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Everything you
always wanted to know about website design, hosting,
e-mail marketing, Internet marketing, coaching, and
MUCH MORE (but were afraid to ask!) Click here to read
our frequently asked questions, and find out the answers.
What
is web hosting?
What
is a domain name?
What
is shared (virtual) web hosting?
What happens to my domain name when I switch hosts?
What
is domain parking?
What
does space and transfer mean?
How
do I pay for web hosting?
How do I
pay for web hosting?
What is
uptime?
Should
I use a Unix or Windows based server?
Should
I choose the cheapest plan?
How can some hosts offer so much high transfer limits
yet charge so little?
Are there any extra costs involved in hosting a secure
site?
I don’t have any experience in making a website, where
can I get help?
Why can’t I just use my DSL or cable connection at home
to host my website?
What is MySQL?
What
is PostgreSQL?
What is PHP?
What are some of the different types of control panels
that webhosts use?
What is the difference between an affiliate and a reseller?
What
is SSL and how does it used?
What
are digital certificates?
How will my customers pay me for my services and products?
What is web
hosting?
Web hosting is the process of
placing the files that make up your website on a webserver for
it to be published and served on the World Wide Web. There are
two main types of web hosting; free and paid. Free web hosting
is provided by companies that give their users a limited amount
of storage and transfer. In exchange for this service, the
company often places banners on the websites for their own
advertising purposes. Paid web hosting usually involves the use
of a domain name to direct internet users to your website, no
banners or advertisements, and more storage, transfer and extra
features.
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What is a
domain name?
A domain name is a combination
of letters and numbers that identify the location of your
website. An example of a domain name is “Yahoo.com”. In order
to get a domain, you must first register it. This process
usually includes, deciding on the right name with a correct
suffix (.com, .net, .org, .gov), making sure that the name is
available and then choosing the appropriate registrar.
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What is shared
(virtual) web hosting?
Shared or virtual web hosting
is the most common way to host websites. It means that a web
hosting company will have one or more servers serving multiple
websites. This allows the web hosting company to use resources
more efficiently and provide cheaper rates. The downside of
this is that if one website is constantly using a large amount
of resources, the other websites on the server will not receive
the same amount. Alternatives to shared web hosting are:
dedicated, co-location and serving the WebPages off of your own
computer.
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What happens to my domain name when I switch hosts?
When you register a domain
name, it belongs to you. Regardless of where you registered it,
you own that domain name and can freely move it around to
whichever host you prefer.
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What is domain parking?
Domain parking allows you to
reserve a domain name for a cheaper rate and some registrars
even let you park it for free. Another to ensure that your
domain name will not be registered by anyone else is by
registering it yourself even if you do not have a web host yet.
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What does space and
transfer mean?
Storage space is the amount of
room your files take up on the server. Depending on your
package, this will vary. HTML and text documents don’t usually
take up much room whereas multimedia files such as pictures,
sounds and videos tend to use up more. Transfer is measured by
how much your visitors are allowed to download before you reach
your monthly limit. A lot of visitors going through a lot of
your pages can create a lot of transfer.
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How do I pay for web
hosting?
Most web hosts accept
Mastercard and Visa. Some other valid forms of payment are
American Express, PayPal and checks.
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What is uptime?
Uptime is the percentage of
time that your website will be up and running. You should
always aim to choose a service provider that has a 99% and up
for uptime.
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Should I
use a Unix or Windows based server?
Your decision should be based
on what type of features you need. If you’re using IIS, ASP,
VBScript, Windows Media, Microsoft SQL Server and don’t have any
knowledge of Unix based solutions, you would be looking to use a
Windows based server. Although Linux based systems are most
common among web hosts, as they provide many shared-hosting
features, have a good history of stability and performance, and
most importantly, Apache and Linux are free.
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Should I choose the
cheapest plan?
It really depends on your
hosting needs. Cheaper plans usually do not come with much
technical support.
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How can some hosts offer so much high transfer limits yet charge
so little?
Most hosts assume that a
customer won’t come close to using the full transfer limit,
which is in most cases is true.
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Are there any extra costs involved in hosting a secure site?
If you want to use Certificate
Authority such as Verisign and Thawte, you will have to pay
additional fees.
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I don’t have any experience in making a website, where can I get
help?
You can use online tutorials
to help you make your own website or you can hire a webdesign
company to create a website for you. Prices for websites vary
by the functionality and professionalism of the desired website.
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Why can’t I just use my DSL or cable connection at home to host
my website?
You could use your connection
at home to host your website if you really wanted to. The
reason people choose to use a webhost is because they have a
much faster connection which means that they can provide quicker
and more reliable service. This will eliminate your site
appearing to be slow during high traffic periods.
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What is MySQL?
MySQL is the most popular open
source database server in the world with more than 4 million
installations powering websites, datawarehouses, business
applications, logging systems and more.
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What is PostgreSQL?
Like MySQL, PostgreSQL is
another open source database software.
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What
is PHP?
PHP is a widely-used
general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for
Web development and can be embedded into HTML.
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What are some of the different types of control panels that
webhosts use?
Different webhosts tend to use
different control panels. Although they might look and feel
different, they usually accomplish the same type of tasks. Some
popular control panels are Sphera, CPanel, Plesk, Ensim’s
WEBppliance, and Zervex DSM.
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What is the difference between an affiliate and a reseller?
Affiliates usually charge you
for the initial setup of your hosting account then let the web
host they are affiliated with to do the monthly billing, tech
support etc. Resellers on the other hand, handle everything
themselves, the only thing that differentiates them is that they
don’t provide the hosting service themselves.
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What is SSL and how
does it used?
SSL stands for Secure Sockets
Layer and is the standard internet protocol for secure
communications. It is a connection-based protocol that uses
encryption to offer authentication, integrity, and
non-repudiation. SSL is used typically between server and
client to secure the connection.
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What are digital
certificates?
Certificates are digital
documents that validate the authenticity of both parties.
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How will my customers pay me for my services and products?
There are several ways that you receive payment from your
customers. You can choose to accept checks and money orders
through mail, but that usually takes a few business days before
you receive payment. A much more popular and convenient way to
pay is to use a credit card.
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