Round Tale

With so many hosting services available online today, it can be very difficult to decide on one. Even worse than the sheer number of hosting providers is the fact that all of them promise to be the best, making the process daunting and confusing. With that said, it is obviously not very easy to choose a web hosting provider, however it can be with the right guide by your side. Here we will discuss the most important features of a web hosting service, giving you something to base your decision on other than propaganda.

Stability

Professionalism and stability are extremely important attributes for a web hosting service to have. You want to make sure you are giving your money to a company that is going to be reliable and offer you all of the services you need without a hassle. The fist step in determining the stability and professionalism of a web hosting service is by contacting their customer support. If it takes longer than 24 hours for you to receive a response email then you know you are dealing with a company that doe snot pride themselves on their reliability.

Try calling your prospective hosting services one at a time and inquire about features such as bandwidth, uptime, and quality assurance. Ask them questions like: “What is done to ensure the security of my website?” Or “ Do you offer a money back guarantee?” If a company does not offer a money back guarantee then you can rest assured that their service is not really the “best.”  Also it is a good idea to find out how many employees they have and also if their customer support center is available 24 hours out of the day.

Performance

Performance is also an extremely important factor when considering a potential web hosting provider, especially if you run a large business website. Find out what kind of bandwidth they offer, how many domains you are allowed to register with them, what kind of server disk space are you allocated, how many email accounts you can have, and anything else that you think would be crucial to the success of your business. If you are going to be running an e-commerce then you may want to consider web hosting services that specialize in this field. Make sure they offer basic features such as shopping carts, SSL certificates, PayPal integration and merchant accounts. Without these essential features, your e-commerce site will be a complete failure and you will be susceptible to hacker attacks.

Popularity and Price

They say that the most popular services are not always the best, however in the web hosting industry this is not necessarily true. The more popular a web hosting company is, the more you can be assured of it’s ability to satisfy it’s customers. Signing up with new web hosting companies is very risky, and doing so should be done with caution. Most of the time, the most popular web hosting services will offer the best prices for the most feature-rich packages. The reason why this is possible should be obvious, as they are making a lot more money then the smaller web hosting companies and so therefore they can afford to offer lower priced packages for their users.

HMS Panel is an all-in-one control panel designed for Linux server platforms.  A multi-server solution, it offers a number of advantages to both the web hosting provider or the customer who needs a more efficient way to manage their dedicated or virtual private server.  HMS Panel is secure, easy to use and loaded with an arsenal of features that will surely come in handy for administrators at all levels.  Here is the rundown:

Complete Domain Management

HMS Panel provides a complete system for managing domains.  Users can add domains and sub-domains to the IP address of their choosing whether it is located on or off the server.  Wildcards can be added so that all sub-domains for a particular domain point to a specific IP address.  You can also modify domain zone files along with CNAME records, A records and MX records.

Email Management System

Web hosting customers on the client side benefit greatly from features such as HMS Panel’s robust email management system.  Users can easily create email accounts and customize their communications with forwarders, catch-all addresses and auto-responders.  While customers have access to their messages via the control panel interface with SquirrelMail, they can also integrate Microsoft Outlook Express or their preferred mail client.

.htaccess Management

HMS Panel offers a robust .htaccess management tools that can be used to apply various settings to directories within a particular domain.  This includes error handling with custom 401, 403, 404, and 505 redirects, IP and domain blocking, file and directory redirects, hotlink protection, directory browsing and much more.  The .htaccess management console utilizes AJAX technology, making it a dynamic and very flexible system.  While this system is very convenient, experienced administrators also have the ability to modify .htaccess via the standard control panel interface.

Web Application Management

Similar to most control panels on the market today, HMS Panel is integrated with a facility that enables customers to perform one-click installations of various pre-installed software applications.  The software management console makes it easy to incorporate programs such as WordPress, phpBB, phpAdsNew, Gallery, Drupal and osCommerce among several others.  These applications are mainly available due to user request, but the HMS Panel control panel offers the ability to install many more third-party scripts.

