How Good Free Web Hosting Servers Really Are?

There are a number of websites offering free web hosting. Tripod.com or geocities.com being the most popular among them. So, the question is : Are free servers really good?

Well, the answer is simple. You don?t get anything free in life and same goes for the net.

To be frank, some of the websites host you on really fast high-end servers even with your free account, but there are many drawbacks still.

To start with, nearly every free server puts up this huge banner right on top of every page in return for their free service. This is totally annoying and not desired at any cost.

To further increase their unusability they come with very limited bandwidth or monthly transfers. So, even if you get a healthy 20 MB for free, you are limited to a very narrow monthly transfer limit of around 50-100 MB a month. Huh ? What does that mean? It simply means and if you are serious about making money on the internet, a lot of people are going to visit your website. This in turn burdens your web server and a free web server, well, it will just collapse!

Thirdly, you get an ugly looking URL which no one save the program that generated can remember eg. www.freeserverxyz.com/abc/~uv/

And that by no means is acceptable. Some of the companies have gotten round this and provide you with a cleaner whateveryouchoose.freeserverxyz.com. This is at least better than the previous mammoth.

Fourthly, nobody trusts a website hosted on a free server. Would you for instance make a $50 purchase from a URL like www.freeserverxyz.com/abc/~uv/ ? I certainly think not. To come around this problem, some free servers allow you to host your privately registered domain name for free. There is a catch here too. For this you will either have to transfer your current domain to them or register a new domain, either ways, you are at their mercy for domain pricing and still stuck with a banner on top of your page with limited monthly transfers.

However, if you still tight on budget and at any rate cannot afford a paid hosting, then I sincerely recommend one free server to you. Netfirms (www.netfirms.com) is one of the most renowned free web hosting providers with the provision of hosting your own www.yourchoice.com.

You could check out http://www.0host.com though not a kind you would expect; it does have a pretty much exhaustive list of free web hosts.

Gautamm Mehra is a young entrepreneur and IT consultant. He was introduced to computers in 1989 and has since than had a passion for everything digital. You can write to him at gautam [dot] mail [at] gmail [dot] com

Have A Big Website - Worried About Server Load

Have we ever thought how big websites could be configured to handle massive amount of traffic? How thousands of businesses worldwide are facing challenges everyday to make sure there are no connection failures due to heavy load or congestion of traffic at the website.

The answer is straight, every organization will have to monitor and baseline amount of traffic by going for stress test to find out if the current hardware could be supportive enough to handle a specific amount of load. One such great software is the ?Web Application Testing? or WAPT, which is a great utility for any website?s sustainability. This software is load, stress and performance testing tool for web sites and intranet applications with web interface. WAPT is designed for MS Windows 2000/XP/2003 and Windows 98/Me operating systems. The question that should be asked is why should we consider WAPT or why should the organization consider Load or stress testing? We certainly believe, major performance issues would arise if stress test has not been performed.

This could very well mean that after the server reaches a certain level of concurrent connection made by visitors, it would consume its hardware resources to process every visitor?s request. If there is a lot to process, the server might give priority to web application than its local resource ending up in a system crash.

Thus, the goal of WAPT is very simple; it helps the organization?s web servers to become active at every stage of stress, whether it?s a web development or website traffic processing power. WAPT can perform a stress test by simulating several thousands of concurrent connections to check the web server/website performance and if it finds any bottlenecks it would warn and suggest fixing this issue by recommending the very next thing.
There are lots of new features added in WAPT 4.0
- You can use multiple virtual profiles to test a single scenario
- There is support for IP spoofing where each virtual user can run with individual and unique IP address
- Each Virtual can be configured with different username and password and is compatible with Windows Integrated Authentication or Basic Configuration.
- You can see and configure the type of reports even a test run summary report is generated
- There is command line interface available
- There is a support for persistent cookies
- All the test scenario and profiles are stored in XML format The Main features of WAPT 4.0
- You can have the application run and understand multiple languages
- There is cool recording feature which you can use to record any configuration and stress test simulations for later review or demonstrations as it supports playback of HTTPS/SSL 2.0 & 3.0 pages. You can also record the user connection speed using the keep-alive connections to a HTTP 1.0 or HTTP 1.1 pages or even HTTPS/SSL pages.
- You can generate data for run-times on specific scheduled intervals by randomizing the delay between the page hits.
- It also has a support for proxy servers for HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4 & 5 and supports cookies as well.
- All the authentication request can be handled using NTLM (windows Integrated Authentication) or using the basic authentication.
- If you would like to call the website by a different name, then you also have the facility to add custom host headers
- All this the scenarios can be configured using the user friendly Wizard
- You can choose the reports to be either graphical or in plain text along with full virtual server logs
A must tool for administrator or other user who would to maintain their website efficiently.

