What is Web Hosting?

A web hosting service provides a service that allows individuals and businesses to post web pages to the internet. A web hosting service provider sells or for free (with advertisements on the web page) is a business that provides the servers and technologies to view web-sites on the internet.

Web hosting services are services that customers can utilize after they have purchased monthly dial up or broadband services that allow them access to the internet. Web hosting services use hosting and client architecture to load content to the server so web pages and information can be viewed on the internet in its original HTML format.

A web hosting company will offer clients access to a server that will provide the clients’ content to individuals on the World Wide Web after they make a URL or domain name request. To view pages on the web, you must have a web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator to request the web page from the server after you have purchased internet access.

Web sites are pages that are stored on a computer called a server. The server is a part of a network of computers on the internet or World Wide Web that allows users of the internet to reach your site anywhere in the world at anytime. The internet is open 24 hours, seven days a week around the clock.

Host computers are configured so that when your URL or domain name is typed in, the address will use a pointer routine (look for the address from terminal to terminal) until it reaches the computer that hosts your web-site. Then, if all is okay, your web site should display itself on the users screen.

Hosting companies require that you buy your URL or domain name first before you purchase hosting services. Most hosting companies have a package that will allow you to buy the domain name and hosting at the same time.

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What Is A Domain Name?

A domain is a name that identifies IP addresses on the internet. The domain name Yahoo.com represents about fifteen (15)  IP addresses. Domain names are used to identify Web pages. For example, in the URL http://www.gohome.com/index.html, the domain name is gohome.com.

You register a domain name by registering with a domain name services registrar. The domain name industry is regulated and overseen by ICANN, which is an organization responsible for providing standards and procedures for certifying companies as domain name registrars.

Domain name registration has grown over the years. Network Solutions was the first domain name registrar to ever provide such a service. That was over ten years ago but today there are many accredited registrars. Only a domain name registrar is permitted to access and modify the master database domains that are on InterNIC servers. The fee is determined by the registrar as far as getting a domain name and some registers have special domain name packages.

Do You Really Need a Domain Name?

You use a domain name to create an identity on the World Wide Web and domain names can also be used for branding purposes, such as Wal-Mart, K-Mart, etc.  In picking a domain name, the title shouldn’t stray far from what your company is all about. This will allow you to market your web-site as a subsidiary of your business and put your domain name on business cards and advertisements.

Once you select a domain name, you must register it with a domain name registrar. This is a task you can do easily.  Many ISPs offer a complete package that includes hosting and the registering of the domain name for you. Fees probably will include a one time set-up fee for all of the backend technical work that needs to be accomplished. Then pay your service provider a monthly, semi-annual or annual fee for Web site hosting services.

Many domain registrar services have competent online tools to help you get your domain name and hosting site up and running.

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Web Server Hosting Types

There are different types of hosting services that you can choose from depending on what type of web development and web site that you want to host.

Dial-Up Access Hosting – This is the most basic access/hosting service and these providers also provides a web page for hosting your site. Dial-up access hosting was the first hosting available and is still around. Most ISP’s specialize in just internet access and it’s rare that you will see an ISP do both. These companies make their money off of providing access to the Internet.

Development Hosting - Web site developers are buying their own servers and offering independent hosting services for their clients. This is called development hosting in which they provide web development services along with a host server located at their place of business. The consumer gets charged for the development and the maintenance of the web-site.

Web-Hosting ISP’s. – These are companies that specialize in hosting business web sites. There is no dial up access needed and site owners access their pages via File Transfer Protocol (FTP). This is what the majority of small businesses use to put their site information on the internet. Other services are also included in the Web Hosting ISP package depending on their service plans.

These types of hosting plans are usually for corporations that need a lot of bandwidth to run their web applications. These companies run T1 access lines for big packets of internet data and have multiple connections to an internet backbone. They have fully staffed data processing facilities and the prices are substantial for using these types of services.

Corporate/Industrial Hosting - Companies like Hewlett Packard, Dell or IBM, run the server infrastructure for most of these host companies.

The SOHO business owner will usually need the Web-Hosting ISP services. It is the middle ground between the basic and advanced services.

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Web Server Hosting Types

There are different types of hosting services that you can choose from depending on what type of web development and web site that you want to host.

