For some, summer is the time to relax and take a break from all the hassles during other months. For some summer is the time where they need to get prepared to be ready for upcoming events after it. If you are in the latter group AND operate or run web sites, it may be the time to consider if you need a new hosting provider. Why now? It is simple, summer is when you have free time and traffics are somewhat low, so if you are thinking about moving to new web site hosting provider without risking loss in traffic, it is the time. Remember, in the busy months, it will be hard for you to change things around!

Do you think finding a new web host is a hard job? It may be so back in the days but with all the web hosting rating review sites around, you can research about the good or one of the best hosting providers with ease. As easy as “click-read review-click-another review-choose”! Web Hosting Rating site can help you in this case. As an operator of several sites, I too have to rely on web hosting reviews and read web hosting articles to get tips and tricks back when I first enter the online businesses. And I can guarantee the resources you gain and reviews you’ve read can help you choose a long term hosting provider!

For instance at Web Hosting Ratings, you can search for hosting provider based upon your needs: Linux Hosting, Windows Hosting, Reseller Hosting, VPS Hosting, Dedicated Hosting or even Colocated Hosting (where you provide server and rent connections/networks). You can also search by Best X Hosting where X can be anything you are looking for, from general to specific (from Normal Hosting to Forum Hosting). The best part is that the results will be displayed to you in easily comprehensible manner. You will be provided the current top hosting providers list along with the best price they are offering, amount of space, bandwidth and the reviews made. So all you have to do is spend small amount of your time to research for the host of your life time!

Web Hosting Ratings & Reviews are not just for current site owners but like I have stated before it is beneficial for all those in search of new hosts; may it be a professional in the online business or a person who wish to acquire an online business. So whoever you are, it is always good to commit few amount of your time to research for the hosting that you will have to stay with for long time! Once you’ve picked the right host, you won’t be needing to move again and again and again!

By: Kaung

You may be wondering what the above display is. It’s a proxy detector! Read on if you want to know more and wish to get one.

If you operate e-commerce sites, you may have frequently or often experienced fraudulent purchases done by “customers” through anonymous proxy servers. That is to say, the “customer” first visits a proxy site that helps him/her hide the true ip address (computer address), so that no one can track from where and who made the purchase with fraudulent payments. As a reliable seller, you have to make sure all of the charges and cases are resolved efficiently and this can take some times and can give you and your employees headaches. If there is a way to detect those proxy servers and block accesses from them, don’t you think your business will run smoother and have more time to focus on product qualities and customer purchase satisfactions?

If you think so, then you need to consider investing in a proxy server detector for your e-commerce site. There are many out there so you have to pick the right one for your business. Most of the scripts are either sold by unknown companies or from known companies but come with little to no instructions; and it is rare to find a company selling easy solutions. Regardless of how rare they are, IP2Proxy comes close to it when it come to providing simple web solutions to detect and blacklist proxy servers. All you have to do to have it running is to download, and import in your system backend and let the script do the wonders (automatically start blacklisting proxy server accesses!).

True, You can also add individual ip address to your htaccess or server firewall to block the proxy server ips but remember that there are MANY proxy server ips out there with new ones coming up daily or ips changed daily. And it will be troublesome for you and your server management team to locate each ip and manually input them to server firewall! With IP2Proxy, it automatically locate and detect proxy servers and proxy list for you and that Anonymous Proxy List is updated as soon as new ones are detected. You might wonder how the script was coded or what algorithm is used for the production. You can find out more at the official IP2Proxy site.

Not to mention, you are not committed to buy the software and you can even get the FREE version with them! You can continue your search on finding easy ways to prevent proxy accesses to your e-commerce sites or you can go straight to IP2Proxy, end your search and enjoy fraud free services!

- Kaung Ko

It’s summer again! The time to relax, plan for upcoming years and to enjoy the things you deserve. It is also the time to spend time in the projects you would not otherwise have time to work on. I am sure that like me, most of you reaching this post are looking to see if there are other webhosting providers you can rely on and move to or to check if the host you are with is still the best of one of the best. The efficient way to check up to see if your current host still provide the previously specified quality and hosting packages or to see if there’re other who has same quality but better deals, is to go to web hosting reviews and rating site. I would recommend Web Hosting Geeks, the reliable listing and reviews source to find hosting providers.

