What is Web Hosting Faq

So you’ve built your website and all the files are still on your computer. When you get your site online it can be viewed by anyone that has an Internet connection. To get your site online you need a web hosting service. Not all Web hosting companies are equal therefore you need to do some research up front to select a reliable one. To demystify what web hosting is all about here are 4 frequently asked questions (FAQ):

1. How do I choose a web host

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What are the Steps to Host a Website


So you’ve built a beautiful website and want to market it to the world. To do this you need to choose a web host so you can upload your files to a server for it to be displayed on the web. This can be quite a confusing process if you have not done it before. Instead of wasting time asking for advice from other people or reading through several tutorials I’m going to outline the steps so you can do it yourself.

Requirements to host your website

Domain name
Choose a domain name that reflects your business or products if you can’t get a .com domain name of your choice try using different keywords that relate to business. The best domain name is one that’s short, easy to spell and remember.

Web hosting provider
Select a web hosting company that has been in business for a number of years. Make sure you have enough space and bandwidth to host your website files. Check the response times of technical support by calling or e-mailing them. If they don’t respond within 24 hours search for another web host.

Website files
Place all your website files in one folder on your computer so they are easy to find and can be quickly uploaded to the Web server.

FTP software
This is used to transfer files from your computer to the server on your web hosting service. If you don’t have FTP software already installed on your computer download Filezilla or SmartFTP. They’re both free and easy-to-use.

What are the Steps to Host a Website

1. Check your web hosting information

Here’s the important information your Web host should provide for you:

* Type of hosting plan you purchased
* Cpanel login info (web hosting control panel)
* Nameservers
* FTP info
* Amount of space and bandwidth
* IP address
* Mail servers

2. Change your nameservers

You need to point the nameservers of your domain name to the nameservers of your web host. If you’re using a domain name registrar such as GoDaddy, log into your account, go to the domain name manager to find the domain name you registered with them, then replace the current nameservers with the ones given by your web host.

It will take 24 to 48 hours before your domain name becomes active and enable uploading of your files to the server.

3. Upload your files to the server

* Open the FTP software (I use SmartFTP)
* Place your website address in the address box (e.g. yourdomain dot com)
* Enter the FTP username and password you received from your web host
* Activate the FTP software. This will open 2 document windows
* The first window will show the website files on your computer
* The second window will show the files on your server
* Transfer all your computer files to the server by dragging and dropping them from the first window to the second window
* Make sure you transfer all your files to the public.html folder on the server (this may vary between hosts)

4. Check the appearance of your live website

Enter your full website address in the browser to view your website. Navigate through all your web pages to check for errors. Make sure there are no broken images, broken links or other design elements missing. Sometimes files don’t get properly transferred when they are FTPed to the server.

Tip
If you’re transferring your website from one host to another make sure you back up your website files (including your database and e-mail accounts) before initiating the transfer. This will allow you to return to the original configuration should you make any errors while transferring the files.

Related Articles
How to Choose a Hosting Company That’s Reliable
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Get an affordable, reliable web hosting service that’s packed with all features you’ll ever need by visiting: Web Hosting Company in Maryland

Web Hosting Options: Free, Shared, Dedicated or Reseller

How do you know if a web hosting service will be reliable throughout the lifetime of your website? If it doesn’t function well you could easily lose sales, service or subscribers.

Web Hosting Options

Before choosing a web hosting company first research the different options. For example you don’t need to purchase a dedicated server for a 5 page website. It will have more space than you’ll ever need and you’ll be paying a high price for it. Make an informed decision so you won’t break your budget.

Types of web hosts

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How to Choose a Hosting Company That’s Reliable

How to Choose a Hosting Company

Your web hosting service enables your website to have a home on the Net. When you upload all your web site files to the server it goes live for all the public to see. An unreliable web host can cause your website to be offline. This results in losing money through lack of sales and/or obtaining new subscribers from your website.

[Read more…]

Web Hosting – How to Choose a Reliable Web Host

Say you a running a marketing campaign to drive thousands of visitors to your web site. The server from the web hosting company you chose goes down so your web site goes offline. You lose time, money and customers…an ugly thought but it can happens if you made the wrong choice.

Types of web hosts

Free web hosting

Free web hosts usually incorporate advertising to cover their costs of providing free web space and associated services. The other down side is that free web hosts often disappear because they can’t support the free services they offer. This will result in your web sites and email suddenly disappearing. Also technical support is often non-existent which is a must if you want reliability.

If you don’t need a professional domain name but wish to have an online presence, set up a free blog at wordpress.com or blogspot.com. The company provides free hosting as long as your web site remains with them.

Shared web hosting

This is the most common because it allows the web hosting company to host multiple web sites on one server. Beware of those companies offering unlimited space and/or bandwidth as too many web sites on one server will quickly use up all the resources. This may result in your web site disappearing or loading slowly for for your visitors.

Dedicated web hosting

If your web site needs a huge amount of space and bandwidth opt for a dedicated server. It allows your site to use all the resources it needs since it will be the only one on the server (unless you choose to put other sites there). It typically costs over $100/month or more so make sure you need it before making your selection. Sites that need this type of server may have 1000s of pages, images, data, videos, audio etc.

How to Choose a Reliable Web Hosting Company

If you wish to establish a professional online presence invest in a commercial web hosting company. It will be free of ads plus you receive the many services that come with it.