Dial-Up Access Hosting – This is the most basic access/hosting service and these providers also provides a web page for hosting your site. Dial-up access hosting was the first hosting available and is still around. Most ISP’s specialize in just internet access and it’s rare that you will see an ISP do both. These companies make their money off of providing access to the Internet.

Development Hosting - Web site developers are buying their own servers and offering independent hosting services for their clients. This is called development hosting in which they provide web development services along with a host server located at their place of business. The consumer gets charged for the development and the maintenance of the web-site.

Web-Hosting ISP’s. – These are companies that specialize in hosting business web sites. There is no dial up access needed and site owners access their pages via File Transfer Protocol (FTP). This is what the majority of small businesses use to put their site information on the internet. Other services are also included in the Web Hosting ISP package depending on their service plans.

These types of hosting plans are usually for corporations that need a lot of bandwidth to run their web applications. These companies run T1 access lines for big packets of internet data and have multiple connections to an internet backbone. They have fully staffed data processing facilities and the prices are substantial for using these types of services.

Corporate/Industrial Hosting - Companies like Hewlett Packard, Dell or IBM, run the server infrastructure for most of these host companies.

The SOHO business owner will usually need the Web-Hosting ISP services. It is the middle ground between the basic and advanced services.

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Using Unmanaged Host Services

If you are a customer that wants total control of your web site administrative functions then you might want to look at unmanaged web hosting services to give you complete remote control administration over your server. The technical side of the server can be controlled by a designated administrator that you pick to handle your web information.

You have to have a technical person to install the server and manage the server if you don’t have the expertise because you as the customer will be responsible for maintaining the server environment. That’s why unmanaged servers are recommended for individuals and businesses with server administration resources.

As far as developing applications and controlling the applications without going through technical support personnel on the managed server side, these types of servers are usually used when companies are developing real time response systems on the internet, such as geographical, science, engineering and multimedia/entertainment applications.

Unmanaged servers allow you to add extra hard disk space to increase your space capacity and many computer companies sell physical servers that are configured for unmanaged hosting applications. Companies like Dell and HP have software programs that not only will run an office network but also handle web server and development applications.

Small businesses that don’t need a server on site and deal with administrative web packages should go with the managed host packages that provide assistance and administrative support. Managed applications will do just fine because of the costs that are incurred with maintaining an unmanaged server. Unmanaged servers need constant upgrades of software and hardware constantly which could cost your small business a big chunk of change.

Unmanaged servers are expensive to maintain and run unless you are a small firm that develops in house web applications. The best advice is to have a consultant draw up an IT plan to see if you need this type of hosting service or not.

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Using Subdomains—Benefits and Drawbacks

Most businesses don’t like to use subdomains because they feel like they give them a disadvantage in many areas, such as having a prefix name before your web-site, being ignored by bots and index spiders in search engines and all in all, it just doesn’t look right. So let’s check our facts on subdomains.

A subdomain is substitute or second-level of a domain. A regular domain looks as follows: www.jamesbrown.com . A sub domain looks like this

http://bravenet.jamesbrown.com. Subdomains do not have www on the front of them. All subs start with "http://subdomain/maindomain.com pattern of identification.

Subdomains rank efficiently well. Search engine spiders and bots are not prejudiced when it comes to the ranking of subdomains and regular domains. As long as your site has the right SEO keywords and has been optimized, whether you have a subdomain or regular domain name doesn’t make a difference at all.

Let’s pretend that you site has a lot of categories in it. If you were to submit to a search engine, you could submit each subdomain as its own individual category and still get a good ranking.  Each subdomain would be looked at by search engines as a new site with its own index or home page. You may want to try creating subfolders on the subdomain to get around this so that search engines can read the folder as one set of site information.

People worry about their subdomain getting banned if the main domain name is banned. If the main domain is banned, it will have an effect on the subdomain. You see this happen often in adult content sites that have violated certain agreements that they have signed with a provider that does not want a domain used for adult material.

Again, there is nothing wrong with using a subdomain. If you want to develop each subdomain as its own entity, then by all means, do so.  If not, get yourself a main domain name and use that as a certified landing page.

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Using MySQL in a Hosting Environment

MySQL is a heavy-duty database server. Used with various software languages, most notably PHP, and part of the LAMP family (which is comprised of Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP),

Whether it's a customer relations management list or medical records, any data you have that needs storing, is stored on a database. You will need a database management system to add, access, edit, and process data in your databases, and MySQL is one of the best and most comprehensive packages on the market. MySQL can also be used as a relational database management system, which means it can store data in various tables that can communicate with one another rather than all in one large "storeroom" of data.

