Clustered hosting has lately turned around heads of many including biggies such as YouTube, Yahoo!, MySpace, Flickr etc, which use this web hosting service. Usually, it is chosen by big companies with massive websites receiving thousands of hits every day.

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Agreed, it’s a pain in more places than one when you have to migrate from one web host to the other, but when your needs grow and your current host fails to keep up, it’s best to do the dumping as soon as possible. But before you sever all ties, you must protect what’s yours and make sure your site is up and running without a hitch at your new host. Here’s a list of 13 things you must do before you dump your web host:

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Choosing between a dedicated servers and shared hosting brings up a lot of questions. Does your site need a dedicated server or is shared web hosting good enough? How can I tell? Should I save money or get a powerful server now? How much control will I have with each option? Today I will be answering these questions and hopefully helping to make the choice easy.

When Is The Decision Is Easy?
The decision is easy when you don’t have a choice… If your site is getting tons of visitors, if your current shared host says it is using too many resources, if you are running a lot of dynamic php mysql sites that demand a lot of memory and cpu, or if you can’t afford downtime because you are doing marketing on your sites that can’t be down. Any of these reasons make the decision to go with a dedicated server easy and the real question then becomes what type of dedicated server.

By The Numbers…
You should fit into one of these hypothetical situations… Just keep in mind these are very ruff and you should give your hosting company stats so they can decide.

1. I run WordPress or PHP/MySQL site and get over 500 unique visitors a day. Get a dedicated server. Under that number of visitors and you are probably fine on shared web hosting.

2. I run a static site and get under 500 visitors a day. Shared hosting is fine. Go dedicated or VPS if it grows a lot. Static is a lot easier on the server.

A lot of shared hosts will be fine with bigger sites but its borderline in most cases. I also tend to error on the side of caution. I’ve seen plenty of intensive forums with 3,000 visitors a day running on shared hosting for months and then one day something flukes to cause a spike and suddenly they have 10 days to upgrade.

By The Money
Shared hosting is around $10 a month while a dedicated server is at least $70. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to make this choice. If money is a factor go with shared hosting.

I Want Control
If you want complete control of your hosting environment go with a dedicated server. Shared hosting will limit what you can do, what you can tweak, and what you can install. With a dedicated server you can do anything you want!

I work for UK2 and over the last ten years have helped a lot of people choose between the dedicated servers we offer versus our shared web hosting. It really just boils down to the above issues.

Yahoo reports that Online retailer Amazon.com’s Web site went down for more than two hours in the middle of the day Friday.

Around 10 a.m. PDT, the Web site shut down, giving an error code to anyone visiting it, according to Keynote Systems Inc., a California-based company that measures Internet activity.

One digg.com user asks:

Amazon’s down!!! What’s going on? Asks one Digg.com user.

Error message is: Http/1.1 Service Unavailable. Major update? Technical difficulties? What’s the deal?

Maybe they didn’t pay their 6.95 for shared cPanel hosting?

So you built a Web site? All done? Amrit Ray posts his thoughts on how to promote a Web site.

How do I effectively promote my website, is a million dollar question. And yes, it is no exaggeration. People all over the world are making millions by effectively promoting their websites and reaching out to thousands of potential businesses that they otherwise had never thought possible.

The advent of technology and its easy accessibility has changed the way people buy or do business online. All this has ushered in a new era of e-commerce where people’s perception towards online businesses has changed dramatically and they are ready to accept the concept of online businesses and feel comfortable buying from someone they have never met or probably will never meet in person.

Now this has opened up a whole new world of opportunities for businesses worldwide. Everybody is vying for a share of the million dollar online market. The first step of course involves getting an attractive website done highlighting the products you want to sell. A good professional web designer would be able to help you out here both with web hosting and design. The next step involves promoting your website so that it reaches its target audience.

There is no sure shot way or magic pill that one can use to promote their website. And in fact, no one knows for sure what works and what does not. All major search engines have different criteria or algorithm to judge how relevant a website is to its audience. No one knows the exact factors that make one website feature over the other on certain keywords. However some factors that could increase your search engine visibility are back links and good content.

Back links are links from other websites leading back to your own website. The quality of the website linking back to your site is also very important. Back links from negative websites could harm your websites image, so be careful about that. Now the question is how do you get back links? The simple answer is, ask them for it. Though, link exchange in my opinion is not a very good idea. Search engines will know that you have mutually exchanged the links and the link backs are artificial. Submit your website to Directories. There are thousands of them out there. It takes time and patience. Leave comments on blogs with a link to your website. This is one point that should never be over done. There is a fine line between promoting and spamming and crossing the line could be disastrous. No one likes spammers and neither do search engines. Too many back links in a short period of time can also arouse suspicion, so continue at a steady pace until you see your ranking improve. Another good way of getting back links is posting in forums as most of them allow you to use your website address in your signature.

Now when people start to find your website online it is important that your website has relevant and interesting content so that your visitors stay online longer. The longer they stay the more chances they will buy.

