#1 Web Hosting – LunarPages Review

“It is not the large disk space or bandwidth that makes us rank LunarPages so high but its superior customer support! Their open community forum is flooded with tons of happy customers.”

Update:
1 May 2007 – Increased bandwidth to 3,500 GB!
28 Apr 2007 – Increased disk space to 350 GB!
9 Jan 2007 – Upgraded to 250 GB disk space and 2,500 GB bandwidth.

Website: LunarPages.com

LunarPages Coupon Code

Coupon Code = TakeOff25Add2

Get $25 OFF your hosting bill AND 2 extra months for FREE at the SAME TIME! Valid for all 1-year and 2-year order.

If you order for 1 year, you only need to pay $70.40 and you will get 14 months of hosting! The averaged monthly fee will become $5.02 for 14 months!

If you order for 2 years, you need to pay $141.80 and you will get 26 months of hosting. The averaged monthly fee will become $5.45 for 26 months.

Why it is wiser to order for 2 years?

If you order for 1 year, your averaged price is $5.02 but you only get 14 months of hosting. You have to renew your account after 14 months and you will need to pay the normal hosting fee of $7.95/month thereafter.

If you order for 2 years, your averaged price is slightly higher at $5.45 but you actually get 26 months of hosting! This is because the yearly rate is $7.95/month but the bi-yearly rate is $6.95 ($1 cheaper). You will also be able to renew at the cheaper rate of $6.95/month 26 months later.

Take the 24 months order. You will be hosting with them for a long time. This site has been hosted by them for more than 4 years. And because they allow you to host 11 websites in 1 single account, you can always add more websites later without paying a single cent for hosting anymore.

Special Offer For Transfer Clients

Move your website to LunarPages from another web host and sign up for a new annual or bi-annual plan. They will add the time remaining from your existing web hosting account to your new LunarPages account (up to 6 months). Click Here for offer details.

You don’t need to consider this offer anymore because the new coupon TakeOff25Add2 is more favorable. The coupon gives you 2 months free and $25 off. $25 off from the coupon is equivalent to 3 months of hosting. With another 2 months free, the coupon is worth 5 months of hosting. So unless you really have 6 months or more of hosting left with your previous host, take the coupon offer instead of this one.

Overview

This site that you are looking at now has been hosted by LunarPages since the first day! That’s more than 4 years! We also have another eight websites hosted by LunarPages and are very satisfied with their service. The discussion below is based on our experience with LunarPages as one of their customers. You cannot get more InSIDe information about LunarPages elsewhere

LunarPages is currently serving over 100,000 customers in over 200 countries. It was founded in the summer of 2000 when a successful large scale hosting provider, Add2Net Corporation, expanded its hosting offerings to include shared hosting. They offer two shared hosting plans – Basic ($7.95) and Business ($22.95). The $22.95 plan is a larger plan with unlimited disk space and 3,000 GB of bandwidth. We will be discussing the $7.95 plan.

Plan Size and Features

350 GB of disk space and 3,500 GB of bandwidth are a lot. Click on the small picture to view the original wallpaper of Saguaro National Park, Arizona. The size of the large and high quality picture is 228 KB (kilobyte). With 350 GB of disk space, you can store more than 1.5 million copies of this picture! And with 3,500 GB/month bandwidth, this picture can be viewed more than 15,300,000 times a month (That’s 15.3 million)! The most suitable words to describe 350 GB of disk space and 3,500 GB of bandwidth are “More Than Enough!”.

We understand there are many hosts which offer large bandwidth, but keep in mind that these hosts might have funny restrictions such as file size limit, daily bandwidth limit, or even binary files bandwidth limit (pictures, MP3s, Flash …). We can assure you that LunarPages does not have such restrictions with your disk space and bandwidth usage. You can upload a single 350 GB file if you want and you can finish your 3,500 GB bandwidth in 1 day. As the LunarPages founder and director, Maximiliam Andersen told us, “We actually allow people to use everything and we have no problem offering them what we are currently offering.”

Customer Support

It is not the large disk space or bandwidth that makes us rank LunarPages so high but its superior customer support! They spend a great deal of money hiring a lot of support staff to take care of their customers. All of them are very friendly and knowledgeable. With their effort on customer support, you can expect the best attention from them.

