Ever wonder how interoperability is relevant to cloud computing?  The guys at Microsoft Europe have put together this great video explanation of what is is all about:

Have any other web hosting business related videos to share?  Be sure to leave them in the comments, or e-mail me at mitch@mitchkeeler.com.  Would love to highlight them right here on WebHostingShow.com.

At its core this means that the provisioning of space, bandwidth and power is controlled by a third-party data center.  They do not control it all though.  Most of the time, the web host who is using the third-party’s data center services will need to provide the management for the hardware or servers they are running from there.

To try to make sense of this, lets say I want to start a store.  I go rent a building downtown that has all the shelves, cash registers, and shopping carts – however I have to stock the store myself and, of course, figure out a way to bring the customers in the door.  Instead of spending money on buying the store and some of the basic necessities, I get to rent them – in turn bringing my overall costs down.

So, with it explained like that – where is the evil in it?

Well, many web hosting elite look down upon this practice because it is a money saving practice.  It lowers the proverbial bar on the point of entry somebody has to become a web host too.

Since building a data center from the ground up is a very expensive and time consuming act, I see no problem in getting your hosting through collocation.

Web Hosting Questions for You

Before you go shopping for your first, next or any type of web hosting plan, you should be ready to answer these questions:

• What type of web site do you want to host?
• Are you going to need any special server side technology?
• Have you ever gotten in trouble for using too many “server resources” (usually RAM or CPU)

Web Hosting Questions for Your Future Web Host

As far as questions that you should ask, I would make sure that you at least ask them these questions.

• What is the price/time period ratio? (sometimes you can get a better deal if you sign up for a longer time)
• Do you have any example web sites or server speed tests?
• Can you handle my needs (be sure to give a full list of what you would want to install or need)
• How can I reach and how responsive is the support team?
• How long is your money back guarantee? (if they have one)

Now, your own list of questions might vary depending on what type of web site you want to host and how complex it will be.

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.

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.

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.

000webhost.com – Looking at this free hosting alternative, we see 250 MB of disk space, and 100 GB of bandwidth.  You also get tools like cPanel, and access to password protected files, custom error pages, and phpMyAdmin.

110MB.com – An old one, but a good one, 110MB offers you 5000 MB of disk space and 300 GB of monthly bandwidth.  Also here to love is the fact they have no forced ads, they allow you to use your own ads, support PHP and FTP.

WebHero.com – Supporting the scripting languages of PHP, Perl and Python, WebHero also gives you 100MB of disk space and 500 MB of bandwidth, which are pretty reasonable for a free web hosting provider.

1ASPHost.com – I have one ASP host on the list, and their name ironically is 1ASPHost. Bandwidth here is set at 1,000 MB per month and you get 100 MB of disk space.  Some of the features included are MS Access, WAP, no file size limit, and online zipping and unzipping of files.

FreeHostia.com – Bandwidth at Free Hostia is set to 5,000 MB and disk space is at 250 MB.  You get stats, instant activation, e-mail, and access to install counters, message boards, polls and more.

FreeServers.com – A new favorite of mine, Free Servers offers a reliable free web hosting plan.  You do have ads on your web site, however you get 50 MB of disk space and a nice upgrade path just in case you outgrow their free solution.

GoFreeServe.com – Offering 300 MB of free disk space and 10 GB of bandwidth, they also allow for PHP scripting, e-mail access, and cPanel.  Worth a shot.

There you have it, ten quality free web hosts to choose from if you are looking to learn a little more about web hosting and how it works.  If you have any reviews of these services or you have another favorite, be sure to leave them in the comments.  Would love to hear who you think the best free web host really is.

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.

You can sort the dedicated hosting offers by:

• Management
• CPU Type
• Bandwidth
• Memory
• Disk Space
• Platform
• Price

The HostMonk web site was founded by a group of IT professionals who found themselves spending way too much time sifting through hosting plans to find the best deal.  So what did they do, they built a tool that helps you sort dedicated web hosts more easily.

