What is Managed Hosting?

Managed Hosting is for customers who prefer to have their web host provider maintain and monitor their dedicated servers, operating system and all supported applications. Companies or individuals who do not have the required system administration resources on-staff, commonly choose this option to augment their dedicated hosting service.

When do you need a Managed Server?

Managed Hosting is an excellent solution for mid to high level hosting needs. Designed to host busy e-commerce sites and dynamic, database driven Web pages, Managed Hosting offers small and large business owners a fast, powerful, reliable and professionally maintained Web presence. If you have a need for a dedicated server, and don’t have the IT resources, expertise, or time to manage your own servers, then Managed Hosting is for you.

What databases are available for Unix websites?

That depends mostly on the web hosting provider you select to host your website. There are many flavors of databases that run on Unix, but the most prevalent among web host providers are mSQL, MySQL., and PostgreSQL. These databases are all relational in nature, and allow highly optimized communication with your website for quick retrieval of information.

Is it more or less expensive to host my site on a Unix or a Windows platform?

That depends on what you mean by “hosting your site”. If you plan to host the site yourself, and you own the web servers or the software on them, then Unix (or Linux) would definitely be a less expensive option. If you plan to sign up with a web hosting company, and they own the servers and the software installed on them, you will find that there are excellent hosting options available for each platform at very comparable prices.

What is Database hosting and Who needs a database host?

Database host is a specific kind of dedicated server, which is going to be used to run a database intensive application. The server can either be just for the database itself or it could also run the web site too, it really depends on how much system resources will be needed by the database. A system setup to run intense database applications will have a significant amount more RAM than a regular server. For example, if you are looking at a regular web-hosting server and you think 512 Megs will be enough then you would probably be looking at between 1 Gig to 2 Gigs for a database server.

Anyone who is using a database intensive program like a CRM, ERP, or a custom made application should look into a database host because they have more memory, which will increase the speed and reliability of the application.

What are some applications that might run on a database server?

Some examples of applications that are used on database servers are CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems.

Can a database server only be used for a database?

No a database server can be used for anything but it is a specific kind of dedicated server that is setup to get the maximum performance out of a database or applications that rely heavily on a database. To do this the server has a large amount of memory and a few other configurations are done so that the database is the priority over anything else running on the system.

I want to host my E-commerce site. Does my E-commerce site need a database host?

I think you do not need a database host for your E-commerce site, you probably just need a web-hosting package/plan that gives you access to a database. The difference here between a database host and having access to a database is significant. When doing database hosting the database is the most important part of the entire application and is where all the processing is done.

I want to run my Enterprise Resource Planning systems so which hosting package will be suitable for me ?

Enterprise Resource Planning systems usually run on database servers much like CRM systems because they are database intensive applications. Much like CRM systems, ERP systems are not usually web based either and require a special client to connect to the application. ERP systems are used to help companies manage their resources from money to personnel to make the most of what they have.

Database hosting will be suitable for you.

Today, there are more choices than ever if you are looking for free hosting services. In fact, there are new companies popping up all the time offering some type of “free” hosting plans. Unfortunately, there are just as many companies going out of business and leaving their customers in a sort of hosting purgatory, unable to deliver the “free hosting for life” they had promised them and too often causing even more serious headaches.

With so many user complaints and horror stories surrounding free hosting, cpwebhosting.net decided to take a closer look and offer some insight for those considering it. So here’s the usual deal. To get “free” hosting, you must first pay a one-time setup fee that ranges from $35 to over $100 to transfer your domain. If you don’t already have a domain, you may also end up paying a premium of $35 or more for a new domain. You probably will also have to agree to become part of a forced advertising database, and receive daily email marketing, that your free host is selling to whomever they want. In return, you are promised “free hosting for life” that is restricted by how much disk space and monthly bandwidth you get. Your free host is hoping that you will exceed your allotted amount so they can upsell you to a paid hosting plan later.

Besides the fact that it’s not “free”, there are some other problems with this business model. To start with, your free host only gets paid by its customers one time – when they sign up – but they have to provide on-going service to them indefinitely. If for any reason new sales are down, there can be a big problem quick. Credit card fraud is also a costly problem for free hosting companies – it’s a favorite way for thieves to quickly check if a stolen card still works. To be profitable, a free host is dependent on a constant flow of enough setup fees from new customers. Which means they must keep operating costs low and advertising spending high. It’s important to understand how keeping their overhead as low as possible can directly affect the level of service that free hosts can provide their customers in the areas of uptime, security, data backup, customer service and tech support.