Ted Peterson writes for CoreDownload, a shareware archive where you can find utilities like WAPT to test your server

Choosing The Best Web Server For Your Online Business

What is a web server? Basically, a web server embodies the theory of supply and demand: it supplies your website when the people demand it. When a user wants to view your website, the server finds the URL?s file and uploads it to the user?s browser. However, there are many different kinds of servers to choose from, so how do you find the right one?

The Virtual Private Server is a great choice for larger businesses that have complicated needs. It?s best if you have some experience working the program, because you have to know how to control the settings, but if you can read and understand the manual, you?ll be fine. The plus to a Virtual Private Server is that it?s a single server that branches out, letting you work independently while paying with the other host customers. You can also have up to 50 websites. It can be costly at over 100 dollars a month, but if you?re concerned about security and control, a Virtual Private Server is probably the way to go.

The more popular server is Virtual Hosting. This is a single server that is shared with many users. Because it?s controlled by an administrator, you don?t need to worry about technical skills. However, you don?t have as much control as you would with a Virtual Private Server, because every time you want to change something in your settings, you have to contact the admininstrator. Secondly, you?re only allowed one website, so if you want to start a second site, you have to create a new account. The good news is, it?s a great deal at only about 20 to 50 dollars per month. So if you have a small business with just one or two websites, and you don?t want to worry about technical skills , Virtual Hosting is the best choice.

You also have to think about web server software. One type is Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS). It only works with NT-based server systems, as NT is a Microsoft product. It has crash protection and plenty of support, so you don?t have to worry about viruses. Also, if you use NT, you get IIS free with it.

However, the most popular type is Apache. It?s always free, and while it isn?t supported like IIS, it?s always updated and easy to use. So if you?re looking for something safe, IIS is a great choice, but Apache is more popular for a reason.

These are only a few of the servers and software you have to choose from, but they?re a start. If you do your research and think of what will best benefit your business or webpage, you can make a well-informed decision that will let you be a successful host.

Robert Michael is a writer for Daily Servers which is an excellent place to find servers links, resources and articles. For more information go to: http://www.dailyservers.com

Update Your Entire Website Instantly Using Server Side Includes

Imagine my plight... I have 100+ pages on my website and I have to change my e-mail address and the copyright info on all the pages. The reason...

My mail box is over-flown with junk mails.

My only option is to edit all my web pages offline and then upload each one of them again, not to mention countless errors I make in the process.

100+ pages is still a small website. Imagine what it will be like if my website had 1000+ pages?

Sounds scary right?

If you would like to avoid the kind of mess I'm in right now, you have one option. Start using "Server Side Includes (SSI)"

In technical jargon, Server Side Includes are directives which you can place into your HTML documents to execute other programs or output such data as environment variables and file statistics.

If your only intention is to manage your website more effectively and painlessly, it is more than enough if you learn one "Directive" of SSI - the "Include" directive.

In simple terms, SSI Include is a line of code which you can use in your HTML documents to include contents from other documents. In other words, change just one file (the Include file), and your ENTIRE SITE is instantly updated!

The basic syntax of an Include directive is:

Where PATH_TO is the "VIRTUAL" path to include file on your server.

Here's how to include your copyright info and navigation links using SSI Includes...

First, you need to check with your server administrator whether your server supports SSI or not. Most servers support them.

