cheap hosting reseller hosting dedicated server best news

Kari Byron: Mythbuster's Proofing Moonlanding Isn't A Hoax

2008-09-01T07:25:00.000-07:00

In the upcoming episode of Mythbusters, "NASA Moon Landing", the Mythbusters debunk the notion that NASA never landed on the moon.

Part one of the amaging video:

Mythbuster's Proofing Moonlanding Isn't A Hoax

Watch the mythbuster's busting the biggest myth of them all..
The moonlanding!!
This is the first part..

Watch part 2 of the mythbuster's busting the biggest myth of them all..
The moonlanding!!

part 3:

Media hosting:Need to know some basic

2008-07-26T14:25:00.000-07:00

Hosting media requires much more than your average bear… well… website… From a web hosts point of view, it requires a powerful server, with fast hard drives and lots of fast RAM, and quite a large port (internet connection) to the server. This is so people can access the media on the server quickly and enjoy their music/video/radio/glowing pool of light without having to worry about long downloads or buffering. Having all of this can be very expensive and so a good media host will cost more than a standard shared host.

So now I’ve explained the plight of web hosts when it comes to media hosting, what do you get out of it? Well hopefully an understanding that the first host you see with the cheapest plan and most amount of space and bandwidth, won’t be able to provide you with a really good service designed for media hosting as someone else. So here is what to look for when you look for a host, this will require some time on your part to talk to the web host you are looking at:

Space: Remember, whatever media you host, it’s going to be much bigger than a small static website.
Bandwidth: Also bear in mind that you will be transferring large files to your users. This will soak up bandwidth.
Server Specification: A fast server, with plenty of RAM and fast Hard Drives will give your site better performance than one that has less RAM and low speed Hard Drives.
Server Port: Bigger is better. This means that you can transfer your large files to more users, faster. Just remember from my last post, this may be shared with other users!
Acceptable Usage Policy: And finally, the AUP of the host in question. Some hosts like to limit their users per day on how much bandwidth they can use or how much of the server they can use it. If in doubt, read *CAREFULLY* through the AUP and Terms of Service.

Remember when looking for a host to follow the steps in my previous post. Media hosting is much the same as Shared hosting but it requires more expensive equipment and services. This can make it somewhat specialised. Some specialist media hosts will also provide a media player with their packages. This can be a web based Flash Video player similar to what you see on YouTube or Live Video.

File hosting:Alternative of Rapidshare

2008-07-26T13:48:00.000-07:00

Do you like to share your files with your friends? Do you frequently use free file storage? If yes, which website you normally go? Here, i list out top 10 free file hosting server for you.

Are you still using Rapidshare? Rapidshare1 provide a search engine to search any files host in Rapidshare server. But, after you finish download a file, you have to wait for some times before download second file. And sometimes i found that the servers load are quite high until i get a few kB/s for my download speed.

So, why not we try to use other free file hosting service? Some of the website even not set any limitations. They allow multiple file download at same time and allow you to use download manager.

Among the 10 file hosting, i like FileFactory most, because it always give me stable speed and i no need to wait in order to download second file. If you want to know more information about them, please visit this article, they compare the PageRank, Alexa rank, and space provided of the listed file hosting servers.

I believe they offer better service than Rapidshare. So, i hope my readers can try them and give some comments here.

Top five image hosting server and service in the world

2008-07-23T13:57:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of Top 5 Images hosting services which gives you free storage space for photos and videos for your blog and website.

Flickr:
Flickr is a Yahoo owned company which it acquired 2 years back. Flickr is now one of the most preferred sites for online sharing of photos. For a free account in Flickr, you have a limit of 100 MB per month for uploading. This actually depends on the bandwidth and not on the actual size of the photos. You can also opt for a pro account which comes for $24.95 per year. Flickr provides widget which can be integrated with your blog or website. Flickr is also the award winning photo sharing site.

Photobucket:
Photobucket is another popular image and video sharing site. The free account gives you 1GB space and a monthly bandwidth of 25GB. Photobucket Pro accounts are available with no Ads, 5GB storage, Unmetered bandwidth, 2240×1680 image size, 10 min videos, FTP uploads. Premium support, Enhanced widgets and a 10% discount on prints.

