Friday, June 22, 2007

A Java Developer's Guide To Web Hosting

by: David Heffelfinger
You make a living writing enterprise java applications, and you would like to work on your own projects for fun or profit, you would like to create your own web site or you would like to have a place to host your open source project. You look around for hosting providers, and all you see is PHP and PERL support, with very few hosting companies supporting Java, what to do?

Although the number of hosting companies supporting Java is increasing, support varies from nearly non-existent to companies that are deeply committed to their Java support.

There are three types of hosting plans available:

Shared hosting
Virtual Private Server hosting
Dedicated Server hosting.
With a shared hosting plans, several web sites are hosted on the same server, sharing the server's resources and using the same IP address. Virtual Private Server (VPS) plans consist of a server that is split into multiple virtual servers, each virtual server has it's own IP address, some companies call these types of plans Virtual Dedicated Servers. Dedicated servers are the most expensive type of plan, each dedicated server customer gets their own physical server, nice to have, but prohibitively expensive for personal web sites and small operations.

At Ensode.net, we recommend that you find a hosting company that provides Virtual Private Server (VPS) support (some hosting companies call it Virtual Dedicated Server), since they provide a nice balance between price and control. A VPS server is like having your own server, usually with root access, which gives you the freedom to install any application you might need, including version control systems like Subversion or CVS, WebDAV, or anything else you might need. With a VPS plan you will most likely get your own IP address, and your server will be not only your web server, but also your mail and database server.

VPS hosting plans tend to be somewhat more expensive than shared hosting plans, but it is our belief that they are worth the extra cost since they provide much more control and flexibility. If you are a Java developer, chances are you are used to "getting your hands dirty", and working on a server using good old Unix commands. Shared hosting plans tend to have "user friendly" (dumbed down?) interfaces, which might simplify administration, but can also severely limit what you are able to do, for example, let's say a shared hosting company gives you 300 megabytes of disk space to host your web site, and an additional 300 megabytes for your email, if your web site takes 5 megabytes of space, but your email server is getting full, there is no way to allocate more space to store emails and reduce the allocation of web space. In addition to leaving you unable to reallocate resources as needed, you can also forget about installing any applications on your server. Another disadvantage of shared hosting plans is that an IP address is shared among several customers, which could have potential problems. For example, if one of the customers uses their mail server for bulk emailing, the IP address of that mail server may be banned from several systems, in a shared hosting plan environment, this would affect all the customers using the same server.

With few exceptions, shared hosting plans that support Java do so through a shared JVM, which means that you have no way of starting or stopping the JVM, and the same JVM is used to run the Java applications of all the hosting company's clients on the server. With a VPS plan, since you have access to your own (virtual) server, it is a given that you get full control over the JVM.

You can use your favorite search engine to find companies that offer VPS plans. Good luck and may your site become immensely popular.



About The Author

David Heffelfinger is a Software Engineer with over 10 years of experience. He is the editor in chief of Ensode.net a technology website providing articles about Java, Linux and other technology topics. He can be reachd via email at dheffelfinger@ensode.net.

Web Hosting Affiliate Programs – The No Brainer!

by: Evan Ernst
Web hosting affiliate programs give webmasters the opportunity to earn commission by referring their website visitors to a web hosting company site. When a person signs up for a web hosting package and has been referred by an affiliate, commissions are usually paid in a lump sum ranging from $30-$60.

This provides a great opportunity for webmasters with community and web development driven sites to make extra revenue. As the general public becomes more and more internet savvy, an increasing number of people are putting their first websites online.

The truth is;

The web hosting industry doesn’t have a definitive industry leader.

There are a huge number of quality web hosting companies available, and most of them want to pay you to send people to them. By simply placing a small link or banner on your website and informing your site visitors of a web hosting company you recommend, I think you might be surprised at the amount of people who will click-through and check it out.

Do your homework though.

Make sure you select a web hosting company that is reputable. Check to see if your web hosting company has an affiliate program. This way, you are speaking from experience, and you tend to provide an even more compelling reason for your visitors to choose web hosting from you.

If you are very lucky, you can find “the hidden gems” of web hosting affiliate programs. These are the programs that pay a residual commission, so you continue to earn money every month for as long as your referred client remains with that particular web hosting company. The companies that run these types of programs pay you a percentage of the web hosting costs on an on-going basis, which can add up to be substantially more than the single payment.

Making a recommendation for a web hosting provider not only provides an extra resource for your website visitors, but can earn your some very generous commissions. You have got nothing to loose from trying.



