One should be very careful while choosing the web hosting company.

If one is having the budget he can fix to it, if one is not having much idea about web hosting he/she may wonder “how do they make money” its better to be away, the chances are in order to save cost, the web site will be hosted with less bandwidth resulting in a very slow accessible and unprofessional web site. Also in this case, the customer support will be absent or very less.

One should be very clear about his/her requirements from the web hosting company, if the customer do not choose the company as per his/her requirements then its not the fault of host but only he/she will be solely responsible for that .Its good to make a list of requirements such as particular files needed and thereafter he/she can send his/her requirements to multiple hosting companies and can wait for the company come back with the greater service.

If any user is having more than one web site to host, as in case of affiliate marketers, its not good to put all sites with single host in the very beginning rather one should be 100% confident with the service and start with one web site as a test. The user should also keep in mind that if he/she wants to host all of his/her websites with one host company only, all it takes is, one problem to bring all his sites down and could result in lose of revenue. It is good to host some of the websites by another company so they can work even in case of problems.

Some web host companies offer testimonials on their own web site from valued customers recommending them. Seeing is not believing, one should call these customers and get a face value recommendation for him/her self.

What to do with the problems?

Now the problems can arise either due to the customer’s fault or by the web host company. There is no certainty of the technological Problem to occur, as it can occur any time but it’s all depending upon the host company how to handle such problem in order to keep the customer. If the user finds his/her web site dropping off line or slow downloading at a regular basis, then he/she should move to another web host company. If the problems pertain and the company is not paying attention to it means they are showing arrogant behavior towards their customers. Support is vital from a web host company and it should be 24 hour if it’s a large organization.

Virus Problems and Hackers

It is the responsibility of the company to ensure that the files of the customers are protected from virus and hackers at all times. There are number of companies having their web sites hacked and that happens only due to the reason that their web host company had not got the latest patches and security software applied. The new comers to web hosting should always ask how often updates and what software is used to protect web sites.

Tips:

One can have a good earning by his/her web site or can be this only source of income for him/her. Therefore one should always do his/her own backups of the web site. If due to any reason the web host company experiences problem and has no backups available, then the whole business could go stop. Backups are very crucial and have to be done as regular as possible in order to avoid problems afterwards. Some companies have testimonials on their web site from customers, one should not be afraid to call these guys for an up to date reference.

One should be very careful while dealing with host companies and should check recommendations and references very carefully. Always one should ask for the full contact details of the web hosting company, as there are many people who simply go online and have an email address only as the contact. Now if their email goes down and one needs to contact them one should have their full details at hand. One should always shop around for the different web hosting plans and should compare all the features available. On comparison it’s sure to get large differences, therefore it’s very important to check each and every thing before final sign up.

1) One must make sure that the new web host plan offers the storage capabilities to handle all of the current website storage requirements. If the size of the website is 50MB, then one must check for the plan that offers at least that much space or more. In case one is not able to make estimates about the space required then he/she must ask his/her current host. Also this information can be found on control panel.

2) One must also check how does his/her current web host determine the amount of storage used for? It is necessary to check what one’s current and new host includes in the plan’s storage amount also one should check are one’s emails and log files counted towards his/her total storage, or the web files only?

3) Its necessary to know what operating system does one’s current hosting plan use? Windows or Unix? Mostly it makes no difference but in some cases it can make the difference between a working website and a broken website. In case one’s site is currently on a Windows server and the website uses ASP scripting, then its difficult to make things work well on a Unix server, as ASP is a Windows based programming language. So one should check immediately whether his/her hosting plan is on a Unix or Windows server.

4) Also its important to check if one’s your site currently use FrontPage? Before switching to new host one should check if the new host supports FrontPage and the prevailing version.

5) Another important issue to take care is the amount of bandwidth offered by the new host. One should check if the new hosting plan offers the same amount of bandwidth that the current host offers. This should be checked in advance to avoid unexpected high bills afterwards.

6) Make sure if the new web hosting plan gives the same amount of email accounts, auto responders and mail forwards that the current host provides.

7) Its necessary to check if one’s site uses a shopping cart that the current hosting plan provides? It is essential to have a suitable shopping cart replacement in case one desires to move the cart to the new host. So one must check that as well.

