Explanations to all web hosting cpanel account features that comes with every purchase.

99% Uptime Guarantee – A promise that your website will not be disconnected to the internet. 99% means your website will be connected to internet only next to daily server maintainance such as daily reboots.

Domains and FTP

Addon Domains/Parked Domains – The number of additional domain names allowed to be hosted under the current plan.

Sub Domains – The number of new domains your allowed to create from your current domain name under the current plan.

FTP Accounts – FTP stands for file transfer protocol. A FTP account allows you to create directories under your website for others to access files. Transfering files to your website is done by a FTP program.

Anonymous FTP – Allows others to transfer or views files without a required login.

Supported features

MySQL Databases – Allows installations or creations of popular scripts and programs such as forums.

CGI – Allows installations or creations of popular scripts and programs such as forums.

PHP4 & 5 – Allows installations or creations of popular scripts and programs such as forums.

Ruby on Rails – An open source web framework optimized for writting codes or coding

SSH – Allows the integration of developing and debugging files with text editors such as vim or nano.

Perl – Allows installations or creations of popular scripts and programs such as forums.

Chilisoft ASP – Creates dynamic web based applications by combining scripts, html, customer server components and robust database publishing.

Python – Allows installations or creations of popular scripts and programs such as forums.

SSI- Perl based HTML commands that optimizes the directing of a server to a web page.

Cron – Allows scheduled timings of commands.

Frontpage – A Microsoft application that allows you to create and upload websites.

Curl – A command line tool for transferring files with url syntax.

GD – Creates images such as PNG and JPEG.

Image Magick – A collection of tools and libraries to read, write, and manipulate an image in many formats.

Streaming Audio/Video – Allows video and audio files to shown and viewed on your website.

Free Module Installation -

E-mail

POP 3 Accounts – POP accounts are used to send and receive emails through programs such as Outlook Express or Eudora.

Web Mail – Send and receive emails by online

Email Alias – Allows you to setup multiple email addresses to go to a single mail box.

Auto Responders – Create instant automatic replies for recieved incoming email messages.

Mailing Lists – Create a email group to send out messages instantaneously.

Catch Alls – Allows to relocate and catch all emails sent out to wrong email addresses.

Spam Assassin – Blocks spam getting sent to your email.

Mail Forwarding – Forward emails to desired email addresses.

IMAP Support – “IMAP permits a “client” email program to access remote message stores as if they were local. ”

SMTP – Enables outgoing email messages.

Conrol panel features

Fantastico – Automatically installs scripts to your website.

Soho Lauch – A creation website application.

Hotlink Protection – Protects your website from links being stolen to be used on other websites.

IP Deny Manager – Allows you to block, control and manage all users accessing your website.

Custom Error Pages – Customize errors and non existant pages for redirection.

Instant Blogs – Automatically creates blogs

Instant Portals – Automatically installs protals.

Instant PHPNuke – Automatically creates and installs PHP Nukes

Instant Forums – Automatically creates and installs forums.

Instant Guest Books – Automatically creates and installs guest books.

Instant Counter – Allows you to track the number of visitors of your websites.

Instant FormMail – Automatically create email forms for your website.

Redirect URL – Redirect your website addresses to another.

Web Based File Manager – An application tool that allows you to upload files through the web by control panel.

PW Protected Directories – Protect your website with passwords.

phpMyAdmin – Allows easy management of your databases.

Web FTP Statistics

AWStats – Real time updates and stats

Webalizer – Displays website traffic statistics.

Raw Log Manager – Allows you to download your website raw logs.

Referrer Logs – Track your websites traffic and visitors.

Error Logs – Notifies you of any visitors recieving web errors.

E-commerce Features

Shared SSL – SSL encrypts confidential data such as credit card numbers and passwords.

Private SSL – Encrypts confidential data such as credit card numbers and passwords on a private server.

Agora Cart – A shopping cart

osCommerce – A shopping cart

ZenCart- A shopping cart

CubeCart- A shopping cart

There are several sensitive areas, which a user should take into consideration while selecting a web host:

1. Disk space

2. Bandwidth

3. Scripts and utilities

4. Dedicated/Shared servers

5. Customers service/Support

6. Uptime/Reliability

7. Price

8. Free Hosting Providers

1. Disk Space: It denotes space provided by the host to the user in which he/she can locate his/her web site. It can ranges from 25MB to GBs to store all the essential requirements of the user. One can easily calculate storage space if his/her site is already constructed by considering all the aspects. This is the least requirement by the user. For sure success one should go for a plan having additional resources in comparison to user?s current requirement.

