WHO’S THE OWNER?
When a customer orders a website from a hosting service the issue that arises is who owns the intellectual property rights of the website. A customer would normally raise the point that if he didn’t own the rights to the website, he would be chained to the host. So the question arises what does a customer expect when he orders a website and what does the host agree to offer?
It is the custom-designed features of a website that make it popular with users and naturally the argument would tend to be in the customer’s favor. Thus such interest that the customer might have in the website must be protected. The contract that the customer enters into with the web developers on the face of it grants ownership of the customer’s website, but what is the extent of the customer’s right?
But the legal reality is that only on the basis of such an argument the customer cannot be granted the ownership of the website. Unless the customer bargained upfront for such ownership and paid a premium for it, he cannot be said to be the real or the rightful owner of the site.
But if you take care while entering into a contract you should still be able to guarantee that you still have the rights. Most contracts refer to a ‘customer’s website’ and talk about transferring it to the customer without actually defining what it is. What needs to be ascertained is whether site enable software is also included in this. So when you enter into a contract with a web developer it will jeopardize the ownership of your code and in turn your website unless your contract is framed correctly. If you are careful and smart though you can retain rights to your website as well as your software and that is the best possible scenario.
Choosing a web host
When people look around before choosing a web hosting service it seems like everyone is offering the best and making a choice can be exceedingly difficult. Every hosting service seems to promise the best service for the most competent price. The challenge herein lies in separating the truth from the tall claims and this can be quite an ordeal. Reliability is the most highly priced quality in hosting services and also the rarest.
There is no certain way to do this. Almost every web hosting service promises that a site will be available at least 99 % of the time but in almost all cases this is not true. Most hosting services have a server crash or shut down for maintenance quite often and during this time there is almost no customer service in place either. Many hosting companies go as far as to get a certification from a third party that they are uptime at least 99% of the time in order to get your custom.
Even the most planned server experiences downtime and at such a time site monitoring services come in handy. These services monitor sites, servers and other associated things such as routers so that if any of the sites you have requested to be monitored has a problem you are alerted immediately. Some service providers however prohibit such monitoring services because it adds to the Bandwidth usage which adds to the load on the server which slows things down considerably.
So when you’re deciding on a web hosting service check out how durable it really is. Don’t listen to claims that are made on websites and find out for yourself through monitors. You are going to be stuck with the same hosting service for some time to come so it is best if you satisfy yourself about its services before proceeding.
DREAMHOST CAUSES NIGHTMARES
Los Angeles based web hosting service Dreamhost just caused a huge amount of inconvenience to their customers. Not to mention sleepless nights and anxiety. Every customer of Dreamhost was billed for an additional year when the wrong date was entered in their automated billing program. The hosting service apparently overbilled their customer up to $ 7.5 million in hosting fees.
The villain in this whole issue is apparently their co-founder who accidentally ran its billing software at the wrong date. He ran the software for outstanding charges up to 31st December 2008 instead of 31st December 2007. Apparently this goof up is big news and customers all over are going crazy with being billed at yearly rates for the month.
What was highly interesting was how Lunarpages which is another hosting site reacted. They immediately put up a huge post about how Dreamhost screwed up and they also offered a special coupon code for those whom they called “Dreamhost refugees”.
Most customers were overcharged by $ 250 and lots of customers who are facing overdraft charges have been shooting off emails while some have been demanding lots of money. Apparently Dreamhost is working to resolve the issue and have assured customers that there is no need to contact their credit card companies or banks about the billing errors. I’m not so sure about this piece of advice because if you’re facing overdraft charges it’s always better to let the bank know so you don’t get penalized for something you didn’t do.
The whole episode has got customers really scared about Dreamhost’s reliability now while other hosting services have been having a great laugh at Dreamhost’s expense. Even Google ads have various hosts taking a dig at Dreamhost’s major goof up.
BLUE HOST IS THE PERFECT HOST
BlueHost gets an overwhelmingly positive response from users and very little negative reviews. As a hosting site it has proven to be very reliable with good support and good customer care. Users have had very little to complain about where BlueHost is concerned.