These are a few small steps one can take to promote ones website effectively.

Thinking of registering a domain with the hot keywords “web hosting?” Sure you are. I can read your mind. Well, I was bored today and thought I’d search and see what web hosting domains were available. So, to start my quest, I visited Godaddy and typed in webhosting .com into the search…

Looks like I’m about 15 years too late on that one. Some clever soul reserved webhosting.com back in January 1993 when I was in the fetal stages of Internet growth. Can’t say I’m surprised. If you are, I’ve got some .info’s over in Iceland that I’d like to sell you:). Have you noticed that just about any occurence of the word webhosting + any valuable keyword has been registered by domainers, SEO’s or individual businesses?

But what I really wanted to see was what results the Godaddy domain suggestion tool would offer as alternatives. Here’s what came up:

Is this sad or what?

Some of the premium domain names aren’t that bad but look how expensive they are!

The additional domains, those at regular prices, are the worst of the crop, wouldn’t you say? I mean, who wants to start a web site called “Web Hosting Store” or “Net Life Hosting.” Also, maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t it seem strange to have the word online and hosting together in the same domain name?

So what’s a web hosting sitebuilder to do? I know you’re out there so please speak up and liberate us from the prospect of buying a bad domain.

What Websites are Hosted on this IP?

This is one of the best reverse ip tools I have ever seen. Most reverse ip tools do not show you nearly all the sites hosted on a server and sometimes there users are even charged for a premium service to use the full tool. At first, I thought it was capable of actually displaying all domains hosted on a server. However, it doesn’t because I checked one of my servers and it got only 3 out of 7 domains on ip address. But, in other cases it seems to list a long list of domains hosted on a server. Over at digg.com, users are having fun poking around on government and scientology sites to see what domains are hosted.

Using the You Get Signal “Reverse IP Domain Check,” you can see all of the other sites hosted on the same web server as a particular domain name. Try it.

Here’s more from YouGetSignal.com… and story at Digg.

I saw this story at Web Host Magazine reporting on Web sites that naively call for user input, then fail to put strict checks on what that input may be, are susceptible to SQL injection attacks. Security is an oft overlooked issue for many of us who own and operate multiple sites. Now just might be a good time to check under the hood of your server for any potential exploits. Procrastinate on other things, not your site security!

read more | digg story | Information Week Story

I got started doing graphics editing with JASC Paint Shop Pro way back. I haven’t used the program since it was purchased by Corel. Now I use Photoshop and have recently begun toying around with the open source GIMP graphic editor.

This is a neat tutorial will show you how to create Web Host company header using photoshop and the free stock photo above.

What Graphics Editor do you use?

Opinion by Weber Hostetler

Why do so many website builders use Linux web hosting? My guess for this preference in operating systems would be: stability. Linux is perhaps the most stable operating system in the world.

There are two of essential foods: peanut butter and jelly, two major political parties: democrat and republican, and two kinds of web hosting which make up practically all web hosting on the planet: Windows based web hosting and Linux web hosting. The Windows operating system’s proprietary API (application programming interface) which is complicated and which is not entirely open for developers to know the ins and outs of. As a result, computers which run Windows as their primary operating system are suspected of being more prone to crashes.

Why is Linux stable? Servers running Linux web hosting just might be more stable because Linux is an open source operating system. The code is open to the public so that anyone can read it and suggest improvements or point out bugs. Over the years, Linux has been developed in various flavors such as Red Hat and Debian. Thousands and thousands of people have contributed their time and effort to making Linux web hosting run faster and to provide simpler, more efficient and bug free code. With an open programming environment, improvements are made on a continual basis and problems are seen relatively quickly and solved with a minimum of difficulty.

When you are starting a web site, one of your chief concerns is stability. Any time that the web site spends offline as a result of technical problems is time that your customers are unable to use your site, and this is bad for your bottom line. Businesses tend to want the most stable operating system for their web sites to minimize the dreaded server crash.

Another issue the webmasters have to consider when setting up a new online site is whether the operating system they are using will be able to use the full range of software and scripts that they require. Again, Linux web hosting is a winner in this regard. Lots of major web hosting companies offer Linux web hosting and with so many people using it around the world anything that you can do with Windows hosting can also be done with Linux web hosting. Many of the most popular script packages on the web today are available in both Windows and Linux web hosting versions, with the Linux web hosting version generally being more stable and having all of the same features as their Windows cousins. This is of course my opinion and I am sure that there are some who may disagree.

Linux web hosting is typically available at the same price as Windows web hosting. So consider that for the same price you can get an operating system for your site on the world wide web which is:

• stable
• runs popular script packages
• considered the best operating system in the world in terms of these criteria by many of the internet’s most well respected independent sources of judgement.

When you ruminate on all of the arguments for Linux web hosting over Windows hosting (there are more as I don’t even mention the whole Apache stuff), the decision would seem to me to be a no brainer: Linux web hosting wins hands down as the operating system that you should choose if you want to have a stable, reliable and full featured site that takes advantage of the latest in web technologies.

