Dedicated services give you more email addresses, sometimes up to 500 addresses. It also has storage to support basic database applications on the server side of the web host. This allows for the development of applications that enable you to store data on the server side also and have queries and other types of program and programming scripts embedded into your web-site.

But the key to these kinds of servers are the bandwidth that’s available to the user. Monthly bandwidth can range from 500 to 1000GB for the user.

That’s good for your basic SOHO business or home office because if you’re running a small audio or flash application or database on your site, this type of hosting service should do just fine. Also, you can assign the other email accounts to co-workers, family members or whoever you want to.

When you are running web applications over 1,000GB, that’s when you should consider steeping up your web hosting package. There are various types of web plans based on the types of internet applications that you are developing for your business. For example, if you are developing online streaming video content for your site, then you might want to go past the 1000GB limit on your account and get more bandwidth.

As a SOHO or company grows, the need for more bandwidth is paramount especially if you have an intranet in your office or you have people accessing the back end of your web-site to load data from various locations.

Dedicated web hosting is what the majority of individuals and small businesses use until they start growing out of their bandwidth. They usually upgrade their web hosting packages and buy more storage and bandwidth.

Java Server Pages is a server-side language that uses simple tag-based codes inserted into HTML and XML to produce dynamic and interactive web pages that are platform independent, meaning that by all rights they should appear exactly the same on every computer screen, regardless of the platform. This is the result when your publish yoy JSP-coded website on a JSP-supported Java hosting provider.

JSP allows web designers combine dynamically generated HTML in with their standard, static HTML code. While most CGI programs require you to compose the entire website in that one program, JSP allows you to compose the dynamic aspects and the static aspects of your site separately.

Java Hosting which includes JSP support would be the logical choice of any web designer wishing to eliminate the irritating need to repeat work they’ve already done. Java hosting, and JSP hosting specifically, would also be an efficient choice for those web designers working with a team.

One of the greatest aspects about JSP is that you don’t need to learn Java to use it and it’s practically built into programs like Macromedia Dreamweaver MX.
JSP’s use a variety of simple tags. The following are some of the most basic and common ones:
* Directives: <%@directive%> Instructions processed when the page is compiled
* Hidden Comments: <–comment–> Document the page, not sent to the client
* Declarations: <%!declaration%> Declare methods or variables with scope throughout the page.
* Expressions: <%=expression%> A bit more complicated to explain, expressions produce results which are then inserted into the output stream at the appropriate place
* Scriptlets: <%scriptlet%> A fragment of code that can access a declared variable and execute it at a defined time.
* Actions: <jsp:action> An XML-style tag that can perform any of a slew of functions

So if you are running JSP, remember that you need to have a host that provides JSP runtime modules on the host side of your web server so that you can run the appropriate scripts.

UNIX has been around for years and it was the language of choice for midframe computer users. Windows actually copied the UNIX file naming convention technique when they created Microsoft Windows.

UNIX hosting is cheaper than Windows hosting. Because most web hosts use the free version of UNIX (like Linux), they don’t have to compensate for huge overhead expenses which you have with any Windows Operating System. Savings is passed to customers. In addition, those who use UNIX hosting usually get free tools and applications that have been written primarily for the UNIX community. Since UNIX hosting is an “open system”, its source code is publicly available for free from various web sites.

This allows web developers working for various companies and for different purposes to add rapid development of applications quickly. As a result, improvements come fast and problems are quickly resolved.

The main disadvantage of using UNIX hosting is that your provider may only allow access to your account via Telnet or SSH. As are result, you must have a strong working knowledge of UNIX commands in order to customize to your requirements. You may find yourself spending a lot of time learning the basics before you can enjoy the free advantages of UNIX hosting but learning the UNIX language is not that hard at all.

When considering the UNIX operating system and UNIX hosting, you need to consider your own technical abilities. Then take a look at the special features offered by each system and hosting company in light of the available technology and — sometimes more importantly — your budget.

The Linux operating system was developed by Linus Torvalds as an alternative to other operating systems. Most of its versions are free of costs. The most popular Linux software is Red Hat and Mandrake.

Linux/Unix was only for professionals until a few years ago but the situation has changed. Many ’small businesses have switched to the Linux/Unix platform because of its open source architecture, meaning that users can structure the system to do what they want it to do.

Web host providers are specializing in Linux/Unix servers and the demand for this type of interface has grown by 40% over the last three years.  A Unix-based platform is one of the most reliable operating system that you can ever have. It has a better up time than Microsoft Operating Systems and hosting programs in Linux/Unix are more flexible. You actually can get ore from a Linux/Unix based server than other servers on the market.

