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Archives for May 2007

Press Release: The Planet Offers 72-Hour Free Setup on All Servers

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Press Release: The Planet Offers 72-Hour Free Setup on All Servers

 HOUSTON, May 22, 2007 – The Planet, now the world’s largest privately held dedicated hosting company, today announced a free setup promotion on all servers for just 72 hours.  Starting at noon CDT on Tuesday, May 22, through noon CDT on Friday, May 25, 2007, setup fees on all new-server orders will be waived.

The free setup fee covers The Planet’s entire range of servers, from the economy level Dell Conroe 3040 to the performance-level Dell Clovertown 2900.

“Technology investments are evaluated consistently across the board in any organization, whether it’s a $69 or $1,100 purchase,” said The Planet’s Director of Product Management Urvish Vashi.  “By offering free setup across our server portfolio, we’re delivering powerful server technology that provides an added cost savings, which is especially beneficial to customers who order multiple servers.”

The Planet is also offering a 50 percent discount on all hard drive upgrades with any new server order. For more information on all the promotions, please visit: http://www.theplanet.com/promotions/.

          

About The Planet

The Planet is the leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 22,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 2.8 million Web sites worldwide.  By offering the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class support, backed by state-of-the-art facilities and unmatched network connectivity, The Planet helps turn information technology into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to successfully grow their businesses.  For additional information, visit www.theplanet.com.

Press Release: The Planet Adds Enterprise-Class Storage to Private Rack Portfolio

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The Planet Adds Enterprise-Class Storage to Private Rack Portfolio

Provides access to highly scalable, high-performance disk storage

HOUSTON, May 21, 2007 — The Planet, the world’s largest dedicated hosting provider, today expanded its private rack portfolio with the addition of storage area network (SAN) capabilities.  The new storage solution from Network Appliance (NASDAQ: NTAP) provides The Planet’s customers with maximum data availability and protection, particularly for those whose businesses require critical online data repositories, including databases, media libraries, backup archives and e-mail.

Today’s announcement follows the company’s recent addition of Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) 5500 Series Firewalls and Foundry ServerIronXL load balancers to its comprehensive private rack portfolio.  For Web 2.0 companies and SaaS providers that operate complex hosting environments, the new products add enterprise-class capabilities and enhancements at attractive, self-managed pricing.  
NetApp® FAS systems are the industry’s broadest family of compatible storage systems, offering unmatched business agility, superior application uptime and simplicity of management.  By coupling high-performance storage with unique data management software, NetApp delivers increased availability of critical data and simplification of complex data management environments. In addition, these high-performance systems have a proven ability to continuously serve data at higher than 99.99% availability. With NetApp storage systems, customers can gain access to predictive technology that alerts the customer, The Planet, and NetApp to an impending support need. The combination of NetApp SyncMirror® software and RAID-DP™ technology provides maximum subsystem fault tolerance that exceeds most industry solutions, but with similar cost overhead and read-performance benefits.

“With the proliferation of e-commerce and e-mail, the data needs of our customers continue to explode,” said The Planet’s Vice President of Marketing and Product Management Steve Kahan.  “Our new storage options enable customers to gain the same enterprise capabilities usually available only to larger organizations.  As a result, they are able to make faster decisions, better serve their own customers and continue to grow their businesses without the worry of IT management.  For those who have outgrown the storage provided by local hard disks, the new NetApp storage solutions provide a powerful, affordable option.”
“Reliability, scalability and simplified management are hallmarks of NetApp storage solutions,” said Patrick Rogers, vice president of Solutions Marketing at Network Appliance.  “Customers want solutions that do not compromise their data or application availability.  NetApp systems allow customers to confidently expand storage requirements within The Planet’s private racks in a cost-effective manner.”

About The Planet’s New Private Rack Storage
The Planet’s new high-performance, highly scalable storage product adds additional options specifically geared to deliver exceptional value: 
Speedy, Reliable Access:  NetApp FAS storage operates faster than data stored on local disks, offering high throughput and fast response times that are required for transaction processing, database and technical applications.
Easily Scalable:  The non-disruptive capacity expansion can be easily configured, managed and maintained.  When additional storage is required, NetApp offers non-disruptive capacity expansion.
Fault-Tolerant Performance:  With predictive technology that sends notices of an impending failure, warnings are sent to customers, The Planet and to its own automated systems. 