At Web Hosting Geeks, you can look at the top 10 hosting providers or do custom searches to fit your needs. For example, the top 10 will involve few or none listed about hosting providers providing windows hosting service. Then you can simply choose menu item like “Best Windows Hosting“. You can find budget hosting, blog hosting, forum hosting, unix, linux, windows hosting, php hosting, email hosting, ecommerce hosting, VPS, reseller, dedicated hosting and many more services and compare to see which one will best suit your needs. Remember, summer is the time you have some freedom, so it is also the good time to do server/host moving if necessary!!!

Now you would be wondering why I suggested Web Hosting Geek. Well, it is simply because at my blog, the talks go on and on if something deserve it (hence, “where the talks go!). Here, Web Hosting Geeks deserves to be mentioned due to their quality and customer friendly services. Also I am not promoting Web Hosting Geeks, the real customers of any hosting providers are by writing down their reviews about the hosts and sharing their experiences. Why don’t you visit Web Hosting Geeks and share your experiences about any hosts as well! If you want updates on hosting providers or read tips and guides to better your experiences and your server(s), refer to WHG’s blog as well.

Cheers!

Kaung Ko

["I found a cheap hosting!". A few days later, "My account's not setup yet or its deactivated for no reason!]

Above statements and sayings will be familiar to some of you who’ve dived into buying a hosting package without researching the credibility and reliability of the hosting provider. it is most of the times good to go for discount packages from reliable companies, but other than that, research is crucial. Keep in mind that customer support and all other features must be also put into consideration when choosing the right host. You can start the research at web hosting review sites, and the particular one I will recommend is Web Hosting Geeks.

Web Hosting Geeks give you access, free of charge, to budget hosting reviews, blog hosting reviews, forum hosting reviews, VPS hosting reviews, reseller hosting reviews, dedicated hosting reviews, green hosting and many other more! Unlike other web hosting reporting sites, Web Hosting Geeks let visitors like you submit rating and comments about the hosting providers, so other visitors and those in need of hosting can come across and evaluate; helping each other out is a good thing! Also bias reviews will be low that way because it is not the review site owner nor the hosting provider itself writing the reviews, but the customers all around the world giving reviews.

Web hosting reviews and rating sites like the one I’ve mentioned above provide user-friendly search of the hosting provider of interest or just to simply do research by searching by the name, features, bonus features and/or rating (how many stars). I am not sure with other review sites but at Web Hosting Geeks, you have many ways to limit your search to get the host that best suit your needs, including free domains, free ad credits, multiple domain hosting, etc…

So yes, do not forget to research about the hosting providers before committing to purchase, sometimes it is costly because you have to be in long term commitments. research at Web Hosting Geeks or the alike (if you can find other rating and review sites as good as them!).

I am seeing more and more domain names being registered each year. It appears to me that the digital and virtual world has become popular than ever each day with new enthusiasts in blogging, marketing, hosting, and any niches of their desires. That will certainly mean that to catch up with the growing number of domain names, there may also be more demands for web hosting.  There’s no doubt (99.9% of the time) you will want to create a web site to go with your domain name.

Days back choosing the web hosting is easier than ever because there are only few hosting providers who are all legit. But as the hosting demands grow, many new hosting providers come into the servicing market, some good ones and some bad ones. It is very crucial for you to research about a web hosting provider to assure that the site you build be in of good care also by the hosting provider. Web hosting reports can exactly help you compare the hosting features of different hosting companies, and also you can read reviews about the hosting provider in question made by existing or ex customers or the credible Web Hosting Report providers themselves.

At Web Hosting Report, you can compare the hosting providers by price, disk space, bandwidth, and the numbers of domain names allowed to be hosting along with reading the reviews on various providers of  Cheap Hosting, Domain Hosting, PHP Hosting, ASP Hosting, Windows Hosting, Linux Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Shared Hosting, Email Hosting, Virtual Hosting, E-commerce Hosting, Forum Hosting, and Blog Hosting. If you still cannot decide which plan from whom to choose or you still want to read further on hosting related tips, tricks, or knowledgeable articles, Web Hosting Report has them for you as well. The guides written for all levels of web host seeking people like you can help you choose the right host and avoid the hassles with bad hosts. For example, look at the article named “What to Look for in a Web Hosting Company“. It tells you in detail covering the benefits of taking time to research before buying and what to really look for instead of being lured either by the price or the large specifications.