Here is more on why and how they think they are different in comparison with other web host ranking tools:

Choosing a hosting service is a decision that will affect the way you work and impact your customers’ experience. The choice should not be made on the basis of which provider buys the largest banners or spends more money getting your attention. The choice should be made according to the facts.

HostMonk is committed to bringing you a thorough index of the world of hosting services. We present the facts for you to make your decision. What you see is impartial, based on the cold hard facts with nothing added or removed.

The beta web hosting tool currently compares 2,901 different dedicated hosting plans.  Go check it out at HostMonk.com.

Bad Hosting Customer Stereotypes

The Baby – This is the customer that cries or throws a fit when he doesn’t get things his way.  Making the proverbial checks his rear end can’t cash and saying things, such as, “If you don’t fix this, I am going to the police to report you!”.

The Negotiator – This type of hosting customer thinks he can wheel and deal his way into or out of any situation.  Now while making some negotiations and compromises is a good thing, The Negotiator takes it a step too far.  Watch out for his stereotypical, “Well, I can upgrade but if I do I want you to cut the VPS price in half and give me a pony”.

The Know it All – Be very careful when it comes to arguing how to fix a problem when you come to support to fix your problem.  The Know it All thinks he knows more than the web host and likes to point it out in every occasion he can.

Be a Better Hosting Customer

Now with that said, I don’t want to color all hosting customers with the same broad brush.  There are many out there that are perfectly fine.  However, just keep these tips in mind next time you contact your hosting support team.

• Be Nice and Courteous – you’ll catch more flies with honey, than you will with vinegar.
• Show You Are Willing to Work – sometimes, a problem will be solved faster if you work with and not against support to get it fixed.

The customer is always right? Yes, but sometimes the customer can be more unwelcomed than a midget working in the men’s big & tall section of your local mall.  If you work as a team with your hosting support, and try to relate with them, and then do the whole “give and take” dance you will have a higher success rate when it comes to getting quality hosting support.

Many thanks to all the great people at Peer 1 for putting together this series of videos, and hopefully we will be seeing many more great ones in the future.  If you are a web host, or you have found a web host that has also been putting videos up online, be sure to let me know at mitch@mitchkeeler.com.

Disadvantages to Virtual Private Server Hosting

For those of you who are used to paying $5 to $10 a month for web hosting, the jump in price might be considered the biggest disadvantage.  Often VPS hosting accounts go for $40 to $50, which is more than some people wish to pay.  With a VPS hosting plan, you might also need to know a little more about server-side administration.  You will need to become familiar with application installation and maintenance.  Of course you could also hire somebody to do this, or see if the web host has an option for them to do it, but then we get back into discussing price again.

Advantages to Virtual Private Server Hosting

Now where are the advantages of VPS hosting?  With a VPS hosting account, you will have more access to CPU, RAM and other server resources that may have been limited to you with a shared hosting plan.  Also, in comparison with dedicated hosting plans, the VPS hosting is often cheaper.  You would also be sharing that server with a few amount of people, so you will have to be less worried about what your proverbial neighbors are doing with their accounts that could get yourself and the server in trouble.

Most people come to VPS hosting once they have outgrown their shared hosting plan, but are not yet ready for a dedicated hosting server.  Virtual Private Servers are a great choice for those who are wanting to move way from shared hosting, but are not ready to commit themselves to the work that it takes to keep a dedicated plan up and running.

Have you ever looked into optimizing your images?

The secret to optimizing your images is simple.  You want the best looking image at the smallest file size possible.  If the graphic editing software you have has a “web” setting when saving, use it.  If not – it might take a few trials and tribulations before you figure out the lowest size you can save it as that gives you the best results.  There will be a lot of save it, try it, doesn’t work.  Save it, try it, almost works. However in the long run, the smaller you can make your image sizes, the faster your web site will load.

DynamicDrive.com has an online image optimizer you might want to check out too:

• http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/imageoptimizer/

You can use that to see how for they get the sizes down, so you can do the same or if you are in a pinch for a good image editor to work with.

When it comes to image formats, this is my own personal rule of thumb.  Use the JPEG or JPG format when working with photographs.  When working with graphic work or logos, stick with PNG most of the time, and GIF, (if the end result doesn’t look like crap).