1. Email support – Simply email support@lunarpages.com and you will always get a useful reply, no matter if you are a current customer or you just need to ask some presale questions. Useful replies mean they will give you the exact answer you need. We suggest that you send them an email right now to see how effective they are. All email will automatically be tracked by the same ticket system used by the support help desk. This is our favorite method to request support, because it is fast, convenient and effective. Email support is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

In July 2006, LunarPages launched a 15 minute email response guarantee on pre sales email inquiries. Test it up yourself to know how much effort LunarPages is focusing on customer support!

2. Support Help Desk - You will send your inquiry through the use of an online form. All your inquires will be tracked and recorded using their ticket system. They even keep a history of all your issues so you can refer back to them anytime you want. There is also a knowledgebase of frequently asked questions in the help desk so you can find your answers without creating a support ticket.

3. Toll-Free Support – Just call 1-877-LUNARPAGES if you need phone support for USA and Canada. For the United Kingdom, call 0800-072-9150 instead. If you live outside of these countries, you cannot dial the toll free number. They provide another support line for their international customers: 1-714-521-8150. We have called them several times and they actually answer the phone very well!

4. Lunar Forums (LunarForums.com)- LunarPages provides forums to let their customers communicate and help each other. You can find many answers for your questions. You will also meet many happy customers there. Remember only hosts that are confident with their services and have many customers dare to set up an open forum. Currently, the forum has more than 22,100 registered users.

5. Live Chat - Brand new life chat launched in July 2006! Now you can get immediate attention.

We will surely rate their customer support as 10 over 10, or 11 over 10 if we can Their customer satisfaction speaks for itself. We always stress to our visitors who write to us that if they are web hosting newbie who require a lot of attentions and supports, they should always pick LunarPages. This will make sure that they are fully taken care of in their “early age”.

If you have read other reviews we have posted, you will notice that we will state that if you have any unresolved issues with the host, you can always forward them to us and we will take them directly to the officers. Even though we have direct contact with many important officers of LunarPages, we never mention it in our LunarPages review. We don’t need to do so because all LunarPages clients are able to resolve the issue directly with the dedicated support staffs without going through a third party like us.

Sometime ago, we have submitted a possible SPAM issue to them. To our surprise, not only that they reply to our email but they have also called us and left us a voice message! You can click on the ‘Play’ button below to listen to the voice message yourself. They indeed look into SPAM issues seriously to make sure their mail server is not blocked. They make sure you will not miss out any emails.

Important Highlights

Multiple Domain Hosting – Host 10 Websites Under 1 Account!

If you have read our BlueHost Review, you know that multiple domain hosting will be the future of web hosting. LunarPages offers 10 free add-on domain along with the plan. That means you can host up to 11 websites under the same hosting account.

Up to Date Software

Compared to other hosts in the top 10, LunarPages is the most effective in keeping their software up to date. Software that we are referring to include PHP, PHPMyAdmin, MySQL, Perl, Linux Kernel and others. This is one of the reasons why we rank them so high. It is very frustrating when you realize that your host is not updating their software. Click here for LunarPages software information.

CPanel Control Panel (Demo)

LunarPages uses CPanel as the web site control panel. Another popular control panel is Plesk. But from our experience, CPanel is far more user friendly and powerful then Plesk. It allows you to control a lot of things, including email accounts, MySQL databases, custom error messages, password protected directories, setting up forum, shopping cart, chat room, cron jobs, sub domains, MIME types, apache handlers, search engine submission, free CGI scripts and many more. You can even upload and manage your files with its powerful file manager. What we really want you to know is that you can do a lot with CPanel and have a lot of fun with it. There are no such things as setting up forum or cron jobs in Plesk. Plesk control panel is also very slow to load even with a broadband Internet connection.

Fantastico Scripts Library (List All Scripts)

You can install 36 different scripts to your website INSTANTLY with a few clicks! No installation or programming language required. These scripts include blogs, discussion forums, portals, image galleries, polls, customer support scripts and a lot more.

Sub-Domains and Domain Pointers

You can create Unlimited sub-domains and Unlimited domain pointers (domain alias/parking) for FREE. For example, we create the sub domain webdesigners.10-cheapwebhosting.com for our small web designers directory. Domain pointers and add-on domains are different. A domain pointer/alias is merely a second name for your website. Both domain point to the same website. An add-on domain is actually a second website. Both domain point to 2 different websites. They will share the same resources in one hosting account.

Web Statistics Referrals

Referrals allow you to know where your visitors come from (i.e. which site or search engine sent them to your site). They configure their web stats to show up to 250 of your web site referrals. More referrals mean more information. Almost all other web hosts configure their stats program to list only the top 30 referrals.