2. Bandwidth: One of the crucial parts to verify is regarding bandwidth. There are several sites, which loose their host due to excessive downloads causing budget going beyond their expectations. Occasionally, host even charges in hundreds of dollars for the additional bandwidth. One should confirm about this before dealing with any of the host. Usually, ideal-hosting providers deliver initial bandwidth of 25 to 50 GB to the users.

3. Scripts and Utilities: Does one?s priority is dynamic information related to his/her products and services? If the answer is yes! Then user?s plan should include a database tool. One cannot deny the fact that, Databases are extremely multitalented and will change according to the operating system, which the user chooses for his/her hosting server.

If one talks about further famous scripts it usually includes chat rooms, forums, blogs, and calendar programs and help desk software. Such scripts, which come along with user?s hosting plan, are pre-configured by the service host so that user can properly work on their server. There are several hosts which even propose the Fantastico script package known to be the combination of 36 different free scripts which a user can easily install to his/her website.

Next thing to consider is the 3rd party script. These are those scripts which are available on the net to purchase and one can easily install to his/her website. One should note that there are only few of the scripts, which one can run on both the operating systems i. e. Windows and Linux; however, others are meant for only one operating system to be used.

4. Dedicated or Shared Servers: If one talks about the key difference between a dedicated and shared server then it is that there are several sites present on a shared server, however, there is only one website in case of a dedicated server.

Through a shared server one can save a high amount. If one talks about the drawbacks then Spamming and blacklisting from different search engines are the key problems. Such problems arise due to the reason that several sites are assign to one particular IP address. One should demand for a separate IP address for his/her website (on additional monthly charges) to secure the user from such problems.

Dedicated servers are considered best for big, highly trafficked websites, which requires large amounts of server resources to run. One of the negative points of dedicated server is that the server?s resources are divided across all the sites it?s hosting and answering page requests for. Thus, if one is working in a dedicated environment he/she always has to keep an eye on his/her resources. Another disadvantage is that dedicated servers costs around $50 per month or even more whereas shared hosting can be purchased for mere 5$ a month.

5. Support system: Another important aspect to consider is support. What is host?s response time? Does their phone support is 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

Additional features one should verify for:

Is there POP email account, if yes, then how many?

What no. Of database is there?

Is there Web based e-mail with the host?

Does they provide Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus filters?

Do they provide the facility of Password Protected to user?s directories?

Is their frequent backup if by chance crash in server takes place?

Does user get some money return back, if he/she is dissatisfied with services?

Does there is assistance for Perl, PHP, Crontab and Secure Server Layer?

There are several good hosting providers in the market, who known for their rapid response and numerous amounts of other excellent qualities for reasonable price.

Hence, one should before choosing should keep in mind the above-mentioned points, which can prevent the user from unexpected future problems.

6. Uptime and Dependability: Another influential factor. Is there any performance guarantee provided by the host? Can user expect a refund if he/she is suffering from downtime form a very long period? Is there any money back guarantee in the contract? There are several hosts in the market who refund full or partial amount of monthly fees (excluding spamming or other illegal activity) if user is dissatisfied with their service quality and want to quit their service option.

7. Price: In general one will get hosting service between the ranges of $5. 00 – $10. 00 dollars a month; it may very according to features provided. Service below $5. 00 a month is quite awful in usual sense. Similarly, any service above $12. 00 a month can provide not only a package of awesome features but probably can also include a complimentary domain name; a unique offer not provided by everyone.

8. Free Hosting Providers: In today?s market one can enjoy website hosting at quite nominal amount. Hence, there is nothing worthwhile in going for a free web hosting; as there is nothing free as it seems like.

Conclusion:

One can end the search on an ideal host by thinking ahead. One should purchase as much possible bandwidth and disk space at the most reasonable price he/she can. One should know that every website requires room to groom which user needs to deliver without any form of much risk.

In the current event of time, some web hosts are offering additional features compare to others to the clients for the same price or even for a lower price. One cannot deny the fact that as due to cut – throat competition in the market several hosting providers are trying desperately to stay outstanding by adopting various methods. As a consequence, the web hosting service standards improved a lot and constantly is on verge of rising and evidently the clients are constantly enjoying the taste of amazing new features that were previously not there. Given below are the few things, which some web hosts frequently offer to their clients.

1. ) Due to competitive market scenario website hosts are coming forward to assist the clients in the purpose of publishing and managing their own email newsletters or eZines. It is one of the most effective marketing weapons that promote sales. But some hosts go two-step forward by offering an infinite amount of auto responders. This assists a site owner automatically to pursue with prospects and therefore probability of making sale become significantly higher.

2. ) In the contemporary era of time one can easily get the facility of hosting services that assists him/her to set up one?s own affiliate program which is verified to be the most successful route to grab traffic and profits for webmasters. There are several good sites like Amazon. com, which enables other website owners to promote their site and products on their site and in return can earn commissions from the sales that result from traffic that they have referred to one?s site as well.

