Review Cheap Web Hosting Provider.

What is SSL and why do I need it?

2008-10-10T05:22:00.000-07:00

SSL stands for secure sockets layer, and is the standard means of exchanging encrypted data across the Internet. The most common use of SSL is for securing credit card data. If you’ve ever bought something on the Internet and used a credit card to pay for it, then you were using SSL to complete the transaction. When SSL is being used, the address in the browser will change from “http:” to “https:” Additionally many browsers use some sort of icon to indicate that the site is secure, for example a closed padlock in Netscape.

SSL works by the use of encryption keys. When a browser requests a secure connection, it will send a list of supported ciphers. The server will choose the strongest cipher available, and return this to the browser. The server will then send a digital certificate. This certificate contains the name of the server, the name of the certificate authority and a public encryption key. The browser will then generate a random number with the public encryption key, and return this to the server. The server will decode this using its private key – since the server is the only one with this private key; this is what ensures the security of the transaction. The server and browser can then establish a secure connection, and private information can then be exchanged.

Luckily, all of this is totally transparent to anyone wishing to make a purchase on the Internet. All modern browsers support SSL transaction, and all the user has to do is input the information being requested by the web site he is visiting.

The question of whether you need SSL capabilities on your web site will depend on the type of site you are planning. For a personal web page, or a small site for a club then you will probably not need to offer this. However, if you are planning an ecommerce site then you must have some means of securing your customers’ data.

In order to offer SSL transactions you will need to offer a digital certificate. Some web hosting companies will have their own digital certificates available for you to use if you prefer. However, this is not recommended as it can cause some problems with authentication. To obtain a digital certificate of your own you will need to get this from a certificate company. There are several to choose from – Verisign, Tucows and GoDaddy amongst others. Prices vary from one to another but you will probably pay no more than $100/year for this, depending on which company you choose.

The other requirement for offering SSL transactions is that you will need to have a static IP address for your web site. Many of the web hosting plans that are available only offer variable IP addresses – this means that your site is sharing its IP address with many other sites. Unfortunately in order to offer SSL functionality on your site you will need a static IP address. If your choice of web host can’t supply this then you will need to look for one that can. Expect to pay a premium over the regular monthly fees in order to get a static IP address.

Choosing between Windows-based and Unix/Linux-based servers

2008-10-10T05:19:00.000-07:00

One of the choices to be made when selecting a web hosting company will be whether the hosting companies’ servers run on the Windows or Unix/Linux operating systems. There are several factors involved in this choice - the type of site you will be running, how it was developed, any database used, and what, if any, extra features you need to use.

The first thing to say is that the type of computer you are using at home or in the office, whether it be a Windows-based PC, a Mac or a Linux-based computer, has no bearing on the choice you make. All of the above operating systems will allow you to upload files using an FTP program and to access the control panel that is used for basic site maintenance, such as setting up email boxes, or for accessing the various reports that are available on such things as bandwidth usage and number of visitors to the site.

For a simple HTML-based web site it will not matter which server operating system is chosen. Both Windows-based and Unix/Linux-based servers will give identical results for the end user. However, if you are planning to have any interactive content on your site then you will need to choose which way to go.

Interactive content relies on certain features being available on the server – called server-side programs. The most common ones are ASP, PHP and Perl. These are programming languages which allow the visitor to the web site to interact with the site, for example by entering a user name and password to enter a private area. Unix/Linux-base servers offer PHP and Perl, whereas ASP runs on Windows-based servers. It is possible to run PHP on a Windows-based server, or vice versa, but the results may not be what you expect. For the most compatibility it is best to use the operating system for which the language was designed.

The platform on which the web site was developed may play a part in the decision of which server type to use. If you have used a Microsoft program to develop your web site then you may feel more comfortable in choosing a host which offers Windows-based servers. Nowadays though nearly all Unix/Linux-based servers offer server extensions allowing them to host sites developed using Microsoft FrontPage, which was not always the case in the past. Also, if you are using scripts for interactive content, then you may find that testing and debugging them will be easier on a computer using the same operating system as the server.

The other factor that will affect your choice of server operating system is whether you are planning to use databases within your site. Windows-based servers use Access and Microsoft SQL for databases, whereas Unix/Linux-based servers use MySQL. Although MySQL will run on a Windows operating system, or indeed Access will run on Unix/Linux operating systems, the implementation of this is not 100%, and you may find you start to have problems. To get the most out of either program you should try to run it on its native operating system.

These are the most important factors to consider although there are some more minor points to make. There is a school of thought that believes that Unix/Linux-servers are faster, more reliable and more secure; however in actual everyday use any differences are marginal, at best. Any good reputable web hosting company will strive for the best performance on all of its servers. Also, since Linux is open-source software, whereas as Windows has to be licensed, the Linux option may be more economical. As I said, though, these are minor points, and should not affect your final choice – how you intend to use your site should be the key to making your choice.

What is a Control Panel?

2008-10-10T05:16:00.000-07:00

A control panel allows the web site owner to administer a web site. There are many different control panels available, among the more common are cPanel, xPanel, vDeck and Plesk. All use a graphical user interface, which makes administration simple, even for inexperienced users. The control panel is accessed through the users’ web browser of choice. The various forms of control panels that are available differ in some ways, but all will allow the web site host to perform the basic tasks needed to set up and administer the web site.

During set-up, a control panel will help the host in establishing the various email accounts that are needed and setting up any FTP accounts that may be needed. When setting up email you will often be given the chance to set up any auto-responders or email forwarding that you may require. If the site will be using any server-side scripting, such as PHP or Perl, then this too can be done at this time using the control panel.

For on-going administration of the web site, the control panel will allow the host to do many things. Most control panels will show details of disk space and bandwidth used; allowing the host to ensure the site is not exceeding the limits of the web hosting plan currently used. There will also be access to statistics that show the number of visitors to the site, the pages they visited, and the time they spent on the site. This helps to identify which parts of the site are more popular, allowing the host to modify any pages if desired. The host will also be able to see how the visitor came to the site, making it easier to target any search engine optimization that may be needed. Any errors encountered by the visitor will also be logged, enabling the host to fix any broken links that may exist.

Other tasks that the control panel may offer are database management, the ability to create or manage sub-domains, to set-up redirections for URLs, or to set different levels of security for different parts of the site. One important task that the control panel should allow is the ability to back-up the site.

If the web site is going to be on a shared server, then the web host will have to use the control panel that the hosting company uses. If the particular control panel supplied does not suit the user, then the only option really is to change to a different hosting company. Those users who are intending to run a dedicated server, or a co-located server will be able to choose the control panel that suits their needs best. It would be advisable, if unfamiliar with the many different choices available, for the user to take the time to research what is available to see with which they would feel most comfortable.

Web Hosting Plan Reviews

2008-09-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

12 definitions to know

Web hosting plan reviews, like those featured on this site, bring with them their own unique set of technical phrases. As a matter of fact, there is an entire language dedicated to the hosting field. This short glossary will provide you with some brief definitions you should know as you begin your search for a web hosting service. Keep in mind that this is not an all inclusive list, but a starting place to help you put new information into context.

Internet Protocol (IP) Number: IP addresses that identify hosts, networks, and your computer, much like your house address is used to identify your city, street, and house number.

Domain Name: Title and address of your website.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator): The standard way an address is presented on the internet. The first part indicates what protocol to use and the second part specifies a domain name. (e.g. "aol.com")

Server: A computer or software system that allows other computers to store information on it and use its resources.

Host: A company that uses servers to connect domain names to internet protocol numbers. This enables your domain name to be called up in internet searches. There are a variety of types of hosts around, each with their own web hosting plan and offers.

ASP (Active Server Pages): A Windows-based specification that allows web developers to create dynamic sites with database driven content. The server reads the ASP code, translates it into HTML, and sends it back to the browser. The website owner relies on it to ensure that all visitors are able to view the site's dynamic content. PHP is a similar specification used by Linux servers. Your web hosting plan determines which one you will use. Click here to read more about ASP Hosting

Internet Service Provider (ISP): A company that offers internet access. Users dial up through a modem, DSL, or cable connection and then move through web pages with their browser.

Audio Streaming: This feature provides the audio content of a website. Since it takes up quite a bit of bandwidth, it may not be included in the web hosting plan you are looking at. Find out before you make a commitment that will exclude a needed item.

Bandwidth: The amount of data that runs through an internet connection. Larger sites need a web hosting plan that offers more bandwidth than a smaller one does. Pricing structures vary, so you'll want to find out how much it will cost if you suddenly need to add more to your site.

