Web hosting companies to this day respond to this demand by loading up their dedicated server plans with as many goodies as they can to lure in more fish.  But which ones should you bite at, and which ones should you swim by?  Here is a list of some common dedicated server options, and how much they actually give you.

Bandwidth

A lot of at-home users have been hit with throttling or bandwidth usage charges for playing their World of Warcraft or downloading just a few too many Transformers movies.  The reason your ISP doesn’t let you slide on this is that they are just as crunched on costs for it as you are.  Bandwidth costs are one of the most inelastic of all services that any host can offer.

So if one host is giving you a much better deal on it than another, and you think there’s a good chance that you might actually need that much, you can strongly consider going with them on the basis of that alone.  The chances that a host will let you “slide” for going over are slim, no matter how good your reputation with them is.

Advertising credits

The important thing to remember with advertising credits that come with a hosting account is that the dollar values that you receive aren’t “real” values in any way.  They are just the cost of a certain type of advertising block on that site.  If, say FaceBook, were to double all their ad rates tomorrow, many hosting companies would likely follow suit by doubling, or at least increasing their offerings.  You would still be getting about the same advertising placement…mostly.

Saying this does neglect the fact that if FaceBook did do this, less people would be able to afford it, and you’d wind up with a higher listing by attrition.  That does highlight the ambiguity with this service, though.  Major web sites seldom release the algorithms they use for how someone gets a higher page rank or ad frequency rate.  Worse, these algorithms can often change without notice.  Your $50 might get you page 1 with Google today, and page 42 tomorrow.

This should not imply that advertising credits are worthless.  A lot of webmasters plan on advertising on these sites anyway: for them, these credits can’t hurt.  How much it will help, though, is the great unknown.  If you do want one good rule of thumb, it’s better to have your advertising credits spread out.

Uptime Guarantees

We’ve covered this one before but it bears repeating: this is all shine.  It’s not that most hosts won’t actually achieve this, assuming that they haven’t set the bar ludicrously high with a parade of 9′s.  It’s that life is simply too chaotic.  As the old proverb goes, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”

No host would survive long if your site went down much as it is.  Customers don’t need a calculator in front of them to know that their host is reliable.  On the other hand if a comet struck a web host, few would blame them for taking just a second to get your site back up while they looked for a broom.

Backup recovery

This, on the other hand, is one that you want to place a high value upon.  If you would believe it, there are still plenty of hosts that take the view that your backups are your responsibility.  If your machine dies, oh well.

Then there are also hosts who realize the kind of business that the above hosts are losing and want to claim them for their own.  There are a wide variety of ways that hosts will guarantee this.  They are all good.  Look especially for speed of recovery, redundant data centers, and manual recovery options as things that are worth the extra buck.

24/7 support

This one is only worthless because no host at this stage would be without it.  True, there won’t be someone staring at a process chart for your server all night, and you may not be able to necessarily get a hold of a tech support worker for basic questions.

But what goes on with your machine could be going on with the rest of the network.  Furthermore, even if they are not guaranteeing support, if they see your server down, your host knows full well that taking 30 seconds to walk over and hit the reboot switch because they “just happened to see it was down” is a great way to keep your loyalty.

Root access

We’ll close our list with one that you will not see often.  If you do, take it, but with a grain of salt.

Root access is great for you.  You don’t need to be told the functionality that this gives you.  If you find out about a serious software bug or need some kernel recompiled fast, you don’t have to wait for a tech worker, and you don’t have to hope that they do it right.  The back and forth that you get from this kind of a problem as you quote error messages to each other can be a true pain and time waster.

However, if your host does offer it, step back and take a look at them.  Do they look like a fly-by-night host, or are they around for the long term?  When a company allows this they are opening themselves up to danger if the customer doesn’t know what they are doing.  If they look like they are established enough and organized enough to handle it when a customer does something that makes the network hiccup, then this is a good thing.  If they look like someone who will be chasing their tail trying to find the problem, this means that this service could negatively affect you even if it’s not you who used it recklessly.  Not being affected by other users was the whole point of getting a dedicated server in the first place.

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• Managed vs Shared Hosting – Which Type to Consider

Only Newbies Need Managed Hosting: This thought is derived from the idea that paying someone to manage your server for you is somehow a sign of geek weakness: Only those inexperienced enough to run their own server need to hire a company to manage their content. However, this is completely untrue, and can wreck your business model if you’re not careful. The idea behind managed hosting is not to tie over gaps in your experience, but to save you the pain of having to manage the thing yourself. If you’re a large company with more resources than time, it makes all the sense in the world to outsource control of your servers. Why bother to fix your car by hand when you can afford to pay someone to do it for you?

