Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 by Will Elkadi
If your business has an online presence, then it is very important to pick the right Web Hosting provider. This can be a time consuming and possibly daunting task, but knowing what you need to have and what you need to offer will help you make the right decision.
The Web can be a great place to market and sell your goods to people all over the world. The Web can also help you communicate with your customers or potential customers while creating a community that revolves around your company. There is a catch – visitors need to be able to access your features easily in order for your company to reap those benefits.
If your main focus is for email and blogs, then you will see that most Web Hosting companies offer these items as a software or hosted solution. These hosting solutions come with a control panel that allows you to manage them. You have the option to create a new account with the new Web Hosting company, or you can transfer your pre-existing accounts easily.
Most Web Hosting companies grant access to Webmail, which is simply email solutions on the Web… giving you access to your email accounts anywhere from a secure connection using a Web browser. There are also options for email forwarding, so if you want your new email account to be directed to your already existing account, that is also easily accomplished.
Before deciding on a Web Hosting company, keep in mind the features and options your company will need. Evaluate the potential Web Host’s email platforms and determine if they allow for enough disk space, and compare the costs per size. Make sure you will have access to the amount of multiple email accounts you may need, meaning that you can create accounts under the same domain for all employees as you need to. Make sure they use adequate SPAM filters to manage the junk mail, and check that they are maintained regularly. Anti-spam and anti-virus software must be constantly upgraded in order to remain effective.
Make sure that if you have a blog that the Web Hosting company can provide you with that as an integrated service, including the blog service into the control panel for your Web site.
Also, if you want your Web site to have many of the special features and new options available these days, giving you lots of bells and whistles, then make sure the Web Host is able to support and host technologies such as PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), SQL (Structured Query Language) and CGI (Common Gateway Interface). If you are prepared to take care of these features, then this is an excellent opportunity to find a Web Host to provide them. If you do not know how to use these features, then you can always find a Web Hosting company that offers you updates or maintenance, or even one that integrates a CMS (Content Management System), which will make your control panel interact with you as you would interact with something as easy as a word processor application (such as MS Word).
If you have questions, never hesitate to ask the prospective Web Hosting company… sometimes their answers, or lack thereof, can answer your question right away helping you choose.
eLab Hosting offers all this and more. Call now for your free consultation and get your business a reliable online presence!
Tags: Blog Hosting, eLab Hosting, hosted email, web hosting
Posted in Web Hosting 101 | No Comments » |
Thursday, March 4th, 2010 by Will Elkadi
Blogging has become a part of everyday life. It is now considered part of pop culture, and pretty much everybody with a computer is doing it. Blogs aren’t for money, they are for opinions… for people to express themselves and share with each other. A blog is your own personal ‘two cents worth’ on the World Wide Web.
Today, even the ‘average joe’ can use blogging thanks to interfaces such as WordPress and Blogger. These publishing systems are easy to use and cost efficient – you don’t have to know HTML or server programming. So, the main question is, should you sign up for a free blog or a paid hosting blog? Let’s discuss further…
FREE BLOG HOSTING:
If you are ready to get started with a blog, you have several options, and getting started is easy. As for free blog hosting, WordPress has become the most widely used and the most popular. All you have to do to have a blog right this second is go to WordPress.com and sign up for a free account. From there you can name your blog, pick a template or design for your blog, and start posting (aka blogging). You will have the ability to set up categories, widgets, account information, and many other administrative tools for easy control.
The biggest downfall with a free blog hosting account is that you are fairly limited in your capabilities. For example, you cannot post advertisements; therefore you cannot generate any sort of ad revenue from your free blog account. While this may not be crucial to your goals, this greatly affects some people’s choice of free vs. paid blog hosting. Another downside to free blog hosting is that you cannot brand it, meaning you cannot have only your blog domain name as the URL without the free host’s name incorporated (i.e. you cannot have myblog.com only, it would be myblog.wordpress.com). Since online identity is a key element to visibility for businesses, this is quite the setback. Free blog hosting also has limited resources, such as plug-ins, add-ons, and other extra functionality features.
