InTechgrity » Internet

Howto: Choose the right web hosting company for your business

Swashata — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:43:41 +0000

Original post published Howto: Choose the right web hosting company for your business">here

We have discussed a lot about web hosting and domains previously. One of the most important thing to consider while buying any web host is, undoubtedly, the value for money. Everyone wants to choose the right web hosting company for his/her business. Now, this is easy to say than to actually compare. With so many parameters of a reliable web host, so many features of a good web server, it just becomes difficult to choose among the “best”s. Luckily, there are services in the Internet which makes our job a lot easier. By looking into comparison tables, reading expert reviews and statistical analysis, going through highlighted features, we can get a better idea before putting money behind a web host. But still, you should have the basic (and well a little advanced won’t hurt) idea of today’s server technologies and cost for a profitable long term investment. So, we are going to discuss, what you need to consider before buying any web host. We shall also see some of the reviewing websites from where we can get aggregated information.

Things to consider before buying:

Out of my own experiences, I think, one should consider the following constrains while buying any web host:

#1: Offer Price & Renewal Price:

The first thing that should come into mind is, indeed the money. After all you are investing something for your company, so you want to be sure that you get the maximum out of it! Most web hosting services out there offers very less price while buying, and then the renewal price becomes higher. Mostly people overlook this thing. We buy using some promo code and then after a year or two, when the renewal time comes, we have to spend rather a lot to continue the service.

#2: Specifications & Features:

The most concerned features and specs are, perhaps, diskspace, bandwidth and number of addon domains. The more number of addon domains you have, more number of sites you can host. So, you know that you not just put money behind a single website hosting, rather a multi website hosting. Now a days, most good web hosts give unlimited addon domains.

Technical Limitations: Apart from the unlimited stuffs, you should look into the technical limitations. Some host might give you unlimited bandwidth at the cost of limited domains and vice versa. Just keep in mind, what do you really need from your host.
Domains, Addon Domains, Parked Domains & Sub domains: The main domain is the domain which is registered primarily with your web host. The addon domains are other domains which you can add and host using the same web host. The parked domains are “parked” on some directory of your existing sites. If someone enters the URL of the parked domain, then it will show that directory (and the index file if present). Now sub domains are the children of your main domain. Say, you have mydomain.com as your main domain or addon domain. Then, mysubdomain.mydomain.com would be a sub domain. Now a days, no limits are imposed on all these, which means, with a good web host, you can host unlimited domains with unlimited sub-domains.
Domain portability: Another thing you look into is, domain portability. Some hosts out there force you to register your domain with them. Personally, I don’t prefer to do business with such web hosting companies. What if I want to move my sites to another host? Web hosts which gives the flexibility to add your already registered domain via the name servers, are always my first preferences.
Bandwidth: The bigger the value, more visitors your webhost can support. With unlimited bandwidth, this is not an issue in shared hosting. But if you are going for VPS or VPN or Cloud, then you should look into the bandwidth and consider it seriously with respect to the number of visitors in your site. An average site, with around 1500-2000 page visits per day, might consume upto 100GB per month, depending on the data provided by the site. (This figure is mainly for image heavy sites, a text heavy site will actually consume much less bandwidth). You can use tools like Firebug to check out the size of your pages and estimate average bandwidth by multiplying it with your daily average page visits.
Disk Usage: Larger value indicates bigger possibilities for storing audio, video and image files. But also keep in mind that a nice disk usage limitation is useless without a nicer Bandwidth cap. So choose wisely. You won’t want to have a web host with 100 GB diskspace yet only 10 GB bandwidth per month.
Server Technology: The technology depends explicitly on your requirement. If you want to publish a .net or aspx site, then you would prefer Windows Hosting. Where as, if you are familiar with Open source technologies like PHP, MySQL etc, then Linux Hosting should be your first choice. Some of you might want to have several other technologies like Ruby on Rails, Perl, CGI etc.
Website builder and Auto Installer script: Now, not everyone of us buy a webhost to create their sites from scratch or install CMS at their own. There are services like softaculous, fantastico etc which makes our job even easier. They provide a one click installer for popular CMS like WordPress, Joomla etc. All of the good web hosts should provide atleast one of these auto-installer scripts.
Emails & Accounts: If you want to access your email directly within your host, this should be your concern. Personally, I prefer using google apps to setup my email accounts for the domain. But this feature should not be overlooked.
SSH Access: If you know what this feature is, then you probably want your web host to support your feature. For those, who doesn’t know, here are some articles I found from the google explaining the importance and advantages of this feature. Note that for average usage, you won’t need this.