Common Gateway Interface (CGI): A program that translates data from a web server to a readable format in the web browser. It can be used for visitor registration, guestbooks, technical help, and more. Many web hosts offer prewritten versions of CGI scripts.

Encrypted Password: A password that has been camouflaged to prevent hackers from entering a site area registered to an identify other than their own. Look for this feature in the security features of your chosen web hosting plan.

What is Fantastico?

2008-09-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

In order for applications to be available for use on web servers, they must first be installed. Fantastico is a commercial script library that automates these installations, making such installations simple and easy even for inexperienced web server administrators. Fantastico is accessible through the cPanel web site control panel, and as such will only be found on web servers that offer this control panel.

There are many different types of applications that can be installed using Fantastico. The most common uses are for applications for web content management systems, shopping carts, blogs and photo-sharing applications.

There are other ways in which applications can be installed on a web server. Most applications can be installed using a command-line interface, similar in style to using DOS. There are also add-on scripts available for cPanel that will help with application installation. However, both of these methods have limitations, as the installation of the application software is typically all that these methods can accomplish.

In contrast, an administrator that chooses to install applications using Fantastico has a lot more control. By using Fantastico for installations, a web server administrator will be able to have a complete overview of what applications have been installed on a particular server. The administrator will also be set permission levels for users through Fantastico, meaning that a particular individual may or may not be able to perform his own installations. Fantastico can also be configured so that the administrator is informed if or when any installations or removals are done.

There are certain issues of which an administrator intending to use Fantastico should be aware. If the installation scripts are not kept up-to-date then the application software that is being installed may be not be the current version. This can cause instability in the application, or this may pose a security risk. Also, it can be difficult to update or patch applications that have been installed using Fantastico. However, if the administrator is conscientious, then the ease of use that Fantastico offers will outweigh these issues.

What is bandwidth?

2008-09-20T09:51:00.000-07:00

The terms bandwidth and data transfer are often used interchangeably by web hosting companies. Although closely related, the two terms do in fact mean different things. Bandwidth is the amount of data that can potentially be transferred at one time, whereas data transfer is how much data is actually being transferred. However, as I said, you’ll find a lot of web hosting companies using the term bandwidth as a measure of how much data you can transfer per month.

The various plans offered by web hosting companies will include some measure of the amount of bandwidth that your site will be able to use. This figure is normally given in gigabytes (Gb) per month, for example a plan may offer 5Gb/month. This means that the total amount of data transfer used by your site for any purpose should not exceed 5 GB.

I must mention here the myth of “unlimited bandwidth”. Some web hosting companies will offer this as a lure to the unwary customer. There is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth. Although some companies may seem to offer this, in practice a careful reading of their terms and conditions will reveal all sorts of rules and restrictions that limit the bandwidth. One such rule may be that “the offer of unlimited bandwidth is subject to acceptable use”, where acceptable use is defined as using less than an arbitrary amount of bandwidth per month. Go over that limit and you may find yourself paying a large surcharge. Or the hosting company may restrict the type of site you offer – no graphics- heavy pages, for example – or the number of pages you may offer on your site. Unless you know for an absolute certainty that you will be able to live with these restrictions not only now but also in the future, then stay away from such plans.

So, how much bandwidth will you need? If you already have a site up and running this should be fairly easy to estimate, based on the reports available from your current web host. If this is a new site then you will need to make some estimates. You will need to know the number of visitors you expect per day, the number of pages you expect each visitor to look at and the average page size. Then multiply all three together, to give you a daily total. Then multiply that figure by 30 to get a monthly total. You will also need to allow for email usage, and for any uploads needed to update and maintain the site. If you plan to offer file downloads then you will need to factor that in too.

Remember that the figure you calculated is the bare minimum needed to keep your site running, and it is only an estimate. You will need to add in a margin for error, and also an allowance for future growth – as your website becomes more popular then your bandwidth usage will increase.
Check the hosting company’s’ terms and conditions to see what will happen if you exceed your allotted bandwidth. There are two things that may happen. Firstly, the host may cut your site off for the remainder of the month, displaying a page stating that “This site has exceeded its bandwidth for the month, please return next month”. This is not what your customers want to see, and will not endear you to them. The other thing that may happen is that you will have to pay surcharges over and above your normal monthly fee. These fees may be many times greater than your normal monthly fee, so although the site is still accessible it is no longer profitable. It is far better to pay a little more per month to keep this from happening, or to choose a web hosting company that will allow you to occasionally exceed your bandwidth allowance for a more reasonable fee.

There are ways of reducing the bandwidth that you use. Make sure that any graphics that are used are optimized for viewing on the Web. Streaming audio or video consume a lot of bandwidth – they may look cool but are they really necessary? Use a single CSS file for all of your pages, instead of embedding the formatting within each page. The same goes for any Java or JavaScript functions used – these should all be called externally too. Clean up all your HTML files, taking out unnecessary comments and spaces. Don’t use too many META tags, keeping only those that are relevant will not only reduce your bandwidth usage but actually is better for search engines.

Once your site is up and running, you will be able to see how good your estimates were. Most web hosting companies will offer detailed traffic reports, showing how many visitors viewed your site, and what pages they viewed. Try to check this regularly – you may find that your estimates were too pessimistic. This will allow you to upgrade before you need to pay any surcharges. Or alternatively you may have been over-optimistic, and your site is only using a fraction of the bandwidth you are paying for. In this case then down-grading your service may save you some money. Don’t cut too much though, remember most web sites become more popular with time, and you may find yourself up against bandwidth limits before you realize.

What is disk space?

2008-09-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

Disk space is simply the total amount of data that you can store upon your web hosts’ server. This amount will include all of your web pages, any graphic or audiovisual content you may use on those pages, any files that are available for downloading by visitors and also any space that you may use for emails. You will also need to allow a small amount of space for the various log files that are generated by the server recording such things as site visits. The amount of disk space available will vary depending on your choice of plan. For a low-cost plan it may be as little as 10 Mb, with more expensive plans you may have many gigabytes for your use.

A simple web site using HTML-based pages will not need a lot of disk space. An HTML file is really just a plain text file – a screen-full of text may only need a file that is 10 kb in size. Most simple web pages average about 40 kb in size. Thumbnail images will probably be about 2 -3 kb in size and full-size images can be kept to as low as 150 – 200 kb without sacrificing too much in the way of quality.

More complex web sites will need correspondingly more disk space. An 8-second video clip will be about 1 MB in size. Audio files are normally smaller, but even a short low-quality clip may be 200 kb in size. Any site that is graphic-intensive will need a large amount of disk space for storage. Making files available for download by users will also use a lot of space.

There are ways to cut down on the amount of disk space you need, although with hard drive prices seemingly lower every week this is becoming less important than it used to be. Firstly, make sure that all of your graphics are Web-optimized – as noted above image files can be shrunk considerably without losing too much quality. Instead of using formatting tags on every page, consider using cascading style sheets, or CSS. This way one CSS file can hold all of the formatting data for your entire site. You may also be able to use the same image on many pages, for example a company logo.

It is fairly simple to calculate approximately how much disk space you will need for your site. Simply add together the sizes of all the files you will be uploading to the server. This will give you a starting point. You will then need to add in an extra 20% to allow for email and site logs and to give you some leeway. You will also need to consider future needs. If you plan on adding new pages every week, then you will need to allow for those additional pages when deciding how much disk space you will need. It is no use choosing a plan offering the disk space you need now, only to find that you will outgrow it within the first couple of months. You may also find that some web hosting companies will impose surcharges if you exceed your storage space. Allowing space for growth now may save some growing pains later.

Why Does My Company Need a Web Site?

2008-09-17T10:38:00.000-07:00

Businesses looking to establish a web presence do so for many reasons. The most obvious is to market their goods or services to a wider clientele. Other reasons include the desire to get product information to customers and to keep customers updated with the latest news and information.

Establishing a web site immediately gives a company a global presence, and allows potential customers to see what products are available at any time of the day or night. If the web site is equipped with a shopping cart then orders can be taken and payments processed without any need for human intervention. Large savings can be made by not needing a traditional customer service call center for order-taking, with the added benefit that orders may be taken at any time.

Another benefit for the company is that this global presence can often be achieved with little or no advertising expenditure. If the web site is designed in a way that will ensure a good ranking with search engines, then the site will not need to be marketed extensively.

Even if a company has no wish to get involved with ecommerce, a web site can still be a valuable resource. It is far more economical for a business to post details and images of its products on a web site than to have a full color catalog printed and distributed, especially if their product range changes frequently. A printed catalog may even be outdated before it reaches the customer, whereas a web site can be updated at will, ensuring that all clients have access to current information and pricing.