3. ) If one talks about the third most popular feature then it will probably be the service provided by the host to the users to protect their download page where the user is selling digital products for e. g. e-books, software etc. from his/her site. As in the current time period increasing number of hackers is a contentious issue and such sort of services definitely going to act as a pain killer for many webmasters.

4. ) A few hosting services are also taking into account the hastily increasing threat of junk mail and offer quality filters to protect one?s email accounts. A few hosting providers even provide built-in anti-virus software in order that email that come to the inbox of the user along with the company of viruses, is automatically deleted.

Thus, above mentioned are the extra services, which hosts provide to the client. Thus, one can rightly say that,? The war between two, benefit the third party?.

There are thousands of webhosting companies in the industry screening for business. To ensure one makes best of ones decision possible consider the points mentioned here.

1. Server Space

First think to consider is the amount of space ones site will acquire on a server. Files might require just 1 and 5 megabyte of disk space unless one is planning to run a software repository or an image gallery. Just to out perform their competitors many companies offer several hundreds of megabytes of webspace for a very rational price. Before taking that much space one should question oneself whether that much space will be required ever. Though one should allow extra space for site to grow in future but at the same time one should not opt for a great deal on an extraordinarily sized account if one will never use all of the space which is being offered. One can always find a better deal with amount of space which would be more suitable for ones site size.

2. Data Transfer Allowance

Decision for Data Transfer Allowance should be based upon the above principal. Many are under the impression that their sites would be equal to next Yahoo or Amazon and would be receiving enormous number of visitors daily but one does not require extremely high data transfer allowance unless and until as stated above one is running a software download site or a large image gallery. One should not exceed ones limit just because one is getting an awesome deal as even heavily trafficked normal HTML sites usually use s just a small amount of gigabytes every month in bandwidth allowance. Many companies are offering ?unlimited” data transfer if one is planning to go for such an offer, be sure to read terms and conditions very carefully before opting for this type of account as there are generally some fine-print stipulations that make this claim not entirely true. For a small to medium sized business or personal site. A five or ten gigabyte bandwidth allowance is usually ample enough.

3. Technical Support

When choosing a web host types of technical support offered by the company and how easy they are to contact when needed is a very important point to consider. There are companies who do not even offer their contact number on their website though ideally a company has to offer 24/7 toll-free telephone support and email. Company that is very easily accessible in the time of need should be looked for. If one is in the mid of working on ones site and an important piece of information is required to conclude the job but is not able to contact the hosting company to get the information can be very frustrating.

4. CGI-Bin Access

Whether it is a contact form processor, mailing list management script or may be even a fancy credit card processing script one needs to install some type of CGI script eventually no matter what type of site one is planning on running. Hosting account will need to allow one to install and run them. One requires access to a special folder on ones server called “CGI-Bin?. Because of security measure only “pre-installed” scripts are allowed to use by few hosting accounts. As these scripts are already installed and configured by the owners of the company they are aware that these scripts will work properly and will not affect their server’s performance adversely. If one is acquainted with scripts, it’s always better to install ones own scripts that suit ones individual needs and configure them. One should make sure that the account one is using should support the languages like PHP, Perl, etc in which scripts are written

5. Up-Time Guarantee

How often and for how long servers “go down” for the webhosting company one is going to choose is a very important factor to be valued. Remember site cannot receive visitors or produce revenue if the machine on which it is hosted is not up and running no matter one has got a good deal on server space, bandwidth allowance, or tech support service is good. So select a company which can guarantee the highest up-time percentage possible. Its true that none of the company can offer 100% uptime as servers are taken down temporarily from time to time for maintenance or upgrading purposes but one always wants ones site to be hosted on dependable, well managed machines that do not have problems frequently and are down for long periods of time.

6. Email Accounts

Some companies offers heaps more email accounts than required just like transfer allowance and server space. Few even offer hundreds or even unlimited email accounts as a selling point. If one is just one person or is a small company 10 or 15 is enough but this can be an important factor if one is having thousands of employees each requiring email box.

7. Reputation

Last but not the least this is one of the most important factor to be considered while one is choosing ones web host. Today there are numerous sites around the Web featuring discussion forums that permit people to discuss and critique various hosting companies. Be aware of any negative feedback one may hear or read about a particular hosting company. Try Putting up questions about any company one might be interested in using to check if someone had any negative experiences with that company. While beginning a business one of my friend contacted a company to host his site and he was promised good, dependable service at a very low price. But for no obvious reason his entire site was deleted without giving any warning or explanation. He then visited few forums and found that many had negative experiences with that hosting company. So my suggestion is to not make the same mistake which my friend did so search out from beginning and make sure that the hosting company one chooses will not let one down.