But sometimes it is much better to not to buy something. Mainly if the offer just sounds too good to be true. You can loose money, but you can loose much more than that. You can loose your data, your personal identification details, or credit card information and I think this is not what you would want to experience during the most beautiful holidays of the year.

This article should be about what to check to stay safe and not loose anything

What not to forget when shopping for a hosting package…

1. Make sure what you need. The first thing you should do is to make sure what you need. You should have at least a basic understanding of what your web site will be about and what you need in terms of resources. If you only want a small blog, than you really do not need 100GB of bandwidth or 50GB of hard disk storage space [you are not Techcrunch ] If you are still unsure about what you need, or how and where to start try to look at these articles:
   • How to start your search for a hosting company?
   • How to calculate bandwidth in web hosting???
   • How to calculate how much bandwidth you need…
   • How much space does my site really needs?
     Search results about:
   • Bandwidth
   • Reviews
2. Do not trust hosting review websites! [NEVER] I mean this one very seriously. This blog is not a review site, but more like an advisory board. I do not get paid for reviews. It is just the opposite – I pay for my hosting package and I review what I see – what level of support I get and what service I get in return for my money in general There are many blogs and review sites out there which just want to make money and they put whatever review online just to make money from affiliate links… Do you see any on my blog? No…just Google Adsense – and I can’t control that…
3. Check the hosting company before you buy anything [trough Google, WhoIS etc.]. Before buying anything perform a good check of the hosting company you have chosen. Do searches with words like “scam, problem, trouble, fraud, failure, downtime, etc.” to see if something unusual pop’s up.  Visit at least the webhostingtalk.com forum and ask your questions there. It is a very good place to ask questions as there are always many knowledgeable guys there ready to help you out
4. Check the browser and security of the website from which you are buying [does it use SSL?]. Never buy from a company which does not care about security of your data. If they are not willing to invest a few bucks per year for an SSL certificate on the login page, or on the order page, than run as fast as you can, because they are really not very serious about their clients…

These four tips can safe you lot of headaches and make your holidays much more fun. Maybe they look like overhead, but I think it is better to be sure that everything is OK beforehand, than crying afterwards that you have been scammed… .

Happy holidays, Marry Christmas!

Many times it might sound like there is really no one on the other side. No one is listening to you and your questions about your data you lost by the server crash last time…No one seems to care about your web site and the fortune it has been bringing to you… Now comes the question to stop and ask yourself one simple question:

“What have I done to protect myself from a total catastrophe?”

If your answer to this question is that your web host has a Terms of Service and that they do state they do nightly, or daily back ups than you are not really serious about your business or web site…. I’m sorry you hear this from me, but it’s true. If your project is really worth it and you depend on it then there is question you ca find those 5 minutes per day to make a back up!

There are automatic scripts nowadays to do the back up for you. You do not even need to be online at the time the script performs a back up. And you are safe and do no need to worry abut anything. This is the right way f doing things.

What should I do with so many back ups?

Having a full hard drive of back ups is really great, but the real power of your own back ups comes when there is a huge hard drive crash at the datacenter or a DDoS attack on your web host, or a similar “Force major” which is covered under the ToS. You are then the happy and lucky one with your back ups easily being uploaded to a different server and your site is not experiencing any downtime. If you do have a redundant Name Server [DNS] then this is not far from reality

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Think about it for  a few minutes and if you are making 1000′s$ per month from your web site I think it’s worth to spend 20$/month on a back up solution like e.g. Rackspace’s JungleDisk or even your own small server at home with rsync running on it and getting the latest back ups from your server

It’ll hugely help you if you take your own back ups and you will be the one smiling at the of the day

The “dot co” domain name extension might be on it’s way to conquer the once “dot com’s”  territory and take over the Internet. I am still not very convinced this will happen as “.co” and “.com” are very similar in spelling and people still recognize the “dot com” far more than the “co”, but maybe things will change.

It is no about the “co” or the fact that “dot com” domain names are running out, due to the fact most English words are already registered, but it is due to the massive campaign of some of the biggest registrars out there. It is about the money they invest into promoting the “.co” domain name. They know they need to make money from this new “thing”.

Thus they invest lots of resources and hope to get lots of registrations in return. Godaddy even made the “dot co” the default domain name choice. I do not understand this, but the reasons are obvious:

• “.co” costs more = they [Godaddy and other registrars] get more money for a .co registration
• “.com” is runnign out of names, but there are still some nice ones

My thought about this “.co” thing…

If ICANN of whoever has the word could make people loose their “.com” names if there would be no real web site on them there would be plenty of great domain names available in the “dot com” space. Far too many great domain names are just parked domain names with no real value.