About The Planet
The Planet is the leading provider of On Demand IT Infrastructure solutions, hosting more than 22,000 small- and medium-size businesses and 2.8 million Web sites worldwide.  By offering the best choice of servers, software tools and world-class support, backed by state-of-the-art facilities and unmatched network connectivity, The Planet helps turn information technology into a powerful competitive advantage that enables customers to successfully grow their businesses.  For additional information, visit www.theplanet.com.
 
About Network Appliance
Network Appliance is a world leader in unified storage solutions for today’s data-intensive enterprise. Since its inception in 1992, Network Appliance has delivered technology, product, and partner firsts that simplify data management. Information about Network Appliance™ solutions and services is available at www.netapp.com.

NetApp, the Network Appliance logo, and SyncMirror are registered trademarks and Network Appliance and RAID-DP are trademarks of Network Appliance, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other brands or products are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders and should be treated as such.

How to Upgrade the Vi Agent Software on an VMWare ESX Host

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How to Upgrade the Vi Agent Software on an ESX Host

This article is written for VMWare Infrastructure Version 3.0.1 and higher. With every update to the Virtualcenter Software (Vi Client) an administrator should also upgrade the Agent software on each ESX host to make sure all functionality in an HA cluster is still available and to avoid problems with different versions between the management server (VirtualCenter) and the cluster node. This is especially necessary for the HA (high availability) functionality when a host fails and the cluster is trying to restart the affected VMs (Virtual Machines).

The updated agent file is on the VC server in the following location:

\<<YourServerName>>c$Program FilesVMwareVMware VirtualCenter 2.0upgrade

Copy the latest upgrade file (example file: vpx-upgrade-esx-6-linux-40644) to your ESX hosts (Example Location: /var/updates) using WinSCP or any other tool that allows secure copy. Move all the VMs currently hosted on the server you are upgrading to other hosts in your VM farm.

Then SSH into the ESX host and switch to the root user. Change the root login location to /var/updates or whereever you saved the updated agent file.

#root: cd /var/updates

Run the following command (replace the version number on the file accordingly for future releases)

sh vpx-upgrade-esx-6-linux-40644

The next step should be considered MANDATORY: reboot the host server after the agent upgrade.

If no reboot occurs the VC (Vi Client) will lose connectivity to the host. This could be fixed by right clicking onto the host and “disconnect” and then “connect” again afterwards. BUT – it seems like the VC Agent does need a restart or reboot to fully function again.

Mandatory II: After the reboot right click on the host and select “Reconfigure for HA” to make it fully integrates into the cluster again after the new agent software is up and running again.

Web Hosting Strategies for Virtualization

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Web Hosting Strategies for Virtualization

In our series of articles about using VMWare in a web hosting business we are going to discuss strategic related issues today. Why should web hosting businesses look at virtualization instead of building larger data centers? It almost seems like that the web hosting industry is running behind the trend of consolidation in the IT industry. It is kinda a thing of the past to build more and more data centers. A smart company looks to expand and to reduce cost at the same time. This can be done with virtualization. Here is an approach that could fit well for web hosting businesses.

Many web hosting businesses are growing one server at a time. They run hosting specials to utilize more hardware faster to be able to buy in bulk and to getter better prices. But this approach is coming at a price and it does not represent a well thought-thru strategy. Electricity and cooling are not going to be cheaper going forward. Faster processors with more cores are going to be overkill for many servers because no longer will CPUs the performance bottleneck, but disk and memory. And who wants to have dual-quad-core server run at 10% utilization? That is just a waste.

So, for a web hosting business it would make sense to look at virtualization. The center of operations should be a SAN or iSCSI based storage device that allows to share storage access for several host servers. With enough room to grow this provides redundancy and flexibility at the same time. Any new server just needs basic small local disk storage to run an operating system (preferably in a RAID 1 scenario) and an HBA (or iSCSI) connection to access the shared storage. The only other requirements for servers are dual-quad-core CPUs, 4 NICs  and appropriate memory. A common ratio for server virtualization is 10:1 – often even more, but for this strategic approach we will stick to a 10:1 model.