Picasa Web Albums:
Picasa Web Albums is owned by Google. You can sign in to Picasa using your Google account. It offers 1GB free space and if you need more space there are lot of plans suited to your needs starting from $25 USD per year. Picasa is also available in 18 different languages. Picasa is software that makes it easy and fun to view, organize, edit and share the digital photos on your PC.

Imageshack:
Imageshack provides an easy to use image hosting service. You don’t need to have an account with Imageshack to host your images, you can upload the images and save the links to images for viewing. Regular registered accounts are also available to arrange images according to albums. Imageshack is popular because of its ease of uploading photos. Most of the major image types are supported by Imageshack.

Yahoo Photos:
Yahoo Photos is one of the oldest in image hosting services. You can log in Yahoo photos with your Yahoo account. Yahoo photos is closing down soon to make way for Flickr.

Image hosting server:You have to consider the following

2008-07-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

Images can say more than a thousand words. There was never a more truthful saying than this. Images make your posts livelier giving users a clear picture of what you are trying to explain.

Not only do images spice up your posts it also allows you to depict in a visual way what you want to explain to your readers. I tend to use a lot of images while I write how to articles allowing the user to have a view of what exactly they need to do.

While hosting your images you can either choose to host it on your own server or use a third party service like Flickr or Image Shack. There are certain advantages and disadvantages in choosing either of these options.

Here is a detailed comparison which will help you make a decision on where you should host your images.

Page Load Times

Self Hosted Images

Self hosted images have a faster load time since your web server does not have to access multiple resources to download and display the images. Page load times are very critical since a user attention span is less than 10-15 seconds. So having self hosted images definitely helps you to cut down on load times.

Third Party Hosted Images

When you are hosting images on a third party server the web server will have to wait for the third party server to relay the images back to them thus putting an extra strain on load times. Many a times a third party server may be slow to respond and your page load times get affected because of this.

Bandwidth Usage

Self Hosted Images

When you host images on your own server there will be an additional use of bandwidth to display the images, if you have a limited bandwidth with your hosting account, this may cause you some problems if you get lots of visitors.

Images consume a lot of bandwidth and you have to very careful about this while choosing to host your images on your own server.

Third Party Hosted Images

Hosting images on third party images does not consume any additional bandwidth on your server. If your web hosting package provides you with low or limited bandwidth you should choose to host your images on a third party server.

Again there may be a cap on bandwidth for the image on the third party server itself, so you need to check their bandwidth policy about hosting images.

Disk Space Usage

Self Hosted Images

Another one of the problems you could face while hosting images on your server is disk space usage. Images consume a lot of disk space and you need to have a good hosting package which provides you with large disk space to host your images.

Third Party Hosted Images

When you host your images on third party servers you do not have to worry about disk space usage. Also since there are many such image hosting providers that allow free image hosting you can easily host your images on them without having to worry about disk space.

Reliability

Self Hosted Images

There is a certain sense of reliability while hosting images on your own server. For one you can always be sure that your images will be displayed to the user since it resides on your own server.

Also even if you decide to move servers your images will move with you. You do not have to worry about the images not showing up in your content when you host the images on your own servers.

Third Party Hosted Images

This is where third party hosted images loses, there is absolutely no certainty that your images will be shown to the users. There are various factors which could cause this -

The third party server is having a down time
The third party server deleted your images without informing you
You exceeded bandwidth limit on the third party server
You exceeded disk space limit on the third party server

These are just some of the reasons why your images may not be displayed. But you have to know that when you host your images on a third party server there is absolutely no guarantee that it will always display on your site.

This could create a problem when images play a important part in what you are trying to explain, without the images the whole content can suffer.

These are some of the things you need to think about while hosting your images.

E-commerce web hosting

2008-07-15T02:43:00.000-07:00

One of the fastest growing sectors of the Internet is eCommerce. People are becoming accustomed to buying things from Internet store fronts and every year the volume and value of sales increases substantially. If you would like to open up your own eCommerce web site here are a few basics to get you started.