You can run MySQL as a server in your local device or in a remote server. All you need to access your MySQL databases and MySQL functionality is your server name (such as the name server of your MySQL web hosting provider) or the appropriate IP address. You can then input your various commands, most likely using PHP scripts, to interact with your various databases. These commands are written on programming scripts.

When choosing a MySQL web hosting provider, you'll want to consider some additional factors beyond the standard uptime, backup/redundancy systems, bandwidth, email, and bandwidth concerns.

* Databases: If you're seeking a MySQL web hosting provider, you're surely planning on making databases a significant part of your web-presence. You therefore need to find a MySQL hosting provider that offers you at least as many data structures as you might need. A host that promotes itself as a MySQL hosting provider must offer its clients with multiple websites at least five databases.

* Interface: You'll be working with your databases intimately and frequently. You'll want a MySQL hosting provider that's designed its admin interface with the MySQL user in mind. If you have various staff-members involved in the building and maintenance of your various tables and databases, you'll want to be able to create multiple user I.D.'s to allow varying degrees of secure access. CPanel is a good administrative dashboard to have for MySQL databases.

* CRON support: A cron helps you to run specific scripts for regular, routine tasks to be run at periodic intervals. A MySQL hosting provider should allow you to set up and manage crons from your admin control panel. These scripts are also good for Preventive Maintenance routines.

* PHP Info: The most common script for MySQL databases is PHP. A MySQL hosting provider with PHP extensions enabled is likely to be more frustrating than useful to you. By checking into a prospective MySQL hosting provider's PHP capabilities, you can ensure compatibility between your scripting language and your database management, thus saving yourself tons of trouble and loads of regrets later on.

Remember, if you are running MySQL databases; make sure that you get a host that specializes in MySQL hosting.

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Using Managed Dedicated Web Hosting

Managed dedicated web hosting is for an individual or company that wants storage and bandwidth without the restrictions that you get by choosing a free web hosting service.  If you have a site which you want to have more bells and whistles programmed into it, then managed dedicated hosting is the way to go.

Dedicated services give you more email addresses, sometimes up to 500 addresses. It also has storage to support basic database applications on the server side of the web host. This allows for the development of applications that enable you to store data on the server side also and have queries and other types of program and programming scripts embedded into your web-site.

But the key to these kinds of servers are the bandwidth that’s available to the user. Monthly bandwidth can range from 500 to 1000GB for the user.

That’s good for your basic SOHO business or home office because if you’re running a small audio or flash application or database on your site, this type of hosting service should do just fine. Also, you can assign the other email accounts to co-workers, family members or whoever you want to.

When you are running web applications over 1,000GB, that’s when you should consider steeping up your web hosting package. There are various types of web plans based on the types of internet applications that you are developing for your business. For example, if you are developing online streaming video content for your site, then you might want to go past the 1000GB limit on your account and get more bandwidth.

As a SOHO or company grows, the need for more bandwidth is paramount especially if you have an intranet in your office or you have people accessing the back end of your web-site to load data from various locations.

Dedicated web hosting is what the majority of individuals and small businesses use until they start growing out of their bandwidth. They usually upgrade their web hosting packages and buy more storage and bandwidth.

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Paying For ISP Internet Access

Choosing ISP services can be real tricky and the rule of thumb is to pay for those services that you only need. Instead of plunking down change for all the bells and whistles. The typical small business web-site, four to seven pages, could choose a virtual hosting service with multiple email addresses, cgi-bin access and a T3 connection from the Internet for $19 to $27 per month.

Most small businesses pick the managed server hosting packages which could range from $3.95 a month to $20 a month. As stated before, these hosting packages have all the administrative support that you need and all you have to worry about is the development of your web-site. You are given an FTP client to load your site to the internet.

Socket Security Certificates cost extra for secure transactions of the financial type through your web page and you expect to pay at least $40 to $80 per month. The setup fees can be expensive and cost as much as $55, and sometimes more if you order special features. Large companies and high volume web sites pay more for certain types of services.

Shop around and get the best deal for your business. You can get web hosting through the internet from anywhere but you have to really study the ISP’s and see what they offer.

