Archive for December, 2009
Tell the Way to Find an Ideal Web Host. Please!
Dec 31st
Think! A user possesses a web site, searching for a hosting company to host it. Options are plenty but when it comes to affordability and reliability they are quite few. Hence, how a user can know which the ideal one is? What are the qualities in a good hosting company?
Given below are some of the tips which can assist the user to end the search to an ideal hosting company:
1. Is the site having a professional look?
A company website reflects the identity of that company. User should verify that the host’s site is designed to perfection and have a matured look.
2. Does their customer service available by phone during user’s peak hours and email service throughout 24 hours a day, seven days a week?
Several Hosting companies take a huge time to response back and some even don’t make their phone number available to the user. One can secretly inquire about there customer service potential like for example through a call containing a problem. This will give the user an idea about there response time. It is very essential before making a contract with a company.
3. Are they too lenient than requirement with the cost or robbing with the cost?
One should keep the mind open, while reading next lines. If the host of a particular user is charging under $5 then the probability of inferior quality service and technology will be quite high. Also if the service costs are more than the usual then it can be a sweetly robbing case. One cannot conclude a fix amount when it comes to web hosting pricing, it can vary from host to host according to their standard and quality of service and reliability.
Hence, a host no.1 can only be that company which provides excellent and firm support, always be ready to serve the customers with a smile, and above all, should value his/her customers. User should not get magnetized towards absurd declarations of hosting companies. There is no means that companies demanding high payments will provide more facilities.
Cheap Web Hosting! How to Choose the Right Hosting Company?
Dec 30th
After completing the tough part i.e. creating the web site, the next further step to be followed is to host it, so that public can find ones site. The bad web host company traps the customers who are new to this web world and are web host seekers. There are many factors to be considered while selecting a web host, but the factor placed at the top is none other than price. All the users want cheap web hosting but if the web hosting is chosen on the basis of only price then it will not satisfy other requirements.
One should be very careful while choosing the web hosting company.
If one is having the budget he can fix to it, if one is not having much idea about web hosting he/she may wonder “how do they make money” its better to be away, the chances are in order to save cost, the web site will be hosted with less bandwidth resulting in a very slow accessible and unprofessional web site. Also in this case, the customer support will be absent or very less.
One should be very clear about his/her requirements from the web hosting company, if the customer do not choose the company as per his/her requirements then its not the fault of host but only he/she will be solely responsible for that .Its good to make a list of requirements such as particular files needed and thereafter he/she can send his/her requirements to multiple hosting companies and can wait for the company come back with the greater service.
If any user is having more than one web site to host, as in case of affiliate marketers, its not good to put all sites with single host in the very beginning rather one should be 100% confident with the service and start with one web site as a test. The user should also keep in mind that if he/she wants to host all of his/her websites with one host company only, all it takes is, one problem to bring all his sites down and could result in lose of revenue. It is good to host some of the websites by another company so they can work even in case of problems.
Some web host companies offer testimonials on their own web site from valued customers recommending them. Seeing is not believing, one should call these customers and get a face value recommendation for him/her self.
What to do with the problems?
Now the problems can arise either due to the customer’s fault or by the web host company. There is no certainty of the technological Problem to occur, as it can occur any time but it’s all depending upon the host company how to handle such problem in order to keep the customer. If the user finds his/her web site dropping off line or slow downloading at a regular basis, then he/she should move to another web host company. If the problems pertain and the company is not paying attention to it means they are showing arrogant behavior towards their customers. Support is vital from a web host company and it should be 24 hour if it’s a large organization.
Virus Problems and Hackers
It is the responsibility of the company to ensure that the files of the customers are protected from virus and hackers at all times. There are number of companies having their web sites hacked and that happens only due to the reason that their web host company had not got the latest patches and security software applied. The new comers to web hosting should always ask how often updates and what software is used to protect web sites.
