Web hosting

But fear not my fine blogging friends, for I shall throw some Harry Potter magic at this and attempt to make this complex subject easy to understand. I hope, I hope, I hope.

Let’s start with the basics. What is web hosting?

In its most basic form, web hosting is the act of buying or “renting” space on a computer or “server” to place your web site files so they can be viewed on the Internet. It’s like renting an office or an apartment.  You pay a company a fee for using a computer that is connected to the Internet. For that fee, they will provide you with disk space, bandwidth, email services and an array of tools you will need to take care of your blog or web site.

Simple right?
Now, I’m not going to get into the real techy stuff in this post. I run the risk of putting you into a mid-day nap and in the end, it really won’t mean that much to you anyway. But there are a few things you should know so you don’t get stranded along the Information Super Highway.

Pricing: Cheap web hosting is scattered all over the Internet. But is this the only element to consider when picking a company to host your blog or web site? In my humble opinion, price is one of the last things you should consider. Reliability, great customer support and easy-to-use tools are a few key areas you should look at before pricing. Companies like Hostgator, Blue Host and Dream Host offer very reasonable prices for their hosting packages. Plus they back up those prices with great support and reliable service. Most companies are unable to provide that level of support.

If you’re someone who is fortunate enough to have boatloads of traffic and are beginning to earn a sizable income from your blog or web site, I suggest that you consider a VPS (Virtual Private Server) or dedicated server. These options cost more than shared hosting, but they give you more flexibility, stability and control. Something you definitely need as your blog or web site grows.

Customer Service: Time to do some web hosting recon. Head on over to the web hosting company’s web site you’re considering using. Check out if they have the following: a toll free number,24/7 chat, and a forum.

Now we all know that a company can say anything on their site to get you sucked in, but let’s put it to the test, shall we?

First, fire up the chat and see how responsive they are to a question. Need a question? Ask the chat operator this: “How frequently do you back up your servers and how long does it take to restore if a server crashes?”

You’re looking for two things here. First, how long it takes for the rep to come up with the answer and two, how long does it take to get the server back up!!!  The question demonstrates to the rep that you’re not just some average web hosting shopper, so the rep may be more responsive. If it takes an unreasonable amount of time to get an answer, it may be an indication of the overall service you’ll get when you are a customer.

Your next test is to call the company’s toll free number and ask the same questions. You’ll learn how long it takes for a live operator to get to your call and if the operator knows his (or her) stuff. If you have to wait forever on the phone and the rep gives you the, “um, well, uuuuu, let me look that up” bull-speak, take note and think hard before signing up with that company.

Next, dig though the company’s forum. Don’t spend a ton of time on this, but do take a few minutes to see what customers are saying. If there is trouble in River City, you will see it here!

Hosting Control Panels: Make sure the company uses cPanel for the client side hosting management. You can ask about this when you are on chat or on the phone, but most likely it will be posted somewhere on their web site.

cPanel is hosting software that allows a client to manage email, ftp, files and numerous other tasks related to your website or blog. It’s a point and click interface designed for the most novice user. If they don’t offer it, you might want to look away. Why? cPanel is a widely used hosting panel that many web masters and IT professionals use. So if you ever need help, an expert is not far away. There are also dozens of tutorials available online if you ever get stuck and just need a little help.

Some companies, like 1&1 and GoDaddy, have developed their own in-house hosting control panels. I recommend staying away from companies that offer their own best of breed control panels. Or maybe I should say…RUN FOREST RUN!!! Reason? I find them clunky, slow and difficult to use, especially for a novice user. And they seem to be set up more as an up-sell portal than a web hosting control panel. But hey, that’s my two cents worth.

No matter what company you go with, you will always have issues. Period. For $5.00-$10.00 per month you are not going to get the Amazon.com up-time and lightning fast responses. You are sharing server space with other web site owners and bloggers that may upload something to the server. That high volume activity will bring up-time to a screeching halt. That’s a risk you take. Unless you pony up the big dollars for a massive server farm, it is what it is.

Back up: Here are my last babbling words of infinite wisdom. No matter what, I mean no matter what, you and you alone are responsible for your web site files and backing them up. I’m not going to get into the details of how to back up your web site in this article. Just trust me when I say, you need to do it yourself. If you are using WordPress however, I do recommend Backup Buddy as a fool proof back up.

If the hosting company has a server crash the day you are going to be featured on 60 Minutes, you best have Plan B in place!!

In conclusion, web hosting is something all businesses need if they are going to have a site or blog on the web. And in most cases, you won’t give it two seconds of thought. It’s the days when crap hits the fan that you hope you have picked the best company to help get you back up and running.

Til next time kiddies, rock on!

Now, FTP may not sound like the most exciting thing you could read about, or watch a video on for that matter. Frankly, it’s not the most exciting thing to write about OR make a video on either. However, setting up an FTP site, more specifically Dreamweaver FTP, can make life as a web master or blogger a lot less stressful. FTP, or “File Transfer Protocol” is nothing more than a fancy acronym for the way to files can move from one computer to another over the Internet.

The reason I picked Dreamweaver as my FTP software is because it’s all I have used over the last 10 years. Yes, there are plenty of other FTP software products available: FileZilla, Cute FTP, just to name a couple. But to me, Dreamweaver is the tool of tools for the biggest chunk of the users across the globe. Now, many “Gear Heads” will tell you dreamweaver sucks, it’s too slow, it adds too much crap code to sites, blah, blah, blah.

