Basic advantages of Linux server hosting and windows server hosting

When you are going to hire a hosting service to build your website for your small business then you need to know the basic things of web hosting. You are the best person to judge that what required features are and what about your budget.

Commonly, this choice to host your website depends upon the scripting language that is used in your website. If languages like PHP, MySQL, or Perl are used in your website, Linux server hosting is preferable. But if you are thinking for ASP.Net scripting language then your finest choice would the window hosting.

If you need some interactive facilities like chat or searchable database, Linux may not be the best choice. Also, a Linux-based web server is not fully acquiescent with Windows technologies. If you are using any Windows-centric technologies like Visual Basic, then Windows-based servers would be the required choice for you.

Advantages of Linux server hosting

1. Linux is an open source software product and thus it does not need the high licensing fees that other operating systems do; you can freely download and use it at no cost.

2. A Linux website can easily be converted to a Windows website without much hassle. Also, the website can easily be changed as the requirement of the user grows.

3. Linux web hosting is very economical as Linux is a free operating system. Usually, only the cost of distribution is borne by the host or owner.

4. When the scripting language like PHP, MySQL, or Perl etc. are required for your website then Linux server hosting is the most reliable and cost effective solution for you. Unless heavy load of scripting language, this will not be traceable.

5. There are many kinds of databases that run on Linux hosting, but the most widespread most likely among web host providers are mSQL, MySQL and PostgreSQL. These databases are relational by nature, and permit vastly optimized communication with your website for rapid reclamation of data.

6. By lots of circles Linux hosting is supposed to be much securing than Windows hosting, and for that reason only Linux server hosting is also the more popular choice for web designers and programmers.

Advantages of windows server hosting

1. .NET technologies like ASP.net VB.net are available on this platform. If you have a website built with Microsoft .NET technologies then you will have to choose a Windows server hosting plan.

2. If you need an enterprise class database there are some different features that run on a Linux platform but if you need Microsoft’s MSSQL database, a Windows hosting plan will be your best choice.

3. Access Databases are only obtainable with a Windows server hosting plan. Access can only run on a Microsoft Windows platform and thus it is unavailable on a Linux hosting. If your site needs particularly this feature then you will have to accept windows server hosting.

4. If you are using some of the Microsoft’s Sharepoint services a Windows Hosting plan is only reliable choice for you.

5. Windows plans typically much costly because of the license costs compulsory by Microsoft.

Normally, Linux server hosting plans are at least 20% economical than windows server hosting plans. If you need not to have any unique features for your website, like cart, searchable database etc, Linux server hosting is a finest alternative for your needs.

When you are required for specific Microsoft technologies, Windows hosting plans generally will be your favorable think. But for all small business owner needs Linux hosting plans will generally perform quite well for its cost effective features.

About Author

This article was written by Joanna Gadel who has been working as a senior representative of web hosting Australia Company that offers Windows server hosting and Linux server hosting plans.

Source: ArticleTrader.com

Domain name | Website hosting | Domain name registration

If you are planning to buy Internet domain name for your online business, there are few things that should be kept in mind during and after the procedure of domain name registration. The foremost thing that has to be thought about in the entire process is to select a domain name for your online business. This may sound very easy at this point of time, but with the proliferation in online business, thinking of a unique domain name that reflects the purpose of your website is a very difficult task. It involves a lot of brainstorming sessions along with an in-depth search over the entire thing.

You can discuss about the domain name with your friends and family members and finally choose the one that best suits your requirements. Your domain name should be the one that is short, simple, reflects the purpose of your business and easy to remember by the users. It is not necessary for your domain name to be the one similar to your company name, until the name of your business is popular enough to be known like brand name. Once you have thought about a suitable domain name, you can move further for domain name check to see if the domain name that you are thinking about has not already been taken by anyone else. Once you have verified that your domain name is unique, do not delay the process at all and go for your domain name registration. These services are mainly provided by the website hosting providers only along with other services, but you can also get them done through separate service providers who only register domain name. Do not forget to check if your registrar is a certified ICANN registrar for domain names. This is because; only ICANN registrar is the one that certifies businesses which have the right processes and technology. Besides, this gives you a platform to complaint with ICANN in case your service provider fouls you.

You can also consider domain name transfer, if you are not satisfied with the previous one. However, if you are also willing to change your domain name registrar as well, make sure that it is at least 60 days old; otherwise ICANN registrar will not allow it. However, if you want to renew it with your previous registrar only, wait for at least 45 days, otherwise the amount paid for renewal will not add one more year to your previous date of expiry and instead, the money submitted will go waste.

It is better to do a thorough search before selecting a web host or a registrar because, you will have to be associated with them for the coming few years. You can read reviews, talk to people over the discussion forums and ask for their experiences with particular web host or registrar. This way, you will know both their pros and cons and select the best domain name registrar or website hosting provider that will ensure the success of your online business. For more information about domain names. Website hosting, icann registrar, domain name registration logon to www.netearthone.com

About Author

Phillip is an internet marketer.

