Have you had nightmares that your website is not running all the time? Your web host doesn’t seem to work the way you expect it to. Clients try to shift to other web hosts for some reasons. Among those are promised features not implemented,  poor technical support, overpricing, and poor performance in e-mail service.

If you have those problems, then it’s high time you think of looking for another web host. But you should be careful this time. To help you out, here are some basic tips:

Take everything you want to take with you for the transfer. For sure, you have made backups for all the media and text files you used in building your site. If not, you must do so before you permanently leave your current web host. This is because if you leave your web host, they will surely erase all your files to make way for new clients. You can copy your files, the databases, images, design templates, and other files necessary for your transfer. Include e-mails and profiles of past and frequent clients too.

Make sure that your new web host caters all your needs. Check if they provide support for your software and other services. Check if they offer enhanced features that will help your website run smoothly. Make a list of everything that you need and ask them if they can fully support them. If your site is running with scripts and in new versions of software and databases, make sure that they can execute and run them. For those important types of systems such as online payments, online billings, and others, guarantee that they have solid and well-protected technologies as they usually deal with confidential information.

You also have to bring with you the information regarding your domain name registration. Normally, to change and transfer on to a new web host means a transfer on you domain’s server. You have to know where your domain name is registered. If you forgot, you may access http://www.whois.sc. It will help you find where you registered your domain name as well as the domain server. Look for your registrar, and if you find it, make some necessary adjustments prior to changing web hosts.

Read up as to what to do when you change domain name servers. This will be of help to you. You may change web hosts but rarely change registrars for your domain name. Do not wait for the time that you have to evacuate. Make it ahead of time, so when it comes, you’re definitely ready to leave. Also, inquire from your new web host as to which is your domain server. This is to settle whatever issues that may arise concerning about both past and present domain server provider.

It’s okay to leave, but do so with grace. Be prepared.

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They say webmasters receive lots of ambiguous e-mails every day. Some come from people who are asking for more information regarding their website. Sometimes, students ask for information they need for their reports due the next day. There are even nonsense e-mails such as asking for suggestions on what to name their pet!

One of the duties of a skillful webmaster is handling e-mails sent by website visitors.

Webmasters browse through their inbox to check mails from different senders who visits his site. More often, people send e-mails to leave comments or suggestions.

They give critics as to the design and functionalities of your website. Others inquire about the things you sell if you are an online store, prices of services if you offer services to customers, and so on and so forth. Others are just nothing at all.

Webmasters choose what to retain and read and what to delete. The most common e-mail contains these words, “What is your business all about?” “What are you selling or what service are you offering?” But the worst nightmare of webmasters is receiving e-mail that says, “Where did your site go? I can’t access it!” or “Your site is down and is not working!”

Oops! That’s a page error! What could have happened out there?

That is one of the pitfalls of web hosting service providers. Web hosting service providers should guarantee you 100% uptime and reliable service. In fact, this is a very encouraging proposition otherwise, you’ll have no reason for signing up. Moreover, they must have a money-back guarantee should this be not met. Else, you’ll be paying for a mediocre service.

Fortunately, there are a lot of web hosting companies who do just that. They acquire the most sophisticated servers and other networking equipment to ensure that there will be no or perhaps less, downtime as much as possible. They may even have backup configurations for that. For customers, they provide 24-hour support system, be it in terms of phone, e-mail, fax, or chat. Majority will send you up-to-date reports on the status of your account, your stored files, the server, and even the web hosting company as a whole.  

There are also others who do not stick to their words. Worse, they are unscrupulous. Some do things like this. Before you can actually get rebates out of a downtime, you need to report first the incident, stating every valuable information you can probably think of such as the time and date it happened. Web hosting companies will then compare the information you provided to their own actual report. If there’s a match, expect credits. If not, then it’s good as the issue didn’t happen at all.

It pays to be wise, especially when you talk about cyberspace. So don’t forget to read policies. If things go wrong, as they really do sometimes, at least you know your next step.

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Domain names represent what the site is all about. Choosing one is as important as creating the site itself. If you are thinking of putting up your business online, choosing a good name will mean a lot. It will certainly reflect the nature of your business.

However, there are certain factors to consider in picking a domain name. So why don’t you learn some great tricks? Here they are:

Keep it short. Although domain names can be as long as 67 characters, keeping it short is more effective. Aside from the fact that you have to name your site as what it is intended for, shorter names are easy to remember. Simple words will do! If your domain name is short, surely, site visitors will not find it hard to recall. Moreover, there’s lesser tendency for being misspelled or for your visitors to be redirected to another site with almost similar domain name as yours.

Get extras. Its one thing for your domain name to be short, and another if somebody out there is sharing almost the same kind of spelling as yours. For example, if you’re into cakes and pastries, perhaps, you’ll have “annpastries.com” registered under your name. However, what if there’s also “anpastries.com”? That’s where a letter can spell a big difference. It simply means that a misspelling may divert your traffic to another website, worse, if it’s from a competitor. It may cause you a few bucks, but it helps if you can register as much of these similar domain names under your name. Once you do, you can have them redirected to your main site every time someone gets to drop by there.