Advanced Security

HMS Panel was developed with advanced web technologies and security mechanisms.  The software utilizes sophisticated API authorization to ensure that server communications remain protected.  By leveraging an enterprise-grade authentication system, HMS Panel is able to better assure that web applications and network security features are properly configured.  The software also uses process isolation, a technology that allows administrators to isolate web applications from one another, making it so that potential issues with one application do not affect others running on the server.

A Complete Control Panel Solution

Now on version 3.5.1, HMS Panel is quickly evolving to be one of the most remarkable control panels on the market.  It has all the basic capabilities offered by other panels with a few qualities that make it stand out from rest.  If you are in search of a new control panel for your server, give HMS Panel a shot with the free 30-day trial license.

Created by software company Biztology, Cube Panel is a control panel application that provides the ultimate in automation to simplify the process of managing a server or website.  Though overshadowed by more popular options such as cPanel and Plesk, this control panel is very capable and a worthy competitor on the market.  If you are currently considering a control panel for your server, this article will give you four reasons why Cube Panel makes an excellent choice.

1.) Powerful and Intuitive

While the software is loaded with a host of features, the Cube Panel interface is simple and refreshingly intuitive.  Similar to cPanel, the main page is where you will find the most essential features and virtually everything you need.  There is a small column to the left of the page that gives a brief overview of your statistics as well as information on resources such as email accounts, FTP accounts and MySQL databases.  Whether it is composing mailing lists or installing SSL certificates, Cube Panel makes sure it can all be done with ease.

2.) Cross-Platform Solution

Unlike cPanel, Cube Panel not only supports the Linux operating system, but Unix and Windows platforms as well.  And unlike Plesk, it does so with maximum efficiency to give you the best performance possible.  This factor alone gives it a considerable advantage over some of the most popular control panel programs.

3.) Integrated Data Backup Functionality

Losing the important data on your server can result in major headaches and detrimental ramifications for your business.  Cube Panel makes this a less likely scenario by providing a built-in utility that enables you to backup every piece of data.  All you have to do is click the “Backup copies” button to launch the Backup Management feature.  From here, you can instantly create a single copy of your website, or choose increments based on a daily, weekly or monthly schedule.  Cube Panel makes it simple to protect your data and easily restore it directly from a user-friendly interface.

4.) Extensive Domain Options

Cube Panel’s domain features serve as a great benefit to the hosting customer.  Its domain options are divided into two separate pages: Domain Permissions and Domain Limits.  The Domain Permissions page gives you an overview of the features specific to your web hosting account.  This includes what type of server-side programming support you have, where you stand in regard to FTP access and so forth.  The Domain Limits page displays all the services and resources specific to your account.  For example, it shows the total number of email accounts you are able to create, how much disk space is available to you, bandwidth allotment and much more.  These features allow you to easily keep track of your account and determine when upgrades are required.

Conclusion

The selling point of Cube Panel is simplicity.  Even though it provides many useful features, the mere design of the software makes for convenient navigation and great performance.  Although a license will cost you around a $100, you can test out it for free with Cube Panel Lite,  a limited version that still lends a great deal of power to server administrators.  Keep your eyes on this control panel because it could be a major player in the very near future.

Agreed, it’s a pain in more places than one when you have to migrate from one web host to the other, but when your needs grow and your current host fails to keep up, it’s best to do the dumping as soon as possible. But before you sever all ties, you must protect what’s yours and make sure your site is up and running without a hitch at your new host. Here’s a list of 13 things you must do before you dump your web host:

   1. It’s obvious, but has to be said. Find a new web host and make sure that it meets all your needs.

   2. Check if you have enough storage space, enough bandwidth to prevent crashes and down times, support for the operating system and applications that run on your server, support for scripts and an adequate number of email accounts and auto responders.

