Caution to be taken while moving from one web host to another

In case, if you are not satisfied with your current web host, the obvious thing you do is change to another web hosting company. It may seem very simple, but in real it is not that easy. So what one do put up with the old one and nag about it? Certainly not, one just has be little cautious, and one can reduce or eliminate the problems that are bound to happen. Here are a few things that one needs to keep in view before altering the host.

First things first make sure if the new web host plan consists of all the requirements you are seeking. These can be the price, hard disk space, scalability, bandwidth, customer support.

Keep a back up of your files most importantly have copy of your website, when you are changing your host. The DNS (Domain Name system) information should be updated; it will take a few days, but until then do not delete your present account. Also till you get new email accounts don’t cancel your previous email accounts. If your previous host was using windows-based server ensure, the new host also offers the same.

Illegal Workers And Identity Theft

Identity theft is a growing problem throughout the United States and the world. As many as nine million people in this country will have their identities stolen every year. One source of identity theft, although not the only one, is the practice of illegal workers using someone else’s Social Security Number to obtain work and housing. Often, the identities used are of children or the very elderly, because these people aren’t likely to notice that their identities are being used elsewhere to help someone get a job.

If the Social Security Administration’s records don’t match worker information, that worker’s Social Security earning will be sent to a “suspense file.” These files have been around since 1937, and by 2004, accounted for nearly six billion dollars in wages. This money came from more than two hundred sixty million W-2 forms that didn’t match the information that they were supposed to. Theft from illegal workers is the most visible reason for this to happen. Over ninety percent of cases of identity theft are due to this reason. However, you could also find it happening if a worker has changed names without reporting it, or other information problems have occurred.

While the majority of identity theft by undocumented workers is done in an attempt to get a job, some incidents are more sinister. Bank fraud is another very common reason someone – whether legitimately in the country or not – might try to steal your identity. Since a federal immigration reform in 1986, employers have been required to keep the SSN and other information of any employee on hand. This means that all illegal immigrants who are trying to get a job that doesn’t pay under the table have to find some way to give a valid social security number – and that number may be yours.

Recently, the Legislature held an interim meeting to discuss this problem, after which, the Bush administration announced a new policy to attempt to curb this problem. However, this policy is current under litigation, and has been temporarily placed under a restraining order until its validity under the Constitution can be proven. Until the government is able to take an appropriate step to curb identity theft by undocumented workers, there are a few things you can do yourself.

Making sure that all your personal documents have been shredded, using a modern cross-cut shredder, is one way to keep your identity safe. In addition, be careful what kind of information you put out in public, and keep a close eye on your personal identification – driver’s license, Social Security card, etc. – at all times. These techniques will help guard against traditional identity theft – the kind that can involve bank fraud and ruin your credit. However, there’s not a lot you can do to prevent someone from randomly picking your SSN in an attempt to get a job. Until more appropriate legislation comes into being, there’s little we can to do protect ourselves from that problem. Thus now you know more about Illegal Workers and Identity Theft.

Domain Name Registrar Or Your Web Host? How To Stay In Complete Control Of Your Website!

There are two main components to your website: your domain name and web hosting.  Your domain name is the URL and the address people type in their browsers to reach your website. A hosting plan provides you with space to put your website on.  You then take all the files pertaining to your website and upload them to your web host.

The Free Hosting Temptation

Most web hosting providers offer free registration of at least one domain, when you sign up with them.  How wise is it to register a domain with your host?  While not utilizing this convenience may sound criminal, you could be doing injustice to yourself.

I am not saying that all web hosts that offer free domain registration are not good, as even some of the best hosts offer this service. This all-in-one solution of having everything at one place seems ideal for many marketers and makes perfect business sense to them.

Keeping Your Domain Under Your Control

Experienced webmasters suggest separating the domain registrar from hosting.  If there is an issue with your web hosting provider, you still have control over your domain and can shift to a different host, without this move affecting your website in terms of downtime or loss of visitors.

The one critical aspect of maintaining a website is to ensure you have control over all aspects of your web presence at all times. Your domain name is your identity on the web and excluding it from being part of your web hosting provider ensures you have full control.

Why Your Host Should Not Be Your Domain Registrar

Moving your website can be a hassle – Placing all your eggs in one basket is never a good idea. Having your host as a domain registrar can prove to be a hassle when moving your website to a new host. This situation can arise if you are unhappy with your host a few months down the line. Moving your website involves changing web servers and this can take time with some hosts, sometimes even days.  While it easy to transfer the domain name when purchased from a registrar, it is not always so when dealing with a hosting company. If your domain registrar is separate, then you just need to point the DNS to your new host and you are all set to go.