Where once it was common for products to come packaged with large user guides, nowadays more and more products come with just a slim “Quick Start Guide”. For the full User Guide, the customer must visit the company web site, where the guide is available, commonly as a PDF file. As with the product catalogs mentioned above, the savings made here may be significant.

These are only some of the more obvious reasons why a business nowadays needs to establish a web site. However, don’t take my word for it. You know your business better than I do, so take a minute to think how your company could potentially benefit from having its own web site. Then take another minute and think how your competitors could potentially benefit by your company not having a web site. Convinced? I thought so.

Why Do I Need a Web Site?

2008-09-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

There are many reasons for a person or group to want a presence on the Internet. Let’s take a look at some potential benefits that can come from various ways in which such people could use a web site.

There are two main reasons for an individual to have a web site. They may have a hobby or interest they are passionate about. Establishing a web site would enable that person to share their views with others that are also interested in that subject. Such web sites often include how-to articles on various aspects of the particular hobby, along with message boards for feedback. There may also be an option for visitors to upload image files for others to view. Eventually this may morph into a more commercial site, if the site were sufficiently publicized. This may also enable the site owner to earn some extra money from advertising by vendors in that particular field.

Secondly, a web site is an excellent way for widespread families to keep in touch. Speaking personally, my own family is spread over several thousand miles, and it was a shock to see a recent photograph of my nephew and niece looking very grown-up all of a sudden. A family web site would allow all family members the chance to upload images and pass on news without the need for expensive international phone calls. There are of course image-hosting sites, such as Snapfish, which allow the uploading of images, but they somehow lack the personal touch that you would have in a site of your own, and have no way in which news or chat could be passed around.

Small groups or clubs may benefit from establishing their own web site in many ways. Having an easily-updated calendar of events would benefit all clubs, as too would a current list of members contact information, securely stored of course. As with the family sites discussed above, news and images would be easy to disseminate too. This type of site would also be an excellent way of recruiting new members for the club. A links page would allow visitors to see similar clubs in different parts of the country, or even in other countries. There may be opportunities to supply advertising for local businesses, possibly in return for member discounts at those businesses.

In a similar way to the clubs mentioned above, a local charity would find many benefits in establishing a presence on the Internet. The chance to publicize their work, and the ways in which volunteers could help, would be an invaluable tool. It needn’t cost anything either, as you could probably find a local business willing to donate web space in return for an acknowledgement on the web site. They may even be willing to help design the site.

The costs for any of the above will range from zero to less than $10/month. None of the ideas I have mentioned will require expensive hosting plans, as the disk space and bandwidth needed should be fairly small. All that is required is the commitment to go and do it.

Switching to a new Web Hosting Company

2008-09-14T09:37:00.000-07:00

There may come a time when you feel that your web site is starting to outgrow the services that your current web hosting company can supply. Or maybe you have found the hosting company to be unreliable, with your site down-time rising to a level you find unacceptable. For whatever reason, you think it’s time to look for a new host for your web site.

The first thing that you will need to do is some homework on the new web hosting company. Make sure that they offer all of the resources and services you need, such as disk space, bandwidth or technical support. Also ensure that they will support any scripts you are currently using. If you are using a Windows-based server as a host, make sure that your new host offers this, similarly if you are currently using a Unix/Linux-based server. Try to get some feedback from other users by looking at message boards or forums – if you’re moving due to reliability issues then you really don’t want the same thing to happen after your move.

Make sure that you have all of the files that make up your current web site backed up. You should have been doing this anyway, just as a precaution, but make one last final check now. Once this is done you can go ahead and open an account with the new web hosting company. You will then be able to upload all of your files to the new server. After uploading the files you should be able to check that your web site is running as you expect, through an IP address provided by the new hosting company. At the same time you can set up any email accounts you need.

When you are satisfied that the new host is running correctly you will need to change the DNS information held by the registrar from which you obtained your domain name. It can take from 48 – 72 hours for this to propagate around the Internet, so don’t terminate your existing account just yet.

If you set up any email accounts on the new server you will need to configure your email software so that it can access those accounts. Don’t delete your old email accounts just yet – again the changes will take time to propagate.

After a couple of days you should be able to access the new site using its domain name. Check once more to make sure that everything appears as it should, that any scripts you are using are running correctly and that there are no broken links. You should also start seeing emails appearing through the new server, although some will still be coming via the old server.

Over the next few days you should see less and less email coming through your old server. Once this has stopped completely then you can go ahead and close your account with the old web hosting company.

Dedicated Servers – Managed or Unmanaged?

2008-09-12T08:20:00.000-07:00

There may come a time when you decide that your web site has out-grown any of the shared web hosting plans that are available. Maybe your traffic has grown to the point that your web site is starting to slow down. Or maybe you have a number of web sites, and feel that housing them on one server would be a simpler, more cost-effective solution than having several different web hosting plans. Whatever the reason, you are considering stepping up to a dedicated server.

Having a dedicated server means that all of the resources of a single server – the processor, disk space, bandwidth and so on – are available for your sole use. No other web site will be hosted on that server. You will be able to specify the operating system to be used and also what applications will be installed on the server. However, that freedom comes with a lot of extra responsibility. You will be responsible for the installation of all of the software on the server, and with any needed maintenance of that software, such as the regular security patches and upgrades, necessary to keep the software running at its optimum level. This requires a certain level of technical knowledge and experience, and is not something that should be undertaken by a novice. If you feel that you are up to the task, then all is well and good. However, for those people that are not comfortable with the extra work needed then there is still a solution – a managed dedicated server.

If you opt for a managed dedicated server plan, then you will still gain all of the benefits of a dedicated server – having sole use of the server’s resources, and your choice of software and applications. However, instead of bearing the responsibility of installation and maintenance of the software yourself, that instead is handled by your web hosting company.

A typical managed hosting plan will offer you a package that will include the installation of your choice of operating system and software applications, and the ongoing upkeep of that software. The plan should also offer all of the necessary data management needed to keep your web site running effectively, a regular and reliable back-up schedule, and monitoring of the server and web site. Such monitoring will not only allow the hosting company to ensure that everything is working at its optimum level, but will also allow the company to see if any upgrades in server capability or connectivity are needed.

A managed hosting plan should also offer excellent technical support. In many cases, web hosting companies assign managed accounts to individual technical support staff, rather than allowing any available staff to handle the support call. This not only allows the technical support person to become familiar with your web site and your needs, but gives you the comfort and confidence that comes from having someone familiar to contact if needed.

Other things that are common to most managed hosting plans are better than average uptime and service guarantees. Given the higher fees paid by subscribers to these plans, this is not a surprise – most companies will take more care with their better-paying customers, whatever the industry.

As is usual when looking for a web hosting service, do some research before signing any contracts. You will need to make sure that the company you select will be able to fulfill your needs, both in the hardware necessary to run your web site, and in the technical support help you will need to keep the server running at its best.

If you feel that your web site would benefit from the move to a dedicated server, but are unsure if you have the technical knowledge necessary to administer a server, or the time and resources needed to keep a server running at its best, then you may consider a managed hosting plan. Your web site will benefit from the upgrade without you having to make those commitments.

Five Things to Look For When Choosing a Web Host

2008-09-11T04:49:00.000-07:00

A simple Google search using the term “web hosting” will give several million hits. How can any user, especially one that is inexperienced, choose a web hosting company? These five things to look for should at least allow the user to narrow the field.

The most important item on the list is support. Top-notch technical support should be the first thing to look for, especially if the user is relatively inexperienced. Don’t look just for email support either; make sure that there is a telephone number for urgent issues. Make sure too that support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – technical problems could occur any time. Try to get a feel for how responsive the support is by sending them an email and seeing how quickly they respond. Make a phone call late at night – make sure that they really do have someone available at all hours.

The next thing to take a look at is their reputation – what other users feel about their web hosting experiences with that company. Some web hosting companies will give out a list of users that can be contacted for their opinions. This is good, but only to a point – when I was a salesman I knew which of my clients I could rely on to give a good report! Check out message boards and forums around the Internet and see what comments are being made about particular companies. Take these with a pinch of salt – don’t let one negative comment outweigh many good comments. Also find out, if possible, how long the company has been in existence. It’s not a sure-fire guarantee of longevity, but in general companies that have been in business for some time tend to be more stable.

Make sure that the web hosting company can supply all of the services you need, or those you are planning to add shortly. You may not need ASP or PHP support at first, for example, but if it is something you intend to add once the site is up and running then make sure that you will be able to do this. It can be a time-consuming business moving from one hosting service to another, and some forethought here will save time and money later.

