When you visit a web hosting website, you immediately see a variety of plans that you can choose from. So which is the most appropriate plan to sign up for? Here is a comprehensive guide that may help you.

Step 1: Defining your goals.

What type of site would you like to setup? Do you want a site with static HTML pages? Or you do want a site that is easy to maintain because you know there will be numerous changes down the road. In that case, you need to install a CMS so that you don’t have to hire someone every time you need some changes to be done.

Step 2: Getting a domain name.

You will need to get your own domain name before you sign up for a hosting plan. You can always point your domain to your new hosting account afterward. Your hosting Company will provide you with the nameservers together with your sign up information. Nameservers will look something like this:

Primary: ns1.yourhostingcompany.com
Secondary: ns2.yourhostingcompany.com

Step 3: Deciding between Windows and Linux.

Different OS comes with different control panels. The leaders in the market are currently HELM (for Windows) and Cpanel (for Linux). Both are very easy to use, but each offers its own unique features.

For beginners looking to setup static HTML websites, both types of servers will do just fine. But if you are thinking of installing some software, you may need to stop for a while and think.

Windows servers are primarily meant to host .Net applications. Although it can also run PHP scripts, you are much better off having them on your Linux servers.

Step 4: Deciding on the actual hosting plan.

As a beginner, you should start from the lowest plan – and that’s a shared hosting plan. A shared hosting environment means that hundreds of sites can be hosted on a single server. The reason why this doesn’t overload the server is because these are mostly small sites and they take up minimal resources. So they can coexist on the same server without much problems.

However, sometimes, there may be individuals who abuse the servers by overloading the system with resource intensive scripts. This can happen due to inexperience or ignorance, and it can affect you. Professional hosting companies have learned to deal with this problem by suspending abusive accounts quickly. They have the right tools to do this.

There are, of course, other hosting plans such as reseller plans, VPS hosting, and dedicated server hosting. Unless you are developing your own software or running huge community sites, you probably don’t need VPS or dedicated hosting. You may, however, consider signing up for a reseller plan because such plans allocate more resources to a single account.

Step 5: Change your nameservers.

Usually, the activation is instant upon payment. Once you sign up with a web hosting company, you will receive the log in information from your web host via email. You may then login to the control panel to add your sites to the account. Remember to change your nameservers. Give the domain names up to 48 hours to propagate (it’s usually faster).

By: Darren W Chow

Choosing a hosting company can be a daunting task for many people who are faced with so many choices on the Internet. Website hosting companies not only store websites but also important information like credit card numbers, and sensitive data, so it is crucial for a business or even an individual to choose a hosting company with the best services. In my opinion, there are five key services that website hosting companies should provide.

Stability and reliability

Stability and reliability should be two important parts of a website hosting company. An excess of web sites on a server can dramatically impair the bandwidth as well as the stability of a system. A good hosting company will have around 200 to 300 websites per server compared with mediocre ones allowing 1000+ websites per server. This increases the risk of frequent hardware failures of the servers and also diminishes the download’s speed of the website on the client side.

Security

The third service that a hosting company should provide is security. Internet use is expanding at a staggering rate every day with more and more people using the Internet as a tool to access critical data. It should be a top priority for web hosting companies to prevent hackers from gaining access to your website to alter it or steal your private information. A good company should have the best firewall installed with a good monitoring system and should perform regular backups of all their servers. Make sure that the host company that you plan to use has all the adequate security measures in order to protect your site from hackers.

Technical support

Like any other good company, efficient technical support should also be a priority. Companies should not wait for servers to go down in order to react, but instead, they should take preventive actions to avoid failures of their systems. Sensitive components should be replaced periodically and software should also be updated regularly for security matters, and in order to optimize functionality of their servers. Clients should be able to contact the technical support at any time by phone or even by a chat service system. Make sure that you are choosing a host company with excellent technical support.

Communication

Communication is also an important service that hosting companies should provide. Any good business should communicate with its client about scheduled maintenance or problems that may have occurred. Clients should not be kept in the dark about problems, and it’s the responsibility of the hosting company to keep the client informed.

Conclusion

If I would have to choose a hosting company, I would certainly use hostgator or lunarpage. I believe there are among the best hosting companies on the market right now. They offer excellent services which I mentioned above and will exceed the satisfaction of any business or individual. However, if you chose other hosting companies, make sure that they provide the services discussed above.

The best website hosting companies might cost more than the average, but trust me, in the long run it will pay off and save you from a lot of heartaches and frustration. Your website will be secure and accessible to everyone.

