Web Concepts

WordPress announced the release of the new version 2.1-Ella. This is a major version release and we encourage everyone to read the information about what has changed in this version, as well as the details upgrade instructions for upgrading to WordPress 2.1.

Also, here is a listing of WP Plugins that are compatible with this newest version - also listed there are plugins that are NOT compatible with WordPress version 2.1 - - make sure you read that information as it applies to plugins you may have installed on your WordPress blog.

We strongly recommend that you follow the threads in the WordPress Support Forums regarding major issues that users are having after upgrading to version 2.1 - - read through these issues before deciding to proceed with the upgrade. Typically, after such a major release - - they will release another version shortly that addresses any major bugs found only after several thousand users have upgraded and reported back with the issues. Please keep that in mind before jumping on the upgrade bandwagon.

As always - - back up your data before you proceed with an upgrade! We cannot stress this strongly enough. Yes, we do keep backups of your account - however, please read our Terms of Service as it pertains to the restoration of your back ups. We will restore the first back up for no charge - - after that, if you continue to experience issues due to failing to back up your own data, there will be a charge for each instance of back up restoration to compensate for time involved and the server resources it utilizes with each occurrance. You are able to create a full back up of your account via your CPanel - login and find the ‘BackUp” icon - - click that and follow the instructions on the creation of a back up file. This way, if the installation goes wrong, you have a full and complete back up that you can restore via your CPanel, as well.

Tags: WordPress, WordPress 2.1, WordPress Upgrade, CPanel, Blogs About Hosting

Original post by Administrator

hosting, web hosting, hosting provider, free hosting, cheap hosting

Original post by lemon tea

There are thousands of Web Hosting Companies out there and counting. How do I choose the ideal plan for my Web Site? The key here is to understand what your Web Site’s needs are. Once you know what is required, you can eliminate many options. These are the most important points that you need to focus on:

Determine the requirements of your site.
Choosing an Operating System.
Choosing between Shared and Dedicated solutions.
Determine which hosting company is better.

So, what are the requirements of my site?
Answer all the following questions. If there is any question that you do not know the answer to, try to work with your Web Designer. If you do not have a Web Designer, try to ask any Web Hosting Provider. If you do not understand any of the terms, see Web Hosting Terminologies at http://www.sirunet.com/WebHostingTerms.com.

•How much Disk Space does your Web Site require?
•How much Monthly Transfer (Bandwidth) do you need?
•Is a Database required? If so, what Type of Database is required for your site?
•What Scripting Languages does your web site use?
•Does your site require Servlet Technology (Server-side scripting language)?
•If so, What Servlet Technology does your web site use?

Some of the questions above may have approximated answers. Try to do your best and it will help you when choosing your hosting provider and plan.

Most of the sites out there need less than 100 Megabytes (MB) of disk space. Notice that one Megabyte is equivalence to eight Megabits, so do not be fooled by numbers. If your web site is not for heavy media downloads, in most cases you do not need more than 10 Gigabyte (GB) of Monthly Transfer. There is an equation that can be used to calculate your bandwidth:
Monthly Transfer = Monthly Visitors x Average Hits per Visitor x Average Page Size

Unless you have a web site hosted already, otherwise it is impossible for you to determine the site’s monthly visitors and average page hits per visitor. So lets put this aside for now.

There are many types of databases. The most commonly used database types are MYSQL (Windows & UNIX), ODBC (Windows), and MS Access (Windows). By knowing what type of database you use, it will help you decide which Operating System to go for.

The most popular Scripting Languages are CGI and Perl. While most of the web hosting plans include these as standard features, you do not have to worry too much here. Note: some Free Web Hosting plans DO NOT support scripting languages.

Choosing a Web Host with Servlet Technology is very hard because it is not commonly supported and even for those who say they support it, they do not have sufficient technical support. The most commonly used Servlet Technologies are Active Server Pages (ASP) and Java Server Pages (JSP). While JSP is best supported in both Windows and UNIX environment, ASP is currently well supported only in Windows. Although Sun Java System

Active Server Pages do work on UNIX environment, it is still in testing stage as of July 2004.