Tips:
One can have a good earning by his/her web site or can be this only source of income for him/her. Therefore one should always do his/her own backups of the web site. If due to any reason the web host company experiences problem and has no backups available, then the whole business could go stop. Backups are very crucial and have to be done as regular as possible in order to avoid problems afterwards. Some companies have testimonials on their web site from customers, one should not be afraid to call these guys for an up to date reference.
One should be very careful while dealing with host companies and should check recommendations and references very carefully. Always one should ask for the full contact details of the web hosting company, as there are many people who simply go online and have an email address only as the contact. Now if their email goes down and one needs to contact them one should have their full details at hand. One should always shop around for the different web hosting plans and should compare all the features available. On comparison it’s sure to get large differences, therefore it’s very important to check each and every thing before final sign up.
TJX Hacker Admits to Other Crimes
Dec 30th
December 30, 2009 — According to a report posted to the Register on Wednesday, the hacker responsible for the notorious TJX hacks of several years ago pleaded guilty to other attacks this week, and faces a minimum sentence of 17 years.
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TJX Hacker Admits to Other Crimes
Streaming Services Prepare for New Year’s Eve Coverage
Dec 30th
December 30, 2009 — In partnership with The Times Square Alliance and Countdown Entertainment, Livestream will be streaming a six-and-a-half hour feed of the traditional ball drop in New York City’s Times Square for free around the world.
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Streaming Services Prepare for New Year’s Eve Coverage
Web Hosting Year in Review: Investment and Finance
Dec 30th
December 30, 2009 — For businesses in just about every industry, 2009 was marked more by the state of the economy than by any other individual factor.
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Web Hosting Year in Review: Investment and Finance
Web Host Opus Begins Construction on Data Center
Dec 30th
December 30, 2009 — Managed hosting provider Opus Interactive announced on Tuesday it has begun construction on a new data center in Portland.
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Web Host Opus Begins Construction on Data Center
DDoS Attack Targets DNS Provider for Amazon, Expedia
Dec 29th
December 29, 2009 — An attack directed at Neustar, the domain name system services provider for Amazon, Wal-Mart, and Expedia, and other large e-commerce companies, took several Internet shopping sites offline the night before Christmas Eve, taking out sites completely or rendering them sluggish for about an hour, and leaving some last-minute shoppers in a lurch.
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DDoS Attack Targets DNS Provider for Amazon, Expedia
Web Hosting Year in Review: Data Center Construction
Dec 29th
December 29, 2009 — There were many high-profile data center builds announced this year, but five data center projects in particular stood out, both in size and financial investment.
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Web Hosting Year in Review: Data Center Construction
Court Orders Websites Suspended In Libel Case
Dec 29th
December 29, 2009 — As part of its response to a libel lawsuit filed by IT consulting company Apex Technology Group, a New Jersey judge ordered hosting and domain providers to take down three websites opposing the H-1B work visa last week, according to a lengthy article published in Computerworld on Monday.
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Court Orders Websites Suspended In Libel Case
Utility of Support in Web Hosting Business
Dec 29th
Introduction:
The importance of support can be explained in form of a small example as depicted here, imagine one is in a business of running a small-medium sized online store that concentrates on affordably prized gift items, and now lets say, it’s Christmas time. Now it is sure that everybody is busy in shopping and the use him/her self will be waiting for this day to come, as it is the time of the year when his/her business really blooms, and with which he/she will get revenue to plan next event or business.
Now imaging a biggest trouble came, say his/her site goes down due to some sort of problems associated with server on 23rd of December, or on Christmas Eve. To make the things worst user is not able to get hosting company as well. Now what will happen? How he/she would react when he/she won’t get such support at this moment of time? Now this explains why prompt support required is.
The above example is just a small example and believe it or not things can even go worst that this. It is a true fact that the quality of support builds the foundation of hosting company. It is the foundation on which the whole building of hosting firm rests. The features like speedy and accurate customer service are rare to be seen, but they are the things, which make one company successful. Along with these features one should take care for performance, Space, Traffic allowed, Features, Cost, and most importantly Customer support.
