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!

This kind of hosting is for small starting web sites, or sites which do not expect to get tons of traffic from the start on, or any other kind of web sites which just do not need so much space and dedicated resources and at the same time the owner of the web site does not want to care  about the “backstage” – the OS, updates and software etc.

At the same time it is very good priced. It offers lots of resources for only a few bucks, but there are limits you should be always aware of.

Hardware limits in shared hosting

Those are limits related to the underlying hardware. It is all about the server and what technology is available to you and what portion of this technology is at your disposal at any given moment in time. On a shared hosting you always share the resources with many other web sites.

It is a very good thing to know [and ask beforehand] how many other web sites and users are hosted on one server. This will give you a good idea of what performance you can expect and whether or not the company is overselling their resources too much.

CPU, RAM and Database connections are very often what is limited at the shared hosting level as those are the most important resources of a web server. Certainly, network connection is another resource which might be limited on a per user basis, but those do not tend to be so visible to a casual user.

Software limits

You might not even realize this while only with good web hosting companies, but there are some providers which limit what software can be run by their customers. It is not like they say you can not run WordPress, but they limit what they install on hthe software and thus limit their customers; or they just forbid what users to install some piece of software in their ToS [Terms Of Service]. And if the user breaks the ToS they just shut him down…

Conclusion

Always ask before joining any web hosting company. Ask their support or sales personnel about limits and what they offer. What you can use and what you can not use to stay away from trouble. It is a very important thing to go and visit some hosting forums and search for your chosen hosting company if there are any horror stories linked with it

Mail server

Today I will continue in this discussion and introduce another kind of service I think would be a prime candidate for outsourcing. It is the email service and the mail server itself. I have run across many articles on the Internet suggesting leaving mail services to big companies with resources and knowledge. And I think it is even a better idea then leaving DNS to be managed by a third party. The one reason is the volume of spam rising each year. If you are thinking about setting up and using your own mail server than spam will find you sooner or later and thus I think it is very important to really think about leaving email server services to someone else. By “someone else” I mean someone with the resources and know-how.

Many web hosting companies do offer not only web hosting, but also mail hosting services and thus you can choose one of the offers and leave the mail problem to them. As I said in my articles about DNS it is a very good idea to divide some of the server roles between at least two companies. I know it can cost you more. It could cost you more money and more time to set-up, but if you think your business needs to feel secure than it is a very good solution to put at least the DNS and MAIL server to some other location than your web hosting. Well, we covered DNS in the previous three articles now let’s cover the MAIL server.

Why is it important…?

I think many people like to have all the things they need in one place. It is perfectly fine, because it is more organized and it takes less time to manage the whole “thing”. There are times when this “all in one place” strategy turns to be a big mistake. It is when the web host is hit by some kind of trouble. Shared hosting and VPS [dedicated. etc.] are affected but each type is affected only to a certain degree thus not everything mentioned here applies to each case

With email you need to be sure it runs the whole time. It’s because it is the main point how your visitors or customers are able to talk to you online. And if your email server gets compromised than you are really in big trouble. I don’t say this happens all the time, but there are times when a mail server gets compromised or a web host gets compromised. These are times when it is of a big advantage to divide some of the services to more then just one provider.

[ad#Adsense360]

Shared hosting…

While on a shared hosting platform the email service is handled by the web host, but it depends on their reputation, experience, knowledge and measures they use how good you are protected. While on a shared hosting paltform it is OK to use the same host for web hosting and mail hosting, but it would be better to move it somewhere else just in case. There are some services out there which can make this a great shift and one you will never regret.

VPS, dedicated…

Shared hosting is about sharing resources and the server. The webhost controls pretty everything and you as a customer are not able to change anything. But as a VPS or dedicated customer you are pretty much getting the level of control which can make you the hero or destroy everything… . The web host only takes care of you and that you do not brake their rules, bu the security thing is your responsibility. And thus be very careful with running too many server services on only one machine

Conclusion

This should serve only as an introduction into this topic an I will discuss the possible solution in my next articles. Until than have a nice day and see you next time!

