Web Host News

Popular Free CMS For Managing Your Website

2010-01-14T07:13:00.000-08:00

For better managing your custom design internet site, there are 2 types of Content Management Systems that you can choose from: the paid CMS and the open source CMS that you can have for free.

There isn't of necessity any best CMS in the online world today, there are only modern Content Management Systems. Here are several of them:

Drupal
Drupal would look to be one of the more advanced open source CMS accessible for download now. Being open source, thous of people lead to its development, and you will find no problem at all finding a web programmer who knows Drupal, or finding a community of programmers who can troubleshoot your Drupal CMS just in case.

MamboServer
Mambo is another popular open source CMS that is free for downloading and highly easy to set up. Its main edge is that its system is ascendible and you can actually incorporate it into the whole spectrum of custom web internet site design - from the really simple websites to the large company-owned internet sites. You can buy Mambo Hosting from big hosting companies.

Open CMS
OpenCMS is different brand of open source (read: free) CMS. OpenCMS incorporates Java and XML technology, thus working it an independent platform.
Joomla!

Joomla! is another open source system and is famous among the World Wide Web developers as a very sturdy platform. Its peculiar may be assigned to the fact that the original team of designers for Mambo are also the creators of Joomla!

Typo3
Typo 3 is different of those open source systems, although it is designed more for enterprise-level applications like corporate intranet. It addresses issues like branding, version control and keeping templates in an application.

In picking out which content management system to incorporate to your website, regardless if it's free or open source, one of the key things to keep consider are your custom web design needs, and nothing else.

A paid webhosting

2009-11-27T02:21:00.000-08:00

This question became almost rhetorical. Today the affordable webhosting for the young plan prices about 5-6 dollars a month. Therefore proprietors of a resource realize an opportunity to use all modern engineering sciences, including php, mysql databases and many other matters. Nevertheless, thousands of web sites keep to employ a Free hosting, despite its apparent flaws and limitations. Perhaps, there are many different opinions in this question? Or we do not take into account all components? So, yes and no.

Free Web web hosting

A Free Website web hosting, as a rule, allows to create only the most simple sites consisting of a set of HTML-pages. Many times it is possible to apply the built-in forums or guest books, still, very few on the possibilities. For example, without registration of users, without possibility to moderate a forum or a guest. Any site control systems are out of question.

One more point is that for CMS functioning php and mysql are necessary, but no Free webhosting provides this. Also, more often a webhosting company that is giving a Free Web web hosting, uses sites of clients for advertisements allocation. And, opening a site on a Free Web hosting, you will have to reconcile to presence of banners and pop-up windows on it. In the end of all the domain name will belong to the hosting company. The Free Website hosting can be utilized for personal pages, nonprofit projects, as trial run platforms. Important projects, which plan to get income, or corporate web sites in most cases utilise a paid web hosting.

Pros of a paid web hosting

A paid webhosting is a possibility to utilize all modern technologies for a web-resource creation and support. An inexpensive hosting permits to open a site for a average or a moderate-sized firm, or a small project. Huge portals use more costly tariff web hosting plans.

Even an free hosting lets to use php and mysql - from one to several databases. This means, the project owner can put in a content management system (CMS) without it customization and service of a today's web-resource will be very hard. Besides, it is doable to set up a qualitative forum, the guest book, to add popular scripts (for example voting, the form of a feedback and other). All this should make the project on an inexpensive webhosting much more intriguing and more fascinating in comparison with the limited Free hosting.

http://allsubmit1.wordpress.com/

Web Hosts – No Match!

2009-11-25T11:15:00.001-08:00

One usually thinks that he/she will receive same services with the certain range of price, which type of host it doesn’t matter. This is not a fact. Basically, one will not find differences in the web hosting but if one will carefully analyze there will be a vast difference between each one of them. Some of which are not adequate to user’s business. There are several hosts charging $10 a month for a particular package which one can get at the rate of $5a month with other hosting provider.

Mentioned below are 3 of the steps following which one can end up on an ideal hosting selection.