Pricing is important too. If one particular web hosting company is offering a pricing plan way below the rest of the market, you may want to think twice about opening an account there. It’s not necessarily bad; the company may be new to the business, and the cheap prices just a way of increasing business. However, it could also be a sign of extensive overselling, which may cause web sites on that company’s servers to be slower than they should.

The last thing to consider is rather more subjective. How do you feel about the web hosting company? Take a look at their web site – does it look neat and professional? Disorganized? Talk to their staff, both sales and technical support – are they knowledgeable and helpful? Or maybe they try to brush you off with stock answers, or are less than polite. Remember that your future income will be dependant on this company being able to host your site. If you are not comfortable with that thought, then keep looking.

PowWeb Web Hosting Review

2008-09-07T22:27:00.000-07:00

Hosting Rating
Price Value.............. : 9.0 / 10
Features................. : 9.0 / 10
Performance............ : 9.0 / 10
Reliability..................: 8.5 / 10
Disk Space................ : 10 / 10
Bandwidth................. : 10 / 10
Easy-To-Use............. : 8.0 / 10
Control Panel.............: 7.0 / 10
Customer Support..... : 8.0 / 10

Professional Web Hosting for $ 3.88 / month ===> Visit PowWeb

PowWeb is a privately owned web hosting company established in 1999. PowWeb's whole infrastructure was built and developed in-house and all of their equipment is managed by their own personnel.

This company has a unique selling proposition; they only have one hosting plan, called One Plan. One of the top business hosting companies in the industry, PowWeb prides itself on offering a feature-rich product at an affordable price to aid in the development of your business. Further backing up this statement, PowWeb has just increased the disk space to a huge Unlimited disk space and Unlimited data transfer while reducing their price to $3.88/mo.

Their customer support and overall performance is second to none, as we have received no complaints about a lack of reliability or prolonged downtime.

Price Value
As far as we're concered, this plan is right up there with iPowerWeb. Their pricing structure is a little different than we've seen with other hosting providers. PowWeb only offers one plan, at $5.77/month. This is a limited time promotional rate. This package now includes 1500 GB of webspace and 15000 GB of bandwidth for all new and existing customers. Also included are features such as FrontPage Extensions, MySQL Database, in-depth web statistics, spam filters, and email virus scanning, making their hosting package a real value.

Reliability
PowWeb employs a load balanced hosting technology, making downtime practically impossible. This technology distributes the load of a single website across multiple servers. If one server goes down, there is no noticeable effect on end users and no downtime. This hosting company invests continually in the infrastructure of its datacenters, providing you with unquestionable reliability and support. They employ redundant networks, and hardware consisting of Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks equipment. Exclusively using Dell servers, known for their dependability, also boosts PowWeb's reputation as a reliable web host.

Control Panel
PowWeb Hosting has developed their own custom control panel software, which is called the Member Operations Center or "OPS". It offers lots of features and has a good "back-end community" with very popular customer support forums and webmaster resource areas. However, when faced with this custom developed control panel over the widely accepted CPanel or Plesk, you quickly realize that it is not the easiest panel to set up and use. There are components that do not come installed and the interface is not as clean and easy to use as the other control panels. Perhaps an update is in order...

Customer Support
PowWeb's technical support is now available 24/7 via toll free phone, email or live chat. This is what we look for in a top quality host. Similar to other hosting companies is PowWeb's 30-day money back guarantee if you are unsatisfied with their product. They also have a vBulletin message board that will allow you to ask presale questions and support questions, so other users may help you. Employing community forums and live chat capabilities heightens the effectiveness of PowWeb's customer service team, making it a better choice than most hosting companies. PowWeb has recently taken its customer suggestions and improved its customer support techniques. They have become more attentive to customer needs, and developed a customer support system that is one of the best in the industry.

Hosting Plans
Linux/UNIX Hosting Plan
PowWeb: Unlimeted disk space, Unlimited bandwidth @ $3.88/month* Limited time pricing

>>>>>>>>>> Visit PowWeb Hosting <<<<<<<<<<

Free web hosting or paid – which should I choose?

2008-09-05T10:23:00.000-07:00

When looking for a web hosting solution the first choice the user often has to make is whether to choose one of the varieties of free hosting available, or to pay a web hosting company. There are several factors that may weigh your decision one way or another – let’s look at some of them.

The biggest advantage of free web hosting is that it’s, well, free. There, choice made, now what? Not so fast – not only is that the biggest advantage, it is also just about the only advantage, and you may find that the disadvantages of free web hosting will make it a bad choice.

What are these disadvantages? Firstly, let’s look at the domain name, the name by which your web site is found. By choosing a free web host, your name may be, for example “www.geocities.com/yourname”. This would be fine for some users, for instance if all that was needed was a page for a small club, but for most companies seeking to establish a Web presence the ability to be able to use a domain name in the style of “yourname.com” is essential.

Free web hosting will also limit the amount of hard disk space you will be able to use. Again, not necessarily a problem for a small site, but for the user that needs more space, maybe for a large number of pages, or pages with high graphics content, the amount of space available may not be sufficient.

Also restricted will be the amount of bandwidth, or transfer, that your visitors will be able to use. It’s no use trying to run a business on the Web if all your customers see towards the end of the month is a page saying that “This site has exceeded its bandwidth allowance, please try again next month”. That is not something that would inspire your customers to have faith in your products.

You may find that some of the more sophisticated services, such as Perl, CGI or PHP that are being used more and more nowadays on the Internet are not available if you choose to use a free service. You may also find that shopping carts are not available, or that the service is not set up to allow the secure use of credit card transactions to make purchases.

Finally, advertising revenue. A free web hosting service is paid for by the advertisements and pop-ups which appear on the pages hosted by them. Not only will you have no control over which advertisements appear on your site, but also you will receive no revenue from them.

So, think carefully before you opt for a free service. For an individual or small group, the cost factor may outweigh the disadvantages above. A company will probably find that the choice of free hosting will put limits on their growth that are unacceptable.

An Introduction to Web Hosting

2008-09-04T10:56:00.000-07:00

In order for a web site to be available on the World Wide Web, it must be hosted on a server. There are several different ways to accomplish this. Most large companies will have their own servers and the network infrastructure needed for their site to be available on the Web. However, the equipment and technical resources needed to set up such a system are very expensive, beyond the reach of smaller companies, organizations and individual users.

Some Internet Service Providers (ISPs), such as AOL, offer free web pages for their subscribers. There are also free web hosting services, such as Geocities. However, using these services has several disadvantages. Such services will not allow you to have your own domain name, i.e. “www.yourname.com”. Instead, you will have to use the name allocated by that service. Additionally, any advertisements that appear on your site will be provided by the service, and any revenue generated from such advertisements will be kept by them, instead of coming to you. Finally there will also be restrictions on the amount of space you use and the number of visitors you can receive per month.

An alternative to this is to use a web hosting company. For a monthly fee, such a company will host your site for you on its own servers. This removes the need for you to buy and maintain expensive hardware, and also will counter the disadvantages of using a free hosting service.

A typical web hosting company will have several servers and one or more high-speed connections to the Internet, usually T1 connections that are linked directly to the T3 lines that form the “backbone” of the Internet, ensuring high data-transfer rates. In order to keep this equipment running, such companies will have multiple power supplies, including stand-alone generators, to ensure that power is available at all times. The servers will be housed in climate-controlled rooms and technical and support staff will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Web hosting companies typically offer a variety of service plans, at costs ranging from $5/month to $100/month or more, depending on the type and amount of services offered. All plans will offer some disk space to store your site and a monthly bandwidth, or transfer, allowance. Email will also be included, allowing you to set up email addresses in the form of “name@yourname.com”. Also included will be FTP access to the server housing your site, allowing you to upload updates at any time. Technical support will also be available, to help resolve any problems you may encounter. Other services offered may include the ability to set up shopping carts or the availability of SSL transactions to ensure data security.

A web hosting company will allow you to establish a site on the Web without any of the disadvantages of a free service, and at a far lower cost than would be involved in setting up your own server system. You will also be able to pick out your own unique domain name, making it easier for visitors to find your site. Since the web hosting company supplies all of the hardware and technical staff needed to host and operate the site, this allows the user to concentrate his time and resources on designing and maintaining the site.

Choosing a Web Hosting company

2008-09-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

Do a Google search using the term “web hosting company” and you’ll get close to 5 million results. How can you winnow down this multitude of choices to find a company that will serve your needs? There are many different factors that may influence your choice – here we look at some of the more important ones.

