What is Web Hosting?
Web hosting is the act of renting space
and bandwidth through a company so that you may publish your web site
online. You can either opt for free hosting that is usually supported
with banners and pop ups, or may opt to get paid web hosting, which
gives you complete control over your site contents.
Back
to top |
 |
What is virtual hosting?
Also known as shared hosting, this form of web hosting should suffice
for most everyone. Virtual hosting simple refers to the fact that your
site is on one server, and that this server hosts mulitple sites. You
are virtually shared - your site will not be the only one on
this specific server. Very few sites would actually need the power of a
dedicated server, so this option provides to be a reliable and cheap
solution.
Back
to top |
|
What is a domain name?
A domain name is a word along with a TLD
that uniquely identifies your website. Please visit our domains search
page for more information.
Back
to top |
|
How do I register a domain name?
First you will have to make sure that the
domain you want is available - using our domain name search engine,
you can make sure the domain
you want is available for registration.
Afterwards, you simply need to visit our registration page to
order your domain name.
Back
to top |
|
My host offers unlimited bandwidth/space/transfer
It is
not possible for a web host to offer 'unlimited' bandwidth or
diskspace. Such hosting plans always come with clauses that restrict
how much bandwidth you can transfer at a given moment, how much CPU
usage you can use (which is arbitrarily decided), and so forth.
We recommend you visit UnlimBand
for more details.
Back
to top |
|
What exactly is space and bandwidth/data transfer?
Diskspace is the size your website can be.
Every single letter on your website has to be stored somewhere on your
web host's server. Each letter is one byte, and a megabyte is roughly
one million bytes. HTML pages are usually very small, but it is the
extra images, scripts, and even databases that can take up large
amounts of disk space.
Bandwidth/Transfer is the amount of data the server will allow your
site to send in a month. Transfer is usually measured in gigabytes -
billions of bytes. Once you go over your monthly limit, a host may
either shut your site down for the remainder of the month or it can
charge you 'overage.' This overcharge is 8.50 per
extra gigabyte of transfer and 8.50 per extra 50 megabytes of disk
space. See our Plans
and Prices page for additional information
Back
to top |
|
What do I need to do to put Flash on my website?
Flash is a client side feature - it runs
on the user's computer, not on your web host. As long as the user's
browser has the correct plugin installed, it will run on their computer.
Back
to top |
|
How do I track how many hits my website gets?
There are a few things that need to be cleared in terms of terminology:
- Hits - this simply refers to the number of 'elements'
loaded on your site. If one page has five images in it, viewing that
page once adds 6 hits (one page + five images).
- Impressions - the number of times all the pages on your
site are seen (also simply called pageviews). Impressions are sometimes
referred to as 'hits' which can cause confusion
- Uniques - the number of people that visited your site
So to clarify, if I visit your website, look at two pages, and each
page has 5 images on it, then your stats increase by one unique, two
page views, and 12 hits.
Tracking on your site can be either done server-side or remotely. With
server-side statistics, log files are used to generate visitor
information. This is usually much more accurate than remotely hosted
solutions. In such cases, you usually have to add some javascript to
your site. This javascript is then used to track visitor data.
If your host provides it (and many do), server-side statistics are a
good solution. Otherwise, companies like Site Meter can be used to
remotely track your visitors.
Back
to top |
|
What are PHP, ASP, perl, etc?
These are all programming languages which are referred to by their
acronyms.
PHP - PHP: Hypertext
Preprocessor
ASP - Active Server Pages
Perl - not an acronym
Each programming language has its own benefits and uses. It is best
that you research on your own to find one that best fits your needs.
Back
to top |
|
What is MySQL, MS SQL, etc?
MySQL and MS SQL are database systems. Depending on what your host
provides, you can use a database to organize your data.
Back
to top |
|
Do I have to change my domain if I get a new host?
No. Provided that the domain is registered
in your name (as it should be), you can simply update your namservers
(from where you manage your domain names) to that of your new host.
Back
to top |
|
Will there be forced advertising on my site - things
like banner ads or popup ads?
Not at all. You are paying for webspace
that is only yours - no one may put ads on your site except you.
Back
to top |
|
What is Domain Parking?
Domain parking lets you buy a domain and
then have a 'coming soon' page on it. This is not needed - if a domain
is not parked it will simply be iinaccessible to anyone.
Most domain registrars provide this by default.
Back
to top |
|
How can I pay for web hosting?
This depends on which host you decide to go with. Most web hosts will
accept credit cards, and some will accept PayPal
and/or a Money Order / Check.
Back
to top |
|
What is PayPal?
Simply put, PayPal lets anyone with an email address send money to
anyone else with an email address.