1. Deciding one’s Price range:

Price is the top most concern. One can spend anything to meet his/her requirements ranging from a few dollars a month to a few hundred. There is no one but the user who knows about his/her requirement and about his/her budget. One should consider it. Here one should find providers offering shared and dedicated hosting solutions. It is quite crucial to know the actual disparity among the two. Normally, it is shared web hosting is more inexpensive as compare to dedicated hosting. In the case of shared hosting their will be several web sites on the same server making it quite affordable for each individual.

Due to this reason only a large amount of individuals and businesses began with shared hosting and its reliability and consistency is increasing day by day due to which several businesses have raised on the basis of price and reliability. One can get web hosting prices generally in the range of $5 to $30 a month. If one will talks about Dedicated hosting then the user will have all the right to exploit entire resources. User will command the web server according to the available resources. When it comes to this type of hosting it will differ in both the price and services. It can be from $99 a month to a huge amount of $300-$400 a month. Certainly, here one will enjoy a reliable service and command over content and customization area.

2. Deciding one’s Needs:

What is the requirement of the user? However, one cannot deny the fact that web hosting has become quite affordable and competitive over the last few years but one should first search out the answers of few of the basic questions. Is user’s requirement is the 100% uptime i.e. 24/7/365 or just the modest uptime i.e. 99.9% which one can find at a cheap price as per the standardization of industry in comparison to a SLA (Service Level Agreement). What is user are Criteria regarding support? Does the requirement is 24/7/365 email support or in addition to it phone support? Loss of potential data is a topic which is quite crucial but generally overlooked by the user. Does user should ensure that his/her web host offers back up / restore services or rather an option to ad it or which one can buy on additional cost. Several user’s take it easy as it is automatic but one should mind it that without proper inquiry and involvement in the package it is not going to be accomplish. Requirement of quantity of email accounts and databases can be the other criteria. If the user possesses employees then the probability is that they would like individual email accounts for the use in interoffice and external communication. While user is opting for a strategy to run an e-commerce shopping cart or rather a community forum of any sort then requirement of one or more databases is must.

Normally, email accounts are standard but several hosts demands additional amount for databases and/or limit as per their business structure. Next, important aspect is the amount of disk space and data transfer required by the user? Now a day’s disk space and data transfer are available quite cheap. It is the Performance, features, reliability, and customer service for which the user is paying. For instance, if in the future user feels requirement of graphics resulting in large data base then it is not bad to have much disk space in advance because user may not feel its importance in beginning but it can be fruitful with respect to future strategy.

3. Accomplishing one’s Homework:

After considering above steps one should go for the research mode. The step deals with the outlook of providers. User should start his/her research from host’s own web site. The web site of several companies has a section called “about us” through which one can inquire about their background/history and a synopsis regarding their products, services, infrastructure etc. one should also go through their terms and policies regarding privacy and service. No doubt, one should be aware of the depth of the lake in which he/she is diving into. This is because several problems may arise later on if the user do not have the in depth knowledge of his/her concern host. By going through these policies one may have insight knowledge on restrictions between providers and which direction one should proceed by avoiding any trouble as per changing scenario. There are several companies delivering a customer testimonial and FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page in addition to it. User can consider Testimonials as a source of providing useful information about kinds of web sites being hosted and the way the company is delivering services to its present customers. If FAQ page delivered by the company is accurate then one can solve majority of problems in a very simple manner, whether the problem is related to sales or technical doesn’t matter. Certainly, one of the crucial ways to conclude research on the concern host is to charge them with questions/need which may not be apparently answered.

Thus at the end we can say that there are literally hundreds of specific needs that any one company or individual requires while searching for web hosting services. The problems and solutions are so much that even a book can be written on it. Thus the above given is a fundamental foundation of steps that will help user in beginning with good success.

Semantic Web Modelling Centre of Excellence

2009-11-17T05:51:00.001-08:00

Semantic Web Development and dealing with complexity is a tricky issue. Representing information is a problem where complexity can preclude any single approach. In order to find our way around large quantities of information it needs to be structured. But the information already exists and is still being created, so this makes it a moving target.