I have personally seen many of them when I wanted to register domain names for some projects of mine. And I can tell you there is nothing more irritating then seeing a great domain which would just fit the project standing there as a parked domain registered by Godaddy…

There is no need to go over to “dot co”, just make the rules for “dot com” more effective and everything will work

What to do if you have problems with your web host

1. 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?

I hope you do see my point here. It is very important to give as many details as you can about the problem and things like logs or screenshots can be very handy

2. Try to look if there is a FAQ offered by your hosting company and try to determine if your problem is not mentioned there. If there is a solution try to use it and if it does not work contact the hosting company.
3. Write an email to the right department. It is ussualy called “Support” department, but maybe it is a little bit different by your web hosting company. In the email include all the information you got from POINT 1.!!!! Try to be polite and specific
4. Do not panic if you do not get a response within 10 seconds, because it takes time to read an email, tyr to look for solution and respond to it Leave 10+ minutes and only then start to worry. one more thing to note here – the support can be busy at the moment and thus do not expect that you are the only guy with a problem on the Planet!

This article should only serve mainly as a sign that even support people are just “people” and they can only work that fast. If there are just too many quries and you can not expect them to answer instantously. Have a nice day with minimum hosting related problems and see you next time here at Icethunder.net!

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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.

On the shared hosting level this is done directly by your web host, but you can still manage your DNS entries trough a control panel like Cpanel and you can still direct the different records to different IP’s and thus hosts One example that pop’s up in my mind would be using Google Apps for email and a sub domain of your domain with another web host which would both require to use and set-up new DNS entries And it is the same with name servers – just adding and pointing names to IP addresses

At firts it might seem a little confusing, but it is nothing to be afraid of. At some point in time you will most probably want to have your own name servers at one host and your web site at another. It adds security, redundancy and peace of mind Have a  nice day and see you next time.

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]

1. 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
2. I would definitely try to ping my_ip_address as this will tell me if I am able to get to the server or not. If the ping dies, than something on the network just does not allow me to reach my server
   • The ISP blocked my server’s IP  [I would ask them [by mail] why  they are doing so..]
   • A firewall on a  router blocks my server’s IP [maybe I am on a campus and the campus admin just doesn't like my web site ]
   • Some DNS related problem on my ISP’s side
   • Some kind of network problem I am not able to troubleshoot and I would ask on the Internet
3. If the ping dies I could still try the tracert or traceroute my_ipaddress as this would give me some idea where is the problem located [e.g. the tracert stops at my router... something is wrong there etc. ]

If everything fails than there is really no need to wait and you should ask around on the Internet. Maybe contacting your VPS provider or your ISP to find  a solution, but do not stay silent for a long period of time as this does not help to solve the problem.

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Have a nice day ans see you next time here at Icethunder.net by some new kind of web hosting issue I will try to tackle.

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

Where to get a cheap SSL certificate?

Well, I know there are many places you might look at, but I have found the easiest way to get one is with your domain name registration. It is a nice way of getting two things at the same time. You do not even have to use it right after you register the domain name! What am I talking about?

Well, I am talking about namecheap.com as they are not only a reputable domain name registrar and now also a web host, but they are also selling SSL certificates for reasonable prices. In fact one SSL certificate is bundled with your first domain registration or domain name transfer. It’s a nice feature and add-on I like. I did not use it ’till now, but I know it sits there if I need it at some point in the future.

Another way how to get an SSL certificate is to visit a home page of a trusted authority like VeriSign or Thawte and get one form there. Or you could try an easy Google search with keywords “cheap ssl certificate” and go to one of the results and try your luck there…

Always keep in mind that you need to research before you buy anything . You should make sure it is the right one and it fits your bill. There is nothing worse than buying a certificate and find out later it is not the right solution…

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Have a nice day and see you next time here at Icethunder.net!

Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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.

And only than you should sign up with such a web hosting company. I know pricing is a very important thing, but isn’t it more important to have a safe and trouble free hosting experience? People should think before signing up and there would be much less problem in the world than there are

Things to do before acctually signing up with a host with bad reputation

1. Read their Terms of Use very carefully and more than once!!!
2. Read their Frequently asked questions and Knowledge base documents
3. Check their forums if they provide any
4. Prepare yourself for a possible long fight, but always try to act nicely as there are people on the other side as well…

Have a nice day and see you next time!

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.

