Archives for 2007

Review A2 Hosting – Shared Web Hosting

November 20, 2007 By Christoph Puetz 1 Comment

Review A2 Hosting – Shared Web Hosting

I recently had the opportunity to work with a web host I had never worked with before. As I always have some ‘spare’ domain names I grabbed the opportunity and signed up for the small business package of A2 Hosting. I had never really heard of A2 hosting before, but that does not mean much as the web hosting industry has so many competitors out there anyway. A2 Hosting is located in Ann Arbor, Michigan and provides a central location if you expect visitors from the East and West coast. The sign up process was straight forward and easy to complete. There was little room for error and so even a rookie webmaster should be able to sign up with no problems. My account application was approved within 12 hours which is pretty good considering that I signed up after 10 PM their time and that I had special requirements.

The welcome email was extremely detailed and answered all my questions instantly. I would have preferred a text email message as I always fear that these kind of emails get eaten by SPAM filters when send in HTML format – but this message came through with no issues other that I had to allow the images to be downloaded manually.

I updated my DNS server settings and was up and running within 30 minutes (Enom is super fast with the propagation). First I checked the domain name itself and I was greeted by a default page that A2 hosting put in place to avoid anyone being able to browse my site by hand. Then I logged into cpanel and found the great X3 skin being enabled. That is my favorite skin/theme for cpanel. I conducted several independent download / upload tests via FTP and was pleasantly surprised of how good my connection apparently was. The speeds were very consistent.

So, what did I actually signed up for? I signed up for the small business package in their shared web hosting section. 250 GB of disk space combined with 2500 GB bandwidth allowance. The good thing – I can host unlimited domains on this account. Since I am a domainaholic this will certainly come in handy over time. I liked the availability of PHP5 as I still have to upgrade my own servers for that. This gave me the opportunity to test my CMS software on PHP5 and I am happy to report that it seems to work just fine on the newer version of PHP. Time to upgrade I guess..

Support: Support options are plentyful at A2 hosting. The knowledge base has already a lot of information available. Then there is also a user or customer forum to ask for help. The forums could be a little more active, but overall I really like forums a lot. Support is provided with a ticketing system. My first support ticket was submitted and answered fairly quick. As it was not mission critical it was not submitted with high priority, but support replied in a time-frame sufficient enough for me. I liked the follow up they did a day or two later. Some other web hosts just close tickets by default.

Conclusion: A2 Hosting makes a solid impression. I think there is still a little room for improvement before they are able to compete with the really big guys, but this is a web host on the right track (in my opinion). They offer a good range of products and good support options. If you are looking for a web host offering affordable web hosting with all the bells and whistles, A2 Web Hosting should be on your list to be evaluated. My overall experience with A2 Hosting was a very pleasant one.

What would you do to get a Job at Google?

November 12, 2007 By Christoph Puetz Leave a Comment

What would you do to get a Job at Google?

Do you want to work for Google? What would you do to get a job at Google? The German domain owner Sebastian Lützig (Sebastian Lutzig) is offering his domain names to Google hoping to land a nice job at the Googleplex in return. The idea itself is pretty interesting, but the way how Sebastian executed this plan has quite some humor to it. Normally you would apply through Google’s website for an open position. Not so Mr. Lutzig from Germany. Instead of writing a normal job application, he decided to register several of Google-related URLs like adwordsgoogle.de, docsgoogle.de, gdrivegoogle.com, labsgoogle.de and many more and then posted his job application on it. It seems like either Sebastian has started to redirect his domain names to Google or the Google legal department send a cease and desist letter via express delivery – most of the domains are now pointing to Google property on the web.

This story could end here, but what’s better than desperate job applications? Desperate applications written in hilariously broken English! Sebastian has some conditions that he lined out with his application:

“Important for me is that I every weekend somehow come to Cologne, in order to visit my daughter. Of course, there can be exceptions, but I would not be longer than a maximum of three weeks away from Cologne. Of course money also plays a certain role.I would like to perform a lot and also be paid well. However, quite clearly I am ready to put back with the money if for it the work is great fun. I do not have more conditions.”