Let’s look at this approach a little more in detail. What does a web hosting dedicated server look like right now? Dual CPUs, 4 GB RAM, one or two NICS, and a lot of local disk storage (SCSI, IDE, SATA). What is the cost of such a server? Probably somewhere around $6K – maybe a little more, maybe a little less depending on your discount level or if you build a server yourself. What does a comparable host server would need to play well in a VMWare farm environment? Dual-Quad-Core CPUs, 4 NICS, 2 x 73 GB SCSI disks, 16 GB RAM dual HBAs. This server would probably cost around $11K – maybe a little more, maybe a little less. Again, this price depends on your overall discount level with a vendor and if you buy a server or build it yourself. We also have to put into consideration that a SAN needs to be bought and loaded up with disk. For this example we assign a cost of $3K per server (that is a conservative number!), which brings a VMWare server to a price of $14K. On top of that we have to pay for the virtualization software. List price for VMWare Infrastructure 3 is about $6K with no discounts applied. Keep in mind that for a long-term strategy you would work with a vendor like Dell who provides the hardware and the software and would give you discounts as well. Now that we have the numbers we can start playing the number game.

Example 1: The physical server web host needs a new server because his other servers are reaching their limits and he buys 1 new server at a cost of $6K. 3 weeks later he sees the growth pretty consistent and would run out of resources on the server he just bought in 2 weeks. So, he needs another server and this time he orders 2 servers to have a spare machine to bring online fast and quick enough to cover potential growth. Delivery time per server is about 2 weeks from placing the order until it arrives in the data center. The servers are brought online and are getting populated with new customer websites. The second server sits idle because the first server still needs to be filled up with new customers. Growth continues and he buys more servers. Then he needs an additional rack and another switch, too. Soon this web host has 40 servers and 4 switches spread out across two racks. Approx. cost: $245,000.00 (40 x $6K + 2 racks and 4 switches)

Example 2: The Virtual Web Host has put the infrastructure for his operations into place. A SAN and 4 host servers are ready to be populated. He builds his virtual server the same way as he would build a physical server. Dual CPUs, 4 GB RAM, and appropriate disk space assigned on the SAN. As he grows he sees that he can fill a physical machine with about 10 virtual machines (10:1 ratio). Business grows and he starts populating the 4 host servers with 10 VMs. As virtual machines don’t need extra rack space or more physical switches he is just fine with one rack. Approx. cost when he reaches 40 virtual servers: $85,000.00 (4 x $14K + 4 x $6K + 1 rack and 2 switches)

This high level example gives you a pretty good idea of how the cost factor comes into play. Host 1 pays as he goes and buys physical machines. Host 2 has a higher investment upfront, but then has a dramatic reduction in cost as he goes. He needs a new server and it takes only minutes to bring up a new virtual machine. Even if you would double the cost of the virtual web host, this business model would be so much cheaper to implement. If you don’t have your own data center and you need to pay for rack space and power, the virtual host has a clear advantage. He could leverage his hardware even better if he uses servers that allow to be loaded with 16 RAM sticks instead of the standard 8. If you buy RAM you know that if you go beyond the 2 GB RAM sticks prices go really up. A 4 GB RAM stick is so much more expensive compared to 2 GB stick. So, if your servers can be loaded up with 16 x 2 GB RAM sticks you can easily host 15 – 25 virtual machines on a host server. As mentioned before today’s CPUs provide so much power that usually disk or memory are the bottlenecks.

As an experienced web host you might raise the question about bandwidth. VMWare’s virtualization software allows for easy NIC teaming and therefore providing you with a load balanced 2 GB pipe per server. And again, if you look at the cost of implementation you can work with how many VMs you put on a physical host server and still easily break even at a much earlier point compared to the physical approach.

Disclaimer: We are aware of the higher cost associated with implementing a SAN solution. The example above is based on the assumption of continious growth and expansion and therefore reducing the overall cost of the SAN as it gets spread out across more servers. Dell and other vendors are also releasing lower cost storage solutions that are worth looking at for shared storage. 

Web Hosting from Your Web Server at Home

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Web Hosting from Your Web Server at Home

With the growing popularity and use of the Linux and BSD Operating Systems, and the free availability of web server software like Apache; coupled with high speed DSL and Cable Internet connections, more people than ever before are exploring the possibilities of setting up and maintaining their own web server from home. Microsoft has even offered a personal web server application for home use. Unfortunately, while the ability to setup and operate a web server at home has become very easy, most people lack the crucial knowledge and skills required to secure a web server properly–and this can lead to disastrous results for them.