A good solution to fight the “bad luck” would seem to be to only sign up with creditable web hosting companies. Companies with good image are a safe harbor for all the people with tons of bad luck. They are proven as good and they respond to problems well and thus there is a big chance even “unlucky” people might get a very good level of service

Is there a “best web hosting company”?

As described in the previous paragraphs you cannot show with your finger and say this one is the best and all the others are not worth it. It depends on your luck and personal experience. A very important role is played by the type of project [web site] you are trying to host there, or you hosted there. Different web sites require different things and thus you need to include this in your list while performing the search as well.

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There are no “best web hosting companies”, but there are very good ones and very bad ones. You just need to read trough the forums to make an image of what company fits into which group.

Hopefully this has been informative to you and gives you something to thing about Have a nice day and see you next time at icethunder.net

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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.

The numbers you will come up with in the preparation phase give you an image of what you need when you start your search for the right web host. And at the time of your search you will apprecitae a lot that you have some check poits to guide your search.

Do not underestimate, but also don’t overestimate!

I know it is not so easy to stay aways from over or under estimation, but your estimations should definitely stay away from science fiction. If you are starting a pottery web site and other pottery web sites on the Internet don’t get 1million visitors a day there is a good chance yours will not get them as well. The number of visitors and many more statistics can be found on the Internet [e.g. alexa.com for # of visitors and site ranking, or Google for everything else ].

The start of this article

The specific problem, that lead me to write this article can be found here [webhostingtalk.com]. The clear thing is, that the guy has a great web site project, but he started it and founded the whole project on a  free web hosting account. It is not bad as long as you are on a tight budget, but free web host can offer you only a very limited hosting experience. And thus as soon as you see your web site rise you should start to look for a paid solution.

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I know, that many times the budget is the limit, but if you really have a web site with a good momentum and able to pay for itself, than it is good to invest into the web site at the beginning to keep and accelerate the momentum. After a period of time you will be rewarded with revenue from the web site and maybe you will get back even more, than you initially put into the project.

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

Although, it might seem, that this post is about video and streaming media web site, but it’s not true. It’s about what all you need to know before starting any project online.

The start of an online project

You have this great idea for a small community based web site with lots of video, audio, images and lots of other useful and funny stuff. This is great, so far. You need to have one more thing beside an idea You need to know what you need from the hardware point of view to make these plans and ideas a reality.

You need to know what server will be needed, what type of hosting is right for your project. You need to seriously think about what you need right after you get the great idea, else your idea will not get too far. It’s called strategic planning. You need to move the great idea of a new product to the next level and think about what is needed to really get it going.

You can really trust me, that a shared hosting environment is not for a big project and even small community based web sites with streaming video or audio are not well suited for shared hosting. To offer a good level of service you really need to think hard about what you want to offer and what you  need to be able to offer the service on an acceptable level.

Hopefully I gave you some stuff you think about Have a nice day and see you next time here at Icethunder.net!

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.

Basically when buying a domain name you have two options. You can register your domain name with a special domain name registrar like name.com, namecheap.com or godaddy.com , or you can register your domain name trough your hosting company. The first option gives you the feeling of of safety. It’s because your domain is independent and you can change your name servers at any time. The second option is less safe and it let’s you exposed if something bad happens to our hosting company.

It might look like a waste of time to register a domain name with company X and buy your hosting at company Y, but it pays back a lot as soon as you hit any possible trouble!

I like to have an option to manage my domain independently of my hosting as it gives me the chance to quickly move the domain if  something bad happens. It is only a matter of 48hours [and less!] for the name servers to propagate and my web site is operational again.

Consider this:

• Name server propagation around the whole world less than 48hours [sometimes even much much less!]
• Back ups of your web site – you can instantly upload and pretend nothing happened
• A one month fee to a new host less $8…

On the other side: If you have a domain and hosting with the same company

• If the company is under an online attack – you are in trouble…
• If the company disappears – you are in trouble
• If there are long lasting technical problems – you are in trouble
• In all these cases you would have a hard time to quickly move to a new location!

I don’t say it’s a NO-NO, but it is a bad idea and it’s always more clever to divide the risk between two places  Think about this the next time you buy a domain name from/trough your hosting company. Is it worth it the time you save? Wouldn’t it be more secure to do it the other way and divide the risk? Have a nice day and a great weekend!

Image: Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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.

I need to know, that the company I am with provides me with a great service and that their support is really prepared to help me out if there is some kind of problem. But I am not too careless and I am monitoring my web site trough third party services. I am monitoring my web sites up-time and other things to be assured, that everything is OK.