A big concern in choosing an ISP should be the response time in case a server goes down. How does the server respond during high traffic times on the server? You would have to ask the ISP representative what their percentage ranking is as far as server downtime.

You can find some of these rankings on the internet by going to cnet.com or use the Google search engine to rate the top ten ISP providers that have the best percentage of what the industry calls, “up” time according to their servers.

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Optimizing Your Site with SEO

Search Engine Optimization is a way to get directories and search engines to give your web-site a better indexing position so that customers or anyone who is looking for your web-site can see it. The higher you are in the search engines and directories, the better chance you’ll have doing business on the internet.

Here are simple steps to optimize your web-site:

Step 1: Modify your web-site - This step includes adding optimized content to all pages in the website.

Step 2: Add tags - Add or make changes to Meta tags, Title tags, H1 tags, H2 tags and alt tags for images, after keywords research.

Step 3: Link building A, Website statistics monitoring and conversion tracking.

There are offline tools that you can use to optimize your web site and it all involves your URL or your Web Domain name. I would put my web domain name on business cards, stationery, have a sign on my car, use bumper stickers or have tee shirts  and coffee mugs made with the URL. I would do everything to advertise my web-site offline. This is called offline optimization of your web-site.

So web site optimization is both and online and offline deal. Online, you must use keywords to attract customers and get good search engine rankings and offline, you can advertise your URL to the public to get the to visit your web site.

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Linux Unix options for Small Businesses

Linux/Unix is an alternate type of system that provides hosting for small businesses and companies that run Linux/Unix applications on their personal computers and laptops. The Linux/Unix-based platform is stable platform in the industry.

The Linux operating system was developed by Linus Torvalds as an alternative to other operating systems. Most of its versions are free of costs. The most popular Linux software is Red Hat and Mandrake.

Linux/Unix was only for professionals until a few years ago but the situation has changed. Many 'small businesses have switched to the Linux/Unix platform because of its open source architecture, meaning that users can structure the system to do what they want it to do.

Web host providers are specializing in Linux/Unix servers and the demand for this type of interface has grown by 40% over the last three years.  A Unix-based platform is one of the most reliable operating system that you can ever have. It has a better up time than Microsoft Operating Systems and hosting programs in Linux/Unix are more flexible. You actually can get ore from a Linux/Unix based server than other servers on the market.

Linux/Unix supports a wide variety of application languages, more than any other operating system. The most common applications of such kind include C, C++, Shell, Perl, Tcl, Python, Java and PHP.  Databases available for Unix are mSQL and mySQL. The one you choose would depend on what you plan to do on the web and the host that you choose to park your web site.

The Linux/Unix based system comes with its won web development module in some versions of Red Hat Linux that make web site creation easy as 1-2-3. FTP modules are built into the operating system to provide you with an alternative way to load the web site to the Linux/Unix host.

Linux/Unix will become a major force in the future as more small to medium businesses turn towards its hosting platform.

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Identify With Your Domain Name

Use common sense when choosing a domain name because your domain name, or URL, can have an impact in both the online and offline marketing of your web-site. Long or difficult to spell domain names can make people ignore your web site and it has to be pretty good for them to stick with it (for an example, go to www.thedolphinsmakemecry.com website.  Short domain names register better with people’s memory and are easy to remember.

Obtain a domain name that will help you in your marketing niche and strategy. Like I stated before, you can use your business name as your URL. If your business name is already taken by someone else then get a URL name close to what you are doing. Purchasing a business name domain name isn’t the only way to go, and when a keyword domain name could do just fine.

If you plan on using the .net extension, you may want to wait on deciding your name until after you have found an available domain name that is suitable to your type of business. If you follow the steps below, you should be okay in identifying your name brand to the internet community.

Structure Your Brand Name – Put your domain name on your letterhead, business card, printed materials; put it on your phone recording, the side of your car; don’t forget to include it with your email.

Keep it Short & Memorable – Don’t get a URL that uses all 26 letters of the alphabet.

Secure a .com URL - I strongly recommend purchasing a .com domain name as opposed to a .net, .info, .biz or anything else. If your chosen domain name is not available in a .com, keep looking until you find one that isn’t taken. There is nothing wrong with the other extensions but when you have a .com extension, it sounds like you’ve been on the net a long time.

Remember, your domain name is an extension of your business and your brand of product or service.