The first thing you need, obviously, is a product or service that you can sell. If you already have a brick and mortar store you can offer the same items for sale on a web site. The number of products that you sell is a big factor in the type of hosting package you need. If you have let’s say less than 20 items, you could set the whole thing up on a very small hosting account. Listing hundreds of products is a different story – you will probably need more disk space, more bandwidth, and more features such as databases and a secure connection for accepting payments.

Since the most important part of eCommerce is getting paid, let’s look at the various payment options available. There are two basic options – collecting payment information directly or hiring a third-party service to process credit cards.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)

If you are planning to get or already have a merchant account that enables you to process credit cards you need to have a web site with a secure connection. This provides a way to encrypt sensitive data so that it cannot be intercepted and read as it travels across the Internet. If you don’t have a secure connection (indicated by https at the start of a web address) forget about collecting credit card numbers – customers are too web savvy to post sensitive financial data on an unsecured web site.

In order to get a secure connection, you need to apply for an SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate. These are issued by companies such as Thawte which require you to supply verifiable information concerning your identity and location. Once you have the certificate it must be installed on your web site. For this you need to have a unique IP address – available at an extra cost from most web hosts. There may also be a fee to install the certificate.

Third Party Gateways

If all this sounds too complicated, you have the option of going with a third party service that handles financial transactions for you. To complete a sale, customers are usually redirected to the web site of the payment service where they provide their credit card details. Some of these services have setup fees and charge a commission on each sale, while others (like PayPal) are free to set up and simply take a percentage of each sale.

Shopping Carts

Shopping carts are scripts that can be installed in your hosting account. They can automate the whole eCommerce experience by organizing your products into categories, creating pages that describe categories as well as individual items, allow you to keep track of returning clients, suggest other items for the customer to buy before they check out, and allow them rate the products they have bought.

Shopping carts can provide a more satisfying shopping experience while providing a structure for your online business. Many hosting packages include free shopping cart scripts such as Miva, Agora, osCommerce, and Zen. When choosing an eCommerce package, make sure it supports your preferred method of payment gateway. For example, if you already have a merchant account with your local bank, use that as your starting point for choosing a shopping cart which supports that particular payment method.

Move your web host without any downtime of your site

2008-07-15T02:31:00.000-07:00

Changing hosting companies could be for a variety of reasons. Either the hosting company is not good enough or the hosting setup is just not right for your blog or you are realigning your portfolio. Don’t ask me yet what I mean by that last one, I will tell you guys one day. Whatever your reason, if you are looking to change your blog hosting provider then simply follow the steps listed below and you should be good to go.

Did I mention having no downtime is important? I guess I did not, to me that is implicit. After all downtime means lost business, lost credibility and more importantly lost rankings. Yes, downtime can and will affect your SERP’s. This is why it is critical to select the right hosting company, one that is known for its consistency and support.

Back to moving your blog. Follow these steps in the order listed below. I’m assuming that you are hosted on Linux and have Cpanel as your control panel.