#3: Server Performance & Uptime:

You don’t want your website to be down. There are already services which does the job for us. But in most of the times the information provided is bloated with just too many details. The thing which one should look while choosing a good web host, is, the average uptime for the target region. Which means, if your target visitors are from US, then obviously you should not come into any conclusion from the UK’s uptime.

#4: Technical Support:

The next most important thing, is perhaps, how much support and technical help your web host can give. Mostly, now a days, big web hosting companies like Hostgator, Fatcow, BlueHost etc, have their dedicated support forum for their customers. Also, they give 24X7 toll free numbers where you can call and easily get help, regardless of your location. So, you should consider this aspect as well. If your site goes down, then there should be someone to recover.

#5: Compliance:

When you are using any external web host to host your site, then you should be aware of a few things. Because after all, it is your web host who is finally showing your site to the world. I would recommend to go through it at least once, before buying any web host. It is generally found at their Policy.

Doing your own researches:

Recently I was looking into fatcow and bluehost reviews in the internet. As an experienced blogger and developer, I am already aware of these two web hosting services and I used to think bluehost is any day better than its competitors because, it has spend more time in the business. But, surprisingly, my concepts changed as soon as I looked into those reviews. Here are the few of the points I noticed:

Fatcow will give a 24 months plan at only $3.67/month (at the time of the review). Now that’s quite a lot of saving. Whereas, for BlueHost it is $19.95/month (although it is for reseller plan, but I prefer to stick to normal plans).
For bluehost, it is $19.94/month for reseller plan. I could not found any offer on normal plans. They have 100GB diskspace, 15Mbps bandwidth, unlimited accounts, but they did not provide any easy to get information on bandwidth cap.
Fatcow gives free domain & setup along with 75$ marketing credits. Also, just like bluehost it has unlimited addon domains along with unlimited diskspace and bandwidth.
User recommendation of Fatcows beats BlueHost by 35%. For big web hosting companies like this, 35% is really something to consider.

So, from all these points, I could figure out that, had I wanted a reseller web host, I would have chosen BlueHost, but, as my needs are limited, so FatCow gives the best solution for me at a very reasonable, rather cheap price.

I hope you have found this review useful, and it will help you find the best web hosting for you. If you have any doubt, feel free to comment. I will be more than happy to help you.

- By InTechgrity - Amalgamating Life & Technology

scouring the best deals online

pyrotechnicpixie — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 20:12:00 +0000

Original post published scouring the best deals online">here

I am sure you wonder how to make the most of internet shopping, and grabbing some online bargains while saving yourself time and money.Are you a frugal consumer, a penny pincher? If you are, you’re not alone. Millions of smart shoppers save hundreds of dollars through the Internet. Online coupon services make finding bargains fast and trouble-free. The challenge is to make your ‘mouse work’ pay off without requiring all of your waking hours for the foreseeable future.

Well , we bring to you the site which would certainly become your favorite to find your best deals online

It scours the web to provide savvy shoppers with Coupons & deals for thousands of online stores.

Here you’ll find deals on everything from clothing and MP3 players to diamond earrings.In a nutshell, it has something for everyone.It seems to do a better job than many of its competitors in maintaining a focus on coupons rather than on sales and other discounts.You can also find HP coupon code and Dell promo code here.

