The history of the web hosting dates back to the time when the first program was written for the web in the year 1990 by Tim Berners Lee. After that the program was further developed and many companies joined in the effort to come to the present stage where there is still an exponential growth in the web hosting industry.
Now statistics reveal that there are more than 35,000 businesses that host more than 100 sites in their server. With the increasing competition day by day the industry is growing like anything. By the time you read this there would have been some 100s of companies added to the existing list.
The first program for the World Wide Web was that of a hypertext editor that was executed in the NeXT machine. And the browser used at that time was a “line mode browser” which was designed by a student Nicola Pellow.
The specifications of the HTML, HTTP and UDI were published on the server so that discussion can be had on these by the people who do research on this.
To access the web, clients that can work on the other machines other than the NeXT were needed and hence the browsers like Viola, Cello, Erwise, and Mosaic came into existence. The World Wide Consortium that was started in 1994 was the milestone where companies started to involve themselves in creating the common protocols for the Web and the new world of web began to evolve.
Earlier than this the software products also had features that used TCP/IP just for giving the networking feature for the product without knowing the future potential of this protocol. In the last few years of the discussion held in the IETF meeting there were lots of discussion going on to extend the TCP/IP protocols and the ways by which it can be extended.
The features of the tools required for this purpose were also discussed. Basic networking products were developed that provided connectivity and the basic services for the internet. The commercial efforts were limited to this initially. Then it became an essential service with the number of user growing exponentially and the products for the World Wide Web flowing in to the market. The developments in the technology also fueled this. Now with the latest developments in the technology there are many products for each of the technology that is available for the internet.
With the IT majors like the Microsoft, IBM, and the Sun Microsystems plunging into the internet market there are many products, languages, and tools available for use in developing the web applications. Web Servers that serve the user with the requested web pages and a host of features targeting the web are made available.
Power servers built by the hardware manufacturers also aid in the growth of the Web Hosting Industry. The internet has undergone a lot of change. From personal computers, to client server to peer-to-peer network it has changed a lot. File sharing, remote login, email and what not, everything is possible through internet. It has not completed its transformation as it is still in the process. Now with internet telephony and internet television the evolution keeps on happening. It’s hard to realize what is in store next!
Showing posts with label web. Show all posts
Showing posts with label web. Show all posts
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
VPS Web Hosting
Shared hosting allows thousands of people to host their own sites at a very reasonable cost. It has some drawbacks, however. Since hundreds of sites can be hosted on a single server resources such as CPU, disk space, and bandwidth have to be shared with your virtual neighbours.
Shared resources are usually not a problem for small to medium sized sites. Your main limitation is the lack of control over system level software – http servers, mail servers etc. You don't have any choice of operating system and you cannot compile programs or do administrative tasks such as setting up Spam filters or firewalls.
Many people would say 'So what? I don't want to do that stuff anyway!' It's true that the majority of website owners have no interest or ability to handle this kind of work and are happy to leave it to the hosting company. Those who desire more control over their server environment or wish to experiment with new software, however, can get access to this level of management with a Virtual Private Server.
A virtual private server (VPS) is a physical server that has been divided (using software) into several virtual machines, each acting as an independent dedicated server. The physical resources such as RAM, CPU and disk space are still shared, but each VPS acts independently of the others. Each VPS can have a different operating system and can be configured in any way possible.
The key advantage of VPS is allowing each VPS administrator access to the root level of his virtual server. This kind of access allows the administrator to install and delete software, set permissions, create accounts – in short, do everything that the administrator of a 'real' sever can.
As well as providing more control over your hosting environment, a VPS is more secure than shared hosting. Websites on a shared server all have the same operating system, so if a hacker were to find access to the root of the server he could damage any or all of the websites on that server. A VPS, on the other hand, is divided in such a way that even if a hacker were to gain entry through one account, there is no way to access the others. Each VPS is invisible to the others and there is no way to set up root level access from one VPS to another.
