26..Guide To Managed Hosting

Many businesses (especially SOHO's and SME's) are unable to meet the resource requirements required to manage their systems 24X7. In order to be successful, a company whose online presence is an integral part of its business must successfully implement and maintain the following:

Hiring an in-house staff to maintain all this is prohibitively expensive, so outsourcing these infrastructure needs to a third-party can be a very cost-effective option. However, as more and more organizations claim to offer "managed services" it becomes difficult to determine between a MSP (Managed Services Provider) and a managed host.

What Is A Managed Host?
Managed hosts monitor and maintain all of the infrastructure issues that are integral in hosting a site or application on the Internet. Unlike MSP's, which offer the applications themselves, a managed host procures, configures, installs, and maintains the necessary servers, firewalls, and other devices that the customer's architecture requires, including the operating system, and any backend database and server support required to make the site functional (such as Oracle and Apache for example).:

Once configured, the managed host connects the server to the Web via its own network, where it is monitored on a 24 hour basis. In essence, a managed host takes on the responsibility for maintaining your infrastructure: if a hard drive fails, the host replaces it; if a server dies, the host swaps it; if there's a spike in traffic, bandwidth is increased.

Do I Need A Managed Host?
That depends on the purpose of your site. Obviously, a simple "brochureware" site will not require all the bells-and-whistles that a managed host provides. If you are running a larger enterprise that supports a high and constant level of traffic, a managed host may be the best option for your web site. In general, consider the following questions when evaluating managed hosting for your business:

Is my web presence my primary source of revenue?
Are my Internet applications critical?
Do I need highly responsive 24x7 support, and guaranteed uptime?
Are my current resources adequate in providing support in a timely way, on all hardware, software, and network functionalities?
Can I focus on business issues and keep my servers up and running?
Can I afford to hire, train, and retain the technical staff required to maintain my web presence?

If you answered "yes" to the first three questions, and "no" to the last three - managed hosting may be the best way to maintain your Internet presence.

Why Is A Managed Host The Best Option For My Site?
Compared to handling infrastructure demands in-house, managed hosts allow the client to take full advantage of the hosts processes and experience to implement solutions in less time, at a lower cost, and with higher reliability than other hosting methods. For example, co-location and dedicated hosting plans provide just the physical space, power, and network connections for customer equipment. Anything else incurs an additional cost - which can quickly become prohibitive if you need to reconfigure your servers frequently, or have to add multiple applications. While many dedicated and co-located hosts claim to offer additional services, these are usually provided by a third-party organization or consultant, and are bolted onto the platform at an additional cost - often costing interruptions to performance. These solutions simply cannot offer the same level of reliability and adaptability that a managed host can provide.

Will I Still Have Control Over My Web Site Or Application?
Absolutely. Managed hosts typically provide the client with full root/administrative access, so changes can be made to your web site at any time. You will also have the ability to place custom code (CGI and Java), on your server at your discretion.

Are Managed Hosts Scalable?
Scalability is the main advantage to using a managed host - customers can increase their bandwidth usage and upgrade their server architecture at any time. Most managed hosts keep a large inventory of equipment on hand so that server scaling can occur seamlessly - the host makes the necessary adjustments and simply modifies the monthly service fee.

What Should A Managed Host Be Monitoring On My Server?
This is an important consideration. While most hosting providers boast "24x7x365" server monitoring, it's important that you find out what aspects of your box are actually being monitored, and how rapid the response time is in the event of failure. If your host is only monitoring your connectivity 24x7x365, and your load balance is only checked on once a day for example, a sudden spike in traffic will quickly cause your server to shut down. In general, a good managed host should monitor the following:

- Server reachability (ping)
- CPU usage/utilization
- Memory usage
- Storage usage
- Load average
- Virtual memory usage

Furthermore, you should be able to access or generate reports from the monitor logs, so you can personally evaluate your server's performance.

How Does A Managed Host Integrate And Deploy My Solution?
While every hosting organization has their own processes in place for getting you online, they follow a similar series of steps:

1. Initiation and production design phase: The managed host reviews your specific, requirements and proposes a solution to meet your needs.
2. Build phase: From this ideal solution, you pick the equipment you can afford to implement, and the managed host's team of engineers build your servers and network settings to your custom configuration.
3. Validation phase: The host's engineers put your solution through extensive validation processes to ensure that your server is functional, and precisely meets your needs.
4. Production phase: Your solution is staged and provided to you for acceptance testing and implementation approval. Once approved, a launch date is set to take your solution "live."
5. Live phase: A final round of quality-assurance tests are run to ensure the highest quality of reliability, security, and performance. Finally, end-users are given access to your Internet solution.

