Archive for the ‘web host’ Category
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
The real owner of any domain name is the Administrative Contact in the whois record
A lot of times, a developer will register your domain name for you as a service and charge you the fee every year to renew it. That’s great if they are honorable people and there are no problems.
The real owner of any domain name is the “Administrative Contact” in the “whois” record. They are the person or business that has the legal ownership. You can go to court and prove ownership with this.
If your developer is listed as that admin contact, then they are the legal owner. Again, this is nice that they are helping you out, but be aware that you are vulnerable to having your domain name held hostage, or worse, stolen from you.
This is the “whois” that I use. It’s from an old registrar that I no longer use because they quit responding to all communication from me. They were horrible. But, I still use their whois look up because they are no flashing ads or captchas to slow me down. I’ll share their secret look up page with you.
Check who owns your domain name here.
If you are not listed for your domain name, take steps to change that or have it changed. Make sure that your email address is also listed. If someone hijacks your email account, they can have your password sent to them, log in and change the admin contact to themselves and steal your domain name.
Send me email if you want any help with checking on this. Use the “Ask Me Anything ” form and I’ll help you out.
Posted in development, domain name, small business website, web host | No Comments »
Thursday, November 20th, 2008
Don't be seduced by the flashing neon signs screaming *unlimited* at you.
This is one of those questions that will get a complicated technical formula from the web development engineers, but it’s really not that hard.
If you have to ask, then you don’t need very much.
If you are just starting out, you probably won’t have much traffic. Sorry, but it’s true. You can calculate the page files sizes and multiply by the page views you get a day or a month, but you won’t be able to do that without knowing how many people hit your site. If you have no history, then you can’t calculate, but it won’t be very much at all for a while.
Start out with the cheapest, least amount of space and bandwidth. Don’t be seduced by the flashing neon signs screaming “unlimited” at you. Don’t upgrade until you have to.
You will be surprised by just how little bandwidth you really need. If the average page is 100k, which is not unreasonable, then 100,000 pages a month is one gig. That’s over 3,000 page views a day. Do you have that many? If you have 10,000 views a day, then you’ll want 3 or 4 gig. I think “unlimited” bandwidth would probably cover that.
I really, really mean that you shouldn’t get more than you really need and you probably don’t need as much as you think you do. Really. Don’t do it.
Much more important is the reliability of the company. Do they answer emails quickly? Put in a support ticket and see how long it takes them to answer. Ask the sales people technical questions about redundancy and latency. See how long it takes to answer and does the answer make sense to you. Just tell them that you were told to ask about “redundancy and latency” and please explain what that means. If you are happy with the answer, then great. If you have no idea what this technical jargon they give you means or it takes them 3 days to answer you, then move along and find another web host company.
Posted in small business website, web host | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008
This is a server that is shared by multiple web sites.
1. Shared - This is a server that is shared by multiple web sites. You get to put your web sites on there, along with everyone else. You share the hard drive space and you share the bandwidth. You have privacy. Everyone can only see their own files. Upside - these are the cheapest out there, maybe $5 to $30 a month. Downside - if someone else uses a lot of bandwidth or has CPU intensive scripts, then your site might be affected. You usually have less bandwidth on a shared server.
This is your own personal piece of hardware that you drive down to the hosting company
2. Collocated - This is your own personal piece of hardware that you drive down to the hosting company and they put it on their rack and plug it into their bandwidth. Upside - you can do anything you want and have complete control over the entire machine. All you are really paying for is the bandwidth. Downside - all you are paying for is the bandwidth. You have to back it up. You have to fix any problems. You have to manage the whole thing your self. If a hard drive fails, you have to buy a new one and replace it your self. You own the machine.
You get the entire machine, usually with more access to it than with a shared server.
3. Unmanaged Dedicated - This is their machine that you are renting from them. They give you file space and bandwidth. You get the entire machine, usually with more access to it than with a shared server. Upside - you get huge bandwidth and all of the CPU. You can run a lot of traffic through one of these. They can handle probably 500,000 page views a day. You want one of these if you have a huge site with a lot of traffic. Downside - they are expensive. They might be $200-$500 a month. You want a Ferrari, you pay for a Ferrari.
The hosting company will all monitor the server for you and fix things if they go wrong.
4. Managed Dedicated - These are the as Unmanaged Dedicated servers, except the hosting company will all monitor the server for you and fix things if they go wrong. If you have a large commercial site that MUST be up all the time, then you want one of these babies. Upside - these can handle anything, all the time. Downside - you guessed it, much more expensive.