Virtual Private Servers can be set up in various ways so be sure to understand how the hosting company has allocated resources. The most common configuration is to divide all the physical resources evenly by the number of accounts. Thus, if there are 10 virtual servers, each would receive 10% of the total bandwidth, CPU, memory and disk space.
The disadvantages of VPS are almost the same as the advantages. The control that a VPS account provides can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. You have the ability to delete files, set permissions improperly, allow virus-laden software on the system and, in general, really screw things up. If you don't have the knowledge to administer a server, or are not willing to learn, VPS is not for you.
If your website has outgrown shared hosting, however, VPS offers an affordable alternative to dedicated hosting. When shopping for a VPS host, be sure to find out how system resources are divided up, the number of VPS accounts on each physical server, the method for upgrading, and the choices of operating systems.
Shared resources are usually not a problem for small to medium sized sites. Your main limitation is the lack of control over system level software – http servers, mail servers etc. You don't have any choice of operating system and you cannot compile programs or do administrative tasks such as setting up Spam filters or firewalls.
Many people would say 'So what? I don't want to do that stuff anyway!' It's true that the majority of website owners have no interest or ability to handle this kind of work and are happy to leave it to the hosting company. Those who desire more control over their server environment or wish to experiment with new software, however, can get access to this level of management with a Virtual Private Server.
A virtual private server (VPS) is a physical server that has been divided (using software) into several virtual machines, each acting as an independent dedicated server. The physical resources such as RAM, CPU and disk space are still shared, but each VPS acts independently of the others. Each VPS can have a different operating system and can be configured in any way possible.
The key advantage of VPS is allowing each VPS administrator access to the root level of his virtual server. This kind of access allows the administrator to install and delete software, set permissions, create accounts – in short, do everything that the administrator of a 'real' sever can.
As well as providing more control over your hosting environment, a VPS is more secure than shared hosting. Websites on a shared server all have the same operating system, so if a hacker were to find access to the root of the server he could damage any or all of the websites on that server. A VPS, on the other hand, is divided in such a way that even if a hacker were to gain entry through one account, there is no way to access the others. Each VPS is invisible to the others and there is no way to set up root level access from one VPS to another.
Virtual Private Servers can be set up in various ways so be sure to understand how the hosting company has allocated resources. The most common configuration is to divide all the physical resources evenly by the number of accounts. Thus, if there are 10 virtual servers, each would receive 10% of the total bandwidth, CPU, memory and disk space.
The disadvantages of VPS are almost the same as the advantages. The control that a VPS account provides can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing. You have the ability to delete files, set permissions improperly, allow virus-laden software on the system and, in general, really screw things up. If you don't have the knowledge to administer a server, or are not willing to learn, VPS is not for you.
If your website has outgrown shared hosting, however, VPS offers an affordable alternative to dedicated hosting. When shopping for a VPS host, be sure to find out how system resources are divided up, the number of VPS accounts on each physical server, the method for upgrading, and the choices of operating systems.
Monday, March 29, 2010
So You Want to Start a Web Hosting Company
Rather than use the services of a web hosting company to host your web site you could start your own web hosting company. If your business is successful this could provide secondary income and lower the hosting costs for your own site(s).
Basically, there are two ways to start selling web hosting. The first way involves leasing business space, buying equipment, setting up servers, leasing T1 or T3 lines to connect to the Internet, finding clients, and hiring staff to provide 24 hour support. Quite complicated and not recommended for anyone without the technical know-how.
The second way is to become a re-seller for an established host. For a monthly fee you can have an allotment of disk space and bandwidth which can be used to sell to other people. Re-selling is usually anonymous – there is no visible connection to the parent host and you are free to set your own prices and develop your own 'brand'.
All that is needed to become a re-seller is the ability to pay the monthly fee. All the technical details are handled by the parent company. The re-seller package usually includes everything – even name servers under your own name. All you have to do is to sign up customers and watch the money roll in. Easy – right?