If you DO already use coupons, best buy can help you improve your savings and simplify the process.

If you DON’T use coupons, you may find that best buy makes it practical enough for you to start.

- By InTechgrity - Amalgamating Life & Technology

MUST READ (for geeks ;) ): what does your email say about your computer skills

pyrotechnicpixie — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 05:35:00 +0000

Original post published MUST READ (for geeks ;) ): what does your email say about your computer skills">here

Have you ever even remotely given thought what your e-mail address says about your computer knowledge? Well if you listen to the folks over at The Oatmeal, your e-mail address can say lots about your computer skills, specifically the domain name. So in order to spell things out, they put together this simple chart to let you know how well you rate against others, comparatively speaking.

Lets just say if you have an e-mail account with gmail, chances are you are most likely just knowing your way around the computer. If you use an AOL e-mail account, however, maybe not so much.check this out for more fun

- By InTechgrity - Amalgamating Life & Technology

Review: Play ZombieDobby Browser game and win a Sony Playstation 3

Swashata — Sat, 15 May 2010 13:07:00 +0000

Original post published Review: Play ZombieDobby Browser game and win a Sony Playstation 3">here

Are you fond of playing online game? If so, then I might have the right thing for you. Basically, I too got a little interest in this game when I was asked to review their service.

ZombieDobby is basically a browser based game for net savvies. You install the ZombieDobby Toolbar on your Firefox and you are a part of the zombie world…

Keep on surfing the net to increase your score. When you start you get 10 Health. As you surf you increase your score and buy upgrades to keep alive and avoid being a Zombie. Say, on a particular domain, if you encounter with another player [both being brain] the encountering starts [ie, tagging the page]… If you win, you get huge bonus and increased health. If you lose your health is decreased by 1. Lose all your health and you become a Zombie… Now attack other brains and try to make them Zombie as well… To know more about the rules have a look at here.

Basically, what I feel is, the concept behind the game is to tag internet in a funny way. You tag pages when you encounter a player, win it and get points. On the contrary, your tagging helps the system to improve internet!

To play this game all you need to do is install the Firefox extension. Rest all is done by the toolbar itself!

This game is currently is in alpha version, so it is currently undergoing tests, upgrades and bug fixes. What more? Well ZombieDobby will be out of Alpha testing on or before June 1, 2010, at which time the first full prize round will begin and players will be automatically entered to win a new Sony Playstation 3 game system. So, you should try your luck this time!!

Do give us your feedback and tell us how you liked this game!

- By InTechgrity - Amalgamating Life & Technology

Stephen Hawking shocks the world :Time travel will happen

pyrotechnicpixie — Tue, 04 May 2010 17:14:00 +0000

Original post published Stephen Hawking shocks the world :Time travel will happen">here

The famous astrophysicist, speaking in a new documentary, said spaceships could one day be capable of such high speeds that time slowed down for those on board.

According to the Times of London, Hawking has made a new documentary, "Stephen Hawking’s Universe," for the Discovery Channel, which is scheduled to be broadcast in May. In this film, which took three years to make, Hawking offers his view of what really might be out there.Hawking says in his new documentary series ,how man might truly conquer space. Also, how spacemen might come down to our little planet and dismember us as so much fast food.Hawking has already warned in his documentary that we should be very wary about making contact with beings from out there. "If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans," he said in "Stephen Hawking’s Universe."

Theoretically, such a space ship would allow the crew to repopulate the earth if they found our species had become extinct during their flight.

Stephen Hawking’s Universe, in which he makes the comments, will be screened on Discovery next Sunday. In another part of the series he says alien life is likely to exist but that humans should avoid making contact.

Hawking said a spaceship capable of travelling through time – but only forwards – would breach Albert Einstein’s theories of relativity

He although stresses however, that time travel will only be performed in a forward motion.