And

"About me:

With 11 years I got from my parents my first computer as a gift and since it i could not life without a computer anymore. In addition to the school, I worked several years for Vobis in the computer workshop. I am a trained scientist for systemintegration (with professionallevel) and my training was from 3 years to 1.5 years shorter (because of good shool grades, the first half %1.0, the second half %1.2, leaving certificate %1.0). With my 27 years I worked for a year now in the network administration of a larger enterprise (1000+ employees) with focus on IT security. I have maximum rights and enjoy full confidence of my superiors. The work gives me a great deal of fun."

Well, best of luck to Sebastian and his application to land a job at Google. At least he managed to get quite some attention across the Internet.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS248US248&q=Sebastian+L%C3%BCtzig+

Cheap Dedicated Server Hosting – Special Pricing

November 7, 2007 By Christoph Puetz Leave a Comment

LiquidWeb Server Specials

Take advantage of the 10 year anniversary of one of the best web hosting companies out there. Liquidweb.com is celebrating their 10 year anniversary which is an awesome fact, because 10 years in web hosting is like generations in other areas. A company that not only survived the dot com crash, but also managed to become a market leader is worth investigating for anyone who is in the market for a cheap dedicated server. All dedicated servers at Liquidweb are fully managed dedicated servers (keywords: manageddedicatedservers / manageddedicatedserver), so that Liquidweb customers can concentrate on what they can do best, while not have to worry about their cheap dedicated server. So, here are the current specials for very affordable dedicated servers at Liquidweb:

Watch the Video below to see how to configure a very powerful server.

AMD X2 Special – Starting at $199.00 per month (Webmaster Series)
Featuring: Dual Core X2 CPU, 2GB RAM, Free Hard Drive Upgrades, Save $30/month!
Fast Dual Core X2 Processor / 24/7/365 Phone and Helpdesk Support / 100% Network Uptime Guarantee
2 Hour Hardware Replacement SLA / 3200GB Premium Multi-Homed Bandwidth
Windows Server 2003 (with Frontpage and ASP) or Linux available
This cheap dedicated server can be configured with more RAM, faster CPU, and several hard drive options.

Click here to see more …

Pentium 4 Special – Starting at $189.00 per month (Webmaster Series)
Featuring: Dual Core P4 CPU, 2GB RAM, Free Hard Drive Upgrades, Save $30/month!
Fast Dual Core Processor / 24/7/365 Phone and Helpdesk Support / 100% Network Uptime Guarantee
2 Hour Hardware Replacement SLA / 3200GB Premium Multi-Homed Bandwidth
Windows Server 2003 (with Frontpage and ASP) or Linux available
This cheap dedicated server can be configured with more RAM, faster CPUs (including Quad Core), and several hard drive options.

Click here to see more …

Take advantage of these great server specials at Liquidweb.com while they last. We have been very impressed by the features and options Liquidweb offers. Other competitors (like rackshack dedicate or ServerPronto) are far away in regards to combining the same features and allowances (bandwidth and disk space) into such an attractive price package. Liquidweb offers cpanel dedicated servers with Fantastico as well. Windows Servers offer ASP Web Hosting and you can take advantage of using Access or Microsoft SQL Server on this platform.

Choose a server with a setup fee and you can lower your monthly fees significantly. Most people decide to do so, because webmasters are usually interested in locking in a low price for 2-3 years. Liquidweb is the right host for that.

Visit Liquidweb.com now

How to contact your Web Host and to get results?

November 2, 2007 By Christoph Puetz Leave a Comment

How to contact your Web Host and to get results?

There are many ways to contact a web host. For some customers this mean posting messages in public message forums like Web Hosting Talk or others. Sometimes this gets them a response, sometimes it does not. However, it always comes with a bad taste and nobody really walks away happy. Here are some generic rules or tips on how to contact your web host.