Last time in Web Hosting Server Service Types Explained – Part I, I have covered Email hosting, DNS hosting, Game server hosting and Remote backup service. This time I will cover the File hosting and Application specific hosting.

Let’s start with File hosting: File hosting services are for those who want to store large number of static non-webpage files, such as software by developers as free downloads with General Public Use licenses or for paid ones, backup files, documents, videos, music, and images for both business and personal purposes. There can be file hosting service for multiple users or a single user, which are termed hosting and storage respectively.  There is also a One-click file hosting that will be familiar to most. They are the sites like ImageShack, Megaupload, and RapidShare. With one-click file service, users upload a file form their computer hard drive to either a public folder or private folder, depending on the type of service and permissions set by the provider for free, basic or paid account holders.

Application specific hosting: This is the type of hosting set for hosting only a certain type of businesses or software to make sure the customers are getting the quality service in their niches. It consists of Blog hosting, Guild hosting, Image hosting, Video hosting, Wiki hosting, Application hosting and Social network hosting.

• Blog hosting: As the name conveys, Blog hosting is the hosting of content management systems, namely the blogs. Weblogs are becoming popular either to promote through the articles or to express one’s thoughts to share and get comments form others. There are free and paid blog hosting providers. Most of the legit free blog hosting  providers let you host your blog under a subdomain name of theirs and most of the time with their specified blog software. But with paid blog hosting providers, you can have your own domain name associated with your blog and choose any type of blog software you wish to install and run; free open source ones or the paid licensed ones. Maintenance of the blog is mostly through the web-based admin interface but deeper tweaks require file access through FTP or SSH.
• Guild hosting: Guild hosting is intended for the gamers but unlike with Gamer server hosting, guild hosting is for outside the game events. Guild hosting let the gamers to create forums to discuss about their gaming strategies, enroll new members to the guild, provide guild codes and plans of raids, set tournaments and other gaming events. Guild hosting service also provides add on tools and applications for tracking a gamer’s character upgrades, status,  items, and points in the game.
• Image hosting: With image hosting, users can upload images on the internet, which are then stored on the provider’s server. Users are then given several types of image codes to display the images in the forums or blogs using HTML or BBcode, to directly link to the image in the emails, to display the images in thumbnails form; some providers provide more options to share your images like auto embedding into your own photo album to display as slideshows. There are both free and/or paid providers.
• Video Hosting: Video hosting is like image hosting but this time dealing with video clips. users are given multiple options to share the videos with video hosting as well, and best of all users can stream, the videos free of charge without worrying about bandwidth or connection fees. Video hosting providers, the free ones in particular, gain income from sponsors and advertisers on their video hosting sites. Like with image hosting, video hosting provides a user friendly environment for the users; choose the video clips from the hard drive, upload, set video titles and descriptions and be done!
• Wiki hosting: Wiki hosting is not referring to getting a normal web hosting package and installing the wiki software on your own. Wiki hosting is where users can create their own wiki section without any installation hassles. it is also known as wiki farms, where many users and owners of online communities come in to register for wiki section of their own. There are free and paid wiki farm providers, but more with free providers. Free or paid is not a concern with wiki hosting, and what needs to be concerned is the restrictions provided by wiki hosting providers. Some wiki hosting providers service only certain group of people as in education and government officials, while all others service everyone. Wiki hosting providers earn income from inserted advertisements, but at the same time giving you option to upgrade for a small fee to have an ad-free environment with your wiki.
• Application hosting: Application hosting provides hosting services for the owners, programmers, and developers, the application service providers, to give computer-based services to the customers over a network.
• Social Network hosting: Social network hosting is a web hosting service specializing in hosting social network sites along with additional applications to have the sites run smoothly. You are either provided with the script or you have to have your own licensed script, which are most of the time made available to be purchased, either as leased or one-time payment, through the social network hosting providers.

Once again, thank you for reading this far. I will be explaining the other services in upcoming Part III. Stay tuned!

By: Kaung

<<< Part I | Part III>>>

There are several type of hosting services offered, and there is always a hosting service for one or all of your needs. There are E-mail hosting, DNS hosting, Game server hosting, Remote backup service, File hosting, Application specific hosting, FFmpeg hosting, Reseller hosting, Clustered hosting, Shared hosting, Free hosting, and the three full-featured hosting services: Virtual private server, Dedicated hosting and Colocation center. Sometimes they come with no strings and hassles but sometimes they have both the pros and cons embedded within the service.