About The Author

Evan Ernst is the owner of Markethoster, a web hosting company that pioneered the web hosting affiliate program with the Residual Profit Affiliate System. Visit www.markethoster.com for more information.

Web Hosting Basics

by: Sintilia Miecevole
If you have decided you or your company is in need of a website, you will have to purchase web hosting services from a hosting company. There are many different web-hosting companies to choose from, and they can easily be found on the internet. If you do a quick search for them in any search engine, you will find that there are almost too many to count. Choosing the company that is right for you can be a harrowing experience, but there are really only a few basic things to consider.

The first factor to consider when choosing a web hosting company is how much space they will give you for your account. If you merely want a single page on the Internet with little or no graphics, you can get by with purchasing an account with the smallest amount of space available. However, if you are planning to create a full e-commerce site with multiple pages and order forms, you will need to make sure you have enough server space to support your entire operation.

Before you sign your web-hosting contract, you will first have to choose and purchase a domain name. Though many of the names you might want are already taken, you can often find one that suits your needs, especially if you get creative with it. For instance, if your business is called Cards For You and that domain name is already taken, you might consider choosing More Cards For You or Cards For You Today. The possibilities are endless, and with a little thought you will be able to think of a snappy domain name.

You can often purchase a domain name through your web hosting company, or you can purchase it through a private domain name retailer. These companies are very easy to find. Often times, if you type the domain name you want into a search engine, a domain name seller will pop up if the name is not already taken. You can purchase a domain name for a year at a time, or for several years, depending on how much you want to invest at the get-go.

Once you have a domain name, you will of course have to create a website to put on the Internet. There are many do-it-yourself web design programs that are fairly user friendly. Software like FrontPage makes web design a cut and paste, fill in the blank soft of affair. However, if you would like a more professional look, you can use programs like Dreamweaver or Image Ready to make your sites. There are always freelance web designers looking for work who are ready to take on your cause if you are not savvy enough to do it yourself.

Web hosting companies give passwords to allow you access your space on their servers. You can upload files and pages using their own interface programs, or you can utilize the upload tools built in to your web design program. Once you upload a page, it is important to make sure it looks correct on a variety of different web browsers. Because each browser interprets information differently, you may run into trouble if you build a site while only previewing it in Internet Explorer. There are often compatibility issues between Safari and Mozilla browsers that distort site tables and images.

However, once you work out the kinks and create an excellent site, all you have to do is pay your web hosting bills, and your site will be available for the whole world to see. Web hosting companies usually offer options regarding payment plans. You can pay for a year at a time, or you can monthly or quarterly to maintain your place on the World Wide Web.



About The Author

Sintilia Miecevole has many years experience on the internet. Be sure to visit http://www.ritzyhosting.com for expert information on hosting, providers, host finders, resources, reviews, reliability and much more. To find the right web hosting plan to meet your business and ecommerce needs click on http://www.ritzyhosting.com.

Web Hosting: Price vs. Quality

by: Paul Herbert
As the Internet expands, demand for different web-hosting services increases proportionally. Additional numbers of people are joining the web world every day with personal sites for their business or organization. Many people choose low-cost solutions to host their web site, but it if your web site is important to you, you should consider quality as much as price.

For instance, putting your site on a low costs web host can affect the speed at which customers access it. Many surfers on broadband connections get annoyed when site’s server does not keep up with their connection. If it does not offer fast access and downloads, people will be reluctant to revisit the site. They would leave the place with a negative impression about you result in long term economic loss.

A well-established web host may charge more for the facilities but in the long run they may offer better and latest services complying with the trends in the market. Some high quality hosts even offers free add-ones and promotions. The features like free web site builder or support for MySQL databases ensure that the ultimate cost involved in building a productive website are a lesser amount. These facilities may not be available when one goes for a cheaper web host – or you may have to pay extra for them!

The cheapest web hosts may not always have a good reputation, either. Reputable companies in the web hosting business have a well-established infrastructure that ensures better services. Their servers tend to be down less frequently and they are less likely to go out of business (and take your data with them!).

Thus it is advisable to check out a host’s reputation and quality as well as its price. The good news is, there are some web hosts that offer both outstanding service as well as competitive prices. Don’t sell yourself short with anything else!



About The Author

Paul Herbert recommends Net Explorers ( http://www.hosting-netexplorers.co.uk/ ) for high quality UK web hosting.