The complaint most people have with their hosts is that they have a lot of down time and that the servers crash often and for long periods of time at a stretch. With BlueHost the occasions when the server has crashed and the OS has had to be rebuilt are very few. In the rare occasions that this does happen they provide excellent customer care. The BlueHost Support Center allows users to make support tickets that are replied to within 24 hrs. They also have a Live Chat option on their website which allows users to interact with so that you can figure out what went wrong. There is also a discussion forum where BlueHost users can discuss the problems and issues they have.
The president of the company Matt Heaton has a blog where he writes about what happens behind the scenes. They also keep trying to improve themselves by increasing space and giving new offers to their users for no additional cost.
Most users have absolutely no problems with BlueHost. There are a few who do have complaints though. These complaints however are mostly to do with the amount of time the technical support team takes to get things back on road. Some users have complained about poor customer service but these seem to be the exception. Some also feel that the customer care executive has very little or no technical know how at all.
By and large BlueHost has got good reviews from customers who continue to renew their subscription with BlueHost instead of shifting to other hosts.
FANTASTICO
Many sites these days have web applications. Behind them all is Fantastico which is a commercial script library and it automates the installation of such applications to a website. These scripts generated by Fantastico are administered from the control panel of the website.
When a new application is installed on a website or a new website is started, Fantastico is used. The software creates tables in the database, installs software, gets permission and modifiers the web server configuration files. A lot of very popular websites and services use Fantastico including Wikipedia, blogs, sites that share photos and those that have shopping carts like Amazon, Walmart and others.
Fantastico has made many things possible that would not have been had it not have come into use. It has added whole new features to website which earlier featured nothing more than text. It allows you to do so much more with your website now. The installation scripts are also very easy to use and do not require much expertise on the part of the owner.
Fantastico however is not maintained by the ISP and so there are older versions still in use which are known to have security problems. Also the default configuration is not very secure so when sites are initially set up and do not have a secure system in place, they also become a target for spammers.
However the overall utility of Fantastico is high so it is easy to ignore small flaws. It provides innumerable services that are used in all kinds of sites including shopping sites, social networking sites etc. It is reported to have over a million users all over the world. Fantastico might seem to be blowing its own trumpet with a name like that, but the honest truth is that when text was a norm Fantastico was indeed fantastic.
GODADDY WEB HOSTING-OVERPRICED,UNDER PERFORMER
GoDaddy claims to offer the best hosting service in the world, while I am not too sure about this claim. While the setup is excellent and there is a very high level of technical expertise it doesn’t quite make the grade because the customer service and the features are quite a disappointment.
Per say GoDaddy is not bad at all, it’s just that for the features it offers it is rather over priced. It has 5 GB of storage, can support 500 email accounts, offers 250 GB monthly data transfer capacity and limited platform support. Basically its much more expensive that other hosts who offer the same for a much lower price. GoDaddy has a lot of frills and a lot of technical nitty-gritties which are quite unnecessary because though it is very technologically sound there is no customer support which puts us in quite a bind if we have a problem.
GoDaddy offers telephone support, email support and other kinds of support but the problem is that it’s not good enough. They get back to queries after 10-12 hours which is just not good enough because when a person is running a site you can’t afford to not work for that much time.
On the plus side GoDaddy is pretty easy to use and has the same control panel as most others. It lets you manage your account, emails, web security and things like that which is quite good. It lets you manage statistic tools and install Frontpage Extention. Overall though it needs quite an improvement before it can compete properly.
GoDaddy is short of many features others offer at a higher price. So unless they really get their act together and improve their customer service, I’m not going GoDaddy’s way for some time.
WHAT IS VIDEO HOSTING?
Video hosting is a very popular hosting service which allows users to upload and share their videos with people around the world through the internet. The user uploads the video clip onto the website where it is then stored on the database of that site. Many popular web hosting services exist these days with the more popular ones beingYouTube, TVLinks etc and these have become extremely popular because a person can share his clips even if he does not have a domain of his own.