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How to Pick a Hosting Provider

How do you choose a hosting provider when there are thousands of hosting companies available online? It’s like going through the yellow pages trying to find burger restaurants. There are lots of them. Hopefully these tips will steer you in the right direction.Important factors in selecting a web hosting company include the percentage of server uptime. 98 to 99% uptime is the dream standard for server uptime, 65% is unacceptable. The higher the downtime of a server, the lower the potential for traffic at your web site. Another consideration is how much space is provided for the files that will make up your web site. How much bandwidth is in your package? Monthly bandwidth is the amount of data transfer allowed for visitors to view and use your web site.

With today’s changing trends in web hosting services, it is important to get as much server space and bandwidth as you can. This will allow for necessary updates and increased traffic to your site as it becomes more popular.

It is equally important when purchasing business web hosting that CGI access is provided; along with features such as MySQL, Real Audio, Real Video, and Cold Fusion (which some companies sell as an add on component). A crucial feature necessary for doing ecommerce is SSL, or Secure Socket Layer. This encrypts all order and credit card information until it reaches you. An SSL certificate can be purchased from most web hosting providers. Displaying it on your ecommerce web site verifies that your site transactions are safe and secure.

We’ve talked about this before in other articles. You will need a domain name that reflects the nature of your business. For instance, a sports business might have a URL that is www.coloradosports.com . To get your own unique domain name, you must first check the availability of the name with a domain name search, offered by domain registrars such as Network Solutions.

There are many service providers to choose from. If you do your homework, you’ll find some good deals that will fit your budget.

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Get the Best Web Hosting Plan

If and when you’re interested in starting an online business, there are a lot of things that you have to study first before you can rightfully expect a high return on investment.

First, make sure that your company website has a user friendly interface which basically means links are visible, easily located and properly labeled and that the content provided in the website is complete, interesting, effective and grammatically correct.

There’s the matter of search engine optimization or SEO which requires you to employ a number of strategies that your company website is heard and seen by the right people. Common search engine optimization strategies would be keyword listing, site code optimization and top search engine placement.

Optimize your plan by understanding web hosting. No matter how great your website looks or how effective your SEO strategies are, if you don’t have the right web hosting plan, none of those would see the light of the day because your web hosting plan simply prevents them from being properly uploaded and viewed.

Web hosting is important to your plans if you want your website to have its own niche in the Internet so do read carefully what we’re about to teach you.

You have a couple of choices when it comes to web hosting - you can get it for free or you can spend for it. Naturally, it would be lovely if web hosting would be free for all of us but understand that all the needs of your company website must be met by the free web hosting plan if you want your future to look rosy.

These are key issues to address.

Are you willing to deal with advertisements that may take too much space or would have an irritable effect on your readers? These ads are often required by free web hosting plans because it’s the only reason they can continue letting people enjoy free web hosting. Are you “cool” with low bandwidth access and minimal web space?

If you’re not okay with the following facts I presented, then I suggest you go with a web consultant and let them handle all of your work.

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Free and Cheap-Web Space Options for the Thrifty At Heart

There are some good deals on the internet concerning web space and hosting but you have to look to find the best deals. You should also consider how long a provider has been in business.

Finding free web space on the Internet is simple. All you have to do is use a simple Web search (Google, AltaVista or Yahoo) and the results should bring back options for free web space. There are many individuals and businesses looking for a place to put their website without having to pay for the service. These free services can provide anywhere from 5MB to 100Mb of online web space for hosting your web site.

Free sites also come with some cool stuff, such as counters, guest books, virtual domain names, tracking logs, blogs, copy and past scripts that are usually Java code scripts and more. These additions are good for people that have little or no knowledge into building a web site.

A free service provides benefits to all people and may sound like a good idea but the goal is to do your research to see if the deals are viable or not. Free services can also bring other unwanted things that you have to deal with when you sign up for the service. Usually, you have to submit to advertising and surveys by filling out a form before you can get your free service. Be sure that you read the user agreements that come with the free services.

You can go on the cheap and don’t want advertisements running on your site, you can get a service similar to free hosting but you would have to pay a small fee to keep your web page ad-free.  Some of these providers will offer you a service for $2.95 a month with 100MB of web space if that’s all that you need, and you can always upgrade your packages.

There's a lot of competition for your Web site hosting dollars, and you can find some pretty good deals if you look hard enough.

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Domain Names and Search Engine Ranking

Does the length of your website's domain name registration affect search engine optimization and results?