First check your sign-up email if you are already a customer. Usually a well crafted welcome email shows you the proper ways on how to contact your web host. In most cases this should at least cover the support area, sometimes it also covers sales, or even management. The next step if you still do not have that information you should visit your web host’s website to find out how to contact them. A first hint would be a "Contact Us" page. If that is not around look for an "About us" type of page to see if there is contact information. If you see a dedicated "Sales" web page it might give you access to the sales team of the web host.

Speaking of sales – some web hosts have a phone number listed on their home page. This is usually for Sales only, but depending on the web host you can also contact technical support that way. If you do not find any contact information on the website whatsoever, check for a help desk or ticket system to contact your web host. Smaller operations or web hosts located in different countries or time zones might use that for the "first line of defense". Still no luck it is now time to consider a different web host or to do a final check. The final check in finding contact information is the WHOIS record of the domain your web host is using. But don’t hold your breath – depending on who is running the business, you might either see wrong WHOIS information or they are hiding the real contact information behind a WHOIS Proxy Service. One main thing of advice – the more difficult it is to find proper contact information of a web host, the higher your chances that support lacks in quality.

The following example shows you how good companies like Liquidweb make that information available. The first thing you notice is that the phone number is right on the homepage. No need to click your way around to find it. It is highly visible. You will also notice that next to the phone a link to the chat option with the sales is provided. Below the phone number you see an additional menu option called "contact" – which leads you to the contact information page.

Once you know how to contact your web host you should gather some additional information to make the situation as productive as possible. If you have a sales inquiry, prepare your question and follow-up questions so that you do not forget important pieces to ask about. I usually pre-write everything when using a chat option. Copy and paste is so much more efficient then scrambling to type. If you call your host, have a notepad handy to take notes. If you have an existing hosting account get the domain name and the account number (if something like this exists) ready. If you are contacting the host about an existing ticket, get the ticket number and the name of the technician you have worked with. Collect IP addresses and other pieces as needed before contacting support.

Stress situations are always bad for both sides. You might be upset about something and if you address your situation the wrong way to the wrong person you might get nowhere. Before yelling at someone find out if that person is actually the right contact to help. Even if you find the right person to talk to, yelling should not be necessary. You will get things done better if you stay calm. Make sure you exactly say what you want. Nobody can guess what is on your mind. Don’t hesitate to ask for money back or one month free of service if the web host dropped the ball on you – but do it in a professional way and explain why you think that it is justified. Stay calm and you get things done. After a call (sales or support) write down pieces of the conversation. It will be much easier to do it right away and then use that data later on. Save copies of emails or chat conversations.

Remember – there are many web hosting businesses out there. If your host is not willing to work with you, you can go somewhere else. On the other side be realistic of what you want and what a host is able to deliver. Downtime will happen with even the very best web host. It’s how they deal with the problem that makes the difference. If you pay $1.95 a month for web hosting I would not expect the best service. It is just not possible to expect top notch support for almost nothing.

Halloween Web Hosting Promotion

October 22, 2007 By Christoph Puetz Leave a Comment

Halloween Web Hosting Promotion

If you are in the market for cheap web hosting or affordable web hosting you might want to take a look at AN Hosting’s Halloween Special. For the remaining days of October they have a) shlashed their prices and b) doubled some of the features for popular web hosting packages. This outbeats many other web hosting packages in comparison. Here are the details:

From AN Web Hosting itself: For the rest of this month until midnight on October 31st we’ve SLASHED AN Hosting price to $5.95/mo and DOUBLED the Mega Plan to 500GB of disk space and 5,000GB of bandwidth! This SCARY GOOD offering is for a LIMITED TIME ONLY.

The special Halloween Mega Plan is as follows:
• 500GB of disk space (up from 250GB)
• 5,000GB of bandwidth (up from 2,500GB)
• Host 40 domains on one account (up from 20 domains)
• Free domain for life!
• 30 day money-back guarantee!
• Free website builder
• 24/7 phone/e-mail support
• Free scripts library!

Only $5.95/mo with no setup fee! (down from $6.95/month!)