If one is using any scripts on his/her website, its important to check if one’s new hosting plan supports all of one’s scripts. One must make sure in advance if there is any need to make any modifications to scripts to get them working on the new server.

9) Don’t forget to set up the existing email accounts on the new server before transferring domain name to the new server.

10) In case user is just a beginner and even don’t know how to upload files, its necessary to check with the provider if he can do that with no extra charges. There are some hosts who offer such facility free of cost yet some don’t offer this facility because of liability issues.

It’s necessary to double check if the site looks and functions properly on the new server after completing the uploading process. Preview facility is provided in the form of preview link to see how the site looks and some hosts provide this facility before the domain name is transferred over. In case this preview facility is not available with the host, still there is a method to preview the site. One can modify his/her host’s file to preview the site. The host file tells the computer where to go to look for sites that are listed in that file and this works with any version of Windows. Here the file location can change but the file name remains the same. Below is the way to modify the host’s file:

The file HOSTS should be in the c: windowssystem32driversetc One can find a file named HOSTS.SAM (as in SAMPLE). That is OK; one can modify the HOSTS.SAM file as well and do a SAVE AS HOSTS.

In both the cases one should double click on the HOSTS file to open it. Thereafter one will be prompted by Windows to select an Application (Program) to use to VIEW the file.

Now scroll the list and select Notepad and then one should click on the OK button. The NOTEPAD program will now open, displaying the file HOSTS.

So, in order to tell computer that www.yourwebsite.com is at the address (replaced with the real IP) 12.345.678.90 one should add the following entry to the bottom of the hosts file:

12.345.678.90 www.yourdomain.com (As in the example).

Now one should click on FILE, slide down and click on SAVE AS. Then in the Save As one should type field, select ALL FILES. After completing that click on save. One warning will come which should be ignored i.e. the file already exists but that’s ok, then just one has to click YES.

Now one should close Notepad, by clicking on FILE, slide down to EXIT, and click.

Now when one will open the web browser, or try to ping the site, the system will go to the IP address one typed in the HOSTS file.

One should not forget to undo this when testing is finished else the computer will always want to go to that IP address whenever one want to go to that site.

After being satisfied with the site looks and functions, one can go to his/her registrar (where the domain name is registered) and modify the nameservers associated with one’s domain name to his/her new web host’s nameservers. In case one does not know his/her new host’s name servers, should confirm with them. However most hosts have that information listed somewhere on their website or in the email one first get after signing up for an account.

After the completion of domain nameserver modification it will take around 24-48 hours and the site will be displayed on the new server.

One must check his/her domain name and should see if the nameservers added are listed. If yes, the website transfer is complete to new web host. And after the confirmation is received one can cancel the old web hosting account.

Firstly it is good to have a proper introduction of web hosting chain. It is termed as chain because here about 3 upstream providers serve the end consumer. First the web-hosting provider, who is in direct contact, then comes the web host’s upstream company who maintains the servers and sells space to web hosts, and above that, the data center that serves the purpose of providing the connection and houses the servers. There are some web hosts who act as the server administrator and liase with the data centers directly.

The growth of the web hosting industry in at saturation point due to the presence of hundreds of web-hosting providers claiming to provide cheaper and better services to businesses and individuals. The reason for this is the availability of resources in abundance and at cheaper costs with reducing disk space and data-transfer prices. Its easy to enter the web hosting business as there are large resellers of server space providing cheap hosting and reselling plans that provides ground to incomers to join the business.

Due to growing number of suppliers with cheaper reselling plans, more and more web hosting businesses are coming up providing web-hosting solutions to business and individual websites due to lower fixed costs and investment. Not only that this increase in supply is not caused by factors in any particular country. As Internet is not limited to the boundary of any country so the data centers present in any part of the world can easily provide the servers and web space for a local hosting company. Due to Internet it is easy to communicate to each other and providers can easily exchange their services in the global space.

Maintaining a proper balance between supply and demand is quite good for the customers. But imbalance has forced several new web-hosting providers to offer extremely low prices for their web hosting plans or packages in order to make them self stand in the tough market. Now it’s time for customers to choose the hosting providers having lowered prices from the vast number of providers.