I'm sure such matters will be covered at the www2006 conference at Edinburgh 23-26 May http://www2006.org/. Kurt Cagle refers to this in his article on complexity on his Understanding XML blog at http://www.understandingxml.com/.

The structuring of ontologies from the top down can be useful, but can only be achieved where the ontology developers have some control over the information. Much of web development and other creation of information is bottom up, in that there is no controlling authority. This is good for inclusiveness and speed of development, and something that encourages community, and encourages individuals to create their own content, which is a good thing. In his interview with the British Computer Society Tim Berners-Lee http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/blog/4 answers a question on ontologies. He talks of a top level ontology that can be created to hold certain terms and the need to find out who is using these terms, so that other web pages and databases can be categorised. This would be achieved using URIs (Universal Resource Identifier) and RDF (Resource Description Framework). In answer to what Tim Berners-Lee hopes to achieve, he talks of this bottom up development that is going on, using blogs, and wikis etc and a possible approach of 'web science' - 'the science and engineering of web based things that have a bottom up Web-like structure'.

I think this approach is highly relevant to my PhD research on user-driven programming, with University of the West of England (UWE - Bristol). Not everyone has the time to learn programming especially if their main expertise is elsewhere. They then have to ask others to do the development for them and this leads to delays and mis-understandings. The approach advocated here could enable visual creation of software by members of a community. Members of this community would not need advanced programming skills if other members with more advanced development skills could create a suitable interface for the creation of software. This could be achieved in a similar way to that used in visual web page creation tools, or word processor and spreadsheet software. Also the members who do possess advanced skills could provide ways of sorting, searching and navigating the programs created using the visual development tools. Members could work with either or both groups, according to their skills and interests.

A good first step would be to link communities and sites that have a mix of those with advanced software skills who want to encourage and enable others to learn to program, and of new starters who want to learn. This could involve those who are willing to try out new techniques to make it easier for new starters to train learn and gain experience.

Sir Tim-Berners-Lee's interview - http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.3337.

This talk by Nigel Shadbolt explains research about coping with diverse sources of information - http://www.bcs.org/server.php?show=ConWebDoc.3043.

This article by Bill Thompson for the BBC technology site examines new developments in Web 2.0 technologies - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4842498.stm.

I am a Researcher in the final year of my PhD at the University of the West of England, Bristol UK. I specialise in applying Semantic Web techniques. My current research is on a technique of 'User Driven Modelling/Programming'. My intention is to enable non-programmers to create software from a user interface that allows them to model a particular problem or scenario. This involves a user entering information visually in the form of a tree diagram. I am attempting to develop ways of automatically translating this information into program code in a variety of computer languages. This is very important and useful for many employees that have insufficient time to learn programming languages. I am looking to research visualisation, and visualisation techniques to create a human computer interface that allows non experts to create software.

Understanding Php Hosting

2009-11-02T03:03:00.000-08:00

PHP hosting is a server side scripting language used to create dynamic web pages. In other words PHP can be considered as a computer programming language that is designed for producing dynamic web pages. PHP generally runs on a web server using the PHP code for input to create the output of web pages. PHP is considered to be the main language used by many web masters. It is the most popular dynamic web programming language and these days you will easily find many websites that use scripts written in PHP language for various purposes, from building websites to shopping system. With PHP you can do various types of programming.

In order to be in a position to use PHP scripts, you should use a particular web host that provides this feature. When you hunt for the right web host, make sure that the hosting company supports your PHP scripts. One should be aware that there are certain scripts that are available in the market, can run well only with the latest PHP version. In such a situation, if you want to solve this compatibility issue, you should approach those types of hosting providers who provide two PHP versions. You may have to customize or change certain scripts that are intended for the older PHP version environment.

Concept of Shared Web Hosting

2009-10-29T07:08:00.001-07:00

After designing of website next important thing is to get it hosted on the internet. The task is not at easy as there are so many companies offering various types of web hosting packages like shared web hosting, dedicated web hosting, managed web hosting etc. Now the problem is which one to use?

