Archive | June, 2009

Facebook, Hosting Friends and the Web Hosting Show

Jun/29 in All Posts

Web Hosting Show Facebook Group

Ever wanted to meet others who listen to the Web Hosting Show, to discuss the podcast, share links, debate who the greatest web host is, or share cookie recipes? If so, then you my friend need to go join the Web Hosting Show’s group on Facebook. 

Right now we are discussing the Web Hosting Show reaching #78 in the top 100 software how-to audio podcasts on iTunes, sharing our web site URLs, discussing who might be current hosting our own site and a lot more.  All that I ask you do is join, introduce yourself, and I hope this ends up delivering to you one more way to meet people inside the industry we are all interested in learning more about.

I wanted to kind of give this side-project a re-launching because I think there is a demand to want to know more about the hosting world – and with my fine audience here, we have a wide enough spectrum of beginners to experts that everybody should find something to learn from.  Join and say hi!

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Hosting Podcast Gone Wild – Episode 189

Jun/15 in All Posts, Web Hosting Podcasts

Podcast #189Not to sound like an over-hyped sales man, but we do have a great show for you today. From ten of the best free web site hosting solutions, to news about web hosts being attacked because of their relationships with torrents it is like a bonanza of web hosting news, tips, and tutorials you can not do without. The Web Hosting Show is now on the air and ready for download.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 189!
Running Time: 11 minutes | File Size: 4.89 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: (click a link to read about that segment!)

Here are this week’s web hosting news headlines:

Largest Datacenter in the US to be Built in Texas – Dallas-based Capstar Commercial Real Estate Services is investing millions of dollars to redevelop a former telecommunications equipment plant in Mesquite, Texas into what it says will be the largest data center in the country, according to a report by the Dallas News.

Trivia Question – What “celestial based” web host calls Texas its home? (to find out the answer, be sure to download and listen to this week’s podcast!)

I hope you fully enjoy this week’s podcast. If you have any show feedback or suggestions be sure to leave a comment or drop me an e-mail at mitch@mitchkeeler.com.  Enjoy it, share it and listen again and again!

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A Web Host with No Uptime at All

Jun/15 in All Posts, Commentary, Web Hosting Tutorials

Worst Web Host Ever?

Are you searching for a web host that offers nothing when it comes to uptime?  Well, while many think they might be currently hosted on that host in question, I can say you are wrong.  Why? Because you are not hosted with No Uptime Hosting.

NoUptime.com promises you nothing at all.  For web hosting fans, this web site is really hilarious.  Anybody outside of the web hosting world though, probably will not understand what the fuss it all about.  Take their three plans for an example:

  • Hosting Package 1 (the I’m-Poor plan)
  • Hosting Package 2 (the Take-My-Money plan)
  • Hosting Package 3 (the Resell-Our-Crap plan)

As they say, “We are constantly working to improve our server downtime.  Keeping you awake at night is our number one priority.” Oh, and you can’t forget their testimonials with such gems as, “I want my money back”.  How do you get your content to them?  FTP? No, that is so old school.  Here is how they suggest you send it:

Don’t like uploading your files via FTP? No problem! Send us your files on a floppy and we’ll upload it for you. It’s one of the many ways we do our best to accommodate your needs. Just remember, our floppy system does not accept Windows, Linux, or Mac floppies.

I could spend hours discussing this one great parody of a web site, but I will save you the time and just point you towards NoUptime.com.  It is a fun site for anybody who is in or has dealt with web hosting one on one.

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10 Sources for Free Web Site Hosting

Jun/15 in All Posts, Free Hosting, Web Hosting Tutorials

We are all falling on tough economic times, so what better way to save on some hosting than to look towards a few free hosting sources.  Now, free web hosting does come with some downsides.  You are not going to be able to host the next Digg or YouTube, however if you need a small space to get started with learning the web hosting ropes, free hosts can often be the best way to get your feet wet.

Here are ten free sources for web hosting out there today.

100webspace.com – Here you get 100 MB of web page, 3000 MB of bandwidth and a lot of extra features like MySQL databases, SSL, SpamAssassin, POP3 and web e-mail and much more.  It also allows for FTP or FrontPage access too.

Wonderful Experiance with 100WebSpace.com

Frihost.com – This free web host is offering you 250 MB of disk space and 10 GB of bandwidth per month.  It is hosted on a Unix OS, with access to MySQL, cron jobs, raw logs, backups and more.

FriHost ReDesigning free web hosting

HelioHost.org – Your monthly bandwidth will be limited to 2500 here, and 250 MB of disk space.  However, they do offer Ruby on Rails, Fantastico, and both MySQL and PostgreSQL databases.

HelioHost Offers Great Hosting Deals

Continue Reading →

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One Host Stands Up to Torrent Killing IFPI

Jun/15 in All Posts, Hosting News, Web Hosting Tutorials

piratebay1 It looks like after the people involved with the Pirate Bay web site were convicted of copyright infringement earlier this year, the IFPI is starting to threaten other torrent sharing sites by threatening their web hosts.