Flash Video Tutorials

You can enjoy learning by watching video tutorials instead of reading boring text tutorials. These tutorials include changing nameservers, working with CPanel, setting up your email client, uploading your site with FTP, using Dreamweaver MX, using Macromedia Flash and using Microsoft FrontPage.

FREE Domain Name For Life

LunarPages will offer a free domain name with all annual plans. All new customers may register a new domain or transfer their existing domain to LunarPages at no additional charge. The domain will be registered in the customer�s name and will be free for as long as the customer hosts with LunarPages. This offer is automated and no coupon code is required.

$700 worth of FREE Software!

You get 22 CoffeeCup software for FREE! They are CoffeeCup VisualSite Designer, CoffeeCup HTML Editor, CoffeeCup Direct FTP, CoffeeCup Web Video Player, CoffeeCup Web Calendar, CoffeeCup Flash Firestarter, CoffeeCup Flash Form Builder, CoffeeCup Flash Photo Gallery, CoffeeCup Web JukeBox, CoffeeCup Website Search, CoffeeCup Google SiteMapper, CoffeeCup Live Chat, CoffeeCup RSS News Flash, CoffeeCup Flash Blogger, CoffeeCup Password Wizard, CoffeeCup PixConverter, CoffeeCup MP3 Ripper & Burner, CoffeeCup Image Mapper, CoffeeCup Color Schemer, CoffeeCup StyleSheet Maker, CoffeeCup GIF Animator and CoffeeCup WebCam. Wow! It will take you sometime to download all of them.

You can get more details about this promotion and software here.

PHP & MySQL Platform

LunarPages offers a very good platform for PHP and MySQL. They do a great job on keeping both software up to date. With PHPMyAdmin pre-installed, you can manipulate your MySQL database easily through the web-based interface. As you can see, we use PHP and MySQL extensively in our site. We use MySQL to store all the information about the web hosting plans. We use PHP to write scripts that search the database, compare plans and display the plan information. You are even allowed to connect to LunarPages MySQL server remotely using MySQL monitor or other MySQL remote connect tool, or even a self-written PHP script on your local computer!

They also have PHP 5 servers ready so you can migrate your site to PHP 5 anytime you want.

Server Information

LunarPages has more than 300 live servers for web hosting. Every month, they will add at least 5 new servers to their server farm. New customers will most likely be placed on the new servers because they have the most resources. They are using Dell PowerEdge 2850 servers powered by dual Intel Xeon 3.2Ghz hyper-threaded processors, 4GB of memory and 5 x 73 gig hard drives in Raid 5 configuration. Each server cost more than $10,000! Backup of all servers is performed in a daily basis.

Our Final Advice

If you need a host that will spoon-feed you like a child, then LunarPages will be your first choice. They will pamper you like a child by providing you with the best customer support. You will get your best hosting experience from them. You are also advice to read our BlueHost review (rank #2) and PowWeb review for comparison! And don’t get too excited and forget to use the coupon code listed on top of this page!

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About The Editor (That’s Me!)
My name is James Clark and I am a computer nerd. I like computer so much that I sit in front of the computer 14 hours a day. I am a power web designer and programmer and is currently maintaining more than 30 websites. This gives me the opportunity to try out a lot of different web hosting companies for the last 5 years. I do get screw up by some lousy web hosts before and I know how frustrated it is. That’s why I wrote these reviews to help you. If you do not want to screw up your website or your business, make sure you pick the right web host!

Blog Hosting

About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

Review by Vinny B. – who used this hosting company for 1-5 years when this review was written on August 28, 2007.

Pros

• They gave me a choice to host on a Linux or Windows server
• Inexpensive
• Great customer service
• Access to a lot of the backend items (like my acutal databases, DNS, and more.

Cons

• The User control panel could be better organized.

Description

• Price: $1-$10 per month
• Type of Provider: Standard Web Hosting
• Operating System: Linux
• Server Software: PHP, Database
• Analytics / Statistics: Yes

Description – Services Provided

Full variety of hosting (web & email) and domain purchasing.

Visit Their Web Site

The Bottom Line

Review by Brittany Mitchell – who used this hosting company for 1-5 years when this review was written on August 20, 2007.

Pros

• Ease of Use
• Great Customer Service

Cons

• None

Description

• Price: $11-$25 per month
• Type of Provider: Standard Web Hosting
• Operating System: Windows
• Server Software: Database, ASP, JSP, Streaming media, Other
• Analytics / Statistics: Yes

Description – Services Provided

Great Hosting Service! Recommended.