I would never decide after seeing tons of ad’s and I would always perform my own research. I would use “my big GBY”  engine [Google, Bing, Yahoo!] to search for everything regarding the company I would be considering to go with.

This kind of testing and researching is not an easy and short thing and thus I always spend at least one week on research and then I do my plans with confidence. If everything goes wrong even despite this hard procedure, than I can rest assured, that I have done the research I
could and sometimes it’s all about luck

Hopefully this helped you a little bit as not only providing you with technical things is important. Sometimes it’s good to hear what people who went trough a hosting search process for more than one time use as their strategy to don’t make the wrong move. Feel free to leave your experience in the comments area Have a nice day!

Image: graur razvan ionut / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

The reason image matters

Image is a very important thing and marketers all around the world are trying their best to make the company they are working for look better. They are trying to make it look more professional, friendly, less costly and much more. It depends on what the company wants to show as their main advantage over the competition.

The reason why the image of a hosting company really matters is, that it is not important that you have the greatest products, but if no one really knows who you are you will sell nothing. The image makes the company “look” and appeal to customers. It’s like the difference between Nike and Hugo Boss – when you are buying one of them you are making a statement and you have some kind of expectation

And it’s the same with hosting. They need to develop some kind of image. They need to profile themselves in a ceratin direction to attract a certain group on the market.

What builds the image of a hosting company?

Well, there are of course differences between industries and thus what makes the difference between Nike and Hugo Boss does not apply to hosting. Hosting companies are very different and their product is a service. They provide their customers with a service and the customers are expect it to be on a very good level.

The image is build in many different directions:

• “Pre-sale” image – hosting companies are judged by their customers not only by their offers by also by the way they are able to communicate with potential customers. Each hosting company starts to build it’s image at the very beginning when I send them a “pre-sale” question and if they don’t answer it in a day, it makes a bad statement!
• Support image – there is nothing worse, than to have some kind of trouble while being hosted by a certain company. The best hosting companies know, that a satisfied customer is worth more, than an  angry one. There is no reason to underestimate the power of “word of mouth” marketing. It can many times be more effective and bring more cash to hosting companies than an expensive ad campaign.
• Service level - the pure fact f your site being down and with no explanation is a very bad sign and it absolutely destroys the image of a hosting company. A customer is paying for the service and thus he wants it to be delivered. If there are any problems, the host should definitely give reasons and not generic ones, but truly targeted at the customer with problems. It might seem like a waste of money, but believe it or not, it is much better to get an bad answer from a “human”, than a generic one

TO BE CONTINUED …

Why to trust hosting forums?

Frankly, I think you for sure asked this question. My answer is as  previously stated: a forum is a mix of humans. There are so many different people registered, that you are able to get your questions answered just in a couple of minutes. I know not all of the answers are really great, but they at least try to be helpful. And the most important part of all -> the answers and opinions are independent and provided by more than one human

At first it might seem very chaotic, but I think, there is no beter place to ask questions and get them answered really quickly… . All the forums do offer you the option t search trough different categories to find exactly what you are searching for. The answers to your questions are just a few keystrokes away

Why are review sites not like forums?

I believe, that most of the review sites started with a really good aim. They wanted to help the casual user to find the right host. They provided hosting reviews and opinions, but somewhere down the road they realized, that they need money to stay up. And they started to sell ad space.

First they used AdSense and other ad networks and then the opportunity came and hosting companies started to offer them affiliate money to promote a certain host in a certain place for a certain amount of money. And this is what I dislike a lot. While on a review site you, are distracted by so many affiliate ad’s, that you start to ask yourself if it’s really true what the site owner writes on the web site! Is the opinion of the owner or review person really independent? Or how can they actually review 50+ sites in under 1 year?

For instance I only provide reviews of hosts I was with and this takes a lot of time I have written an 1and1 review [although it has not been  fully published, yet] and I am currently working on a review of Hawkhost. I was with each of them for at least 6 months! How can someone review a host he has never been a customer of?

And the result of my last paragraph is, that it’s very hard for me to trust someone who has not thoroughly tested the company before and another big minus is, that user submitted ratings of hosting companies of these review sites are easily misused… .

I don’t say to ignore review sites or to don’t use them, but be always aware, that not all of them should be 100% trusted and, that from time to time some of them [the bad apples] provide opinions based on cash they can generate… Always try to perform a good search and the results of such a search should not be based only on one sources, but the sources should be consisted of 3 and more sites

To be continued….Have a nice and sunny day