Having taken six years to reach its full speed of 98 per cent of the speed of light (650million miles per hour), a day on board the ship would be equivalent to a year on Earth, he said, allowing those on board to reach the edge of the galaxy in just 80 years.

But the ship required for the journey would have to be massive to allow for the required fuel.

He dismissed the idea of travelling backwards through time, saying doing so would violate a fundamental rule that cause comes before effect and that such an act could allow people to make themselves impossible, such as if a person travelled back in time and shot thir former self.

Doesn’t his words excite you?I am sure they do if you are even a little bit of a science maniac.But sadly, so many of us will not be able to benefit from such exalted science.

- By InTechgrity - Amalgamating Life & Technology

The geolocation feature now in new chrome

pyrotechnicpixie — Sat, 01 May 2010 11:12:00 +0000

Original post published The geolocation feature now in new chrome">here

Google recently launched the developer version of Chrome, which now includes preliminary support for the W3C’s geolocation API.

Google’s Geolocation API allows developers to pinpoint your computer’s location by looking at the WiFi networks around you,Chrome has had geolocation support since March, but it wasn’t activated by default until now. The support hasn’t yet arrived in the beta or stable versions of Chrome.

For now, this new feature is still hidden behind a command line toggle and only available in the developer builds for Windows and OSX Leopard (it doesn’t work on Snow Leopard yet).

If you want to use geolocation for now in Firefox or Chrome , then one way is to go to Google Maps and click the small white circle in the upper-left corner of a map itself, below the navigation control and above the zoom control. A pop-up bar says, "http://maps.google.com/ wants to track your physical location," and if you click "allow," your location should then be shown with a blue circle on the map.

The Chrome team also notes that the geolocation UI is still incomplete and that Chrome will forget the permissions you set.

- By InTechgrity - Amalgamating Life & Technology

Pacific WebHost Review and Promo Code from AlreadyHosting.com

Swashata — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 03:00:00 +0000

Original post published Pacific WebHost Review and Promo Code from AlreadyHosting.com">here

For my upcoming web applications, I seriously needed a good webhost. I just searched alreadyhosting.com and found that they are giving coupons for PacificHost. PacificHost is one of the leader in CPanel Webhosting. Normally, their charges are 4.95$/month for 24 months Package. But with the coupon code given above, you will be get a 20% off and will have to pay only $2.95/month.

PacificHost comes with great packages which is ideal for shared hosting. They give 5000MB of disk space along with unlimited domain hosting capability. Read below to know more features of PacificHost:

Features and Packages:

5GB of disk quota and unlimited bandwidth;
99.9% uptime and 45 day money back guarantee;
Cpanel webhosting with Video Script support;
Free Website builder and FREE DOMAIN FOR LIFE.
Unlimited Addon Domains, Parked Domains, MySQL Databases with Shell Access facility;
Supports latest PHP (5) and MySQL. You can install unlimited scripts with easy to install software available at CPanel. Auto-install CMS, Blogs & Website Forum.
Fully supports Ecommerce. Lets you use your private SSL and osCommerce Cart or Zen Cart or Cube Cart.
Servers are hosted on Dual Processor Quad Core Intel Xeon 5520 Processor PC with 24 GBs of RAM;

For more information have a look at here.

Buy PacificHost with AlreadyHosting Coupon code

That was all about PacificHost. You can find more information about this and other webhosting services at AlreadyHosting.com.

- By InTechgrity - Amalgamating Life & Technology

ProProfs.com ~ Best Free Online Knowledge Sharing Tool

Swashata — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 03:21:00 +0000

Original post published ProProfs.com ~ Best Free Online Knowledge Sharing Tool">here

So, only a few weeks left for my Semester exam and I have been really searching a lot for eBooks, online tests and stuffs!! Today, I came across a cool site which not only gives free online education, but also shares free online knowledge sharing tools. These tools include Quiz Maker, Poll, Flash Card, Brain tool and many more.