The first problem one can have in operating a home based web server is that most commercial ISP’s simply don’t allow it in their Terms of Service. They provide users with high speed access to the Internet for email, web browsing and etc., but specifically stipulate that you can not use their networks for offering others access to your own server to protect their bandwidth capacities.

With regards to securing a home based web server there are numerous issues to consider. Entire books have been written on how to properly maintain and protect a web server securely, and not one of them even covers everything you should be aware of before operating your own home based web server because the topic is so wide ranging. This writing will only address one issue you face in operating a home based web server.

Software Updates

While you can easily go from blank hard drive to functioning web server in just a couple of hours, you will need to devote time each day to updating and installing patches for your Operating System, web server application and any additional modules or programs–such as PHP, Perl, MySQL or any other server features you include in the setup. Updates and patches are issued often for all of these and typically address security issues, so you have to stay on top of them every day to keep your web server secure.

Remember that by operating a home based web server you are in effect opening a port to your PC for the outside world to access, and there is no shortage of malicious people waiting to exploit that opening in a variety of ways if you leave it unsecured. And once inside, they will have access to every file and piece of information stored on your PC.

In addition, by gaining access to your web server a talented hacker can obtain administrator rights on the PC, allowing them to make accounts for themselves, install back doors or even run code and scripts that attack or attempt to break into other machines; and it will all appear as though you were the hacker in the logs of those other targets.

Hackers aren’t your only concern, you also have to watch for worms. New worms are appearing constantly, and even though most software is being continually updated to secure any holes these worms are able to exploit, if you don’t install the update before the worm reaches your web server you could be in serious trouble.

Once a worm infects your server it executes whatever functions it was designed to do. It could begin scanning for additional web servers on the Internet that are vulnerable–which can degrade your system resources and power as well as use loads of costly bandwidth, it can launch Denial of Service attacks against other host machines, or it could even access and steal your own personal information from you.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Securing a web server properly involves far more than just keeping your software up to date. You have to know about various intrusion methods and monitor your server logs constantly to watch for them. If you operate a mail server on your PC you have to be aware of numerous Spammer tactics and constantly monitor for those as well. The list of basic security measures and practices goes on and on.

While it may be easy to start a home based web server, given the time investment for keeping it secure with the low costs of hosting services that employ professional administrators to keep their servers and network safe it simply isn’t economical or practical to maintain your own server from home for anything other than code testing–which can be done without opening your PC up to the outside world.

For live web sites in a production environment, paying affordable fees for reliable and secure hosting services is a wise investment and will free up your time to grow and expand your actual web site; and if you are really interested in how web servers operate–or perhaps even offering hosting services to others–there are established web hosts out there who provide Reseller and Virtual Private Server accounts which are a great way to go. They provide you with large chunks of disk space and bandwidth, that you can then divide into smaller chunks and sell hosting services to others with. This allows you to do the things you wanted to with your home based web server, while still having the support and security of a professional service behind you.

How to upgrade from VMWare Infrastructure 3.0 to 3.0.1

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How to upgrade from VMWare Infrastructure 3.0 to 3.0.1

Sure, there are white papers and official guides available on how to upgrade from ESX 3.0.0 to 3.0.1, but nothing beats real world experience of admins that have already done it. Here is our best practices guide to migrate to the (at the time of this writing) to the latest version of VMWare Infrastructure 3 (3.0.1). For this guide we assume that the host server is part of a farm and that you have enough resources available to move VMs to other hosts to work on a host that will not have VMs residing on it. The main idea of this best practices guide is to move the VMs off a host server, take it out of the cluster it is in, remove it from a data center and then to wipe it clean and rebuild it from scratch.

1) VMotion the VMs from one of the ESX servers to one of the other VMWare ESX host servers.
2) Take it out of the cluster and remove it from your Data Center (inside the Vi Client).
3) Do a fresh install of 3.0.1
4) Install all necessary patches on top of 3.0.1 (at the time of this writing that number is already in the mid 20s)
5) Add the server back into the cluster/Data Center
6) Move the VMs back to this host.
7) Now follow the same procedure for every host in your VMWare farm environment

What Information do you need to record before wiping the server clean? Collect all custom information like host name (including FQDN), IP address(es), custom entries from /etc/hosts, NTP settings, virtual switch configurations, firewall settings, partitioning on local drives. If you have created any local users, record those and the purpose of these accounts. Do you have any custom software installed (Dell OpenManage, SAN Agents, etc.)? Get that information including SNMP settings as needed.