Second, you need to rename all your HTML files with extension .shtml

-----SIDE BAR-----
You can start with one file and if everything goes fine, rename rest of the files. -----SIDE BAR-----

To keep things organized, you can create a directory at the root level called "includes" to house all of your included files. Now create a HTML document with only your copyright and navigation links. Copy everything that is between the BODY tags of this document and paste it in a new file.

Save this file as nav.html or any name you like with extension .htm or .html. You need not save this file with .shtml extension. Now upload this file to your "include" directory which you created for housing SSI Includes.

To include copyright info and navigation links in a HTML document in your SITE ROOT, place the following code where you want the copyright info to be seen:

Now if you want to include copyright info and navigation links in a HTML document in a folder UNDER your site root, the code will change to:

...and so on.

If you want to change or edit your copyright info or navigation links, just edit and upload your nav.html file and the change will be reflected in all the documents (using the "Include code") instantly!

You can also create your website headers/footers using SSI Includes.

There are host of other cool things you can do with SSI. For more info on SSI, you can visit the following sites:

http://www.useforesite.com/tut_ssi.shtml http://wdvl.com/Authoring/SSI/Intro/index.html http://www.bignosebird.com/ssi.shtml

Vishal Rao publishes an informative e-zine: iNet Profits. Subscribe to his e-zine and get his free e-mail course: "11 Killer Strategies To Explode Your Online Profits", by sending a blank e-mail to => sub@inetprofits.par32.com

Website Hosting - Dedicated Servers

You have heard of dedicated servers but you really are not sure what they are and if you should have one. On the other hand, maybe you know that you require a dedicated server, but really do not know how to choose the right host. Well, either way, this article is filled with information just for you.

When it comes to website hosting, essentially they provide you with two options dedicated servers or shared servers. What is the difference? Well, shared servers are the type in which you will share the space with other people. Your website and those of other people will share the same server. A dedicated server is completely the opposite, every aspect of that server, as well as the network connection is "dedicated" only to your website.

Before choosing a dedicated server, you should have an understanding of the major differences between shared and dedicated. One massive difference is the price. In most cases, a dedicated server will cost you a great deal more than a shared server. Another massive difference is the skill levels required for each. With a shared server, the host typically takes care of administration of the server, which requires little technical skills. On a dedicated server, it is your responsibility to take care of server administration.

Before deciding if a dedicated server is for you, you should consider the level of your website. If you operate a small business or a basic website, a dedicated server is likely not the best choice. However, if you have a high traffic, large, and massive website, a dedicated server will be the likely choice.

Overall, it is important to understand your space needs, reliability, bandwidth, and budget prior to choosing dedicated server website hosting. Generally, a large website, a large company, with high traffic, may want to consider a dedicated server. A small business, with minimal traffic, will likely want to stick with shared servers.

The author is owner & operator of several reliable website hosting sites. For Cheap Website Hosting Visit http://www.myreliablehosting.net today

HQHosts dedicated and shared web hosting: economical Server Wizard and Per Gigabyte services

HQHost, a web hosting provider, informs about its high end Server Wizard and Per Gigabyte services for its dedicated and shared web hosting clients. In order to decrease their outlay on web hosting, HQHosts clients can control their hosting funds by creating their own web hosting packages.

August 5, 2004 HQHost Company, a high end web hosting provider, makes clear the advantages of its economical Server Wizard service for dedicated server clients and Per Gigabyte web hosting service for its shared hosting clients to be able to create their own suitable web hosting plans.

Any web hosting can be economical if taken sensibly. HQHosts Server Wizard and Per Gigabyte web hosting services are vivid examples of economical approach to your hosting expenses. Both dedicated server clients and shared hosting clients can benefit from these services by creating their own web hosting plans with the required bandwidth and storage space.

These services are especially designed to cater to the needs of web hosting clients. No more long bills. You pay only for what you have used, not more not less, says Serg Sabetyev, CEO of HQHost Company.

Standard web hosting packages advertised everywhere demand a fixed price for certain amount of bandwidth. The burning question is if a client is able to use all the gigabytes ordered. In case of non-exhausting the limit, the client will pay the whole fixed cost of the package. In case the client exceeds the limit, he pays much more per additional gigabyte. There is the third alternative. HQHosts Per Gigabyte web hosting service applies to the shared hosting customers http://www.hq-host.com/en/virtual.html. Calculate the required bandwidth for your site and pay only those gigabytes you are going to use.

