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Often hosting plan features are the type of control panel that is provided with the hosting service. Most people think that a control panel should be part of the package, but in smaller countries outside the USA this is often a ‘luxury’ that is not part of the hosting package! The first essential feature that you should ponder about is searching out whether your hosting server provider offers a control panel to manage your website. It is unacceptable to sign up for a hosting package, if there is no control panel. Common control panels for Linux hosting are: PleskHelmCpanelDirectAdminAll these control panels have their supporters and detractors.Without hesitation I will choose cpanel that provides a lot of a user-friendly interface and functionalities. The following features are available with CPanel hosting:File manager:You can always use the file manager available in CPanel, if you are not comfortable with using an FTP package to upload your files. The file manager enables you to upload files, unzip files on the server.  Apart from that it copies and deletes files.FTP (File Transfer Protocol): If you want to upload your files and manage your website, you should have FTP access to your website. This is essential. Cpanel also permits you to register new FTP accounts. In this way it gives other people access to your website. But don’t bother about this, because you can keep their access under restriction to specific folders on your website.Website statistics:Most hosting providers provide statistics facilities. Some hosting providers think that the statistics programs use too many resources on a shared environment and some of them remove the facility. But when you are planning to set up a website, statistics and the ability to analyze your traffic is required. Make sure a hosting provider that you have selected does offer you access to a web stats package. My personal favourite is AWStats. Redirects:This is very helpful to temporarily or permanently redirect pages to another website or other website pages. Be careful though with using temporary redirects, this might cause problems with the search engines.Backups:This allows you to make a backup of the files on your server, as well as to backup your MySQL database if you have one. This is very useful and should be done regularly. You cannot rely on the backups led by the hosting service provider, as the service provider itself might just get close its doors and you cannot have access to your site.Pre-installed scripts:The Fantastico installer is one of the best features of the CPanel control panel to  help you to quickly and easily install lots of Open Source tools and utilities such as forums, shopping carts, project management tools, WIKIS and much more.Add On Domains and Subdomains:You can add sub domains and even Add On domains. It depends on whether your hosting provider gives you permission for this.Email management:Under email management you can create and delete all your email accounts. You also have access to a Webmail facility so that you can read your email online. You can also forward one email account to another. You also get access to set up simple auto responders. It helps you send an automated reply back if anyone sends an enquiry email to a specific email address.

Got a plan to have a personal domain website or wish to add an extension to an already existing commercial site. Well! Make sure your web hosting requirements possess all required features. A good web hosting package, include a series of beneficial features that facilitates the attainment of your much desired goals. As for instance, a personal domain site requires good storage space and enough places for photos whereas, on the other hand, commercial web hosting package has other set of requirements such as e-mail options and etc. Therefore, while you are out in the market in search of a good, productive web hosting company, ensure to check out a few essential features that your preferred web hosting company is providing. Some of these essential features are listed below.Reliable source: While picking up your preferred hosting service provider, ensure the fact that they have been in the business for a considerable time. Contact their current clients to know the real performance level of the company. Also, ask for referrals from the Web hosting Company before starting with the process of registration. You may also need Java Web hosting separately, hence, try to get complete information about it, if not listed on the Web site.Package offer: Web hosting companies provide several features, out of which, there can be a few which you may never use. Hence, choose the plan according to your requirements. Inquire about Java Web hosting essentials as well. Ensure to pay only for the options you want and woulduse.Package Charges: Mostly, all web hosting companies are clear with their package charges and features. However, still, it is strongly recommended to conduct a meeting with the company to fix your total expense, before registering. With certain packages, you may also find some additional charges like registration, maintenance, service, and renewal fees.Spam and Viruses: This is a very common problem and this is why it is must for you to get complete information regarding the safety precautions you need to employ for your web hosting package and Java Web hosting enterprise.Web hosting maintenance: A good number of issues like proper maintenance, periodic downtime, cost increment and etc, can make your hosting experience troublesome. Also, ensure that your web hosting package and Java Web hosting fees are clearly explained.Transferring Fee: Enquire well if there are any charges for transferring web hosting package or Java Web hosting business to another site. Also, avail complete information about your flexibility if either your web hosting package or Java Web hosting business starts losing money or volume of visitors.