PAID BLOG HOSTING:
Paid blog hosting is a perfect solution for businesses that want to generate revenue from advertisements, increase their visibility by establishing a long term web presence, or to simply show featured products or services. Many web hosting accounts have blog hosting included in their features. Check out the features and request more information if this is something you are interested in. You will be able to use own domain name and choose from a vast selection of themes, plug-ins, add-ons, plus even more features as they continue to get produced. You also have the ability to use simple programming such as HTML and PHP if you so desire, which can help you create your own unique themes and plug-ins. All of this is what you get with a paid blog hosting service. The most important thing to do to get this started is to locate a reliable and resourceful web hosting company to host your domain and/or your blog. Web hosting companies may also have simple blog subscriptions where you don’t need to have an entire web hosting account.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
For those of you looking to take blogging to another level or you want permanent web presence and you are just starting out, paid blog hosting is for you. We recommend eLab Hosting Blog Hosting service for all your blog hosting needs.
Along with your subscription, you will receive help documentation, reliable and responsive technical support, plus initial setup and configuration. By incorporating some of the best blogging features available, and by using the most popular blogging programs, eLab gives you the power to ‘free your mind’.
Let eLab do the dirty work so you can focus on your ‘two cents worth’ on the World Wide Web.
Tags: blog, eLab Hosting, web hosting
Posted in Blog Hosting | No Comments »
Saturday, February 20th, 2010 by Will Elkadi
Inside a managed hosting environment, you will notice that the provider of the services is responsible for everything. These responsibilities include data center management, network provision, device management, operating system maintenance and application foundation and components. All of these features are meant to provide customers with a stable and efficient operating environment with the least amount of technical knowledge required. Maintenance and upkeep is performed by the host provider, including actual management of your web applications. This can help take some of the stress off your overworked IT department, or simply make your hosting experience much simpler.
In addition to these excellent features, managed hosting is a primary way for companies and organizations to allocate business resources and save valuable infrastructure time and money. By having other professionals manage your hosting services for you, you are then free to focus on more important aspects of your everyday business needs.
Get your managed hosting with eLab Hosting, a division of eLab Web Services.
Tags: managed hosting, web hosting
Posted in Web Hosting 101 | No Comments »
Thursday, February 18th, 2010 by Will Elkadi
A list of commonly used web hosting terminology:
Alias
A name that points to another name. Aliases are used to make the original name easier to remember or to protect the site’s identity.
Aliased Nameservers
An aliased nameserver is a nameserver that has been labeled as yours (the reseller’s) despite the fact it actually belongs to your Web hosting provider. This ensures that domains located on your server are listed as “ns.yourservername.com” instead of “ns.yourprovidersname.com”.
Apache
One of the world’s most popular Web server programs, Apache was built by a group of open-source programmers and is often used because of its outstanding performance, strong security features and the fact that it is free.
ASP
Active Server Pages. ASP is Microsoft’s server-side scripting technology. An Active Server Page has an .asp extension and it mixes HTML and scripting code that can be written in VBScript or JScript. ASP is distributed with Microsoft’s IIS web server, so most host using IIS will also offer ASP for dynamic web programming. ASP.NET is the next version of ASP. Other popular server-side scripting languages are Perl, PHP, ColdFusion, TCL, Python, and JSP.
Audio Streaming
The process of providing audio content on a web site. This takes up a large amount of bandwidth, especially if you get a lot of visitors at your site. Some hosts do not allow audio or video streaming because of this.
Auto Responder
An automated program that acknowledges receipt of an e-mail message, and then sends back a previously prepared email to the sender, letting them know it was received. Once you configure your autoresponder, it sends e-mail with no further action required on your part, making your web site interactive around the clock. Most hosting companies let you set this up through their control panel.
Availability (Uptime)
Refers to the amount of time within a 24 hour period a system is active or available for servicing requests. For example, if a hosting company says it is available 99.9% of the time, they are claiming that your web site will up all the time except for about 8 seconds each day. Over the course of a year, in this example, the hosting company is claiming that your site will only be unavailable (couldn’t surf to it) for 48 hours.