By: Christophe Madoz

There are four things to consider for starting a own hosting:

1) Hardware and software tools.

2) Hosting a server.

3) Bandwidth Transfer.

4) Mail Server.

Familiarity with the latest Hardware, software and platforms:

It is very important to be familiar with the hardware and software that needs to be installed on the servers. For example IIS when using Windows 2003 server is something we will need to be very familiar with, if we are going to be hosting sites on a Windows Server. In terms of Linux, this is a bit more complicated. A strong command and knowledge of SSH (Secure Shell Security) is needed. Then a strong background in Telnet Commands, then the knowledge in Networks and Security side such as routing, Firewall(IPS, IDS), Antivirus.

Software:

Web server: IIS for windows 2003, Apache for Linux.
Database: MSSQL server for win 2003, MYSQL for Linux.
Control panel software – It is very necessary to administrating their hosting space such as Cpanel, plesk, Ensim which offers a program called Web Host Manager.
Billing Software – It’s very necessary to have billing software installed on our web hosting website so that our clients may place their order and renew it on time. Some of the popular billing scripts are Accounts, Modernbill, Clientexec, Whmautopilot, etc.
Payment gateway – Accepting online payments is must for any hosting company. we should signup for an merchant account so that you accept online payments. Some of the popular payments gateways are 2checkout, Ccavenue, Authorise.net, Worldpay etc

Purchasing of Servers (collocation) / leasing of Servers (dedicated)

Office / Data Center Space

after purchase of servers, we’ll need office space or a Data Center to house these servers. If we choose in our office space, need to feed separate 100Mbps Bandwidth from High Bandwidth Providers. Some companies that offer bandwidth are: Verio.com, Cogentco.com and Twtelecom.com for cheaper bandwidth you can use. Otherwise we have to host our server in Data Centers. Data Centers are also offering two types of service,

1) Colocation is used to mean the provision of space for a customer’s telecommunications or computer equipment at the service provider’s premises. For example, a Web site owner could place the site’s own computer servers on the premises of the Internet service provider (ISP). Or an ISP could place its network routers on the premises of the company offering switching services with other ISPs. Businesses often colocate their equipment with a service provider in order to take advantage of higher bandwidth availability and backup power.

2) Dedicated Server, offerings from companies such as Eservers.biz, Rackspace.com, Cyberworldservers.com just to name a few. Each of those companies will allow you to lease a server on their connection, set a specified amount of bandwidth, and allow you to host your client’s websites on the server you lease from them.

Note:

Running from Home: Although we’ll have more control over our servers, keeping them in our garage is really NOT recommended, unless we can ensure, among other things: uninterrupted power; climate control; security; and decent network connection.

Colocation: Your hardware is kept in a data center where you have 24/7 physical access and the data center merely provides electric and fast connection to the internet. Advantages are very flexible; you can build your own servers and determine how network is set up; easy set-up of a private network or a firewall; offers you free reign over hardware configuration and Disadvantages are expensive; you’re responsible for your own hardware (repairs and replacements)

Dedicated: if we rent: The data server owns the hardware and rents it to us. Advantages are they’re responsible for the hardware, software, security issues; faster repair times in case of hardware problem. Disadvantages are must depend on Web Host Provider; If Data Transfer Allowance is exceeded, a financial Penalty is assessed.

Bandwidth Transfer:

Bandwidth is the amount of data transfer that you are allowed to have for a hosting package.
For example,
Size of web Page: 48 KB
Number of users who viewed the web page: 100 per day
Total amount of data transferred: 48KB * 100 = 4800 KB per day
Total amount of bandwidth required: 4800KB * 30 = 144000KB (144 MB) per month
Bandwidth is the term that is used to denote the amount of data that has been transferred from your web space.
The amount of bandwidth that you require while choosing a host depends on two factors:
> The size of your site.
> The popularity of your site.
For our hosing we have to prefer Limited Bandwidth like 10-100 GB (metered) first and the go for Unlimited (Unmetered).
Email system:
Thing to consider in mail server

1) Perfect mail setup with virus filtering and spam protection.

2) Linux Mail server: Unlimited Mailboxes and Unlimited inbox Storage, Integrated anti-virus, anti-spam and firewall, Life time license free software.

3) Windows server: MS Exchange server / 3rd party Email systems – have to purchase a license, separate anti-virus, anti-spam and firewall.


By: Lakshmichandrakanth Thangavelu