Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Everything that you wanted to know about Shared Web Hosting

Shared web hosting, isn’t the name pretty self explanatory?

Shared web hosting is a low cost web hosting service where more than one website shares the same web hosting server. Each website has one separate partition where it resides. The main aim behind shared web hosting is to reduce the overall cost of hosting a website.

Many people start a website only to have a presence on the World Wide Web. Full fledged features and options are the least of their concerns. The only thing that matters to them is an economical hassle free hosting service and that’s precisely what shared web hosting is all about.

The Implementation

Shared web hosting is implemented in two ways.

1. Name Based : The name based virtual shared web hosting is also called Shared IP hosting. In this, the virtual hosts serve multiple hostnames on a single machine. All of them have the same IP address. When someone tries to access a website, then the name of the website is included as a part of the request.


2.IP based : Clearly, the better and more stable option of the two, IP based hosting is also called dedicated IP hosting. In dedicated IP hosting, each host has a different IP address. The server is configured with multiple network interfaces. The server uses the IP address to connect the client to the website that he wishes to access.

Pros and Cons

There are several reasons why IP based shared web hosting is a better option as compared to name based hosting. Here are a few.

• There is very little stability and support for secure websites (HTTPS). Since all name based hosts share the same IP address, they also share the same digital certificate.


• If there are glitches with the domain name or it is malfunctioning for some reason, then the server finds it difficult to connect to the website as it does not have the correct IP address.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Dedicated Web Hosting - Key for Online Success

Why Dedicated Web Hosting is a must for online success

There are millions of websites that are created each passing day on the World Wide Web. Each one of these websites needs to be hosted on a web server and hence, there are thousands of web hosting service providers out there.

A hosting provider is selected on the basis of the website and the functionalities it includes. For example, some websites are small and have minimum features. They do not expect more than 5 to 6 hits a day. These websites can be hosted on shared servers.

But if it is a business oriented website and expects a continual influx of customers, then dedicated web hosting is a must.

Dedicated web hosting is a service in which a client leases out an entire dedicated server that is not shared with anyone.

Here are 5 reasons why you need to have dedicated web hosting

1.Fast: Your reputation matters the most when you have customers coming to your website. A dedicated server means that no other companies are sharing the bandwidth and as a result, the service will be fast. The images on the website will load faster; the functionalities also will be accessible easily.

2.Powerful: In a shared server every website’s usage is limited. Have you ever seen a message called bandwidth exceeded? This can be avoided with a dedicated server.

3.Secure: If there is sensitive customer data being transferred over the server, then you need to have a dedicated server. Dedicated servers are safer and more secure as compared to shared servers.

4.Flexible: You as the customer have complete control over the kind of functionalities you wish to add to the website. It gives you just the kind of flexibility you need to run your business.

5.Customer Service: If you are looking for top quality customer service, then dedicated web hosting is a must. Shared web hosting services are unable to provide quality customer service to their customers.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Picking the Right Web Hosting Service

Web hosting, one service and a million options. How do you pick the right one if you are new to the whole concept of web hosting? There’s cheap hosting, affordable hosting, Linux based hosting, windows based hosting, secure hosting, shared server, blah, blah, blah! Oh yes, there’s so much to choose from.

Eventually, it all depends on the kind of website that you wish to host. If it is a relatively small business website with a few pages to showcase your portfolio, then none of the above mentioned factors matter a lot except the cost. On the other hand, if you are planning to start a web portal with multitude of services, then you need something far more precise.

So let’s take a look at some of the most advertised web hosting services and what they actually mean.

Low Cost or Cheap web hosting : This typically means a web hosting service that may cost as less as $3 a month. On most occasions, the server is a shared one. You cannot expect the company to give you a dedicated server at that cost. It is ideal for anyone who is looking to host a small website with minimum of features. Some companies also give you access to services like a website builder where you can build a website within minutes. But do not expect extraordinary customer service.


Affordable Web hosting : These are a notch above the low cost ones but much below the premium web hosting package. Affordable web hosting can cost you about $8 to $9 a month and will give you access to several additional services.


Premium web hosting services : Now, you are talking business. This is the best that money can buy. You can take your pick of services and these are usually used by websites that want enhanced level of security, the best of custom web programming, scripts, etc.