How to choose a Web Hosting Provider! Hostgator vs. Godaddy.

I just went through the process of choosing a web hosting provider. Or should I say Blog Hosting provider. I have been with Godaddy for years and was a happy customer. Then I started blogging using a Word Press blog. Things weren’t going smoothly with Godaddy. At times my blog pages were coming up blank and the load time was very slow. Then when I introduced Firepow to automate my blogging business it got even more complicated. As Firepow is optimized for Hostgator.

I quickly learned about cpanel hosting interface vs. Godaddy’s proprietary interface. The standard is cpanel which is an interface that one can learn to navigate fairly quickly. Plus, most training you will find online provides cpanel instruction. An easy to use hosting control panel is very important when you are creating blogs and websites. Hostgator, also provides the fantastico hosting interface which I haven’t tried yet.

Then there is sql database creation. Godaddy takes a different approach. One cannot just simply point to “localhost” for the location of the database with Godaddy. You need to jump through hoops to find the location. Hostgator provided excellent support and imported my sql database which was a great help in moving my blogs to their system.

It would require a rather long article to provide all the details of the differences between the 2 services. Plus, folks would need to familiarize themselves with terms like: cpanel hosting, web hosts,blog,email hosting, shared hosting, reseller hosting, domain hosting, dedicated servers, dedicated hosting,ftp hosting,domain name hosting,hosting php,ecommerce hosting etc.I would suggest familiarizing yourself with these terms to gain a better understanding of the web and blog hosting environments.

The quick and dirty based on my experience is that Godaddy is great for domain name registration and Hostgator is great for a reliable hosting company. Hostgator has hosting plans from $4.95 per month. It really is not as problem to domain host with one company and use a different company’s hosting server. Just simply point the DS nameservers to the location that your blog or website is hosted at. The hosting provider will provide you with detailed instructions as to how this works.

If you visit the site you will find a 20 percent off coupon among other deals. There are links to domain registration and web hosting plans. It is a great place to start for hosting services and will provided you cheap webhosting. Additionally, if you use Hostgator as your hosting service, I would pay for at least a year in advance which provides even more savings. Hostgator really is a great blog webhost. Additionally if you want to automate your blogging business stop over at and read the article on Firepow.

Contact me for a $30.00 savings.

How to Find an Affordable and Reliable Web Hosting Provider

So your new web site is finished and ready to be hosted, now it is time to choose web hosting provider. How do you find a reliable web host that is also affordable for your new web site? Below are some of the pitfalls to look out for when choosing your next web host.

Downtime Problems occur, it is inevitable that there will be some downtime caused by server maintenance alone, a reliable web host will not only maintain your server will but also find problems with your server and fix them quickly, a web host that is not as reliable and one you will want to avoid is a host that has poor downtime, downtimes measured in days are unacceptable.

Poor Support Reliable web hosts will answer support questions timely fashion (within hours) and appropriately, the last thing a customer wants to hear from support when there is a problem with their hosting is “that there is no problem”. If support takes days to answer support questions, they are definitely not worthy of your business and you should consider another web hosting provider.

Broken Features If your site relies on a feature such as mail to perform daily duties and it is down, it can cost your business a loss in revenue or a loss in time, problems with databases is another feature to be aware of, reliability of databases is paramount in this day and age for any business.

Billing Issues Be careful of hosting providers with billing problems, things to look out for when evaluating a web host are reports of overcharging, hosts not honouring money back guarantees, and hosts not cancelling automatic billing after you have cancelled your hosting account.

How to Research Web Hosting Providers Finding web hosting providers is all too easy these days, enter in “web hosting” into your favourite search engine and you will given a list of millions of web hosts, but after you have trimmed down your list to the features you rquire and the price, how do you find which web hosts are reliable?

Read the Web Hosts forum What is the general feeling of the forum, are customer’s questions answered satisfactorily? Don’t be overly concerned if all you see is problems, generally the only people who post on forums provided by web hosts are the people who have problems, the customer’s that don’t have problems for the most part don’t post at all. The main thing we are looking for here is how quickly a customer’s problem was resolved.

Read Reviews of Web Hosts Look at how web hosts are rated against other web hosts on review sites, if you see a trend across review sites saying a particlar host is better than another, there is a good chance that this is the case.

Company Backgorund Check the “About Us” or “Company History” page at the web site, look for how long the host has been in business, a host that has been in operation for more than a few years is a good indicator that the host will be around for a long time to come.

Servers Where are the companies servers housed, do they run their own in house hosting, or is it housed elsewhere where it is being run by a 3rd party? What are the uptime statistics, a good web host should publish a link to an uptime monitor, or should give you a link to one if asked.

Send Pre-Sales Questions The answers to your pre-sales questions can tell you a lot about a prospective host, firstly you will see how long the company takes to reply, and once you recieve the reply, how well they commuinicate. You should ask questions related to the points above and also ask questions that relate to your specific needs.

Linux Php Vs Windows Asp Web Hosting Comparison

One of the first decisions to make while choosing web hosting is – what platform to opt for? Windows or Linux? PHP or ASP?

First of all, note that sites with static pages such as blogs can run on either Windows or Linux hosting platforms. These only use HTML and CSS, which are supported equally well by both operating systems.

When you require dynamic content on your website, such as eCommerce facilities, forums or other forms of scripting, then you need to pay attention to your hosting platform.