Managed Hosting is More Expensive Than a Dedicated Server: Again, this is a classic example of short-sighted thinking. Though you might pay slightly more upfront to create a managed server, in the long run opting for this service will save you a boatload in cash. Because your server is managed by professionals that will keep your server ship-shape, you avoid the need to hire a team of server masters, or an army of tech soldiers. This means less crunch on your payroll, as well as fewer financial headaches when something goes wrong server-side.

My Software Choice is Too Limited With Managed Hosting: This common myth shows a lack of research into the modern market. To be competitive, web hosts have to support a wide variety of consumer-desired softwares, likely including the one you’re after. Before writing off managed hosting based on a lack of software, take a look at some of the more popular hosts: You may be surprised by what you find.

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How on Earth is that accomplished, you might be asking? Don’t fret, we’ve got the details ready to roll, offering the most popular ways you can make money from web hosting, starting now. It’s not a full-proof plan, and you are going to have to work to make your dough, but with a little initiative, any of these are entirely possible.

1. Make Money with Reseller Hosting

Here’s how web hosting works: large companies like HostGator, JustHost or GoDaddy have massive databanks of hardware connected servers that service all of their clients. These servers are each partitioned up into tiny chunks that can be sold individually to new users looking to start a website. When a single server is split into multiple, yet conjoined, units, this is called shared web hosting.

This is typically how most websites are started, and these web hosting companies tend to make a lot of money out of the technology. However, with a reseller account, you can profit from the arrangement as well.

If shared hosting is like an apartment, where the purchaser leases a room in a much larger complex, reseller hosting would be like purchasing an handful of rooms from the landlord to redistribute. You buy a chunk of the hosting provider’s servers, allowing you so much disc space, bandwidth, and processing power to work with. Then, you partition this chunk into exactly as many pieces as you like, before reselling it to someone else.

Essentially, it’s like founding your very own hosting company without having to start from the ground-up, developing a server and then fixing up the technology yourself. An even better way to think about it is as if you’re leasing digital ground. The hosting company gives you the space to work with, and then you build the units on-top at half the cost of a total operation.

This is a great way to make money from web hosting, particularly if you deal with clients through your own business who need web hosting—this would be jobs like graphic design, web development, etc. Best of all, these reseller accounts are typically pretty cheap, starting around $30 a month. Of course, though, the amount of profit you make depends on how many of your units you can actually sell. There are a couple of ways to ensure you land yourself at maximum occupancy, though, all of which are key.

The first is networking, which is vital to any business. The more people you know in need of web hosting, the better off you’ll be with your reseller account. If you’re somewhat lacking, try placing text and graphic banners on sites likely to draw traffic. Also, be sure to mark up the personal nature of the hosting experience, as it’s what differentiates you from the rest of the pack—and there’s quite a pack, we promise!

2. Join Hosting Affiliate Programs

However, becoming a reseller host isn’t the only way to make money from the business. Another fantastic method to make some additional spending money is to become an hosting affiliate. Let’s assume you already have an account with a site like WebHostingHub, iPage, FatCow or GoDaddy to host your own website. With a hosting affiliate program, you can take a small portion of your site to add a tiny banner (or a larger one, we suppose) for the hosting company you use. This banner rests on your site, and when users click it, they’re taken to the sign-up page for the company. Once there, if they choose to purchase an hosting plan themselves, the company you’re affiliated with kicks you back quite a lot of money: potentially as much as a couple hundred per sale.

There are a couple of ways you can optimize your traffic for this kind of program. For starters, it’s best to not become affiliated with a multiple companies. Most hosts pay you for the number of users you recruit, making it a better practice to send all your referrals to one location.

You can also write about the host on your blog or personal website. You never know when a reader might be in need of web hosting, and will take your word over anything the Internet says. Word of mouth, in general, is a powerful tool, making your friends and family potential dollar signs, too. All in all, hosting affiliate programs are a quick way to make money without much effort on your part.

3. Create Web Services on a Dedicated Server

Another way to make money out of web hosting is to lease a dedicated server from a reliable hosting company like InMotion Hosting, and then use it to create your own free web service. This could be a free blog, subdomain, email or polling service.