Source: ArticleTrader.com

Avoid Troubles When You Are Changing Your Hosting Provider

If you chose a wrong web host when you intended to promote your business with the help of a site and now problems occurred you have to change the service. The usual reason why online marketers change their web host is because their website needs expansion. In these conditions, if the web host does not provide a high level of technical support and does not provide you with enough disk space and data transfer then you may to move to a new web host. There are a few things you should to know when moving your domain to a new web host so that the transfer would be made properly.

The first thing that must be prepared when you are going to change your web host is to make copies for everything concerning your website and to check whether the archives to the content on your website are well done. Archiving you website’s content is not a task that should be completed only when you move to a new web host. This must be done every once in a while because that way you will avoid losing the information in case problems like hardware failure occur. This is a easy solution to maintain the integrity of your website and will make it easier for you to change your actual web host.

As soon as these tasks are completed you can start looking for a new web host. The most important thing when you do that is to assure that the new company can provide you hosting plans that are at least as good as the ones provided by the old web host. You do not need to move to a service that offers you less than what you already have. Then, try to find something to suit your new needs that the old web host could not anymore. You can use different search utilities to see whether a web service can offer you the technical support that you need and if it can fulfill your new requirements.

After you choose a new web host you have to upload the archive as was described above. When all the content is transferred to the new service they will provide you a new IP and then you have to transfer you domain name to the new web host. This transfer requires a period of time between 1-2 days. This is why you should still keep your old site in this period. In all this time you have to do different tests to make sure that the site works properly. This means that you must keep both your old service and the new web hosting for a while.

The moment when you cancel your old service should be the moment when you stop receiving e-mails on the old account. Until that moment you have to verify all the e-mails that come to both your old and your new account. As you can see, transfering your domains to a new web host does not imply too many troubles if you consider each step. If you wait and see how your new site is during the transfer and perform some tests you will move it to a new web host without any problems.

About Author

Check out Noah’s Classifieds web hosting offered by Marblehost.com.

Source: ArticleTrader.com

1. Choose the Use HTML Editor… from the edit signature page.

2. Once in HTML mode you will need to copy your pictures one at a timeinto your clipboard and paste into the signature window view.

The easiest way to do this is to right click on the image fromanother application (or web browser) and then select copy. Then moveto the signature creation window and right click and paste.

You can add any extra text with your images just by typing in window.

3) Then just Save your new signature.

* When composing a new email ensure you are in HTML composition mode andthen select your new signature and it should show up as the actualimage rather than text.

Any good developer worth his pay knows seo is the key to getting traffic. And that content is king. What they seem to forgetting these days are a few other basic rules.

Unique content is king

Customer called one day to complain that somone had copied their entire blog on another domain. What surprises me is that it was done so easily. I called the guy who copied the content nd he said he was running a beta program and just picked a domain at random about his favorite topic. This program went and grabbed all the posts from the domain. You should ask when reposting someones content. Google is looking for unique content.

When posting something someone else wrote always provide a link to the original content. We write articles for lots of reasons ;-p

Copy write infringement is not the best form of flattery. First off when you are adding images to your website do you really need the original 1024×768 screen shot you took ? Use an imaging program to resize your images. This will save your viewers frustration at looking at an image take a few minutes to load even on high speed internet. Get permission to use the images on your site. Someone has to get paid for taking the photos you are using. There are very hefty fines with using content that is not yours.

Oh yeah about that TPS report. Rss feeds and 10 million ways to track traffic and clicks can kill your shared hosting account. Most hosting companies give you about 10% cpu usage max. If reach this level of resources they ask you to upgrade to an account with more resources, which is only fair.

The problem with RSS feeds is a two edged blade. Viewing rss feeds work great when the data comes from a site on the same server or local database but works terrible when your getting data from multiple websites and this data is refreshed with every page view. each feed request will slow down your site and cause your page load times to be higher. There are tools like feedburner and feedrinse that fetch this data periodically for you. You ask one source for the information.

Working for the web hosting industry sometimes means you have to set the standards. From customer service, training, tutorials, billing practices, server uptime, security and more it can be a handful. When choosing a hosting company you want to know that your website is in the right hands. You want to know that there are people as passionate about your business as you are about your site.

When checking out a hosting company you should see what self help resources they have available. Video tutorials, faqs and common information is a great start. It is important that the information is maintained, updated and corrected as needed. A forum is a good solution for customers to help each other. Live chat has proved to be very successful for customers when implemented correctly. You should be able to get to these solutions through one central point.

I have helped update faqs and create midphasehelp.com as a solution to some of these issues. Customers should have one page they can bookmark that gives them access to almost anything they need when they are in trouble. I have used articlekb to create an intuitive site where customers and tech support can find answers and resources to help them with common issues. I have helped add almost 1000 articles and it grows as we get questions from staff and customers.