Are there any known gotcha’s for the installation of 3.0.1? We recommend to disconnect any network connections other than the ones for the management network (management console and Vmotion). We also recommend to disconnect the fiber cables from the HBAs for the installation and to plug those back in afterwards. Make sure you mark which cable was plugged in before. Also, make sure that your Vi Client (VirtualCenter) is on the latest version (including patches) before adding a server back to the farm/cluster.

VMWare Vmotion Server Live Migration Explained

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VMWare “Vmotion” Server Live Migration Explained

One of the best features in VMWare’s “VMware Infrastructure 3” product is the widely known “Vmotion Technology”. Vmotion technology has been around in earlier versions of VMWare’s ESX product. What exactly is Vmotion? With Vmotion an administrator can live migrate a virtual server (VM) from one physical host server to another physical host server. A Vmotion process takes somewhere between 30 seconds and 1.5 minutes on average. However, there is no interruption in availability of the virtual machine at that time. The end-user using the VM does not notice that the machine is moving to a different physical host. If you would do a persistent ping against the VM you might see a few pings with higher ping times, but that is pretty much it.

There a specific requirements for Vmotion to work. What are these requirements? A receiving VMWare host server that is Vmotion enabled must be connected to the same shared storage and the same network connections as the sending server is. Shared storage would be ideally a place on your SAN that is visible from each VMWare ESX host. The SAN connections need to have the same display name, too. These are assigned in the VirtualCenter* (Vi Client). Each physical server also needs to offer the same physical network connections to be able to participate in a Vmotion process. Example: The source ESX host is connected to the 192.168.10.x network and the 10.10.5.x network. The VM that is going to be “vmotioned” is using the 10.10.5.x network. The receiving physical host must therefore have a connection to the 10.10.5.x network as otherwise the VM would lose network connectivity instantly if moved over. The Vmotion verification process however would discover a mismatch upfront and prevent an admin from moving the machine accordingly.

So far we discovered that the physical hosts need to have access to the same storage area and that they need to have the same network connections available to allow a successful Vmotion. However, there are more items to be considered. Currently (at the time of this writing) Vmotion is not possible between different CPU families. Example: Host A is using Intel processors while Host B is using AMD CPU’s. This is a mismatch and Vmotion would not be possible. This might change down the road, but is not available at the moment. A VMWare admin building a VMWare farm needs to keep this in mind and should plan a farm with equal hardware. You can mix Dell and HP servers as long as the CPUs are in the same core family. It does not matter if Host A has only 16 GB RAM while Host B has 32 GB of RAM. All of the ESX Server hosts need to use a single Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) volume, too. In addition VMotion requires a Gigabit Ethernet network between virtual machines. This network is usually a dedicated management Vlan that all VMWare hosts have access to.

The actual Vmotion process is started in the VI Client Software (formerly known as VirtualCenter). An administrator would select the virtual machine in question, right click onto the machine and select “migrate” from the available options to initiate the Vmotion process. The Vmotion verification process is started as the administrator goes through the wizard style process. If all turns out well, the migration process starts a few moments after the wizard closes (confirmed by the administrator). A taskbar at the bottom shows the process status.

Example Usage of Vmotion

1) Hardware Failure on physical host. A memory stick goes bad on a physical host server. This is causing issues for the VMs residing on this server. An Administrator recognizes the problem and starts the Vmotion process of moving the VM’s off to other host servers in the same VMWare farm. Within 10 minutes all 15 VMs residing on that host server have been moved off (without any interruption to the user). The administrator puts the host server with the bad memory stick into maintenance mode and shuts it down. The administrator replaces the memory stick and powers the server back on (15 minutes). Once the server is back up and running and the administrator has verified that the memory stick was the culprit and not the motherboard, he puts that server out of maintenance mode and moves VMs back to this host server (again no interruption to the end-user).
2) A website on a VM has been mentioned on by several news stations on TV and experiences a sudden surge in traffic. The traffic rises and the physical server is starting to reach the physical limits due to increased memory, CPU, and network bandwidth. The administrator moves either other VMs off the host server to free up more resources or he moves the VM with the “popular” website off to a host with more physical resources available. In both cases Vmotion allows to move the machines without any visible interruption to the end-user.