Features of a reliable web hosting company

1. Speed and reliability of servers and hardware

If your web site goes down you’ll lose visitors and sales because they’ll just click to another web site. Make sure the server has 99% uptime. This means your site will be online 99% of the time. Allow 1% downtime for server hiccups and upgrades.

2. Backup Systems

Good hosts will have back-up systems in place to guard against power failures, which will cause you to lose data and customers. Typically web hosts will do daily, weekly and monthly backups.

2. Fast technical support

Check the response time of technical support. Most will respond within 24 hours or less through email or phone support. This is crucial if your site suddenly goes down. It’s always a joy to experience fast, friendly, knowledgeable technical support.

3. Disc space and bandwidth

If you have a static html web site of 10-20 pages it doesn’t need much space. 75-100MB of space and 3GB of bandwidth will be sufficient. Make sure you have the ability to upgrade to a larger plan should you need it.

Database-driven web sites (ie content management systems) may need large amounts of web space and bandwidth as they grow. If you intend to host lots of videos on your web site look into getting a dedicated server.

4. Type of server

The 2 types of servers are Windows and Apache. I recommend Apache because it is less expensive, reliable and contains many features that are needed for running a web site. These include blocking email harvesters, creating 301 redirects, creating error pages, installing php scripts for contact forms,
protecting your images, blocking IP addresses etc.

5. Control panel

This allows you to manage your web hosting account e.g. create email accounts, autoresponders, check site statistics etc.

6. Check features

Here are some of the typical features to look for when hosting your web site or blog:

* At least 100MB of allocated space
* At least 3GB bandwidth
* Site statistics
* Free Technical Support
* POP3 E-Mail Accounts
* Email Forwarding
* Email Auto-responders
* Email Aliases
* FTP Access
* Front Page Support
* Own CGI-Bin Access
* Free Perl, CGI
* Server Side Includes (SSI)
* Password Protection
* 30 day money back guarantee

7. Price

Don’t go for the lowest priced host as you often get what you pay for. First determine what your needs are then look at pricing. Check how long the company has been in operation, test the support response time and look at the features it offers.

If you follow these basic guidelines, you will have a reliable, efficient and satisfying hosting service that will contribute to the success of your business for many years to come.

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Check out my affordable web hosting plans at: http://www.isitebuild.com/hostingplans.htm.

The servers provide daily, weekly and monthly backups, 99% uptime, site statistics, email accounts and many other features.

How to Backup mySQL Database With phpMyAdmin

Have you ever lost all your computer files because you didn’t back them up?

It’s a sickening feeling when you can’t restore thousands of files collected over several years of work. The same thing can happen to your forum, blog or CMS web site that uses a mySQL database to store information. One of the easiest and most full proof backup methods is to use phpMyAdmin.

How to use phpMyAdmin

Go to cPanel->mySQL databases->phpMyAdmin and choose your database.
Click on the Export link.
Choose Select All to select all the tables.
Select “SQL”->for output format.
Check “save as file”
Select gzipped and hit Go to download the backup file.
Save it to a folder labeled “backupFeb08” so you know when you created the last backup.

Create a backup the first of every month.

How to restore a backup of a mySQL database

Click the SQL tab
On the “SQL” page, unclick “show this query here again”
Browse to the backup of the database on your computer
Click Go.

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Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Site Design, Web Hosting, Search Engine Optimization

Receive fresh, in-depth articles articles on how to design, optimize and promote your web site by subscribing to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter at: http://www.isitebuild.com/

How to Backup SQL Database – 4 Top Methods

If you have installed a blog, forum or content management system (CMS) such as Joomla on your server you will have installed a mySQL database. One day without warning your server may crash and you’ll lose all your files. This is why it is important to create a backup of database and files.

If your web site only contains html files it’s very easy to restore them because they are stored on your computer. You simply need to upload them to the server.

Methods of backing up your SQL database

1. Web hosting providers – Most web hosting providers backup all files on their server. My server gets backed up daily, weekly and monthly. Check with your web host to see how often they do backups.

2. Backup software for your forum, blog or cms

Most CMS web sites that use databases have their own backup system software. e.g.,

a) WordPress has a plugin (http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/) where you can select how you want the backup to be delivered:

* Save to server : this will create a file in /wp-content/backup-*/ for you to retrieve later
* Download to your computer : this will send the backup file to your browser to be downloaded
* Email : this will email the backup file to the address you specify

b) Joomla has an extension called JoomlaPack (http://www.joomlapack.net/). It’s a component that creates a backup of your whole site (files and database) in the form of a single archive. In order to help you restore this, it also adds an installer. All you have to do to restore your backup is follow the regular Joomla! installation procedure: unpack the archive, upload files, point your browser to the installation script, follow the installation screens and you’re ready.

c) Simple Machines Forum
(SMF) allows you to create a backup of the forum database within the admin panel.

3. Cpanel backup

Use the MySQL Database Wizard to download a zipped copy of your entire site or parts of it onto your computer.

The following are backed up and included in a zip file:

* Home Directory
* MySQL Databases
* Email forwarders configuration
* Email filters configuration

To access the MySQL Database Wizard login to:

www.domain.com/cpanel
files
backup wizard
save the files to your local drive

4. phpMyAdmin

read my next post

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Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Site Design, Web Hosting, Search Engine Optimization

Receive fresh, in-depth articles articles on how to design, optimize and promote your web site by subscribing to his “Marketing Tips” newsletter at: http://www.isitebuild.com/