Backbone
Main high-speed network connection composing the Internet. Backbones are operated by major telecommunications companies like Sprint, MCI, or AT&T. In general, the better the backbone of the hosting company, the better the availability of the web sites that run on their computers. Internet backbone maps are here. http://www.nthelp.com/maps.htm
Backups
Web hosts back up data on their servers. Many host packages offer backups every 24 hours. This is supposed to prevent the loss of data should something happen to the server… If you think you may need to restore old data in case of a disaster, it may make sense to choose a hosting company that performs regular backups.
Bandwidth
The amount of data that can be transmitted at a given moment to a server. The higher your bandwidth, the larger amount of traffic your site can handle at one time.
CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
A CGI is a program that translates data from a web server and then displays that data on a web page or in an email. CGI involves the transfer of data between a server and a CGI program (called a script). This allows HTML pages to interact with other programming applications. These scripts make web pages interactive. Page counters, forms, guest books, random text/images and other features can be driven by CGI scripts. Some servers have pre-installed/pre-defined CGI scripts, meaning that the scripts are already installed on the server for you to use on your site. Some servers permit user-defined or custom CGI scripts, which means the site owner creates his/her own CGI script and runs this custom made script on the web site. Not all servers allow user-defined (custom) scripts for security reasons. Almost all hosting companies offer CGI today. If you think you will need forms on your web site, CGI could be a key requirement.
Chat Server / Software
Some hosting companies allow you to develop a chat room or other type of chat service for your visitors. Be sure to check with the web host company about the details of the chat services offeed. Some servers permit you to configure the service, and others pre-configure everything for you while others do not allow chat rooms at all.
ColdFusion
ColdFusion is an easy to use server-side scripting language developed by Allaire. It comes with ColdFusion Studio, a visual IDE. Other popular server-side scripting languages are ASP. Perl, PHP, TCL, Python, and JSP.
Co-location (colo)
This hosting option gives webmasters complete control over their server. You are responsible for providing the physical hardware and network administration; the hosting company will provide you with the rack space and Internet connection.
Control Panel
An online package of tools permitting easy site management and editing. Almost all hosting companies provide this option today. It is a very important feature to have. Most control panels will let you upload files, add email accounts, change contact information, set up shopping carts or databases, view usage statistics, etc.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
A style-sheet determines how the HTML document is displayed by the browser. The current version of CSS is version 2 (CSS2).
Database Support
If your web site will leverage a database to store information, database support by the hosting company will be required. After you have developed your web site, you will know which database will be required. Some commonly used database programs are SQL Server, MySQL, Access, Oracle, and FoxPro. Databases can be difficult to configure properly. Before you sign up with a web host, first inquire if the host can support your database needs.
Data Transfer
This is the amount of data that is transferred from an account as visitors view the pages of the web site. If you have a web site with lots of video, audio, and images that gets many visitors per day, you would have to make sure that you choose a host that will allow large amounts of data to be transferred. If you choose a host that only allows 200 MB of data transfer per month, and your site transferred 500 MB per month, then the host may stop half of your visitors from viewing your site and you could lose potential customers. Your best bet is to try to find a host that offers unlimited data transfer or at least a Gig of transfer. A gig is more than enough for most web sites. As a general rule, 500 MB of data transfer is equivalent to 20,000 page views.
Dedicated Server
A type of Hosting account in which the web hosting company provides you with an entire hosting setup including your own server hardware that only you can use. This usually means a much faster loading time for your site because the entire computer is “dedicated” to running the server software. This is different from most other hosting accounts in which your web site will share space on a server with many other web sites, called a virtual server. A dedicated server makes sense for web sites that require higher availability and higher data transfer rates.
Disk Space
This indicates the amount of disk space that will be available to you on the hosts server to hold your web site files. Normally because HTML files are small, a web site (unless it has extensive graphics or database functionality) will be small, as low as 1 or 2 MB in most cases.
Use windows explorer to check the total MB of your site while it is still on your development machine. Then perhaps double your sites current size so that you have room to grow. When you check the total MB of your site don’t forget to include the total MB of your graphics files.
A good rule of thumb is to assume approx. 50 KB per page (1 MB = 1000 KB, 1 GB = 1000 MB). 50 KB per page is on the high side so it’s a conservative estimate for the average size of a web page.