“Unlimited” can be a key word for the web hosting industry in 2008. Starting from this year, there are many web hosting service providers that will give you an “Unlimited” feature such as Unlimited Disk space, unlimited bandwidth, or hosting unlimited web hosting. These features are included even from some very well respected web hosting service providers such as: lunarpages, hostmonster, or ixwebhosting.

But, there are many articles telling you don’t work with the web hosting companies who provide “Unlimited” features. So, what can you do now? Below are my suggestions.Enjoy it

Getting a unlimited feature from web hosting service providers is not a bad thing. A feature of “Unlimited web site” will save you a lot when you have more than one web site. And IXWebhosting will give you “Unlimited disk space” so that you have no need to be too worried about the space you might use.Don’t Abuse it

Every company need to make profit from their customers so that they potential have the capability to provide a good service for you. Now, even the very reputed web hosting service providers start giving you a unlimited feature, what the thought behind it? Let’s analyze one by one.

Can you really create unlimited web site? The answer is no, the hardest part of creating a successful web site is how to promote it, the value of unlimited web site is no more than a successful web site. A lot of people will only create 2-5 web sites so that they have time or budget to promote them.

For unlimited disk space, I host a web site in iPower and the connection speed to upload files at home is around 8kb/second, that means you have to spend one day to upload only 13M data. Let’s assume you don’t stop uploading file to the server, and in one year, you will only can assume 25G disk space.

What’s behind unlimited bandwidth? The same as unlimited disk space, a secret here is that web hosting vendor hasn’t tell you the connection speed. If you consume too much bandwidth, they can slow down your connection speed, and make your web site unavailable. They do not have any restrict the bandwidth, but the fact is that you just cannot consume too much because of the connection speed.

So, keep one word in your mind that “you pay for what you get”, when choosing a web hosting package for your web site, you need to pay more attention to the reliability, connection speed, and customer service from them. Reference: Reliable Affordable Web Hosting Review, Guide and AwardsTop 10 Web HostingWebmaster Tutorials

Here is what you should look for in hosting plan features:

Often hosting plan features are tied into the type of control panel that is provided with the hosting service. Most people take for granted that a control panel should be part of the package, but in smaller countries outside the USA this is often a ‘luxury’ that is not part of the hosting package!

Finding out whether your hosting server provider offer a control panel to manage your website is the first essential feature that you should look for. It is unacceptable to sign up for a hosting package if there is no control panel!

Common control panels for Linux hosting are (my recommendation is to go for Linux hosting and not Windows hosting):

Helm

Plesk

Cpanel

DirectAdmin

All these control panels have their supporters and detractors.

I have to honestly say that my preference is CPanel. Cpanel offers a lot of functionality and a user friendly interface.

The following features are available with CPanel hosting:

~ Email management ~

Under email management you can create and delete all your email accounts. You also have access to a Webmail facility so that you can read your email online (as opposed to linking to your email account with Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express). You can also set up forwarders to forward one email account to another. You also have access to set up simple autoresponders to send an automated reply back if anyone sends an enquiry email to a specific email address.

~ Website statistics ~

Although most hosting providers do provide statistics facilities, it is worthwhile to make sure that they do. Some hosting providers think that the statistics programs consume too many resources on a shared environment and some of them therefore remove the facility. But statistics and the ability to analyze your traffic is essential when you set up a website, so make sure that you select a hosting provider that do provide you access to a web stats package. My personal favourite is AWStats. You can read an article on the different types of statistics programs as well as how to interpret your statistics here : http://www.tm4y.co.za/internet-marketing-tips/website-statistics.html

~ FTP ~

You should have FTP access to your website in order to upload files. This is absolutely essential if you want to manage your website. Cpanel also allows you to register new FTP accounts to give other people access to your website. You can restrict their access to specific folders on your website and specify if they should have read and/or write access.

~ File manager ~

If you are not comfortable with using an FTP package to upload your files, you can always use the file manager available in CPanel. The file manager enables you to upload files, unzip files on the server and to copy and delete files.

~ Backups ~

This allows you to make a backup of the files on your server, as well as to backup your MySQL database if you have one. This is very useful and should be done regularly. You cannot depend on the backups ran by the hosting service provider, since the service provider itself might just close its doors unexpectedly and you might not have access to your site – not to talk of your backups!

~ Subdomains and Add On Domains ~

You can add sub domains and even Add On domains (depending on whether your hosting provider allows for this)

~ Redirects ~

This is useful to temporarily or permanently redirect pages to another website or ther website pages. Be careful though with using temporary redirects, this might cause problems with the search engines.

