The Truth about Unlimited Bandwidth
( The Best Web Hosting Service )You need Web Hosting when you do online business. The basic requirement when you want to subscribed to a web hosting plan is bandwidth. Bandwidth is an amount you have available to transfer web pages from the web server to the browsers of your online visitors. Web pages and graphics consume a large amount of bandwidth. Unlimited bandwidth hosting has developed because of vicious competition among web hosting companies. If you have unlimited storage and unlimited bandwidth you are assured that whether your website grows faster than you think it will there will be no problem.
Labeling bandwidth as unlimited is far from the truth. Although hosting companies have huge servers and fiber cables that can provide you the internet access for those sites that stored on their service it still has its limits. Hosting companies are limited to the amount of capacity that they have. Unlimited bandwidth can only be possible if the website hosting company has their own internet broadband company.
Unlimited bandwidth offer is dependent on the premise that not all their customers are using their bandwidth at all. What if at any given time customers will have peaks on their needs against the other customers like them then the bandwidth that they all need will not be sufficient for everybody’s use.
If you need that much bandwidth check the fine print of your web hosting company’s contract because it might contain information that says that if you exceed the their maximum bandwidth allotted for your website you need to pay for an upgrade. This usually takes place when you have an online store that has lots of pictures. There are also other examples on why you can exceed your present bandwidth need like when you have many visitors or traffic to your site.
Before you close that contract with your new web host provider do not forget about the server resources usage. This includes CPU, RAM and database connection. Without this bandwidth and disk storage issues would be worthless. To calculate your website’s bandwidth requirement the formula is the total page size multiplied by your estimated number of visitors.
Stating that they are offering unlimited bandwidth is almost close to impossible. Consumers do often grab attractive offers like this because of the word UNLIMITED but customers are unaware of its true limitations. Check in your hosting company’s Terms of Service (TOS) it is noted there what the real definition of unlimited is. Your best path for you to take is to plan ahead. After you estimate how much bandwidth you need multiply the figure by two to allow room for your future expansion needs. If you have exceeded your limit for your bandwidth use be sure that your web host provider will immediately contact you.
How Much Uptime Should You Expect For Your Web Hosting?
( The Best Web Hosting Service )People who subscribe to web hosting services expect that they would have an access to its remote server anytime of the day or anytime of the night, in short all 24 hours of it. Before we delve deeper into how much uptime is expected for web hosting let us first discuss what hosting uptime is all about. Hosting uptime according to Wikipedia is the percentage of the time that the host is accessible via the internet. A customer who is paying for hosting services expects that he/she will receive his maximum uptime value.
Uptime is always express as a percentage such as 99.99%. Uptime is use to measure how good a web hosting provider is in keeping all their systems functioning. The web host uptime dependability affects the running of the subscriber’s website. As long as the website is running its customers are happily browsing and accessing the functions that the website offers. A huge obstacle when grading your web host would be taking your web host word for what its worth that they have 99.99% uptime. The 1% make not be big in terms of number and percentage but when this translate to online business every little second counts.
Another way of viewing how uptime may affect your business is not just with minutes but lost in sales. Online customers are pickle minded if they think that your search engine does not work or is unreliable they will stop coming back to visit your web site and your ads or they will stop availing the services that you offer. When you are shopping for your Web Hosting provider do get those that are highly recommended or has good reviews with an guaranteed uptime of 99.5% or more.
When availing for Web Hosting services look for their terms in case there are unavoidable instances that there are unscheduled power outages. This can be called as server upgrade. Most hosts don’t take their sites down for more than 4 hours at a time, usually a lot less. Refunds for instances such as this will only be a couple of measly cents so be sure to keep a clear understanding that they will really refund you for the inconvenience. Some Web Hosting providers will only refund you during the time that you reported the power outage.
Ask your web host if they guarantee also your software uptime since in some cases the machine that runs your website us up and your website is still down. This will only be applicable if you are not the one doing the maintenance for your Web server software. Be sure that you have cover all of the inevitable when it comes to making arrangement with your Web Host provider since they would make many lame excuses so that you can’t claim reimbursement.
How To Start A Website – The Easy Guide
Filed under: Choosing The Best Web Host, SEO, Web Hosting Help, Website Talk, Wordpress and Blogging
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- For someone that is not a computer guru, or even that familiar with computers, it can be quite intimidating to start a website from scratch. There are a handful of questions you probably have going through your head right now, and I will attempt to tackle as many questions that will help answer the question “How To Start A Website“, in this blog post. However, if you are interested in how to start a blog I suggest you read my post geared on starting a blog 
Domain Names
The first thing you will need is a domain name. This is the www. extension of your website. For instance, http://www.the-best-web-hosting-service.com is the domain of this website. It can be very difficult finding a good domain that isn’t already taken, and you will more than likely need to go for a .com domain name. This is just one step for starting a website though. (see what not to do when picking a domain name)
Also, just because you buy a domain at GoDaddy doesn’t mean you have to host your domain there. You can switch your DNS to any server you want to use. In fact, I wouldn’t use GoDaddy for web hosting; just for domains. I do buy my domains from GoDaddy, but host with Hostgator; all you have to do is switch your DNS (or cut and paste your name servers in the control panel). Please see switching your DNS from GoDaddy to Hostgator.