Linux/Unix supports a wide variety of application languages, more than any other operating system. The most common applications of such kind include C, C++, Shell, Perl, Tcl, Python, Java and PHP.  Databases available for Unix are mSQL and mySQL. The one you choose would depend on what you plan to do on the web and the host that you choose to park your web site.

The Linux/Unix based system comes with its won web development module in some versions of Red Hat Linux that make web site creation easy as 1-2-3. FTP modules are built into the operating system to provide you with an alternative way to load the web site to the Linux/Unix host.

Linux/Unix will become a major force in the future as more small to medium businesses turn towards its hosting platform.

Cold Fusion hosting adds versatility and interactivity to ecommerce sites. Cold Fusion allows you to publish and then have automatically removed from your site time-sensitive content, such as flight schedules or event calendars. It adds functionality to creating and managing mailing lists and business reports. It allows you to offer your visitors printable content and customized menus.

Anytime you see .cfm as the extension on a web page, as opposed to .htm or .asp for example, you know you’re dealing with Cold Fusion Markup Language (CFML).

Though cold fusion is built on the Java platform, CFML allows web developers the benefits of Java without its inherent technical complexities. You need not know Java scripting in order to use cold fusion. CFML is a tag-based language quite similar to HTML and XML which makes it easy for anyone with even the most basic knowledge of web scripting to learn.

Cold Fusion is a server-side language which means that any web pages using CFML are read and interpreted by the Cold Fusion hosting company’s server and converted into an HTML page prior to being sent back to the user’s browser.

Cold Fusion web hosting can be significantly more expensive than other forms of web hosting, and should therefore only really be considered if its unique set of tools are relevant for your site’s intended uses. Cold Fusion hosting is usually run on Windows 2000/NT/2003 operating systems, though you can also find support for Cold Fusion hosting on Linux and Sun servers.

In addition to all the usual factors you must consider when choosing any web host – cost, disk space, bandwidth, uptime, scalability, support – you now also have to consider certain factors specific to cold fusion hosting, including: potential tag restrictions, additional security concerns, whether the cold fusion hosting company provides database support, and which version of Cold Fusion they’re using.

One type of tag restriction that is also a security concern is “high risk” tags, such as those that can be used to find and erase selected files from a server. For some larger businesses, this functionality is crucial to their operation, though potentially detrimental if accessed by the wrong hands, in which case a dedicated server is probably in order. Fortunately, cold fusion hosting is offered on shared, virtual, and dedicated servers.

Cold Fusion is well worth considering if you’d like the functionality of the Java platform with the facility of a comparatively autonomous and user-friendly software system. Especially if your website is expected to generate an income, you may find that the intimidating price tag, in the long run, turned out to be a bargain.

Should you renew your domain name for a long period of time? And if so, how long is long enough? If you want to stay ahead of your competition, then you might consider looking at the length of time your competitors have registered their domain names. If your competitors have generally renewed their domain names for one or two years, you might consider registering your domain name for 5 or 10 years. While putting off your domain name’s expiration date might help your search engine rankings, keep in mind that this may be only a small victory when it comes to search engine rankings.

Its good business sense to register a domain for at least 10 years. You don’t want to deal with the process   annual process of renewing them every year. It’s best to obtain the domain names that you want to keep for a while and renew then on a 5 to 10 year plan.

If your domain name expires, there’s a good chance that someone will register your domain name immediately after it expires. If, for whatever reason, you don’t renew your domain name, someone watching a ‘watch list’ of expiring domain names will try to capitalize on the online business that you’ve built over the years. They know that there is potential website traffic they can have simply by renewing your old domain name. By renewing your domain name for several years, your domain name won’t expire for a while, and it won’t be opened up to expired domain name buyers.

If you really want to stay ahead of the competition, you might consider registering or renewing your domain name for 100 years. Currently, Network Solutions (www.netsol.com) is the only registrar offering the 100 year option, which costs $999.00. GoDaddy (www.godaddy.com), currently offers to renew or register a domain name for 10 years, at a discount of $6.95 per year.
Yes, you can lose critical positioning in the search engines if you don’t reregister your domain name in time. You may have to start the SEO process all over again!

You have to have a technical person to install the server and manage the server if you don’t have the expertise because you as the customer will be responsible for maintaining the server environment. That’s why unmanaged servers are recommended for individuals and businesses with server administration resources.

As far as developing applications and controlling the applications without going through technical support personnel on the managed server side, these types of servers are usually used when companies are developing real time response systems on the internet, such as geographical, science, engineering and multimedia/entertainment applications.

Unmanaged servers allow you to add extra hard disk space to increase your space capacity and many computer companies sell physical servers that are configured for unmanaged hosting applications. Companies like Dell and HP have software programs that not only will run an office network but also handle web server and development applications.