Each user signs up with PayPal and then enters their necessary banking
and credit card information. Once registration is completed, your email
address is all you need to send and receive money.
PayPal is owned by eBay.
Back
to top |
|
What are subdomains?
Consider subdomains as an extension of
your domain. For example, your site is www.example.com. A subdomain
would be test.example.com, and another would be webhosting.example.com.
Subdomains are usually treated as separate sites from the main domain
site.
Back
to top |
|
How do I upload my site online?
Uploading your site can be done in many ways, but the most popular is
FTP.
When your hosting account was created, you should have been provided
with an FTP account. Using software such as CuteFTP or WS_FTP, you can log into your
host. Then, using the program like a normal windows program, you can
drag and drop files onto your web host. These files become live online
instantaneously.
There are other ways to upload your site such as using SSH or uploading
files through your browser.
Back
to top |
|
What is uptime?
Uptime is literally what it means - it is the amount of time your site
is online throughout the entire month.
The best uptime would be 100%, but because things can break, many hosts
offer 99.9% uptime guarantees. This means that if your site is not
accessible for more than 43 minutes in a single month, they will
reimburse you, depending on their terms of service.
Back
to top |
|
What is the difference between UNIX hosting and
Windows hosting?
Depending on which operating system to go with depends on your needs.
If you need to support Microsoft products such as ASP, MS Access, or
VBScript, then Windows hosting would be better. Furthermore, if you are
comfortable with IIS and do not have the time to understand how UNIX
works, Windows hosting would again be a better choice.
There are some things to
remember.
First of all, just because you use Windows at home does not mean you
should use Windows hosting. The two are completely different, and
having a Windows system at home will not affect your ability to
communicate with a UNIX server.
Secondly, Linux is much more common with web hosts due to its superior
stability and because it is free. Since it is free, Linux hosting is
usually cheaper than Windows. Just because it’s free does not mean it’s
not as good - Linux is an excellent product too.
Back
to top |
|
I have a fast internet
connection (DSL/cable) - can I just host my own site?
You could, but that’s definitely not
recommended.
First of all, most ISPs have clauses that do not let you use your
internet connection for web hosting - doing so will result in
termination of your account.
Second of all, think of the headaches it can provide: making sure your
system is secure so that no one can hack into it, having your computer
on 24/7, and other such problems.
Third of all, think of the performance. Most good web hosts use
powerful servers with lots of RAM and high performance hard disks.
Furthermore, they have multiple internet connections at speeds far
higher than what residential DSL or cable service can provide.
Lastly there are all the issues of support. If something goes wrong, it
will be your job to fix it - you will not have a professional to
correct the problem.
Back
to top |
|
Why would I need a dedicated IP?
For most people, a dedicated IP is not required. But for people that
want to provide anonymous FTP or a website using SSL, a dedicated IP
can make that easier.
Back
to top |
|
Why don't I just go with the cheapest hosting?
At times you will come across deals that are almost too good
to be true - cheap web hosting with amazing features!
There are hosts that while offering cheap prices do back that
up with excellent performance and service, but there are things to be
noted:
- Look very closely to what is written in their terms of
service (TOS) and acceptable use policy (AUP) documents. Some hosts try
to limit the activity of the customer through these two.
- Unlimited bandwidth or space, offering either of those two
as unlimited is not possible.
- The quality of bandwidth and the overall performance. Some
hosts scrimp on these to give you cheaper prices. Do a self test -
visit the host's website multiple times in a day to see that it remains
fast loading.
- In general, Windows Hosting is more expensive than Unix
hosting.
- Test out the support, and take a look over the online
documentation. If you are paying less than $10 a month (which is
roughly 30 cents a day), do not expect to receive an answer right after
email the host. Many hosts now offer flash tutorials online which can
be an excellent way to learn how a feature works.
- Do some research - visit google.com
and WebHostingTalk and
look up feedback on a host.
Just because a host is cheap does not mean that you will receive 'cheap'
service, but you must be careful.
Back
to top |
|
I am using too much bandwidth! Is there anyway for me
to make it less?
In most cases, yes. You should first try to optimize the graphics on
your website. Many GIFs look just as good with fewer colors, and many
JPEGs look just as good with a higher compression level. NetMechanic
offers an image
optimizer program online.
You should also analyze the HTML of your site. Make sure you use
relative paths, so that images are not downloaded more than one time.
Remove any extra spacing and when linking to other pages, use relative
paths and not absolute links.
While many hosts already have it, you could also see if your host has
mod_gzip installed. This can save you a lot of bandwidth. Best of all,
optimizing your page like this makes the user experience better as your
site will load faster for them!
Back
to top |
|
|
|
|