   3. The next thing to do is back up everything on your server to a secure location. You don’t want to be left holding an empty tub looking like a fool when you realize you’ve thrown out both the baby and the bathwater. Make sure you get all your email, databases and website files.

   4. Upload all your files and databases to the new server and make sure you retain all the file permissions as they were on your old one so that you don’t end up with scripting errors.

   5. Get your new web host to test the scripts, contact pages, and databases your website before you make the necessary DNS change.

   6. Before you update your DNS to point browsers to the new location of your site, you need to plan for the downtime that results from this procedure. DNS updates take up to 48 hours to spread to all DNS servers on the Internet.

   7. Let your customers and website visitors know of this planned upgrade. Make the move when your servers are expected to be the least busy.

   8. To reduce down time as much as possible, make DNS changes before you move the domain. Before you do this though, check to see if your mail server is running on the new host so that you don’t lose any email messages.

   9. If your domain name was registered using a third party domain name registration company, you need to check if your domain name is a part of your old hosting plan. If it is, you must separate the two, since moving your site to a new web host means that your domain name company remains the same while your web host changes.

   10. If your site is dynamic, DNS update delays can cause havoc if you’re not careful. Some customers may see your old site while others have access to the new one. To minimize such occurrences, close down your old site with an alert so that it becomes static while the move to the new one is being made. You could also use a synchronization tool to get changes made on the old site mirrored on the new one.

   11. Check for incompatibility issues between applications on your old server and your new one.

   12. If you have more than one domain to migrate, make sure you start the process with enough time to spare for the DNS update delays.

   13. Make sure all the visitors to your old site are being redirected to your new site before cancelling your current web host. It’s best to keep both sites up and running in parallel for at least two weeks before saying goodbye to your old hosts.

This web hosting blog post is contributed by Sarah Scrafford, who regularly writes on the topic of web design schools. She invites your questions, comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address: sarah.scrafford25@gmail.com.

A Review of Site5 Web Hosting: Revolution, Domination, Empire

It is a pleasure to write this Site5 Web Hosting review, as Site5 web hosting provides their users with some excellent and interesting deals which you can take advantage of to have the web site that you have been dreaming of without having to go through a lot of technical hurdles or pay too much money. Here is a look at the plans and features that Site5 Web Hosting has to offer for you!

The web site hosting plans that Site5 Web Hosting provides give you a lot of great features – this features are things like:

• Search engine submission
• Over 200 free scripts and tools
• Unlimited email
• Unlimited FTP
• Award winning service
• Customer support which is accessible 24/7
• A great control panel for controlling your site

Ruby on Rails is included in the hosting plans, giving you one of the most stable and popular web hosting platforms to design a site that runs smoothly and uses the latest web technology. Site5 Web Hosting also offers you an “ultra-low number of sites per server” so that you will not have problems with slow down and you will always be able to access your site even during periods of high activity.

Site5 Web Hosting gives you free setup with their plans, with a value which is estimated to be close to several months worth of hosting costs. All you have to pay is the monthly price – there are no hidden fees or additional startup fees to contend with and worry about.

Site5 Web Hosting’s email comes with a lot of features such as unlimited email accounts, unlimited forwarders, unlimited auto-responders, unlimited mailing lists, SpamAssassin and so on. The Advanced Features that offer include things like domain parking, subdomains, SSL access to your web site for greater security, unlimited FTP accounts, a web based file manager and more.

The servers that are used for Site5’s sites are technologically advanced, with modern four core processors and more than enough RAM to handle high bandwidth and make your web site accessible to people during periods of high activity without slowing down or crashing. There is also a lot of server software included in Site5’s hosting plans, such as

• Perl
• MySQL databases
• PHP 4 & 5
• Python
• ImageMagick 5+
• CGI scripting.