Problem when transferring domain name to a new registrar – If you wish to transfer your domain name to a new registrar, your host has to give the approval and with some hosts it may even take weeks.

Domain name not registered on your name – In the worst case scenario, there are some web hosts that register the domain in their name and the domain is legally theirs. Most webmasters may not know about these terms that limit ownership.

You are at the host’s mercy – In some cases, all these issues can lead to losing your domain name to the hosting provider, if you wish to shift to a new registrar or shift hosting. In a situation where you do not wish to give up your domain name, you may have to stick to the host unwillingly on their terms and conditions, so as not to lose your domain.

While there are web hosts that offer excellent service and with whom shifting a domain name can be a breeze, there is always the risk of landing yourself in a tight spot with the wrong host.  To play it safe, the ideal situation would be to separate the two and trust your domain with a domain name registrar.

If you really do not want to let go of the free domain name offer, make sure you do so with a site that is not critical to your business and with a host that has been around for a long time and has a great reputation.

Modern Type of Web Hosting Scam – What to Do?

“Old school” scam hosting is rudimentary – to take the money and leave the market. This type of scam is not afraid, because people understand that you rely on your company website or blog hosting service, which is 6 months of age is very dangerous. Modern scam hosting is much more powerful and dangerous. Technically, it goes like this – hoster to invest money in a number of servers, to gather some customers. Then do not invest enough money to buy / rent more servers, reached the limit of their capacity, but they need to collect more and more customers.

What saves them is a special solution that for a while switches off your sites and blogs to save them bandwidth and server processor load. If you noticed that your sites are down for days, you start hammering at the support with tickets and they raise the sites, for a while.

They try not to do it that ruthlessly during the first 90 days after the purchase, because you can a charge-back from the bank. But after the 90 days’ term is over, they don’t care and the show starts.

If you have some nice portion of sites and blogs it is very difficult to track of all them, and the hosters know that. Surely sooner or later you will get absolutely frustrated with the service and say bye-bye to the hosting. But during all that time they stay on the market and keep gathering new clients with new money on the same server capacities.

This is how the web hosting scammers work today. Only knowledge can help you out from this trouble.

How Do I Find The Best Web Host? – Answered

Over the next week we are going to look at, and answer,  some questions that I have been asked from individuals looking to start their very first website.  I will simply post some questions that I have been asked over the past year and offer the best advice possible.  Let’s get your questions answered.   So here we go… Day 1 of Web Hosting Q & A!

Q: How Do I Find The Best Web Host?

A:  Anytime that you deal with the word “Best” you are really asking for one person’s opinion.  As the owner of one of the web’s largest web hosting review sites , I am honored that you give us enough credibility to answer this question.  When researching web hosting providers we typically monitor the following: Price, Server Reliability, Customer Support, Host Experience, and Overall Customer Feedback.  With this being said we have generated our Top 10 Web Hosting List.

With this being said, I think it is important to note that our site (AlreadyHosting.com) is hosted with HostMonster.  Our site generates a LOT of revenue each month and we rely on having great web hosting.  We have had no issues, problems, or complaints about HostMonster and we feel comfortable reccomending them to anyone.

Finding The Best Web Hosting Provider

Are you interested for your website to be visible in World Wide Web? Then you have to store it in web server. For uploading your site on internet you have to take the help of web hosting provider because a web page hosting provider allows a website to go live on the Internet. For this service the web hosting company charges a monthly or yearly fee and in return provides space to upload your website to the internet.

There are few features for choosing the best web page hosting provider:

• Percentage of time - You can calculate the web hosting provider capability during uptime and down time. Uptime means the proportion time of the host server response. It is considered on the basis of how the server is activates, runs and deliver your website to a browser without any single problem and errors. And the downtime means when your site is not reachable to visitors at the time of accessing. Lower the downtime or higher the uptime signifies a better job of web hosting provider.


• Customer Service and Support – You can say web hosting solution is a technical process. Uploading files, maintaining web pages, back up of files, adding features to your website, giving hyperlinks to your each web page are few described important tasks and there are lots more in pipelines if you are sitting for descriptions. All these technical functions need efficient support for easy dealings with their customers. So the customer support and service will show their efficiency during these functions. The reliability, knowledge and quick response to each query with necessary support proves the potentiality of a better web hosting provider.

Fast Response - Many web hosting companies are following fast response system to satisfy their customer. They let their customers to sit on the phone or in live chat system to access with online operator. The best way to test the host before signing with them is to access their support and see how long it takes for them to respond and how much satisfactory answers they are giving.