As compared to shared web hosting, dedicated server hosting is a high level secure service. Large corporate websites put up great funds into dedicated web hosting on different reasons. Some of them have sensible information to deal with. The others have complicated ecommerce software. The prevailing factor is high traffic. Whatever reason for huge dedicated server outlay there can be, dedicated server web hosting can be affordable. Any client can arrange its own rational dedicated server package with HQHosts Server Wizard service http://www.hq-host.com/en/ded_wizard.html.

According to Serg Sabetyev, CEO of HQHost Company, this is an advantage-ground for those websites that have a seasonable traffic slump. They can arrange any web hosting packages suitable for them with Server Wizard and Per Gigabyte services. If your site traffic is high at rush season only, you can benefit by HQHosts unique services.

HQHost (High Quality Host Company), a web hosting provider, was founded in 2001. HQHosts data centers are located in the United States and assure absolute visibility of its clients websites worldwide. HQHost is a privately owned company with headquarters in Sacramento, CA.

For additional information, please contact:

Serg Sabetyev
HQHost Company CEO
Address: Fast Internet Technology, Inc.
5325 Elkhorn Blvd. PMB # 8227,
Sacramento, CA 95842, USA
URL: http://www.hq-host.com/
E-mail: manager@hq-host.com

# # #


August 5, 2004 HQHost Company, a high end web hosting provider, makes clear the advantages of its economical Server Wizard service for dedicated server clients and Per Gigabyte web hosting service for its shared hosting clients to be able to create their own suitable web hosting plans.

Any web hosting can be economical if taken sensibly. HQHosts Server Wizard and Per Gigabyte web hosting services are vivid examples of economical approach to your hosting expenses. Both dedicated server clients and shared hosting clients can benefit from these services by creating their own web hosting plans with the required bandwidth and storage space.

These services are especially designed to cater to the needs of web hosting clients. No more long bills. You pay only for what you have used, not more not less, says Serg Sabetyev, CEO of HQHost Company.

Standard web hosting packages advertised everywhere demand a fixed price for certain amount of bandwidth. The burning question is if a client is able to use all the gigabytes ordered. In case of non-exhausting the limit, the client will pay the whole fixed cost of the package. In case the client exceeds the limit, he pays much more per additional gigabyte. There is the third alternative. HQHosts Per Gigabyte web hosting service applies to the shared hosting customers http://www.hq-host.com/en/virtual.html. Calculate the required bandwidth for your site and pay only those gigabytes you are going to use.

As compared to shared web hosting, dedicated server hosting is a high level secure service. Large corporate websites put up great funds into dedicated web hosting on different reasons. Some of them have sensible information to deal with. The others have complicated ecommerce software. The prevailing factor is high traffic. Whatever reason for huge dedicated server outlay there can be, dedicated server web hosting can be affordable. Any client can arrange its own rational dedicated server package with HQHosts Server Wizard service http://www.hq-host.com/en/ded_wizard.html.

According to Serg Sabetyev, CEO of HQHost Company, this is an advantage-ground for those websites that have a seasonable traffic slump. They can arrange any web hosting packages suitable for them with Server Wizard and Per Gigabyte services. If your site traffic is high at rush season only, you can benefit by HQHosts unique services.

HQHost (High Quality Host Company), a web hosting provider, was founded in 2001. HQHosts data centers are located in the United States and assure absolute visibility of its clients websites worldwide. HQHost is a privately owned company with headquarters in Sacramento, CA.

For additional information, please contact:

Serg Sabetyev
HQHost Company CEO
Address: Fast Internet Technology, Inc.
5325 Elkhorn Blvd. PMB # 8227,
Sacramento, CA 95842, USA
URL: http://www.hq-host.com/
E-mail: manager@hq-host.com

# # #
7 Key Points to Consider When Choosing a Web HostKyle DusangWith literally thousands of web hosting companies in the industry all vieing for your business, carefully consider these key points to ensure you make the most well informed decision possible.

