BUSINESS ERA

Globat Overview

We've been monitoring Globat for over a year now. In fact, we even host a sample site with Globat for your evaluation. Their service has improved dramatically since last year. They provide a very good hosting package with great customer support at a very attractive price.

Delivery

Lets take this certain picture gallery website for example. Its been online with Globat ever since October 2002. Webmaster chose Globat at that time because they offered a large amount of disk space and bandwidth. Currently the site has 150 JPG pictures with a total size of 10 MB (pictures load very fast). With approximately 300 visitors a day, the site in question uses about 5 GB of bandwidth each month. In order to reach the 75 GB bandwidth limit, they could either improve their traffic to 4,500 visitors a day, or add up to 2,250 of similar pictures. You can see how much place there is to grow.

Company Background

Globat is the fastest growing web host today. It was founded by Ben Neumann in December 2001. We have actually spoken with Ben in order to find out more information concerning his company. Ben has been in the web hosting business since 1994. He has founded Icom (popular web host) which was later sold to Interliant (another web host) in 1998. Icom is now owned by Interland (yes, another web host). Ben has gained a lot of experience in the web hosting business and is capable of building scalable web hosting networks.

Generous Amount of Storage and Bandwidth

Most web hosting users use less than 50 MB of disk space. Therefore 2,500 MB of disk space is just too much for most users. The 75 GB bandwidth should be worth a lot more than $10. From Ben (Globat's founder), we understand that Globat is buying huge amounts of bandwidth from Verio and Level 3 in bulk, so Globat is able to provide more bandwidth to their customers. He also stated that they are not as greedy as other companies. They are able to live with a lower profit margin since they are running a very streamlined operation.

Customer Support

Getting to the their support start page will really amaze you. They have a large support staff and getting support is quite easy and effective.

1. Support Ticket - This is the most important way to get support. You just create a support ticket and they will get back to you regarding your issue. All you need is a working email address. Support tickets are tracked, so they can easily be followed up. Although sending your email directly to support@globat.com will also create a ticket automatically, it is recommended that you use the ticket submission form so you'll be reminded to include some basic information, i.e. your domain name and the category of your issue.

2. Live Chat Support - This was introduced in March 2003. Live chat is effective because you get an immediate response from one of their support staff. It is not 24/7 and available only in the business hours (Email, Tickets & Phone support are 24/7).

3. Toll-Free Support - This was introduced in July 2003. For technical support, the number is 1-877-2GLOBAT and it is available 24/7. For sales and billing, the number is 1-323-874-9000 and is available Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 5:30 pm EST. The toll-free numbers are only available to the US and Canada. For international customers, you may use 1-323-874-9000.

4. Tutorials - There are around 50 tutorials categorized into 4 different groups. They show you how to setup your email client, transfer files to your website with FTP, manage your account with the control panel and modify DNS records for your domain name. Most of the tutorials are in Flash videos while some are in text and images.

5. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - Contains over 100 FAQ and answers under many different categories. One of the important sections you might be interested in is the 'Before Signing Up' section which contains many answers to the most commonly asked presale questions.

Highlights

1. Globat Command Console (GCC) - Introduced in February 2004, GCC is Globat's new control panel software for their customers. The 6 basic functions in GCC are file manager, web-based email, managing email accounts, MySQL database, protected directories and viewing web statistics (AWStats). GCC is based on the Plesk control panel, which they have been using since the beginning. GCC provides easy navigation and is a lot faster then Plesk. However, not all functions in Plesk have been implemented in GCC yet. We will definitely see more features added in the future. Plesk is still available and you can choose to login to either GCC or Plesk in the login page.

2. Unlimited MySQL Databases - There are no limits on how many MySQL databases you use. There is also no size quota.

3. Paypal Payments - Globat has also setup their system to accept payment by PayPal. Not many hosts are willing to accept PayPal payments.

4. Free Domain - If you prepay for 1 year, you will get a new domain name for free. If you prepay for 2 years instead, the domain name is registered for 2 years.

Source:.mainhosting

Operating out of Niagara Falls, New York and Oakville, Ontario, Canada, HostPapa is a quickly growing company that powers its data centers with certified 100% renewable energy. HostPapa isn’t only a green host, but a reliable company that can provide you with all the tools needed to build a professional website. Its web hosting plan ranks among some of the most affordable, yet they do not slack on quality or features by any means.