Domain Parking
Many hosting companies give you the option to ‘park’ your domain name without actually having your web site up and running. This is a nice option if you want to acquire a domain name for your web site well ahead of having the web site itself designed and constructed.
Domain Name
The unique name that identifies an Internet site. Domain Names always have 2 or more parts, separated by dots. The part on the left is the most specific, and the part on the right is the most general (yoursite.com). Technically, the domain name is a name that identifies an IP address. To most of us, it simply means www.yoursite.com. Because the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names, web servers depend on a Domain Name System (DNS) to translate domain names into IP addresses. Simply stated, domain names allow people to find your web site by name rather than by its numerical (IP) address.
Domain Name Registration
Often a hosting company will offer to register your domain name at the time you sign up for a hosting plan. This normally incurs an additional charge but may be cheaper and more convenient than using a separate domain name registration service. We recommend that you go ahead and register your domain name as soon as possible, especially if you think it will take some time to develop the site itself.
Domain Name System (DNS)
A model for tracking other machines (that contain web sites) and their numeric IP addresses. Translates domain names. When a computer is referred to by name, a domain name server puts that name into the numeric IP address assigned to that computer. So when you buy a domain, say www.yoursite.com, it does not become accessible until it gets assigned an IP address from a hosting company. Once the IP address is assigned, a cross-reference record (DNS record) is created that points your domain name to the numeric IP address.
Email POP Account
POP (Post Office Protocol) is an actual e-mail account on your web host’s e-mail server. Think of each POP account as a unique email address (yourname@yoursite.com, info@yoursite.com, etc.). Before you choose a specific hosting plan, you should know exactly how many email accounts are required to meet your specific needs.
Frontpage (Microsoft)
Front Page is an HTML editor made by Microsoft. It is commonly used to create web sites
Frontpage Extensions
Frontpage extensions can be thought of as “mini programs” that allow features of a web site created with MS Front Page to operate smoothly. It is possible to use MS Front Page to create a web site and host that site on a server that doesn’t offer FP extensions, however some of the powerful features of the program cannot be used in these web sites. See Microsoft’s Front Page site for more information. After you design your web site, you will know whether Frontpage extensions will be a requirement.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
A way of transferring files (uploading and downloading) across the Internet. Most web sites are uploaded to the Internet by means of an FTP program. This is how the web site you create on your computer at home is transferred (uploaded) to the Internet. Some software, such as Microsoft Front Page, does not require use of an FTP program but the use of most any other HTML editor requites the use of and FTP Program. There is a free FTP program called WS_FTP and you can download it at download.com. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name anonymous, thus these sites are called anonymous FTP servers.
Host Country
Specifies which country the hosting company resides. The internet is a very complex web of server computers connected through telecommunications devices. In general, it is best to host your web site in a location closest to the users that access it. For example, if you plan to deploy a web site that will attract mostly German visitors, it may makes sense to choose a hosting company located in Germany.
Host Platform
This is the platform of the hosting providers servers. Hosting companies will typically having a hosting platform based upon Windows 2000 (Win2K), Windows NT or Linux. If you have a basic web site that does not make use of server side applications such as a database then you do not need to worry which platform is used.
IIS
Microsoft Internet Information Server. Microsoft’s Web server that comes built-in with Windows NT Server 4 and Windows 2000 server.
IMAP
Internet Message Access Protocol. A method allowing a client email program to access remote messages stored on a mail server. The protocol includes operations for creating, deleting, and renaming mailboxes, checking for new messages, message parsing, searching, and setting and clearing flags.
Javascript
A scripting language which enables web designers to add dynamic, interactive elements to a web site.
Java Servlets
A servlet is an application or a script that is written in Java and executed on a server, as opposed to on a client. It is analogous to CGI, although servlets are more than simply CGI scripts written in Java.
Mailing List Software
A mailing list is a discussion group based on the e-mail system. You may want to set one up – they’re very useful promotional tools. Even if you don’t want to host a discussion group, you can use a mailing-list program to distribute a newsletter. Many companies have mailing-list software available for their clients to use — if so, ask whether there’s an additional cost, how many mailing lists you are allowed to have, and how many members per list.