To give you a little more information about the key players here, the Pirate Bay, a torrent sharing web site, provides what you could call the “path” to be able to download copyrighted materials.  The IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) is the music industry’s lobby group who is doing some of their heavy handed grunt work when it comes to shutting down web sites like the Pirate Bay.

The new tactic here is that the IFPI are skipping over the web site owners and are now going directly to the web hosts who host the torrent web sites in question.  They want to get the web hosts on a charge of assisting copyright infringement, which is a decision that has yet to be appealed.

There is one web host who has yet to given into the demands of the IFPI.  The Swedish provider Portlane has filed a complaint in the Swedish Market Court.  Now true, sharing copyrighted materials might be wrong, I will leave that judgment call up to you.

What is to be admired here is a small guy standing up against the establishment, showing the IFPI and the world that we should be a society who serves the people’s best interest and not the best interest of the one with the biggest wallet.

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Squarespace is an All in One Hosting Package

Jun/15 in All Posts, Web Design, Web Hosting Tutorials

I have heard about Squarespace from a number of different sources the past few weeks, so I thought I would give it a look.  For those of you who may be new to the service, it is a fully hosted, completely managed environment for creating and hosting a web site.

The service really does a great job a breaking down the parts of your web site down into bricks.  You kind shift and move the bricks around, make make your web site look the way you want.  The designs to choose from are great too, and you can customize them to suit your needs.

Along with hosting, and design – they also provide you with real time visitor analytics and stats about all of your pages.  That way you can work on marketing yourself better too.

Squarespace Tour Video from Squarespace on Vimeo.

At $8 a month, the service really has a lot going for it, if you are looking for a mix of hosting, plus a quality content management system.  Try them out for free, at Squarespace.com.

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Benefits of Cloud Storage – Episode 188

Jun/01 in All Posts, Interviews, Web Hosting Podcasts

Podcast #188 There is a lot of talk these days in the various web hosting social circles about cloud-based products and services.  One big name that seems to be gaining a lot of traction in this area is The Planet, so I could think of no greater company to contact to discuss the issue.

On today’s show we have The Planet’s General Manager of Storage and Data Protection, Rob Walters, to discuss cloud storage.

Download the Web Hosting Show, Episode 188!
Running Time: 8 minutes | File Size: 3.60 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 some of the topics we cover in today’s interview:

  • What is and what are the benefits of cloud storage?
  • How is The Planet’s cloud storage business different?
  • Why is creating the “shortest path” between clients and servers important?

There are five things customers should evaluate when choosing a cloud platform.

  • Performance – It is important that you match the platform with the performance needs for your application.  Many cloud storage platforms only provide 2-3 Mb/sec, which is fine for most backup and archiving use cases, but is likely not sufficient for production data.  It is also important to run multiple tests and measure the variability between tests, as cloud storage platform performance can be inconsistent.
  • Ease of integration – The ease of user access is critical to product adoption in web applications.  Most cloud storage products provide proprietary APIs for integration.  This means you will need to specifically develop for that cloud storage platform.  This makes integration more difficult and increases switching costs.  Check if the platform offers any standards-based integration software that allows access via CIFS, NFS, FTP or HTTP.
  • Where you want your data – Most cloud products do not offer specific locations for data to reside.  In fact, these companies offer the data “in the cloud” as if “the cloud” were a location rather than an access medium.  While in many cases the physical location of data is unimportant, there are occasions when being able to select a location is beneficial.  For instance, if you are building a disaster recovery plan; working to reduce download times for a specific customer; or attempting to pass strict security audits, then where data resides is critical.
  • Flexibility – One of the most appealing features of cloud storage is the flexibility of its on-demand design, which manifests itself in two primary traits: scalability and elasticity.  Most cloud storage products should free you from the task of capacity planning, hardware budgeting and upgrading.  Capacity is available on-demand, as required.  Watch out for commitments for minimum usage levels as these can negate this inherent benefit .  Cloud storage products should provide elasticity, with capacity that grows as your business requires, and scales back as soon as this excess capacity is no longer needed.
  • Usage-based billing – Paying only for what you use is certainly appealing.  The primary aspects on which to judge the pricing of a cloud storage product should simply be: how much storage capacity you used and how much bandwidth was used to access your data.  Keep a sharp eye out for “hidden” fees, because in many use cases they can add up quickly to be as much or more than the primary elements of your bill.  “Hidden” fees to watch out for include: connect fees, account maintenance charges, and “puts” and “gets” charges.  Cloud platforms should offer simple and predictable monthly bills.

More Interesting Links from The Planet:

For the second show in a row, we have the chance to talk with one of the big names in the web hosting game, so I hope you tune in to hear more about cloud storage and how The Planet is serving it up to you.  If you would like to come onto the show to talk to the entire hosting industry about what you do, how you host or anything else be sure to drop me a line at mitch@mitchkeeler.com.

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