We have a link to our status blog that shows current server issues and resolutions. We have all the different ways to get help. Ask a question in our help center, use our 24/7 live chat system, submit a ticket, visit our user community at midphasetalk.com. Its all easily accessible without being overwhelming to the customer.

When looking at what other hosting companies were doing and how we could set ourselves apart I realized that their resources were located all over their websites, hidden on other pages, in drop menus and some didn’t even have an easy way to get to the information unless you had a direct link.

My challenge was to act as a customer and use that perspective to design a page that had simplicity and all the resources at hand. It has been a great success for us as more customers are using it everyday. I personally answer any question submitted within 24 hours even on the weekends. Our technical support uses this site as a bible to help their customers. We have a search feature and an article number box. While you are on the phone with a tech they can give you the article number and you can both be on the same page. When it comes to step by step procedures such as site setup, dns changes and redirects this helps the customers get the information they need quickly and helps them get back to their passion which is designing and running their web sites.

Wordpress has great features for blogging. You can write your own php and embed the code into your theme or you can install and activate other plugins some developers have written. When customers call me about web design dometimesbi have to point them in the right direction instead of writing just about the same code and reinventing the wheel.

Sometimes as a provider of services it is better to point the customer in the right direction.

When searching for a webhosting company you should see what resources they have. Are they easy to get to? Are they targeted towards your level of expertise? I believe that in order to give tech support you have to be able to gain a customers perspective. For example I know how to set up domains and email accounts in our control panel, but I didnt the first day I started my job three years ago.

Does your tech really understand what your website means to you? Even if your site has a picture of your two dogs, or you only use your email to talk to your sister, your website should be as important as the next persons website. When you have problems does your tech support have empathy or are you just another call? Yes, there could ne downtime for any number of reason, I try to make sure I can point a customer to where we will be posting updates about the situation, or I take down thier ticket number and keep an eye on the situation.

Is there someone who knows how to use this? While there are a lot of open source applications the most used tools should be things your tech support should know about. For example I have a passion for wordpress I am the go to guy when customers have questions about wordpress such as plugins, where to get themes or transferring an account from wordpress.com to a hosting account.

Your offering 24 hour support?

24 hour support Is exactly that. Check the hosting providers website for normal hours of operation such as when you have billing or sales questions. Support is the most important department to you as a customer. Typically a customer will contact support for the first two weeks of thier account and if there are server issues. On average customers only call billing or sales about three times a year.

Let’s face it you always want the best “bang” for your buck. Even when choosing hosting. Shared hosting is very competitive and there are many choice and offers. Free upgrades when you sign up for a year, free ssls, more bandwidth and didkspace than you will need in one lifetime, value added services such as fantastico instalations, shopping carts, and sitebuilders. Not to mention points of contact such as live chat, tickets, forums, instant messaging and phone support. I have sucessful hosting companies who rely strictly on tickets or stick to one niche for thief customer base. I’ve seen resellers make a living off of personal customers as in people, small business and web site clients they managed over the years.

In chossing a web hosting company you should answer the following questions first:

What time of day would I need tech support?

What type of communication will I be happy with? Most hosting companies staff around busy times. This is usually 9 to 5 thier time zone Monday through Friday. Most billing and sales are only open at these times also.

Do I need value added services included with my web hosting package?

Do I want to pay for the whole year upfront? Most site advertised prices are for the year and require you to use a credit card or paypal. There are some plans Thant are monthly,quartly or semi annual they usually require a setup fee and have a higher monthly cost.

Will I need support for running my ecommerce store? When starting a new ecomomerce store you will realize all the things you need to get started including shopping cart software such as oscimmerce, ssls to secure your transactions, and a merchant account. Some hosting companies can save you money with there partnerships with providers who offer these services.

Lunarpages client’s 404 error pages issue.

If you are hosted at Lunarpages, you should be aware that Lunarpages is poaching traffic away from your site. Lunarpages has added new 404 file not found pages. The domain name of the account holder is displayed right above a search box that advises it will search this site, but returns sponsored ad results. Below is a listing of the favorites of the domain name that also returns a bunch of advertising. These error pages use the domain name repeatedly, but do not offer any link to get back to the domain. So Lunarpages is hijacking domain names away from their customers and associating questionable links with customer domain names.

 You can still create custom error pages to keep Lunarpages from hijacking your traffic away from a site, but that is of little comfort if you are unaware of the new Lunarpages practice. They have hidden the forum discussion on this practice in a board that is not available to new member or guests. They are also now removing any posts that complain about Lunarpages poaching traffic away from customer sites.

 This might be considered acceptable if Lunarpages support had not become a total waste of time. They have removed the toll free numbers to call support, removed the dedicated hosting chat, and now are using canned messages and delaying tactics on all support tickets. If you have even a minor problem, you can expect two or 3 days of fighting with support just to get them to investigate.

 How can a webhost go downhill so fast? 1 year ago, LP was an excellent host with great support and now they are resorting to cheap tricks and deceptive advertising.