Products and Services

Hosting your website with HostPapa is very inexpensive, even on today’s tighter budget. This attractive plan starts at $4.95 per month and comes with a number of powerful features. Keep in mind that the actual price you pay for service depends on the contract. For example, the $4.95 per month is only valid when subscribing for three years. The plan is $5.95 per month for two years and $6.95 per month for one year. In addition to website hosting, HostPapa also offers several associated products, such as Business Services, Email and Online Marketing, Website Design and Search Engine Optimization.

Benefits of HostPapa

There are many benefits to hosting with HostPapa, starting with the fact that you are one less website contributing to harmful data center emissions. Apart from the environmental aspect, you also receive a number of perks that directly benefit your initiative. When signing up for service, you get a free lifetime domain name, unlimited disk space and data transfer, the luxury to host unlimited domains, and $75 in free advertising bonuses. Though you are likely to enjoy the service, if you are unhappy for any reason, HostPapa lets you test the waters with a 30-day money back guarantee.

Reliability and Performance

HostPapa’s infrastructure is impressive, to say the least. The data center uses the best equipment from top-notch servers and network hardware to leading backbone providers. Its systems are monitored around the clock to defend against virtual threats, while physical security is onsite every hour of the day. HostPapa is prepared for the most untimely disasters with climate control systems, redundant power supplies, fire detection and suppression systems, motion detectors and alarms. Performing redundant backups of your data, HostPapa stands firm in its 99.9% uptime guarantee.

Customer Service and Support

HostPapa delivers the type of support we like to see – responsive, 24/7 dedicated support. This provider has you covered from every angle, including phone, email and a convenient live chat system. You can also get quality assistance by submitting a support ticket, using the step-by-step troubleshooter, sorting content in the knowledge base, or downloading helpful manuals from the website.

Web Hosting Features

HostPapa’s affordable hosting plan comes loaded with several features you are sure to appreciate. Your account is ready for e-commerce with multiple shopping cart programs, unlimited email accounts, and support for an SSL certificate to secure online transactions. Other offerings you may find interesting are the free website builder, web statistics utilities and powerful software programs that can be installed with a single click. Best of all, you can access these essential features from a centralized interface with the cPanel control panel.

Source:.thewebhostinghero

There are many people who are not switching to new web host due to fear of old web host and so are bound to suffer from old web host. The users are even ready to pay any amount which can be even ten times more than what they are paying just because of fear of switching over process which they think is quite complicated can even lead to loosing of their website.

The new entries of the customers in this web world will themselves presume that expensive and branded names such as yahoo or MSN or MasterCard can definitely provide the best service.

But there is need to think again.

One should never choose the hosting plan only in terms of money whereas he/she should opt the plan on the basis of return he/she is getting from it.

One can easily find sufficient space for his/her site with all the required features for a mere amount of less than $10 per month - with discounts for paying quarterly or yearly.

The following are the aspects to be looked at while choosing a hosting company -

SPACE: There are several websites, which uses less than 100 Megs of space. However 50-100 megs of space is quite sufficient even if one is planning to build a large community or upload entire albums of photos. By keeping this point in mind one should be able to upgrade with no additional charge.

EMAILS: One should check for a new host that can at least offer 10 Pop3 emails. If one is running a home based business, he/she needs at least 10 addresses or even more if there are many members like own staff or family and friends who would love to use email address and effectively advertise for him/her every time they send out an email. The new host should also offer web-based emails, so as to enable to check emails anywhere.

SUPPORT: One should check if the new host could answer to questions within 24 hours. If this facility is not available then surely it is not the right choice. The host to be selected must offer some sort of live chat capability during regular business hours as well, and a 24-hour a day help desk where one can email in questions. One should also check before signing the contract that proper physical address and phone numbers are available. To ensure one must Email their support or use their chat live capability before agreeing to their service. Thus support is another feature to be taken as serious issue before signing a contract.

USER FRIENDLY RATING: Most important feature to look at in a web hosting provider is the kind of control panel new host is providing. One should also ask for a demo and should also check if he/she is having a free 24-hour FTP access so as to make modifications as per choice when required. Also it is necessary to have a site builder, bulletin boards, or chat rooms so as to enable one to interact with his/her customer using a new host’s services. One more thing to check is that, if one is having access to popular features such as PHP, CGI, ASP, Java scripts, Perl scripting then will the new host can handle all this?