First would be to take a backup of the existing blog. Let’s start with all the files. I use FileZilla as my ftpclient and find it really good. Its free and reliable and really simple to use. Download the client version and connect to your current blog hosting provider. Download the entire contents of your “public_html” folder onto your local machine. Yes, the entire “public_html” folder including the themes, plugins and the admin files.
Next is the database backup. You need the latest and greatest version of your database. If you are using the database plugin from Il Filosofo then you should already have a database backup file created on a regular basis. I always set the frequency to daily and set it up to be sent to my email. You can get the plugin from here ( http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup/ ) if you don’t have it already and want to use it going forward.Generating the latest backup directly from your CPanel / phpMyAdmin is a straightforward process. Log on to your hosting account, select “MySql Databases” and launch “phpMyAdmin”. The link to launch “phpMyAdmin” is all the way down at the bottom of the page. Select all the options as shown below and export your database backup.
Now its time to setup your new hosting account. I’m assuming you’ve already done the review and selection process and selected a hosting plan that best suits your needs. One important selection criteria to choose a blog hosting provider would be the option for a one touch install of your favorite blogging platform (WordPress in our case). Many offer this option as part of Fantastico but only a few offer the latest version of WordPress (2.5.1). I’ve always found HostGator to be really quick in updating their hosting setup to accommodate the latest releases from WordPress.You should already have access to your new Hosting Account and CPanel to continue. Launch CPanel and click on Fantastico and create a WordPress blog. The database name will never be the same unless you have the same username and it does not matter. Do a quick check to see if your blog is installed correctly by launching your blog from CPanel. Remember you have not yet changed your DNS and so you cannot use your domain name yet.
Now that you have the shell of your WordPress blog installed its time to import your backup. Lets start with the database. Go back to your new hosting account CPanel and launch “phpMyAdmin”. You will see that you have one database in there which is your blog database.Select the import option on “phpMyAdmin”. Select your database backup file and click on the “Go” button. If you’ve done everything correctly so far then the database should be imported without any errors.
Next its the turn of the files. Use FileZilla and connect to your new hosting account. Navigate to the public_html folder and upload the entire contents from the backup you took earlier in step 1 EXCEPT for the wp-config.php file. The “wp-config.php” is found directly in the “public_html” folder and take care to avoid overwriting this file. This file has your new database and login details and must be left alone. Overwrite every other file from your backup. Set the overwrite option to yes so that all existing files are overwritten.This should not take more than a few minutes depending on your internet connection. Once you are done uploading the files you are 95% done. Yes, that’s all there is to it. The only step left to do is to change your domain nameserver information. Before you do that launch your website from CPanel and check if your blog is exactly the way it should be.
Finally when you are finished double checking your new blog, simply log on to your domain registrar control panel and change your name server information to point to your new hosting account. I debated to include a screenshot for this but then decided against it as there are too many domain registrars out there and most have detailed steps on how to change your website’s nameserver information.Once you’ve changed the nameservers you probably have to wait 24-48 hrs for it to propagate. It usually will be a lot sooner but waiting 48 hrs is best. Ping your domain from your command prompt at frequent intervals and you will see if your domain IP Address has indeed changed.If you run a really popular blog you might want to take another database backup from your old blog and import it back into your new blog to ensure all the latest comments are captured and transferred as well.

That’s all there is to it. Following the above steps should enable you to migrate your blog over to a new hosting company or plan without any downtime and keep all your subscribers happy. Changing your blog’s hosting provider is a big step but not necessarily a complicated one.

Bookmark this page, you never know when you are going to need it. Do come back for more tips on website hosting and don’t forget to subscribe to this feed.

10 tips for choosing a good domain name for your company

2008-07-10T14:07:00.000-07:00

Top 10 tips for choosing a good domain name for your company:

Contain your company/brand name.
Does not contain hyphen or numbers (unless necessary or they are part of your brand)
Easy to spell. Should be able to spell correctly just by listening to it.
The lesser the words, the easier to remember and more valuable the domain name will be.
Always make .COM your first choice. If it is taken, then only go for .NET, .BIZ or other general TLD or country code TLD (if your company is based in Malaysia, register .com.my NOT .co.uk or .com.sg).
Descriptive. People should be able to get a hint about your website or business from your domain name. If it contains key terms, it may help in search engine ranking.
With the price of domain getting cheaper, anyone can afford to register multiple domains just for one website. Especially for domain with generic names, don’t just register .com only, register .net, org, .biz, .com.my, etc… as well.
Proof read it. Make sure your domain name cannot be read in other ways that brings totally different meaning or worse, embrassing meaning .Make sure the domain name is not a trademark of another company. Legal battle of domain name dispute is not pretty. To make sure you have a clear name, check it with your attorney or a trademark company.
If your desired domain name is taken by someone else and you have the budget, offer to buy the domain name from the current owner. Who can resist a good price? A good place to start is at Sedo.com.

I am sure it is getting harder and harder to get a domain base on the above tips. So my suggestion is reverse the process. If you are a new company, search for the available domain names and register the domain name first before you choose your company name. You don’t want to spend millions of RM on branding and find out all the good domain names have been taken by someone else.

If you already have a company name, for example; Acme Sdn Bhd and it is in pet food business but acme.com is already taken by someone else then you might want to consider registering acme.com.my or acmepetfood.com or even both.