Managed hosting
A dedicated server that is accompanied by a full suite of technical support, maintenance and monitoring services. This differs from dedicated Web hosting, where customers are provided with their own servers but are still responsible for virtually all administrative and maintenance duties.
Name server
A server responsible for translating domain names and IP addresses.
Perl (Practical Extraction and Report Language)
Perl is an interpreted language optimized for scanning arbitrary text files, extracting information from those text files, and printing reports based on that information. It’s also a good language for many system management tasks.
PHP
PHP is another scripting language. Like ASP, it’s commands are embedded within the HTML of a web page. The commands are executed on the web server, making it browser independent. The web browser only sees the resulting HTML output of the PHP code.
Post Office Protocol (POP)
This is a method of retrieving e-mail from an e-mail server. Most e-mail applications (sometimes called an e-mail client) use the POP protocol, although some can use the newer IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol). There are two versions of POP. The first, called POP2, became a standard in the mid-80’s and requires SMTP to send messages. The newer version, POP3, can be used with or without SMTP. The newest and most widely used version of POP email is POP3 email. You will see the term POP3 in most of the web hosting plans available today.
Reseller Plans
Many hosting providers allow you to be a reseller of hosting space earning a commission off of each sale. If you intend to be a provider of hosting services, you should investigate this option as you decide where to host your web site. Many hosting companies offer discounts (in addition to revenue opportunities) to companies that wish to remarket their web hosting services.
Setup Fee
Some hosting companies charge a one time setup fee to set up your hosting account. It is worth to also take this into account when looking at the monthly fee. If you select the ‘No Setup Fee’ checkbox in the search then any plans that involve a setup fee will not be found.
Server
A computer, or software package, that provides a specific kind of service to client software running on other computers. The term can refer to a particular piece of software, such as a WWW or HTTP server, or to the machine on which the software is running. A single server machine could have several different server software packages running on it, thus providing many different servers to clients on the network. More specifically, a server is a computer that manages and shares network resources.
Shared hosting
The most basic of Web hosting types. With shared hosting, numerous Web sites are shared on one server. While an economic solution, they typically cannot handle large amounts of storage or traffic.
Shell Account
Something experienced computer users often request. Permits you to edit your files online in real-time, rather than making changes to your site offline and then uploading the changes. Unless you intend to manage the web server your site runs on, a shell account should not be needed.
Shopping cart
A program designed to handle the e-commerce section of a Web site. Shopping cart software lets users browse for and purchase products online.
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
The main protocol used to send electronic mail on the Internet. Most Internet email is sent and received using SMTP. SMTP consists of a set of rules for how a program sending mail and a program receiving mail should interact.
Server Side Includes (SSI)
Commands that can be included in web pages that are processed by the web server when a user requests a file. The command takes the form . A common use for SSI commands is to insert a universal menu into all of the pages of the web site so that the menu only has to be changed once and inserted with SSI instead of changing the menu on every page.
Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
A protocol designed by Netscape Communications to enable encrypted, authenticated communications across the Internet. It is used mostly (but not exclusively) in communications between web browsers and web servers. URL’s that begin with “https” indicate that an SSL connection will be used. SSL provides 3 important things: Privacy, Authentication, and Message Integrity. In an SSL connection each side of the connection must have a Security Certificate, which each side’s software sends to the other. Each side then encrypts what it sends using information from both its own and the other side’s Certificate, ensuring that only the intended recipient can decrypt it, and that the other side can be sure the data came from the place it claims to have come from, and that the message has not been tampered with.
Statistics
Many hosting companies run software on their web servers that collect usage information about your web site and compile it in a user-friendly, easy-to-read format for you to analyze trends about your web site. Having access to statistics is critical if you need to know how many visitors are coming to your site, which web pages receive the most attention, and how much time people actually spend browsing your site.
Subdomain
Typically known as a “domain within a domain”, subdomains are individual Web addresses built upon a pre-existing domain name (such as clientname.yourhostingcompany.com). As a reseller, you will have the option of assigning subdomains to clients if they do not choose to have a domain name.
Tape back-up
A popular and inexpensive way to back up Web sites. Contents of a site are periodically stored that looks similar to a cassette. Some cassettes can store several gigabytes.