1. Server Space

First, think about how much space your site will take up on a server. Unless you are planning on running a software repository or an image gallery, the files that make up your website will probably only use between 1 and 5 megabytes of disk space. Many companies will offer several hundreds of megabytes of webspace for a very reasonable price in attempt to out perform their competitors, but ask yourself "Do I really need that much space?". Though it's true that you should allow your site "room to grow", don't opt for what seems like a great deal on a massively sized account if you'll never use all of the space offered. Chances are you'll find an even better deal on an amount of space more suitable for your site size.

2. Data Transfer Allowance

This decision should be based on the same principal as above. Though you may be convinced that your site will be the next Amazon or Yahoo and receive a gazillion visitors a day, you really shouldn't need an extremely high data transfer allowance unless, as stated above, you're running a software download site or a large image gallery. Even heavily trafficked normal HTML sites usually only use a few gigabytes per month in bandwidth allowance. Don't go overboard just because it seems like an awesome deal. You may also want to be wary of companies who offer "unlimited" data transfer as there are usually some fine-print stipulations that make this claim not entirely true. Be sure to read their terms and conditions very carefully before opting for this type of account. A five or ten gigabyte bandwidth allowance is usually plenty enough for a small to medium sized business or personal site.

3. Technical Support

A very important point to consider when choosing a web host is the types of technical support offered by the company and how easy they are to contact when you need them. Ideally, a company should offer 24/7 toll-free telephone support and email. I have seen companies that do not even offer a telephone number on their website. You should look for a company that is very easily accessible in your time of need. Nothing is more frustrating than being in the middle of working on your site and needing an important piece of information to finish the job and not being able to contact your hosting company to find it out.

4. CGI-Bin Access

No matter what type of site you are planning on running, chances are you will eventually need to install some type of CGI script. Whether it be a mailing list management script, contact form processor, or maybe even a fancy credit card processing script, your hosting account will need to allow you to install and run them. This requires access to a special folder on your server called "CGI-Bin". Some hosting accounts will only allow you to use "pre-installed" scripts as a security measure. These are scripts that the owners of the company have installed and configured so that they know that they will work properly and not adversely affect their server's performance. That may be all you need, but if you have the knowledge, it's always nice to have the ability to install your own scripts and configure them to suit your individual needs. You should also be sure that the account you choose supports the language in which your scripts are written, such as PHP, Perl, etc.

5. Up-Time Guarantee

Another very important issue in determining the value of a hosting company is how often and for how long their servers "go down". No matter how good a deal you get on server space or bandwidht allowance, or how wonderfully the company's tech support takes care of you, your site can't receive visitors or produce revenue if the machine on which it is hosted is not up and running. Naturally you want a company who can guarantee the highest up-time percentage possible. Servers are taken down briefly from time to time for maintenance or upgrading, so no company can ensure 100% up-time, but you want your site to be hosted on dependable, well managed machines that are not constantly having problems which require them to be down for long periods of time.

6. Email Accounts

Again, like data transfer allowance and server space, some companies will offer you loads more email accounts than you will ever use. Some offer hundreds or even unlimited email accounts as a selling point. This is an important factor if you are Bill Gates and have thousands of employees, each who need their own email box, but not such a big deal if you're just one person or a small company. You should be okay with 10 or 15.

7. Reputation

This is probably the most important factor to consider when choosing a web host. Do your homework. Pay attention to any negative feedback you may hear or read about a particular hosting company. There are several sites arount the Web that feature discussion forums that allow people to discuss and critique various hosting companies. Ask specific questions about any company you might be interested in using to see if anyone else has had any negative experiences with them. As a beginning webmaster, I had initially contracted the services of a particular web hosting company to host my first site, who promised very good, dependable service for a very cheap price. Then one day, for no apparent reason, decided to delete my entire site without warning or explanation. Only then did I visit some hosting forums and find that many others had similar negative experiences with that company. Don't make the same mistake I did, find out for sure from the start that your hosting company is not going to let you down.

Webmaster: http://www.verybesthosting.com
Looking for a web host? Start here. Compare plans, features, and pricing from several of the Web's most reputable hosting companies all in one place.