In order to check the credibility of a hosting company, customer support is considered as a main factor. If a company wants to prove its credibility it has to take care of its technical support at any cost. For a user it’s really important to know if technical support is dependable or not as if anything goes wrong with his/her site, then he/she has to contact the company and cure is only possible if it is directly provided by the hosting company itself.
There are several or rather say almost all companies to claim to offer services like techs working round the clock in their organizations, managing their state-of-the art systems etc. But in reality we know that it is mere a fake trap. Due to excess demand of information technology professionals now days, many web-hosting companies are unable to find employees who are well trained in OS concepts, network technology and control panel specifications
In this article we are giving the brief outlines of the hosting support considerations for the beginners as well as any host who have got high regards for the quality standards of their company.
Right support:
It’s really quite difficult to find perfect support for one’s company. For every web host who gives serious thought to hosting support would be having certain expectation levels regarding the quality of support. It is only if one’s support is marvelous that one can feel relaxed as his/her customers are also going to feel relaxed due to this.
In this context the most important thing to consider is how to provide round the clock support and that too whole year. It is quite often seen that every web host just promises to provide support 24 / 7 and even promises to offer money back guarantee in case he/she is not able to provide that. But in reality such things are rare. So, one should take care to have best support team to offer support round the clock through out the year. One should ensure proper administration and supervision to check the quality as well as the working style of support people.
Cost:
Next parameter to consider is cost. One should consider this point as well, for maintaining cost it is better to have own team of technical experts, or outsourcing to an outsourced hosting support company. One should select support wisely with efficient computations of his/her expenses and profit margin. It is advisable to do calculations in such a way that the quality of support can be kept and simultaneously good profit can also be earned even in the long run. One should keep in mind that due to intense competition in the beginning profits are not much but keeping quality will benefit in the long run as all will be out from the market offering poor services.
In order to control cost, it is not only possible to control it via controlling technical factors but also non technical aspects like sales / billing support and timely administration of servers etc. In order to save cost one can manage the sales / billing issues by his/her own or he/she can avail the services of a fresher. For the server administration, one requires the service of a good system administrator to perform the timely software upgrades, and the other fine tuning aspects of the server in order to make it run smooth. It’s always considered an additional utility to maintain a team of technical experts who are able to perform technical support as well as server administration instead of employing separate teams for the same. Thus the above things can easily reduce cost and no doubt without compromising quality.
What to choose? In-House or Outsourced
Now next important thing to consider is whether it is required to have an in-house team of technicians, or one can outsource support to a support company? There are several people with different opinions on this matter; therefore we are taking both the pros and cons to conclude which one is better.
Pros:
In-House
1) It is possible to have direct interaction with the support staff in person.
2) It is possible to recruit directly the support staff by own.
3) Also local market knowledge and expertise can be known well when it comes to sales and marketing
4) In case of emergency, ready availability-upon-call of in house team.
Outsourced
1) It is cost effective as compared to above.
2) One can concentrate better on his/her own business marketing as anyone else is taking care of technical aspect.
3) Biggest advantage is availability of expertise in specific fields.
4) No problems with the planning of shifts or personnel to manage the 24 / 7 support, as it is now headache of the outsource company.
5) No training cost.
Cons:
In-House
1) Its quite expensive as compared to Outsourced.
2) Burden of personnel management in maintaining an in-house team for support
3) Requirement of dynamism as remedies is to be taken immediately.
Outsourced
1) It is not possible to have direct interaction in person with the support staff.
2) Its important to have accustomed with own support people, as they might keep on changing according to the outsource company’s internal policies.
3) Needs perfection of language (spoken or written)
Conclusion:
To conclude, it is always better to select a good outsourced support firm, that maintains it’s promises and does not comprise on quality instead of employing own separate staff to handle the technical support, sales / billing and server administration.