Getting your web server with the Linux operating system is particular important for companies which need to set up eCommerce sites. When customers rely on your site for sending in their orders, you need to make sure that you web site is running twenty four hours a day. Linux web hosting with live support might not be a bad idea for mission critical sites. Some Linux web hosts reviewed at Webhostingfinds.com include:

• BlueHost
• HostGator

Agree or disagree?

Could this be a new hacker tool?

Do you remember the power mishap in July that brought down 365 Main, the San Francisco datacenter? A  similar incident took place at Rackspace, a Dallas, Texas Web host which serves several local companies.

I doubt that I will ever get around to building my own datacenter, but if I do, it will not be close to a highway. Yep, the security implications that this event brings to the surface are disturbing.

Now what?

How about a new cPanel feature: Truck Redirect

Valleywag | Techcrunch | Digg

Will Google Buy GoDaddy?

There has been a bit of buzz about the possiblity of accredited registrar, Google (oh and search engine giant too), buying Godaddy. Could this be possible? Looks Like Google might be lining up to Buy GoDaddy Inc the worlds largest domain registrar, a move that some speculate might help Google remove spam from search engine results. GoDaddy has applied for several patents in the past months. GoDaddy may be trying to attract Google as a buyer.

Read about it here and Here | via digg

There is a lot of talk about server clustering these days. Not that I understand this or that it is actually easy for us all, but I thought this tutorial from the folks at IBM was interesting. It shows the thinking that goes into constructing an Apache Web server cluster that spans multiple physical or virtual Linux servers in 5 easy steps with Linux Virtual Server and Heartbeat v2.

read the full article at IBM or check discussion on Digg

Been here before, but here are a few important items to look for in a host from GreatResponder.com. Web hosting is a major part in the success of your online business. By choosing the right web hosting company for your web site, your success will be one step nearer.

After finishing the first stage of preparing your web site online which is designing the your website in a way that knock out all the competition, the second step in creating your online presence is to decide on the way of choosing the best web hosting company that will fit your needs.

This decision needs many different factors that can make your final decision a success. We will summarize here the most important factors that effect your decision and you must look for when choosing a web hosting company.

read more at GreatResponder.com or at Digg

The 100 Oldest Currently Registered .COM Domains



The list appears a bit dated (ha, ha, ha), but it is rather interesting to see who jumped on the web early. I was surprised to see domains this old. It won’t be long and we’ll have the attention of antique collectors.read more about this | digg.com story

Now why didn’t I think of this? Maybe I did. There’s a Digg like site for every niche these days. Why not web hosting? I haven’t fully checked this out this Digg-like web host rating site, Hostigg, but it looks interesting. Like Digg – but hosting!

Have you ever wondered what the world’s longest domain name is? How long can a domain be? It’s limited. It seems that a domain can be no longer than 63 characters minus the top level domain suffix.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochuchaf.org.uk

thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com

Since the limit is on what precedes to top level domain name, breaking the tie is a matter of who has the longest TLD. In this case it’s .org.uk.

Congratulations!

Someone also attempted to create the longest blogspot domain:

read more | digg story

I suppose most anyone would be able to notice the trend in the number of social media sites such as Digg coming online. Have you spent any time on these sites? And for the site builders out there, would you undertake building a social media site rather than a static site or blog based site?

With a very simple concept, Digg.com has changed the fundamental nature of the news media and how millions of people access information. Digg (and its fellow social media sites) democratized the media…Now, argue about whether this is good or bad, but it’s now a fact of life.

read more on the subject…

According to a Forbes article, Microsoft supposedly wants to aquire Yahoo for a very large amount of money (more digits than my calculator can compute). This would be the largest aquisition in IT history, right?

Software maker Microsoft Corp. asked search engine operator Yahoo Inc. to re-enter formal negotiations for an acquisition that could be worth $50 billion, the New York Post reported on Friday.

What would the result look like? The first thing that comes to mind is the name? Would it be called YahooSoft or MicroHoo? And of course, would the new company then be able to beat Google in search?

read more of at Forbes.com | Digg story

Many months ago I was tagged by Mitch of the Web Hosting Show to reveal 5 things you don’t know about me. Who am I? I am still trying to figure that one out, but I’ll be glad to share what I know. However, I will still try and preserve the mystique around the true identity of the Web Hosting Finds Guy Behind the Scenes. Don’t worry, I’m not famous, but hey, let’s create some suspense!

First, my apologies Mitch, for taking so long. I have actually had this in my WordPress draft for many months. This year has been insane and I have finally gotten a handle on my work load (now we’ll find out if the boss actually reads these posts).

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Mitch Keeler, I’ll give you a quick summary. Mitch is the guy who makes the potentially boring web hosting industry interesting, funny and entertaining. Nuff said.

Okay here goes…

If you guys below haven’t already done this and want to continue the 5 things meme, please do:

Brian at The Code Cave
Harvey at RagePank
Jeff at Phraction
Kokul at Kokul’s World
Dave at Earthling