Shared (or Virtual) web hosting

A few things about shared hosting

Shared hosting means that the same server (computer) hosts more than a single website, the actual number of hosted websites depending on their size and number of visitors (total occupied space, total monthly bandwidth and used server resources).

With the powerful processors of today, it’s not at all unusual to find hundreds of websites hosted on a single server. As I explained in another article, this is not a problem in itself.

The best thing about Shared or Virtual hosting is that it allows individuals and businesses with limited financial resources to establish an online presence with almost all the bells an whistles associated with a dedicated server.

The price for a shared hosting account however, is low compared to the dedicated server solution. It can even be in some instances very low! Generally those are the times when you have to be careful.

Problems that are common in a shared hosting environment:

1. Overcrowded servers

This problem is one of the most common in the web hosting industry (in the shared hosting section of it). It’s not a shared hosting inherent problem though. It usually has to do with poor server resources management, poor business planning and reactive-type of behavior from the part of the hosting company — instead of proactive behavior.

This problem is one of the first that have to be addressed when shopping for hosting. As long as the customer (that’s you! ) shops around and knows what to look for and — just as importantly — what to look out for, everything should be OK. (Hint: to learn how to find a reliable host, I suggest you to read most of the articles I wrote and posted on this website.)

2. Security issues

In a perfect world, all a web hosting company would need to do would be to connect the server to the Internet and keep things running smoothly on the server. The Internet is not exactly a peaceful place though. There are all kinds of internet “terrorists”. They’re sometimes called hackers, sometimes they’re called crackers. It doesn’t matter how you call them. The important thing is that they’re out there and that they make the life of every decent hosting business harder than it should be.

Hackers and crackers are extreme cases however. On the ‘net, regular people behave in a different manner than in real life. When hundreds of people have access to a computer (the server) there are real chances to find that one of them is… less than honest.

Added to that, in a shared hosting environment it’s not that uncommon to find that you can easily access other people’s accounts (a shared hosting account is basically a directory (folder) on a server’s hard disk). Fortunately this is usually not something critical, as in most cases what you store on the server is meant to be visible to the public anyway.

There are though lots of things that you have to keep secret. For example, if you’re selling software, you cannot afford such “leaks”. If you have a newsletter and you store the email addresses of your subscribers on the server as plain text files, you definitely don’t want them to get in the wrong hands. There are lots of other examples, these are just some of the obvious ones.

Generally, a server used to host more websites is usually not as secure as a dedicated server. There’s usually a trade-off between security and freedom, just as in real life.

3. Neighborhood related problems

The - what I call - “neighborhood problems” are complex issues, all having a common trait: they all involve what the other people are doing on that server. Those people (and their websites) are your closest online neighbors and they’re just as important as your real-life neighbors are.

If one of those neighbors is using the account to test new scripts (and he’s really bad at coding) then you (and everybody on that server) risks that one day, one of those badly written scripts might crash the server. That means at least a couple of minutes of downtime.

One of your “neighbors” might be the curious type. If it also happens that he has the necessary knowledge, he might be able to get access to the files in your account. That’s like someone searching though your entire house. It might be just out of curiosity, but is that really an excuse?

There is also another important neighborhood related thing that has to do more with the inner workings of the Internet than with people. Chances are that your site is sharing the IP with a number of other sites. Now, if a spammer happens to find a temporary home on that server, the IP where the spam originates from might be listed in a spam list and this can lead to your emails not being received by servers throughout the web.

A simple solution might seem to ask for an IP of your own. Unfortunately some hosts don’t offer this option. Others ask for a monthly fee for each IP, usually about $2 per month. There are still others who will give you a dedicated IP from the start. That doesn’t mean that you don’t pay for it though. The price of the package might be a little bit higher because this option enabled by default.

However, a dedicated IP doesn’t solve the emails problem because while your website will indeed have an IP of its own, the emails will still be relayed through a single, shared IP.

Another issue is represented by adult hosting. Depending on your views and beliefs, you might want to make sure that your site doesn’t share space with adult sites. On the other side, if your site is adult in nature, you should make sure that the host accepts such content on its servers.

Advantages:

The first advantage is the low price, which I already told you about in the beginning of this article. The second advantage (which most web hosting customers don’t even fully realize) is that the client doesn’t have to manage the server. Managing a server is a complicated job, done by professionals. Hiring someone for this job is not a feasible thing to do for most website owners.

