This service which is fairly new is based on clustered load-balanced servers. It has the advantage of avoiding a single point of failure and allowing users to specify their resource requirements.
eCommerce Web Hosting: This allows integrating of shopping cart and payment processing functions into a site. Sometimes it is an option within the standard hosting plans.
Some website hosting providers only offer Linux hosting whilst others offer the option of Windows hosting (this is not connected in any way to your PC operating system). Unless there is a specific reason to go for Windows (e.g. site developers specify this) it is best to go for Linux.
It is easy for someone to become a hosting "reseller". This is where the services of a large hosting provider are resold under a third party brand with that third party being responsible for ongoing support. The latter is important and independent user feedback should be sought before signing with a reseller.
Top Web Hosting - What To Look For
When setting up a website, whether it is for commercial purposes or just your own blog, to which you want to generate traffic you need to choose your hosting service carefully.
Your visitors will want your site to load quickly and are less likely to return if it is slow or is not available. Google also takes account of this when deciding how to rank sites. By using one of the large reputable web hosting services you should avoid such problems.
It is not worth considering free hosting, you have no comeback if the service is poor and you cannot expect anything more than email support. Shared hosting, which is the entry level service, is not expensive and there are many good providers but also some that are not so good.
Finding the best hosting package for you can therefore takes some work. You might look at review sites but this can confuse matters because they make different recommendations. You might search out user comments but inevitably will find some complaints about every host (to be expected given the number of customers they have). Having looked at many user reviews and can say that most negative comments are the result of poor support.
To get the top web hosting for your needs you must to be clear what they are:
- Windows or Linux Hosting:- If you have employed third party developers they will advise on the hosting requirements. This choice depends on what software you intend to utilize to develop and operate the site. Most people use Linux hosting in the absence of any specific requirements.
- Type of hosting (shared,VPS,dedicated server):- Choosing a host that offers an upgrade path is a good strategy if you expect your site to grow significantly but it is normal to start with shared hosting. With shared hosting many users are hosted on the same server and share the resources of that server. It is possible to put too many users on one server but reputable web hosts will not do this.
- Site Performance:- A site that performs poorly is a sure way to lose visitors and frustrate those who stay. Look for guaranteed availability of at least 99.9%. To get an idea about loading speed you can look for any user comments and also look at the host’s own site.
- Customer Support:- As mentioned above good support is essential. Good web hosting services will provide support by phone, chat and email and do so 24/7.
- Disk Space/Bandwidth:- Most shared hosting is sold as "unlimited" with some packages just limiting things like domains and datadases. This is really just a marketing term as it is clear that the disk capacity in the server is finite, as is the provider’s bandwidth. The host must exercise some control otherwise one user could take all the server resources. Despite this "unlimited" shared hosting keeps the product simple and resources are unlikely to be an issue unless the site gets busy.
- Cost:- You should only consider price after your other requirements have been met. Although there are pricing differences they are not great enough to be more important than the points above. Most hosts offer incentives to new customers so you can take maximum advantage of these by signing up for as long as possible (provided you can get a refund if you need to cancel).
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David91252 |
Latest page update: made by David91252
, Sep 29 2011, 6:57 AM EDT
(about this update
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