However, continuous decrease in prices is quite disadvantageous for both the providers as well as the customers. By reduces prices, companies are able to earn nominal profit and are even not able to cover their support costs. Customers suffer by getting less support with their web-hosting accounts. It’s quite obvious if the profits do not justify the costs, web-hosting companies will easily close down and takes their clients’ sites with them.

The following are the factors to consider while choosing a web-hosting provider: -

The most important factor to consider is Support for any individual or small business looking for a web host for their websites. The Internet web-hosting provider who is unable to provide the facility of responding to emails within 24 hours is probably having problems providing fast and reliable support services. One can’t ignore the validity of these services especially for the beginners who needs guidance with publishing their websites on the web hosting account provided. The success of any web hosting business depends upon the relationships between web host and web hosting customers. To make business success, provider should be able to provide services when and where required also its crucial for customers to know when their site is going offline for sake of maintenance.

After support next important factor is Stability. It refers to how much uptime one can expect from the web-hosting provider, which in turn depends upon the providers’ servers and network. If the providers are not having reliable and stable providers, it would affect their servers and cause problems for the website. It is must to have an uptime of about 99.5% in the industry, as there are other external factors, which may be beyond control of the provider.

Third factor to consider is Cost which depends on the purpose of the website and budget. The budget may be smaller in case of Personal /Individual websites and so they opt to go with a cheaper web hosting provider, possibly in exchange for support and stability. But in case of business sites as they need better stability and support they opt for expensive host providers. It is most often observed that cheap web hosting providers are able to attract customers in the beginning by offering low prices but afterwards fails in providing quality support to their customers thereby creating problems for them. Also the large numbers of client sites cause sustained high server loads which leads to server crash thus hampering stability.

Another factor, which is not so important, is Location of the server. It is not considered important as it depends upon a user’s ISP/country’s connection to the data center where the server is located. Pings to the server normally tells the network latency to expect when people can access to one’s site. Lower ping rates leads to loading of site faster.

Last but not least one should take time to identify and contact a web host to check their service. This helps in providing an idea of the kind of support that one might receive and helps in deciding the reliability of the provider.

The new entries of the customers in this web world will themselves presume that expensive and branded names such as yahoo or MSN or MasterCard can definitely provide the best service.

But there is need to think again.

One should never choose the hosting plan only in terms of money whereas he/she should opt the plan on the basis of return he/she is getting from it.

One can easily find sufficient space for his/her site with all the required features for a mere amount of less than $10 per month – with discounts for paying quarterly or yearly.

The following are the aspects to be looked at while choosing a hosting company-

SPACE: There are several websites, which uses less than 100 Megs of space. However 50-100 megs of space is quite sufficient even if one is planning to build a large community or upload entire albums of photos. By keeping this point in mind one should be able to upgrade with no additional charge.

EMAILS: One should check for a new host that can at least offer 10 Pop3 emails. If one is running a home based business, he/she needs at least 10 addresses or even more if there are many members like own staff or family and friends who would love to use email address and effectively advertise for him/her every time they send out an email. The new host should also offer web-based emails, so as to enable to check emails anywhere.

SUPPORT: One should check if the new host could answer to questions within 24 hours. If this facility is not available then surely it is not the right choice. The host to be selected must offer some sort of live chat capability during regular business hours as well, and a 24-hour a day help desk where one can email in questions. One should also check before signing the contract that proper physical address and phone numbers are available. To ensure one must Email their support or use their chat live capability before agreeing to their service. Thus support is another feature to be taken as serious issue before signing a contract.

USER FRIENDLY RATING: Most important feature to look at is the kind of control panel new host is providing. One should also ask for a demo and should also check if he/she is having a free 24-hour FTP access so as to make modifications as per choice when required. Also it is necessary to have a site builder, bulletin boards, or chat rooms so as to enable one to interact with his/her customer using a new host’s services. One more thing to check is that, if one is having access to popular features such as PHP, CGI, ASP, Java scripts, Perl scripting then will the new host can handle all this?