Now after deciding to shift to new host, there are still some things to take care of like firstly one must make sure that all of the files that have created his/her current site are on his/her computer so that they can be moved. If one has created own pages using something like FrontPage or Site Builder or Dream weaver, then surely he/she is having these files. However if one uses a web based builder, then there is need to download each and every page of his/her site along with their dependent files to a folder on his/her PC.

It seems to be a complicated process but it is not so. One can either use an FTP tool to download files or can download them using the “File - Save As” method outlined below. If one chooses to FTP own files down to own computer, all what is required is just availability of an FTP tool.

In case one opts for another method i.e. to choose the “File - Save As” method, then the following steps must be followed-

The first thing is to do is to go to one’s own browser can be Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, or Mozilla. Thereafter find the toolbar and look for the “File” button, as this will be required. Now simply one should go to the first page in his/her website. After it is fully loaded, one must click on “File” then “Save As” and save the file and all dependent files to a folder on his/her website. This procedure is required to be done for every page. After completion of that the possession comes in the hands of owner. It is always advisable to keep one’s site backed up to his/her own computer in a separate folder, as well.

Once one is having all the files the second thing is to make sure that any other files on one’s web host are backed up. In case one is using web-based mail, then he/she should forward emails to an ‘off-network’ email address or even should archive emails to the computer’s hard drive. As soon as user switched to new hosts his/her all mails get deleted. Deleted. Now it’s required to upload all of the new files to the new host’s servers. Also the new host should provide with the FTP info needed and to do this and/or live support one should keep in mind the following things in order to play safe. The next thing to do is to create an email account to match each email account from the old web host. If case one is having 3 email accounts then it is must to have matching accounts on the new servers as this will prevent to have bouncing emails later when the switch goes through. Now one can change the domain name’s name servers and for this the new host will give the information. Thereafter one will probably have a primary and secondary name server.

If a user is registering own domain name then the registrar should have a management area. However if one registers his/her domain name through the current host, then one must make sure that he/she is having the access to change these items once.

It will take around 24-48 hours for the name server change to propagate so that the domain name is pointing to new servers instead of the old ones. Now one must make modifications as early as possible lets say within a week time else he/she have to suffer from a long waiting period problem. Before canceling the old host one must allow at least a week so that one can make sure that everything works properly on the new host, all the files and email accounts are there and to check if the new host is working as per expectations or not.

However one has to be very careful if he/she is leaving the current host before next billing cycle, as if the cancellation date falls after the normal monthly billing cycle date, then he/she will be billed again for that month’s service and worst is most of the hosts do not give refunds for less than a month of service.

Now after knowing all the pros and cons of providers and the problems that one can face while switching to new host there is need to remember all the above points to remain safe.

Source:hostingbat

There are many people around the world who wish to get into the world of internet and start their own websites but may not be able to invest a huge amount of money in the beginning itself. When they are new in this field, they go for some ordinary web hosting server which just suits their website and the content that is present in it. Later, as their website expands, they switch to some other web hosting server that is top class and suits their website perfectly.

So, they may not go for the best web hosting server that is available on the internet. Due to this, the dedicated web hosting server and the co-location web hosting server are out of question as they are extremely costly. So, the only other suitable option that you are left with is the shared web hosting server.

As the name itself suggests, the shared web hosting server comprises of many users, sometimes even thousands of users on a single web hosting server, sharing all its resources like the bandwidth, the web space, the memory, and other web tools. Due to the fact that there are lots of users present on a single web hosting server, the shared web hosting servers cost very less when compared to some other types of web hosting servers.

Now-a-days, with so much improvement in the technology, the quality of the shared web hosting servers have increased immensely. It is not that all the web hosting servers are vulnerable to all sorts of problems. There are many shared web hosting companies present on the internet, which offer great quality and service to their clients. However, you need to be very careful about the shared web hosting servers and the features that come with it.

Even though, sometimes these shared web hosting servers offer great quality and outputs, there are some major drawbacks of going with the shared web hosting server. You need to make sure that as far as possible you avoid these pitfalls and be successful with your website.

First of all, when it comes to the shared web hosting server, you need to be sure that you do a thorough research and check for all the possible features of any shared web hosting company that you find on the internet and feel like getting registered for it.

