Web Hosting Sites Reviews

Yahoo Web Hosting - Save 25%

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 09:07:27 -0500

If you are thinking about using Yahoo! Web Hosting for your business web site, you can now receive 25% off the cost for the first three months. There is no setup fee plus, Yahoo offers a 30 day satisfaction guarantee.

To find out more about this web hosting provider, check out our review of Yahoo! Web Hosting.

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Host Papa Discount Offer - December 2010

Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:26:21 -0500

We have recieved the last Host Papa discount offer for 2010. It gives new customers $10.00 off of any hosting plan during the month of December. All you need to do is enter the code below when you sign up at Host Papa.

Code: DEAL

This promotion runs from December 1st, 2010 and ends in the new year on January 4th 2011. Please visit HostPapa to redeem the code. The current price of a hosting package at HostPapa is $5.95 CD per month for Canada and $5.95 US per month for the United States.

To find out more about this popular web hosting provider, please read out Host Papa review.

Tag: host papa promotion canadian ...

GeoTrust Slashes SSL Prices

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 08:17:26 -0500

GeoTrust is taking Go Daddy head on with its new campaign: "Who's Your Daddy Now?"

GeoTrust is a division of the IT security firm Symantec that specializes in digital certification. In response to the heat of the competition growing for low-cost Secure Sockets Layer certificates, GeoTrust have launched a campaign that slashes its SSL prices in half.

The campaign also specifically targets Go Daddy customers, who can now trade in their SSL certificates for GeoTrust SSL certificates for no charge. GeoTrust will match its SSL certificates in a fair currency exchange.

“We’re alerting Go Daddy customers that they now can take advantage of the reliable protection of globally trusted GeoTrust SSL certificates, with a trade-in process that’s exceptionally easy and unbeatably cost-effective,” GeoTrust senior product marketing manager Jeff Barto said in a statement. “With our new low prices, GeoTrust is making a great thing even better.”
Other customers can take advantage of other deals: QuickSSL Premium domain validated protection for $149 per certificate.

Web Host Industry Review notes some important points of comparison between GeoTrust and Go Daddy: "GeoTrust secured 20.6 percent of unique domains among the 1 million most visited sites. Go Daddy was third, with a 15.6 percent share."

Nevertheless, Go Daddy is still experiencing significant growth in its SSL certificate sales: they've led in overall growth for 22 of the past 24 months, according to Netcraft reports. Although GeoTrust may be pulling in more unique domains right now, Go Daddy could potentially surpass them -- and soon.

To read more, visit Web hosting Industry Review. To check out reviews of Go Daddy web hosting services, visit our review page.

Tag: go daddy geotrust ssl campaigns ...

Apple Discontinuing Xserve Server

Tue, 16 Nov 2010 08:47:58 -0500

Apple has decided to discontinue its Xserve Server, its line of 1U rackmount servers, in January. In its place, the Mac Pro tower and Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server will provide services for customers familiar and loyal to the Apple-based infrastructure for web services. The line will be permanently discontinued after January 31st, 2011.

Apple has released a "Xserve Transition Guide" that details information on how to upgrade and transition to the Mac Pro and Mac mini.

“Mac Pro systems deliver performance and expandability equal to or surpassing Xserve, and offer an excellent server solution for customers looking for the highest levels of performance, storage, and expandability,” wrote the company, noting that a Mac Pro tower, preloaded with Mac OS X Server, “can be deployed in an office environment on or under a desk, or in a data center environment on a shelf in a rack with two units per 12U.”

Apple is confident about the moves to the Mac Pro and Mac mini. Both systems outdo the Xserve Server as well as provide a series of other features and services. The current Mac Pro features 12-core Intel Xeon "Westmere" processing and a 512G drive -- a system that surpasses performance in comparison to Xserve.

The Mac mini has its own advantages as well: Snow Leopard has the capabilities to serve a small business or workgroup of up to 50 people. "A single Mac mini," the company said, "can run the full suite of Mac OS X Server services, and, depending on the workload and number of users, could replace a single Xserve server."

Go Daddy is offering its own solution to the Xserve gap: it officially introduced its virtual Mac hosting solution, "Cloud Serve powered by Mac OS X." Users familiar with Xserve will find common features in the Go Daddy package that was created specifically for Xserve server and Parallels technology software and provides customers with website hosting, email, collaboration, an iChat server, and calendaring.

For more information, see the Xserve Transition Guide that Apple has released, or visit Web Host Industry Review's write up of Go Daddy's Cloud-based Mac OS X Web Hosting service.

Tag: apple go daddy xserve ...