Make the Move to Virtual Dedicated Web Hosting

by: John Edwards
Most webmasters on the net today are familiar with what the industry calls "shared" web hosting accounts. A shared hosting account is where you rent a small amount of space on a server which is shared among many other users.

This is a cheap way to get started online but it has many disadvantages - you will encounter email delivery problems because of spam complaints against other sites on the same server. You will find your site's grinding to a halt when someone else does some heavy database work on your server. You might even find your site going down because of a denial of service attack against someone else hosting hacking or piracy related material on your server (these type of sites attract antisocial elements!)

How can you avoid all of this drama?

By upgrading to a virtual dedicated server. A virtual dedicated server lets you run your sites as if you had your own "dedicated" server, except it is cheaper because you are really just using part of a server that has been split into multiple virtual dedicated servers.

You can find out more about this by searching Google for "virtual dedicated hosting". Virtuozzo is the main commercial software that web hosts use to run virtual hosting services.

You will find virtual dedicated server accounts starting at just $30 a month. You'll get a much larger chunk of bandwidth compared to shared hosting, and none of the problems that go with a shared host. You can also get multiple IP addresses that are exclusive to your sites.

So what's the catch? Not much. You'll probably spend a bit more on hosting each month. The main disadvantage of upgrading to virtual dedicated hosting is that you will need to be more technically proficient so that you can administer the server.

This requires a bit of time learning the necessary Linux skills to make sure your server runs smoothly.

Many hosting providers will have a "premium" support offering that includes a bit more hand holding - this is definitely recommended if you don't have much experience with Linux, or are new to virtual dedicated hosting.

With the increased speed and bandwidth that a virtual dedicated host offers, and none of the shared hosting headaches, the move is one you will never regret. So, the question now becomes, are to ready and willing to take-on the challenge of virtual dedicated web hosting and save yourself some hard earned cash? The choice is yours...



About The Author

John Edwards

Click below for more tips on choosing the right web host which will not only save you from the unexpected problems & headaches as well as save your money:
http://www.e-web-site-hosting.com

Website Hosting - You Might Get What You Paid For!

by: CJ Hardy
When looking for a web host, too often you are sold on the price per month which usually includes a special or package deal.

This is fine if you have a personal site and not a business.

If you are the latter and want cheap hosting for your start-up business; digest the following.

The most important lesson you will learn is that the costs of hosting a website (although definitely important) will not make a good decision for Hosting choices.

I tried 3 cheap hosts and found there was a huge difference in what I got for my money.

In the end, it's a toss between cheaper webhosting costs and the ability to talk to Support when you have a question or worse, a problem.

Here are 3 points summarizing the basic yet critical issues you should be aware of, when planning a typical small business website...

1. Do not even look at free hosting for your Business.

There are too many pitfalls (restrictions) for an online business when looking at a free host.

Instead, be prepared to spend around $8 per year for a real domain name of your own and find a reasonable hosting solution for under $10-$15 per month.

2. Find out what web services you will need immediately and what you will need in future.

You will need at least one merchant service for customer payments. Depending on your business, you may want an Autoresponder service but don't look at the free ones either.

As with Web Hosting, the free Autoresponder services often lack Support or professional pull.

3. Your website should look professional - don't fill it 90% FULL of adverts and bad content.

Slapping up a "weeks worth of web site" will not guarantee you a cent.

Think about hiring someone to put your words into "webspeak", spell check and sell well.



About The Author

CJ Hardy owns WebHostAlive.com and created the site for a Hobby. You can Register at http://www.webhostalive.com to receive opinionated webhosting insights and answers to your website hosting questions.

What To Consider With Web Hosting Plans And Services?

by: Dean Shainin
There are many important aspects to consider with web hosting services and plans. Choosing the wrong web hosting plan can cause a real problem down the road with your business. This in turn, can cost your business lost customers and sales. If you take some time to compare the different options available to you, and to see what is the best web hosting plan for your situation, it can help you in the long run.

Are You Going To Have A Personal Home Page Or A Business Site Hosted?

The first thing you may want to consider with the web hosting service is the type of website you are going to have hosted. A small business may not need the options that come with larger hosting plans. On the other hand, if you are going to plan on having a large ecommerce site hosted, you may want all the bells and whistles that are provided from some web hosting services. When you have decided on what type of website you will have hosted, you can then figure how to compare the web hosting services and plans.