When it comes to uptime reliability, you want to be sure your free host owns their own servers. If your free host is actually reselling hosting on a third party’s servers and there is a problem, they may not be able to control when and how it gets fixed. Or worse, if there’s a dispute between your free host and the third party hosting company, your Web site may be left in limbo until it gets straightened out, which sometimes is never. Even if your free host owns their own servers, there can still be a big reliability problem if they haven’t devoted enough resources to maintenance and Internet security. Most free hosts are not going to pay for the expense of heavy duty, state-of-the-art firewall protection. You must be prepared for the possibility that you are vulnerable to hacker attacks that could easily bring down all of the sites they are hosting. And don’t rely on your free host to backup your site – make sure you have regular backups of everything you don’t want to lose.

When there is a problem, be prepared to be very patient for a response. Most free hosts only offer customer service and tech support via email. Keeping overhead low often means understaffing in these areas. Even if you have a serious problem such as your site being down for days or weeks, it’s highly unlikely that you would ever be able to speak to someone about it. If you want fast and efficient support, you’re much better off with a paid hosting provider. For this reason, only someone who is experienced and knowledgeable about the Web should consider free hosting since they are likely to need much less support. We don’t recommend free hosting for anyone who is new to the workings of the Internet.

free hosting business is a gamble, whether you are the provider or the customers. In any industry there are honest business people and not so honest ones and it’s the same with free hosting. Unfortunately, even the honest ones can’t guarantee they’ll be able to live up to the promise of “free hosting for life” in a business so full of potential problems.

What is a Server or Dedicated Server?

A server or dedicated server in the hosting industry refers to
the actual computer that is running your website. So if you are using shared web hosting you are sharing one server with a lot of other people. If you have your own dedicated server you have a computer that is located at the data center and you are the only one using it. A server is just like your computer at home except it is usually in a smaller case, has a much faster connection to the internet, and doesn’t have some of the extras such as a powerful graphics card.

Hi,
I have a E-commerce website. can I use Shared Web Hosting For An Ecommerce Store.

I do not recommend using shared web hosting to run an ecommerce store for two reasons.
One, when you are sharing the server with other websites those sites can cause your pages to load slowly or even the entire server to crash. The second reason is that a shared server is a lot more susceptible to security problems and when you are running an online store that is charging and possibly storing credit cards that is not safe.

The Dangers Of Using Shared Web Hosting For An Ecommerce Store:-

Performance Concerns:- If you are running an ecommerce store you want it to be online near 100% of the time for both your customers and so search engines can find it. If you are down it can cause users to not trust the site and the obvious downside that they can’t buy anything. Similarly if search engines come across your store and it is down that can cause problems for the search engine optimization you are doing.

Security Concerns:- In a shared hosting environment you are more susceptible to security problems which is a big problem when you are running an ecommerce store. Shared web hosts usually make a profit by volume and not quality, this might mean they don’t have time to make sure all their servers are fully secure. You don’t want to wake up one day and find out that another user on your shared server was reading your files and got your database password and has all your store’s info and customer list.

Instead of sharing a server and its resources with lots of people I recommend getting a VPS or a dedicated server.

By getting a VPS or dedicated server you have full control of your web hosting environment and it can’t be affected by other people’s sites. It is also a nice bonus knowing that you have full control of a VPS or dedicated server can tweak or upgrade any software it is running.

My website is hosted on a Shared web hosting account but it has many problems. Why Shared Web Hosting Sucks ?

Because anyone on your shared server can crash your website and cause it problems!Then you have to wait for your hosting company to fix the problem and ban the offending site or give them another shot. Plus this can happen at anytime as any site can get dugg or slashdotted and cause all the people on one server problems.

Shared Web Hosting has many disadvantages so A VPS is a good start, it basically has software that splits up a server into individual emulated servers. In this environment the other sites are separate and can’t affect you.

A dedicated server is also an option as then you have an entire server for your site. If you can’t afford either of those options just finding more expensive shared hosting that doesn’t oversell as much will help. There are lots of shared hosts that are for programmers and they don’t oversell as much.