Visit Their Web Site

About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

Review by Janice – who used this hosting company for 1-5 years when this review was written on August 23, 2007.

Pros

• Cheap.
• Offer what we need.
• Good e-mail accounts for the price.
• Easy Control Panel.
• Easy FTP.

Cons

• They were down alot, but since they upgraded they have been very good.

Description

• Price: $11-$25 per month
• Type of Provider: Standard Web Hosting
• Operating System: Linux
• Server Software: No
• Analytics / Statistics: Yes

Description – Services Provided

They have been very attentive to our needs. I have 3 companies with them. They offer cheap affordable web hosting.

Visit Their Web Site

The Bottom Line

Review by Marc – who used this hosting company for 1-5 years when this review was written on August 24, 2007.

Pros

• Customer Service is top notched
• Server Stability
• cPanel for ease of managing sites/account
• Unlimited domain hosting – I host others than those listed.
• SSH access

Cons

• Linux Only so no ASP. That’s OK, PHP is cool.

Description

• Price: $1-$10 per month
• Type of Provider: Standard Web Hosting
• Operating System: Linux
• Server Software: PHP, Database, Perl, Ruby, Python, SSI, Streaming media, SSL, SSH, Blogs, Other
• Analytics / Statistics: Yes

Other CommentsI really enjoy my time and the service they provide.

Visit Their Web Site

Thanks to Guest Author Jeff Harpp for this article.When I was first looking for website hosting, it seemed that nowhere on the Web could I find a definitive chart of what coding languages belonged where and what tools I would need from a server–statistics programs, FTP access, and all those other necessary technical details I felt I needed to be familiar with. Granted, I wasn’t running a business, so I had a little more time to ponder these things. But even if you’re not interested in the “geek talk”–all those acronyms like FTP, PHP, ASP, and MySQL–you as a manager need to be at least somewhat familiar with these terms, what they do and why your web developer needs them.

Unfortunately, hosting is not hosting is not hosting. Several variables apply when determining which Web Hosting Provider you should choose for your site.

Some of these variables depend on your progress in determining what kind of Web site you will need–mostly dynamic, with searchable and interactive content, or mostly static, with set page content–and what kind of programming languages you might be using, if any. This article is a quick primer to help you know which Web hosting Provider you should choose, and why.

First, talk to your developers. Get their input regarding what database types are right for your project, what programming languages they are using, and other concerns they have. If you’re outsourcing the work, make sure you know which language your contractor will be using and that all necessary elements will be available on your hosting server: programming language APIs, database access and necessary storage space, statistics, etc. Any competent contractor should be able to help you with these details as well.

Linux v. Windows
Choose a platform and programming language. Two operating systems (OS) dominate the world of hosting: Windows and Linux. These operating systems are much like the one you use on your own computer: they provide a base on which all other programs on the server run. While most home and office computers use Windows, Linux runs about 65 to 70 percent of the servers on the Internet. For all intents and purposes, Linux is the best choice because of its unsurpassed stability and security. If a cracker (“hacker”) does happen to compromise a Linux server, he will have access only to a limited number of files, and these most likely will not be core operating system files which he could use to do real damage. Windows, however, acts as both the OS and the server, so it harbors more vulnerabilities.

Security
Security and stability are almost paramount in determining a server type, but other factors play in, such as which language you or your team will use to build your website. These languages are like HTML (and often are used to create it), but special in that the server itself interprets them and displays dynamic content to the user based on how the site is coded. The user never sees this “server-side” code. Linux or Windows:

Language
Which language? Your team will most likely have a coding language they are already familiar with, which will dictate the answer to this question. If you’re running a small business and outsourcing this work, though, the question will dictate how and where you can migrate your site if you ever want to switch hosting providers, so it’s good to familiarize yourself with the strengths, weaknesses and common uses of these languages. [pPHP coupled with a MySQL database is a great way to build small or large dynamic sites that pull from databases. You can build polls, surveys, tracking software, and lots more with PHP: it is very versatile and powerful, and is most at home on Linux.

ASP is normally used with MSSQL databases and helps build product inventories and large searchable websites. Microsoft has included some features with Windows hosting that allow for fast and easy website development. If you have existing elements of your site that run better with Windows, you will want to consider Windows hosting.