For most people shared hosting is the pretty much the only feasible choice. That’s why most don’t even think of or have never heard of other types of hosting. For most people shared hosting is the hosting and things will remain like this for a long while I think.

Conclusions:

No matter what the disadvantages are, it’s clear that the shared hosting solution is here to stay. The vast majority of websites today use shared hosting and the reason is obvious: it’s advantages overweight its disadvantages. Unless your website is so big that it really needs the computing power and the space offered by an entire server, shared hosting is most likely to be right the solution for you too.

15 tips on how not to get screwed by your web host

As a smart consumer, you must be aware that every web host are in the business to make money. Therefore, it’s necessary for web owners to put up certain level of defense against their own web host (even if they are trustworthy and efficient).

To get you started, here are 15 ways to protect yourself from a bad web hosting deal.

1. Register domain separately from your web host

Just because your web host offer a free domain doesn’t mean that you should let the hosting company controls your domain registration. Personally, I prefer keeping my domain names with a large registrant (in my case, GoDaddy) and separate them from the web host. By doing so, I can change my domain DNS anytime I want and avoid myself from being locked with a particular web host.

2. Test customer service before you sign up with a web host

A web host customer support department can be your savior or, nightmare. As most hosting companies provide 24/7 online chat support I suggest you to talk with their staffs at least once before you purchase. Ask questions to test the quality of their services and only go with those that provide satisfying answers.

3. If possible, pay with a debit card or PayPal

Lousy web hosts do not play gentlemanly when you are leaving them. I once had my website hosted with Network Eleven (which is a terrible hosting company) and they refused to stop charging my credit card when I unsubscribed my service. Eventually, I have to cancel my credit card in order to stop them bullying me. Moral of the story, always go safe when it comes to money. If possible, always pay your web host with a debit card or PayPal account. Just in case your web host turn bad, you can stop your subscription easily.

4. Learn the basics in web hosting

One good way to avoid from being fooled by the web host personnel is by educating yourself. Even if you are a non techie, make time to learn the basics in web hosting. You should at least understand the differences between various types of web hosting, pros and cons for different web host operating system, as well as some fundamental knowledge about hosting bandwidth.

5. Avoid web host with black-holed IP

Does your favorite web host allow spam activities? Is your website sharing the same server with a porn sites? All in all, is your hosting provider listed on Spamhaus Block List? Many hosting companies care little about what their clients are doing with the hosting as long as they get paid. Sharing same IP with such spammers will bring you nothing but troubles (imagine if your emails can only be found in your recipients spam box - terrible!).

So before you make any purchase decision, make sure you run a quick check with SpamHaus Block List.

6. Check your web host spam policy

I can’t stress how important it is to avoid hosting your website at a spammy web host. In fact, checking on SpamHaus Block List is not enough. A web host that isn’t black listed now doesn’t mean that they will not be blocked in future. To be safe, check out your web host’s spam policy in the FAQ section. A responsible web host will normally have clearly written guidelines in fighting spams. For example, as in my recent post about Lunarpages, there’s a policy where unsolicited bulk emails are forbidden with all Lunarpages accounts.

7. Understand the meaning of overselling

Overselling might not be a bad thing as it cuts down web hosting cost. However you have to be clear about the meaning of overselling. A manged-overselling is acceptable; but overselling without proper planning is simply rubbish and you should runaway from such hosting services as far as possible. To learn if your web host is well prepared for overselling, check your server load regularly. Do not hesitate to complain or even switch host if things look fishy to you.

8. Make sure your web host offer long enough trial period

Following up on the overselling issue, it’s important to work only with web host that offers long enough trial period. This is to ensure you have sufficient time to test out the servers without any risk of losing money.

9. Understand that unlimited hosting is NOT unlimited

Accept it, unlimited hosting is only unlimited when you are not using too much of the hosting capacity. All hosting services are offered based on series of limited resources - how are you suppose to get unlimited hosting capacity with just $3.95 per month? So be wise, if you foresee your website will attracts crazy volume of traffics, a dedicated hosting is the way to go.

Learn when you should pick up a dedicated server.

10. Ensure that your web host provide clear refund policy

Does your web host provide full money return if you choose to refund your service within trial period? How about the refund policy after the trial session? It’s important to know your web host refund policy in-and-out so that you won’t panic when things go wrong. A point worth noting is that some good host (Bluehost, for example) provide pro-rated refund even if your trial period is past. Needless to say, web host offering such benefits is always recommended.