In general it is considered a good idea to go for shared web hosting if the user is in a small business and wants to save cost. However before finalizing the deal it is good to know what is shared web hosting service and what are the merits and demerits of shared web hosting.

Defining shared hosting:

If extremely high performance and high bandwidth are not the points in question, then shared web hosting service can be a most convenient and economic way of hosting web sites.. As name implies, in case of shared web hosting service, the web server that hosts the web pages is shared by several other websites. Talking about number of websites on a shared hosting server, they can be in thousands. Now due to the fact that just one server is fulfilling the requirements of many other websites, the plus point is they can offer cheap prices for their server.

As there are so many websites hosted on a single web server, still there is no pint of worry for the user as the web hosting providers will not compromise on any kind of security and performance issues in case of shared hosting servers. Not only that, shared hosting web servers are operated, monitored and look after around the clock by IT professionals, so as to minimize server downtimes.

Shared hosting servers run on UNIX or other multi-user operating system and each website hosted on the web server is provided a separate account in the operating system. These websites hosted on shared servers are provided unique shared IP addresses and are provided with a fix amount of web resources.

The following are some of the merits and demerits of shared web hosting:

Merits:

1. Cost effective: Due to the fact that many websites are hosted on a single web server, web hosting providers provide economic shared web hosting services. Generally, the cost is as low as $5-10 per month for shared web hosting services. Now-a-days due to cut throat competition in web hosting industry, one can find several web hosting companies offering huge web space and bandwidth with as high as 1000 MB disk space and 40 GB bandwidth.

2. Feasible: Due to the fact that shared hosting web servers are operated, monitored and look after around the clock by IT professionals, who are experts in their respective field, one can concentrate more effectively on his/her web business and the problem of downtime and maintenance will not bother him/her any more.

3. Utility options: In case of shared web hosting, though web resources are shared, utility options are provided by the hosting company so that user can manage his/her website using control panel or similar tools. User is having an option to upload files, modify /remove web pages, add database, check web statistic etc. Not only that, user is also provided facility to create domain name specific e-mails accounts.

4. Efficient: Now-a-days shared web hosting service usually comes with web space and bandwidth that are more than sufficient for small business websites. Efficiency lies in the fact, that in addition to above, one can add more resources and can even overrun the web space or bandwidth usage.

Demerits:

1. Problem with response time: As the web server is shared, websites in the shared web hosting have to face problem of slower server response time as compared to dedicate server hosting.

2. Problem of Reliability: In case of shared web hosting, problem of reliability remains as usually web hosting providers may take care of the security and performance of the shared server but it is also possible that some of websites hosted on the shared server run a nasty program or script or over-utilize the resources, resulting in bringing down the web server. Thus due to fault of one all websites have to suffer downtimes and inaccessibility in case of shared web hosting.

3. Problems related to sharing: As discussed above also, due to fault of one all users have to face the problem for example if there is any one "bad" website in shared web server, due to it all websites on the server can be banned altogether by ISP or search engine due to shared IP address. However it is worth to note that one can always pay extra to get a dedicated IP address to avoid the above problem.

4. Problems related to Security: As many websites shared one server, problem of security always remains in case of shared web hosting as it is quite easy to hack one’s sensitive datas by another on the same server.

Thus in conclusion it can be said that before deciding to deal with shared web hosting, one should consider all the merits and demerits of shared web hosting as highlighted above. One should not forget the success of his/her business depends upon his/her website which in turn depends upon good host provider.

8 great tips for your ecommerce site

2009-10-14T07:40:00.001-07:00

E-commerce is becoming increasingly popular as more and more companies decide to take their businesses online. Not only can it act as a efficient revenue channel for businesses, it can also boost their existent sales figures by increasingly accessibility to the audiences.

Here are 8 tips that will help you make your e-commerce website better and more effective.

1. Make your website Interactive!

Your e-commerce website may have a great visual appeal but what customers really look forward to is the usability. Include tools and features that would help your customers interact with your website and understand your products better. Remember, the more they know about your products and their benefits, more are the chances that they'll buy them. So, include product reviews, interactive images, demo videos and even chat app where visitors can talk to an online customer care person.