Beyond the great hosting plans that they offer in their shared hosting configuration, Site5 Web Hosting also lets you take advantage of Reseller Hosting – web space that you can resell to make a profit. With “Revolution”, “Domination” and “Empire” plans to choose from, Site5 Web Hosting gives you a full range of disk space options and bandwidth options to purchase and resell at monthly prices which are competitive with the other reseller space providers on the world wide web.

Site5 Web Hosting makes it easy for you to set up a basic web site and load it with advanced features, whether you are new to the world wide web or an experienced web designer. It gives you the freedom to make great choices for your web site as well as the support for a smooth online experience.

Washington, D.C. – (The Hosting News) – August 11, 2009 – Web hosting tutorial firm, DemoWolf, has created new Server Level flash tutorials, including 133 new solutions to help server administrators, as well as 84 new Joomla VOICE tutorials.

Rob Moore, President and Founder of DemoWolf remarked, ”We are excited to finally bring Server Level demos to market. More and more customers have been asking us for these and we felt it finally reached a point where it made sense from a demand point of view to develop them. This opens a whole new area for tutorial development… expect future releases to include setting up Parallels servers, and root-level help with specific operating systems.”

The tutorials are divided into the following series:

WebHost Manager Setup series (29 demos)
WebHost Manager Services series (33 demos)
WebHost Manager Accounts series (35 demos)
WebHost Manager Management series (24 demos)
PuTTY Enhanced series (12 demos)

The new flash tutorials (or flash demos) mark the beginning of DemoWolf’s commitment to producing a wide array of Server Level demos… designed to help companies who need dedicated services. Until now, tutorials were only available to end-users… people who required hosting accounts and needed basic help with things like setting up their email accounts, changing DNS settings for their domains, how to setup a Joomla website, etc. Tutorials have also been available to help resellers… people who have reseller hosting or Virtual Private servers. But no tutorials existed anywhere to help people setup their own dedicated servers… until now.

To view all of these new tutorials online, go to www.demowolf.com/pricing.php and click the appropriate Tutorial Series name. The new Server Level demos are located at the bottom of the left column. You’ll then be presented with a list of the tutorials, each of which you can click to watch.

In addition to the new Server Level demos, DemoWolf is also releasing 84 new Voice versions of their new Joomla tutorials released last month. These demos are split into 5 series as follows:

Joomla New Setup VOICE series (20 demos)
Joomla New Admin VOICE series (17 demos)
Joomla New CMS VOICE series (17 demos)
Joomla New Extensions VOICE series (18 demos)
Joomla New end-user VOICE series (12 demos)

DemoWolf now has over 3,600 tutorials for hosting companies to choose from, including 1,500+ Voice tutorials, and tutorials in languages other than English including: French, Spanish, Dutch, Greek, Brazilian-Portuguese, Czech and Bahasia-Indonesian.

DemoWolf is currently exhibiting at HostingCon in Washington, DC from August 10-12, 2009 in booth #318, where all these new tutorials are on display. Hosting companies who purchase these or any other DemoWolf tutorials, will have their own company logo inserted into the first and last frame of every tutorial, providing the host with a custom branded flash tutorial support solution to offer to their customers.

For more information, you may contact DemoWolf by visiting their website at www.demowolf.com.

Washington, D.C. – (The Hosting News) – August 11, 2009 – Web hosting tutorial firm, DemoWolf, has created new Server Level flash tutorials, including 133 new solutions to help server administrators, as well as 84 new Joomla VOICE tutorials.

Rob Moore, President and Founder of DemoWolf remarked, ”We are excited to finally bring Server Level demos to market. More and more customers have been asking us for these and we felt it finally reached a point where it made sense from a demand point of view to develop them. This opens a whole new area for tutorial development… expect future releases to include setting up Parallels servers, and root-level help with specific operating systems.”