How Much Will A Managed Solution Cost?
Generally, a managed host will incur only 45-50% of the cost of an in-house solution, which gives them an obvious advantage over more traditional hosting packages. Furthermore, these cost advantages will be sustained through years of operations and upgrade cycles.

E-Commerce is the driving force in the global economy, and more now than ever, the strength of your service provider partner is critical in maintaining a competitive edge. Your partner must be able to give you seamless availability, keep up with technology, and maintain a highly skilled technical team.

25..Introduction To Bandwidth

Bandwidth is the amount of data (files located on your domain that are viewed by visitors, email, ftp) that can be send/received by your web server. You can understand how important this factor is when buying a web hosting plan or leasing a web server. Generally speaking, the more bandwidth you have, the more visitors can visit your web site.

Determining how much bandwidth is needed
To determine how much bandwidth you need per month, you will need to have a look at your web site statistics. Visitors per month times avg. data transferred per month per user = Amount of Bandwidth used per month. Bandwidth is usually measured in MB or GB. It is not very important to get the exact number of visitors. An approximate number will be sufficient for calculating the monthly bandwidth usage.

Whereas the accuracy of the numbers in the first part of the calculation was a rather unimportant factor it plays a big role in the second part of the calculation.

Finding the average files transferred can be difficult if your web site is very large, since it has to be done for every single page. To find the size, add up the size of every image on the page and the size of the page of every single page on your web site. To make life a little easier for you it is recommended to use the following loading time test tool. Once you've obtained that number add 25%-33% to that number to give your web site room and allow it to grow.

Here is an example calculation:

Page 1: 15.000 visitors per mo. x 125KB of data = 1875000KB = ~1875 MB = ~1,875GB / mo.
Page 2: 15.000 visitors per mo. x 100KB of data = 1500000KB = ~1500 MB = ~1,500GB / mo.
Page 3: 10.000 visitors per mo. x 85KB of data = 850000KB = ~850 MB = ~0,850GB / mo.

Total data transferred per month: ~1,875GB + ~1,500GB + ~0,850GB = ~4,225GB. Adding 25%-33% to that amount will give us a result of 5,28GB - 5,62GB. So it would be recommended getting a plan with 5.5GB or 6GB bandwidth per month.

Please note that: 1024 Bytes = 1 KB, 1024 KB = 1 MB and 1024 MB = 1 GB

How can bandwidth be saved?
There are a number of ways to save bandwidth. A general advice is to keep all files on your web site as small as possible. (Sounds logic doesn't it?) To reduce the size of your pages you have to remove unnecessary tags from your code. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) programs like Dreamweaver have a clean HTML function.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is also an effective way to save bandwidth. It is designed to reduce HTML file size by attributing values for any HTML element/command at the beginning of the document.

Once that is done you have to go to the next step, optimizing all graphics and pictures. It is important to know that graphics (vectors) have to be saved as .gif files and pictures as .jpeg files. If you don't own a picture program like Fireworks or PhotoShop then you can optimize your pictures for free at NetMechanic.com.

Your dial-up visitors will thank you for optimizing all your web pages.

Preventing bandwidth theft
Linking to images of another web site in your img src tag without permission is considered as bandwidth theft. As unethical as it may be, it is a reality many webmasters have to deal with on a daily basis.

The most effective and unfortunately also very time-consuming method of preventing bandwidth theft is scanning your web site logs. By analyzing your logs you can find out who is using your images without your permission. Once you have located the offending party, you can either contact them or replace the hotlinked file with a picture that says "Please Do NOT Hotlink Our Images", along with the URL of your web site. This way all their web site visitors will see the webmaster hotlinked your pictures.

24..How To Select A Webhost That Fits Your Needs

Whether you're considering starting a website or you have one and want to possibly move it, this article can help you decide what the best webhost means to you.

To begin, every website is hosted on only 3 platforms:

- Unix
- Windows NT
- Macintosh

Very few sites are hosted on a MAC server, so the majority of webhosts use Unix or NT. For these reasons we will focus on only those 2 platforms.

Unix and NT both offer various options and have different abilities. Your choice of which platform to use depends on what applications you want your site to run and the amount of control you want to have over your site.