E-mail hosting: It exists only for the sole purpose of running as an email server. “Is E-mail hosting different from webmail services provided by Gmail, Yahoo, and hotmail?“. Yes, it is. Not to also mention there is no free email-hosting service, in other words payment is always involved. However, you get what you pay for with email-hosting service. You get what you call premium email deal which includes your own domain name email, advanced email authentication customized to a full extent to prevent others from sending emails as you, and the hosting on dedicated email platforms that ensures your emails to be backed up and server to be running at all times with very minimized downtime. “Should you buy hosting service that always come with basic POP mail service instead of email-hosting?“.  It depends on your business plan: to send emails only as in legit email marketing or to also have a website to begin with. If you want to setup a website as well, hosting service is the way to go but keep in mind all the advanced email setting you will received via support with email-hosting will have to be done by you or your hired server admin. Here’s a slogan I came across one day: “Almost all the hosting providers can provide basic email service, but not all the email-hosting providers provide hosting”.

DNS hosting: It consists of running Domain Name System servers. You may not need to go with DNS hosting unless your domain registrar does not offer or offer for free the DNS service and your hosting do not come with it as a basic package.  In that case, depending on the intention, it will be cheaper and/or better to go with DNS hosting or with upgrades through your registrar and web hosting provider. If you choose to go with DNS hosting, that is what you can manage through it: A, MX, CNAME, TXT and NS records of the domain zone. There are free (with upgrade option) and paid DNS hosting services as well, along with Dynamic DNS Service by third-party DNS services. Most of the DNS hosting are shared because it is not necessary to give each single web site management a server.

Game Server Hosting: As obvious it is with the hosting name, it is required when you want to remotely or locally run a game server with many game clients to play multiplayer games. Most games on the net are through the game servers, and the only differences between them are quality and quantity of the servers. Most of the time, Gaming clans (the group of players forming a guild) will come together to lease for gaming server from the Game Service Providers. if you go for the legit Game Server Provider,the staffs will help you setup and configure the server for you along with giving you permission to modify the game being leased.  There are two types: listen servers and dedicated servers.

Listen server is where a player can both host and participate in the game and the downside of it is that when the client is terminated by some reason, the game itself will get terminated (ex: playing over LAN). In contrast, with dedicated servers, the server is hosted at a datacenter with the best hardwares and bandwidth and it can be running 24/7. Players can log in and off without disrupting the game flow, no fear of termination because there is no “player host” (of course high memory load and bandwidth usage will interrupt it!).

Remote backup service: The service is useful if you have many crucial files on your computer and you want to backup and store coputer files online. usually how it works is, the remote backup server will come with a software, which will schedule a backup daily. Almost all client software collects, compresses, encrypts, and transfer the data to the remote backup servers. However there are both pros and cons with remote backup services and this is what have been gathered:

Advantages:

• Remote backup does not require user intervention. The user does not have to change tapes, label CDs or perform other manual steps.
• Remote backup maintains data offsite. Perhaps the most important aspect of backing up is that backups are stored in a different location from the original data. Traditional backup requires manually taking the backup media offsite.
• Unlimited data retentions
• Data storage abroad could be an advantage too.
• Some remote backup services will work continuously, backing up files as they are changed.
• Most remote backup services will maintain a list of versions of your files.
• Most remote backup services will use a 128 – 448 bit encryption to send data over unsecured links (ie internet)
• A few remote backup services can reduce backup by only transmitting changed binary data bits

Disadvantages:

• Depending on the available network bandwidth, the restoration of data can be slow. Because data is stored offsite, the data must be recovered either via the Internet or via tape or disk shipped from the online backup service provider.
• Some backup service providers have no guarantee that stored data will be kept private – for example, from employees. As such, most recommend that files be encrypted before storing or automate this this process.
• It is possible that a remote backup service provider could go out of business or be purchased, which may affect the accessibility of one’s data or the cost to continue using the service.
• If encryption password is lost, no more data recovery will be possible. However with managed services this should not be a problem.

Thank you for reading this far. I will be explaining the other services in upcoming Part II. Stay tuned!

By: Kaung

Part III>>>