The tutorials are divided into the following series:

WebHost Manager Setup series (29 demos)
WebHost Manager Services series (33 demos)
WebHost Manager Accounts series (35 demos)
WebHost Manager Management series (24 demos)
PuTTY Enhanced series (12 demos)

The new flash tutorials (or flash demos) mark the beginning of DemoWolf’s commitment to producing a wide array of Server Level demos… designed to help companies who need dedicated services. Until now, tutorials were only available to end-users… people who required hosting accounts and needed basic help with things like setting up their email accounts, changing DNS settings for their domains, how to setup a Joomla website, etc. Tutorials have also been available to help resellers… people who have reseller hosting or Virtual Private servers. But no tutorials existed anywhere to help people setup their own dedicated servers… until now.

To view all of these new tutorials online, go to www.demowolf.com/pricing.php and click the appropriate Tutorial Series name. The new Server Level demos are located at the bottom of the left column. You’ll then be presented with a list of the tutorials, each of which you can click to watch.

In addition to the new Server Level demos, DemoWolf is also releasing 84 new Voice versions of their new Joomla tutorials released last month. These demos are split into 5 series as follows:

Joomla New Setup VOICE series (20 demos)
Joomla New Admin VOICE series (17 demos)
Joomla New CMS VOICE series (17 demos)
Joomla New Extensions VOICE series (18 demos)
Joomla New end-user VOICE series (12 demos)

DemoWolf now has over 3,600 tutorials for hosting companies to choose from, including 1,500+ Voice tutorials, and tutorials in languages other than English including: French, Spanish, Dutch, Greek, Brazilian-Portuguese, Czech and Bahasia-Indonesian.

DemoWolf is currently exhibiting at HostingCon in Washington, DC from August 10-12, 2009 in booth #318, where all these new tutorials are on display. Hosting companies who purchase these or any other DemoWolf tutorials, will have their own company logo inserted into the first and last frame of every tutorial, providing the host with a custom branded flash tutorial support solution to offer to their customers.

For more information, you may contact DemoWolf by visiting their website at www.demowolf.com.

In-House hosting or outsource services; If you have to ask yourself this question, going with a web hosting service is likely the best option.  However, before making the final decision, you should determine what resources you have available and where you need to focus your energy to meet your goals.  Whatever road you take, each will require careful planning in order to come out with successful results.  Let’s go over these two forms of hosting to help you better determine which option is right for your needs.

Benefits of Outsourced Hosting

Outsourcing your internet hosting processes to a third-party company is a wise move whether you run an online business or simple personal site.  The minor drawback is that you will be forced to give up some flexibility.  For example, you are essentially locked into the hosting provider’s system, technologies and policies.  However, web hosting services are far less restrictive than they were years ago.  In fact, there are several companies that allow you to have a great deal of control and flexibility with your own server.  Many of today’s web hosts provide you with administrative control over your entire domain.  This typically includes the ability to add and modify database entries, set up email accounts and manage user permissions all without the aid of the network administrator.  If a particular host cannot provide you with these standard luxuries, they aren’t even worth dealing with.

The advantage of outsourcing to a professional web hosting service is that you can usually count on more reliability, a greater level of availability and cost savings right from the jump.  The burden of servers and other network hardware do not fall on your shoulders.   If the operating system and web server require updates or security patches, you can sleep well by knowing IT experts are on top of the matter.  When choosing to run these operations internally, you are opening up an entirely new world of responsibility and complexity.

Disadvantages of In-House Hosting

Successfully hosting your IT operations in-house is possible, but it does come with its fair share of disadvantages.  There are a number of costly and complex factors you need to consider, including the following:

- Server platform for web server and database applications

- Efficient disk space allocation

- Bandwidth limits

- Network connectivity

- Data Backups

- Security

- Environmental Issues

- Day-to-day Maintenance

The above are elements most smaller businesses simply cannot afford or maintain internally.  If this sounds like your situation, then an in-house hosting solution is most likely out the question.