Regardless of what that is, though, make sure it’s something a large portion of users will want to use. The idea is, after all, that you will start serving adverts to your users, making up for the overhead costs you’ve sunk into the dedicated server. This method requires a bit more cash on the front-end, but if you can develop a following for your service, you’ll quickly find yourself making a tidy bundle off the ad-revenue.

Good luck! Feel free to leave your comments below.

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InMotion led its competitors because of its rock-solid hardware system, business-smart software, good technical support, and its budget-minded dedicated hosting plans.

InMotion Dedicated Plan uses a combination of server hardware the specifically caters to the demanding business world, offering dedicated servers to match heavy load. Their hardware, at the lowest tier, comes stock with 2.4 GHz Pentium Dual Core Processors, and tops out with an Intel Xeon Quad Core 2.53 GHz including hyper-threading and turbo mode. Available RAM on each system starts at 2 gigabytes, and it maxes out at 8 gigabytes with a 1333 mhz front-side bus.

Each of the company’s server sets comes stock with Dell PowerEdge and Sun Microsystems technology to provide maximum uptime, superior efficiency, and increased stability over InMotion’s competitors. Each server also comes with an authorized cPanel account, offering a simple and efficient way to manage server data.

We also liked InMotion for its budget-friendly prices that are suitable for even small businesses. The provider’s monthly rates with dedicated support start at only $219.95 a month, before topping out at $319.95. The company also provides a reduced-cost, semi-annual billing rate that helps budget conscious businesses balance the books.

For their money, users can enjoy unlimited domain registration, websites, 5 dedicated IP addresses, and unlimited parked domains. Available disc space also begins at dual 160 gigabyte hard drives, ending at a whopping 500 gigabyte drive with the most expensive monthly tier. Bandwidth along the company’s pricing schemes is equally as spacious, offering 1500 GB transfers at the lowest rate, and 2500 GB caps at the highest.

InMotion Web Hosting’s Linux-based servers are also 100% compatible with industry standard coding environments and languages. Dynamic web application development is a cinch with full support for Adobe Dreamweaver, as well as WordPress. InMotion’s expertise is fluent with all the popular coding languages, such as PERL, PHP, Python, Javascript, and of course, HTML.

Of course, we would be remiss to mention that one of the final deciding points in InMotion’s favor was its 24/7 technical support, which is still critically important for dedicated hosting.

In hindsight, it’s easy to see why we picked InMotion for the “Best Dedicated Server Host” award. From its robust server hardware to budget-friendly pricing – not to mention its effective data plans and unlimited features – make InMotion an ideal solution for small businesses and large corporations looking to move securely into the world of dedicated hosting.

Visit http://www.inmotionhosting.com for more information.

Read InMotion customer reviews.

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InMotion Hosting is one of our favorite options for personal, business, and dedicated hosting, offering a wealth of plans, features, and support designed to keep your Web presence running smoothly. But then again, all of that stuff can be ascribed to just about every web hosting business in the book. So, when the quick hits the bone, who in the heck really are InMotion? Read our InMotion Hosting user reviews.

Who They Really Are

InMotion first took on its name and business way back when in 2001, arriving out of a merger between business and Internet capability. As such, the provider offers a unique focus to the business consumer, bringing an unparalleled level of services and support aimed at keeping Web-necessary content online at any and all times—even during periods of extreme stress.

Todd Robinson, president of InMotion Hosting.

InMotion Hosting Awards

The company has been winning awards for these stellar services since as early as 2003, racking up a truly astonishing number of commendations since. Among these are the Drupal Association “Organization Member” aware, a CNET Certified Service Provider, an A-Rated Accredited Business with the BBB, the “Best Business Web Hosting“, the “Best Ecommerce Web Hosting“, the “Best VPS Hosting” awards from WebHostingGeeks.com, and the “Best Business Hosting” award from 100WebHosting.com—all of these given in the latest 2011 year. In other words, the company has existed for more than a decade, but has not slacked off on its duties during any time in that period.

To see all awards of InMotion Hosting click here.

InMotion Hosting Customers

Backed by a team of experts with diverse technical backgrounds, the company claims to be committed to its customer base, and according to its continued growth, it seems to be living up to all the talk.