Details? Visit AN Hosting

There is quite literally NEVER been a better time to sign up for shared web hosting at AN Hosting than today! Most people don’t think about affordable web hosting when it comes to Halloween. Even if you are not into Halloween at, but are currently looking for a good web hosting package, we recommend to check out AN Hosting.

Liquidweb Customer Feedback and Reviews

October 10, 2007 By Christoph Puetz Leave a Comment

Liquidweb Customer Feedback

The Web Hosting Resource Kit has good experience with Liquidweb.com as a web host for shared hosting and dedicated servers. Over the years we have talked to many consumers and web hosts and also heard feedback about Liquidweb. Like every web host Liquidweb seems to have up and downs, but it also seems like these guys keep the satisfaction level very high and the prices very low. They are a great choice in the market of dedicated server leasing. We spent some time to collect reviews and feedback about Liquidweb for our readers to review.

User “Sabre_Globe” / WHT:
Signed up and paid for a server yesterday. Sales rep called and verified the order one minute after I had submitted and paid for it. Last time I was with them it took allmost 72 hours before the setup was finished. So this time I was counting to have the server on thursday. I checked my email and to my suprise it was a email from Liquidweb with my server details. I took them 6 hour to setup the server.

User “sirius” over at WHT replies to the question of another user which host to choose from as follows: “We’ve got some stuff over at LiquidWeb and we’ve been very happy. We have a few mission critical windows servers that have been very reliable. All servers are fully managed, support is quick and very responsive and the hardware and network is great.”

VPS Hosting Customer “avocado” (WHT) mentions the following about his experience with Liquidweb: “We’ve had a VPS with LiquidWeb for about 6 months. Service and uptime have been great. Email/web support is a little slow to respond, but phone support is very quick, and all techs we’ve spoken to have been friendly and knowledgeable. They’ve gone a bit out of their way once or twice to help us track down a problem or install software.”

Our conclusion based on our own experience with Liquidweb has been similar. Under normal circumstances web-based support is sufficient enough in speed, but in critical situations a customer should rather take advantage of the phone based support. This is not a bad thing at all. If an issue is really critical picking up the phone and talking to a live person saves time and cuts down on communication issues. We have seen bad feedback about other hosts who do not offer phone based support at all. (PS: WHT = Web Hosting Talk Discussion Forum)

If you have interest in checking out Liquidweb’s products and services, here is a short list of what they have to offer:

– Dedicated Server Hosting (several different lines of products to meet most needs)
– Dedicated Server Colocation
– Shared Web Hosting
– VPS Hosting (Virtual Private Servers)

Check out the Liquidweb website for more details.

Liquidweb Review Web Hosting (Shared)

October 6, 2007 By Christoph Puetz Leave a Comment

Liquidweb Review Web Hosting (Shared)

In August we published a review about dedicated servers with Liquidweb. This time we will review the shared web hosting accounts available from Liquidweb. This hosting review for Liquidweb will hopefully help you to make an informed decision when choosing a new web host for your website. Liquidweb.com offers 3 shared web hosting plans by default. The plans are “Shared Standard”, “Shared Webmaster”, and “Shared Professional”. The prices range from $14.95 to $24.95 per month. On a first look this might be expensive, but a visitor would make a mistake by not looking at the actual details and features for each plan.

The main features for each plan are very generous. The following screenshot provides you with an overview for the “Shared Standard” web hosting plan at Liquidweb.

The other 2 plans offer increased features and allowances + include up to 5 (!) free domain names. This is by far above standard compared to many other web hosting offers at other web hosts. One biggie is the SSH access offered with each account. Many web hosts have SSH turned off for customers due to security concerns and server performance concerns. Liquidweb.com is very confident with what they have to offer and therefore feel it is appropriate to offer SSH access.

Each shared hosting account comes with a solid 30 Day Money Back Guarantee and 24/7 Support (Phone and Email). Unlike most providers, Liquid Web owns and operates its entire infrastructure. This provides them with 100% control over their environment and removes many dependencies other web hosting businesses have to deal with. The result is uptime above industry standards and a very high level of customer satisfaction. cPanel and Fantastico provide easy account and script management tools for customers. It also allows easy and smooth transfer from other hosting providers – make sure to ask support to use the WHM website move feature to pull your website over or to restore it from a cpanel created backup.