11. Find out what others have to say about the web host

When it comes to web host shopping, it’s important to get opinion from your experienced friends. These friends can be your neighbors, Poker buddies, favorite bloggers or even Internet friends you met on FaceBook. User reviews are always helpful when it comes to picking up the right host!

(In case you need my opinion, here’s where I place my honest hosting review based on my real usage experience.)

12. Read and participate in related forum discussions

As said, nothing’s more important than getting yourself educated. If you are into website hosting, make sure you visit frequent enough on related forums. Web Hosting Talk and Webmaster World are the two best places to visit. I suggest all of you mark them down on your favorite list and visit them from time to time.

13. Make sure your web host runs on with a redundancy protection plan

When dealing with smaller hosting merchants, make sure they have their own data centers and more over, have the data centers fully protected with redundant power supplies and connectivity. “How many lines do they have coming into the facility? Do they have redundant power to the servers? Do they have an on-site power generator? What sort of security measures do they have for the network?” - these are the basic questions to be asked.

So go back to tips #2 and test their support!

14. Do your own backups regularly

Even if your web host provides sufficient redundancy protection, do not trust them 100%. Your website should be backed up always. Utilize cPanel’s cron job and backup features to ensure backup works are done regularly without fail.

15. Always keep your option open

Last but not least, always have an open mind in term of your web hosting choice. It is, after all, simple to switch your website from one host to another. So why stuck with the same old lousy host? If they don’t appreciate your business, someone else will.

Wordpress or Blogger?

Wordpress or Blogger? Find the details of which blog host or blog software you should use: Blogger vs. Wordpress. Blogger.com and Wordpress.com reviews and ratings for your next blog. Pros and Cons of Blogger and Pros and Cons of Wordpress.
Today we’re comparing Blogger vs. Wordpress. These are two of the blogging industry titans and we’ve matched them up head to head. First, we’ll cover the pros of each and then we’ll get into the cons of each in a later article.

Pros of Blogger (Blogspot)

• It’s run by Google so you know it’s not going anywhere. They have billions of dollars to invest in technology! They won’t be going out of business anytime soon - so you know your blog/journal will be safe with them.

• Blogger allows you to integrate with other Google Account tools such as Google Adsense. This allows you to make money with your blog without having to know anything about the online advertising business.

• Tons of widgets - Blogger offers widgets that you can add to your blog. There are hundreds of widgets that various people have developed and they are all free of charge to use and easy to plug into your blogger blog.

• It’s so easy! These guys know a thing or two about what people want out of a blog. They know that the average user has no idea about html code, php, or database programming experience. So they give you a one click option after login to begin typing. All you have to do is type in the title - then type in the body. The labels/tags are optional, but it’s helpful for people who want to find similar posts on your blog.

• You can have many blogger blogs and it’s free! There is no limit to the number of blogs you have on the blogspot domain. This is a nice feature in contrast to some other free blogging services. Some people we know have 50+ blogs.

• Google love their own services so it spiders well in the search engines and they also like the URL of blogspot. So if you do nothing else besides post on your blog you could get Google search traffic because it could rank well if you have well written posts with great content.

• You can add a domain to your blog - through the CNAME records of your domain name - you can point blog.domainname.com to your Blogger blog. This is really easy to do. We’ll discuss the con to this later in the post.

Pros of WordPress

• First we have to differentiate the WordPress blogs - One is a free hosted service while the other is the software download. The hosted service is located on WordPress.com while the software dowload is run off WordPress.org. We’ll be talking about the WordPress.com software.

• We love that it’s easy to use, but extremely robust - much like the downloaded software.

• You can have multiple blogs on WordPress as well - just like Blogger.

• If you write good posts and follow the guidelines - you can get good traffic from WordPress.com tag searches. When you post an entry - they allow your post to be found by the tags on a global tagging system. This enables anyone to click on a tag and view all recent posts. This is also good for links because the links are in the RSS feed of that tag. - Be Careful though - this is not to be abused. It’s just so others can find your blog. If you get too spammy - they will kick you out of the tag searches and for good reason!

• Cheap upgrade to add a domain to your blog. $15/year adds a domain name to your blog and removes ads.

• They are “almost” ad free. They only display ads to certain users - they use google adsense and they are non-intrusive. They don’t show up to everyone and if you own the account - it will most likely not show up for you either. They almost always show up if the referring site is a search engine.

Free Domain and Hosting

Have you noticed those domain name offers with hosting? Instead hosting companies should provide a free renewal with transfer. By doing this they’d get a new customer account as well as the web hosting volume. Tracking domains and renewals can be the most frustrating part of managing websites. As the number of gets massive, that lengthened expiry date becomes a well deserved break.