Services with cost effective Prices – Most of the web hosting provider are offering low prices for their most of the services for better attracting their customer. Some of the offered services are:

a) Unlimited hosting space and bandwidth

b) Low monthly price with unlimited offer of domain hosting.

c) Giving Hosting options, such as regular, reseller and dedicated

d) My SQL Databases

e) CGI, PHP 5, RoR, Perl

f) Transparent policies with accurate refund time.

g) Providing C-Panel hosting, this becomes friendly with access controls, features and folders.

h) Secure daily backup routines, for protecting valuable data.

i) Save you from high traffic volumes on internet, which can charge extra amount fees.

A high quality web hosting provider is crucial for the success of your websites as well as vital to having a great amount of satisfaction in business.

Ideas For Fundraising Events

Raising funds can be a nightmare especially when done in a small town where everybody is reluctant to part with their hard-earned money. And who would not be? Let’s face it with rising costs of living, a few dollars given to charitable projects is not a joke. Before a person donates his dollars, he needs a damn good reason for it!

One way to organize a fundraising is through an event, where guests can enjoy themselves and at the same time support a good cause. Often, these events will include activities that will generate funds for the organization. Primary of this is the selling of goods and services that will make up the majority of the fundraising campaign.

Below are some good ideas for events that you can organize to introduce your project.

Fashion Shows

This may seem pretty expensive to organize but it can be really cheap. In fact, you can even get kids in the community involved thereby extending good will and camaraderie with the locals. Make local town folks wear clothes that will later be auctioned off for the charity project. Chances are the models themselves will be buying the clothes.

Dinner

This is another great money-generating idea, which enjoys quite a good track record. However, because of the sheer expensiveness of the tickets, a dinner will usually work out when it involves rich people in town.

This is often done by organizations, which have good connections within the society circles. International organizations can also benefit much in these kinds of fundraising campaign when in a foreign land. You can also try a more casual event like barbecue and hotdog cookouts or camping trips.

Bazaars and Garage Sales

Another common fundraising events is the selling of goods and services for a good cause. Often, the products that are being sold are made by beneficiaries of the project. Examples of successful campaigns are the cards that children make for UNICEF.

Concerts

This is one of the great ways to reach a younger audience. You can raise funds through the tickets of the concert that will be sold. Some bands especially the local ones are willing to perform just for the exposure while others are supporters of causes and will probably agree to perform for a minimal fee.

Car wash

This is one of the most common fundraising events in schools. The overhead cost is not that much because the event will be utilizing people and volunteers.

Hostway Hosting Review

Hostway has been a leading hosting provider since 1998. Their main objective is to provide easy-to-use, best value and scalable hosting solutions to their customers. They pride themselves with the excellence in customer service starting from setting up the web hosting package to driving traffic to help generate sales. Hostway has expended internationally and currently have over 600,000 customers in US, Europe and Asia some of which are fortune 500 companies.

Hosting solutions range consists of 5 Windows and Linux standard web hosting packages starting by “Starter” package to “Ecommerce Pro”, depending on what customers need. But that’s not all. Hostway also offer Virtual Private Servers, Exchange Hosting, Dedicated Servers and Cloud Hosting. In addition to these solutions, they can also offer domain name registration, eCommerce, web design, Online Marketing and some Business Applications.

E-commerce and business web hosting online

Hosting for e-commerce and businesses can be a little different than hosting personal web sites online.

If you want to run a site that has e-commerce to do, or want to generate revenue from your page, it is recommended to choose a good host that may not be the cheapest option. Truth be told, that it is not always the most expensive options are the best, but for sites related to e-commerce web shop and need some extra features that are absolutely necessary.

The most important feature for you to drive e-commerce website or a virtual store is a secure payment system. Hosting provider and the subscription you need to seek support something called secure sockets layer (SSL). SSL allows the encryption of credit card information over the Internet possible and ensures your customers against credit card fraud. This is something all the stores and other sites with payment need to be taken seriously in today’s market.

More and more hosting companies now offer customers ready-made templates for online shops so that the only thing you need to do is add the products you sell on this page.

Many of the web hosting packages you find on our site are also suited for, or have their one business web hosting packages to consider.

Online pages also often need a great hosting, because there are many pictures and possibly video that demonstrates the products.

Editor's Review of StartLogic

No matter what your web hosting needs are StartLogic can meet them. This web host offers five great web hosting plans: Personal Logic, Pro Logic, Windows Logic, VPS Hosting, and Dedicated Hosting. StartLogic's most popular plan is the Pro Logic. This plan offers unlimited disk space, bandwidth, domains, and email accounts. Customers can transfer their web hosting to from their old host to StartLogic and take advantage of a $4.95/mo. rate.