As mentioned before, InMotion comes absolutely loaded to the gills with all kinds of awards, commendations, customer testimonials, and general pats on the back. The company has been turning heads since its initial inception a decade ago, and now supports a track record few—if any—other web hosting providers can match.

That all might be well and grand, but when it comes down to things, what in fact are those services that are so award-winning? Is it possible to knock them down into only a few bullets? In fact yes, yes it is!

Blazing Fast Hosting

One of the things we love most about InMotion is that it allows the user to choose their server of origin, an unprecedented level of control that we can’t match to any other web host. Typically, a shared hosting experience assigns the user a databank somewhere in the country. This datacenter may or may not be closest to the user’s home demographic, potentially stripping the consumer’s site of all useable performance. In comparison, InMotion offers two East and West coast oriented options, based on their Max Speed Zones system.

West Coast Data Center

East Coast Data Center

This system provides unparalleled protection and performance across the board, no matter what market you’re attempting to reach within the continental United States. In addition, for those hard to reach spots (like our native Denver) InMotion offers peer-based connectivity to give extra boosts as needed.

Green Like A City-Slicker Rancher

Believe it or not, server banks are actually one of the premier causes of pollution in modern times. InMotion is one of only a few select companies to recognize this fact, and to have taken measures to lessen their initial impact. For example, the company now runs its technology and cutting-edge cooling systems that reduce server grid drain by as much as 70%. There’s also the fact that InMotion plants 5,000 trees a year to offset any negative impact it may put into the ecosystem. All in all, InMotion is green as it gets, and that’s an incredible thing.

InMotion Hosting Support

However, it isn’t just features, or general overviews, that get our goat about the web hosting company. In fact, almost more than anything else, it’s their unique dedication to solving and preventing customer complications as they arise. InMotion offers a fully operational 24/7 chat line for customers to call, day or night, for resolutions to their web hosting conundrums as they appear.

Should you find yourself without a telephone, there’s absolutely no reason to panic. In fact, InMotion offers more than enough additional ways to get the job done, and have your website back up and running in no time. This includes a dedicated email support ticket system, live chat to aide you day-or-night directly from your computer, traditional email, and of course, the social networks.

Telephone Sales: 888-321-4678 x1 or 757-416-6575 x1
Telephone Support: 888-321-4678 x2 or 757-416-6575 x2

Email Sales: sales@inmotionhosting.com
Email Support: support@inmotionhosting.com

Live Chat: click here

Google+: https://plus.google.com/109777154476249834137/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/inmotionhosting
Twitter: https://twitter.com/inmotionhosting

More ways to contact InMotion Hosting: http://www.inmotionhosting.com/contact.html.

InMotion Hosting Help Center

In addition, InMotion also offers a full support center that’s loaded with a knowledge base of Alexandrian proportions. There’s website and email tutorials, as well as domain name set-up information, and even tutorials on general website education. It’s as if InMotion secretly has an hidden agenda, and it’s to make you smarter than you were when you went in! And when all else fails, there’s also a community support forum where you’re free to ask other customers for their time-earned and trial-and-error advice.

All in all, InMotion offers quite an impressive package on paper. They’re award-winning, have lasted over a decade, and offer a set of features that can be boiled down into a simple list, yet still strike the reader with a sense of overwhelming pizzazz. But don’t think we’re done with the company just yet: In fact, we’re only just warming up! Stick around, as we now change gears, and head directly into the hosting plans themselves to look for even more reasons why InMotion is one of the premier choices in online Web hosting.

Web Hosting Plans

We have detailed a few of the ways in which InMotion might appeal to the carefully selective web master, and we have given a few of the ways in which InMotion is prepared to help its customers with any technical problems, should they arise. However, what we have not yet discussed was perhaps the most crucial part of the whole scheme—the hosting plans themselves! To this end, we are now prepared to dish the full details on the topic. So without further ado, dive on below to peep the full details on what makes InMotion’s web hosting plans absolutely essential for the conscientious business with a desire for a firmer Web presence.

Shared Hosting (For Personal or Business Use)

Without a doubt, shared web hosting is certainly the largest part of the market, and we have a feeling most of our readers will be looking for a quality package in this category. Shared web hosting is, after all, a great way to save on initial overhead while still garnering an incredible level of performance and Net presence. But how does InMotion stack up? Is it possible to achieve this level of success with the web host? The short answer: Totally yeah!