Unix
A computer operating system designed to be used by many people at the same time (it is multi-user) and has TCP/IP built-in. It is the most common operating system for servers on the Internet.
Unique IP Address
In many hosting plans, you share an IP address and you will be able to view your site through your domain name only. Obtaining a unique IP address (see IP Address) provides a one-to-one relationship between your domain name (www.yoursite.com) and an IP address.
Video Streaming
The process of providing video data or content via a web page.
Virtual Server
A web server which shares its resources with multiple users. It’s another way of saying that multiple web sites share the resources of one server. If you do not need your own web server (i.e. your own server class computer), you will use a virtual server to host your web site.
Tags: glossary, web hosting
Posted in Web Hosting Glossary | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 by Amanda Moody
Common web hosting and technology terms and their definitions:
~ What is a domain?
A domain is the name for a website or resource on the Internet used in place of IP addresses. Domain names are easier to remember than a string of digits.
~ What is domain name registration?
Domain name registration is the act of registering a domain name to your personal identity; provides ownership of available domain names.
~ What is DNS?
DNS, or Domain Name Server, translates domain names to IP addresses.
~ What is a web server?
A web server is a machine that provides Internet service to other machines.
~ What is a web client?
A web client is a machine that receives Internet service from a web server.
~ What is a domain transfer?
Domain transfer refers to the event of transferring currently existing domain name to another web host.
~ What is a web host?
A web host is where your domain name and website are hosted, or managed.
~ What is FTP?
FTP, or File Transfer Protocol, is used to securely maintain files on an offsite server for access from anywhere by authorized individuals.
~ What is web traffic?
Web traffic is the term for visitors to your website.
~ What are search engines?
Search engines are the browsers used to search the World Wide Web through use of keywords and information.
~ What is IM?
IM, or Instant Message, is a form of communication over the Internet.
~ What is HTTP?
HTTP, or HyperText Transfer Protocol, is the protocol for transferring hypertext documents on the World Wide Web.
~ What is HTML?
HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is the standard protocol for formatting and displaying documents on the World Wide Web.
~ What is the World Wide Web?
World Wide Web refers to the Internet, a globally connected resource for finding and sharing information throughout the world.
~ What is URL?
URL, or Uniform Resource Locater, is the protocol used to specify the address or particular file on the Internet.
~ What is protocol?
Protocol refers to the standards by which universal understanding is achieved.
~ What is TCP/IP?
TCP/IP, or Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is the protocol for communication throughout computer networks, especially over the Internet.
~ What is an IP address?
IP address refers to the name of a website in numeric value format; includes numbers and periods; used by machines to locate domains.
~ What is an ISP?
ISP, or Internet Service Provider, is the company that provides Internet service to the general public.
~ What is a datacenter?
A datacenter is a facility housing several computers that are used for processing or transmitting data.
~ What is managed hosting?
Managed hosting refers to hosting of websites managed by hosting service provider; generally maintained and controlled by web host provider.
~ What is an email client?
Email client refers to an email program or application used to access Internet email inboxes.
~ What is SPAM?
SPAM refers to any unsolicited email messages, also known as junk mail.
~ What is a SPAM filter?
A SPAM filter blocks recognizable SPAM messages from entering your email inbox.
~ What is SSL?
SSL, or Secure Sockets Layer, is the protocol for encrypting and decrypting data through a secure Internet connection.
~ What is web design?
Web design refers to the service provided to create a unique and visually appealing website.
~ What is web development?
Web development refers to the service of creating and programming the functionality of a website.
~ What is CMS?
CMS, or Content Management System, refers to the resource used for website owners to update their websites; usually created by programmers to be easy to use for non-technical individuals; website content control panel.
~ What is MySQL?
MySQL is an open source database system used throughout the world for use in programming.
~ What is open source?
Open source refers to programming capabilities and information open to the public; free, usually optional donation.
~ What is Java?
Java is the most highly used object-oriented computer programming language used to create interactive applications running over the Internet.
~ What is WHOIS?
WHOIS is the online database system correlating to domain name registration; it maintains the database of the people who own domain names.
Tags: definitions, technology, web hosting
Posted in Web Hosting Glossary | No Comments »
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