If you are looking for Virtual Private Hosting (VPS) this site host is for you! StartLogic won the 2008 Best VPS Web Hosting Award. StartLogic.com advertises a rate of $29.95/mo. for VPS hosting which is a phenomenal rate considering the benefit of hosting on a VPS server. All hosting plans at StartLogic come with a 30 day money back guarantee.

Editor's Review of AllReseller

AllReseller is one of the latest additions to our top 10 web hosting list. AllReseller is a relatively new hosting provider that offers an extremely reliable service. For only $3.95/Month (cheaper than bigger web hosting sites) you will get 50GB of Disk Space and 300GB of Disk Space!

One of the main reasons that customers choose AllReseller is because of the personal attention that is given to each and every customer. Due to the fact that AllReseller is smaller than hosts like HostMonster and HostGator they are able to dedicate a great deal of time towards each of their clients.

If you are looking for a very competitively price web host that places a great deal of attention on customer support, friendliness, and server reliability, AllReseller is the host for you!

How to Avoid Crappy Web Hosting

Unless you’re a big time player with your own servers, data center and internet connectivity, you’re going to need a web hosting provider to host your site. Web hosting makes up one of the most fierce industries and there are literally thousands of companies competing for your services. With so many hosts in the sea, you’d think that picking a good one out of the bunch would be fairly easy, right? Not exactly. Take it from me - if you don’t take the time to evaluate your needs and research, you could find yourself with a crappy web hosting company - make that two crappy hosts in my case.
Let’s get this out of the way - settling on the first web hosting provider you run across is a bad move - even if it’s a good company. The tips I will give you in this article can be followed in any order. The goal here is to provide the critical factors that must be considered when it comes time to choose a web host.

Determine Your needs

Before even clicking your way to Google in search of “good web hosting companies”, you must to sit back and figure out exactly what you need. Why do you need a web host in the first place? Do you plan to indulge in the world of online business? Got something interesting to say? Web hosting affiliate marketing perhaps? Determining your needs goes a long way in finding a good web host. When you come across a company, you can scratch off the qualities that suit those requirements.

Cost of the Service

This is why I say the list of web hosting factors can be placed in any order. Many people will say that price is the last thing you want to look at. I tend to disagree. Price is very important, especially in these hard times. Although web hosting is cheaper than ever, there are a few companies that put high-end tags on their services. Jump the gun and you could find yourself paying twice as much as a service of equal or even better quality.

Reliability

Reliability is one of the most essential aspects of web hosting. In general, every web host looks the part, but that doesn’t mean you can rely on them all. Many have failed and taken their customers right down with them. So how do you find out if they are reliable? There are a few approaches you can take - read some web hosting reviews, ask a few partners if they know anything about the company. You can also look into their technologies and learn more about the network infrastructure. If a web host doesn’t make their track record easily accessible, they probably aren’t worth your time.

Technical Support and Customer Service

I think anyone would agree that support is the most important factor of all. You’re storing your vital information on someone else’s computer and unfortunately, anything can go wrong. Even at the slightest hint of worry, you need to be able to get an expert on the phone immediately. This is especially true if you’re a bigger. After writing countless tutorials and articles on cPanel, I purchased my own cPanel hosting solution and was completely stomped. One-click Fantastico installations gave me a technical brain freeze while figuring out the simple drag-and-drop site builder was nearly a month long process. There is a lot of technology behind this web hosting stuff and you should have the luxury to get the help you need, when you need it.

Tips to keep in mind when choosing the right web hosting service for your business

Check the control panel – it is wise to learn about the user control panel available for your business. A friendly cPanel makes it possible for you to add content, remove features and personalize the website as you deem fit. Going for something that does not have options or one that requires expert input can prove time consuming and costly over time.

Be keen on virus management – choose a web host service provider that offers frequent virus or malware scanning. This will ensure that your website content remains safe. It also guards your precious data from getting lost. It is worth noting that some programs can even spy on your activity and use the information to cause problems with your system.

Learn about data backup options – before you subscribe to a web hosting service, find out if they offer data back up. This can help you guard against loss of information in case the system crashes. Good companies offer back up options for free as an incentive to ensure clients remain loyal.

Assess your budget – before you settle on any service provider, be sure to assess your personal budget. This will shorten the time you spend when shopping for the right service to subscribe to. Choosing a provider that is too expensive for you may mean that you never make optimal profits from your business.

Choose a provider according to business model – some hosting services are suitable for finance businesses such as banking while others may be ideal for product selling. It is prudent for you to look at the advantages and disadvantages of each hosting service before settling on the most suitable for you business model.

Communication is key – when comparing the various service providers in the industry, take a keen interest in the frequency of communication. Good providers send regular emails while providing clients with newsletters on a periodic basis. This helps you keep up to date with any changes that are implemented.