Right off the bat, InMotion promises to deliver the performance you want at the price you need. Just take this quote, which we’ve pulled directly from the company’s shared hosting page:

“Rest assured, you will get the best quality hosting from InMotion – even if you are shopping for cheap hosting.”

We’re willing to take InMotion at face value, but the facts are all there to support exactly this sort of claim. Consider the fact that the company offers not one, but two different shared hosting plans.

One, the Value Class Hosting is fast, offers SPAM protection, 2 MB attachment size, and even a web site builder. Should you need a little more oomph, there’s also the Business Class Hosting tier, which offers 50% faster server speeds, thanks to the Max Speed Zone capability, as well as increased attachment size, daily backups, 5 bandwidth providers, and a premium-style website creation tool.

And across the board, InMotion offers a mammoth amount of functionality, including MySQL support, dedicated email accounts, FTP access, shared SSL, additional sub domains, and even support for popular coding and development platforms like WordPress, PHP, HTML5, and CSS. All in all, it’s an impressive package, and one that starts at as little as $3.00 a month.

Visit http://www.inmotionhosting.com for more information.

VPS Hosting (For Ecommerce Websites)

But what if you’d like just a step-up, but aren’t quite ready to commit to a full-on dedicated server with your business? What if you’d prefer to have your data physically separated from all the other tenants of the server, but can’t quite cough up the budget to get it done with a unique hardware set? With InMotion, it’s no trouble at all! The hosting provider offers a wealth of comprehensive and powerful virtual private server hosting options that are guaranteed to meet your needs and then some. Best of all, these plans start at only $39.95 a month—a cheaper price than we’ve seen just about anywhere else on the market.

For that money, users can enjoy a bevy of ground-breaking features. These include 24×7 managed support, exactly as we mentioned in the previous articles. This means that, day-or-night, InMotion is available via phone, live chat, or email to help you with your virtual hosting needs. In addition, the company also offers burstable RAM for when peak periods creep up, as well as full data backups to preserve and protect your site from unwanted down-time. Not to mention a full cPanel and WHM license, granting you unparalleled access to the inner workings of your site—without even any need for complex HTML or CSS coding knowledge!

To throw some last numbers into the mix, consider this: A virtual private server hosting experience with InMotion comes stock with up to 1024 MB of RAM, 3 GB of burstable memory, 1500 GB transfer limits, and 160 GB in RAID 10 Fault Tolerant Disc Space. And if that doesn’t sound like a bargain to you, we don’t know what else we can say (except move on to the next category, Soldier).

More information: http://www.inmotionhosting.com/vps_hosting.html.

Dedicated Servers (For Large Portals)

And finally, the big one. If you’re looking for the utmost in performance, security, and personal web power, there’s no better option than dedicated server hosting. Typically, this kind of hosting would run you a quick bundle to own. But with InMotion, it’s nearly a walk in the park! Starting at as little as $199.95 a month, you can own and operate your very own server without even having to lift a finger. This process is made even more powerful by the fully-capable 24×7 support mentioned earlier, which guarantees your server is managed and operated personally by trained professionals. Should you be dissatisfied with the server’s performance, though, the company offers a full, 30-day money back guarantee: An offer we have not seen anywhere else but InMotion for dedicated hosting.

To round out this part of our InMotion overview, have a look at some of the raw statistics (and power) behind the servers. A dedicated server with the company earns you up to 2.53 GHz, Intel Xeon Quad Core performance, tied to an 8 MB CPU Cache, and 8 GB RAM. In addition, pans max out at a whopping 500 GB disc space, and a 2500 GB monthly transfer limit. Add to this a full cPanel license, 2-Hour hardware replacement, and no set-up fee, and you’re looking at a solidly budget way to experience top-end performance.

More information: http://www.inmotionhosting.com/dedicated_servers.html.

InMotion Hosting Reviews

Whether you require a simple personal or business website, a more powerful virtualized environment, or your own dedicated server, InMotion Hosting definitely makes a fine choice for your web hosting needs and our visitors have confirmed that over the years. If you are still not sure about signing up with InMotion, check our user written reviews at http://webhostinggeeks.com/user-reviews/inmotion-hosting/.

I hope you liked this review. Stay tuned, more hosting reviews coming soon!

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Free Hosting

This one is really quite similar to shared hosting, and in fact, it typically is. However, free hosting removes the most annoying part of any hosting plan—the cost! Companies like Amazon, Google, WordPress, etc. offer free locations where users can store their websites. Typically, this is only a good idea for small time productions, as these freebies often come with a company-specific URL code.