First of all, you will need to know exactly what your requirements are, not only now, but also what you may need in the future. This will allow you start cutting down the number of choices from the start, especially if you know that you will be using some of the more advanced features available that may not be offered by smaller companies.

The support provided by the hosting company is very important, especially for new or inexperienced users. Try to see how quickly a company responds to you by sending an email question to them – if you get an answer back within 24 hours then you can be fairly confident that your questions will be answered quickly. See if telephone support is available too, and test that. By the way, don’t expect telephone support to be free – some companies do charge for that, though if they do then you should expect that their email support is faster than the average.

Do some research around the Web. There are many forums, blogs and message groups that discuss web hosting. See what sort of reputation the company you are considering has amongst users. Remember though that people complain far more easily than they compliment – don’t let one user sour you on a company that otherwise has good reports.

The operating system that is used by the web host may matter to you. There are two choices, either Unix/ Linux based or Windows based. For some, either choice would be fine, as the end-result will be identical. However, if for instance your database used MS Access, then a Windows based server would be a better choice for you. Similarly a database created using MySQL would be better hosted on a Linux server. Since Linux is free, web hosts that offer this are normally cheaper than the Windows servers. By the way, don’t let the type of software used to develop your site influence your choice – sites built using Front Page will run happily on Linux servers. However, it may be easier to write and test scripts on a machine that runs the same type of software as the server that runs the scripts.

Check what the company claims as its uptime, usually expressed as a percentage. Beware – some companies will claim that their uptime is the time that the server is powered on, rather than the time that the server is actually connected to the Internet.

Take a close look at their web site. See how responsive it is – if the hosting company’s own web site seems slow and sluggish, that does not bode well for yours. Look at the design and lay-out – does it look professional, or is it full of misspellings, mistakes and dead links. If so, it may show a lack of professionalism that may carry through the entire company.

Netfirms Web Hosting Review

2008-08-29T01:51:00.000-07:00

Hosting Rating
Price Value........... : 8.0 / 10
Features.............. : 8.0 / 10
Performance......... : 8.0 / 10
Reliability...............: 8.0 / 10
Disk Space............ : 6.5 / 10
Bandwidth............. : 6.5 / 10
Easy-To-Use.......... : 7.5 / 10
Control Panel..........: 7.5 / 10
Customer Support.. : 7.5 / 10

Professional Web Hosting for $ 4.45 / month ===> Visit netfirms Hosting

Netfirms Hosting is one of the largest hosting companies in the world. This Canadian-based web hosting company has a very large customer foundation both Canada and the United States. Netfirms owns one of the largest Internet infrastructures in the United States and has grown significantly in the past few years to become one of the largest internet hosting companies.

Netfirms Inc. was founded in 1998 and has been a highly successful and profitable hosting company with over 1,000,000 websites hosted.

Price Value
Netfirms offers several competitive hosting plans, including the Plus Plan at a very competitive $4.95 per month. The Advantage Plan is also a great deal and contains many of the features necessary for a small- to mid-sized business, including not only 2 free domains but also free Google Adwords credits. If you are new to website development, the Netfirms Starter CD is a good tool to help you create your own templates, build photo galleries and upload your information to your website. All plans are available in one year terms only - despite no savings for puchasing multiple years, their prices still provide great value.

Reliability
Netfirms operates one of the largest Internet infrastructures around. Their centralized system checks system health and helps keep their infrastructure available when problems occur in the network. In fact, the reliability of their network is definitely above average compared to other web hosting companies.

Control Panel
With Netfirms you get access to a state-of-the-art custom Control Panel. The control panel is easy to navigate and is divided into categories: contact information, billing management, domain forwarding, e-mail accounts, site tools, and database. Although these features are necessary to have at your fingertips, this Control Panel is slightly below average compared to preferred standard hosting panels like CPanel and Plesk.

Customer Support
Netfirms provides customer service via online chat (not open 24 hours as they claim), e-mail, or through an extensive knowledge database on their support site. They also provide telephone support during normal business hours. Probably due to the fact that they have such a huge customer base, we have found that the response time of Netfirms could use a wee bit of improvement.

Hosting Plans
Linux/Unix Hosting Plans - UNITED STATES (all prices in $US)
Netfirms Plus: 10 GB disk space, 500 GB bandwidth @ $4.95/month
Netfirms Advantage: 250 GB disk space, 2000 GB bandwidth @ $9.95/month
Netfirms Big Business: 300 GB disk space, 3000 GB bandwidth @ $14.95/month

Linux/Unix Hosting Plans - CANADA (all prices in $Cdn)
Netfirms Plus: 10 GB disk space, 500 GB bandwidth @ $6.95/month
Netfirms Advantage: 250 GB disk space, 2000 GB bandwidth @ $12.95/month
Netfirms Big Business: 300 GB disk space, 3000 GB bandwidth @ $19.95/month

>>>>>>>>>> Visit Netfirms Web Hosting <<<<<<<<<<

Apollo Web Hosting Review

2008-08-25T21:34:00.001-07:00

Hosting Rating
Price Value........... : 6.5 / 10
Features.............. : 8.0 / 10
Performance......... : 8.0 / 10
Reliability...............: 8.0 / 10
Disk Space............ : 6.5 / 10
Bandwidth............. : 6.5 / 10
Easy-To-Use.......... : 7.0 / 10
Control Panel..........: 7.5 / 10
Customer Support.. : 6.5 / 10

Professional Web Hosting for $ 6.96 / month ===> Visit Apollo Hosting

Apollo Hosting has been in business since 1999. It is a privately owned company with over 30,000 customers worldwide.

One highlight of Apollo Hosting is that it offers an e-commerce package. This includes Miva Merchant software, Bronze Miva Support, free merchant account setup through Ecommerce Exchange, automated secure Certificate Installation and SSL secure server.

Apollo Hosting was one of the first companies to offer 24/7/365 live technical support chat and toll-free phone support, along with Total Solutions Hosting, which gives you all the tools you need to create a powerful presence on the Internet. Apollo Hosting has been shown to be a consistent performer.

Price Value
Apollo Hosting's plan is decent compared to its counterparts in the industry. Besides offering all of the basic features expected from a host, Apollo Hosting also offers several value-added features, including 4 websites per account, advanced SPAM virus filtering by Postini, SpamGuard, Get Traffic Toolbox, and free sticky web content. Mind you, most good web hosts now offer similar features.

Reliability
Apollo Hosting has high speed connections and reliable servers at discounted prices that are custom built and designed for a 24/7 web serving environment. Apollo Hosting also offers a 30-day money back no risk guarantee and free technical support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Apollo's strong reputation is built on its 99.9% uptime rate, highly maintained equipment and featured-packed plans.

Control Panel
Depending on the plan you choose, Apollo Hosting uses three different but similar control panels: the virtual control panel, HSP control panel, and Plesk Control panel. We have had good feedback in terms of the ease-of-use of these control panels, as well as the support offered for the many features that Apollo Hosting provides.

Customer Support
Apollo Hosting provides very good customer support for web hosting. Support is easy to access through several methods, including live chat. Unlike many web hosting companies today, Apollo Hosting actually provides toll free support, although the customer relations team's performance falls below other top notch web hosting companies and could use some additional training.

Hosting Plans
Unix/Linux Hosting Plans
Value Plan: 50 GB disk space, 500 GB bandwidth @ $6.96/month
Business Plan: 300 GB disk space, 2000 GB bandwidth @ $13.96/month
eCommercePro Plan: 400 GB disk space, 3000 GB bandwidth @ $20.96/month

> Feature Apollo Hosting

>>>>>>>>>> Visit Apollo Hosting <<<<<<<<<<

iPowerWeb Web Hosting Review

2008-08-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

Hosting Rating
Price Value........... : 9.5 / 10
Features.............. : 8.5 / 10
Performance......... : 8.5 / 10
Reliability..............: 9.0 / 10
Disk Space........... : 8.0 / 10
Bandwidth............ : 8.0 / 10
Easy-To-Use......... : 8.5 / 10
Control Panel.........: 8.0 / 10
Customer Support. : 8.0 / 10

Professional Web Hosting for $ 3.98 / month ===> Visit iPowerWeb
Promotion : Free Web Hosting for 6 Months, When you buy 6 Months.

iPower Web, with over 500,000 active members, has become one of the more dominant web hosting companies on the market today. iPowerWeb started in late 2001. Their all-in feature-rich offerings, combined with a huge ad campaign, propelled them to building an extremely large base of satisfied customers.

iPower Web's pricing is simple and offers users a great value for their dollar. They only have one Linux package, priced at $3.98 per month. This includes a complete web hosting package, with 1500 GB disk space and 15000 GB of bandwidth. A number of good features are provided, including MySQL, PHP and FrontPage support. For those looking for Windows hosting, iPowerWeb also provides an all-inclusive Windows package at an exceptional price of $9.95. Either way, you are getting great value in a secure environment.

