Wednesday, September 5, 2007
How To Choose The Best Web Host...For You
Copyright 2005 Anthony Vita
Web Hosting is a service. Auto mechanics also provide a service. How would you decide which mechanic is best for you? Price? Experience? Reliability? This is the same line of thinking that should go into deciding which company should host your website.
It is very common to see choices centered around price, especially with so much competition in the hosting business. It is not uncommon to see hosting plans range from free to upwards of $50 per month. However, if you happened to see a sign on the street that said "$2 mechanic inside" you would probably drive right by, right? How good could a "$2 mechanic" possibly be? Why would a mechanic with skill and experience charge next to nothing for their service? Certainly, it is worth paying a mechanic. You don't want to be overcharged, but you do realize an experienced mechanic has value.
This example is very similar to the hosting world. Some may argue a car is more important than a website. Tell that to the bed and breakfast owner who does 90% of their booking via their online reservation system. If your business depends on a website to either completely drive or supplement sales, you know how important a website can be.
When it comes to choosing a host, there are not enough
choices centered around experience and reliability. These
are the foundations for any good company. A mechanic who
has worked on cars for 10 years is going to be more familar with his trade than a mechanic who only has 2 years experience. If you were deciding on a mechanic, wouldn't you lean towards the one who has worked on cars for a longer period of time and perhaps comes on a good recommendation?
Okay, enough talk about cars, let's talk hosting. When you
are looking for a company to provide the service of web hosting, try placing price aside for a moment. First, look for a company that has been in businesss for a number of years. Any host that has been around for over 5 years is probably doing something right. That's not to say a host of 2 years can't help you, but at least begin your search with the most experienced.
After you've found a few candidates, write down about 10 questions you would like to ask your future host. Even if you know the answers to some questions, that's okay. The reason for the questions is to see how long it takes to get answers and the quality of those answers. If you don't like what you see, scratch them off your list because that is exactly the type of response you will get when a support issue arises.
Try to get the web addresses of 4 or 5 sites they host and visit over a period of a week or so and see if you notice any downtime or blatant sluggishness. You may even want to email the owners of these sites and ask what they think of their host.
This may seem like alot of work just to decide on a host
for your website. It's certainly more involved than simply looking for the cheapest price. When you only look at price you overlook some essential factors, such as experience and reliability. If your website is important to you or your business, you will come to rely on that experience which translates into quality service.
Network Security 101
As more people are logging onto the Internet everyday, Network Security becomes a larger issue. In the United States, identity theft and computer fraud are among the fastest rising crimes. It is important to protect your network and ensure the safety of all computers and users in that network.
What is a Network?
In order to fully understand network security, one must first understand what exactly a network is. A network is a group of computers that are connected. Computers can be connected in a variety of ways. Some of these ways include a USB port, phone line connection, Ethernet connection, or a wireless connection. The Internet is basically a network of networks. An Internet Service Provider (ISP) is also a network. When a computer connects to the internet, it joins the ISP's network which is joined with a variety of other networks, which are joined with even more networks, and so on. These networks all encompass the Internet. The vast amount of computers on the Internet, and the number of ISPs and large networks makes network security a must.
Common Network Security Breeches
Hackers often try to hack into vulnerable networks. Hackers use a variety of different attacks to cripple a network. Whether you have a home network or a LAN, it is important to know how hackers will attack a network.
One common way for a hacker to wreak havoc is to achieve access to things that ordinary users shouldn't have access to. In any network, administrators have the ability to make certain parts of the network "unauthorized access." If a hacker is able to gain access to a protected area of the network, he or she can possibly affect all of the computers on the network. Some hackers attempt to break into certain networks and release viruses that affect all of the computers in the network. Some hackers can also view information that they are not supposed to see.
Destructive Attacks
There are two major categories for destructive attacks to a network. Data Diddling is the first attack. It usually is not immediately apparent that something is wrong with your computer when it has been subjected to a data diddler. Data diddlers will generally change numbers or files slightly, and the damage becomes apparent much later. Once a problem is discovered, it can be very difficult to trust any of your previous data because the culprit could have potentially fooled with many different documents.
The second type of data destruction is outright deletion. Some hackers will simply hack into a computer and delete essential files. This inevitably causes major problems for any business and can even lead to a computer being deemed useless. Hackers can rip operating systems apart and cause terrible problems to a network or a computer.
The Importance of Network Security
Knowing how destructive hackers can be shows you the importance of Network Security. Most networks have firewalls enabled that block hackers and viruses. Having anti-virus software on all computers in a network is a must. In a network, all of the computers are connected, so that if one computer gets a virus, all of the other computers can be adversely affected by this same virus. Any network administrator should have all of the essential files on back up disks. If a file is deleted by a hacker, but you have it on back up, then there is no issue. When files are lost forever, major problems ensue. Network security is an important thing for a business, or a home. Hackers try to make people's lives difficult, but if you are ready for them, your network will be safe.