Phone Company Windstream Purchases Hosted Solutions

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 09:44:00 -0500

On Thursday, Windstream announced that it is set to purchase the NC-based web hosting service, Hosted Solutions LLC, for $310 million. Although the transaction is still subject to regulatory approval, both companies are prepared to close the deal in the fourth quarter.

Windstream noted that they would like to use the acquisition to broaden its range of offerings, both in business services and broadband segments. It will finance the purchase with its current cash reserves as well as revolving credit. A representative also noted that they're expecting a tax benefit of approximately $52 million.

Hosted Solutions specializes its service to cater to small and medium-size businesses. They currently have 125 employees and over 600 customers.

Windstream is a landline phone company that operates in eastern regions of the US, mainly in rural areas. They currently have 3.3 million access lines and 1.27 million Internet customers.

The drive to further develop its Internet services and capabilities influenced the the Hosted Solutions acquisition, which will give Windstream more data centers. Windstream will be able to devote a greater emphasis to these areas by taking advantage of Hosted Solutions' experienced management team, particularly in its Internet business enterprise and cloud computing segment.

"Data center space is increasingly in demand among our existing business customers," Windstream president and CEO Jeff Gardner said. "Hosted Solutions is an excellent complement to our existing enterprise service portfolio. For the past decade, they have been delivering highly complex managed hosting solutions to customers of various sizes. In addition, they have a proven track record of growing revenue and generating significant free cash flow."

The new data centers will also mean that Windstream will be able to provide more customers with faster internet speeds.

For more information, check out the LA Time's write up of the acquisition.

Tag: acquisitions windstream hosted solutions data centers ...

Choosing the Right Web Host

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 08:36:31 -0500

The HN.com recently wrote an interesting post entitled "Things You Can Do Without in Hosting." In it, the author makes an interesting point: web hosting services often try to load their packages with features in an effort to draw in business -- but it is rare when a customer actually utilizes those features.

The author makes a comparison to a packing list for a camping trip: "He packed away changes of clothing, sunscreen, a TV, food, cooking supplies, free weights, sleeping bags, compressed air, bug spray, and several kitchen sinks" he wrote. "If this packing list sounds somewhat odd to you, you are not alone. Oddly enough this story does draw a parallel with web hosting."

How, then, does one analyze the lists of features offered by web hosting services? Think about the content you're hosting and what will primarily make that content functional, simple, and easy to use.

If you're hosting a blog, for instance, you'll need blogging software, and ideally a host that offers multiple blogs. "You may find that you like something a bit off the beaten path such as PixelPost as opposed to using WordPress," he noted. "Other essentials include a control panel (for administrating your site), multimedia support (you may not need it now, but being able to add video, podcasts, streaming audio, etc to your blog could be something that you will need in the future), and you will want a company that offers quality support. All other features are pretty much filler."

Your familiarity with web development will also be a factor; some web hosting services are more flexible than others. WordPress, for instance, can easily be transformed into a fully-functioning web-site because of the tools they offer. Their content management software (CMS), however, is not always beginner friendly.

To read more about how to approach one's hosting-list-of-needs, see the original article at TheHN.com. Once you have identified your hosting needs, check out our complete list of web hosting providers.

Tag: web hosting services features beginners blogging ...

Google Launching Apache Acceleration Tool

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 08:52:20 -0500

On Thursday, Google announced that it will be launching an acceleration tool for the Apache Web server that will feature capabilities to deploy multiple optimizations to acceleration Web page load times.

Richard Rabbat, the head of Google's "Make the Web Faster" initiative, noted that the module, named "mod_pagespeed", will allow developers to control the settings to speed up (or, one would suppose, slow down), the loading of their Web pages. By using over 15 of Google's available optimizations, the module will allow developers to speed up optimizations up to 50 percent.

"But we thought we could make it even easier -- ideally these optimizations should happen with minimal developer and webmaster effort," said Rabbat. "So today, we're introducing a module for the Apache HTTP Server called mod_pagespeed to perform many speed optimizations automatically."

Google has shown its dedication to faster web speeds. Its recent release of Google Instant was also a part of this initiative. Rabbat reflected this commitment in his comment that the company hopes "to work with the hosting, developer and webmaster community to improve mod_pagespeed and make the Web faster."

Google is attempting to give the mod_pagespeed a thick ubiquity among users: it has plans to pair up with Go Daddy and Contendo, as well as create an open source version for Linus users.

Its partnership with Go Daddy will allow customers with hosting accounts access to the mod_pagespeed optimization. Furthermore, it will also be integrating mod_pagespeed into Contendo's content delivery network service.