Domain name choosing tips:Issues you have to consider while choosing a domain name

2008-07-10T11:25:00.000-07:00

Search Engine Optimization begins when you choose a domain name for your web site. This statement is not just hype as search engines seriously consider your domain name and other parts of the URL to determine Keywords your Web pages are most relevant for. Even if you have a well-established site, or your main site is named after the brand and the Keywords are not present in the domain, using additional domains for promotion can increase the relevancy.

As our main purpose in site optimization is to become visible and attract traffic from search engines, we should use all available methods towards this aim.

Domain name is a name chosen by a site owner to be used as the URL or web page address instead of the numeric IP assigned by the domain name registrar.

Your domain name, the URLs of your pages and your title tag are some of the most influential factors for your search engine rankings. Thus, choosing a domain name is an important step for obtaining a high ranking for your site. Experienced optimizers suggest looking at your domain name if you want to improve your search engine optimization. The definition of domain name is as follows – it is a name chosen by a site owner to be used as the URL or web page address instead of the numeric IP assigned by the domain name registrar. At this point, if you are at the website building stage and choosing a domain name you should follow the suggestions we will subsequently describe. If you are working with an established site, it's a good time to rename your pages so that the URLs contain the proper Keywords.

Your domain name, the URLs of your pages and your title tag are some of the influential factors for your search engine rankings.

This topic is spoken about so much because when choosing a domain name people use words suitable to their business or tastes. Your company name or any word which doesn’t belong to your Keyword phrase area is not effective until your company is already well known. But in other situations it will be silly to ignore your Keywords or create a page that is next to impossible to remember or type manually. Use your domain name as one technique to improve your search engine optimization. The conclusion is that you should try to use a domain name which contains your Keywords (those you've found during your preliminary research). Here should be a Keyword phrase that can describe your product or service. The process of choosing a domain name is rather time-consuming, as you should find the proper name and make sure it will promote your site and assist in optimization.

Domain name is a name chosen by a site owner to be used as the URL or web page address instead of the numeric IP assigned by the domain name registrar.

There are more advanced technologies for choosing a domain name if you do some research beforehand. In this case, it is helpful to test the chosen domain name on sample pages. You must verify whether they bring traffic from search engines or not.

4.
If you have chosen a domain name, continue by registering this name, then set up the file structure and page names, and begin developing the content of your pages for site optimization. Here it is very important to optimize the internal site structure and content and so on for the chosen Keywords and Keyphrases.
5.
Another good way to choose a domain name deals with obtaining an already existing name. In this situation you will gain many advantages with your new domain name. There will be backlinks and traffic from the search engines that will be a great asset for you to obtain if you register a new domain name. Sometimes sites with new domain names need half of a year to obtain such results in the major search engine ranking.

Domain name is a name chosen by a site owner to be used as the URL or web page address instead of the numeric IP assigned by the domain name registrar.

But of course if you choose a domain name with Keywords you may encounter some drawbacks and objections:For example, Keywords in the domain name may look too unprofessional, and you (or your client) have already registered a domain, so it's too late to change.

This situation can be solved thru an optimal solution which is to get another additional domain name which contains your Keywords. This additional domain name you must redirect to your main website.

Your domain name, the URLs of your pages and your title tag are some of the influential factors for your search engine rankings.

Adding Keywords is also good for the naming of your pages. Use Keywords in the URLs of your pages as this is important for the search engines. You need to bear in mind that search engines rank pages, not sites.
8.
There's a widespread opinion that solely stuffing URLs with Keywords will lead to really good rankings. The situation has changed and now this method is not very effective anymore, with the exception of Inktomi. That being said, having your Keyword in the URL in your domain name and page URLs will be an added bonus, though not a decisive factor. Many other factors are important for a high ranking in the major search engines. Usually for indexing, engines consider many more factors than those they can find on your pages.

If we look more closely at the process of ranking by search engines, the relevance of off-the-page and many on-the-page factors will be visible. In order to enhance the popularity of your site for search engines you should pay attention to the balance of link exchange, text used in links that point to you, what the Page Rank of the linking pages are, whether the page is present in some directories under related categories, etc. The spider will consider all these factors before putting your page into an index.

Domain name is a name chosen by a site owner to be used as the URL or web page address instead of the numeric IP assigned by the domain name registrar.

