Archive | January, 2008

Talking Data Protection with R1Soft – Episode 139

Jan/28 in All Posts, Interviews, Web Hosting Podcasts

Hosting Podcast Episode 139You did backup before you listened to (and/or read) this, right? One company that has made a name out of keeping you from having to think such thoughts is R1Soft. On today’s show I got the chance to talk with Mario Rodriguez of R1Soft to talk about why and how they do it the best.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 139!
Running Time: 13 minutes | File Size: 5.57 MB

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode of the Web Hosting Show.

  • Why you should be using R1Soft for your server backups!
  • Who is DJ Netizen and what does he have to do with Mario?
  • How Personal and Work Lives in Hosting Merge Together
  • What does a “server backup” company really do?

My interview with Mario might be on the list of my top ten favorite interviews I have done in the nearly three years I’ve been producing this podcast. Loads of fun as well as lots of good information to be had.

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Hot Girl in Web Hosting? (Marketing Tip)

Jan/26 in All Posts, Web Hosting Videos

I know what your thinking, what does a hot girl and web hosting have to do with one another? Well if you have no shame, and your looking for a marketing tool – having a hot girl talk about your hosting services might not be that bad of an idea.

video removed by uploader

This video to date has over 200,000 views and counting and is about as obvious of a commercial as you can get. It is simple, gets your attention and apparently keeps somebody coming back for more with that many views. If somebody was to get more creative with this idea I think you could really double the views even this video has.

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All in 1 Free Hosting with Webnode

Jan/25 in All Posts, Free Hosting, Web Hosting Tutorials

Webnode - Free HostingLooking to put up a simple site for free? One new service that caught my attention is Webnode. They promise that you can use your own domain, create an awesome personal page or blog, and that you can do this from anywhere.

In their pitch from the front page, that do make it sound worth looking into deeper for sure:

Webnode brings you a brand new innovative way of creating and editing advanced websites by just using a web browser. The system is very easy to use and is fully interactive. Real-time fast editing as you see it in the browser. By using Drag-and-Drop from the toolbar you can add new content such as polls, forums, articles, catalogues, widgets such as PayPal and much more.

Here are only a few of the many features they provide:

  • Real Time Editing
  • Drag and Drop Technology
  • Gadgets and Widgets
  • 40+ Design Templates
  • Polls, FAQ’s, RSS, and Webmail

So where is the catch? I have yet to find one yet – but to monitize the service, I can bet they will be adding down the road higher disk space and bandwidth limits for a fee or other services to get you to fork over your cash. If your low on cash and want to build yourself a simple/yet pretty web site, Webnode is worth checking into.

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Beginner’s Guide to Overselling Your Services

Jan/24 in All Posts, Commentary, Web Hosting Tutorials

money.jpgOne phrase that gets tossed around a lot in web hosting is “oversold”. This is what happens when a web host is selling more server space than they actually have got, in the hope that their clients will never actually use the full offer that they bought into.

Take this as an example. Tom had a pie that he cut into six pieces. Tom’s problem is that he wants to give pie slices to twelve of his friends. When all of his friends show up to eat some pie, he gives each of his twelve friends a half of a pie slice and promises them if they need more pie they can have it. Tom’s problem?

He only had one pie – so he hopes his friends get full off that half a slice.

Now why does this happen? Well with prices for hosting getting cheaper and the offers for hosting as far as disk space and bandwidth go getting bigger, some web hosts don’t have any other choice.

From a purely visual side by side comparison if one place offers you 50 GB of space for five dollars and another offers you 150 GB of space for five dollars, most people are going to take the bigger offer.

Is there a real future for overselling? In the long haul – I don’t think so. Eventually web hosts are going to run into a bottle neck of what they can really promise in comparison with the technology that is out there. My hope is that people actually start to grow suspicious of such offers and rise up against it. When your getting a gift though – you don’t want to ask why or how your getting it, you just take it and smile.

For that one simple fact, the future of overselling might be a little longer in the tooth than expected.

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Pingdom Tools

Jan/23 in All Posts, Online Tools, Web Hosting Tutorials

One of the tools I use most often in my day to day web hosting work is Pingdom Tools. The full page test that they provide is second to none when it comes to an awesome way to see what might be slowing a web page down. They also have ping and traceroute tools too, to help any webmaster see where the bottleneck might be with your web site’s loading time.

Full Page Test

The full page test gives you stats and information from images, CSS, javascripts, RSS, flash, frames and more. It gives you a visual representation of how the page is loaded in any web browser. Every test also shows statistics about the web site in question such as the number of objects, total loading time and the size of the objects.

Pingdom Page Loading Test

Ping and Traceroute Tools

These two tools you have seen time and time again on all kinds of different network tool web sites. The difference between what Pingdom does in comparison with everybody else is their visual representation is a lot easier to understand. With pinging it gives you 5 tests to look at, as they ping the web site in question and then it takes an average of the scores. The traceroute tool gives you the number of hops, the max response time and the average response time as long as a neat bar graph visualization of it all.

Pingdom Ping Test

This is one URL that any hosting worker or webmaster should have tucked away on their tool belt.