Perl and ColdFusion are both platform-independent, meaning they will run on all types of servers. Perl is great for statistics reporting, and can also build whole websites and interact with each database type. ColdFusion requires a special installation that many servers do not have, but it is a popular way to build dynamic websites and interacts with programs like Macromedia Dreamweaver and Flash.

JavaScript exists in the end user’s browser–be it Netscape, Internet Explorer, or another–which means its effects will vary depending on the user. Good web developers take this into consideration, which is important, because JavaScript usually validates forms and controls user behavior so that invalid content is not inserted into your database.

XML is great if you want to syndicate your content. It is usually created by PHP or another server-side language in order to provide constantly updated content in a uniform format that can be read by RSS programs. This is by far not the only use for XML, but it is a common one.

Choosing a company.
Once you have a language nailed down, you can find the best hosting provider for your site. Here we encounter the ever-present questions of how much storage the site needs (measured in megabytes, “MB”, or gigabytes, “GB”), how much transfer (or “bandwidth”) you require, and which peripherals are included, like statistical reporting and unique IP addresses.

Storage is usually the first detail that comes to mind. It’s not uncommon for many hosting providers to offer gigabytes of space, but does your site really need so much storage? Usually for a small to medium-sized website, 25 to 100 megabytes of space is enough.

You must also consider how the storage capacity figures into your monthly bandwidth. Bandwidth, or “transfer” as it is interchangeably called, is how much information goes to and from your website on a monthly basis. The “pipes” that move information around the Internet are only so large, so information transfer has to be regulated to avoid clogging those pipes. If your site includes heavy multimedia content–images, video, Flash movies, downloadable files–you may find that not only your storage, but also your bandwidth requirements will be quite high. Small sites require about one to two gigabytes of storage per month, larger ones 10 to 15 gigabytes.

Statistics In order to know who visits your site and how often, you need statistical reporting. One of the best reporting programs out there is Advanced Web Stats, or AWStats. Look for a hosting package that includes this program, which will give you specifics on unique visits, total hits, search engine phrases visitors come in on, visitor locations, and a lot more.

When choosing a Web Hosting Provider, keep all these features in mind, ask lots of questions, and always make sure you are comfortable with the answers given. If you compromise on one necessity, you may find yourself regretting it when the time for upgrades or extensions comes. Stick to your guns, talk to your contractor or your team, and don’t be afraid to spend a little more if it means your website will be better equipped to perform. Happy hunting!

When looking for a Web hosting server, one of the first things you often have to consider is what operating system the server will run. Now, this article is not about proving that one OS is better or worse than another, and if you already have a bias, then I would recommend you stick to it. This article is not trying to convince you to change.

Several Operating Systems to Choose From

• Linux
  Linux is one of the more popular operating systems on the Web, mostly because it is so cheap to install and get up and running.
• Macintosh
  Macintosh hosting servers are very uncommon. In fact, if you want to host your site on a Macintosh server, you’ll probably have to look into hosting it yourself.
• Unix
  Unix is very similar to Linux, but not as common on Web hosting services, usually because it is more expensive and the hardware is more specific.
• Windows
  Windows is another popular operating system for Web hosting providers because it has a lot of support.

For the purposes of this article, I’ll be talking primarily of Linux and Windows Web hosting services. These are the two most common and readily available operating systems, and there are many good reasons for using both. Unix systems are very similar to Linux (and Mac OSX systems are as well) and as I mentioned above, Macintosh systems are few and far-between.

Accessing the Server

The first difference that most people notice with Web hosting operating systems is how you access the server. Both Windows and Linux will offer FTP access to your files, but only Linux will generally offer telnet or ssh access. (It’s possible to set up telnet access on Windows, but very few hosting administrators offer it.) FTP is a way of transferring your files from your hard drive to your Web server. Telnet or SSH are a way to open a window directly on the Web server and manipulate files right there, usually using Unix command line commands.

Writing Your Pages

Both Windows and Linux servers will serve HTML pages and JavaScript. Typically, Windows servers use files named *.htm while Linux servers use files named *.html, but there is no real difference between these names, just what you prefer.

FrontPage extensions are often cited as the reason to use a Windows server. But there are Linux servers that offer this service as well.

CGI

CGI and Perl access are often found on both Windows and Linux servers, but it is more typical on Linux. If you need to program forms, you should make sure that your hosting service provides CGI or another way to process them.

Other Server-Side Scripts

But you’re not stuck with just Perl if you need to process forms. Many hosting systems offer PHP, ASP, and ColdFusion. These server side scripting options give you a lot of flexibility. PHP is more often found on Linux systems, while ASP is more often found on Windows. ColdFusion can be found on both.