If you have decided to properly populate URLs with Keywords, you need to remember some rules. First, search engines cannot separate the Keywords from one another if they are written together in one word (except in some cases like Yahoo). As has already been mentioned, choosing a domain name with Keywords is just as important as the domain name. And the most ineffective scenario is to use a page name that has no Keywords at all. Of course, there are methods of also improving on this type of situation. At this step, if you already have a fairly large website, you might start looking for a solution to rename all your pages and keep the link structure working.

This process can be executed with the help of some useful programs. Macromedia Dreamweaver offers a solution with its "Change links sitewide" feature. Web CEO’s built-in HTML Editor also has a Find-and-Replace function which you may apply for multiple pages of your site to rebuild the links.

Your domain name, the URLs of your pages and your title tag are some of the influential factors for your search engine rankings.

Choosing a Domain Name with targeted Keywords and Keyphrases has one more advantage: when a site links to you using your domain name as the anchor text, this link gives you more weight on the search engines for the Keyphrase used in the link anchor text. Directories such as DMOZ and Yahoo often won't let you specify the anchor text of your link - they'll use the site's name. This is the case where choosing domain names rich with the Keywords again help.

So speaking about domain names it is important to underline the next main points: your site needs to contain strategic Keywords and Keyphrases in the URL of your home page and try to use page-related Keywords and Keyphrases in the page names, following the same principle.

Top ten cheap web hosting for you

2008-07-08T13:38:00.001-07:00

Cheap web hosting is sometimes our consideration.Many new comers want good web hosting in cheap web hosting.I wish the list can give you an idea on the market trend.Cheap doesn't always comes with bad impression.Many web hosting company can give cheap rate quality hosting because of their market volume and large investment.As this is a competitive market many big company offers law price to keep their business running and expand.

Top 10 most recommended budget/value hosts - July 2008

User feedback	Price /mo.	Dom. name	Disk space	Transfer /mo.	Rating
InMotion	$4.00	Free	150 GB	1,500 GB
HostMonster	$4.95	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited
WebHostingPad	$3.96	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited
LunarPages	$4.95	Free	1,500 GB	15,000 GB
Host Papa	$5.95	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited
VistaPages	$4.95	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited
HostUpon	$4.95	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited
HostGator	$4.95	$15	350 GB	3,000 GB
Globat	$4.44	Free	Unlimited	Unlimited



GoDaddy	$3.65	$1.99	10 GB	300 GB

Avoid Hosting server Scam

2008-07-08T11:46:00.000-07:00

Recently, one of my friends found a web host that provided fantastic facilities, including unlimited data storage and unlimited data transfer, for only $1 per month.

Now question is: What are three of the surest signs that a hosting company is a scam?

If you don't know the answer to that question, read the first sentence of this section again.

Three of the surest signs that a hosting company is a scam are a promise of "unlimited" (or unusually high) data storage, a promise of "unlimited" (or unusually high) data transfer, and an unusually low price. Paying $1 a month for hosting works out to $12 a year. Can you really expect a hosting company to survive with an income like that? They'd only get a lunch or two each year out of your $12.

Providing "unlimited" data storage and "unlimited" data transfer is technically impossible. No computer system can keep storing information forever - if you wrote a program that continuously uploaded 10 kilobytes of data to your host every second of the day, you'd upload 843.75 gigabytes of data in a 24-hour period. In a week, you'd have almost 6,000 gigabytes. Most hosts would not be able to store that!

Data transfer costs money, even for hosting providers. If a hosting provider promises you unlimited data transfer, it's a sign of a scam. If it costs them money, how can they afford to give it to you for free?

Before going with a new hosting company, always take some time to check them out. Do a quick search in Google for your host, and read up on any articles and reviews that come up about them. By reading about other people's experiences, you can learn from their mistakes.

When I mention scams, I don't mean that scamming hosting companies are not giving you what they promise. I mean that they are promising something that is too good to be true, to get you lured in, and then they run off with your money. A simple well-known phrase that will keep you protected most of the time if you stick to it - If it's too good to be true, it probably is!