The customer who buys this kind of hosting plan can use this and sell it to his own customers. It is a very simple scheme. I have lots of web space on my severs and as I really can not afford it to be empty I will sell it to someone and maybe this person will be bale to find his own customers and sell the space to them. I get the money from my customer and he [possibly] gets some money from his own customers, too. If he does not find enough customers – it does not matter. It is his business opportunity not mine. And here is where it starts to be interesting.

Reseller hosting customers…

But the catch here is at the customers side. You are searching for a quality hosting and on your way you have to know and understand the different terms and kinds of hosting providers there exist. It is not always about big or small companies with real data-centers with servers, but sometimes you even can buy from some kind of company which only re-sells the space and bandwidth of a bigger company.

The company is only a reseller and they are also only customers of a hosting company. It is not bad, but you need to understand if you run into some kind of problem, that the re-seller will need to contact the company behind the scene to get some of the bigger problems solved! And this might even take some time [depending on the support times of the hosting company you have bought the plan from and the support level of the company they bought the reseller package from].

My advisory

While there is nothing bad about buying from a reseller it is always more secure to buy from the source directly. You might pay a little bit more, but it will give you the extra layer of security. It is for the kind of people who just need to feel safe during their whole stay at a hosting company.

[ad#Adsense360]

The reseller hosting option is great too. It can give you a better price and sometimes even a better level of hosting service and experience. It just depends on the people behind the web hosting company. This offer is more for the experienced and patient ones amongst us. I would feel perfectly OK on a reseller hosting plan, but you need to know what a company can and can’t offer to you in the web hosting world.

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.

[ad#Adsense360]

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

• The network could brake down
• The datacenter could encounter problems
• A hard drive might get broken
• You site might get hacked
• Your host could stop operating
• etc.

And do you know the best way to react to such problems? Well, I know a few of them, but first of all I will mention have it should not be done

The bad way of responding to hosting problems

This first part talks about “How it should not be done” and thus do not perform anything mentioned in this part as it only makes the whole “problem” worse. I think, that encountering problems with your web site hosted by a company is a hge problem as you might start loosing money immediately, but never do any of the following:

1. Never go to hosting forums and complain there about your problem before contacting your web host. The reason is, that only your web host can really help you!
2. Never call them bad names and talk badly about their service as long as you do not have valid grounds and evidance they were not willing to help you! But understand, that not every problem can be solved in the way you would most like.
3. Never in your life make threats to the stuff of the company and tell them you will give them bad reviews [etc.], because I can tell you they will not be more willing to help you You will just piss them off and they will start to be rude to you, too.

[ad#Adsense360]

The right way of responding to hosting problems

Well, we have covered the most important points of how to stay out of trouble and now let’s draw a few basic rules how to react to problems like e.g. downtime, data loss etc.

1. First thing to do is to contact your hosting company as soon as you realize there is some kind of problem! This is very essential and should never be skipped. You should try to contact your web host, but realize, that if they are experiencing a huge problem than they will probably concentrating on solving it, than answering your email.
2. Always use all possible means of contact, but never think you will get [or should get] a response within 30 seconds Leave the support stuff enough time to investigate and respond. it might take 1- 2  hour to solve and respond and thus, although you are loosing money, but they know that and writing them emails every 15 seconds does not help the situation as you just bother them with duplicit mail
3. Always describe your problem as much as it only gets and in a lot of details. If you are able to get some Screenshots they might be very helpfull
4. Always try to stay polite!!! You would be surprised how people react when you treat them in a good manner

Hopefully this article has been informative and helfull to you. See you next time and have  a nice and trouble free day!

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

You should not underestimate any part of your web hosting life, because it could backfire in a very bad way. You should be always the one who manages every aspect of your online project and thus no problem should surprise you. As long as you do have a back up strategy everything is great. But procrastination of your every day hosting tasks is  a very bad habit. One day you wake up and find out, that your web site is down for several days. You would have noticed thisa lot sooner if you only would monitor it regularly

I would say, that some of the basic tasks you should perform every day if you really mean it with your hosting life, are:

1. Daily back ups of your web sites as they help to minimize the risk and problems if a web site goes down.
2. Daily monitoring, because there is nothing better, than to know everything is up and running. You could use a free online monitoring service like monitorus
3. Subscribe to your web hosts RSS and forum FEEDS to be notified about any problems, or special offers. You would be surprised how many great info you an get this way

These are only the basic steps for you to think about and come up with your own strategies and steps to use. You can shared them with the rest of the world in the comment area under this article I will be happy to repsond to any questions related to this topic Have a nice day and see you next time

• Definitely make some estimation beforehand. You need to know how much bandwidth and web space you will need!