Now after deciding to shift to new host, there are still some things to take care of like firstly one must make sure that all of the files that have created his/her current site are on his/her computer so that they can be moved. If one has created own pages using something like FrontPage or Site Builder or Dream weaver, then surely he/she is having these files. However if one uses a web based builder, then there is need to download each and every page of his/her site along with their dependent files to a folder on his/her PC.

It seems to be a complicated process but it is not so. One can either use an FTP tool to download files or can download them using the “File – Save As” method outlined below. If one chooses to FTP own files down to own computer, all what is required is just availability of an FTP tool.

In case one opts for another method i.e. to choose the “File – Save As” method, then the following steps must be followed-

The first thing is to do is to go to one’s own browser can be Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or Mozilla. Thereafter find the toolbar and look for the “File” button, as this will be required. Now simply one should go to the first page in his/her website. After it is fully loaded, one must click on “File” then “Save As” and save the file and all dependent files to a folder on his/her website. This procedure is required to be done for every page. After completion of that the possession comes in the hands of owner. It is always advisable to keep one’s site backed up to his/her own computer in a separate folder, as well.

Once one is having all the files the second thing is to make sure that any other files on one’s web host are backed up. In case one is using web-based mail, then he/she should forward emails to an ‘off-network’ email address or even should archive emails to the computer’s hard drive. As soon as user switched to new hosts his/her all mails get deleted. Deleted. Now it’s required to upload all of the new files to the new host’s servers. Also the new host should provide with the FTP info needed and to do this and/or live support one should keep in mind the following things in order to play safe. The next thing to do is to create an email account to match each email account from the old web host. If case one is having 3 email accounts then it is must to have matching accounts on the new servers as this will prevent to have bouncing emails later when the switch goes through. Now one can change the domain name’s name servers and for this the new host will give the

information. Thereafter one will probably have a primary and secondary name server.

If a user is registering own domain name then the registrar should have a management area. However if one registers his/her domain name through the current host, then one must make sure that he/she is having the access to change these items once.

It will take around 24-48 hours for the name server change to propagate so that the domain name is pointing to new servers instead of the old ones. Now one must make modifications as early as possible lets say within a week time else he/she have to suffer from a long waiting period problem. Before canceling the old host one must allow at least a week so that one can make sure that everything works properly on the new host, all the files and email accounts are there and to check if the new host is working as per expectations or not.

However one has to be very careful if he/she is leaving the current host before next billing cycle, as if the cancellation date falls after the normal monthly billing cycle date, then he/she will be billed again for that month’s service and worst is most of the hosts do not give refunds for less than a month of service.

Now after knowing all the pros and cons of providers and the problems that one can face while switching to new host there is need to remember all the above points to remain safe.

It’s quite difficult and confusing to start any type of online marketing or Internet business.

There are many aspects to be taking care of such as domain name registration and purchase, purchasing of Web site host and “construction” of the Web site by own. Generally users don’t want to follow this difficult path rather chooses the easy way of getting everything from one place.

This results in growth of “total packages” by many hosting and Internet development companies, in which domain-name registration, software for design of a site or an online method of building a site, professional design of the site, and of course, the hosting are included. The users commonly use this, as it looks quite easy especially to the beginners.

But the story is different which brings problems afterwards. There is no road as paved “with gold” and this type of registration, hosting and design package deal is no exception.

The real problems emerge afterwards which are discussed below: -

1.On the popularity of a website, most of the host providers use to increase the prices. With increasing traffic there is no other option for a user than to pay more. Thus it forms a very big problem for larger business sites than for smaller business sites or “personal” or “theme” sites.

2. In the beginning some providers provide some “specials” but they are only for a limited amount of time, and rises with popularity of website.

3. Another major problem faced by a Web site owner is that his/her needs changes with passage of time and there arises need to change the package and then the user is confronted with problem of inability to change the pages on his/her own, another problem which puzzles is the inability to effectively track traffic, as some come with traffic statistics packages.

4.Another problem, which occurs after wards, is the Downtime i.e. when a site is down and can’t be viewed. This asks for change of host or change of domain name registrars.