Unix
Unix is the oldest and one of the most widely used operating systems. It is the basis of the internet and most webservers originally ran on a version of Unix. Unix is know as a multitasking operating system which means that it can run many applications at the same time without them affecting each other. This is very important when you consider that hundreds of websites, running thousands of CGI scripts, all receiving thousands of hits could be running on one webserver.

Why Use It?
It's reliable Ability to host many websites on the same machine. Almost all CGI scripts run better on Unix. Programming flexibility. Much more administrative control.

With Unix, webmasters can really tweak their websites (assuming they know what they are doing) to run at optimal levels. Developers can run CGI scripts and create applications specific to their needs.

Down Sides
Is case sensitive. It is not an easy operating system to learn. Must use telnet or Ftp to make changes.

Windows NT
NT is a relative newcomer to the webhosting game but it is fast gaining a large share of the business. NT was built to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft's web authoring tool, Frontpage. As such, it is often the perfect solution for newcomers who do not want to learn HTML or CGI programming or deal with the day to day hassles of administering a webserver.

Up Sides
Can use Microsoft Frontpage to publish your website as opposed to using Ftp or telnet. Can use Cold Fusion. Somewhat easier to administer (especially for the average webmaster). Is not case sensitive.

If you do not plan on learning the in's and out's of the web and administering your site, NT is probably your tool of choice.

Down Sides
Provides poorer security than Unix. Because of the security issues, the hosting provider will usually institute tighter security measures. Cannot run all CGI scripts although this is changing.

Your needs as the webmaster and your visitors needs will determine the type of webhost and the platform you need.

Once you have done some more research into what platform you need, stop by an independent website like: http://www.tophosts.com and choose one of the top 25 hosts to fulfill your needs.

Some issues to consider while pondering which host to choose:

1.Uptime
This is probably the most critical piece of information you need to know to make an informed decision. How often a server goes down means lost business and lost sales and no one needs that. Our webhost is up 99.9% of the time as compared to the first one we had which was more like 25% of the time.

2.Bandwidth Usage
Some hosts actually charge you for the amount of traffic you get once you pass a certain percentage. Why on earth would you want to be charged for that? Our webhost offers us unmetered traffic at no extra cost (this is what you should look for).

3.Server Space
Look for hosts that give 50-500 mg of space. As the technology changes sites will take up more space. You should try to get as much as you can right now even if you don't use it all.

4.CGI Access
This is critical. You need the ability to use CGI and especially custom CGI. If a host doesn't offer it, run screaming!

5.MSQL; Real Audio; Real Video; Cold Fusion
This is the future of the web and in particular web marketing. Make sure a host offers support for these applications even if you don't presently have a use for them.

You will be glad that you spent your time doing this research before you jump in and choose a host or switch to a host that provides you with nothing but problems. You deserve the best, go for it.

23..Evaluating Personal Web Site Hosting Solutions

Web hosting for personal sites differs tremendously from hosting for mission-critical e-commerce in that it is not as complex or demanding. For this reason, individuals and hobbyists can opt to select low-cost solutions that allow them to experiment with Internet technology without making a demanding or expensive commitment.

Personal Web sites that focus on publishing an individual's resumes and other personal content can be easily satisfied by free hosting solutions. Typically, if all you require is a small personal Web site, then there are a myriad of free sub-domain hosting solutions that are available.

Free sub-domain hosting allows individuals to host their Web site at a large portal or content aggregator. Usually your Web site is hosted in a Web community, and is sub-categorized by interest. The hosting is provided free-of-charge by way of pop-up or banner advertISMENTS and sponsorship automatically included by the host. The most popular of these sites include Yahoo! Geocities (www.geocities.com) and Tripod (www.tripod.com).

These services are only meant for personal use and because they are offered en massE, your site will be one of many sites shared on a server. Because free hosts don't charge you for their services, their fiduciary responsibility to you and your quality of service is limited. Free hosts have a tendency to offer no quality assurance or technical support because their business model is a loss leader meant to attract a large amount of users in order to generate advertising revenue.

While this business model might not amount to the most dependable service, it does allow individuals to set up free sites. Another solution that many individuals and hobbyists also select is the hosting associated with their ISP account. Many ISPs offer sub-domain hosting space along with their dial-up or broadband access to the Internet.

More complex hosting services provide highly individualized functionality that guarantees a sound level of quality service. Such services are fee-based, ensuring that revenues can be allotted to maintaining and improving service and providing superior technical support.

The most basic entry-level fee-based service is "virtual" or "shared" hosting. Shared servers offer clients the ability to host their Web site on a powerful, professionally managed server, at a low monthly cost.

