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My “little troubleshooting guide for hosting related problems”
Jul 16th
Well with the last article about 1and1 and my experience with them I thought it would be a good idea to write a small guide on how to behave if you have any kind of problem with 1and1 or generally with any web hosting company out there. I know I have talked about this issue a few months back, but it is never bad to repeat the useful stuff 
What to do if you have problems with your web host
- Try to determine what is the problem. Write down what’s the problem in clear and simple way so the support has an easier time to find the solution and the cause of the problem. It is really very hard if you only state “my web site does not work”… What does it mean “it does not work?” :
- is it inaccessible?
- it is accessible but an error page turns up?
- it is accessible but a blank page is all you get? Read the rest of this entry »
“Name servers and domain name at different host’s?”
Jul 15th
There was one post at webhostingtalk.com today which cought my eye. The problem waiting to be solved has been like this
Hey everyone, I’m a ‘little’ new to webhosting, but I just have a quick question about having a domain name, ie: (www.)aol.com resolve to one host and ns1.aol.com/ns2.aol.com resolve to another host. could this potentially work?
Well, as I said in a response to this post, it is possible, but some DNS entries have to be changed. In theory there is no problem with such a set up as your NS1.domain.com/NS2.domain.com are in fact name servers, you could use to resolve the IP address of your web site and thus they could be hosted anywhere. And best practise would be to have them hosted on a different server than your web site is hosted on. Read the rest of this entry »
Your website on a VPS is not working? Troubleshooting…
Jul 6th
Well, two days and two very different forum posts catched my attention. We know what I suggested yesterday and I will cover some of my suggestions on today’s case in this article. The whole thing is related to a pretty annoying problem. You upload your web site online, set-up your VPS correctly [DNS, web server etc.], but you are not able to reach it when you try it from home.
The catch here is, that as soon as you use a proxy service like hidemyass.com you are able to read your web site. It loads just perfectly and so you try it once again from home, but nothing there… Well, there are couple of possibilities here and a few more I don’t even know about Thus it is only logical I will cover some basic steps I would try if I would have this problem.
The basic steps in troubleshooting inaccesible website issues [VPS]
- The very first thing I would do is to SSH to my server and perform an iptables -L, as root user, to see if there is no odd firewall rule blocking my access. If there is no real firewall issue, than I would move to the next point, but these can be easily interchanged
Read the rest of this entry »
Cheap SSL certificates for your web site?
Jul 5th
I have not posted an article into the WH REACTION category for a longer time and thus I think it is the right time to 
add one I have come across a nice post at the webhostingtalk.com forum today asking for some assistance [or help]. It was about SSL certificates and if users of the forum know where to get one for a cheap price.
There are many places on the Internet offering you good prices for certificates, but I did not need one until now as I am happy with a self signed certificate. It is enough for my needs, but there are certainly times when you really need one. It’s when you are trying to sell something online and the Law and your customers require one At times like these it is a good idea to have at least a shallow knowledge where to get one, or at least know a place where you can ask about it Read the rest of this entry »
The thing with 1and1…
Jun 20th
Today I saw another 1and1 bad experience post at webhostingtalk.com forum. There are in fact so many bad reviews concerning 1and1 I wonder why anyone really goes with this company if they are so bad. I know their pricing is very appealing and it’s very hard to find a better offer from another company, but why someone signings up even if they now they could face possible future problems? It is always a choice and you do sign up or you do not, but you should be prepared for the responsibility!
Be prepared vs. crying…
I think [and it is my own opinion] if you are trying to sign up with somebody with a bad reputation you should know what you are doing. You should be prepared for trouble. You should read their Terms of Use veeery carefully many times over and over until you would fully understand them. Then you should read their FAQ and Knowledgebase to know the solution to the majority of issues. Read the rest of this entry »
Is there a “best web hosting company” thing out there?
Jun 3rd
I will need to cool you down right at the beginning of this article, because I will tell you there is no such a thing like “the 
best web hosting provider”. The reason behind this is the diversity in the field of web hosting and moreover the various needs and expectations of different customers. What is good for Mike form Miami does not need to be regarded as a good service by Alison from London and Jerry from San Jose can even regard it as absolutely bellow average!
What I tried to say is the pure fact that what is good and what is bad is influenced by the experience of single individuals and these individuals all have different criteria they use for evaluating. And this is what you should keep in mind. Also the experience is influenced by the users “luck factor” as you may go from one host to another host and do not get into any kind of trouble even if you sing up with the host with the worst image in the industry. On the other side other people might never really get a satisfactory level of service even if they only sign up with great web hosts. Sometimes it is about luck. Read the rest of this entry »
The art of determining your real needs
May 31st
I run across an interesting problem today as I was searching trough the webhostingtalk.com forum. I know I have been talking about it in the past, but it still seems like a very good one to cover. It is the problem of choosing the right web
hosting for your web site needs. It is not only about choosing part of choosing, but about a whole philosophy. You need to know what you need even before you make the choice itself.
The art of determining your real needs
It does not matter whether you are trying to launch a small or a huge website, but you always need to know what it will need from the point of view of the system. You should know at least raw numbers. Well, I do not say, you should know the exact number of visitors,but you should be able to come up with some approximate numbers and use these to determine what you need. Read the rest of this entry »
Do you want to host a video site on a shared hosting?
May 11th
I think, that there are many kinds of human out there. There are even more kinds of customer among them. And there is the small special kind I would like to address in this post. I want to make this post a little bit more informative and hopefully it helps You all a lot
The video web site plan – or the big breaktrough plan
I know, there is Hulu, Youtube and some other video sharing and streaming web sites around the world and they make a good living of what they offer. They attract lots of visitors and thus this business segment is a very attractive one. It attracts. because it’s great to offer such a service. the service is loved by the masses, but it is not for everyone. To be able to offer such a service on a good level you will definitely need some serious hardware and lots of dedicated people and knowledge Read the rest of this entry »
Why is it a good idea not to register your domain at your host?
May 7th
Maybe I have written about this subject before, but today I run across a forum post at webhostingtalk.com talking exactly about this issue. Well, it’s not an issue as it’s more like a philosophy.
It’s all about : why it’s not a good idea to have your domain name registered with your hosting company. There are many opinions, but so far I think, that the majority thinks it’s never a good thing to make such a move. Many people like safety and thus I do not understand why would anyone want to expose himself to possible trouble.
The trouble is linked with the fact, that if your hosting company gets into trouble and you will not act quickly, or you will not even have the chance to act, than not only your web site hosted with that company gets into trouble, but you will not be even able to move your domain elsehewre! And this is a big security and service problem. Read the rest of this entry »
Why the image of a hosting company matters? [II.]
May 6th
As said in the previous article the image of a hosting company is “constructed” of many different pieces and working only on one of them is a very bad idea. Hosting companies should concentrate on the most important factors which are influencing a customer’s experience and the word of mouth will most probably bring them tons of new customers even without the need to spend excessive money on advertisement campaigns.
What company would I choose?
I talked mostly in general until now and I would like to give my own opinion. Maybe you are asking who I would go with if I would have the choice. Well, I am a comfortable person and I am not willing to sit behind the PC for 24/7 and watch if my site is operational and if there is no problem. And thus I am very concerned about the support level and service level. Read the rest of this entry »
