Web Hosting FAQ 8

Find the answer to what is a good web host.

A good web host is one that offers reliable hosting with superior support and whatever other features you need for your particular situation. And, of course, most of us webmasters want this also at the lowest price possible.

The only obvious first distinction between the good and the not so good web hosting plans is the bandwidth they allow you to use. The more bandwidth, the more visitors your web site can have. Any web hosting plans with less than 5Gbit of bandwidth allowance per month (or with unlimited bandwidth) are simply not worthy of your considerations.

Most hosting providers now a day’s offer very similar web hosting packages at very different prices. And while some of the very cheap web hosting providers, under about US$5, have to cut corners to provide you web hosting at that price - which will reduce their service and reliability - many of the more expensive web hosting companies don't necessarily provide better support or service. Believe me, I have seen some bad ones.

If you want a recommendation for a good web host, I recommend this cheap web hosting guide.

Find the answer to what is a web server.

A web server is either a special computer or server for reliable hosting of web sites, or the software application that runs on that server. The two main web server applications used by most web hosting providers are
Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) for windows hosting and Apache for Unix hosting. Both use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to transfer web pages to your web browser.

Find the answer to what is bandwidth.

Bandwidth is a measure that reflects how much data can be transferred over a data communication channel.

In web hosting plans the allowed bandwidth generally indicates how much data can be downloaded from your web site per month, and therefore indicates how many web pages and pictures your visitors are allowed to download. If the average amount of page views per visitor is assumed constant, the allowable bandwidth restricts how many visitors you are allowed to have per month.

Just as important, however, is how fast the communication channel between your web host and the Internet is. The amount of data that can be transferred per second is also called the bandwidth of this channel, and this bandwidth is shared by all the web sites hosted by the same provider. If this bandwidth is insufficient, you'll sometimes notice a slowdown in the display of your web pages. In most cases, however, such a slowdown is more likely to be caused by an overload on the web server itself.

Find the answer to what is a dynamic web page.

A dynamic web page is a web page that uses some scripting language, such as PHP or ASP, to allow the web server to adapt the content of the web page to a particular situation. Dynamic web pages can also be used to upload information from the browser to store it on the web server. Examples of web based applications that use dynamic web pages are guest books, chat rooms, web logs, and forums.

The information content that is displayed on the web page in your browser will normally not be stored in the file containing that web page on the web server, but in a separate database. When the page is requested from the server, the web server will retrieve such a dynamic web page, process it to retrieve the relevant information from the database, and then puts that information in the HTML of the web page.

With dynamic web pages, the same information can be displayed on many different web pages, but only needs to be managed in one place: in the database. At the same time, we can create another web page to manage the information in the database (change it, update it, etc), as well as upload new information to enable users to create new web pages on the fly.

Find the answer to what is a static web page.

A static web page is a normal web page that is written in HTML and therefore needs no pre-processing on the web server. They are called static web pages to differentiate them from dynamic web pages. Static web pages can still contain JavaScript, Flash, Shockwave, Java, and other non-html code to be executed in the web browser or in web browser plug-ins.

Find the answer to what is a web robot.

A web robot is a program that automatically retrieves web pages by following the links on web pages that it has already retrieved before. Web robots are used by search engines to find web pages for inclusion in their search database. Other web robots, however, will try to harvest any email addresses on your web pages to include in their email database, which they then use or sell to email spammers.

Through a special file on your web host, called robots.text, you can tell a web robot which pages you would like it to ignore. Most email harvesting robots will, of course, just ignore the instructions in your robots.txt file.

Find the answer to what is the robot.txt file.

The robot.txt file is a file in your main (root) directory of your web site that is retrieved by web robots, such as search engine spiders, to see if you would like to exclude them from accessing any part of your web site. If you don't feel the need to restrict these web robots, it is best to have an empty robots.txt file in your root directory, so the failed accesses are not recorded in your web stats and hide the other reasons for failed access, such as accidentally deleted pages.

Find the answer to what is SSI or Server Side Includes.

SSI or Server Side Includes are directives in your web pages HTML that are evaluated on your web server just before the web page is served. SSIs are often used to include small files with common text for all your web pages, such as menu's or footers. This allows you to maintain this text in a single file to prevent having to edit all your web pages if you want to add a menu item or change the footer text.

SSI's can also be used to create simple dynamic web pages, for instance by putting the time or date on your pages, but for larger dynamic applications you are better of using CGI scripts or PHP / ASP pages.

Find the answer to what are Front-page Extensions.

Front-page extensions in a web hosting plan offer support for Microsoft's Front-page application for the development and uploading of web sites. Unless you intend to use Front-page, there is no need for these extensions. Most other web authoring environments simply use FTP to upload your pages, and almost all web hosting providers support FTP.

Find the answer to what is Web Mail.

Web mail is a web based interface to your own email directories on your web server. If you use domain hosting, your web hosting provider will also offer to support a number of email accounts based on your domain name. You can download the email in those accounts to your own computer, using Outlook Express or a similar email client, or, if your web hosting company offers web mail, you can access your email with web mail as you would access a hotmail account from any computer you happen to have access to.

Find the answer to what is FTP or File Transfer Protocol.

FTP or File Transfer Protocol is a way of transferring files between computers. Most web hosting companies also implement an FTP server on their web servers to enable you to upload your web pages and image files to the web server. You will need an FTP client, such as the WsFTP program, on your computer to connect to the FTP server, or you can use a web authoring environment that has an inbuilt FTP client to "publish" your web pages. Many web hosts also support an alternative called front-page extensions, which allows you to use Microsoft's Front-page web development program to create and publish web pages.

Find the answer to what is a datacenter.

A datacenter is building, or part of a building, which offers a professional environment for running computer servers. A datacenter will generally have high speed connections to the Internet and other networks, as well as good security to protect against natural hazards, such as fire, and other hazards, such as intruders and hackers.

How long does it take to get reviewed and listed?

Getting listed in our directory takes about one business day, once the review process has been completed. It takes about one to two days to perform the required tests. Once your application has been received and processed, it is placed in a queue, where it will then be routed for a full review of your services. We will notify you once your company has been accepted for inclusion in our directory, or if your application has been declined, along with a valid reason.

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