Should you renew your domain name for a long period of time? And if so, how long is long enough? If you want to stay ahead of your competition, then you might consider looking at the length of time your competitors have registered their domain names. If your competitors have generally renewed their domain names for one or two years, you might consider registering your domain name for 5 or 10 years. While putting off your domain name's expiration date might help your search engine rankings, keep in mind that this may be only a small victory when it comes to search engine rankings.

Its good business sense to register a domain for at least 10 years. You don’t want to deal with the process   annual process of renewing them every year. It’s best to obtain the domain names that you want to keep for a while and renew then on a 5 to 10 year plan.

If your domain name expires, there's a good chance that someone will register your domain name immediately after it expires. If, for whatever reason, you don't renew your domain name, someone watching a 'watch list' of expiring domain names will try to capitalize on the online business that you've built over the years. They know that there is potential website traffic they can have simply by renewing your old domain name. By renewing your domain name for several years, your domain name won't expire for a while, and it won't be opened up to expired domain name buyers.

If you really want to stay ahead of the competition, you might consider registering or renewing your domain name for 100 years. Currently, Network Solutions (www.netsol.com) is the only registrar offering the 100 year option, which costs $999.00. GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com), currently offers to renew or register a domain name for 10 years, at a discount of $6.95 per year.

Yes, you can lose critical positioning in the search engines if you don’t reregister your domain name in time. You may have to start the SEO process all over again!

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Do You Need A Lot Of Bandwidth?

Bandwidth measures the volume of data transmitted over an internet connection. You have to know how much bandwidth you need while choosing hosting plans.

Be careful when someone claims they provide unlimited bandwidth or monthly transfer. Anyone claiming "Unlimited Bandwidth" is simply lying. There's no such thing as "Unlimited Bandwidth".

I’ve never seen any broadband company offering an internet connection as "Unlimited Megabytes per Second." So, how could a web hosting company, which normally doesn't even own its own access lines, claims to customers that it will give them "Unlimited Bandwidth"?

Most of the time, high bandwidth sites on these "Unlimited" plans will be disconnected, and no refund given. Normally, the web hosting company will say that the site violated its Acceptable Use Policy or Terms of Service.

Whenever you visit a site promoting "Unlimited Bandwidth" as one of the account features, be sure to visit the Acceptable Use Policy, or the Terms of Service. Read the fine text about the so-called "Unlimited" disclaimer.

When you first look for web hosting services (those who state clearly bandwidth offered), you have to make your best estimation and watch your usage carefully in the first few months. Take these factors into consideration while estimating.

**How many users will access your web site?

**How many pages to be access?

**How big are the graphic and HTML files?

Large audio/video files, computer programs, and file downloads require more bandwidth. Flash web sites use tons of bandwidth. Virtual Reality (VR) and full-length three-dimensional audio/visual presentations require the most bandwidth of all.

Though it is not accurate, but still gives you something to work with until your site has been online for a while and actual traffic statistics have been generated. Don’t fall for the unlimited bandwidth trap that some companies throw at you.

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Developing Cold Fusion Hosting

Cold Fusion Hosting is all about databases, really. Cold Fusion, a software suite brought to us by the fine folks at Macromedia, which allows web-interactivity with databases. With Cold Fusion web hosting, you can now query, update, index, and chart databases from any web browser.

Cold Fusion hosting adds versatility and interactivity to ecommerce sites. Cold Fusion allows you to publish and then have automatically removed from your site time-sensitive content, such as flight schedules or event calendars. It adds functionality to creating and managing mailing lists and business reports. It allows you to offer your visitors printable content and customized menus.

Anytime you see .cfm as the extension on a web page, as opposed to .htm or .asp for example, you know you're dealing with Cold Fusion Markup Language (CFML).

Though cold fusion is built on the Java platform, CFML allows web developers the benefits of Java without its inherent technical complexities. You need not know Java scripting in order to use cold fusion. CFML is a tag-based language quite similar to HTML and XML which makes it easy for anyone with even the most basic knowledge of web scripting to learn.

Cold Fusion is a server-side language which means that any web pages using CFML are read and interpreted by the Cold Fusion hosting company's server and converted into an HTML page prior to being sent back to the user's browser.