~ Protect directories ~

You can set up password protected directories on your website

~ Pre-installed scripts ~

The Fantastico installer is one of the best features of the Cpanel control panel! This installer helps you to quickly and easily install lots of Open Source (in other words, free to use) tools and utilities, such as shopping carts, forums, project management tools, WIKIS and much more.

The CPanel control panel allows web hosting companies to make a lot of web hosting plan features available to clients who can then easily manage these features themselves.

Whether you have to host your personal page or a big e-Commerce site a secure hosting service is what you should always look for. This may seem a raw statement to many. But it’s not. Secure hosting doesn’t always imply a higher cost necessarily. Hosting security as much as internet security in general is up to the people running the appliances and infrastructure behind your website more than the costly firewalls or IDS protecting the network.
Many times, it is better to have a knowledged web administrator than a sophisticated $7000 Cisco Firewall. There are some web hosting services that in our tests proved to be stable and secure. But, what should one look for when in need of a secure web hosting?
The following is a list of the most important 5:
- SSL / SSH /sFTP
SSL allows you to have a secure encrypted tunnel between you and your server. This means that all the input (including login, credit card and any sensible information) doesn’t travel in plain text and it is readable only by you and the server. It works using the Public/Private key paradigm.
If you have a shopping cart, or if you are going to host some membership portal storing personal members information SSL is a must have. Your visitors will appreciate it and will feel more comfortable to pass their data to you.
SSH stands for secure shell. It is used mainly as a secure access to the Unix machine from remote. You will be able to issue commands on the server console as if you were on the server keyboard. As SSL it works creating a secure tunnel.
SFTP is a network protocol that provides file transfer and manipulation functionality over
any reliable data stream. It is typically used with the SSH-2 protocol to provide secure file transfer. With normal FTP access all the files being transferred are sent in plain text
with no encryption at all. Many times you will have to transfer source codes containing hard coded passwords or database information.
- Strong Firewall/IDS
Almost all the networks have firewalls, but not all of them are managed sapiently thus
allowing remote access, information disclosure and active attacks to the hosting
provider network. A secure hosting service should manage redundant firewalls and should give you the capability of adding directly or indirectly (through administration access) to firewall rules. For example, if your website experiences an enormous malicious traffic (brute force http/email password as an example) your hosting administrator should give you the opportunity to add the ip address from which the attack came from to the blocking Firewall ACL’s.
IDS stands for Intrusion detection system. They provide a further level of security because they can recognize a number of attack vector and stop them before they get any success on the target machine.
- Anti-DDoS
DoS stands for Denial of service, it is at the same time the most basic and the most
difficult to prevent attack that can be taken to a network. Such kind of attacks slow down your hosting provider network and all the sites hosted on the same node. This means that if hackers decide to attack a website hosted on your same server (in case of shared hosting), your website will suffer from this attack as well.
Anti-DDos features are now included into routers and firewalls and once again a secure hosting provider should be able to identify and block such attacks.
- Anti Spam
Although Spam is not directly connected with security, it can be a threat to your business. Spam carries viruses, worms and spy ware. Spam can even slow your server down up to shut it down depending on the emails number the mail server can handle. Not to mention the wasted bandwidth. That’s why Anti Spam solution should never be missing not only into secure web hosting packages but in any kind of hosting you’re going after.
- Secure trusted web hosting providers
In my experience as security consultant I have found out that many sites of web hosting services have security holes in their shopping carts, hosting control panels or web application in general. These kind of holes can allow an attacker to gather access to registered users credential including ftp passwords. This is probably the worst thing you may encounter but it really happens.
Protecting from such bad security practices is difficult because no one knows the existence of such security issues beside hackers and security consultants. That’s why it is very important to always review secure web hosting listings made by hackers in order to avoid poor secured web hosting causing you money and data loss.

In my previous article, I have already made you familiar with some features which normally a web hosting company would deal with. I am now going to mention some few more features so that you get a better understanding about the entire web hosting package which you have purchased from a web hosting company. The features are as follows:

1) Customer service or customer support:

Whether you are an expert or a newbie in web hosting, it is essential to have a web host which provides good customer support system. Some of them would prefer to search quick answer without seeking staff. So, if there is huge database, normally it’s searchable. Some web hosting providers come up with a video tutorial facility in order to guide the person step by step in setting up a new account. Good for beginners. If a person is not interested to find the answer of a big pool of database, in that case, he can get the direct answer from someone who knows it. Direct customer support can come in the form of email support, phone support and web chat support.

