Web Hosting Service is a form of Internet hosting service, which permits organizations and individuals to offer their own websites that are accessible through the World Wide Web. Web hosts are the firms that furnish space on the server owned by them, for the usage of both the clients and also, for providing better connectivity on the internet as in case of a data center. Additionally, web hosts could provide connectivity and data center space to the internet for servers not owned by them to be placed in the data center. This is called as ?colocation?.

Web Hosting Service Scope:

Web hosting services scope may vary widely. Small-scale file hosting and webpage are the most basic scopes where the files could be uploaded through a web interface or a file transfer protocol. These are usually delivered with little processing to the Web. Most internet service providers extend this service free of cost to the subscribers. They can also obtain hosting of web pages from alternative providers of service. Typically, personal web site hosting is cheap and advertisement-sponsored are free but very often, business web site hosting has a higher expenditure.

Generally, single page hosting is adequate for personal web pages. A more comprehensive package is provided by a complex site providing application development platforms such as ASP. Net, Java, PHP and database support. Such facilities permit the customers to install or write the scripts for applications such as content management and forums.

An interface control panel may also be provided by the host for installing scripts such as e-mail and for managing the web server.

Internet web site hosting is growing everyday. If you are searching for an Internet provider for your website, this growth makes it easier to find a server that best fits the needs. If you are new to the concept of internet web sit hosting, there are a few important facts that you should know. Initially, contact will need to be made with an Internet web site hosting provider to arrange for them to host your site.

It is also important to inquire with your Internet web site hosting provider or host as to your FTP information. This is the address of your website. As it is something you will not want to forget, be sure you write this information down in a safe place so that you always have it available. It will contain your host name, your host type, your user ID, your password and your directory path. Each of these pieces is a very important part of the address that will lead you to your website.

Reliability is an Important Part of the Overall Package

In addition, reliability of your Internet web site hosting server should be of constant concern to you as this is the exposure to the World Wide Web. If your server goes down, you are not online and when that happens, no one can access your website. There is a simple test that you can perform from your home computer to determine if you internet web site host is reliable. This is a test in which you will log a specific value each time you perform the test and establish a mean by which to measure the status of reliability.

First you will access your host account then go to “server status”, locating the control panel associated with your host account. When you find that, you will see a “server load value”, hit the refresh key on your computer and notice that the value has changed. This value changes constantly. Write down the values that you obtain after hitting the refresh key. At this point, you have retrieved the numbers you needed, so you may log out.

Performing this test repeatedly and often will assist you in establishing what the usual values are. As you research and develop your website plans, it will become easier for you to choose an Internet web site hosting company that will best fit your needs. Be sure to investigate the various internet web site hosting servers extensively to make sure that all your hard work does not go to waste with a short lived host

It’s difficult to chose right web hosting service for your web site at the time when there are numerous of web hosting providers all assuring for identical web hosting packages. So its necessary to take care of 3 aspects before starting a web hosting search which are given below. Features required for web hosting Technical requirements for a web site is the most important point to be taken into consideration which includes-

a) Hardware requirements and platform for server

According to your need such as if you want to set up a website that uses programming environments such as Active Server Pages (ASP), Visual Basic scripts, Cold Fusion or Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL database, then a need for a web hosting service will arise that supports Windows platform such as Windows NT or Windows 2000 servers.

Similarly as for programming languages such as Perl, CGI, SSI, PHP or mySQL database, then any web hosting plans that support Unix/Linux platform can be helpful. After having these types of requirements in mind one can decide for the best web hosting plan.

b) Disk space & Bandwidth requirement

Next technical requirement to be taken care of is disk space and bandwidth requirement, however disk space requirement may not be a big deal if you want to publish website with very less contents. Generally 200 MB to 500MB disk space will be quite enough as hosting requirements. Further for hosting a website with enormous amount of graphic pictures, mp3 or video files, a web hosting providing huge disk space example 500 to 1000 MB will be crucial. In the same manner site traffic estimation can be held responsible for bandwidth requirement . A website that attracts high traffic will tend to consume monthly bandwidth allowance very fast, then in that case one web hosting service that offers huge bandwidth with 40GB to 100 GB per month is needed.

Web hosting service that provides sufficient amount of disk space and bandwidth can be opted as per website requirement and that consideration will help not only to reduce costs but also tend to proper disk management.

c) Some other hosting features

Apart from above there are many other hosting features that are to taken into consideration such as Is web hosting provider supports video clips on the website? Is there any plan for setting a virtual store online? Is the host providing e-commerce facilities without charging more and top of all finding number of email accounts provided, number of FTP accounts, web statistic software etc.