Basically, ProProfs is a site which will help you to cherish your knowledge, make you think in a smarter way and overall help you getting into college. Just read below to know what more does the website has to offer…

Top Features and Facilities:

ProProf quiz: With the help of ProProfs Quiz maker, you can easily make and share your online quiz. The only thing you need is to register yourself with ProProfs which is also free… So jump in and start sharing your knowledge now!
ProProfs Poll: Want to make poll for better studying? Well ProProfs Polling system takes a good care of sharing your Polls . Just create your polls and share them with the world!
Flash Cards: Study smarter not harder. ProProfs Flash Cards are just the tools to easily share the knowledge you have in a smarter fashion. You make flash cards with color, images and of course information about the topic with ProProfs free online Flash Card Creator and host your card with ProProfs to share them online or even make them downloadable and printable… Just have a look at some Flash Cards to see how smart the process is.
Brain Games: Tic Tac Toe or Sudoku is the we are talking here. Solve through all the riddles and puzzles to make yourself smart! Just click on any game and it will load. You also have the option to share them or even embed the them on your personal blog or webpage!

Other Facilities:

The story does not end here. ProProfs gives a online forum to discuss your problems with others, a community edited Wiki and a WebSchool where you can make your own tutorials! There is also a Book Store where you can find educations books on sale!

The site also gives Free online IT training which you can find from the homepage…

Well that’s all for this site! I hope it comes useful for you at the time of exams! Do give your feedback and if you know any site better than this one, then do share with us!

- By InTechgrity - Amalgamating Life & Technology

Gmail gets drag-and-drop attachments

pyrotechnicpixie — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 03:08:00 +0000

Original post published Gmail gets drag-and-drop attachments">here

Drag-and-drop attachments, a feature which lets you drag files from your desktop machine right into your e-mail message to have them begin uploading, and hence save you a lot of time .

Now no more hassles of clicking on “attach a file” , finding that one file among the thousand others in your computer and uploading it .Now you can just drag and drop your attachments-a cakewalk .

It works the same as the system Google implemented in its Wave service for photos and other media types. It also has the same requirement of the user having to run Google Chrome or Firefox 3.6.

The drag-and-drop attachments is really the new, killer feature. For those users on Chrome or Firefox (with Mozilla’s Prism installed) who are running Gmail as a standalone desktop Web app, this adds a whole new layer of functionality, and one that more closely resembles a real piece of software.

Google software engineer Adam de Boor wrote in a blog post, "Suppose I want to attach some files to an email, and I already have a folder open containing those files. I used to have to click ‘Attach a file’, find the photos, click them, etc. [Now] I can just drag and drop the files to attach them.

For now, you can drag and drop attachments in Chrome and Firefox only.

- By InTechgrity - Amalgamating Life & Technology

Microsoft Office finally to be out of beta

pyrotechnicpixie — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 02:53:00 +0000

Original post published Microsoft Office finally to be out of beta">here

Microsoft said on Friday that more than 7.5 million people have been using the beta version of Office 2010.

It also said that it has finished with the development work on the next version of the Office family, including Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010, and Project 2010.

The Office suite, in all its many flavors, will hit store shelves in June and Microsoft is planning a separate Gotham event to mark that occasion. Microsoft is also taking preorders for Office on its online store. Already Microsoft has been promising those buying Office 2007 a free upgrade to Office 2010.Sounds like a good deal !

The products were "released to manufacturing," which is the final engineering step. The products are slated to be available for businesses next month and Microsoft is holding a launch event on May 12 in New York.

RTM is the final engineering milestone of a product release and our engineering team has poured their heart and soul into reaching this milestone," vice president Takeshi Numoto said in a blog posting.

"It is also an appropriate time to re-emphasize our sincere gratitude to the more than 5,000 organizations and partners who have worked with us on rapid deployment and testing of the products."

- By InTechgrity - Amalgamating Life & Technology