2) Reliability and uptime commitment:

You must choose a web hosting provider which is reliable from the uptime point of view. Imagine a situation where your visitors come in contact with your website and suddenly notice that it’s not accessible. In such a case you will definitely lose credibility and you could even lose a sale. If your web hosting provider cannot provide 99% uptime then it time to quit and move on to some who is genuinely reliable. A good web hosting provider will know how to minimize downtime with the help of a good management systems implementation. It is very essential from a web hosting provider to install a redundant back-up system. I mean that if there is any interruption of internet connection, at that time, the alternate internet connection will be in force. There are also sophisticated software being used in order to monitor the uptime of the concerned web host.

3) Using efficient network facility:

The web server setup and local area networks play an important role in dealing with the speed of data transfer. However, how fast your website gets displayed also depends on the type of network connections. There are so many web hosting providers who still use internet connection through T1 or T3 connections. The top Web hosting companies use optical carrier lines. Usually a T1 line will offer data transfer rate of 1.5 mbps while a T3 type of connection can offer data transfer at a rate of 43 mbps. It all depends on the capabilities of a web hosting provider which is in the form of features that are incorporated within the hosting package.

4) Popularity to survive as a host:

A web hosting company must be popular in the eyes of the customer. A web hosting company might have the best feature offered and unbeatable customer support and also reliability intact but without a good marketing plan, the company may not survive. These days, there is a lot of competition In the market and a web hosting provider should have sufficient members and also a steady growth of new members in order to survive in this highly competitive industry.

Talking about various features in a web hosting package – ( Part 1)

A web host is a service provider who basically puts your web site on a computer which is connected to the internet. In this case, the computer that we are talking about is called as a server. A web hosting provider normally has a fast connection to the internet and they have the ability to host thousands of websites on many servers. The web host rents out space to you so that you can have your website seen on the World Wide Web. Once you give the responsibility of hosting your website to an internet service provider, you then need not to worry about the complicated server technology and also about the proper technical maintenance. All this issues are handled by the hosting company. Hence, you can free yourself from website maintenance work. There are many features that come along with the web hosting package provided by the web hosting provider. They are as follows:

1) Control Panel:

cPanel is the most popular control panel. The control panel is basically an interface for accessing your website on the web server. It allows you to update and customize your website.

2) Disk space:

Your disk space requirement depends upon your website. If your website does not have too many graphics, sound and video clips or downloadable files then in that case you predict your website space requirement to be approximately 50MB. However, you can always have some extra disk space left for incase you need to upgrade your website.

3) Bandwidth:

Here, bandwidth is referred to the amount of data that is transmitted and received through the internet. The bandwidth gets consumed when the visitor makes a request for certain files available on the website and then downloads the same on to his or her computer.

4) Email Account:

Email account facility is provided so that you can check your emails. You also have pop3 email account facility, where you can check emails using outlook etc.

5) Scripting language:

The top web hosting companies use unix and linux platform, php, perl and cgi. There are all different languages provided by the hosting company. Choose a hosting company that also provides latest version.

6) Database provision:Check whether your website needs a lot of data that must be dynamically accessible. Example: user accounts, maps, interactive news, forums etc. If your website requires a lot of database then you have to choose a host which deals with the same. MySQL is a popular database program and It’s operating system is linux.

One must understand that if you have opted for more disk space and bandwidth then you will have to pay more fees. So, one must choose a web hosting package based on the present requirement and also see that the company provides after sales service

In the current event of time, some web hosts are offering additional features compare to others to the clients for the same price or even for a lower price. One cannot deny the fact that as due to cut – throat competition in the market several hosting providers are trying desperately to stay outstanding by adopting various methods. As a consequence, the web hosting service standards improved a lot and constantly is on verge of rising and evidently the clients are constantly enjoying the taste of amazing new features that were previously not there. Given below are the few things, which some web hosts frequently offer to their clients.

1.) Due to competitive market scenario website hosts are coming forward to assist the clients in the purpose of publishing and managing their own email newsletters or eZines. It is one of the most effective marketing weapons that promote sales. But some hosts go two-step forward by offering an infinite amount of auto responders. This assists a site owner automatically to pursue with prospects and therefore probability of making sale become significantly higher.