You have to thoroughly check the blogs, forums, and other sections of the website and makes sure that there are no major problems associated with that particular web hosting company. These kind of thorough checks will give you a proper idea about the kind of service that they provide to their users and if it is really of top quality.

Also, make sure that you do not go for the very first shared web hosting company that you come across. See that you find at least a few good shared web hosting companies that are present on the internet before you get registered with any, and then narrow down your choice to the best of the lot.

Make sure that the web hosting company that you are going to choose is well settled and reputed organization and has enough users linked to it. As far as possible, you must try to avoid the web hosting companies that are very new in the market. Another reason for going for well settled web hosting companies is that, the technical staff of such companies will be more trained and have more experience in dealing with the a variety of issues till date, when compared to the newly formed web hosting companies.

The technical staff of these newly formed companies may not be that familiar with the solutions to some of the major and very complicated problems. As a result you may not get instant help and your difficulties might not be solved in a professional manner, leading to more problems in your online business.

Also, before you sign up for any particular kind of a web hosting server, make sure that you check the requirements of your website. Make sure that you go through all the content and the format of your website and see what all is needed. After all, you should buy only those things that are actually need. On the other hand, if you just purchase the web hosting server and its features, it might happen that you spend a lot of money for purchasing something that is absolutely of no use to you or to your website.

Also, since the shared web hosting server comes very cheap, you may not get the same level of security or the customer service that you get with the dedicated web hosting server. If any user present on the same shared web hosting server over utilizes the resources or runs any malicious code, it can affect your website as well. Also, the features may not be of the same quality. You are even likely to face more downtimes when compared with some other type of top web hosting servers.

You even get only limited domain names in case of the shared web hosting servers. So, as your business grows, if you wish to expand your presence on the internet, you may be forced to change the current web host. Make sure that the web host that you are going to choose regularly updates web tools like the PHP, MySQL, Python, the CGI and others. Also, the database that you get with the shared web hosting is very limited.

There are a many things you could do to minimize the effects of these pitfalls or in other words try to overcome these kinds of drawbacks of the shared web hosting by following a few steps. As far as possible, try to register you domain name separately. This will help you to retain the same domain name even if you change your web host. You need to take frequent backups of the entire content that is present on your web hosting account.

These backups will help you restore the data if your website goes corrupt or there arise any problems with the web hosting server. However, if you face regular issues with your current web hosting server, then changing the web hosting company and going for some top class dedicated web hosting server is the only option to succeed in your online business.

Source:blog.eukhos

VPS is a good option when you have high traffic sites or have been a reseller for some time and shared hosting resources are not adequate for you while dedicated server is expensive. We offer best vps options in Pakistan ie managed vps hosting at low cost yet ensuring high quality server, Cpanel, whm, fanatastico all inclusive.
100% Management and monitoring
Free Reboots Full Root Access, Best vps options in Pakistan ie Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sialkote and all others cities.

While comparing costs take a note:-
- 512 MB RAM is minimum RAM recommended for cpanel hosting.
- The listed cost includes cost of cpanel, Fantastico , IP Addresses and vps management cost.

VPS-1 $ 44 per Month 15 GB Raid Disk Space 300 GB bandwidth 256 MB Guaranteed Ram 1 GB burstable RAM CPanel/WHM / Fantastico CentOS Linux Unlimited Accounts 4 IP Addresses 24/7 Proactive Monitoring Private Nameservers Full Root Access

VPS-2 $59 per Month 20 GB Raid Disk Space 500 GB bandwidth 512 MB Guaranteed Ram 2 GB burstable RAM CPanel/WHM / Fantastico CentOS Linux Unlimited Accounts 6 IP Addresses 24/7 Proactive Monitoring Private Nameservers Full Root Access

VPS-3 $77 Per Month 40 GB Space 600 GB bandwidth 512 MB Ram (dedicated) Cpanel , WHM, Unlimited Reseller Accounts CentOS Linux Host Unlimited Domains 6 IP address 24/7 Proactive Monitoring Private Nameservers Full Root Access

Mostly based on Dual Core AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 275, Family 15, Model 33, Processors 4 x 2192 MHz (Exact configuration depends on availability from time to time)

Server Management
Our team is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year to assist you. Each server is fully managed and rest assured that your server will be running at utmost performance.

As the definition of the term "managed" differs hugely from provider to provider, we like to make it clear as to what all is included in our management package.