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Network Solutions Registering Whois Searches

Jan/22 in All Posts, Hosting News, Web Hosting Tutorials

Network Solutions

Whatever you do, be very careful before you search for your next domain name at Network Solutions. They have jumped in on the game of pre-registering domain names based on user searches. The hook? You decide you want that domain, you’ll have to register it with them.

Now I am not usually the kind of person to boycott anybody for their business practices, but I do have to say what Network Solutions is doing is pretty low down and dirty. Here are the facts thus far:

  • If you search for a domain name’s availability with Network Solutions, they will register the domain name.
  • If you would like to register the domain name you thought you might want after that point, you have to pay them $35/year for the domain name.

According to TechCrunch, this isn’t costing them a dime either:

This isn’t costing the company anything, either. Registrars are permitted to register domains for five days without paying any fees to the domain name registry (in this case, Verisign). If they delete the domains after 5 days, which they will almost certainly do, they do not pay for the registration.

Where is ICANN with this type of practice? I say if they were all over RegisterFly for what they were doing then Network Solutions really should not be treated any differently.

Related Reading:
DomainTools.com Blog – Network Solutions is Getting Better

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Shiny Happy Hosting – Episode 138

Jan/21 in All Posts, Web Hosting Podcasts

Shiny Happy Hosting - Episode 138You ever wonder why hosting people always seem so up to beat and happy? Maybe it is due to the fact we have to be due to dealing with customer relations all day.

Maybe it is because the angry part of our brain died a long time ago. Shiny happy hosting people rejoice, the Web Hosting Show is on the air.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 138!
Running Time: 11 minutes | File Size: 5.05 MB

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Here are just a few topics from this week’s episode of the Web Hosting Show.

  • GoDaddy, Beavers and the .ME Domain Extension
  • Network Solution and Sneaky Domain Name Registrations
  • Pingdom Tools – Ping, Traceroutes, and Page Loading Tools
  • Beginner’s Guide to Overselling your Hosting Services
  • Webnode – Free Hosting with a Kick (and great perks!)

Time to get back on the good ship hosting-pop and converse one on one about some things going on in the hosting world these days. There has been a lot of negativity going around, so maybe – just maybe this show will at least help put a smile back on your face.

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Moving from Web Host to Web Host – Episode 137

Jan/13 in All Posts, Specials, Web Hosting Podcasts

Web Hosting RadioWhen moving from house to house, you have to pack up all of your belongings in the old house before you can move, right? The same could be said when you are moving from web host to web host.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 137!
Running Time: 8 minutes | File Size: 3.29 MB

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The first and most important thing you can do is backup your web site and get it ready for the move. Remember to grab all of your static files. This would be all of your non-dynamic pages, images, templates and more. The exact files that you do backup might change depending on how your site is setup.

Continue Reading →

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Tip – Use GooCal to Manage Backend Site Data

Jan/11 in All Posts, Online Tools, Web Hosting Tutorials

Google Calendar (or as the cool kids say GooCal) is a great way to get your web site’s back end organized. It has the easiest interface to just drop in reminders and schedule repeating tasks. Personally I use it to remind me when my timesheet/invoice is due so I remember to send it in to get paid.

Logging into Google Calendar, adding a task or reminder is easy to do. Just click on the date and type in the item you need to remember in the “What?” box. Later on, you can click that same item to edit it further – such as set it to repeat every x amount of days or weeks.

Google CalendarFor Web Hosts and Hosting Workers:

  • Mange project start and stop times
  • Figure out when your next invoice is due
  • Schedule staff meetings and share it with your support crew

For Web Hosting Clients and Customers

  • Setup a reminder for your next hosting billing date
  • Notify yourself of when your domain name registration is up
  • Write down server maintenance times from your host so you don’t forget

Google Calendar is one of those tools I use for just about everything. Don’t forget to try out some of the alternatives like 30 Boxes, Yahoo Calendar and Kiko then stick with the one you like best.

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How to: Blogless WordPress Site

Jan/10 in All Posts, Web Hosting Tutorials, Web Hosting Tutorials

Have a static web site, but you still feel the urge of having an easier way to manage your data? WordPress is a perfect tool to get this done if your not afraid to do a little tweaking and thinking outside of the box.

Make a Static Site With WordPress

You can get this done in four easy steps:

Step 1: Find a WordPress template that you like, and remove the blog related content in the sidebar (or wherever else it is posted). If you can create a WordPress layout by hand you might be better off.

Step 2: Login to the WordPress administration interface and go to Options, then Reading. On that page you can set your front page to be a static web page instead of the default blog list that you get.

Step 3: Mange all the pages on your site, by going to Write and then Write Page inside of the WordPress administration interface. To edit your creations later you can go to Manage and then Pages. From there you should get a full list of the pages you have created.

Step 4: You might have to go in and edit your template files ago to make sure you are linking to all the pages you have created. Since most sites done this way will be pretty small, you can get away with making these links by hand. I am sure there are automatic ways of doing it too using the list pages tag from WordPress. I would not bother though unless your just looking for something to tweak later down the road.

Personally this interested me at first because I wanted to know if it could be done. Now that I have done it with my own personal web site, I have found it to be an easy way to make edits and changes to my little biography on the Web. Another neat perk about doing this is you can work in WordPress plugins into the mix and get some awesome dynamic interaction for a static web site.

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