For the most part, domain services inside web hosting accounts are rarely used extra feature and some of the time it can be worth it to migrate domain names to a new registrar, thus saving time and get single point of organization. Catchall email can be confusing when the day to day business sends important notifications to the back of the pile. But keyword laced email addresses can create hidden value in forum posts to boost a site’s overall word density.

Email address functionality are typically used as transit for spam purposes. Scaling campaigns to all available registrants simply burns out potential users and allows search engines and spam filters to recognize your url and domain name base address before real opportunities arise. Email campaigns should be managed in a way that alerts interested customers of new offers, pricing and features or products.

Free domain offers with hosting can cause an increased monthly hosting cost that might be lessened elsewhere. Domain names purchased online will cost around six or seven dollars with coupons or discounts. This price then should not drive the technical considerations of the web hosting purchase. The search for compressed encryption security and central control of multiple website administration won’t make the difference.

For a web hosting company to offer a free domain is like a matchmaker hawking heir wares. The really good candidates don’t need these offers. They have enough value and assume their customers know how to navigate the web to find the best bulk domain buying and discount name registrars. These customers are looking for functional Java platforms and a way to augment corporate communication architecture and internet strategy effectively.

In the coming years, telecommuting and teleporting will become more and more commonplace. Even conventional employers will have to appreciate the environmental benefits and health attributes increased by more employees using the Internet for working from home. A virtually hosted working environment is a way to utilize these resources without compromising corporate physical network security. And staff can concentrate on building traffic, not logjams.

Denial of service routines and log denied connections are one of many administrative and technical problems that webmasters need to address. A capable web hosting company can help the account holder work through these issues. One that is sloppy about updating severs or backing up memory files has periodic outages and data loss systemically. These are not web hosts any customer wants to stay with. Privacy issues and authentication must be perfect.

Security for Internet resources is an intensive field in which the database or system administrator outruns both physical hardware and software threats. Any webmaster would be hard pressed to match these capabilities, even if they devoted their entire specialization curve to learning all about this field. Multi layer firewall protection makes independent and entrepreneur type webmasters equally ready for Internet online threats as any medium sized business.

Small to medium businesses actually end up spending a fortune on network architecture and administration personnel, when one webmaster and one web hosting account was all they needed. Many cost conscious managers should review the assets in place and compare those needs and business requirements to the provided options inside a medium web hosting plan. Email campaigns and online security without security certificates don’t need to rely on onsite employees filling cubicles.

Human resources looking to cut fat from company payrolls should assess whether or not the problematic, personnel intensive IT assets could be better implemented online with less administration responsibilities onsite. A package offering the equal of at least a medium sized business capability online probably can eliminate at least one salaried position. Employing entire departments of staff for online enterprises and website solutions is outsize staffing at best. Even premium sign and website problem solving can be sourced online via entrepreneurial outlets.

Cross trained players and a joint mission effort can realize enormous development value from $3.99 monthly fee. A cost by cost comparison of web hosting attributes and assets versus performance in a company environment can yield surprising savings. Any analysis that untangles the replaceable online elements of an existing IT offering inside a company and reduces overhead is a significant value add for any enterprise.
Team players can learn bit by bit the operational tasks and administration know how for smooth and effective operation of the web hosting account. When each team member wants to grow skills on the job and contribute to the overall value of the bottom line, developing and expanding the website is an outstanding way to achieve this. Instead of axing valuable employees, corporations should challenge them to contribute in new ways. Those IT costs can shrink by 50% or more from the corporate payroll.

Web hosting also allows free access online from a multitude of users without straining network resources in a limited secure environment. This type of outsourcing for project work and team deployment of telecommuting can allow critical corporate data and secure information to remain partitioned from consultants and other short-time users. Online project engineers and contract associates can bypass corporate intranet security risks and use online project resources instead.

Given the cross platform choices available and the multitude of scalable plans, companies should be challenging their team leads to come up with ways to make online web hosting provider buys match the output and security of $150,000 a year IT departments. Cost overages in this sector need never happen again with the right hiring strategy and some canny web hosting analysis.
Even the most talented website administrator needs to start with a reliable and secure hosting network environment. Any competent webmaster can build a website site plan and content rich architecture from there. But without the basic building blocks and competitive advantage of a leading web hosting provider, the projects will have drawbacks and limitations from the beginning.