Based on our experience WHG recommends 000WebHost as a good Free hosting provider.

Shared Hosting

This is a basic one, but one we feel you should be (at least) familiar with. Nine times out of ten, when one is talking about budget or low-end hosting, what one is really discussing is shared hosting. The idea behind the technology is simple, and certainly lends itself to cutting corners in the name of saving dollars. In our eyes, it’s best to think of shared hosting in this way:

Consider your average storage unit complex. There’s only one location that houses all the various units, but at that site you’ll find dozens and dozens of individual storage locations. Tenants come and go, depositing and removing their items at will, but all from a single address: Though their individual unit is, of course, blocked off from the others. In much the same way, shared hosting allows users to access a single server—or sometimes a single block of servers—while still utilizing only their individual space. This is made possible by partitioning a server into hundreds of smaller chunks, which can then be sold to a client. The client uploads their data via FTP to their personal directory, and is then free to mangle, change, or edit their website at will.

Obviously, there are a few drawbacks to this style of web hosting. Primarily, speed and performance are often compromised, as hundreds of users drawing from the same location can reduce bandwidth availability across the board. Likewise, these arrangements typically come with some level of data cap, giving only a set number of gigabytes to the user in both storage and transfer. A good way to think about these limitations is to imagine a shared web hosting server as an apartment complex: If a dozen tenants arrive at once, the elevators will be running slowly, as they’re capacity is quickly met, requiring a slight wait. So is it the same for shared hosting, which is why our next category is so important for business sites.
Based on our experience and reviews WHG recommends WebHostingHub as a reliable shared hosting provider.

VPS Hosting

This service actually comes in somewhere between shared hosting and dedicated hosting. The basic idea behind the technology bears a lot of resemblance to shared hosting, but with an important distinction: A VPS host mitigates its server space through partitions, allowing each partition to run a separate operating system as if it were an actual server. So in this sense, using VPS technology to handle your data is smart, as it allows for similar performance quality to dedicate hosting. However, as it is still shared by several other users on the same hardware, it’s somewhat cheaper than buying an entire hardware set. For the power-hungry user with a tight budget, it’s the perfect compromise.

Based on our experience and reviews WHG recommends InMotion Hosting as a reliable VPS hosting provider.

Dedicated Server Hosting

In this method of web hosting, the need for shared space and bandwidth contentions is thrown out the window, as a single entity controls the entire server. This is in direct contrast to the previously mentioned shared hosting method, which divides a central server or databank into hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of shared units. With dedicated hosting, whichever organization owns the lease also owns all of the server’s power, space, and performance.

There are several benefits and costs to hosting your website in this manner, but no drawback is more noticeable than the overhead cost. If you decide to purchase a dedicated server space from a third-party, your monthly rates will be much higher than with a shared hosting provider. However, as you own the entire server, you will experience drastically improved performance and disc availability over a shared host. Should you decide to purchase a server yourself, your costs will also increase, as you’ll have to invest in a professional to manage the hardware for you. Also, should any problems arise with the hardware, all of the repair and maintenance costs rest on your shoulders, as the sole proprietor of the unit.

Managed Hosting

This one is essentially the same thing as dedicated hosting, but we still feel it’s worth mentioning, in case you run across the term somewhere. Managed hosting is identical in nature to dedicated server services (you still own the server) but instead of having you perform all of the maintenance is taken care of for you. In a lot of ways, it’s like hiring a janitorial service to clean the apartment complex you purchased all the way back in point number three.

Based on our experience and reviews WHG recommends InMotion Hosting as a reliable dedicated hosting provider.

Cloud Hosting

Cloud hosting is a newer service, and one that operates on a completely different scale than both dedicated and shared hosting. In cloud hosting (which is currently trumpeted by companies like Laughing Squid and Amazon Web Services) your data and site are spread out across a network of peer-connected server banks and computers. In other words, rather than storing all of your information at a single location, whether that location is wholly owned by you or a third-party, cloud hosting instead spreads your data out across the “cloud.” By doing so, cloud hosts can avoid a number of complications inherent to more traditional hosting methods.

For instance, bandwidth constraints and a lack of scalability are no problem with a cloud-based provider. If your content is suddenly put on high demand due to an unprecedented number of media requests, a cloud host can simply scale up the number of available points your data can be reached from. This is called scalability, and is a service that a single server simply cannot provide. Likewise, as your site is stored across an entire network of computers, there’s no need to worry about space limitations. Should you require more disc space to work with, your provider can simply open up a few more locations, ensuring your media—no matter how large—is open for distribution.

With cloud hosting, you are also guaranteed a near perfect uptime. Because your site is available at a multitude of locations around the globe, there’s little to no chance your data will disappear with an unexpected power failure. Should a single IP location go down, another will be added to the network map, delivering your media as if nothing had happened.

Based on our experience and reviews WHG recommends Rackspace as a reliable cloud hosting provider.

Reseller Hosting

One of our favorites, reseller hosting has got to be one of the coolest ideas to spring out of the Internet since Al Gore and that video about the exploding whale. Companies that offer a lot of shared hosting, at some point along the line, realized they could just as easily repackage all that space and give it to reseller distributors, instead of proper tenants. It does them no harm, as the new distributor takes the space he leases from the company’s servers, and then sells it as if he were a proper hosting provider. It’s a brilliant step forward, as it allows media professionals like graphic designers and web developers to host their client’s websites without needing to send them off to a third-party. It puts money back into the economy, in case you were looking for a campaign slogan to work with.

Based on our experience and reviews WHG recommends HostGator as a reliable reseller hosting provider.

SEO Hosting

A little more dubious than the aforementioned methods, SEO hosting’s benefits are somewhat vague. The technology essentially allows web masters to assign specific IP addresses to multiple domains, as well as monitor a wealth of SEO oriented data. Then again, we aren’t really sure if this kind of technology works at all, or if it’s really quite worth your time. But, if you’re extremely concerned about the SEO integrity of your media, there’s no better way to host it than with a server that’s got search engine optimization built right into the title!

Based on our experience and reviews WHG recommends SeoHosting as a reliable SEO hosting provider.

Hope you liked my descriptions of the various web hosting types.

PS: I would like to thank Sergey Epifanov from DesignContest.com for creating these beautiful hosting icons. Circle Sergey on Google+ or follow him on Twitter.

Thanks,
Art

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This means that whatever drawbacks there are to hosting a dedicated Windows machine (and some say there aren’t as many these days), they can easily be negated with the right adjustments.  Here are some of the most common suggestions for improving performance of Windows Server 2008 on your dedicated server.

Put the pagefile on a separate drive

The “pagefile” is a memory file that Windows treats as virtual memory (does that make it virtual virtual?  Oh, never mind).  This file is accessed frequently, and so you’re going to want to make sure that it is able to respond quickly.  The best way to do this is to have it setup on its own separate hard drive.  This will keep it freed up in case your machine gets bogged down by some memory hog script or complicated request.

One thing that makes this easy is that you probably won’t need a large drive for this at all.  Web hosts usually have a cache of old hard drives that no one wants because their small size makes them effectively deprecated.  They might sell you these for cheap or even just give them to you for free.

Disable unused services

We already suggested this as a way to increase security on your machine.  It’s also a good way to increase efficiency.  Each one of these services uses up system resources.

Which ones you’ll want to disable will depend on exactly what you’re trying to do, but there are a lot that are likely candidates for downgrading to “Manual” or outright deletion.  One example is “Block Level Backup Engine Service”, which backups data on the block level for restoration.  A good web host should have backup procedures already in place, if your web host doesn’t provide it automatically.

As you go through these, take care not to disable anything that you are going to actually need.  There’s lots of information online for each of them to help you double-check.

Perform the obvious

If your machine even has a sound card, disable it, if not remove it outright.  Turn off the screen saver if you can, or set it to “blank” if you can’t.  Turn off machine hibernation (not like it’ll probably ever get that far, but constantly checking for it is one more thing your machine doesn’t need to busy itself with).

Also if you can either spare the downtime or can arrange your data in such a way that you can keep your site up while doing so, see if you can defrag your disk now and then.  Your web host might be able to suggest a clean way to do that.  If it’s not possible, then at least defrag it once before going live.  The less spread out your data is, the faster your machine will be able to access it.

None of these things by themselves may sound like much.  No one of them is.  Taken together, they can make a world of difference in how well your Windows 2008 Server machine runs.

