Our parent company owns about 100+ .COM domain names, which Web sites are hosted by 10+ different web hosting providers.
We wanted 10+ different web hosting providers to ensure IP diversity by having several Class C IP addresses. IP diversity was and is still an important requirement for our specific business needs.
It isn’t an easy task to find a perfect web hosting service and it’s even more difficult to find 10+ quality web hosting services that match our minimum requirements.
We spend some months trying and testing about 50+ already well ranked web hosting providers. Most of the cases, we were disappointed by the reliability aspect and by the customer services that lack of technical expertise. We were often forced to cancel the web hosting contract due to the lack of quality of the services.
Finally, after 3 months of testing and reviews, we’ve got our perfect web hosting providers. We consider them “perfect” because they match all our requirements from the time of our testing and until now. You can see the list of requirements below.
As we always like to share our knowledge to contribution in our ways to the Internet community, we will give you the list of those “perfect” web hosting services.
The list is simple and only contains the names of web hosting providers and links to their respective web sites. Some hosting services will be also added later on as well as more technical specifications. We hope it will permit you to avoid losing time and money if you have to select a web hosting provider by yourself.
Top Web Hosting Providers
ICDSoft
HostGator (Promotion code: “JURY’ or “MUSICA’ to get $9.94 off)
U2–Web (Promotion code: “Sep-2006” to get 10% discount for life)
PolurNET Communications
Integra-Net Web Services
Others to be added later on.
Our requirements
Our minimum requirements taken into account during the evaluation phase:
Linux OS.
PHP (at least version 4).
mySQL DB (at least version 4).
Graphical Control Panel.
E-mail services (POP3, SMTP, e-mail forwarders, e-mail aliases).
Good level of reliability. At least 99.9% uptime.
Quality technical support staff. High technical knowledge and response time of maximum 12 hours.
Affordable. Less than 10 USD per month.
Enough disk space. 1 GB disk space is the perfect amount for us. In some cases, we have enough with 250 MB.
Possibility to have several domain names parked or hosted under the same account.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Introduction to Web Hosting
Just about anybody can create a presence on the Internet. Building a web site can be as simple as using a word processor, but once you have the site you need a way to publish it on the World Wide Web. This is where web-hosting companies come in.
A web host rents you disk space and provides all the services necessary for others to see your web site on the Internet. Barring technical problems, a web host operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so that anybody in the world can access your web site at any time.
There are literally thousands of web hosts to choose from so choosing an appropriate host can be a difficult task. The prices range from free to hundreds of dollars a year. Hosting companies can offer a multitude of services that can be confusing to a newcomer. This series of articles will help you to sort out all the information available and give you the confidence to make the proper decision about choosing a web host.
Free or Paid?
There are plenty of hosting companies that provide free hosting, so why bother paying for it? The old adage ‘You get what you pay for’ is just as valid in the electronic age as it was 100 years ago. In web hosting, when you pay nothing you sometimes end up with nothing.
Most free web hosts offer limited services. Even though they are not charging you to host your website, they still need to make money. They often do this by placing advertising on your site. You probably won’t have any control over what kind of ads show up – it’s a matter of take it or leave it.
In addition, free hosts may restrict the content you place on your site. You may not be allowed to sell things or have certain content such as videos or music. Finally, your web site could simply disappear overnight. New companies that offer free hosting pop up almost everyday, but they also vanish with astonishing regularity. When your hosting company vanishes, your web site goes with it.
If you are serious about having a web site you need to use a reliable web host. Prices range considerably – some companies offer rates as low as $2 a month while others charge $60 or more. Be careful, though. High rates don’t always translate as high service. Some of the lower priced hosts offer reliable, stable environments that allow your website to be accessed day in day out for years.
Generally speaking the more you pay the more you get. Higher rates should bring you more storage space, more bandwidth to handle Internet traffic, and more services such as databases, email accounts, mass mailers, and the ability to add custom scripts. Higher rates can also mean better technical service if you have problems with your website.
What is a Web Server?
Whichever hosting company you choose, it helps to understand some of the technical details about their service. Every host has dedicated computers called servers which connect to the Internet and ’serve’ pages when they are requested. That is, whenever anyone wants to see a certain web page by clicking on a link the request is sent to the particular server where that web page is stored. The server responds by sending HTML data across the Internet. A web server must have fast connections to be able to serve pages quickly. For the greatest speed and reliability try to find a host that has multiple high-speed connections as well as reliable back up power supplies in case of power outages.
A web host rents you disk space and provides all the services necessary for others to see your web site on the Internet. Barring technical problems, a web host operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so that anybody in the world can access your web site at any time.
There are literally thousands of web hosts to choose from so choosing an appropriate host can be a difficult task. The prices range from free to hundreds of dollars a year. Hosting companies can offer a multitude of services that can be confusing to a newcomer. This series of articles will help you to sort out all the information available and give you the confidence to make the proper decision about choosing a web host.
Free or Paid?
There are plenty of hosting companies that provide free hosting, so why bother paying for it? The old adage ‘You get what you pay for’ is just as valid in the electronic age as it was 100 years ago. In web hosting, when you pay nothing you sometimes end up with nothing.
Most free web hosts offer limited services. Even though they are not charging you to host your website, they still need to make money. They often do this by placing advertising on your site. You probably won’t have any control over what kind of ads show up – it’s a matter of take it or leave it.
In addition, free hosts may restrict the content you place on your site. You may not be allowed to sell things or have certain content such as videos or music. Finally, your web site could simply disappear overnight. New companies that offer free hosting pop up almost everyday, but they also vanish with astonishing regularity. When your hosting company vanishes, your web site goes with it.
If you are serious about having a web site you need to use a reliable web host. Prices range considerably – some companies offer rates as low as $2 a month while others charge $60 or more. Be careful, though. High rates don’t always translate as high service. Some of the lower priced hosts offer reliable, stable environments that allow your website to be accessed day in day out for years.
Generally speaking the more you pay the more you get. Higher rates should bring you more storage space, more bandwidth to handle Internet traffic, and more services such as databases, email accounts, mass mailers, and the ability to add custom scripts. Higher rates can also mean better technical service if you have problems with your website.
What is a Web Server?
Whichever hosting company you choose, it helps to understand some of the technical details about their service. Every host has dedicated computers called servers which connect to the Internet and ’serve’ pages when they are requested. That is, whenever anyone wants to see a certain web page by clicking on a link the request is sent to the particular server where that web page is stored. The server responds by sending HTML data across the Internet. A web server must have fast connections to be able to serve pages quickly. For the greatest speed and reliability try to find a host that has multiple high-speed connections as well as reliable back up power supplies in case of power outages.
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