These 2 examples show how Vmotion can be used in a production environment. Vmotion plays another role in VMWare Infrastructure 3, but that is going to be discussed in a different article.

Introduction: VMWare Virtualization and Web Hosting

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Introduction: VMWare Virtualization and Web Hosting

Up to this point most web hosting businesses are still using dedicated servers with local disk storage to provide a hosting platform for their customers. Some of the bigger web hosting businesses use SAN connected servers and centralized storage, but almost nobody uses virtualization products to do web hosting. What is virtualization and how can a web hosting business benefit from VMWare virtualization? Server virtualization is a technology where servers and server hardware are mapped to each other via software, but where the actual hardware association is hidden to the user. Virtualization is the technique of managing and presenting storage devices and server resources regardless of their physical layout or location. In case of server virtualization the actual host server (physical server) hosts several virtual servers on top of the actual operating system. The host server presents the hardware resources to the VMs.

VMWare is currently the market leader in regards to virtualization technology. The VMWare Infrastructure ESX product is a stripped Linux operating system with a (now) build-in sophisticated virtualization technology. The software does a great job of dynamically mapping physical resources like memory and CPU to virtual counterparts within virtual server machines (VMs). Virtualization technology uses the fact that most physical servers are under-utilized in regards to CPU and memory usage. On average most application servers are using less than 10% of their physical resources. The remaining 90% are paid for, but will never be used. What a waste of money you might think. Now take virtualization and base your resource allocation on the fact mentioned before. Take one beefed up physical server and make it home to 10 or even 20 virtual machines. The initial higher cost for more memory and disk space will easily be made up for by the number of server you can present on top of this one physical server. Less hardware to maintain, less support contracts to pay for, less heat in your data center, and less electricity used.

Take this a step further and combine several physical servers into a farm-style environment and take advantage of VMWare’s virtualization products. Live migrate VMs from one host server to another without any visible interruption for the user. Yes, you heard that right. You move a virtual server while it is running from one physical host to another and the user who is visiting websites on that server does not notice a single drop in accessibility or performance.

Example 1: Host server A has a hardware problem and you move the VMs off (while they are running) to the other servers in your VMWare farm. You take Host A down and replace the faulty hardware. Once it is up you move the VMs back to they were before and again with no interruption to the user.

Example 2: A website on a virtual server (VM) was mentioned on CNN and ABC News and gets flooded with millions of HTTP requests. This website and the underlying virtual server suddenly need all available memory and CPU resources. The web host moves other VMs off the physical host to have enough resources available. Still not enough. Shutdown the VM and on the fly the web host adds more (virtual) RAM and a couple more (virtual) CPUs. The VM is back online within 5 minutes and all is well. Try to do that with a physical server.

Of course there is a lot more about how VMWare and their virtualization products can fit perfectly into a web hosting business. Read the other articles here on “The Web Hosting Resource Kit”.

 

What to choose? Free or Paid Web Hosting?

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What to choose? Free or Paid Web Hosting?

When choosing a web host provider, one first has to determine if they wish to use a paid or free hosting service. There are plenty of both available. Before even examining the differences between paid or free hosting, it should be understood that if you have plans for your web site to be anything more than a personal "About Me" or "My Hobby" site to share with your friends–a free hosting service should be out of the question.

In short, providing free hosting services isn’t a very sustainable business model and the majority of those who attempt it fail, often disappearing overnight and leaving all of their users stuck with no web sites, and worse yet, no access to the files they had on their free hosting accounts.

Reliable web hosting depends upon quality hardware along with trained customer care and support technicians. Obviously, a hosting provider who offers their services to users for free–even if they include some small advertising on their customer’s pages to earn a minimal return for the service–isn’t going to be able to provide top of the line hardware or hire the highest trained and most experienced personnel; it simply won’t be within their operating budget.

If you want dependable and stable hosting, you have to use a paid service. The good news is that the costs for paid hosting are extremely affordable so there really is no reason to risk sacrificing the quality or security of your web site with free service providers.