Shared servers provide individual Web sites with redundant connectivity, guaranteed uptime. These services provide an excellent solution for entry-level hosting needs because they are designed to host small-scale e-commerce sites and static Web pages.

These sites are also popular amongst first-time webmasters because they can provide reliable Web presence without advanced technical skills. These servers are also very popular amongst webmasters because they allow you have your Web site hosted on your domain name such as http://www.yourname.com.

Such services vary widely in price and can cost anywhere between $2 to $50. As with any purchase, users can expect the quality of service to fluctuate based upon the amount paid for the service. "Caveat emptor" is thus the rule and not the exception when it comes to purchasing shared hosting services.

If an individual decides to purchase a relatively inexpensive package, then he or she can expect the quality to reflect the cost of the service. The lower the price one pays for hosting, the more network outages and service problems a consumer can expect.

This however might be acceptable if all an individual desires is non mission-critical hosting for a non-essential personal site.

22..Introduction To FTP

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and is a standard application protocol that uses the Internet’s TCP/IP protocol to transfer files from one computer to another.

FTP is a very common process today. FTP is commonly used to transfer web pages from the creator’s computer to the server where the web site is situated. Also FTP is used to download programs and files to your computer from a server.

How do I use FTP?
To use FTP you will need to install FTP software on your computer. There are many freely available FTP programs on the Internet such as, FTP explorer (http://www.ftpx.com) and Smart FTP (http://www.smartftp.com).

How do I connect with FTP?
Follow the steps below to connect to a server, to upload files using FTP Explorer:

1. Open FTP Explorer.
2. Click on the connect button on the toolbar or select connect from the Tools menu.
3. In the Profile Name text, enter a name to give your FTP connection.
4. In the Host Address text box enter the address of the server you are connecting to (this can either be the DNS entry or the IP Address).
5. Enter the Port number that the server accepts FTP connections on (the default port for FTP is 21).
6. Tick the Use PASV option, if your computer is behind a firewall, which does not allow external FTP connections.
7. Tick the Use Firewall option if your computer is located behind a firewall.
8. Either enter a user name for the FTP login or tick the Anonymous option (the anonymous option will only work if the server is set up to allow anonymous FTP connections -- if this is selected go to step 10).
9. Enter the user’s password in the Password text box.
10. In the Initial path text box, enter the path on the server, where you want your connection to start at -- this is optional.
11. In the Attempts text box enter the number of times to try the FTP connection if fails, you will need to have at least 1 in this text box.
12. In the Download path you can specify the path on your computer where to save the files downloaded from the server -- this is optional, you can specify this later if you like.
13. To establish the connection with the server click on the Connect button.

How do I upload files using FTP?
Once you have established your connection with the server the next step is to upload your files to the server. The following describes how to do this:

1. Go to the path on the server where you want to upload your files to.
2. In the Tools menu click on the Upload button.
3. Select the file or files that you want to upload (to select more than one file hold down the CTRL key).

NOTE: You can also upload files by dragging and dropping them to the directory/folder on the server.

4. Click on the Open button. Your file will now be uploaded to the server. (You will see this uploading process in the dialog box.)

How do I download files using FTP?
You can also use FTP to download files to your computer from a server. The following describes how to download a file.

1. Make sure you are connected to the server.
2. Go to the file that you want to download.
3. Right click on the file and select Download To..
4. Select the path on your computer where you want the file to be saved to.
5. The file will now be downloaded to your computer. (You will see this downloading process happening in the dialog box.)

How do I end my connection?
You can end the connection by simply clicking on the Disconnect button on the tool bar or by clicking on Disconnect from the Tools menu.

21..How To Choose A Web Hosting Service

1. Support
Is there really anybody there? Send them a question by email and see how long they take to respond. You want to know if they'll be there when you need them. Some offer 24-hour support and a few will respond quickly. Speedy customer service is rare and indicates a superior service. I think that this is the single most important consideration. Also, check out the quality of their online documentation.

2. Server performance
You want a server that is reliable and fast. There is a free tool available that allows you to evaluate this before making a decision! NetMechanic.com will measure the speed of access for all facets of access (network speed, DNS lookup, connect time, download time, and absence of timeouts). The "download time" statistic is the most important single item to compare. Collect your list of candidate hosting services and run side-by-side tests of all the candidates. Sample duri

3. Are they familiar with the application you plan to use?
If you're planning to use a particular application that requires special setup parameters (such as Online Merchant, a popular online store), make sure your potential host is familiar with the application. Otherwise you may find yourself spending a great deal of time trying to figure out how to configure it - perhaps never succeeding!