Databases

If you’re going to run a dynamically driven Web site, then you’ll want a database. The two most popular are mySQL and Access. mySQL runs on both Linux and Windows, but is more often found on Linux servers. Access is only available for Windows.

Security

Many people will argue that Windows servers have more vulnerabilities than Linux servers. But the reality is that they both have security problems. Security is more important at the hosting service’s administration level than it is at the operating system level. If you have good administrators, your server will be more secure – regardless of OS.

The Bottom Line

The differences between the operating systems is much less than you might think. I would recommend, when choosing a hosting server you find one that has the options you want, rather than worrying about what operating system they are running on the back end.

See the differences:

Windows versus Linux for Web Page Hosting

The Data in Tabular Format

Windows Linux FTP Access yes yes Telnet/SSH Access limited yes HTML & JavaScript yes yes FrontPage Extensions yes yes CGI/Perl limited yes ASP yes limited PHP limited yes ColdFusion yes yes Access Database yes no mySQL Database yes yes

Introduction

While many large corporations have the Internet infrastructure to host their own web servers and have a team of IT professionals to manage and design the site, individuals and small companies do not. There is a wide range of options available from simple hosting up to running your own web servers off of a dedicated Internet connection. One such option is collocation. In the first part of this series, we will examine why one would chose colocation over the other options.

What is Colocation?

Colocation allows you to place your server machine in someone else’s rack and share their bandwidth as your own. It generally costs more than standard Web hosting, but less than a comparable amount of bandwidth into your place of business. Once you have a machine set up, you take it physically to the location of the colocation provider and install it in their rack or you rent a server machine from the colocation provider. That company then provides an IP, bandwidth, and power to your server. Once it’s up and running, you access it much like you would access a Web site on a hosting provider. The difference being that you own the hardware.

Advantages of Colocation

1. The biggest advantage of colocation is the cost for bandwidth. For example, a low cost limited bandwidth business grade DSL line generally costs around $150 to $200, but for the same price or less a single server can be placed in a collocation facility that provides higher bandwidth speeds and better redundancy for the network connections. These savings can be even greater if the only dedicated network access is a more expensive full or fractional T1 lines.
2. Colocation facilities have better outage protection. During a long ice-storm last year, my office was without power for three days. While we have a backup generator, it wasn’t powerful enough to keep the server running that entire time, so our Web sites were down during that outage. At a colocation provider, we are paying for power generators and backup power to protect against that type of situation.
3. We own the server machinery. If we decide that the machine is too slow or doesn’t have enough memory, we can simply upgrade the server. We don’t have to wait for our provider to get around to upgrading it.
4. We own the server software. I don’t have to rely on my hosting provider to install the software or tools I want to use. I simply do it myself. If I decide to use ASP or ColdFusion or ASP, I just purchase and install the software.
5. If we move, we can leave the server up and running the entire time. When we host our own domains we have to either pay for two lines for some time, to move the domains to the new location or deal with outages while the servers are moved to the new location.
6. Colocation providers provide additional security for your machines. Your server is stored and maintained in a secured environment.
7. Most colocation servers offer a service where they will manage and maintain your server for you for an extra cost. This is especially useful if you don’t have IT team members or your office is located far from the provider.

Disadvantages of Colocation

1. Colocation providers can be hard to find. You want to find one near where your office or home is located, so that you can upgrade and maintain your server when you need to. But unless you live near a large city with major network hubs, chances are you won’t find many colocation options.
2. Colocation can be more expensive than basic Web hosting. This is especially true as you have to maintain and manage your servers yourself, so when the server needs to be upgraded, you need to purchase that hardware and install it.
3. Physical access to your server can be difficult, because you have to travel to their location during your colocation provider’s service hours.
4. If you move out of the area where your colocation provider is, you have to either move your servers to a new provider or leave them there and pay for a maintenance contract.
5. Another drawback to collocation can be fluctuating prices. Since one of the factors in the monthly rate of collocating a server is the amount of data transferred via the server in the monthly period, an unusually large amount of traffic in a monthly period can cause the bill for the service to jump dramatically.

Is Colocation the Way to Go?

This is a question that is difficult to answer. For individuals who run small sites for personal use or blogs probably do not need the level of service provided by collocation and are better off with Web hosting. If however, the server is needed to be more robust than what is provided by standard Web hosting, collocation is often times the best next option. It is also a very good option for small businesses that want to have a fairly large Web presence but don’t want to have to deal with a large amount items such as network connections.