Conclusion: Liquidweb shared web hosting provides best of breed features and resources. Combined with top level support and extremely high uptime a web hosting customer gets peace of mind when signing up with Liquidweb.com. The pricing for the different packages seems to be a touch above what you see at other web hosting places, but considering what you get in return it seems to be well worth it. Keep in mind that most often you get what you pay for. Especially in web hosting this can mean a lot of downtime and bad support. Liquidweb avoids dealing with the low end segment of the market by offering valuable hosting packages at a fair and affordable price. Two Thumbs of from Webhostingresourcekit.com.

Find the Shared Web Hosting Packages for your own review here.

iPhone (iBrick) Web Hosting

October 4, 2007 By Christoph Puetz Leave a Comment

iPhone (iBrick) Web Hosting available shortly

Customized Apple iPhones were rendered useless after the latest update to the iPhone software was applied. Apple has pulled the plug on modified iPhones that had allowed users to install 3rd party applications or even use the phone on a different carrier network. The uproar in the Apple community has been strong and people are upset. The word of the iBrick made its round on the entire Internet. But whenever something “bad” happens, there is an opportunity for something good. The Web Hosting Resource Kit is proud to let the word out first. Our connections to the web hosting industry lead to an interesting discussion over the last weekend which resulted in the following ‘news leakage’ to us. Hang on for something really revolutionary that will rock the cell phone world as well as the web hosting world:

A new to be formed web hosting company (iBrick Hosting, LLC / iBrickhosting.com) has developed a proprietary software that turns a “useless” iPhone into a mini web server running Linux (Ubuntu Server) and a control panel similar to cpanel. According to Jack Dobbs of iBrick Hosting, LLC they have developed a technology that allows to run a stripped down version of Linux including cpanel on an Apple iPhone and providing enough resources to host up to 3 domain accounts per “iPhone server”. The company has tested the technology and found it sufficient enough to target the low-end market with customers running personal websites or small business websites. iBrick Hosting, LLC has also developed a tablet-style rack rail kit set (2U) that allows to stack the iPhone mini servers behind each other. The dimensions of the iPhone allow iBrick Hosting, LLC to place 4 rows with 60 iPhones each per 2U rack space. 240 iPhones in a 2U rack space allows to approximately host over 700 website accounts while saving significantly on server hardware, data center cooling and power consumption. Network connectivity uses the wireless capabilities of the iPhone. iBrick Hosting, LLC has already acquired 5,000+ iPhones and will open their website to take orders in the next week or so.

iBrick Hosting, LLC plans to launch a large iPhone acquisition marketing campaign that offers disappointed iPhone users a great deal to trade in their phone. Several options are planned – including the offer to buy a smart phone from a different provider or network carrier. iBrick Hosting, LLC is a division of a large web hosting company based out of California and it will utilize an existing data center and uplink carriers. iBrick Hosting, LLC is also experimenting in clustering iPhones and to place a low end server in front of such a cluster. This allows to use the available hard drive space of an iPhone more sufficient and to bypass the memory and CPU restrictions of an iPhone.

This is as much news as we were able to squeeze out of our contact. It sure sounds exciting and different. Different is good in our opinion as that separates one web hosting business from all the other ones. We are looking forward to hear and see more about what iBrick Hosting, LLC is able to accomplish with their iPhone Web Hosting. It will be interesting to see the actual performance of these iPhone mini web servers. The iBrick Hosting domain is still down for us at the moment, but a WHOIS lookup shows the domain being registered.

I need a Dedicated Server

October 2, 2007 By Christoph Puetz Leave a Comment

“I need a Dedicated Server”

“I need a Dedicated Server” is the title of a recent discussion on Webhostingtalk.com. In this thread the thread starter is announcing that he is looking for a new dedicated server. While the request itself is written good enough to communicate what he wants, there are several issues with the topic and the discussion itself. If you are looking for a dedicated server yourself in a public forum you want to make sure that you follow a few simple rules to make the best out of your request.