Small businesses that don’t need a server on site and deal with administrative web packages should go with the managed host packages that provide assistance and administrative support. Managed applications will do just fine because of the costs that are incurred with maintaining an unmanaged server. Unmanaged servers need constant upgrades of software and hardware constantly which could cost your small business a big chunk of change.

Unmanaged servers are expensive to maintain and run unless you are a small firm that develops in house web applications. The best advice is to have a consultant draw up an IT plan to see if you need this type of hosting service or not.

Fantastico

Fantastico is a script that automates the installation of web applications to a website. This is a fabulous script. You can install Wordpress in one minute.

Site Tools

There are such tools available for your use, which are Web Protect (.htaccess editor), Custom error pages, Redirects, Ability to edit MIME types, Ability to edit Apache handlers, Install/Uninstall FrontPage Extensions, Search engine tool submitting and File Manager.

Email

The email program provides you with the possibility to add, remove, and change passwords while managing email accounts. CPanel is also provided by Webmail for the accounts, Auto responders, Forwarders, Mailing Lists, Spam filtering and some more.

Backup

Backup allows you to create copies of account files and databases.  The backup menu also allows you to download any automatic backups that were downloaded by your CPanel administrator.

Stats

Here are different tools to survey your site popularity and efficiency. Those are Webalizer web stats, Webalizer FTP stats, Analog stats, AWStats, View latest visitors, View bandwidth usage and View error log modules.

FTP

There is a module that controls FTP accounts (add, remove, change password for its access), Anonymous FTP controls; Ability to change FTP login message and Ability to kill FTP sessions.

Advanced Tools

You are provided with tools of SSH access tools, Manage GPG keys and Cron jobs.

There are also Pre-Installed CGI Scripts. Those are Interchange Cart, Agora Cart, Bulletin Board, Java Chat, HTML Chat, phpMyChat, CGI Wrapper (for non-suexec installs), Random HTML generator, Advanced Guestbook, Counter Generator, Java Clock Generator, Java Countdown Generator, Secure FormMail clone, CGIEmail, Entropy Search, Entropy Banner. Network Tools are DNS Lookup and Traceroute. Database Management tools includes Managing MySQL databases and phpMyAdmin access.

For beginners, CPanel has a lot of options that are easy to use.   CPanel works with most of browsers, such as IE, Opera, Firefox and others.

First, make sure that your company website has a user friendly interface which basically means links are visible, easily located and properly labeled and that the content provided in the website is complete, interesting, effective and grammatically correct.

There’s the matter of search engine optimization or SEO which requires you to employ a number of strategies that your company website is heard and seen by the right people. Common search engine optimization strategies would be keyword listing, site code optimization and top search engine placement.

Optimize your plan by understanding web hosting. No matter how great your website looks or how effective your SEO strategies are, if you don’t have the right web hosting plan, none of those would see the light of the day because your web hosting plan simply prevents them from being properly uploaded and viewed.

Web hosting is important to your plans if you want your website to have its own niche in the Internet so do read carefully what we’re about to teach you.

You have a couple of choices when it comes to web hosting – you can get it for free or you can spend for it. Naturally, it would be lovely if web hosting would be free for all of us but understand that all the needs of your company website must be met by the free web hosting plan if you want your future to look rosy.
These are key issues to address.

Are you willing to deal with advertisements that may take too much space or would have an irritable effect on your readers? These ads are often required by free web hosting plans because it’s the only reason they can continue letting people enjoy free web hosting.

Are you “cool” with low bandwidth access and minimal web space?

If you’re not okay with the following facts I presented, then I suggest you go with a web consultant and let them handle all of your work.

Finding free web space on the Internet is simple. All you have to do is use a simple Web search (Google, AltaVista or Yahoo) and the results should bring back options for free web space. There are many individuals and businesses looking for a place to put their website without having to pay for the service. These free services can provide anywhere from 5MB to 100Mb of online web space for hosting your web site.

Free sites also come with some cool stuff, such as counters, guest books, virtual domain names, tracking logs, blogs, copy and past scripts that are usually Java code scripts and more. These additions are good for people that have little or no knowledge into building a web site.

A free service provides benefits to all people and may sound like a good idea but the goal is to do your research to see if the deals are viable or not. Free services can also bring other unwanted things that you have to deal with when you sign up for the service. Usually, you have to submit to advertising and surveys by filling out a form before you can get your free service. Be sure that you read the user agreements that come with the free services.

You can go on the cheap and don’t want advertisements running on your site, you can get a service similar to free hosting but you would have to pay a small fee to keep your web page ad-free.  Some of these providers will offer you a service for $2.95 a month with 100MB of web space if that’s all that you need, and you can always upgrade your packages.

There’s a lot of competition for your Web site hosting dollars, and you can find some pretty good deals if you look hard enough.