5.Often situation comes when a Web site, registration, and web hosting package company suddenly disappears, leaving a client with no way to contact them. This not only causes loss of the registered domain name, but even the loss of revenues while the site is “down”.

6. The hosting companies make contracts which states that the “special” prices are only offered conditional i.e. which are applicable on remaining with a certain company and for a specified amount of time only.

7. The actual “name” of one’s site may not be even actually registered to “him” but to the hosting and registrar company that initiated the purchase through the package deal. By this way the Web site hosting, design and registrar packages “save” money several times for consumers, as they advantage of buying in bulk, registering hundreds of sites on a monthly basis.

The above problems can be easily resolved by simply switching to other Web site hosting and domain name registrar.

But wait! Wait! Wait! It’s not so easy as some hosting and domain name registrars don’t allow to “handing over” a site to any other company, as it means loss of customer or more interesting loss of money. The current hosting company tries all to create problem in the form of delays in transfer, by refusing to provide sufficient information to a new host or registrar to effectively conclude a transfer. Most worse is, if the name of a site has been registered to them.

At this point of time a real “nightmare” for the user starts. He tries all to get the response but all is vain.

There are several incidences, which shows that it’s really hard to shift to another provider.

One of the users named Rahul after much downtime wrote to the initial hosting company, and domain name registrar, stating his disappointment in the service. The response was quite annoying it was that he should either “like it or lump it” and that nothing is in their hands, as a contract was in place that could not be “broken” by any means. The language of the e-mail correspondence was quite harsh and uncalled for with no phone number for personal contact; even the name of the support person that wrote the e-mail was missing.

The site remained down consistently, as well, over the next few weeks, forcing Rahul to sign up for a different hosting plan with a different host, and also re-register the domain with another registrar. Thus it was just waste of time and money but still he was fortunate as the registration of the site was in his name and there was no need to purchase a new name. However at the time of transfer, old host refused to initiate a transfer, claiming that the contract remained intact, and therefore the site could not be transferred. Thus forcing the new hosting company to “maneuver” the site onto it’s own servers without the cooperation of the previous company and putting the unnecessary money burden on the user.

Chapter was not yet over, few months later Rahul was billed repeatedly by the previous hosting company for monthly hosting, even though a site no longer existed on their servers. In order to stop all the Copies of all correspondence had to be sent to the billing service to “dismiss” this recurrent billing, which was the only option left to Rahul at this point.

Thus it is not just one incidence but also one out of the many.

The following are some of the ways to avoid trap of these companies-:

1. One must read all paperwork and contracts thoroughly. The copy of the contract should be clearly visible and each word of the contract should be read thoroughly as this will help in saving from frustration and misunderstandings later on.

Not only this, one must make sure that the registration will be done in “his/her name”, as the loss of a popular name, at that moment when there is large amount of traffic, is a great loss for any user. Most preferable is that one should register his/her domain name him/her self. Registering domain is not a big deal with so many online domain registrars. The only thing one is supposed to do is that after buying a hosting package immediately he/she should change the “name servers” through the control panel provided by the domain registrar.

The best advantage of doing so is that if one is not satisfied with his/her hosting company and would like to shift to a different company, simply he/she is required to change the name servers to point to the new company.

2.In order to avoid problems afterwards one must sure there is a contact phone number and physical address for correspondence with the companies. As most of the times the both are missing and user is left with no option than to feel harassment as well as time and money loss as seen in above example.

3. One must do his homework properly before finalizing any hosting company. He/she must do proper research on different plans and different companies. One must check through references the image of the company and also must ask from their current customers about the support being offered at the time of crisis.

4. One must take time to correctly ascertain his/her own needs and the needs of any site he/she is planning to build. The package must be “as per requirement”.

5.It is most advisable to use different providers for each stage of a Web site: hosting, domain-name registrar, site building. As everything is online it does take longer to get a site up and running with this method, but the best part is by doing so the overall control remains with the user. If one is disappointed with the service of his/her provide simply he/she is required to shift to new provider and that is quite easy as to replace one is easier than to replace everything.

Thus it can be seen that sometimes “time saving” strategies are not really fruitful and they can lead to heartbreak and headaches afterwards. The moral of the story is “slow but steady” wins the race. So act wisely.