Cold Fusion web hosting can be significantly more expensive than other forms of web hosting, and should therefore only really be considered if its unique set of tools are relevant for your site's intended uses. Cold Fusion hosting is usually run on Windows 2000/NT/2003 operating systems, though you can also find support for Cold Fusion hosting on Linux and Sun servers.

In addition to all the usual factors you must consider when choosing any web host - cost, disk space, bandwidth, uptime, scalability, support - you now also have to consider certain factors specific to cold fusion hosting, including: potential tag restrictions, additional security concerns, whether the cold fusion hosting company provides database support, and which version of Cold Fusion they're using.

One type of tag restriction that is also a security concern is "high risk" tags, such as those that can be used to find and erase selected files from a server. For some larger businesses, this functionality is crucial to their operation, though potentially detrimental if accessed by the wrong hands, in which case a dedicated server is probably in order. Fortunately, cold fusion hosting is offered on shared, virtual, and dedicated servers.

Cold Fusion is well worth considering if you'd like the functionality of the Java platform with the facility of a comparatively autonomous and user-friendly software system. Especially if your website is expected to generate an income, you may find that the intimidating price tag, in the long run, turned out to be a bargain.

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Choosing Windows Web Hosting

Windows/ XP Web hosting provides web hosting on Windows operating system platform. Microsoft Corporation provides host based software operating system for servers. Windows XP web hosting programs are considered to be easy to cope with, reliable and inexpensive.

The simplicity of the Windows XP operating system is what stands out with these applications. Windows provides its users with friendly, familiar environment that is easy to work with. Today as so much work has been done by developers it's very easy to administrate your site with using Windows/ Server Side operating system. The Windows/NT platform is also reliable. You also should know that reliability of any platform, same as Windows/NT platform, depends mainly on maintenance and technical knowledge. Windows/XP platform is scalable and very cost-effective because at a relatively low price you can set up a fully functional Internet server with Windows XP in a matter of hours.

The big question is what do you want your web-site to do? Interactive websites usually rely on ASP (Active Server Pages which allow scripts on a web page to be run on the server before the files are transmitted to the client), PHP, or Perl (Practical Extraction and Reporting Language which is a scripting language used for receive and process data stored on web page forms).

And if you prefer ASP most of all Windows/ XP - based web hosting is the perfect choice for you. There are also some more only Windows available applications such as Access, MS SQL, Windows Media and Virtual Basic scripts. Windows XP offers benefits over other operating systems. Using these benefits gives you an opportunity to be productive and publish your information on the Internet rapidly developing your website or web application.

Windows XP server packages have great programs for individuals who are familiar with MS Windows XP software. The server package for hosting even allows for optimization of hard disk space and RAM which eliminates computer lock-ups while loading web applications.

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Beware of the Cyber Squatters

Your domain name could be stolen or given up to the evil entity known as the Cyber squatters whose main mission is to steal your web identity and this is how they do it. They could register YourDomainName.org, and do the same thing with YourDomainName.biz, therefore contacting you and try to sell you those names at advanced prices. If that doesn’t work, then the following events could happen.

They will allow your competitor to get a domain that sounds like yours, and allow him to cause confusion or try to steal your hard-earned traffic, business and clients.

Take these steps right now to halt the cyber squatters.

Have people go through you for authorization: Go through your domain name registrar and fill in a form that locks in authorized entities of your claim of other domain names. You can buy these names and keep them under your roof.  It will provide you information to include, such as contact information, who should be contacted if someone wants to register your domain, the character string you are claiming (this must be an EXACT match), description of your current products/services, when you began using that domain name.

You have a small window to accomplish filling out an authorized entry form. Check with your domain registrar for time frame windows in filling out an authorized entry form Failure to enter a claim during a certain time frame means the registering entities will not check to see if there is an equivalent .com, .net or .org name. They will not check the IP Claim Service database. Meaning, you could lose your .info or net-version of your domain name.

Don’t let cyber squatters shake you down and ruin what you have built up on the net. Get the rights and the authorization to similar or like names to your main domain name!

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Bandwidth Bandits

Files that are loaded to or from servers uses internet bandwidth to push files along the network at various speeds. Every time you upload a file to your ISP, surf the web or use an audio application, you are using bandwidth.

Bandwidth is a bunch of wires or fibers connecting servers to a network. Depending on the grade of the wire it determines how much data is coming across the network where your web-site is hosted. When someone attempts to get more data than can be handled by the network, the whole network slows down.