Conclusion

With the wide variety of solutions on the market, professional web hosting services are ideal for whatever you plan to accomplish online irrespective to the size of your website or business.  While the price varies greatly among the type of service and company you choose, this option is far more cost effective than trying to host these complex technologies on your own.  On the other hand, if you have the space, manpower, financial resources and the need for the utmost control, an in-house set up could turn to be the best solution.

Vancouver, Washington – (The Hosting News) – May 12, 2009 – Dotser web hosting domain registrar has unveiled new deals including free domains with every hosting package, in order to make it easier for individuals and small to medium businesses to realize the economic benefits of an online presence.

Clint Page, CEO of Dotster remarked, ”There are doers and there are those who wait. This economy is not going to deal kindly with those who simply wait for things to get better. On the other hand, we’ve already seen it reward those who continue to move forward. Dotster’s goal is to make ambitions reality. People come to us with passion and an idea, and we enable the rest.”

Where many ‘brick-and-mortar’ businesses are susceptible to the increased operating costs and decreased sales prevalent in the current economy, an online business offers low startup investments and significant savings in the four factors that make up the largest portion of a business’ operating costs: employees (it is very possible to run an online business with just one person, you!), buildings (a large number of online businesses are run from home), travel and production.

Many people are already taking this opportunity to capitalize on the ease of creating an online presence. According to the Wall Street Journal, in the United States there are ”as many people making a living blogging as practicing law” and ”at no other time in recent history has it been easier or cheaper to start a new kind of (online) company”, according to Time.

Dotster hosting provides everything an individual or small business needs to get their site on the web, including over 500 professionally designed templates and a simple do-it-yourself website builder. The Basic Hosting has no setup fee and includes 100 Email accounts, spam and virus protection. Plus the domain name is free.

Dotster is a full-service provider of essential resources for businesses to get online and grow online. It has helped more than one million businesses and individuals establish their web presence, build their websites, and drive revenue. Dotster offers its customers a complete set of services including the ability to get online with a domain name and email address; build a major web presence with web hosting and custom website design; generate traffic with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), website promotion and social media platforms; and reduce IT costs with Virtual Private Server hosting.

For more information, please visit: www.dotster.com.

Vancouver, Washington – (The Hosting News) – May 12, 2009 – Dotser web hosting domain registrar has unveiled new deals including free domains with every hosting package, in order to make it easier for individuals and small to medium businesses to realize the economic benefits of an online presence.

Clint Page, CEO of Dotster remarked, ”There are doers and there are those who wait. This economy is not going to deal kindly with those who simply wait for things to get better. On the other hand, we’ve already seen it reward those who continue to move forward. Dotster’s goal is to make ambitions reality. People come to us with passion and an idea, and we enable the rest.”

Where many ‘brick-and-mortar’ businesses are susceptible to the increased operating costs and decreased sales prevalent in the current economy, an online business offers low startup investments and significant savings in the four factors that make up the largest portion of a business’ operating costs: employees (it is very possible to run an online business with just one person, you!), buildings (a large number of online businesses are run from home), travel and production.

Many people are already taking this opportunity to capitalize on the ease of creating an online presence. According to the Wall Street Journal, in the United States there are ”as many people making a living blogging as practicing law” and ”at no other time in recent history has it been easier or cheaper to start a new kind of (online) company”, according to Time.

Dotster hosting provides everything an individual or small business needs to get their site on the web, including over 500 professionally designed templates and a simple do-it-yourself website builder. The Basic Hosting has no setup fee and includes 100 Email accounts, spam and virus protection. Plus the domain name is free.

Dotster is a full-service provider of essential resources for businesses to get online and grow online. It has helped more than one million businesses and individuals establish their web presence, build their websites, and drive revenue. Dotster offers its customers a complete set of services including the ability to get online with a domain name and email address; build a major web presence with web hosting and custom website design; generate traffic with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), website promotion and social media platforms; and reduce IT costs with Virtual Private Server hosting.

For more information, please visit: www.dotster.com.