State clearly what you want. Just saying “I need a dedicated server” is not simply not enough. Provide exact details about what you are looking for. Intel or AMD CPU? How much memory for the dedicated server? Disk space and RAID level should also be clearly defined. In most cases bandwidth does not need to be specified unless your bandwidth needs for a dedicated server exceed 2 TB (2000 GB). Be realistic with your requirements. Bandwidth, CPU, and memory all come together at one point. 5 TB bandwidth will suck all the life out of a single CPU server with 1 GB RAM. It’s just not feasible. Need a dedicated server with cpanel? State it clear and also mention if you need fantastico or can work with a different dedicated server control panel (Helm, Plesk, DirectAdmin, etc).

Specify your price limit. Again, be realistic of what you are asking for. Keep in mind that the web host has to pay for the hardware and also wants to make a buck from his investment. If hardware is too cheap, it really might be cheap. Cheap in quality that is. Or the bandwidth you get comes from 3rd tier suppliers and simply sucks. Can you pay a setup fee? Or do you want a dedicated server without a setup fee? Sometimes paying a setup fee makes more sense as it can help to lower your monthly cost. If you plan on keeping the server for at least 12 months a setup fee usually pays for itself easily.

Why so much commotion about asking the question “I need a Dedicated Server”? It helps you to avoid answering questions that otherwise would not be asked and it saves on time to receive actual offers for a dedicated server. A web host can read your offer, prepare a good offer for a dedicated server and then present it to you.

Reseller Hosting: How to Earn good Money

September 26, 2007 By Christoph Puetz Leave a Comment

Reseller Hosting: How to Earn good Money

What is reseller hosting? The main idea of reseller hosting is to be a web host who sells reseller web hosting to other (usually smaller) web hosting businesses. Reseller hosting accounts are also used by webmasters who operate more than one website. Lately reseller business prospers, because more people want to be online with their own website and their own domain. For many a hobby turns into a (part-time) business. So, there is a steady stream of people needing more than just a single domain web hosting account.

There are two types of reseller hosting.

1) Traditional reseller hosting
2) Private label hosting

Traditional (bulk) reseller hosting is like a wholesale business. The reseller host buys in bulk aka an entire web server and splits it into small, but medium sized chunks. A smaller web host buys one of these chunks (reseller accounts) and populates it with single domain accounts of normal consumers. The benefit for the reseller host is that he has only to support one customer while the smaller web host deals with each singe domain customer. The smaller web host who buys the reseller account has the advantage not to worry about the technical side of the business as the reseller web host is responsible for the server health and maintenance.

Private label reselling is a step on top of traditional reseller hosting. With traditional reseller hosting the reseller host’s identity is not hidden. Everyone can easily identify the real web host. With private label the identity of the reseller host is hidden and the reseller (smaller web host) appears to be owner of the server. This tactic is often used/needed/required to make a different impression marketing-wise. Many consumers do not want to deal with small web hosting businesses. Web hosting businesses know this and disguise the fact that they are using a reseller account.

So, where is the money in reseller hosting? Is it on the side of the reseller host/server owner or is it on the side of the smaller web host? It depends on the business model and overall pricing scheme on both sides. For the actual reseller host the bigger profits come in when the cost for system administration and co-location are spread out across more servers. For the smaller web host the big profits (on a smaller scale though) come in if he can add as many single domain accounts onto a single reseller account. Hereby is to consider that if the smaller web host aims at the bottom end of the market in regards to price, it is much more difficult to become profitable. I have been able to use a $35/month reseller account and load it up with 8 single domain customer accounts paying me a combined $320.00 per month. And I am sure that this is by far not a record.

Check out Lunarpages for (currently) $5.00 reseller accounts. This is a great and almost risk-free way to get your hands wet in the reseller arena and make money on the Internet.