Robert Flanglin is very interested in computer security and anti-virus software. Robert Flanglin enjoys writing about Network Security.
Choosing the right web host
Choosing the right web host
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by Kevin Allman
You've decided about your website design and now you are ready to have it hosted.
When choosing the right web host, they are several factors to consider:
I. How often is the web server up?
II. Does the server provide SSL?
III. Does the server provide for server side scripting? (e.g PHP, ASP?)
IV. Free or paid?
V. What is the upload limit? What is the file limit?
VI. Customer support?
VII. Suggestions
Appendix A - Web host provider reviews
I - How often is the web server up?
Once you've signed up with a web host provider, you don't want your website to be down or taking forever to load. This can have a serious dent in traffic as it could turn off potential returning visitors.
Search engines also do not rank web pages that are always down well, so you should expect next to nothing traffic from Search Engines if your website is down most of the time or takes forever to load.
A good way to find out if a web server is up usually is to check out reviews by different persons who have already used the web host. I've included a link to a web host review website at the end of this article in Appendix A.
II - Does the Server provide SSL?
If your website is a hobby websiter, and you won't be doing any transactions on your website, SSL protection is not needed.
However, if you plan to do any transactions in the future; its important that you choose a webhost which provides SSL protection upfront.
SSL is an encryption ,ethod which helps to encrypt any sensitive information like credit card info, names, etc
If you signed up with a web host who does not offer SSL protection; it's usually more costly if you then decide to get it installed than if you signed up with a web host provider who already provides SSL protection for transactions.
Examples of web host providers who provide Automatic SSL do this are www.powweb.com and www.ipowerweb.com
III - Does the server provide for server side scripting? (e.g PHP, ASP?)
Most web host providers provide for server side scripting but its still important to make sure that they do.
Server side scripting allows the webmaster to create pages which change in realtime.
For example, if you are running a business, and you have all of your products stored in a database, a server side script will generate the pages that the customer sees according to which category/product the customer chooses.
If a web host provide does n provide functionality for server side scripting, it's dated and you should stay far away from it :) www.powweb.com, www.ipowerweb.com and www.lunarpages.com all provide functionality for Server Side Scripting.
IV - Free? Paid? Which one?
Another important factor to consider is whether you want to sign up with for Free or Paid web hosting. Companies such as www.geocities.com, www.tripod.com, www.freeservers.com offer free hosting.
The main disadvantage with free hosting is that the hosters usually run ads on your home page;
some like in this example http://www.pac-dodger.tripod.com (see near the top)
I suggest a free hosting website if you budget is very tight and you don't mind ads running on your website.
The paid option for website usually offers better customer support that free web hosting. Some packages are next to nothing.
I've found www.powweb.com to be exceptionally reasonable($7.77 a month last time I checked). Both www.ipowerweb.com and www.lunarpages.com are also top web host providers at great prices.
Lunarpages has a reputation of reliability and great customer service. Powweb has the reputation of being the largest and offering the best of every (most web space, most bandwith, etc). Ipowerweb is generally good.
V - What is the upload/bandwith limit? What is the file limit?
Upload and bandwidth limits are important if you are going to be hosting large image files or if you want to provide downloads to your users. If you are just making a simple hobby or business website, www.powweb.com, www.ipowerweb.com, and www.lunarpages.com can all handle your bandwidth requirements.
If you are looking for more space; I suggest www.powweb.com.
VI - Customer Support
Customer support is very important when signing up for a web host provider.
I'm an experienced webmaster, and on signing up with a web host provider I usually still have questions which need to be addressed.
Some web host providers even provide forums where customers like yourself can log in and post questions to other customers and web host staff.
I find this very valuable; the only place I've found this so far was www.powweb.com
VII - Suggestions
There are thousands of options to choose from but my top three are below:
I would suggest www.lunarpages.com if you are looking for great customer support.
If you need lots of webspace; consider www.powweb.com
If you want general all around good service, sign up with www.ipowerweb.com
Other GREAT solutions are:
Apollo hosting – www.apollohosting.com
ValueWeb – www.valueweb.com
Globat – globat.com
Appendix A
Great website for web host reviews. Reviews all web host providers listed in this article
http://www.thehostplanet.com/reviews/reviews.html
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Kevin Allman is a webmaster with over ten years Internet experience. He runs a Search Engine Optimization
website at http://www.pzeta.org/seo_global/ which contains many articles on how to optimize your website.
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