Software: For Your Website
In order to create a website you are going to need a program to design your website, however they are quite expensive, nearly $400 for Dreamweaver and $200 for Microsolf’s version of Dreamweaver, which is called Expression. Of course these will take some training, because these programs are not for the novice user. However, there are many hosting services such as, BlueHost, GreenGeeks, and Hostgator, which all offer sitebuilders to help you in case you are not a web developer.
I am a web developer and unless you have deep pockets you are probably not going to want to pay several thousands of dollars for a site design, plus maintenance. In fact, you can start a website for much cheaper than that! Typically novice webmasters will install WordPress on their site and install various plugins and widgets to help customize their page the way they want it. To do this you need to use Fantasitico to install WordPress.
Testing Your Website
Believe it or not starting a website requires a lot of testing. This is a commonly overlooked factor that people fail to do until their users start contacting them because of accessibility issues. In order to have a successful website you need to make sure that people can use your site easily. This is the main ingredient that allows your site to be a successful one (along with excellent content).
You need to make sure your site looks alright in all the major browsers; Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, and Opera. Additionally, I like to be a control freak and see what my site looks like in almost every browser possible at http:///www.browsershots.org. When you create a website you don’t want it to look broken on different browsers.
Along with that I always try to make sure my sites are W3C compliant (not just for seo reasons) but to make sure their are no bugs on my website. It is a good habit to get into. Along with that I always check my site for malware with this site http://www.unmaskparasites.com (from time to time). Furthermore, I recently wrote a post on finding 404 errors and broken links, along with using an .htaccess file to make sure my 301 redirects are setup properly.
Website Cost
Another thing people commonly want to know is how much is it going to cost to start a website? This is kind of an intricate question to answer, because it depends on your purpose of the website. When you start a website you need to ask yourself is it for my business, personal site, eCommerce site, blog, ect. It can be very cheap if you don’t need to purchase any software or sitebuilders and only have to pay for a yearly domain, and web hosting (either per year or monthly). If you are interested in a cheap yearly fee; I would highly recommend you read my Fatcow Review. Also, if you would like to save $30 a year and get a free domain please check out this GreenGeeks review. Also, personally, I use InMotion hosting for this website because they offer a ton of different plans, and I simply love them!
Web Hosting: For Your Website
So now that you are all excited on starting a website you need to pick a place to host it with. Without web hosting your site would not be functional. Web hosting is the server that pay for which all your files are going to live on. However, there are hundreds if not thousands of hosting companies out there so it can be impossible to determine, which one is right for you, unless you have a little assistance.
Another question when starting a website that people commonly have is what is the best web hosting service? Well, again this is a question that has more than one answer. For instance, the best hosting could be different for a blog vs someone that is starting an eCommerce business. You can expect to pay anywhere from $2-$400 a month for web hosting. I actually have a list on this site which shows, what I feel are the best hosting services to meet your needs. Currently, have these categories:
Best Blog Web Hosting
Best Budget Web Hosting
Best Business Web Hosting
Best Dedicated Web Hosting
Best eCommerce Web Hosting
Best Green Web Hosting
Best Linux Web Hosting
Best Multiple Domain Web Hosting
Best Reseller Web Hosting
Best Shared Web Hosting
Best Unix Web Hosting
Best Windows Web Hosting
SEO – And Your Website
Another common question people have is, now that I have started a website; how come nobody is coming to my website? The black and white answer to this question is no one knows about your site being published yet. There is no magic god that you can pray to that tells people that your site is up and waiting for visitors. I wish there was though. You need to get backlinks in order to get people to your website.
You could hire someone to do your SEO for your website, but that can also cost several thousands of dollars per month. In fact, see this article on 7 methods of SEO that actually work. Again, I also do SEO work, but it can generally take 2-3 months before you see results in the search engines (I know it is a long wait!). It depends how hard your keywords are too.