Signing up customers, though, may not be as easy as you imagine. There are literally thousands of hosting companies competing for customers, and making your web hosting business stand out from the crowd is no mean feat. Just think about the process you went through in choosing your own web host. You probably visited several hosting web sites, maybe asked for personal references from your friends or business acquaintances, and then after narrowing down your choices, perhaps did more in-depth research on each of the companies. Or perhaps you just signed up with the first host you saw.
So, in order for your own hosting company to be successful it has to build up a good reputation or be easy to find. Advertising can make your company more visible, but advertising is expensive – especially in a competitive market like web hosting.
A re-seller account, however, may be ideal for certain situations. If you already have several websites of your own, your monthly costs may be similar to a re-selling account. For the same amount of money you could switch all your accounts to your own hosting company. Sign up a few friends or associates and you are ahead of the game.
If this sounds attractive, make sure you are going with a reputable hosting company. You will be entirely dependent on them for technical support. This relieves you of many of the headaches of running a hosting company but you are still responsible to your clients if their sites go down.
There are many types of re-seller packages. Some require you to operate under the name of the hosting company while others allow you to set up a shop under your own business name. Pay attention to the billing aspect of the package. Some re-seller accounts have everything you need to get started immediately, while others require you to set up your own billing gateway.
Basically, there are two ways to start selling web hosting. The first way involves leasing business space, buying equipment, setting up servers, leasing T1 or T3 lines to connect to the Internet, finding clients, and hiring staff to provide 24 hour support. Quite complicated and not recommended for anyone without the technical know-how.
The second way is to become a re-seller for an established host. For a monthly fee you can have an allotment of disk space and bandwidth which can be used to sell to other people. Re-selling is usually anonymous – there is no visible connection to the parent host and you are free to set your own prices and develop your own 'brand'.
All that is needed to become a re-seller is the ability to pay the monthly fee. All the technical details are handled by the parent company. The re-seller package usually includes everything – even name servers under your own name. All you have to do is to sign up customers and watch the money roll in. Easy – right?
Signing up customers, though, may not be as easy as you imagine. There are literally thousands of hosting companies competing for customers, and making your web hosting business stand out from the crowd is no mean feat. Just think about the process you went through in choosing your own web host. You probably visited several hosting web sites, maybe asked for personal references from your friends or business acquaintances, and then after narrowing down your choices, perhaps did more in-depth research on each of the companies. Or perhaps you just signed up with the first host you saw.
So, in order for your own hosting company to be successful it has to build up a good reputation or be easy to find. Advertising can make your company more visible, but advertising is expensive – especially in a competitive market like web hosting.
A re-seller account, however, may be ideal for certain situations. If you already have several websites of your own, your monthly costs may be similar to a re-selling account. For the same amount of money you could switch all your accounts to your own hosting company. Sign up a few friends or associates and you are ahead of the game.
If this sounds attractive, make sure you are going with a reputable hosting company. You will be entirely dependent on them for technical support. This relieves you of many of the headaches of running a hosting company but you are still responsible to your clients if their sites go down.
There are many types of re-seller packages. Some require you to operate under the name of the hosting company while others allow you to set up a shop under your own business name. Pay attention to the billing aspect of the package. Some re-seller accounts have everything you need to get started immediately, while others require you to set up your own billing gateway.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Finding The Best Host For Your Company’s Needs
So your business has decided that it is time to make its presence felt on the internet. You have your all your information ready, and you may even have created your website which it is ready to go live on the internet.
The next step is to find a web hosting provider, but how do you evaluate web hosting, and then make a choice on which provider to pay your hard earned money too?
Choosing the correct host for your company’s needs is a very important step, if not the most important step when taking your business online. The host you choose is responsible for placing your website online, and keeping it there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is nothing worse for a business to have a website that is not accessible by your customers, if your site is not online it has the potential to cost you a sale, and also sales in the future, if a prospective customer attempts to go to your website only to find it offline, the chances of that customer ever returning again are very slim.
Ok, so what should I look for in a web host?
There are several factors that you will need to evaluate before making your short list of hosting providers, below I will outline the most important aspects that you will need to cover.