If your site has little traffic, you won’t need the power of a dedicated server. If you are not a geek, then you probably don’t need to collocate your own server. If you are not running a huge commercial site, you probably don’t need a dedicated server.
I use these guys and they give me enough bandwidth and customer service to make me happy. I don’t promote anyone else, just Powweb.
Posted in small business website, web host | No Comments »
Monday, November 17th, 2008
I've created a new site for the Web Site Starter Kit.
I’ve created a new site for the
Web Site Starter Kit.
It will be an eBook that will walk you through everything you need to know to get a web site up and running, which is why I named it the Web Site Starter Kit. It is written for people who know they need a web site, but don’t know the first thing about how to get one or manage it once it’s there. The Web Site Starter Kit will tell you the technical background if you want to know the details, but it will also tell you the quick and dirty method. Web Site Starter Kit will outline the step by step tasks you need to do to make a great site happen quickly and cheaply.
If you are trying to start a web site, build a web site, this will help. If you already have a web site, this will also give you a checklist of things to make it better.
We’ll talk about SEO, search engine optimization. That the general term for all the little things that you can do for free to get your site up higher in the search engine results pages. Build traffic to your site from the search engines. Web Site Starter Kit will give you all this information and more.
Posted in SEO, design, development, domain name, marketing, small business website, web host | No Comments »
Thursday, November 6th, 2008
Here are the steps it takes to create a GOOD small business web site for FREE.
There are a lot of business owners out there who have a vague feeling that they should have a web site, but don’t want to learn anything about it or spend any money on it. Maybe times are tough, but marketing is the only way that business will get any better.
If you have a small business, and I mean like less than 5 people or less, then here are the steps it takes to create a GOOD small business web site for FREE. This will get you a real live, working site, that does the basics of what a business site needs to do.
It’s possible to do a GREAT site if you spent a little money on it. I am going to constantly berate you for being cheap through out this FREE process. Spend a little and get a lot. I figure that you’ll build the GOOD, FREE site now, realize just how effective it is and want to make it better. Then you’ll come crawling back to me, all crying like a baby, asking me to take you back and show you how to make a GREAT CHEAP site to replace your GOOD FREE site.
You go read the posts below. I’ll wait here.
Free Small Business Web Site 01 - The Foundation - Wordpress
Free Small Business Web Site 02 - The Downside
Free Small Business Web Site 03 - Before We Begin
Free Small Business Web Site 04 - Wait!
Free Small Business Web Site 05 - The Exciting part
Free Small Business Web Site 06 - Confirmation
Free Small Business Web Site 07 - Set It Up
Free Small Business Web Site 08 - Do You See A Theme?
Free Small Business Web Site 09 - Building Houses
Free Small Business Web Site 10 - Content
Free Small Business Web Site 11 - Navigation
Free Small Business Web Site 12 - Fancy Stuff
Free Small Business Web Site 13 - Review
Posted in SEO, design, development, domain name, free, marketing, small business website, web host | No Comments »
Saturday, November 1st, 2008
The Internet is a bunch of computers that all send little packets of data back and forth between each other. The computer that you are reading this on is one of them.
Each computer must have some sort of identifier so that it knows where to send the data to and so that other computer knows where to send it back to. These identifiers are called “IP Addresses”. IP stands for “Internet Protocol”. The address itself looks like this: 63.74.159.145. I’m sure you’ve seen something like that somewhere before.
But when you want a web page, you don’t tell your web browser to go get data from an IP address. You use a “domain name”, like “www.google.com” or “www.walton.com”. That domain name needs to be “resolved”. It’s got to be translated into an IP address so the data knows where to go. That all happens behind the scenes.
I’ll go through all the steps that happen so you’ll know what you need to do to get your own domain name set up without being taken advantage up by low life registrars. More about them later.
When you type in a domain name into your browser and hit enter, your computer goes and asks another server, called a “DNS” or “Domain Name Server” what the IP address is for that domain name. When your computer knows the IP address, it sends off the request and receives that answer back. In this case, the request is for a file that creates the web page in your browser.
Before I go farther, two terms you need to know are “client” and “server”. Each is a computer that can talk to other computers. The difference is that a “client” sends a request, while a “server” responds to requests. One asks and the other answers. Any computer can be either, or both, a client and a server.