This comes very handy in the beginning and during your search as it helps you to decide which hosts and package just do not offer what you need… .

• Decide what operating system & database type you need.
• Decide your annual budget.

Yo should know how much you are wiling to spend on web hosting beforehand.

• Decide between “Good image & slightly higher price” vs. “Cheap and mainstream.”
• Forget about unlimited and look for unmettered…Although they are mostly the same
• Buy a domain name and decide how many email accounts you will need.
• Don’t buy the domain name from the same company. It could get you into trouble if the company would experience some problems. Try not to put all your eggs into one basket!!!

This is only a basic list and it’s not complete – and it never really could be as there are so many things to think about when searching for a good web host. Many times it’s about experience and patience in searching, but sometimes even luck helps you a lot.

You can spend months by searching and find the worst host ever, or you can go out. Try to make up some decision points and choose your new host with confidence. Choose the host with confidence, that if something bad happens you will be able to react in an appropriate manner and not over-react!

Have a nice day and a great weekend!

[ad#Adsense360]

Your budget matters

You may have seen many ad’s with hosts offering plans for $ 5 and less and others offering the same features for $30 per month. When you see such a big difference in prices you should start to wonder how is it possible? Well, sometimes the price difference is irrelevant, but sometimes it’s an indicator of the level of service you will get for your money. Many times you are told by the hosting community at different hosting forums, that in web hosting you get what you pay for, but it does not mean, that a shared hosting packages should cost $50 to provide you with a great service. I would say, that this saying is 90% true while with a VPS or dedicated hosting provider, because there you are renting the whole machine. But while with a shared hosting provider you should be able to get a good level of service for around $10 per month

The purpose of your web site matters

Another very important thing, that matters is your web site’s purpose. It is what intentions do you have with your web site. Do you want to host mainly video, or audio files, or you will turn it into a blog? This is very crucial when considering different hosting companies and you should always know what you are intending to put on the server.

Some companies don’t allow media and streaming web sites on their servers, but some do and thus you need to know the stuff you will put on the hosting companies servers to make the right decision!

The technology matters

In today’s world of virtualization it may not play such a huge role, but it’s always very good to know what your web site needs. What underlying software needs to be installed on the server your web site is hosted on. You can’t host a website, that is streaming music on a server without the required software which allows for streaming media Thus you need to make sure beforehand, that the chosen host has all what your web site needs to be up and running

The other part of this “technology matters” thing is that you need to make sure you are familiar with the environment. Basically this is about the control panel the host is using. Different hosting control panels require different knowledge. Some are easier to work with and some are not. I need to tell you, that there is nothing like a standard control panel and nothing else. There are many control panels and some hosting companies even use their own and thus you might be sometimes surprised how they look and how they feel.

Personally I have used three control panels over the course of the time and I have seenwo t great control panels and one very bad… . The very bad was from a Slovak hosting company [it was really archaic...and poor - and it was used to control a paid web service!!!] and the other two have been the 1and1 control panel and the Cpanel control panel. The latter two are really a joy to work with.

Hopefully this post has given you some reason and things to think about. Have a nice day and see you next time here at Icethunder.net!

Image1: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Image2: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What more back up strategies could be used?

We all know, that data are very valuable to use. We own a web site and users leave interactions on the sites, web sites change every day, we update them from time to time and thus data is valuable, but there is one more thing we could consider as very important. It’s our email messages!!!

It’s the area of backing up our email communication. It might not look like a very important thing, but believe me sometimes t pays off a lot! When I started my first online web site I had to send mails to get some approval to use some pictures and I forgot to back up the emails the people send me back. Well, and thus  I had to go through he same process once again.