Best Web hosting server choosing tips

2008-07-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

Many business people certainly don't look forward to the time when a suitable web hosting provider must be chosen. And they have good reasoning behind it. This article is all about the pros and cons of web hosting companies - including the scams and some tips on how to avoid them. After reading this article, you should be more equipped when the time comes for you to make the big decision.

Choosing a Local Host

For businesses that specialise in certain areas (i.e. the area they are located in), it is quite important to try to choose a host that is located near you. Some reasons are:

Your website will be downloaded faster by the majority of your visitors
You will have access to local technical support when required
You will have greater success with service complaints to higher bodies

Your website will be downloaded faster by the majority of your visitors

If the host is located near you, when your visitors download content from your website it will be delivered faster to them than if the host was located interstate or overseas. However, many hosting companies in fact resell hosting solutions from other companies - these other companies could be located elsewhere, and although you think you're getting service from a local company, you are in fact receiving it from somewhere else.

Fortunately, there is a way to find out if the host you are thinking about choosing is located near you. Assuming that the host's own website is hosted on the same servers that they provide to their customers (which is almost always the case, however can't be relied upon 100%), you can find out the IP address of their website and using that, the exact city in which they are located. Once you have the IP address (which you can obtain by "pinging" their website), you can enter it into a program called NeoTrace, which will tell you the city they are located in.

You will have access to local technical support when you need it

With all technology these days, something is always bound to go wrong. Web site hosting is no different, and when you notice that something is wrong with your site or e-mail, you need it fixed quickly. You could be losing customers while your website is offline! In times like these, you need instant access to technical support. Making a phone call always results in a faster response than sending an e-mail, and obviously making a phone call to a hosting company located close to you will save you money. You don't want to be paying interstate or international rates to receive support!

You will have greater success with service complaints to higher bodies

Many business people receive the infamous "Nigerian Money Scam" in their inboxes on a weekly, possibly even daily, basis. The well-known scam promises you a cut of a large sum if you "help" by "hiding" the money. To "help", you have to provide your bank account details - and that's where the scam begins. Don't be surprised if you do this and find out the next day that you account has been cleaned out!

The reason this scam is so successful is because the people that pilot it are based in Nigeria. If you are from Australia, the US, the UK, Canada, or any other country, and you fall for this scam, the people that have your money are out of reach of any law enforcement agency. That's why you must be careful with hosting companies that aren't located near you - if your credit card gets continually charged until it reaches the credit limit, and the host is located in Nigeria, there's not much you can do about it!

Fraud isn't the only problem with web hosts. A host might provide terrible service that you aren't happy about. In Australia, the independent Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman takes complaints from consumers about telephone or internet services provided by other companies (and there would be similar options available in other countries). It's a great way to get your complaint heard if the company in question is not listening to you. Once again, if your web host is located out of your country, it will be quite hard to file a complaint this way.

Choosing A Host That Meets Your Needs

Now that we've got the unpleasant stuff out of the way, we'll start focusing on the real stuff.

Choosing a host that meets your needs is important. You need to choose one that provides what you need, and doesn't provide what you don't need. You don't want to get stuck out in the cold with a website that doesn't function as you want it to, and you don't want to be paying for facilities that you don't use. So, take some time to write a quick list of what you're looking for in a web host.

How much money are you willing to spend? (setup fees, monthly/quarterly/yearly charges)
How much data storage space do you need?
How much data transfer allowance do you need?
Do you require e-mail accounts? How many?
Do you need access to a server-side scripting and database solution? (ASP, PHP, ColdFusion, Perl, CGI, MySQL, Microsoft Access, Frontpage)

There are many more questions you could ask yourself - these are just some of them. You may also need to have a chat to your web host to make the final decisions on what facilities you need. For example, if you have five pages in your site with not many images or downloads you won't need more than five megabytes of storage space. But if you have sixty pages of content and a large download directory, you'll need a lot more space and lots of data transfer allowance if you're planning on people downloading from you!

Conclusion

Today I've explained to you some of the aspects of web hosting that you should consider before choosing which company you will trust with your important web site. You've learnt about scams and how to avoid them, and you've learnt the importance of choosing a host that meets your needs and is located close to you. My hope is that you'll go out ready to make a decision now with more confidence and research behind your choice.