Price Value
iPowerWeb has a clear pricing structure that offers users solid value. For just $6.95 a month, you receive the complete web hosting package described above, which includes everything one might expect from a premium web hosting account. Overall, $3.98 is an excellent price for the Linux package, and $9.95 for Windows hosting is also a great deal. Toll-free technical support also adds value.

Reliability
When compared to other web hosting companies, iPowerWeb hosting's servers perform well above the average. iPowerWeb possesses the best-of breed equipment and runs 4 state-of-the-art fully secure data centers with 24/7 monitoring, guards, closed circuit monitors and an alarm system.

Control Panel
iPower Web announced in June 2004 that it signed an exclusive contract with SWsoft, a developer of web hosting automation software, to provide Plesk 7 control panel to iPowerWeb's dedicated server customers. SWsoft introduced Plesk 7, the most recent version of its control panel application for managing Linux, Unix and Windows-based servers, in February 2005. SWsoft also offers Plesk Expand, an add-on to Plesk 7, which unifies web hosting environments with multiple servers running on varying platforms.

Customer Support
iPowerWeb had to play a little catch-up in the support department based on its fast growth, but this issues seems to be behind them; they now have a knowledgeable support team in place that can handle their huge base of customers. Support is offered by toll free telephone and live chat 24/7, along with e-mail - which has always been above average at iPower Web. They also offer an excellent "Start Center" with helpful tutorials.

Hosting Plans
Linux Hosting Plan
iPowerWeb Plan: 1500 GB disk space, 15000 GB bandwidth @ $6.95/month

Windows Hosting Plan
Windows Pro Plan: 100 GB disk space, 1000 GB bandwidth @ $8.95/month

> Feature iPowerWeb

>>>>>>>>>> Visit iPowerWeb <<<<<<<<<<

iPower Web Hosting Review

2008-08-12T05:52:00.000-07:00

Hosting Rating
Price Value................. : 8.5 / 10
Features..................... : 8.5 / 10
Performance............... : 8.5 / 10
Reliability....................: 8.0 / 10
Disk Space................... : 8.5 / 10
Bandwidth................... : 8.5 / 10
Easy-To-Use................ : 8.0 / 10
Control Panel...............: 8.5 / 10
Customer Support....... : 8.0 / 10

Professional Web Hosting start $ 3.98 / month ===> Visit iPower Web Hosting

Consider the name - little "i", big "Power": it says it all. Powerful web hosting for the little guy (and gal). iPower Web Hosting serves over 500,000 clients with its streamlined, low-frills packages designed to make web hosting fit the most frugal of budgets.

Except for the Starter Plan (which is a souped-up deal in its own right), all iPower hosting plans come with SSL, CGI, PHP, and MySQL, eCommerce enable, a rich marketing/content package, a website builder with templates, and credit towards advertising on the 2 top search engines ($30 towards Google, $50 towards Yahoo!).

iPower also offers Windows hosting plans, virtual private servers, dedicated servers, and merchant and web design service accounts.

Price Value
iPower Hosting is proof-positive that big things come in small packages. Even the smallest of all their plans gives you all you need to get a family site or a blog started (5 gigs, for example, is enough disk space for storing hundreds of digital photos). For some, that's all they'll ever want or need. For that reason, we have to say iPower's Starter Plan is probably one of the smartest starter packages around.

Sure, you have to pay $6.50 for your domain - but big deal! So-called "free" domains aren't really free anyway. Why pay for more features than you need (some you'll likely never use) just to save a few bucks on a domain?

And though their numbers may be smaller than their competitors' (such as the amount of disk space and bandwidth that comes free with their plans), so are iPower Hosting's prices - not to mention that the average website owner doesn't really need nearly as much disk space and bandwidth as 99% of web hosting plans include anyway.

Don't be misled by all the free stuff heaped onto various competitors' packages. Not everything that's free is worth having. And even small and mid-sized business owners will be pleased to get just what they need at an affordable price, without a bunch of unnecessary extras.

Reliability
iPower Hosting boasts 4 Tier 1 data centers that run exclusively on AT&T's Global Crossing and Cable & Wireless' OC48 / OC192 Global IP backbones. Extensive public/private peering arrangements help magnify bandwidth capacity, internet reach, and performance optimization. They also use Dell PowerEdge and HP ProLiant servers, and Cisco & Foundry Firewalls and Routers.

On-site security guards patrol the grounds 24/7 and utilize closed circuit television cameras inside and outside the building for total data and hardware protection. Access both to and from both the hosting and monitoring areas are secured by a "mantrap", or hardened, single-entry portals, preventing unauthorized personnel from ever making it into the building.

Intrusion detection and filtering, and network monitoring and routing are ensured by the use of Network Operations Centers (NOC) with content mirrored in other NOCs for total failsafe system redundancy and diversity. Like the buildings' grounds, these NOCs are also staffed 24/7, in this case by expert analysts and technicians.

Redundant dual AC and DC power feeds equipped with multiple backup systems, including generators should the power at iPower Hosting go out and an array of redundant, emergency environmental controls and protections make sure you're covered in case of unexpected crises.

Control Panel
Former iPower Hosting clients and reviewers may recall that iPower used to use cPanel 5, but now they utilize their own vDeck control panel, which has received such acclaim for its versatility and ease of use that competing web hosts now rely on it as well. In fact, vDeck is often referred to as "revolutionary" and "the best of both worlds" by former cPanel and Plesk users.

The best part of vDeck is that, since it's of iPower's own creation, they can tweak it, improve it, and fix bugs faster than any other web host that's using it could, as well as faster and better than they themselves could any other third party control panel. vDeck works best with Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher.

Customer Support
iPower has a great series of topic-specific tutorials searchable FAQs for quickly finding your own answers to your questions, but if you require additional help, they're certainly there for you, with email query ticket support and a rapid response time.

Hosting Plans
Linux/Unix Hosting Plans
Starter Plan: 5 GB disk space, 250 GB bandwidth @ $3.95/month

Pro Plan: 1500 GB disk space, 15000 GB bandwidth @ $3.98/month (up to 25 domains)

Pro Plus Plan: 2000 GB disk space, unlimited bandwidth @ $12.95/month (up to 50 domains)

Windows Hosting Plans
Windows Pro: 100 GB disk space, 1000 GB bandwidth @ $6.95/month

Windows Pro Plus: 200 GB disk space, 2000 GB bandwidth @ $14.95/month

> Fetures iPower

>>>>>>>>>> Visit iPower Web Hosting <<<<<<<<<<

LunarPages Web Hosting Review

2008-08-09T07:20:00.000-07:00

Hosting Rating
Price Value................ : 9.0 / 10
Features................... : 8.5 / 10
Performance.............. : 8.5 / 10
Reliability...................: 9.5 / 10
Disk Space................ : 9.0 / 10
Bandwidth................. : 9.0 / 10
Easy-To-Use.............. : 8.5 / 10
Control Panel..............: 8.0 / 10
Customer Support...... : 9.0 / 10

Professional Web Hosting for $ 3.47 / Month ===> Visit LunarPages

Lunarpages was founded in the summer of 2000 when Add2Net Corporation expanded its hosting offerings to include shared hosting. For the previous 3 years, Add2Net had been providing large scale managed and unmanaged hosting services.

Lunar Pages has grown into one of the premier web hosting firms, primarily because of their exceptional service. Even with their growth, they have maintained excellent support levels when compared to the rest of the web hosting industry. Lunarpages has earned a reputation as a provider with superior customer support and a top notch web hosting data center.

Unlike most web hosting companies, you can always get through the phone line with Lunar Pages. Also, the basic package offering of $3.47/month (or only $9.95/month for Windows hosting) is excellent for individuals and most small- to medium-sized companies looking for a very reliable website presence on the Internet.

Price Value
Lunarpages offers good pricing on their web hosting plans. The Basic Plan, at $3.47 per month, offers 1500 GB of space and 15000 GB of traffic. This basically will cover 90% of all websites on the market and is an excellent deal. All of the "bells and whistles" are included, with the exception of some of the e-commerce functions. The same holds true for those that require Windows hosting, which is offered for only $8.95/month. In addition, Lunarpages gives you a free domain for life on all plans as long as you host with their company.

If you have a high-traffic website, you may want to switch to their Business package, which for $21.95 gives you unlimited storage space and 15,000 Gigs Data Transfer.