Hey, if you’re one of those high end users (code cruncher) and you like to write all your code line by line, that’s awesome! But for the vast majority of site owners that need this level of access to their sites, Dreamweaver is by far the best.
This video demonstrates how to setup your files on your PC or MAC, create an FTP account in cPanel and get your dreamweaver FTP setup correctly. Easier than a two word crossword puzzle!
Enjoy rock stars!

Finding the best WordPress hosting company to keep your WordPress Blog or website up and running is an important part of building your online business. But with so many options to choose from, how can a small business owner ever find time to sift though the mountains of information available?

Enter The Web Trainer!. With ten years of experience in the web hosting industry, I have tried and reviewed dozens hosting company, talked with customers, industry leaders and have found one with the best service and most value:

HOSTGATOR!

And here is why. They can provide 99.9% uptime level guarantee mainly because they use only brand-named technologies to ensure high quality and reliability. Their server response time is really fast. Servers are based in various data centers around Dallas, Texas. And thery are considered by many to be best the WordPress hosting provider available. And frankly, their customer service is something ALL companies, not just technology companies, should model. I find myself comparing other companies to them when I need support.

1. Best Value Offer: $7.95 for “Baby” Plan if your pay for one year, you get to host unlimited domains
2. WordPress Blogs: Fantastico 1-Click WordPress Installation & Upgrade

If you want to save a little coin, use this promo code: “thewebtrainer“. And nothing beats a little savings! Rock on!

So, if you are looking to get your first hosting account or move from the crappy provider you have now, check out one of the best WordPress hosting providers here!

And now, a little about the different types of web hosting.

For would be website owners and authors, uploading your files to the server maybe as simple as it sounds but it goes beyond that. The time spent in uploading files is the tip of the ice berg. Choosing an efficient web hosting company can make or break your website. The web hosting company is the backbone of the data that you are asking them to keep. This data needs to be available all the time at break neck speed connections. Mistakenly chose a web host that is not capable of doing the job and the site is bound for the graves. Even if it has the best content and graphics if the web host cannot deliver the demands of the site, it will all be at lost.

Shared Web Hosting

By the word shared this means there is a sharing of website on a single server. This type of package is most common amongst less demanding websites that are more on text and little on graphics. This web hosting package shares the hardware and the connections to the other websites being hosted on the server. This website can range from a couple of hundreds to the tens of thousands that will be sharing for the hardware. The website that is being hosted at this type of web hosting is bounded by a quota of hard disk space and bandwidth. Since there are many websites that are hosted in the server, a client should expect that the website could lag due to the server’s slower response time.

Virtual Private Server Hosting

This type of web hosting is just like the shared hosting package that shares the hardware resources of the web server but this provides the clients more control of the website. The data are still stored on the same computer but with lesser hosted websites since the hard disk of the host server is partitioned to each website. This process in turn can dedicate an individual Internet Protocol or IP address to each partition.

Reseller Web Hosting

Commonly a reseller web hosting package is similar to shared web hosting. They are just called reseller since this goes through a third party booking and not the web host company itself. There are web hosting companies that offer discounts to resellers who are typically website designers and authors that include web hosting as part of their services.

Dedicated Web Hosting

This type of web hosting is the most expensive type of web hosting package. Since dedicated hosting handles only one website per server, the website owner absorbs all the cost in maintaining the website such as power, hardware, line connection and technical personnel – unlike in Shared and Virtual Private Server Hosting wherein the cost can spread out to the websites that are leasing the server. This package is advisable for demanding website parameters such as e-commerce and customer relations management sites that are data intensive and a slow connection would mean loss sales.

• Open Outlook
• Go to Tools on the main menu
• Then click Account Settings
• Pick the account you want to change or create a new account.

View the images below for the correct setup:

When this is set up, click the “More Settings” button

Then click the “Outgoing Server” tab.

NOTE: Make sure the “My outgoing server (SMTP) requires authentication.” box is checked.

Then click the “Advanced” tab.

Make sure the “Incoming Server (POP3):” is set to 110 and the “Outgoing server (SMTP):” is set to 26.
Click OK, then test account.

You should be good to go!

There are 900 possible combinations for two letter sequences. If you’re looking for “ET” then you just won’t find it! Even allowing for digits, again every single web address is taken. Of course, that’s ignoring the fact that .COM registrars now mandate a 3-character minimum length, so it wouldn’t be an option.

Many of the three-letter sequences are taken. Adding digits to a domain name creates a number of garbage domain entries. If you’re dying to acquire great domains and unique domain names, they’ll free up sometimes only to be auctioned off through unique domain name sales.

The longer the domain name that you choose, the more that the possibilities are that it could be available presuming that you’re willing to accept an arbitrary sequence of letters and/or digits. For example, most organizations have 4 letter acronyms (WQAM.com and AFTA.org so you may have a chance using over 4 letters to get the domain name that you want in acronym style!

Of course many of the registered domains are never visited, with a huge percentage having nothing more than a “parked page” (users pay domain registrars to put up ads for themselves on these type of parked pages). There are so many combinations and back door tricks to domain name cataloging and classification until the possibilities are endless.

The rule is to obtain a domain name that closely resembles who you are about which gives you and identity and brand on the internet.  To find a great value on domains, try the World’s Largest Registrar – GoDaddy.com

Here is a breakdown of the current doamin statistics: