Migration Service

This new management service is only available by utilizing the coupon code FREEMIGRATION which applies to cPanel-based shared hosting accounts as well as OpenVZ and Virtuozzo virtual servers. Those without cPanel-based accounts can also receive migration assist at a low cost, one-time fee of $15 which will be applied directly to their accounts.

Host Color has always focused on providing new and current clients with the opportunity to select from a variety of options. Since there are many webmaster who are not satisfied with their current providers and do not have the time or technical expertise to correctly migrate their website to a reliable provider, Host Color is there to assist.

New Data Center

The company recently transitioned into a new data center and developed a fully-redundant network with a 100 percent uptime guarantee. The provider has also recently announced several money-saving opportunities to small business websites, dedicated servers and VPS hosting accounts.

.INFO Promotion

One promotion is on .INFO domain name extensions and .INFO domain-based websites. The price of these domain names has decreased to $6.97 per year. Current owners of .INFO websites have been awarded coupon code, INFOWEBSITE, which gives them a 22 percent discount when signing up for a shared hosting plan at the provider. This promotion is scheduled to end September 30^th, 2011.

SUMMERTIME Coupon Code

Those who do not require the migration of an account will be given savings on their monthly hosting bill. Host Color is providing 25 percent off their bill with the coupon code SUMMERTIME when signing up with any shared hosting package. This code is scheduled to expire at the end of August 2011.

Host Color Company Information

Founded in 2000, Host Color is a web hosting provider incorporated in Delaware. The company boasts a fully-redundant network with a 100 percent SLA uptime guarantee. Host Color hosts thousands of small business and personal clients in their data center based out of South Bend, Indiana.

With so much competition in the web hosting industry, Host Color is offering deals and specials that are refreshing to consumers. Perhaps the extensive advertising and great deals will entice customers to switch to Host Color.

Related posts:

• September 14, 2009 – VPS Web Hosting – Do Your Really Need a Control Panel?
• May 12, 2009 – Making the Most of Uptime
• January 6, 2012 – Control Panel: Advantages & Disadvantages
• September 29, 2011 – Using cPanel to Setup Cron Jobs
• September 29, 2011 – The Ins and Outs of DirectAdmin
• September 25, 2011 – What’s A Preinstalled Script, And Do I Need It?
• September 25, 2011 – What To Remember When Moving To A New Control Panel
• September 17, 2011 – CloudLinux 6.1 Launches
• September 16, 2011 – Using cPanel to Change File Permissions: How and Why?
• September 13, 2011 – Choosing Between cPanel and Plesk

What is Covered in the Guarantee?

In most cases, the uptime a web host refers to only covers the servers and not the network.  When it comes to network issues and general maintenance, downtime is something that can heavily outweigh the advertised uptime guarantee.  This is why some customers running mission-critical operations look for SLAs (service level agreements) that compensate you in one way or another if downtime exceeds the agreement.  Unfortunately, several of the leading hosting providers usually do not make such an offer available.  The situation becomes even more complex when considering the potential downtime you could experience during the course of a year.  When doing so, the near perfect 99% doesn’t look so attractive.

Let’s work with a few examples.  A 98% uptime means that over a 12-month period, your website could be down for 175 hours and 19 minutes, which translates to about a week.  99% isn’t much better as your site could be unavailable for approximately 87 hours and 39 minutes over a one year period.  This is still a lot of time for someone running a busy website.  Most providers try to uphold the 99.9% uptime guarantee because it translate into the most reliable.  This is far more respectable as it means that you will only endure about 8 hours and 46 minutes of downtime over a 12 month period.  Sadly, downtime usually exceeds this number by far.  Even worst, many customers are in a no-win situation, forced to suffer from unavailability without being compensated for the excessive downtime.

Recognizing a Respectable Uptime

The best way to approach the perplexing issue of uptime is to select a hosting provider with a good reputation in the industry.  Downtime is unavoidable but it is much better when dealing with a company that will not try to manipulate the numbers and do all they can to ensure the highest availability.  Look for a host that provides good support so if something does happen, you can get in touch and find out how and when the service will be restored.