What Operating System should I go for?
Windows based hosting plans are usually more expensive than those are UNIX based. Why would I need Windows Hosting then? There are many factors. If you use ODBC or MS Access database you may be required to use Windows Hosting. If you use ASP you may be required to use Windows Hosting. If you or your Web Master is more familiar with Windows environment you may consider using Windows Hosting. If you do not need any of the above, I would recommend you to use UNIX based Hosting. Why? Because they are much less expensive in terms of service fees and software licensing than Windows Hosting. Windows hosting are often slower than UNIX hosting in performance. If you have two servers with exact hardware specs, one in UNIX and the other one in Windows, the UNIX server will have better performance in terms of speed, reliability, and security.

Should I use SHARED hosting or DEDICATED hosting?
There are only a few reasons that you will need dedicated hosting. Your site contains sensitive information that you need better security and dedicated hosting does that. If you need flexible software support, you should consider dedicated hosting. If you need total control over your account, you should consider dedicated hosting. If you need to host a large web application, dedicated hosting is your choice. So who should choose dedicated hosting? Any Web Sites that need any of the above should choose dedicated hosting. If you do not need any of the above, I would recommend you to use shared hosting because it is more cost effective than dedicated hosting.

Hints on choosing a Web Hosting company
Ok. Now I know the requirements of my Web Site and which type of hosting to choose, but how do I know which Web Hosting company is better? There are two factors that you should focus on. First, check if the company offers all the things your Web Site needs. Second, check if the company is reliable in terms of services and support. The only way for you to know if a company is reliable is to try them, so sign up for the plans that have at least 15 days Money-back guarantee. This way you can always cancel the account if you do not feel comfortable with the company. How would you know if they have what you want? Well, the best way is to ask them. Make sure to provide them all of the requirements of your Web Site. There are other ways to know more about the companies, such as finding reviews on hosting community sites. But the reviews are often misleading, thus the best way is still trying it yourselves.

To summarize, make sure to know both what your Web Site needs and what Web Hosting companies are offering before making your final choice.

About the Author

Shawn Si, is an editor and Marketing Director of Sirunet.com, a leading ecommerce enabled web hosting service provider. He can be reached at shawn@sirunet.com

Original post by lemon tea

Where can I find free web hosting?
There are hundreds of free web hosting services on the web. You can type “free web hosting” into any major search engine and get an expanded list. However, when you sign up for free hosting account, you are basically signing an expanded advertising agreement.

What exactly is free hosting?
In exchange for free hosting, the company can place ads your website. The ads can be placed on the top of the main page, the top of every page, or on the sides. The ads are usually not targeted. It is possible that they won’t match the demographics of your web visitors. In addition, they are not customized to match the content on your web page.

This is a very expensive exchange program if your goal is to build up an online business. The area above the fold, everything that is visible without scrolling, is the most effective advertising area on the entire site. This is the area you should use for your affiliate links, Google Adsense, paid links and expanded site navigation.

Some free web hosting contracts go a step further and ask for your participation in their email marketing campaigns. You will receive emails that require a click through to a merchant site, and/or fill out endless surveys. This can be very time consuming and annoying.

Before you sign any free hosting contract ask to see sample sites. You want to get a feel for the types of ads that are being shown on other website. What do you want to look for?
1. Do you see pop-up ads? What about banners?
2. How large are the ads?
3. Are they just off topic or are they inappropriate?
4. Where are the ads? Are they on every single page or on selected pages?

Even if the ads are not on every page, watch out. It could mean that the hosting service has figured out which pages bring in the most revenue and they can afford to ignore everything else. Guess what? If it brings in lots of revenue for them, it could probably bring in lots of revenue for you.

There’s free and then there’s FREE
If the space is free, what about the domain name?

If your new site will look like http://yoursite.freewebhost.com you’re getting a subdomain for your site. It’s not really your unique domain name. They are simply loaning you a space for your stuff.