Along, with doing SEO there are some simple things you can do which will help your site get noticed in the search engines. Here are a list of places to submit your website:
Yahoo Directory
Business.com
BOTW.org
Submit to Google
Submit to Yahoo
Submit to Bing
In conclusion, don’t be intimidated on starting a website, because it is actually pretty easy to do. Whether your site is a blog, eCommerce shop, personal site, ect you can do it with a little work. Might take a couple months to get everything up and running the way you want, but can be a lot of fun. Just remember to follow the above tutorial if you want to get your website up and running today. Please not if you are looking to start a website and don’t have a lot of money to invest read my WebHostingHub Review (they are one of the cheapest feature rich hosting companies). Also, it is worth your time to check out this GreenGeeks review if you want to get a free domain and save $30 a year on web hosting. What other questions do you have about creating a website or other issues that are not covered in this article?
Differences Between Cloud Computing and Web Hosting
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- There is much confusion regarding the differences between web hosting and cloud computing. Many are now familiar with web hosting, and how people can create websites to reach others around the world. A web host holds data for a website on their server, and when someone from anywhere in the world searches for the website, its server makes the data available.
What’s Cloud Computing?
In cloud computing, data is held in a large data center or centers which are spread around the world. It is different from web hosting in several ways: the provider is given a lot more control; it is elastic, meaning it can handle decreasing or increasing demands; and it is sold on demand. The great advantage of cloud computation is its ability to cope with sudden spikes in demand of customers. Before, when there’s a quick rush of traffic to a site, the server cannot handle it, and visitors can no longer get to the site. This does not pose a problem in cloud computing, because it can deal with changes in demand levels quite easily.
Cloud computing can either be public or private. An organization or institution could create a private cloud accessible only to its members. While a public cloud allows other people to join, who can store their website files this way. After data is stored in the cloud, you can then back it up with plenty of computing power.
Here is how cloud computing works: if there’s a sudden rise in demand for a website, the server could call in other servers to help meet the demand. There is plenty of spare space in cloud computing, because not all websites or applications on file are going to be in demand all the time. Previously, any spare capacity is not utilized, but this is changing with cloud computing.
Cloud computing offers solutions to the many problems associated with web hosting. Site owners often work hard promoting their websites, and when these work and people go dropping by the websites, web owners need to be assured that their servers will not let them down.Or if your blog post suddenly becomes hot on the web with the tons of people worldwide who want to read it, cloud computing now makes it possible for you to do it.
Server Uptime: Why Is It Important?
( The Best Web Hosting Service )- Server uptime is one of the most vital components you should consider when looking for a suitable web hosting company. It’s your website’s virtual lifeline because it’s the only way to ensure that your website remains visible on the Internet and visitors can find it when they go there. Most web hosting companies offer and promise a 99.9% uptime guarantee, but in many cases, this is rarely delivered. I can tell you for a fact that Hostgator, InMotion, and BlueHost all do abide by this 99.9% uptime.
So how can you tell if the web hosting company has a reliable uptime feature? It may be a little tough to truly gauge the uptime consistency of a hosting company since most web hosts use several servers. Although there are monitoring mechanisms on the Internet that can help track the uptime trends and patterns of particular web hosts, the fact remains that web hosting companies utilize quite a number of servers in their data centers; thus, trying to pinpoint the exact server where your website is being hosted is close to impossible. However, there are some ways you can at least identify which web hosting companies have a high probability of being reliable in terms of uptime.
• Actual experience. Nothing beats actual and real-time experience, of course. If you’re ready to take the risk, you can find out for yourself how good (or awful) a hosting company’s uptime is.
• Ask around. Do some research and ask fellow webmasters about their experience with particular hosting companies. Check out feedbacks from other customers and make sure testimonials are genuine. This should give you a fairly good idea on the company’s uptime performance. A good place to ask around is webhostingtalk.com
• Go for hosting plans with free trial periods. Hosting companies offer plans with provision for free trial period. Take advantage of this to get a firsthand knowledge of how stable the uptime is. This gives you the leeway to cancel if you experience massive downtimes; or if you find that uptime is consistent enough, you can then decide to continue with the total package.
• Third party monitoring system. As mentioned earlier, there are providers that cater to this need. Have a third party monitor how your website fares, specifically on the uptime issue. The report should show you whether it’s wise to keep your current web host or it’s time to find a better alternative.
Finally, a word of solid advice: Don’t immediately sign up for long term contracts (such as 6 months or yearly). It’s more difficult to cancel long-term packages and you could end up losing considerable sum. More importantly, take great caution when choosing a web host and hosting plan.
However, be cautioned that there are some web host that have horrible uptime, however they state 99.9% uptime. Please avoid these DreamHost, WebHost4Life, and HostRocket.
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Recommended:
BlueHost
FatCow
Gate.com
HostGator
HostMonster
InMotion
iPage
Lunarpages
Omnis Network
PacificHost
PowWeb
Web.com
WebHostingBuzz
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BigCommerce Review