We understand that there are some hosts offering large bandwidth, but keep in mind that these hosts may have other restrictions, such as file size limit, daily bandwidth limit, or even binary files bandwidth limit (pictures, MP3s, Flash, etc.). Lunar Pages does not have such restrictions with your disk space and bandwidth usage.

Reliability
Lunarpages has devoted a good portion of their resources into ensuring that they provide the best reliability possible in the current hosting market. This company provides the best equipment available to its customers, including Dell, Sun and Cisco Network Devices. Their datacenter is located in Los Angeles, California, and supplies the highest level of security, safety, redundancy, reliability, scalability and technology. They employ a BGP4 routed gigabit fiber network that is multi-homed with over 150 carriers, such as, Mzima Networks, Level3, NTT/Verio, Global Crossing, Genuity, SBC, Microsoft/MSN, AOL/TimeWarner, Japan Telecom, Hurricane Electric and Savvis. They also utilize a proprietary system called the Active Response Protocol. This program not only monitors the system for attacks and outages, but continuously benchmarks the system for web, ftp, and email performance - year round - with their expert staff taking care of any problems before they happen.

Control Panel
Lunarpages uses CPanel as the web site control panel. It allows you to control a lot of functions, including e-mail accounts, MySQL databases, custom error messages, password- protected directories, setting up forums, shopping carts, chat rooms, cron jobs, sub domains, MIME types, apache handlers, search engine submission, free CGI scripts and many more. You can even upload and manage your files with its powerful file manager.

Customer Support
Customer support at Lunarpages is superior and they are very responsive to your questions. Even e-mail support questions always get answered in a timely manner. This is very different from most other web hosting companies out there. Accounts are set up promptly after they verify the order with you via a direct telephone call. Lunar Pages has excellent telephone and e-mail support. LunarForums is a very popular forum board that willl help you through the whole process, with feedback from direct users.

Hosting Plans
Linux Hosting Plans
Basic Plan : 1500 GB disk space, 15,000 GB bandwidth @ $3.47/month

Business Plan : unlimited disk space, 15,000 GB bandwidth @ $21.95/month
Dedicated Plan : 80 GB disk space, 1000 GB bandwidth @ $99.00/month

Windows Hosting Plan
Windows Plan : 5000 MB disk space, 400 GB bandwidth @ $9.95/month (host up to 2 domains)
Special : Order Windows Hosting Now and receive the First 3 Months FREE !

>>>>>>>>>> Visit LunarPages Hosting <<<<<<<<<<

AN Hosting Review

2008-08-05T10:11:00.001-07:00

Hosting Rating
Price Value................ : 8.5 / 10
Features................... : 8.5 / 10
Performance.............. : 8.0 / 10
Reliability...................: 8.0 / 10
Disk Space................ : 8.0 / 10
Bandwidth................. : 8.0 / 10
Easy-To-Use.............. : 9.0 / 10
Control Panel..............: 8.0 / 10
Customer Support...... : 9.5 / 10

Professional Web Hosting for 23 cent / day ===> Visit AN Hosting

AN Hosting has taken every measure possible to live up to its magnanimous mission to be the "Host-20-sites-on-1-account-and-never-go-down company," and if the awards AN web hosting amassed over the years are any testament, it is doing a stellar job.

ANhosting is our # 10 pick for a number of reasons. They have been in the industry since 2001 and host over 150,000 domain names. Their hosting package is designed to fit everyone and has decent allocations of disk space, bandwidth and even domains hosted... AN Hosting's "One Size Fits All" package supports up to 40 domain names! AN Hosting offers 24/7 phone, e-mail and live chat support -- with a live chat button on every page of their site. They use high performance multi-processor servers with RAID arrays to keep your data safe.

With AN Hosting, Your website(s) will be housed in a multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art Equinix IBX data center in Chicago, IL, designed to withstand the most extreme weather conditions, electrical outages, hacker attempts, and other safety, privacy, and security threats. Over 25,000 individuals and companies trust AN Hosting to serve their websites.

All AN web hosting packages include free setup, free live 24/7/365 support, free domain names for life, a number of free software tools such as a Site Builder and web analytics tools. AN Hosting also gives users unlimited email addresses. Besides UNIX and Windows hosting, AN Hosting offers a Virtual Private Network (VPN) server package.

Price Value
AN Hosting offers a unique pricing plan which allows you to select your own monthly rate. You can commit to packages and prices range 23 cents/days. Unlike many other hosting companies, regardless of what term you select, AN Hosting never charges setup fees.

AN Hosting eschews the industry-standard 20-odd packages for its all-in-one, "everything-you-need" package. And the breadth of features - web design tools, email tools, online statistics tools, e-commerce tools, and more - that come free with this web hosting package makes AN web hosting - already a bargain at 23 cents/day for 500 GB disk space and 5000 GB data transfer - an even better value.

AN Hosting stands behind its 99.9% uptime guarantee and its 99.9% network uptime guarantee. There is a glitch, however, with its 30-day money back guarantee, namely that it's not 100%. If you cancel, you forfeit the $21.95 domain name registration fee AN Hosting incurred when getting you your "free" domain name, though you will walk away owning your domain name.

Reliability
AN Hosting is able to provide a very stable and reliable environment due to its use of top-of-the-line hardware. Most of AN Hosting's shared servers are Dual Dual-Core Xeon servers with a minimum of 8 GB of RAM. Servers run RAID-5 using SATA drives to provide for additional data redundancy and stability. AN Hosting keeps weekly full backups and daily incremental backups of every shared account they host, and can restore backups in under three hours compared to Cpanel's backup restoration procedure that usually takes 12-24 hours for a complete server by using their own backup technology. The last cool thing about AN Hosting is their network. AN Hosting has an extremely diverse network comprised of Level 3, AboveNet, BandCon, SC Net and numerous other providers.

AN Hosting has a high customer retention rate, undoubtedly thanks to its top-of-the-line equipment and an experienced team of administrators making sure those servers are always up. AN web hosting's network operations center touts 2 OC-3s with double redundancy. AN Hosting has little difficulty holding fast to the aforementioned 99.9% uptime and network uptime guarantees.

Control Panel
AN Hosting uses a customized version of Cpanel as its control panel. Cpanel is cool because almost every other hosting company uses it, and if you are considering moving hosts it makes transfering your site to AN Hosting easy. Transfer Customers vs. New Customers - ANHosting offers free domain registration or transfer for all customers. For transfer clients (clients moving from another hosting company) AN Hosting will do the transfer for them manually making sure everything is moved properly.

AN Hosting uses the Cpanel control panel, popular because of its clean, intuitive, icon-based interfaces and eminent usability. Cpanel incorporates a wide array of powerful and convenient features - including integral Backup and Restore functionality - with readily available help info beside each tool to make learning to use them simple and painless. A collection of billing features help make account management easier too.

Customer Support
AN Hosting really shines in this area. Average ticket response time is under 20 minutes. Phone hold times are usually under 10 minutes when it is busy, and non-existant during off-hours. They answered their phone at all hours of the night when we tested them. AN Hosting offers 365/24/7 toll-free telephone, e-mail and live chat support -- with a live chat button on every page of their site.

Whether with pre-sales questions, for email and FTP assistance, technical issues, service status updates, or any other web hosting question on your mind. This far surpasses the standard email query ticket system many web hosting companies rely on. That said, some users may be pleased to find that AN Hosting also offers support via email and postal mail.

AN Hosting support team members have replied with outstanding courtesy, promptness, and relevant information to the few customer complaints we have heard.

Hosting Plans

Linux/UNIX Hosting Plan

The Mega Plan : 500 GB disk space, 5000 GB bandwidth @ 23 cents/day up to 20 domains)

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WebhostingPad Review

2008-08-05T09:45:00.001-07:00

Hosting Rating
Price Value................ : 9.0 / 10
Features................... : 8.5 / 10
Performance.............. : 8.5 / 10
Reliability...................: 8.5 / 10
Disk Space................ : 10.0 / 10
Bandwidth................. : 10.0 / 10
Easy-To-Use.............. : 8.0 / 10
Control Panel..............: 8.0 / 10
Customer Support...... : 8.5 / 10

Professional Web Hosting for $ 3.96 / month ===> Visit WebhostingPad

SPECIAL OFFER!Limited time special pricing! Sign up for 2 years and get your website hosted for $3.96/month

Unless you're a major corporation (and probably even then), WebHostingPad will give you more monthly disk space and bandwidth than you could possibly need. It also gives you a class-A control panel—cPanel—equipped with a feature set of tools and programming scripts, as comprehensive as it is easy to use. All this for a pittance of a monthly fee and all backed by a 99.9% uptime guarantee. It's hard to find anything to criticize here.