In a Nutshell
Almost everyone with an Internet business needs Web hosting. So, if you’re looking for a Web-based business with lots of demand, consider selling Web hosting. Of course, starting your own Web hosting business requires lots of expensive server infrastructure and knowledge. Luckily, re-selling server space doesn’t.How Does it Work?
Under a reseller program, you buy bulk server space from a Web host and resell domain hosting from what appear to be your own Web servers. (Don’t confuse this with an affiliate program, where you simply send potential customers to the host’s Web site and are paid a percentage of any sales that result.) Hosts offer a variety of features that can make business easy for you, including billing software, 24 hour customer support, turnkey Web sites, and sophisticated admistrative controls.

How Do I Make Money?
You pay the Web host a monthly fee for bulk server space. Some have size and domain limits – others don’t. You then resell that space at a higher price. You are generally free to charge what you want for set-up, monthly fees, and any add-ons you may choose to offer. Although the margins are theoretically unlimited, the market keeps them pretty tight. For example, when a host offers unmetered space for under $5 a month, it needs a lot of accounts to make a decent profit.

How Do I Start?

1. Identify reseller plans. A few places to start include:
   • ResellersPanel.com
   • HostGator
   • Mosso.com
   • Web Hosting Industry Review
2. Evaluate each offering. You will find that the pricing varies wildly as well as the software and hardware. Some are enterprise-quality hosts; others are meant for smaller sites and limited traffic. Consider at least the following items:
   • server space
   • traffic
   • number of domains allowed
   • available software and scripts
   • support
   • control panel
   • billing software
   • uptime guarantees.
3. After selecting the best offering, develop a marketing plan. Consider:
   • what market you will target
   • how you will reach your target market
   • how you will price your hosting packages
   • what, if any, incentives you will offer.
4. Set up a Web site from which to sell your hosting services.

The hardest part about this business is… finding enough business to make up for the small margins.

In order to get your Web page on the Internet, you need a hosting service provider. They range from free services with few options up to expensive business hosting and even hosting you run yourself. Which option you choose depends upon how you plan to use your Web site, how much you want to spend, and how much time you want to spend maintaining the servers that make up the Web site.

Internet Service Providers

If you want to use the Internet, you need to have an Internet Service Provider (ISP). And many ISPs include a small amount of free Web space to create Web pages quickly and easily. ISP Web pages are perfect for people who want to put up small sites with low amounts of traffic. There are usually rate restrictions, and most ISPs don’t offer a lot of features with their Web space.

ISP hosting is best for personal Web pages that don’t get a lot of traffic. If you plan to run a business, you should only use your ISP hosting for testing and preparation of your site, rather than the site itself.

• Before You Choose an ISP

Free Web Hosting

If you have an ISP that doesn’t offer Web space, free Web hosting is good. There are many free hosting providers and a lot of them offer advanced services like CGI, shell access, PHP, SSI, and other advanced topics. Free hosting is usually supported by advertising.

Free hosting is best for personal Web pages and very small business Web pages. Because they are supported by advertising, they are not ideal for any serious business. If you plan to run a business on your site, free hosting is great for testing your site and preparing the pages, but not good for running the business unless you can turn off the advertising.

• Free Hosting Services
• Free Web Hosting for Sites Under 20MB
• Free Web Hosting for Sites Over 20MB

Standard Paid Hosting

With paid hosting, you pay some money typically once a month for space and services on a Web hosting provider’s site. Prices range from $1-2USD to several hundred per month. Generally, it depends upon what services you want. Services include CGI access, database support, ASP, ecommerce, SSL, extra space, extra bandwidth, and more.

Standard paid hosting is a great option for most Web-based businessses. Be sure to examine the options available from your server so that you get what you need. And don’t focus solely on price – changing hosting providers can be difficult and expensive.

• Paid Hosting Services
• Windows versus Linux for Web Page Hosting

Domain Hosting

Domain hosting can be hard to understand. Instead of paying for the Web page space, you pay for your domain and then have your Web site hosted anywhere you like. With Domain hosting, you can use your ISP or free hosting service, and still reap the benefits of having a personalized Web site URL. Domain name hosting is sometimes referred to as URL redirection.

Domain name hosting is perfect for small businesses that don’t have a lot of money to spend on Web hosting.

• Domain Hosting Services
• Domain Name Registries

Colocation

Colocation puts your Web server in the machine room of a larger company. You connect to their very high-speed Internet connection. Colocation comes in managed and unmanaged versions.