But imagine you would be operating a commercial web site and it goes down. You are receiving tons of important emails every day and you would possible loose all your email… You should not count on the hosting company, that they do have back ups! Maybe the back ups will not be available and thus you will loose all the important mails.

In cases like this it’s good to have a back up, or emergency, strategy in place. It can be as simple as downloading all your emails for OFFLINE use trough a mail client like Mozilla Thunderbird, or you could use a third party email service like Gmail or Yahoo! Mail. Third party email services might look less professional, but you do not have to worry so much, as you emails are in a safe place outside your host. Thus if the hosting company encounters any problems you are safe

It depends only on the level of professionalism you need and on your own judgement. If you regard your email messages as very valuable always back them up. It might help you one time in the future! Don’t forget, that your files and messages are hosted on hardware outside your reach by a web hosting company. Hardware can brake down and no back up could be available. It’s always better to be prepared

Have a nice day and good luck in the next week!

Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What back-up strategies can be employed?

Basically, what this question tries to ask is what can be backed-up and what can not be. And it tries to ask what should be backed-up and for what reason. I think, that many of you will agree with me, that your data are very valuable to you and thus they deserve to be backed-up while hosted by a third party. But even when you host your data yourselves it’s a very good idea to back everything up!

Database back-up

You can back up different parts of your web site and the first thing I would perform is a very often database back up. It should be your first line of defense. To have a database back up is crucially important if something bad happens. But with a database back up you can get your data back very easily and quickly.

Database systems do have a back up feature build in, or there is another very easy way to back your whole database data up. you just need to read the documentation and figure out the best way.

Whole web space back-up

Another approach you could take i to back up your entire web space. This is performed by backing up the whole directory and all it’s contents. It requires a lot of additional disk space when performed, but this way you will not lose anything. Remember to back up the database as well, if it is not included and is hosted on a different server. This is very important, because the web files themselves are not that much valuable without the database

Always remember to download the back up to a different place and do not hold it on the same server as your web site! The server goes down and so doe your back up… .

Important files back up

In this scenario you just back up the most important files and folders your site needs and leave the rest of the site untouched. It’s good mostly when you really care only about the important parts of your web site and don’t regard other parts to be as important.

Once again, you should remember, that if you need the database data you need to perform a database back up as well….

I think, that many of you might come up with far better back up strategies. You are maybe even using a far better strategy. If you will like sharing your strategy with the rest of the world don’t hesitate to leave a comment and describe it  Have a nice day!

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 …

The difference between hostin forums and hosting review sites

The big difference I am talking about is, that while on a review site you see tons of ad’s. But in contrast while on a forum you usually see only 1 or 2 banners… I know its because of the lack of space, but it’s still great

Did you ever visit a hosting forum? There is no so much free space to post ad’s and thus the space is limited. Hosting forums are limited by the space they can use for ad’s and it’s fine, because the ad’s do not distract you. Hosting forums and review sites do need to generate some kind of revenue and thus placing ad’s is the perfect way and I agree with this, but every owner has to decide whether his site should turn into an ad mess or be a great resource for knowledge and opinion… .And this is the big difference between them. Even review sites could be of high value, but many times the ad’s just brake their image apart

Why to use hosting forums instead?

As I said previously, it’s mainly because there you can get so much more. You are able to speak to people with different levels of knowledge, experience and even more – you are able to ask your future hosting provider if there is a representative registered!

The second most important thing about using hosting forums is the pure fact, that there you can find lots of hosting reviews provided by individuals and checked by hosting forum admins. And this is just great. If someone talks badly about a company on a review site in the comment area no one really checks his version, but hosting forums [at least the one I am using the most] check if the review is a true one or not! That’s just so much better.

The third reason why to check hosting forums on a regular basis is, that they are the place where smaller, but not worse hosts promote their products. These hosts do not have the ad budget the big hosting companies have, but they have many times a much better image. they offer better service and price, but you have to choose carefully What if the next day a better offer pops up?

Try to leave your opinion in the comments area. What do you use usually more often? Review sites or hosting forums and what do you think about them? Have a nice day and see you next time!

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