How Much Data Transfer And Disk Space Is Offered From The Web Hosting Plan

Some of the aspects you will want to compare are the disk space and bandwidth to see if the hosting plan can handle the data transfer from your business promotions that can cause large amounts of traffic. On the other hand, if you have a simple home page you will not need much disk space and bandwidth. Only you can decide on what you will really need from the web hosting service, options and plans that are offered.

Aspects To Consider For Your Web Hosting Needs

Some of the aspects of the web hosting service you may want to consider are, the cost and fees, customer support, control panel, POP email accounts, FTP transfer limits and if you have unlimited space transfer.

Web Hosting Costs And Possible Setup Fees?

When you compare the cost of the web hosting plan, be sure you understand what the costs are, before you sign up. Make sure you know what the setup fees might be, if any.

What About Customer Support From The Web Hosting Company?

Customer support is very important because you don’t want your site or sites down for long periods of time. Be sure to see if they offer 24 hours a day customer support and what experience they have with customers in the past. You can easily check with the BBB to see how the web hosting company rates with customer service. This simple consideration can help save you from hassles and lost revenue.

Is A Control Panel Available?

Some people do not have much experience with web hosting control panels. You may want to see what type of control panel the web hosting service offers to see if it is user friendly and that it will fit your needs. An experienced webmaster may not need a control panel, but a control panel is a must for the rest of us.

Are POP Email Accounts Available?

Another aspect of web hosting service plans you may want to consider are, the POP email accounts that may be offered. Most business plans will need email service from their web hosting plan. Check to see how many are available to you, if you think you will need access to email accounts.

What About FTP Transfer Limits?

Again, be sure to look into the FTP transfer limits with the web hosting services you are considering. You want to make sure the web hosting plan offers FTP transfer for your business needs. Most web hosts do not have limits on FTP use.

Check out the web hosting plan to see if they offer unlimited space transfer. Read the terms of service to see if you can upgrade, if you need more space in the future. You do not want to have a problem with the web hosting service if you use too much space on the server.

By taking the time to shop around and compare web hosting plans and services, you will know you have made a well informed decision.

Copyright 2005 Dean Shainin



About The Author

Dean Shainin is a consultant specializing in web hosting plans and services. Get valuable resources, tools, more articles and information on web hosting, visit this site: http://web-hosting.deans-knowledgebase.com

Without Multiple Domain Hosting, Your Web Host Is Making You A Fool!

by: James Clark
If your web host only allows you to host 1 domain name with 1 hosting account, please read on to learn why you have been taken advantage by your web host!

Also, if you own multiple websites and you are hosting each of them with a different hosting account, you are paying too much! You can actually host all your websites into one single hosting account and save a lot of money. This type of hosting account is called “multiple domain hosting” account, which just get popular recently.

The web hosting industries are now switching to the next important trend. Many web hosts have started to offer multiple domain hosting account. What that means is that you can host multiple websites under 1 hosting account! You don't need to pay for a full account if you want to host more websites.

This is a very important trend because nowadays, most web hosts are offering incredible amount of disk space and bandwidth with their hosting account. Unfortunately, the client is only allowed to host one website with each giant hosting account. And the reality is that most clients don't even use up to 10% of their disk space and bandwidth!

If you already have a hosting account, think about it, how much percentage of the disk space and bandwidth are you utilizing now?

I strongly believe that these web hosts are throwing in the big offer as a marketing strategy to attract the consumers by exploiting consumers 'the more the better' mindset. Consumers don't realize that the 'large space' and 'large bandwidth' is practically useless, as they will probably never use most of the 'advertised' resources. They are simply being lured into the marketing gimmicks.

However, the story is rewritten when many web hosts begin to offer multiple domain hosting account. They allow you to host a few domain names under the same hosting account without the need to pay for more. These add-on domains that are hosted under the same hosting account actually shared the same disk space and bandwidth of the main hosting account. This way, you can fully utilize your allocated resources and receive full value of your invested money.

I don't need to be an oracle to predict that sooner or later, most other web hosts, including those big web hosting companies will have to follow the trend by offering multiple domain hosting accounts. It's the future of web hosting as domain names are very cheap nowadays and many webmasters will usually want to have more than one website.

When the traditional '1 domain per account' web hosts are not getting the same amount of sales they are getting today, they will have to consider offering multiple domain hosting accounts. If they don't keep up with the trend, they will be eliminated.



About The Author

James Clark has used more than 30 different web hosts. If you do not want to risk your business by picking the wrong web host, visit his website now to find out the best web hosting companies you can trust.

http://www.10-cheapwebhosting.com