To download the mod-pagespeed module, visit the Google page here. You might also want to check out the video Google posted that demonstrates the mod_pagespeed module capabilities here, or the announcement page on Google's Webmaster Central blog.

Tag: google apache acceleration go daddy contendo linux ...

Build Your Own Social Networking Site

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 11:05:09 -0500

Think you could create a rival to Facebook? Just want to have a place where people interested in your particular niche can come together, discuss, collaborate, and network? SocialGo.com is a new service that gives you easy tools to create your own social network site without requiring any coding knowledge or a web host – Social Go provides everything you need on the spot.

Some of the features Social Go's packages include are the ability to create personal profiles, creating an in-box and messaging, sub-groups within your network, event pages, text and video chatting, forums, blogging, photo and video sharing, your own URL, and an integration service that pulls together all your information from other social networking sites. Users can also put up ads on their networks to generate their own source of income!

The maker of Social Go emphasizes, 'Whether you're a beginner or seasoned developer, build a Social Network for your group on SocialGO. No software, hosting or coding required. Just pick your features, monetization options, support package and GO'.

For more information, or to sign up for a 30 day free trial, visit SocialGo.com.

Tag: social networking social go facebook ...

Colocation America Announces IPv6 Addresses

Sun, 07 Nov 2010 08:22:29 -0500

You may remember a recent article here that covered the Obama administration’s call to Internet and telecom companies to start switching to IPv6 addresses immediately. Our current system runs on IPv4 addresses – which are expected to run out completely before the end of this year, which could have catastrophic effects on the internet community and internet commerce if left unattended.

Web Hosting News explains the difference between the two systems: “IPv6 was developed to meet the demands of the Internet’s rapid expansion, with its predecessor being IPv4. The most notable change between IPv4 and IPv6 is the actual address,” they said. “An IPv4 address was composed of 32 bits [4 bytes], which was portioned between network and host. The new IPv6 address is now 128 bits long [16 bytes], with the host portion being derived from a MAC address.”

Colocation America has stepped up to the challenge of providing new IPv6 addresses before the new year with its recent announcement of their initiative to provide IPv6 addresses.

“By embracing IPv6 technology, we are doing a great service not only for ourselves but also for our fantastic customers,” said Micheal Trunkett, President of Colocation America. “Our clients will be able to experience this new protocol which brings a higher performance rate and less latency. With many years of experience in operating and developing new technology, we are fully IPv6 ready.”

When Politico.com covered the story, they noted that the IPv6 addresses will have a greater capacity than that of the IPv4: “While the current IPv4 technology can support 4.3 billion devices connected to the Internet, IPv6 can support an unlimited number of devices — 2 to the 128th power, experts say.”

Trunkett also notes that while the move to IPv6 is a necessary change, it also comes with certain benefits. As well as its larger address space, the IPv6 system allows for simpler routing, higher security, and, as it was created with more fluidity in mind, it will be compatible with more applications – including mobile applications. IPv6 is an interesting upgrade because it not only confronts our need for greater address space, but also accommodates the new ways we have grown to use the web and will be more adaptive to growing ecommerce economies. As the web is still a relatively new and flexible space, the IPv6 addresses will be more responsive to our growing needs.

To learn more about the switch to IPv6 addresses, see our previous article detailing the politics surrounding the matter. Or, to see how Colocation America is taking a pro-active stance by switching early, visit their site at ColocationAmerica.com.

Tag: colocation america ipv6 politics ...

Go Daddy Announces Super Bowl Plans

Thu, 04 Nov 2010 09:49:25 -0400

Go Daddy has announced that it will be airing an ad during the Super Bowl for the seventh consecutive year. The popular web hosting service has purchased two 30-second spots during the game as well as a 30-second spot during Fox's pre-game show.

Although they have not shot the ads yet, Go Daddy has stated that we can expect the usual – “edgy, fun and slightly inappropriate.” According to their site, the ad will feature race car driver Danica Patrick and celebrity fitness trainer Jillian Michaels as this year's “Go Daddy Girls.”

And, in common form for Super Bowl ads, there is controversy surrounding the content, even before they've actually approved of an ad. When it is eventually made, it will be produced by its very own in-house team, Go Daddy Productions.

"Jillian has the power [and] Danica has the speed,” says Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons, quoted in the company’s press release. “Together, our dynamic duo of Go Daddy girls adds up to sheer Super Bowl magic. Hopefully the FOX network won't keep commercial creativity on such a short leash this time around. For 2011, Go Daddy is going to be as edgy as ever. In fact, our goal is to out-Go-Daddy ourselves."

For more on this web hosting provider, please read our review of GoDaddy.

Tag: go daddy advertising super bowl press release ...