Traditionally, Linux servers are used for scripts based on PHP or Perl. These scripts include WordPress, Drupal, Joomla and many other blogging or content management systems. Windows servers, on the contrary, are used with scripts written in ASP, ASP(dot)Net or Access. MySQL works equally well with both Windows and Linux. Today, cross-platform scripting – that is, scripting with PHP/Perl on Windows or with ASP/ASP(dot)NET/Access on Linux – is permitted by some ISPs. However, cross-platform scripting will never give the smooth performance that a program does when run on its native platform – it is a bit like using emulators to run programs that are not native to the OS. There is one exception here, though – PHP runs equally well on Windows and Linux, so Linux-based hosting is no longer essential to run PHP-based scripts and applications.

Most computer geeks will advise you to go for Linux hosting, as Unix – on which Linux is based – is a far more secure and stable platform than Windows’ alternative. While this is demonstrably true – think of the millions of viruses for Windows systems, and the rare bug that crops up in Linux – it is also true that efficient server administration can render a Windows system as secure as a Linux one.

Speedwise, there is no clear winner between Windows and Linux. Some things work faster on Windows, while others work faster on Linux. So to choose between operating systems, cost and security would have to be the deciding factors. Linux here is substantially cheaper, as it is an open-source system, and most of its applications are also under GNU public licenses – in other words, free. Windows hosting comes with the added cost of the OS, and certain applications that the hosting company has to continually pay for.

As for the ASP-PHP comparison, ASP is almost universally the winner where speed is concerned. However, the learning curve in ASP or ASP(dot)NET is much steeper than in PHP – something that can backfire for advanced users looking for greater control and freedom. PHP, however, is still one of the most popular scripts around thanks to its versatility and the solid, useful applications being written using it.

In the end, choosing between Windows ASP and Linux PHP as hosting platforms becomes a matter of individual preference and contingent need. Depending on your budget, security concerns and familiarity with the computer language, you can pick either of them and successfully run a dynamic website for a long time to come.

Get perfect Web Hosting from Top 10 Hosting companies

Web hosting is a kind of internet hosting service through which organizations and individuals able to create a powerful online presence. Web hosting companies complete your dream for having a website. Find out any top 10 hosting companies to get unquestionable hosting services. Select the most affordable web hosting company from these top 10 hosting companies and sign up with the company to get their services. Make a little investigation over the internet and directories of web hosting companies to find out the top 10 hosting companies.

Web hosting companies offer space on their server and great internet connectivity to people signing up for hosting services. Earn basic knowledge about web hosting as it will help you find out the top 10 hosting companies. Check what type of technologies and techniques they use and how much they charge for web hosting. Internet will give you sufficient information about web hosting and references of well reputed hosting companies. Compare the rate tags of different web hosting companies to find out the best possible rate. Hosting makes your website more empowered and secured. It ensures that your website is getting no server or net-connectivity problems. Get good web hosting to double up the popularity of your website.

There are many web directories available online where you can get authentic information on best cheap web hosting companies. Apart from web directories, there will be many sites which offer discount coupons of many popular web hosting companies. Such companies will have good contacts of companies offering cheap web hosting services. Search around your city, inquire among friends and relatives and elaborate your search by turning to online. While selecting from many companies, make sure that the company you selected for web hosting services is highly reliable and reasonable in all aspects.

Best cheap webhosting is one of the well established and reputed web directories which offers contacts and price rates of almost all popular web hosting companies. The site gets you discount coupons of many web hosting companies such as bluehost, HOSTGATOR, FatCow, iPage and much more.

Linux web hosting The most secure

Nowadays there are all kinds of websites and development languages which create those functional and interesting websites you encounter every time you use the internet. But all those development languages and applications desire a different working environment in which to run some requite a Linux environment and some a Windows environment. But we will inform you about the ones which require Linux. If you are creating a website and encounter and application which needs a Linux environment to run in you will need a Linux web hosting which will give you the required environment.

Every web hosting offers different support for applications, languages and operating systems. The two main operating systems are UNIX based and Windows based. Linux goes to the first category UNIX based operating systems. So if you want to run an application or script which requires a Linux environment you will need a Linux web hosting which is reliable, safe and can satisfy your needs. Of course the operating system is just one of the conditions of the web hosting different Linux web hosting also offer you different options and limits about bandwidth, hard disk space and customization.

When choosing a Linux web hosting you should carefully review all the extras it provides you with limit of bandwidth and hard disk space (may be unlimited), free domain names, shared or dedicated server and a lot of others but those are the most important. Of course if hard disk space is limited it will narrow the content you can post on your website thus making it less attractive and interesting. Limited bandwidth will restrict access to your website if exceeded, but it is strongly recommended to select a plan with unlimited bandwidth.

And the second most important extra is the shared or dedicated server. The shared Linux hosting means that the machine on which your website is hosted will also host the websites or applications of many other users thus lowering connection speed, compromising security and narrowing your access to directories and customization options! While the dedicated server is a bit more expensive it is for and only you to use. You will have full virtual access to the server and you will be able to run as many websites and applications on it without having to worry about any bandwidth or space limits. The full access will allow you to customize every available option on the server and hosting thus allowing you to create a hosting that is fully compatible with your ideas and needs. Offers that can provide you with exceptional performance, security and access. Depending on the plan you choose you will have different options to customize and limited or unlimited resources can be used for your website or application. And all those extras are provided to you with acceptable prices that anyone can pay.