2.) In the contemporary era of time one can easily get the facility of hosting services that assists him/her to set up one’s own affiliate program which is verified to be the most successful route to grab traffic and profits for webmasters. There are several good sites like Amazon.com, which enables other website owners to promote their site and products on their site and in return can earn commissions from the sales that result from traffic that they have referred to one’s site as well.

3.) If one talks about the third most popular feature then it will probably be the service provided by the host to the users to protect their download page where the user is selling digital products for e.g. e-books, software etc. from his/her site. As in the current time period increasing number of hackers is a contentious issue and such sort of services definitely going to act as a pain killer for many webmasters.

4.) A few hosting services are also taking into account the hastily increasing threat of junk mail and offer quality filters to protect one’s email accounts. A few hosting providers even provide built-in anti-virus software in order that email that come to the inbox of the user along with the company of viruses, is automatically deleted.

Thus, above mentioned are the extra services, which hosts provide to the client. Thus, one can rightly say that,” The war between two, benefit the third party”.

Are you at all familiar with the terms Joomla web designing or Joomla technology? Basically, Joomla is an award-winning CMS or Content Management System which allows a web developer to create web sites and powerful online applications.

Why Joomla Web Designing is a Crowd Favorite

There are actually quite a good number of options when it comes to the CMS that web administrators can use, but why are Joomla website templates extremely popular?

What sets Joomla web designing apart from all the other methods is the fact that Joomla web designers and Joomla web developers find the interface extremely easy to use.

In addition, Joomla is open-source software which even somebody who has no technical expertise in web designing can use.

What are the Features of Joomla Web Designing?

Joomla web designers enjoy the usability of the following features:

Automated templates

Add-on’s and plug-ins to facilitate the use of even more features

Content that is easy to edit

Document management

E-commerce features

Shopping cart features

Web standards upgrades

Workflow management

Joomla web designers use these features at their disposal so that they can maximize the earning potential of website, especially the sales-oriented ones. So when looking for a company which provides Joomla web designing services, make sure that they do have the experience and the expertise in this type of Content Management System.

Joomla Web Designers India: Where to Look for Expert Joomla Web Developers

Now that you already have an idea about the basic information regarding Joomla web designing, Joomla technology as it is used in web designing and Joomla website templates, how exactly can you get a hold of the services of Joomla web developers?

If you are looking for Joomla web designers in India, all you need to do is get in touch with SEO Outsourcing India. There are so many companies in India who have been providing best Joomla web designing services.They efficiently provide imaginative and intuitive design solutions. No matter what type of Joomla website templates or Joomla technology application it is that you require, you can rest assured that Indian web design companies can take care of it for you.

As a webmaster you are always looking to keep your hosting costs as low as possible. You want to find a cheap host but you also want to find a host that is reliable and that offer the service and functionality that you need for your sites.
Different types of sites require different functionality. These varying requirements can sometimes mean the features you need can end up being expensive. Certain types of sites such as web proxy sites, image hosts and streaming video sites can use a lot of bandwidth and some require a lot of processing power. Other types of sites such as those made up of a few flat HTML files will not need such a powerful server.
You first need to consider the types of sites you are looking to host. Are there going to be any special requirements for your sites such as databases, streaming video or server side programming languages such as PHP.
There are lot of hosts that provide many features as standard such as a control panel, MySQL databases, PHP, email addresses, add on domains and various single click install scripts. Other features usually vary with cost such as disk space and bandwidth.
If you want to find a cheaper host then you need to optimise your site requirements with what different web hosting companies provide. For example if you have a site with half a dozen pages containing some text and a few pictures then you are not going to have a very demanding site. You could get a basic hosting package with none of the bells and whistles to keep your cost down.
Usually webmasters have more than one site that needs to be hosted. With certain hosting packages you can host multiple websites which means you can save money on multiple hosting accounts and keep all your sites in one place. You can do this by using a reseller hosting account that allows you to host multiple separate sites on a single hosting account. These are usually hosting accounts that come with management software such as Web Hosting Manager. WHM usually makes a hosting account more expensive so if you do not need to keep each site completely separate you can instead get a hosting package that allows multiple add on domains. This will save you even more money as you will not need to have WHM, which the host has to pay for a license to use.