Web pages are only one type of request, but probably the most common type. There are time servers that only respond with the time. There are Instant Message servers that sit between two people and send IMs to each of them as they are received. DNS responds to domain names with IP addresses.
So how does that DNS know what IP address is correct? From the “Root Servers”, of course! (No, they don’t serve roots.) There are 13 root servers that contain all of the information for each domain name that has been registered. Yes, they are pretty critical.
When a request for a domain name is received by a root server, it only knows which DNS to go ask for the IP address. DNS servers (Yes, the S is redundant, but who wants to call them “DN servers”?) are also called “name servers”.
Too many technical names? I think I got them all out so I can stop now.
The DNS are located all over. Anyone can have one. I have one here. Anyone can provide the service for you if you really wanted. Now, the DNS manages the relationship between the domain name and the IP address. Root servers know which DNS to ask and the DNS knows the IP. There are local DNS for each computer that needs to look up stuff. There are DNS that have authority over specific domain names.
The root servers get their information from “domain name registrars”. (That’s not really a technical name, so it doesn’t count.) You’ll hear people talking about their “registrar”. GoDaddy.com is one. Networksolutions.com is also one, but they are evil, so NEVER, EVER use them for anything. Did I mention that before?
A registrar will charge you some money per year to register your name. They usually provide a web interface so that you can manage what the name servers are for that domain name. They might provide the DNS for you and they’ll let you manage that too. The strength of that interface and what it will allow you to do is very important.
So, to review, you type in a domain name into your web browser. Your web browser asks the local DNS what the IP address is. If the local DNS doesn’t know, it asks the Root Server, which then tells it which DNS has authority for that name. Your local DNS then asks the DNS with authority, which then responds with the correct IP address. The web browser then sends off the web page request to the proper web server to get the web page.
All of that happens in the blink of an eye, which is a technical term for “under 200 milliseconds”.
Posted in domain name, small business website, web host | No Comments »
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
Using The Wrong Web Hosting Service Will Kill You | Gwizz IT by John Bear
It Could Kill You
Today I am going to discuss two types of servers; Virtual Web Hosting and Virtual Private Servers.
Lately, Virtual Web Hosting has been the only way to go when choosing a web server. One of the reasons that Virtual Web Hosting became so popular was because they supported the necessary files and allowed you to have more freedom than other conventional web hosting accounts. But now you can have more freedom than ever before with Virtual Private Servers. Moreover, Virtual Private Servers should not be confused with Virtual Hosts, because they are completely different types of accounts.
Before we go any further I’d like to explain what the difference is between a Virtual Host and a Virtual Private Server, so that you can really fully understand. In this article I will also go over the advantages and disadvantages of both types of servers, to help you decide which is right for you and your business. Let’s start off with Virtual Hosting.
Virtual Hosting
Virtual Hosting is also known as Shared Web Hosting, where you are sharing the physical server and a single set of software applications with other users. Virtual Hosting has been extremely popular in the past for its fast deployment, strong resources, and most importantly for having a very reasonable price. Another advantage to Virtual Hosting is that you have a powerful, reliable, and professionally managed server without having to have advanced technical skills, making it ideal for an individual, small business, or even a beginner.
Posted in web host | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008
This is some good advice from WebHostingGeek. They are 4 simple things to check before you give anyone any money. “Cheap” doesn’t always mean it will cost you the least amount of money.
How to prepare yourself towards budget web hosting plans By: WebHostingGeek
Many people would prefer to opt for a budget web hosting plan. But one must be prepared to handle its own consequences. A budget web hosting plan comes with a small risk which every customer who buys such plans should be made aware of. Many budget web hosting providers have their own secret way of doing business and this is reflected on their over all performance of the company. Hence, it is very important for a customer to find out the various types of facilities and benefits involved with the web hosting package which he intends to purchase. With regard to budget web hosting, you must be aware of certain tactics which budget web hosting providers use. Before you sign up, you must know what your web host is about and how it operates. Following are certain insights that you should be aware of:
1) About those budget web hosting companies that have no experience:
There are many budget web hosts on the website that may not be in the market for too long. In other words, they may have little or no experience at all. It may so happen that you might land up in purchasing a web hosting service that is brand new and inexperienced. I would not prefer this step. In fact, find a web host that has many years experience and they are proud of their service and growth involved as a web hosting company. So, go for budget web hosting providers which are experienced holders.
Posted in web host | No Comments »