This is not a unique domain name that you can use to brand your business. You can’t use it anywhere except with this particular web hosting company. Ditto if the new domain names is http://www.freewebhost.com/yoursite/.

So what if they offer a truly unique domain name?
How long will it take before you actually own the domain name? Even the cheap web hosting services will require that you stay with the company for thirty to sixty days before you can keep a free domain name.

What happens if you want to switch to another company before the period is up? Sometimes there’s a charge to keep the domain name or to transfer it. This should be clearly stated in their FAQ’s or in the text of the hosting contract before you agree to use their service.

Do you have enough bandwidth?
Many free web hosting services are providing their services in such a way that you will need to upgrade your hosting package if your site has any degree of minor success. The tipping point is usually bandwidth. That is a measure of how much text, pictures, ftps etc. you can send to your web customers every month.

The Bandwidth in your contract is measured on a monthly basis. Check the contract to see if there are any fees for going over your monthly amount, or if you will lose your free hosting privileges.

Free host today, no host tomorrow
There is a very high turnover for free web hosting services that heavily depend on advertising revenue. Even the most successful web companies will find that their advertising revenue varies on a monthly basis. Will the company suddenly go out business if they hit a three month slump?

There should be a written policy on what happens to your content if they site suddenly goes out of business. Can you still access your files? Is there an alternative URL or login site with your information? How much time do you have?

You are only as reliable as your hosting service
Check out the statistics on the uptime for their servers. This applies to any hosting service, whether you are paying or not. If their uptime is in the low 90’s and below, then try to find another hosting provider.

You are taking a big risk if you use a free web hosting services for your business site. The inability to control your advertising, high turnover rates among the free hosting providers, and variable contracts usually spells disaster for e-commerce sites.

To run a successful online venture, 24-hour live customer service, high uptimes ratios and control of your advertising space is a must. These features are also the major weaknesses of the average free hosting provider.

A better option for you company would be to sign up for an affordable or cheap web hosting provider. You will have many service options in this category and can usually avoid the limitations of the free hosting companies.

Syd Johnson is the Executive Editor of RapidLingo.com, a Financial Solutions Website. This article may be freely distributed as long as the author’s bio is included with an active link to http://www.rapidlingo.com

Tags:
hosting, web hosting, free hosting, free web hosting

Original post by lemon tea

What are the chances of you waking up tomorrow and finding your web host and your website gone? Actually much higher than you may think and there are several reasons for this. For starters, the number of web hosting businesses these days is extremely high and growing all the time. This means that there is increased competition. In this kind of scenario only the fittest will survive. It is the law of the jungle and the law of life too. It means that hosting businesses that do not carefully think through their business plan and strategy are in great danger of soon finding themselves out of business.

Competition usually ushers in something else that is also a great danger to the survival of any business. And that is a price war. Many hosts are trying to outdo each other with the price they offer for hosting. Low prices work because some people are only looking for the lowest price. We fail to realize that a low price puts considerable pressure on any business and more so a web hosting business which is dependant on so many other outside services. It makes it a lot harder for them to pay their bills and sustain their hosting enterprise. This is not to say that higher priced web hosts cannot go belly up on you. They definitely can, especially when they do not have a solid business plan and strategy for survival. There are so many things that can go wrong. Even the hosts who charge an arm and a leg for a tiny amount of bandwidth can easily go out of business. They can fail to get enough clients to sustain their enterprise.

What all this means is that it is very important for every online entrepreneur to take precautions. Look for a hosting company that has been in business for many years. Look for a web host that has in-house employees and is not dependant on the whims of an out-sourced support company based in another country. Be sure to regularly back up everything on your site, just in case.

These are some of the reasons why using a directory becomes useful as you are able to gather some information from a third party with their names at stake. This should help you smell out a bad deal much quicker.

About the author:
Lois S. is a Technical Executive Writer for http://www.websitesource.com and http://www.lowpricedomains.com with experience in the website hosting industry.

hosting, web hosting, hosting provider, hosting company, web host

Original post by lemon tea