Trustworthiness and scalability

If the web-hosting provider is offering reliable server uptime and fast Internet connection then it can be considered as a good host. For selecting an appropriate provider one must look for a web hosting service that guarantee 99% server uptime with high speed internet using at least OC3 (Optical Carrier) lines (155 Megabits per second) or above instead of T1 or T3 lines. A trustworthy hosting provider invests hugely on high performance servers, high speed multiple backbones providers with fail-over redundancy, backup power generators and firewall software protection in place so as to ensure they fulfill the uptime guarantee specified in the terms of service.

In the same manner selection would depend upon the hosting service that can ensure hardware facilities that are designed for scalability, so that they can also expand with user’s business. For example if requirement emerges for increasing disk space, bandwidth or number of mySQL databases, there should not emerge any problem and that all can be upgraded easily.

Customer service and support

Last but not the least excellent customer service and support is also important while selecting appropriate host provider. A web hosting provider must provide 24 hours a day, 7 days a week technical support with highly experienced technicians, so as to ensure timely resolution of any problem. Checking must be made by sending inquiry emails to the web-hosting provider so as to check the responsiveness of the customer support. Generally if a response comes within 24 hours can be considered as indication of acceptance but if no response comes then it is taken as a poor customer service. In world of competition, a web hosting provider must be also equipped with multiple support like Toll-free phone support, 24/7 email support, live chat, FAQ etc.

Apart of above important factors some other minor factors must also brew taken care of while selecting an appropriate web hosting provider like since how long that provider is in business and quantity of customers they hold as these shows the credibility and stability of the company. Cost of web hosting is an important factor also but due to growing competition now their charges have come to as low as US$10 per month and so this major factor needs to be ignored. Thus besides of all most important is that the website hosting requirements are met, website is always accessible with good speed, there is scalability in provider to grow and expand the website and that it also offers best customer support.

Due to Various inefficiencies of Old Web Hosting provider like poor technical support, down web server, inability of old provider to met with your requirements, expensive web hosting service, an Online Business owner decided to go for a new Web Hosting provider. Because of all above-mentioned and many more not in the list you would opt for new web hosting service. So the next step is to transfer your web site from current web host to new web host which can be done by following the under mentioned steps. Transferring of Schedule For transferring the old web hosting, planning should be done in advance, atleast one month before so as to ensure smooth transfer, as transferring in less than one month can led to inaccessibility of your web site.

Registering new web hosting service.

Once the above step is complete, user must go for a new web hosting service and must sign it accordingly within 24 hours so as to enable new account earliest.

Taking Files Backup.

As soon as you created a new web hosting account, you should take back up of all your web files for the new provider. Generally you already have all files of your web site on your local computer still it is beneficial to backup all your files from old web server. Further including HTML files, backup of any script file, database file and even of server logs file should be taken. Thereafter create a directory structure similar to directory structure on web server and then load the file in their respective directory.

Uploading of files

You will receive a notification email from your new web-hosting provider after the notification of your new web hosting account. Information needed to set up a website including FTP server information all will be provided within that email. With the help of that FTP information user can now FTP his new web-hosting server and can upload all his files. First the user should create a directory structure and then can upload all his files in their respective directories. User can also install any script file or databases if used in his website and also should setup his email accounts with the help of administration panel.

After finishing of uploading of all the files and installation of script files or databases temporary URL can be used to test the new site. This temporary URL can be obtained from through notification email from new web hosting provider.

Testing of new website

The new website can be tested online by using temporarily URL directory. As different web hosting server require different server environment to work, that’s why user needs to verify all the scripts like CGI, Perl if they are working as per the requirement or not. Further all the hyperlinks should be tested in the normal web pages so as to confirm that no broken links are there. Your website hosted on the old web hosting provider is continued to be operational, even when you are testing through the temporary URL directory. Transferring of domain name After finishing of testing new website on the temporary URL and verification of its perfect execution, next step is to contact the new domain name registrar so as to change the old domain name server to point the new DNS of the web hosting provider. There after the user will get DNS information through email after he finishes the successful registration with new web hosting provider and also would get the information from website of his new web hosting provider. The purpose of Domain name servers is to control how to resolve the domain name. Commonly the domain names are in following format:

NS1. THE-NEW-WEB-HOSTING. COM

NS2. THE-NEW-WEB-HOSTING. COM

Some domain name registrar requires the IP addresses of the DNS. In this case you have to provide the IP addresses of your new DNS. For example:

NS1: 216. 193. 194. 212

NS2: 216. 193. 207. 106

DNS record to change and propagate through all the WHOIS servers takes typically 24 to 72 hours. Whois tools such as whois. com can be use on Internet to monitor the status of DNS transfer. New DNS will be displayed once the transfer is complete. Even minor modifications are possible like the user can upload his own file or picture to the new web-hosting server. When the user checks his homepage through the normal domain name he can notice the new home page, which makes sure that transfer of DNS is successful. Final Testing Now, your website on the new web hosting provider is officially transferred and online. You should repeat all the tests to ensure it is fully functional. Thereafter you can go ahead to terminate your old web hosting account after the final confirmation is received.