Colocation is a great option for small to medium sized businesses that want more control over their Web hosting. With managed colocation, it’s almost like having an IT department, even if your company is still fairly small.

• What is Colocation and Why Would You Choose it for Web Hosting
• Managed vs. Unmanaged Colocation
• Server Colocation

Direct Internet Access

With direct access, you host your site yourself. You need a Web server computer and software and a very high-speed Internet connection with a dedicated IP address.

Hosting your site yourself offers you the most control over your Web server. Companies that have large data centers or just want to control every aspect of their Web and Internet access should look into this type of hosting. Be sure to contact your ISP before setting up a direct connection on a DSL or consumer ISP connection.

Don’t pay $5, $10, $15 a month for hosting and $30 a year for a domain just to host a simple 5-page website! Learn how to create and host a website with your own domain and no ads for less than $20 a year.

Difficulty: Average

Time Required: 3 days

Here’s How:

1. Pick a good domain name. Shorter is better. Memorable is better. Keywords in the domain name is good, but may or may not be appropriate, depending on your business.
2. Find a cheap domain registrar. Network Solutions still charges something like $35 a year for basically the same service others provide for less than $10. I have used GoDaddy for all my personal and business sites since 2001 and have been very happy with them. As of 2006, they are the #1 registrar for .COM, .NET, .ORG, .INFO and .BIZ domains. I’ll use them as the example in the following steps.
3. Visit GoDaddy.com and see if your desired domain name is available. If it is, scroll down and hit the “Continue” button. Otherwise, pick from one of the available suggested names, or go back to the drawing board (Step 1).
4. Create an account if you don’t already have one. Enter and/or update the registration information. Choose the length of registration you want, then keep clicking on “Continue to checkout” to skip all the offers for additional services.
5. Within a few minutes, the domain will be set up. If you already have your hosting arranged, on GoDaddy, from the menu choose Domains/My Domains. Click on the checkbox next to the new domain name then click on Nameservers at the top of the list.
6. Select the “Custom Nameservers” tab and enter the nameservers for your host. Two are generally required and most often they are NS1.NameOfYourHostingCompany.com and NS2.NameOfYourHostingCompany.com, but you should confirm before entering them.
7. Find an inexpensive web host. The host I recommended for about five years finally stopped their $10 a year service, but there are a number of other companies that offer $1 a month web hosting. This is pretty no-frills, and there’s not typically an uptime guarantee, but if you’re just starting out on a budget, you can get a year’s worth of hosting for what other places charge monthly. Just search Google for $1 web hosting and you’ll find plenty of results. You’ll usually have to prepay the year, but at that price, who cares?
8. Find an inexpensive web host. The host I recommended for about five years finally stopped their $10 a year service, but there are a number of other companies that offer $1 a month web hosting. This is pretty no-frills, and there’s not typically an uptime guarantee, but if you’re just starting out on a budget, you can get a year’s worth of hosting for what other places charge monthly. Just search Google for $1 web hosting and you’ll find plenty of results.
9. Visit the site and sign up. You will provide your new domain name during the registration process. Be sure to jot down the nameservers (there should be at least two) and the FTP login information they provide.
10. Create a website using the HTML editor of your choice. If you don’t already have FrontPage or FrontPage Express, there are many free HTML editors (for Mac) to choose from.
11. Upload your site, and “voilá” – you’re done!

Tips:

1. You really don’t save much money registering your domain for two years (many domain registrars will automatically set it for this term unless you specify otherwise) over doing it a year at a time. To make sure you don’t lose your domain because you forgot to pay it, you can choose to automatically renew, and they’ll just re-bill your credit card every year.
2. Realize that discount hosting plans are usually fairly inflexible. Make sure you know what features you’re actually getting and that it will meet your needs. For example, do you need an actual e-mail account? Or can you just have e-mail forwarding set up to go to your existing GMail, Yahoo, Hotmail or AOL account?
3. You can do a lot with PHP and a database, which even most cheap hosting plans include. Check out the PHP scripts at HotScripts.com for shopping carts, portals, content managements systems – everything you’d probably ever want.
4. Don’t expect a lot of support for $1 a month hosting. You’ll usually have to submit support questions via e-mail or a discussion forum — you probably won’t be able to get anyone on the phone. If that’s an issue for you, you should consider a mid-priced hosting service.

What You Need:

• A good domain name
• Your credit card handy
• An e-mail account