Use dashes and hyphens. You might want to use dashes and hyphens in your domain name. It is an effective way to separate words in the name. Long and crunched words are hard to remember, and people tend to enter them wrongly. “Cakes-n-pastries.com” is a lot easier to read than “cakesnpastries.com.” If you will use hyphens, limit the words into at most three. Another advantage of using dashes and hyphens is that search engines will be able to look up each word as your keyword. With this, your sites will have much better chances of occupying the top spot in major search engines.

Go for the main extensions. Don’t underestimate the power of the .com. It can take you a long way. This is because millions of users are already accustomed to it. If it isn’t available for your domain name, however, there are still a number that you can choose from, such as .net and .org. The .gov extensions go for state offices’ websites, while .edu are mainly used by learning institutions.

With these tips, hopefully, you’ll find the kind of address you want for your website.

Prior to consulting a domain buy service, it would be better to just go through a domain register review phase. That helps in comprehending if the domain name suits the site or not. Decisions pertaining to webhosting domain come later. It is not compulsory that a cheap web hosting should be the preferred service. A host that supports your web site design and is cheap is good enough. There things should be taken into consideration before developing web site.

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In order to publish a website in the Internet, one must have a domain name. Finding one, however, is no longer a problem as you’re provided with tools online. They can be of big help in identifying available domain names as well as where and how to buy and register them.

There are three basic things you must know about domain name. These are the following:

Site Address

Just like your home address, a domain name identifies the location of a website. It is usually the ones you enter in the address bar of your browser. Domain names consist of a sequence of keywords separated by periods. It is usually in the form www.[site-name].com/net/org. The “www” means “World Wide Web”; and the extensions “.com,” “.net,” and “.org” stand for “commercial,” “network,” and “organization,” respectively, depending on what the site is intended for. When you enter a domain name in your web browser, it searches through the whole World Wide Web until it will take you to the website you’re looking for.

TCP/IP

TCP/IP or transmission control protocol/Internet protocol is a common method in assigning addresses on a network so that different types of server-operating systems can communicate regardless of any other communications protocol that they are using. It is the most common network protocol and is the basis for the Internet.

It was made in 1971 but was fully recognized in 1984. It makes use of an addressing scheme that allows it to produce a series of numbers called an IP address. An IP address is a 32-bit address used to identify a node or a computer in a network. Each node or computer has a unique IP address.

It is made up of a network ID and a unique host ID. It is typically represented by a decimal value of each octet separated by a period (e.g., 192.168.2.13). Each octet ranges from 0 to 255. IP addresses are grouped into classes A, B, and C. You don’t really need to internalize the operations of TCP/IP. Just think that it helps each computer communicate over the Internet.

Up for Grabs!

There are a lot of sites/registrars that offer domain name listings online. Getting one is very easy. Simply think of a name that you want and try to check its availability. Just register and the name is yours. Domain names have expiry dates, by the way. So it may be wise if you register them yearly. Else, the domain name will be open for anybody else to use.

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Web hosting allows people, individuals, or entrepreneurs to publish their websites in the Internet. People provide their own websites, and web hosts provide space for their Internet files and website maintenance.

There are many types of web hosts you can take advantage of. Of course, these are the free web hosting services, which are excellent money savers, except that you’re bound by limitations. One, there’s limited space. Second, you’re sharing bandwidth with literally millions of people all over the world. Third, you may be asked to carry annoying ads.

If you like to get your time’s worth, go for paid web hosting companies. To help you out, in choosing, here are some factors to consider:

Extent of Service

Service scope depends on the needs of the clients. They can be basic, excellent for a personal website, or as complex for commercial ones. Small web pages are limited only to a basic service. Typically, personal web pages are just small that it does not require big space. It can be uploaded through an FTP (file transfer protocol) and normally does not need too much maintenance. More often, these types of sites are hosted in free web hosting providers. Most ISPs (Internet service providers) give hosting services to subscribers. Majority of the web hosting companies offer an administration panel where clients have access to look after their sites. They also offer script-support platforms and database management to some of their hosting packages. There are hosts that provide specialized support to e-commerce websites, such as those who accept online payments.

Reliability and Uptime Guarantees

Uptime refers to the period at which your site is online. Hosting companies offer 99% uptime rate to customers. But there are instances when servers restart, causing your site to be idle for a period of time, especially during maintenance. Most providers include refunds to times when your site is down. In choosing a good web host, make sure you have read their terms and conditions so if ever this happens, you know what to do.

Cost of Packages

Majority of these web hosting companies can present you with loads of packages, which you can pay per month or annually. However, before you choose, learn to compare. For example, you can search either online or through personal search around your area of at least 3 web hosting companies and analyze their packages in terms of price and their features.

Don’t sweat the small stuff, they say. So let the best web hosting company take you to where you should belong: top 1 in search engine rankings and traffic.

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