Assuming that your web site will be just for personal use and that free hosting services haven’t been excluded by the reasons mentioned already, there is still a decision to be made on whether or not to use a free or paid service; so an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of both is in order.

Free web hosting offers one big advantage, it is free. Even though paid hosting can be found for about the same price as a cup of coffee at Starbucks, there is no getting around the fact that if your budget doesn’t have room for that you can use a free hosting service.

On the other hand, free hosting typically comes with severe limitations and often lacks some very basic capabilities. For example, low disk space and bandwidth quantities, no ability to use standard scripting languages or .htaccess rules, no email or FTP access, no visitor tracking statistics, no personal domain names and an absence of quality support. In addition, most free hosting requires intrusive advertising be displayed on your web site pages as well.

With paid hosting you generally receive very generous disk space and transfer allowances, the ability to use your own domain name, email and FTP accounts, support for multiple scripting languages and third-party applications like forum boards, blogging software, content management systems, advanced eCommerce and shopping cart solutions, comprehensive visitor statistics and even web site design tools to work with.

In addition, with paid hosting you will usually also have access to qualified online and phone support 24/7.

Everyone has their own budget to work from, and it basically comes down to a risk versus rewards decision. With free hosting you risk the reliability of the service for your visitors and that your provider may go out of business without warning at any time. In making your decision you will have to weigh those risks against the rewards of reliability and advanced features that come with using a paid service for your web site.

Read our Host Gator Review

cPanel or Plesk?

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cPanel or Plesk?

When purchasing a web hosting account you are forced to make several decisions, one of which is what control panel will be the easiest and most productive for you. There are numerous control panels available, but the majority of hosting services offer either cPanel or Plesk. Here is a comparison of the two that should be helpful when making your decision.

In basic features, both cPanel and Plesk offer about the same. You can create, edit and manage email accounts, as well as maintain your domains or sub-domains from them. You can also upload and manage the files on your account from either. For many users, these basic capabilities are all that will be required in a control panel.

Both cPanel and Plesk provide a graphical user interface to work from, though it is generally agreed upon that cPanel has the more user friendly layout. The Plesk interface can appear a bit overwhelming to a novice user, and be slightly harder to navigate; where cPanel seems to have focused their graphic design specifically for the novice. For this very reason, cPanel is often claimed to be the easier of the two to work with. It ultimately boils down to a question of personal taste on which interface you prefer, and doesn’t have much to do with the real functions and capabilities that the programs provide, only how you will access them.

It is really in the more advanced features, and their ease-of-use offered by the two control panels that sets them apart.

cPanel is typically provided by most hosting services with the Fantastico script installer included. What this offers to users is the ability to install a wide range of scripts and applications on their web site; including forum boards, blogs, eCommerce shopping cart solutions, content management systems and much more–all with a simple click-and-go approach. No programming or database knowledge is required, and any of these applications can be up and running on your web site in just a minute or two with a couple clicks of the mouse.

Plesk has an application pack, and works on a modules basis that allows for additional third party add-ons as well. However, none that seem as widely used and demanded as Fantastico is with cPanel right now, and generally there is some basic technical knowledge required to install and utilize the more advanced features with Plesk–or a hosting provider willing to do it for you.

One major difference is that cPanel only operates on Unix based web servers at the moment, though they are working on support for the Windows Operating System. Plesk however, is currently compatible with both Unix and Windows based servers.

While the majority of users don’t depend on a specific Operating System for their server and will generally utilize Unix based hosting because it often comes with a lower price tag, if you do plan to run specific applications from your web site which will require a Windows based server then cPanel is not an option for you at this time.

If your web site does not have any Operating System requirements when deciding which control panel will be best for you, an understanding of what you want to do and achieve will be necessary. If you are a developer, or just the type who wants to get hands-on with the technical aspects and details of your hosting and web site software, you will probably appreciate Plesk more.

If you are just looking for a reliable control panel that makes the use of features as easy and fast as possible for you, the odds are that cPanel will be your best option.

My recommendations for cPanel Hosting are HostGator, JustHost.com, and HostMonster. Pick any of these 3 web hosts and you can get your website online for cheap, but do not have to compromise on features or allowances for disk storage and bandwidth.

Article updated 2/25/2010