Price Value
You won't be hurting for storage space or bandwidth at WebHostingPad, with unlimited amounts available for each (see T&C for limitations). And your wallet won't be hurting either, not with a monthly rate of less than $4. Not to mention the unlimited email accounts and database you get, plus hosting for unlimited domains under one account. Web Hosting Pad web hosting is even eCommerce enabled, making setting up and running your own eStore a breeze. And you get a free site builder included with service. Put all this together and the clear conclusion is that Web Hosting Pad is nothing if not a bargain.

Reliability
Backing a 99.9% uptime guarantee is a data center fully equipped with the latest in cutting edge technology, like customized Apache web servers, Dual Xeon Intel Raid Protected servers, and Quad Intel Xeon hosting servers, storage backups, four OC-12 connections, redundant UPS power supplies, and 24/7 monitoring by trained personnel and cutting-edge security hardware.

Control Panel
The cPanel control panel that WebHostingPad customers use for all their web administration and management needs is the control panel all others use. With its neatly organized menu display, logically categorized with easily identifiable, icon-based buttons, plus a sidebar displaying all your website's vital stats in real-time, the cPanel control panel is any webmaster best friend. To boot, cPanel comes preloaded with Fantastico and Joomia programming scripts, giving you the tools to give your web presence the ultimate in interactivity.

Customer Support
The customer support at WebHostingPad is bar none, with a free 30-minute consultation with an expert webmaster to help all new customers get their site up and running, properly and smoothly. They'll even help you with your first search engine listings and give you an honest evaluation of your site. From there, Web Hosting Pad offers a thorough, categorized, and searchable Knowledgebase for self-guided tech support, and unlimited toll-free telephone and email support, included with the (low, low) price of you web hosting service.

Hosting Plans
Linux/Unix Hosting Plan:
Hassle-Free Web Hosting: Unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth @ $3.96/month (host unlimited domains)

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HostGator Web Hosting Review

2008-08-01T08:01:00.000-07:00

Hosting Rating
Price Value................ : 7.5 / 10
Features................... : 9.0 / 10
Performance.............. : 9.0 / 10
Reliability...................: 9.0 / 10
Disk Space................ : 8.0 / 10
Bandwidth................. : 8.0 / 10
Easy-To-Use.............. : 9.0 / 10
Control Panel..............: 8.0 / 10
Customer Support...... : 8.5 / 10

Professional Web Hosting for $ 4.95 / month ===> Visit HostGator

HostGator was founded in 2002, and grew to become a leader in the market of reseller hosting. Based out of Boca Raton, Florida, they also offer shared and dedicated server hosting. One of their unique qualities is that they provide access to the industry leading SiteStudio website designer, which is an extremely easy program to use to help even the greenest beginner with their website development. Also priding themselves on customer care and approval, HostGator has received many positive customer reviews.

Price Value
Although HostGator specializes in reseller hosting, they also offer reasonably priced shared and dedicated server hosting plans. Their reseller plans are offered for prices ranging from $24.95 to $99.95 per month, and their Dedicated Server plans range from $174.00 to $374.00 per month. Accompanied with their recently upgraded Hatchling plan for shared hosting at 350GB space, 3000 GB transfer rate @ $4.95/month, and you have one company that wants to remain competitive in the web-hosting market. Also included in these packages are features such free set-up, unlimited MySQL databases, SpamAssasin software that will help reduce the amount of junk email received, and a 99.9% uptime, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Reliability
HostGator has chosen The Planet, located in Dallas, Texas, to house their data center. The Planet boasts over 35,000 square feet of raised floor space, and features state-of-the-art security, safety, and cooling systems. This facility is accompanied with Multiple TXU electrical grids, 4800 volts of input power, DataTrax monitoring software for the whole data center infrastructure, and a fully meshed and redundant Certified Cisco Network featuring 10 backbone providers. When you consider all of these features, HostGator's customers have peace of mind regarding the security and reliability of their servers.

Control Panel
HostGator employs the industry standard control panel, CPanel. This control panel is one of the best in the industry, and has over 39 scripts that can be installed. It is also relatively easy to use, as it provides more than one million end users the ability to install dozens of leading open source accompanied with flash movies for instant tutorials. Your package will also include Fantastico, the leading auto-installer for CPanel servers. Fantastico is equipped with more than 10,000 installations, and content management systems that a user can integrate into their web space swiftly.

Customer Support
HostGator is becoming one of the leading companies that offer quick responses and a personal touch to their support system. They present 24/7/365 phone support, online chat, fax, peer support forums, and a wide variety of CPanel flash movies. Most customers agree that HostGator is very responsive and helpful, fixing problems easily.

Hosting Plans
Linux/Unix Hosting Plans
Linux/Unix Hosting PlansHatchling : 350 GB disk space, 3000 GB bandwidth @ $4.95/month
Baby : 600 GB disk space, 6000 GB bandwidth @ $7.95/month
Swamp : 1000 GB disk space, unlimited bandwidth @ $12.95/month
Semi-Dedicated : 25 GB disk space, 500 GB bandwidth @ $74.95/month

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IX Web Hosting Review

2008-07-31T11:21:00.001-07:00

Hosting Rating
Price Value............... : 9.0 / 10
Features.................. : 9.0 / 10
Performance............. : 9.0 / 10
Reliability...................: 9.0 / 10
Disk Space................. : 10 / 10
Bandwidth.................. : 10 / 10
Easy-To-Use.............. : 9.0 / 10
Control Panel..............: 8.0 / 10
Customer Support...... : 8.5 / 10

Professional Web Hosting for $ 4.95 / month ===> Visit IX Web Hosting

IX Web Hosting is an award-winning discount web hosting company that has developed into an industry leader in providing individuals and small to medium size business with all the tools required to easily establish their desired online presence. They estimate 5,000 new clients switch to IX Web Hosting every month. Users of both Linux and Windows can find hosting packages that suit their needs.

All IX Hosting plans include website statistics and raw log files, free search engine submission services, professional web design software, an online file manager and WebShell, WorldWide WebMail access, and eCommerce Shopping Carts.

Price Value
IX Web Hosting delivers unlimited disk space and bandwidth (check their Terms & Conditions for exceptions to this) and a slew of add-on features, including many e-mail accounts and domains to host, all at one of the best prices on the web. They also feature a 24/7 customer support center with toll-free telephone and live web chat support standing by. Price value? Excellent.

All IX Hosting plans support CGI-BIN, Perl 5, CGI-scripts, PHP 4 scripting, Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia DreamWeaver, Flash, and ShockWave, Real Media, MP3s, Quicktime, streaming audio, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Webalizer and ModLogan statistics, WAP (Wireless Application Protocol). ColdFusion, Microsoft SQL servers and Active Server Pages supported by only Windows packages.

Reliability
IX Web Hosting vows that uptime is their top priority. Their datacenter has been custom designed to run on fault-tolerant systems, to ensure lightning-speed load times using smart-routing, and provide redundancy in every possible capacity, featuring SONET reliability and CISCO 12000 series router to run 750 servers for 80,000 clients.

For extra protection, IX Hosting runs a sequence of money-back guarantees, beginning with an initial 30 day 100% money-back guarantee. In recognition, however, that it sometimes takes several months to determine whether a service is right for you, IX promises that if you are ever unsatisfied with their service, you can receive a full refund of the current month's fees as well as all prorated monthly fees left on your subscription.

There's a customer support guarantee (see that section below) and a Price Freeze guarantee that once you join, your fees will never go up again.

Control Panel
IX Hosting's proprietary H-Sphere control panel is unbelievably easy to use, primarily because the interface is all icon-based. Learn to associate the little pictures with the task clicking it performs and you'll be playing this thing like Mozart on the piano before you know it.

Among its greatest features are multiple domain management, real-time email management (autoresponders included), and a password protected directory manager. What you can't do on this control panel, you probably don't need to do.

Customer Support
Among all IX Hosting's other guarantees is a 1 Hour Response guarantee, promising that a technical support representative will contact you within 1 hour of you sending in an email support ticket. If they fail to respond within that time, they'll calculate a partial refund of that month's fees based on how long they made you wait. But why submit a query ticket when IX Web Hosting has 24/7 toll-free telephone and live web chat support?

Hosting Plans
Linux/UNIX & Windows Hosting Plans IX Expert Plan: Unlimited disk space, unlimited bandwidth @ $4.95 per month (host up to 2 domains)

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