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Thankfully, it’s not hard to install, either. You will need to have a basic understanding of the terminal, as well as how to add repositories to YUM, though. If you’re fuzzy about either of these aspects, we strongly suggest you perform a quick Google search to educate yourself. They’re basic functions that you’ll need to learn eventually, and knowing how to do each well will benefit you greatly during this tutorial.

If you have both fronts covered, then you’re officially ready to march on, Soldier!

1. Add the Repo: You’ll first need to add the actual ModSecurity repository, as it’s not a stock part of YUM. To do so, type the following into terminal:

cd /etc/yum.repos.d

You’ll then need to create a file called utterramblings.repo

touch utterramblings.repo

Edit the file with “vi” or “nano,” then insert the following bits into the text:

[utterramblings]

name=Jason’s Utter Ramblings Repo

baseurl=http://www.jasonlitka.com/media/EL$releasever/$basearch/

enabled=1

gpgcheck=1

gpgkey=http://www.jasonlitka.com/media/RPM-GPG-KEY-jlitka

2.  Install: To finish the process off, just type the following and hope for the best!

yum install mod_security

That’s all there is to it! Now your server is slightly safer, and none the worse for the wear! This should be a painless procedure, but if anything should go wrong, you can always check the ModSecurity website for further information or the occasionally helpful bit of tech support.

Likewise, if you’d rather not have that extra YUM repository sitting about, you’re free to delete it once installed. However, doing so prevents you from easily obtaining any new updates without first adding the resource back. If that doesn’t sound like a problem, then power on, Pilgrim. Otherwise, we’d suggest you leave the file where it is and let it soak. If you’re fuzzy about how to add and edit repositories to CentOS, you can always look at this guide to get a quick reference point.

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What Is A Solid State Drive?

Solid State Drives are massively different than your typical hard disk drive (or HDD). The complexities of either’s construction could take years and a Master’s degree to explain, but to put it simply, an SSD has no moving parts, while an HDD involves a rotating magnetic disc. HDDs have been used in modern electronics far longer than SSDs, simply because SSDs only took over the scene a scant few years ago. All of your older hard drives were likely HDDs, which is why an ancient computer makes such a cantankerous whirring sound when coaxed into running.

Why Do I Want An SSD

There are several benefits to removing the spinners in your hard drive. Most noticeably, an SSD performs calculations far faster than a traditional hard drive. Where an HDD must spin at anywhere from 5,400 RPM all the way up to 15,000 to be productive, an SSD simply goes. Because the moving parts have been removed, electrons can be shuffled much more efficiently, removing the need for unstable rotating discs. On that note, an SSD is less prone to skipping during its encryption, as there’s nothing to be jostled or knocked out of place. In essence, an SSD provides improved stability, as well as drastically increased speed.

Sounds Great! Why Wouldn’t I Want It?

To put it simply, an SSD is pretty damn expensive. How much so? Well, let’s just say if you have to ask, you probably don’t have a big enough budget. An SSD also can’t write data nearly as fast as an HDD, though its downloading speeds are several times greater. In essence, if down-pipe speed is essential for your business, an SSD is a must-have. In all other cases, think about it for a while, and weigh the costs and benefits.

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With that in mind, there are several things that need to be kept in mind when deciding to migrate from one control panel to another. It’s not an easy task, and considering the benefits, you may want to reconsider.  So, here’s our quick thoughts on what you need to know before swapping to a different control panel.

 It’s In The Matrix, Neo:

First off the bat, we’d like to remind you that not all control panels are wired the same. Each interface achieves its goals in completely different ways. We aren’t just talking about a scripting language here, either. Who knows if the underlying code of your new system won’t be completely different from the one before it? Not to mention the fact that your new panel may not play well with the various packages and applications you’d like to use.

As an example, your control panel may be hard-wired to run with Apache HTTP. By swapping to a server panel that’s not, you run the risk of losing all of your existing scripts, your hard-won applications, and perhaps even some of your content. At the least, be aware of the fact that different panel’s may use very different coding structures. If at all possible, do some research, and get to know your new neighborhood.

Moving Out Is Hard To Do:

Because structures may be so completely different, you may yet have a bear of a time transferring all of your data to the new panel. Imagine all those scripts and applications you have laying about. Will they all work with a new panel? If they don’t, can you find a ported version of the same item to match your new system? Not to mention, are you capable of coding for the new platform you have in mind?

Moving one whole site to a new panel isn’t too big a pain in the derriere. But if you have many multiple servers and sites, imagine moving them all to a new structure.

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