ISP’s can put a limitation on bandwidth at certain times during peak periods or charge you a flat fee per month for bandwidth usage. If you go over the flat fee, then they charge you extra for using extra bandwidth. Some ISP’s will shut down the transmissions until traffic is more stable on the network.

You can load most files (images, sound files, videos and flash scripts and other programs) in your web site. This excludes, of course, banners and pop ups and specific documents and images which are supposed to be loaded from a central server.

Bandwidth bandits link to images and other files directly to some other server instead of putting them on their local server. There are various reasons as to why they do this but one reason is to get as much bandwidth as possible to show their links and images. So they “steal” images or audio files each time the site is initialized meaning that they steal the bandwidth.

There’s certain ways that you can stop the person from stealing your bandwidth allocation. If they have an email, I would contact them personally or go through Network Solutions and do an IP lookup which will give you information on the person and who the site is registered to. You can always get in touch with the company that hosts their site too.

Bandwidth can be expensive and the last thing that you want is someone stealing it.

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Application Service Providers and Hosting

Application service providers (commonly referred to as ASP's) have quickly sprouted onto the web hosting scene in effort to provide businesses with new and innovative services. The term ASP should not be confused with Microsoft Corporations software application.

The number of applications provided through the ASP model is growing. Accordingly, there is a growing business of companies developing software for the ASP marketplace. What sorts of applications are being developed? As remotely-hosted applications can provide cost-effective access for businesses to unique software, many of the applications are designed to be of occasional use in terms of use. Others are geared towards using group connectivity provided by through the Internet to provide an application that is flexible.

ASP's have created software programs to handle various business functions as materials management, human resources, financial management, and e-commerce transaction services.

The variety of solutions provided by ASP's is vast. Many ASP's are doing great business in meeting operational needs of companies across different industries and business functions. There are a number of technical and business issues currently addressed by ASP's to develop and enhance system applications.

A major advantage for businesses in seeking ASP services is that they provide an opportunity to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. Companies can have access to a wider-range of software products with the possibility of paying less than an outright purchase through usage charges. This allows businesses to access applications that can service particular business needs so companies can focus on their core operations. Furthermore, ASP's are developing new software that can provide business solutions to operating issues not previously addressed through PC-based software. ASP's also remove many of the technical administrative and maintenance issues associated with software by providing real-time upgrades, remote hosting, remote dial in customer support and overall software management.

Web hosting companies are involved in the development of applications – however, many of the hosting companies serve to provide network management and serve the application remotely to users. In providing ASP-related services, these companies are essentially AIP's (application infrastructure providers).

For mainframe web hosting applications, ASP service providers are pioneering a new way to host and maintain business applications.

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Application Service Providers and Hosting

Application service providers (commonly referred to as ASP's) have quickly sprouted onto the web hosting scene in effort to provide businesses with new and innovative services. The term ASP should not be confused with Microsoft Corporations software application.

The number of applications provided through the ASP model is growing. Accordingly, there is a growing business of companies developing software for the ASP marketplace. What sorts of applications are being developed? As remotely-hosted applications can provide cost-effective access for businesses to unique software, many of the applications are designed to be of occasional use in terms of use. Others are geared towards using group connectivity provided by through the Internet to provide an application that is flexible.

ASP's have created software programs to handle various business functions as materials management, human resources, financial management, and e-commerce transaction services.

The variety of solutions provided by ASP's is vast. Many ASP's are doing great business in meeting operational needs of companies across different industries and business functions. There are a number of technical and business issues currently addressed by ASP's to develop and enhance system applications.

A major advantage for businesses in seeking ASP services is that they provide an opportunity to reduce costs and increase efficiencies. Companies can have access to a wider-range of software products with the possibility of paying less than an outright purchase through usage charges. This allows businesses to access applications that can service particular business needs so companies can focus on their core operations. Furthermore, ASP's are developing new software that can provide business solutions to operating issues not previously addressed through PC-based software. ASP's also remove many of the technical administrative and maintenance issues associated with software by providing real-time upgrades, remote hosting, remote dial in customer support and overall software management.

Web hosting companies are involved in the development of applications – however, many of the hosting companies serve to provide network management and serve the application remotely to users. In providing ASP-related services, these companies are essentially AIP's (application infrastructure providers).

For mainframe web hosting applications, ASP service providers are pioneering a new way to host and maintain business applications.

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