As far as the uptime guarantee goes, it is something you should look into if you are truly concerned about the availability of your site.  Read the fine print, do some investigating and if possible, choose a company that bases their uptime percentage over a monthly period.  If the calculations are made over a year, you could have a difficult time getting accurate credits for any downtime incurred.  Most reputable hosting providers take various measures to ensure reliability but things do happen.  When they do, you want a host that provides a fair playing ground with a guarantee that has your best interests in mind.

Related posts:

• August 31, 2011 – New Hosting and VPS Plans from Host Color
• June 6, 2011 – Surviving Website Downtime
• February 17, 2011 – When to Cancel a Web Hosting Plan
• September 29, 2011 – Guarantees – Separating Fact from Fiction
• April 13, 2011 – Using Captcha Scripts to Prevent Spam
• March 7, 2011 – A Step-By-Step Guide for Changing Web Hosts
• January 16, 2011 – What Makes a Top Web Hosting Site?
• January 16, 2011 – Web Server Uptime – a Key to the Selection of the Best Web Hosting Company
• January 13, 2011 – Learn about Web Hosting with its Offers
• January 13, 2011 – How to Select the Best Web Hosting Company?

Free Hosting

What could be any better than a free web hosting plan?  This makes a great option for someone who wants to create a homepage or small personal site to share with friends and family.  While free hosting has received a bad rap for its lack of security and support, there are few reliable hosts that will take care of you.  Tripod.com offers free hosting and actually comes with decent support.  If blogging is something you want to get into then WordPress makes a good choice.   However, free hosting is more geared for getting your feet wet and having a little fun on the net.  If you want to establish a powerful web presence with an online business, you need your own email address and domain name.  Though a free host may allow you to set up a PayPal shopping cart and sell your products and services, there is no doubt that your credibly will be tarnished when potential clients notice someone else’s domain tacked onto your URL.

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is the vehicle used by many people embarking upon their online endeabours.  As the name implies, this type of hosting describes a situation where you are sharing space on a web server with other users.  As clients are sharing the cost of the server, shared hosting is the most affordable and popular type of hosting available.  This makes a viable option for personal users and small businesses as companies will set you up with everything needed to open a web store – email accounts, shopping cart software, database access.  The problem with shared hosting all boils down to stability.

When hosting on a shared server, you are exposed to all the activities of your neighbors.  If someone makes a huge scripting error, the entire server can suffer.  If someone experiences a sudden burst in traffic, your site might run slower.  Because many providers will run hundreds to thousands of sites on a single machine, the shared server is susceptible to overloading and going down.  If it goes down, so does your business. On the other hand, several companies are able to make the most of shared hosting and provide excellent service, actually living up to their highly rated uptime guarantees.

Dedicated Hosting

When your business takes off and sharing server resources is out of the question, it’s time to move up to the dedicated server.  Now you’re in the big leagues with an entire server devoted to your hosting needs.  On the other hand, the dedicated server makes up the most labor intensive form of hosting; not exactly physical, but from a management aspect.   Without any experience, succeeding with this option is nearly impossible.  Those who require a dedicated server but don’t know a thing about server administration can get by with managed hosting.  In this scenario, the provider handles all the management tasks which frees you up to focus on other areas of the business.  Keep in mind that a managed service requires a larger initial investment on your part.

What is the Best Hosting For You?

The best advice we can give about hosting is to know what you’re getting into.  Free services are geared for personal sites, shared hosting is suited for small businesses and a dedicated server is designed for larger hosting needs, yet is far more expensive.  By knowing what your site requires, it will be much easier to determine which is the best solution.

Related posts:

• January 16, 2009 – The Many Faces of Web Hosting
• September 15, 2009 – How Will You Host Your E-commerce Site?
• March 18, 2009 – Hosting Considerations for E-commerce
• February 10, 2009 – Managed vs Shared Hosting – Which Type to Consider
• January 18, 2012 – InMotion Hosting In-Depth Analysis
• September 25, 2011 – What To Remember When Moving To A New Control Panel
• September 20, 2011 – Dedicated Hosting: Managed or Unmanaged?
• September 7, 2011 – Pros and Cons of Shared Hosting
• January 16, 2011 – Web Hosting and its Types
• January 13, 2011 – Shared and Dedicated Web Hosting