2. Track Shopping Cart Abandoner

An abandoned shopping cart is not always a lost sale. Rather, you can use it as an opportunity to turn freebie hunting customers into actual revenue generating ones. If your customers are looking for some free stuff, tempt them with the same. Use the 'Get it for Free' model and make them buy products in order to receive free goodies.

3. Target your Email Campaigns

Different people have different interests and shopping patterns. This is why you need to segment your customers and divide them into groups based on their behavior or demographics and then send targeted email campaigns. The more targeted your audiences are, the more effective will the message of your newsletters be.

4. Use Google Alerts

Google Alerts will let you stay up to date with what is happening in your industry. Just include keywords pertaining to your line of business and industry along with your company name. You will get regular alerts about all the relevant news items and happenings.

5. Establish good Inbound Links

Inbound links determine the online popularity of your website. They not only attract traffic but also play a crucial role in determining the search engine ranking of your website. In fact, effective link building is one of the most important processes of SEO.

6. Think about Interactive Presentation

One factor that contributes to the uncertainty of online shopping from physical shopping is that customers cannot touch or feel a product as they can do in real life. You need to bridge this gap by providing big and neat interactive images so that they can experience the product just like they do in a retail store. Make sure all your products are presented in a organized manner accompanied with vibrant images and accurate descriptions.

7. Include Client6 Testimonials

Reviews and testimonials by clients go a long way in making new customers feel more confident about their purchase from your website. They increase the credibility of your business leading to lower shopping cart abandonment and higher overall revenue.

8. Do some Intensive SEO

Search engine optimization is important for all the website, especially so e-commerce website. This is what enhances the visibility of the website on the web and attracts more traffic. With intensive SEO procedures, you can be sure that you get relevant shoppers on your website and not just window shoppers. Hire professional SEO services to make this hap

How To Pick a Hosting Company

2009-10-14T04:27:00.000-07:00

If you are seeking a new hosting company let me give you some words of wisdom because I have been through a few. One company even went belly up in the middle of the night giving me no notice. That was disastrous for me as well as my customers. If you are tired of hosting companies with poor service and excessive downtime then get ready to print this page out.

First thing first, you might take a step back from your website or E-business and think about what you want it to look like in the future. Then start making decisions about the hosting. Think about things like: How much traffic are you expecting? How many more sites will you build or could possibly build in the future? Are you going to load software to the server? Some of the best programs that smart marketers use need to be loaded: such as; affiliate programs and autoresponders and require a dedicated IP address. If you intend on growing then make sure these things are an option.

If you realized that you will want to have more sites in the future or currently are moving a lot of sites from one account to another. One thing you can do is get a dedicated server or keep your money in your pocket and find a hosting company that'll allow you to have add-on domains. Did you realize that you could have one account for around $25 a month and all your domains on it? You, for the cost of $25 a month could host 2, 10, 15, 26, 45 domains. There ar e accounts out there that will let you do this. But here's what you should know about these types of accounts, you are not limited in domains, but limited in the amount of space you have. So if you need more space, just ask and they'll be happy to give it to you for a price.

If you want to market your website you should get your own IP address with your accounts. This will play a big part when it comes to search engines finding you, as well as increasing the utilization of your autoresponders.

One big thing to watch out for:

Make sure that you find out what type of control panel the hosting company is using. If they don't tell you I would be scared. I believe that the best hosting companies out there will use cPanel. If the hosting company is using cPanel then they will probably be bragging about it since it is designed very well.

Now here's a quick checklist: üStep back and think about what you want üCheck to see if they allow you to have add-on domains. If so, then what will it cost in additional fees? (Some companies have a one time fee for this). üMake sure you own your own IP address, not a shared IP. Most companies call this a dedicated IP address. üLook at the control panel, is it cPanel?

Now for the biggest question I always get: What hosting company do you highly recommend? I recommend a company called Frontier Power Hosting because of their specialized knowledge, excellent customer support reputation, and they meet these criteria. You can find them at http://www.frontierpowerhosting.com.