The increased availability of personal cameras and other recording devices has lead to a sudden boom in this market. People shoot videos of events or their dear ones and then upload them onto the host site where with the particular code others can view it. The fact that these services make it extremely easy for users and makes the need for CDs and DVDs redundant is one of the reasons why websites of this kind are so popular. Such sites eliminate costs, they also provide the ease of a common place and since uploading and viewing videos is so easy and require little or no technical knowledge these things are becoming increasing popular and more and more internet users are taking to them.
However such a service is not without its problems. Most of these services have been accused of copyright infringement and in most cases the videos are uploaded by private users and no rights are given to the company owning the video. In such situations it is unclear who is in the wrong because the sites have no control over who posts what. Some sites however discourage users from uploading copyrighted videos. However as of now with no strict law in place, there is not much that can be done against such services. Internet users meanwhile rejoice.
WHAT IS A DEDICATED HOSTING SERICE ?
A dedicated hosting service is one where a client has a server to himself and does not have to share it with anybody. This is better than shared hosting especially in cases of a company or organization where if they lease a server they have complete control over it and it is more flexible.
The choice of operating systems is determined by the price, demand and availability and though Linux is available without extra cost, Microsoft increases the cost of running a dedicated server. A monthly fee is charged and provides updates using an application called up2date. Using an OS reduces the owner’s burden of site management.
Dedicated server hosting means managing the server which can include doing the following things:
· Updating the OS
· Updating applications
· Monitoring the server
· Firewall updates
· Updating anti viruses
· Performing security audits
· Backups and restoration
· Disaster recovery
· Installing software
· Detecting intrusion
Service providers often bill the owners of sites for the software they use. Many companies now offer software along with dedicated servers at a reduced monthly fee. Different softwares are available depending on the requirement and servers can be made according to the needs of the business.
Dedicated servers are probably a better choice in the long run as compared to shared servers. Though while setting up a site it may seem cheaper and better to go in for a shared site, as far as your business is concerned dedicated server is always preferable. It allows you the freedom to implement your needs and bring about changes and gives you much needed flexibility. The initial cost may be a deterring factor but after some time of use you will realize the prudence of such a step.
GETTING STARTED WITH HOSTING
When you start your own internet site or dot com business, the first thing that enters your mind is what host to choose and how you go about doing that. There are a number of WEB HOST on the internet today, but you need to pick one according to your needs.
The first thing to be decided is what kind of site you need, whether you are willing to pay for it or not, extensions, disk space & bandwidth etc.
You need to decide whether you should pay for the site or not. Although when launching a site you are inclined towards choosing free ones, there are some things you need to keep in mind. A paid site will give you a better package, better technical advice; they will have better access to the internet and will also refrain from placing advertisements offering your services without your consent.
Then there is the issue of kind of site. If you’re requirement is less you can choose a Unix server but if you have large databases an NT site is advisable.
Next we come to the issue of bandwidth. If your site is going to feature a lot of multimedia and flash players etc then you will require a site with more bandwidth than a site with just text content.
The most important thing to remember is that each site is different and the owner has different requirements. So a plan may not necessarily fit you. So I suggest you look around a bit, find what suits you in terms of features, package, pricing etc before you jump into a site because once you decide on one site, its better not to keep moving. Anyhow uploading stuff all over again is painful.
So before you settle on a host, make sure it fits all your requirements and conditions.
WEB HOSTING-YOUR BUSINESS’BACKBONE
By vishnu | November 30, 2007
A web host is the backbone of your website. It can make the difference between temporarily offline and up and running! The best hosting today is provided by websites such as Bluehost, GoDaddy etc. Most of today’s web host, which are basically servers, are powered by Linux platform. While most of them offer the same services there are a few important details to pay attention to.
Always chose a web host that offers PHP5 and latest version an SQL database software as these are the two basic things you will need. If you are a newcomer its best to opt Fantastico! or a similar automatic script installer software. These help you getting your website running within seconds and a few clicks of the mouse. Every web host mentions its up-time guarantee which often is 99.9%. However always ask other customers of that web host before using to get first hand.