New Hosting Services

It is amazing at how technology is creating a domino affect for domain hosting.

With the decrease in the price of hardware and the increase in the size of capacity of hard drives, some domain name hosting companies have some excellent deals.

An example of this is a client was able to obtain 10 gigabytes of storage and 100 gigabytes of bandwidth for less than fifteen dollars per month or less than $10.00/mth. paid annually. The plan included 10 unique domain names, an excellent control panel, and a host of other free add on features like blogging software, wiki applications, image galleries, mailing lists, content & project management apps., polls & surveys, FAQ scripts, E-commerce, unlimited email, unlimited databases, guest books, discussion boards, and a host of other features.

A reminder for anyone out there that is thinking about switching services. Do not get hooked into a situation where a provider holds you hostage to your domain name having to be registered with them. If a problem develops with a provider it can be extremely difficult to switch to another or have excessive down time of the website. In some cases old companies are not updating their equipment or technical problems can occur beyond their control.

If you are wondering which hosting company this is, before giving out a recommendation I like to get some history behind it.

For additional information related to domain names or hosting view other postings from this blog. For Internet marketing services, online advertising concepts, and a ton of excellent web resources visit us at Professional Web Services, Inc.

Help - Mail Server Problems

IT stuff is a time killer

I am still pulling out my hair on trying to get my SMTP Server and IMAP/POP3 mail server functioning properly. It seems as though it functions intermittently. I have gone through tier one level support and now am on to tier two support.

Here is the scoop so far.

1. Two days ago, I could not turn on the function on the OSDL Linux remote server. Trouble ticket was sent. Next day it was turned on. Can now toggle.
2. Started adding Email boxes and verifying operation of Emails one at a time. Verified using various mail clients. Everything looked OK.
3. Today, mail intermittently will receive but most of the time can not send.
4. Verified system POP3 and SMTP mail server settings. Toggled with authorization then without. No change.
   
5. Spoke with several people at the service center. All were helpful but still no solid answers.
6. Sent off an email to the next level and referenced the original trouble ticket which I believe still may be a factor on the problem.
7. Tried rebooting the server. No change.
8. Tried long and short e mail login names i.e. help@domain-registration.xyz or just help. No change.
9. Verified DNS values. Everything looked OK there.

So now I wait.

After spending eight hours on this I am ready for a Java break. Man, what a time killer this IT stuff!

Hosting Day After Update

IMAP/POP3 Server is now working!

Appears as though there was an internal issue with IMAP/POP3 Server. Could not turn on the mail services applications server. Not sure why this was occurring. Service is now running and all is green to go. Hopefully all will be stable. Time to configure mail boxes.

Host The Day After

What do you do when a catastrophic failure occurs?

So, you have chosen a hosting company and have been satisfied with the service up to this point. Then, you get this little Email note that mentions there will be some service being done on the server, and there may be a small amount of down time. SMALL AMOUNT

That was the starting point. Six days latter, two dozen phone calls, dozens of emails, dealing with three different web hosting service providers, my wife asking me what the heck is going on countless times, frustration upon frustration, and finally a website back online. Not completely.

Apparently, most hosting companies do not own their own data centers. When a data center is sold with out any notice, the hosting providers that are paying rent space are then at the mercy of the new owner. If a new owner decides to move an entire data center, by truck and does not take the leased equipment with them then you are SOL. Compounding the problem was the RAID drives were not compatible at the new location servers and a large number of websites were completely down and still are.

So, I had to go back to my selection process for a new hosting company. Well, after striking out with my first selection, I went another route. Virtual dedicated. Not everything I wanted but it has huge bandwidth and lots of storage capacity.

Most everything is up, except my POP3 Email server. Problem on the server end.

Check back at this blog for an update.

Professional Web Services, Inc. net marketing, Internet advertising, and advertising copywriting.

Selecting a Hosting Service Provider

How Do You Choose a Host Service Provider?
by: James A. Warholic

Once you have gone through the domain name registration process the next stage is choosing a host company. With hundreds if not thousands of hosting service providers online, it can be a frustrating task of selecting a service provider to host your domain name.

I am always the cynic when it comes to referrals online. It is so easy to make a company look great with good recommendations for different hosting providers that it is hard to filter out the good with the bad at times. Even after careful analysis and checking out forums I have come to the realization that things are not always perfect unless you are willing to pay for high redundancy.

Some key points to consider in choosing a host provider

1. What is their customer service response time? Can you talk to a live person? Do they provide a contact phone number? Can you get a hold of them?
   
2. How long have they been in business?
3. Pick a provider that does not allow obscene material.
4. How easy is it to navigate the control panel?
5. If more than one website is going to be run then consider having a reseller type account.
6. Check out the forums online for recommendations.
7. Do searches for the providers name to see what types of comments are mentioned from other websites.
8. Keep options open for streaming video and audio. Not all companies have this option.
9. Provide enough hard drive storage and bandwidth to cover your needs.
10. Consider the type of operating systems. Linux or Windows based. Linux based systems are generally less expensive.
    
11. Email considerations. How many email boxes will you be having? IMOP that unlimited boxes are the way to go.
12. Autoresponders
    
13. Email Forwarding
14. Are there SPAM filters and spyware blocking built in?
15. Online access to email or Web eMail.
    
16. Mailing Lists
    
17. Consider shopping cart software for selling items from your website.
18. Provide for Databases such as MYSQL Database.
19. Provide SSL (secure socket layer) for secure transmission of data.
    
20. Web apps for more advanced site development such as PHP and MOD_PERL.
21. Expansion into other forms of content delivery such as Podcasting.
22. Does it have the capablities for setting up blogs?
    
23. Option for dedicated IP address.
24. Subdomain provisions
25. Setting up Forums.
26. Bulletin Boards.
    
27. Frontpage Extensions for those that use MS Frontpage
28. Access to log files and web site statistics.
29. Consider the cost.

I place the cost aspect last. Costs range all the way from less than five dollars a month all the way to fifty dollars or more for shared hosting. Shared hosting means more than one website is place on a server. If a dedicated server is required then the starting costs are somewhere around sixty to several hundred dollars per month. A dedicated server is only used for your account. Bandwidth requirements and storage capacity is what determines the price points.

Important Notes

If a service provider loads their computers up with hundreds of clients then this will ultimately slow down the down load speed at which someone could get access to your B2B or B2C website. New domain hosting service providers are showing up continually. Do not get locked into a long term contract with any one Domain host. If a problem occurs it is much easier to switch to another service. If you are having problems right now you can always switch to the new Host before you cancel with the old. This provides for a seamless integration with no down-time for the website.

For help with your website, Internet Marketing, Advertising Online, multimedia streaming videos, and technology and professional branding services contact us: Professional Web Services.