1. Firstly you will need to evaluate the requirements of your website. Will you need shopping cart facilities, what type of content will your website be providing, what methods of payment will you offer, you will also need to think in to the future as well, will you need the ability to expand the site, taking a business online is a very big step and should be a long term step as well so you will need to think long term with your planning. Write a short list of what your website will require to properly function.
Details you will need to account for.
Disk space and bandwidth. Disk space refers to the amount of storage your web host will provide you to store your website. You will need to account for the current size of your website now, and also allow for what disk space you will require in the future as your website grows.
Bandwidth refers to the amount of data (pages, files) served from your website to your customers, if your website will be subject to high traffic, you will need to take the amount of bandwidth the host provides.
Also you will need to check what programming languages your website will require, languages such as PHP, Perl/CGI, JSP, Cold Fusion and ASP may be used on your website to perform certain functions, and your chosen web host will need to support the programming languages that your site requires.
Now that you have a list of your requirements, it is time to narrow down your list of providers that support all the features required.
2. Contact each of the hosts you have on your list, confirming what they offer and if it meets your requirements, also ask for a list of references you can contact, some of the best information about a web host can be gleaned from its customers, the question you should ask an existing customer is; “how reliable is the host?”. This question is the most important; it refers to two things, reliability of their hosting when it comes to serving of your website, and also refers to reliability of their mail system. Reliability of their mail system is just as important as serving of your website.
3. Technical support, test it out, call the web hosts technical support line at various times of the day and check how long it takes to get through to support staff, also send technical support an email to test how long it takes to receive a response. If you are on hold for 30 minutes waiting to talk to support about a problem with your website, that is 30 minutes that your site is offline, and also 30 minutes of your own time wasted with which you could be performing more productive jobs.
Finally you should choose a host that meets your expectations and with whom you feel comfortable with, approach choosing a web host the same way you would any other major business decision, because after all it is your money paying for the service.
The next step is to find a web hosting provider, but how do you evaluate web hosting, and then make a choice on which provider to pay your hard earned money too?
Choosing the correct host for your company’s needs is a very important step, if not the most important step when taking your business online. The host you choose is responsible for placing your website online, and keeping it there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There is nothing worse for a business to have a website that is not accessible by your customers, if your site is not online it has the potential to cost you a sale, and also sales in the future, if a prospective customer attempts to go to your website only to find it offline, the chances of that customer ever returning again are very slim.
Ok, so what should I look for in a web host?
There are several factors that you will need to evaluate before making your short list of hosting providers, below I will outline the most important aspects that you will need to cover.
1. Firstly you will need to evaluate the requirements of your website. Will you need shopping cart facilities, what type of content will your website be providing, what methods of payment will you offer, you will also need to think in to the future as well, will you need the ability to expand the site, taking a business online is a very big step and should be a long term step as well so you will need to think long term with your planning. Write a short list of what your website will require to properly function.
Details you will need to account for.
Disk space and bandwidth. Disk space refers to the amount of storage your web host will provide you to store your website. You will need to account for the current size of your website now, and also allow for what disk space you will require in the future as your website grows.
Bandwidth refers to the amount of data (pages, files) served from your website to your customers, if your website will be subject to high traffic, you will need to take the amount of bandwidth the host provides.
Also you will need to check what programming languages your website will require, languages such as PHP, Perl/CGI, JSP, Cold Fusion and ASP may be used on your website to perform certain functions, and your chosen web host will need to support the programming languages that your site requires.
Now that you have a list of your requirements, it is time to narrow down your list of providers that support all the features required.
2. Contact each of the hosts you have on your list, confirming what they offer and if it meets your requirements, also ask for a list of references you can contact, some of the best information about a web host can be gleaned from its customers, the question you should ask an existing customer is; “how reliable is the host?”. This question is the most important; it refers to two things, reliability of their hosting when it comes to serving of your website, and also refers to reliability of their mail system. Reliability of their mail system is just as important as serving of your website.