4. Traffic allowance
Compare your traffic allowances. Some services give you a small limit on the amount of material that can be downloaded from your site each month and charge you large amounts when that limit is exceeded. Some offer huge traffic allowances (several thousand MB/month, where 1,000 MB = 1 GB) for the same price as others that limit you to a few hundred MB/month. Sure you probably need less than a hundred MB/month now, but why put yourself in a position where you have to move when your traffic takes off? Plan ahead and allow for growth.

5. Space
How much space do you expect to eventually want for your web site? Planning ahead can save you lots of money later. If you expect to grow, look for a place that offers sites of 100 MB or more. Some services offer 500 MB sites for less money than others that offer only 30 MB.

6. Features
Consider what features you want to simplify development of your web site.

Do you want access to a cgi-bin so that you can install your own scripts?
Do you want many scripts pre-installed and pre- configured?
Do you want to be able to use Microsoft's FrontPage?
Do you want autoresponders for email processing?
Do you want email aliases (automatic forwarding) so you don't need to check email in more than one place?

7. Guarantee
With so many hosting services to choose from, why not choose one that offers a guarantee? Services that offer a moneyback guarantee are confident that you'll be delighted with their service.

8. Cost
Look for hidden costs when comparing price.

Do they expect you to pay for a long term in advance to get a good price? Choose one that doesn't bait you with a low price that's only available if you make a long-term commitment. Will they handle the registration of your domain for free? If you're transferring an existing domain, will they submit the domain change to InterNIC for free?

Choosing an excellent service to host your web site doesn't have to require luck. Knowing what to look for makes selection simple.

Good luck with your marketing and God Bless

ng peak and non-peak times for optimal comparison.

20..Putting The Focus On Bandwidth

Business websites are no longer single page billboards that list basic company information. Businesses are taking their Web presence seriously, and are launching fully comprehensive sites. But with the increased functionality of sites come new concerns - one of which is a higher demand on bandwidth. For larger sites that incorporate high-resolution graphics, flash animation, multiple pages, and other larger file, bandwidth is something is an essential consideration. But what exactly is bandwidth? Webopedia.com has this to say:

"The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed period of time. For digital devices, bandwidth is usually expressed in bits per second (bps) or bytes per second. For analog devices, bandwidth is expressed in cycles per second, or Hertz (Hz)"

And what does that really mean? Basically, bandwidth is the measurement of the blips and bleeps - or data - that can coast across the Internet. With respect to Web hosting, bandwidth refers specifically to the amount of data that your site is delivering to the rest of the world, via the Internet. For instance, say you have a site that is 750k in size. Every time someone looks at your main page, 750k worth of data is transferred from the server where your site resides to the browser that is requesting it.

Keep in mind that regular surfers may hit refresh a few times and surf around your site; each time they hit refresh, more data is transferred. The host monitors the amount of data transferred, and this information should be available for you to verify. If your host does not offer any utilities that allow you to monitor the bandwidth yourself, be wary.

Since hosting companies have to pay for their bandwidth, you have to pay too. Most hosts will give you a set amount of bandwidth with your service package, and then charge you if you exceed this amount. Charges can be anywhere from a few pennies to hundreds of dollars ... so be sure to verify this information before choosing a host; ALWAYS read the fine print! Some hosts advertise "unlimited bandwidth," but what does this mean? Is it really unlimited? After consulting with several top companies, I can say that unlimited bandwidth isn't unlimited at all. WebHosting.Com, which offers unlimited bandwidth, will actually only provide 12 gigs. If you need any more than that, the company will suggest that you look into a dedicated server. If you exceed the 12-gig limit on a regular basis, expect your site to be deactivated.

Pagecreators.net, a hosting company based out of Minnesota, has come under fire for allegedly scamming clients with its fine-print stipulations. The large print offers unlimited bandwidth, but the contract tells another story. Hidden in the small print, underneath all the jargon and legalese, is a clause stating that bandwidth over a certain amount is subject to a usage fee of $1 per kilobyte. One former customer discovered a charge of $9,000.00 on his credit card bill, and when he tried to contest the charge, he was told that his contract clearly outlined a rate of $1 per kb.In poetic terms, bandwidth is the lifeblood of the Internet, and it should be accorded the appropriate consideration. Bandwidth is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed, both when embarking upon the development of a web presence, and when selecting an appropriate host.