3. Technical support, test it out, call the web hosts technical support line at various times of the day and check how long it takes to get through to support staff, also send technical support an email to test how long it takes to receive a response. If you are on hold for 30 minutes waiting to talk to support about a problem with your website, that is 30 minutes that your site is offline, and also 30 minutes of your own time wasted with which you could be performing more productive jobs.
Finally you should choose a host that meets your expectations and with whom you feel comfortable with, approach choosing a web host the same way you would any other major business decision, because after all it is your money paying for the service.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Dedicated Hosting Award Program Call for Entries
Top 10 Dedicated Server Hosting providing providing Dedicated Hosting Reviews to clients, Consultancy and Training to Web Hosting Providers and End Users, announced here today that Call for Entries is open for 2008 Dedicated Hosting Award Program.
Submissions are now being accepted for the following categories and subcategories:
- Server & O/S Hosting
IBM AIX, AS/400, HP-UX Linux, Solaris, VMware, Windows
- Database Hosting
IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server Cluster, MySQL Oracle 9i / 10g / 11g, Oracle RAC
- Application Hosting
AspenTech, BEA WebLogic, Blackberry Enterprise Server, Citrix, Custom Software, IBM WebSphere, Lotus, Microsoft Exchange, SupportSoft, Verity Hosting, VMware
- Service Provider Hosting
Application Service Provider (ASP), Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Solutions By Industry
Construction, Education,Energy/Utilities, Financial, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Marketing/Media, Retail/Distribution, Technology,Transportation
There will be separate award for each category and subcategory and an overall best dedicated hosting provider Award for an outstanding service provider who continues to inspire the industry.
To submit an entry, please visit: Dedicated Server Hosting Awards
The options in managed dedicated web hosting have exploded in recent years. Dedicated servers are now available at prices even the smallest businesses can afford, and the future of Web Hosting is Dedicated Servers.
Top 10 Dedicated Hosting Website (http://www.Top10DedicatedHosting.com) categorically defines Dedicated server hosting providers as Cheap Dedicated hosting, Best Dedicated hosting and Managed Dedicated services based on both Linux and Windows platforms and offering options such as Celeron, Pentium 4, Dual Xeon, Xeon Quad Core, Kentsfield, Conroe, Woodcrest and Clovertown Processors, Dual Core AMD Opteron, cPanel, Plesk, WHM, Redhat, Debian, FreeBSD, CentOS and Windows 2003
Submissions are now being accepted for the following categories and subcategories:
- Server & O/S Hosting
IBM AIX, AS/400, HP-UX Linux, Solaris, VMware, Windows
- Database Hosting
IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Server Cluster, MySQL Oracle 9i / 10g / 11g, Oracle RAC
- Application Hosting
AspenTech, BEA WebLogic, Blackberry Enterprise Server, Citrix, Custom Software, IBM WebSphere, Lotus, Microsoft Exchange, SupportSoft, Verity Hosting, VMware
- Service Provider Hosting
Application Service Provider (ASP), Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Solutions By Industry
Construction, Education,Energy/Utilities, Financial, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Marketing/Media, Retail/Distribution, Technology,Transportation
There will be separate award for each category and subcategory and an overall best dedicated hosting provider Award for an outstanding service provider who continues to inspire the industry.
To submit an entry, please visit: Dedicated Server Hosting Awards
The options in managed dedicated web hosting have exploded in recent years. Dedicated servers are now available at prices even the smallest businesses can afford, and the future of Web Hosting is Dedicated Servers.
Top 10 Dedicated Hosting Website (http://www.Top10DedicatedHosting.com) categorically defines Dedicated server hosting providers as Cheap Dedicated hosting, Best Dedicated hosting and Managed Dedicated services based on both Linux and Windows platforms and offering options such as Celeron, Pentium 4, Dual Xeon, Xeon Quad Core, Kentsfield, Conroe, Woodcrest and Clovertown Processors, Dual Core AMD Opteron, cPanel, Plesk, WHM, Redhat, Debian, FreeBSD, CentOS and Windows 2003
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