Monitoring - Our internal monitoring system watches over your servers 24 hours a day and alerts our engineers. If and when a monitored service fails (Ping, System, Load). Our engineers will be responding and resolving the issue within minutes.

Server troubleshooting - If a server is not performing well - we will help you trouble shoot it and make recommendations for performance improvements based on our observations. Have a 3rd party application that isn't working correctly? We'll provide our best effort to help you get it working.

Server Reboots are always free and if you need assistance our engineers are available to assist you. If your server experiences a hardware failure we will replace it within 4 hours.

Security Each managed dedicated server is provided with an initial security hardening which includes the installation of a firewall to help protect your server. If your server is compromised our support staff will assist in recovering it and restoring it back to operational condition.

Ongoing Managed Dedicated Server Support includes: On-Demand O/S updates and patches (one request per month), and On-Demand Server Security & Health Assessments (one request per month).

VPS hosting - Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Multan, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sialkote , Jhelum, Mirpur, Hyderabad and all others.

Source:unique-links.com

Choosing right web host for your website has become a real challenge nowadays. There are so many cheap web site hosting companies offering multiple packages for your online business. With so many hosting companies, people get confused in choosing hosting servers for their website. But those who have done some prior study about web hosting will end-up well; In this article, we have combined some of the key things which can help you choose reliable web hosting.

Space

Be very concerned about the space offered on servers for your website. Get to know your need for space and compare it with the offered room offered by the host server. You may find huge space for the data storage for a minor price just due to the competition of hosting companies. Find out whether the provided space is for a limited time period or forever. Greater space will be handy for your business from futuristic point of view.

Data Transfer

You will often need to transfer data from your database to server. Make sure that your hosting server lets you transfer data up to your requirements. You surely need adequate allocated space for the data transfer and if you are running a small or medium sized business website then 5 to 10 GB bandwidth will serve your purpose.

Technical Support

The quality of any web host can be judged by the support which they provide to the customer whether it is technical or anything else. This feature is now essential for any web host. The technical support must be available 24/7 in the email, and contact number form. If you are unable to find free customer number for the technical support then it is better to avoid any commitment with such web host. It can be very troublesome and annoying for you especially when you are in midst of your work.

Email Services

Your package from web host definitely includes e-mail accounts but sufficiency of given number is the decisive factor. It is very important to have enough email accounts in your website for the customers. Therefore go for the web hosts with maximum email accounts.

Reputation

The most important factor for choosing a host for your website is the reputation of that host. With thousands of web hosting companies, it is difficult to find the right one for you. Always make sure that you have got the best host. Try to test the web host with the maximum number of customers. A ground rule to test the reputation and credibility of the server has been to send an email and check their response. If you are satisfied with the response then you can choose it.

Source:.webhostingadvantage

Looking for and buying a reliable web hosting solution is an imperative decision. Whether you are doing online business, providing important information or sharing views online on a common interest, you need a reliable web hosting service that will allow online visitors to browse through your site effortlessly. It is only powerful web hosting that allows your website to be downloaded, browsed and updated in minimal time.

Trying to identify a web host can be a very daunting task especially when there are so many available nowadays and all of them promise one thing or another. Hence, it is crucial that before you jump in, you do your own homework or research for selecting the most appropriate web hosting company for your website.

With the changing trend of technology, web hosts are also changing. Most of them provide various services in addition to their basic ones. Say if you are running an e-commerce website, then of course you need high end security and a medium through which you can manage your web content efficiently. There are many tools that facilitate this, however if your web hosting service is not reliable then you can miss out on serious revenues and prospective clients.

Once you have determined and identified what web hosting services you require for your online business, it is then time to enlist certain web hosting features and options you must consider. You can find below some of the most important aspects of web hosting:

Disk space and bandwidth

You should know how much space your website would need and approximate data it will generate. When we talk about disk space, well, it's actually the amount of storage assigned to you by the web hosting provider. The bandwidth is the amount of traffic that is allowed to access and leave your website. In case your website has a lot of graphics then you would require higher storage area and greater bandwidth.

Programming tools and the OS

You need to be sure that your website is uploaded through secure servers using the latest Operating System. Most web hosts run on a UNIX based operating system, usually Linux or BSD. For the running of various web applications you would require ASP, .NET, MS SQL, SBS and for these you need a Window based host.

Pricing Aspect

You need to compare pricing before you finalize a web hosting service. Some may provide you better services but at low pricing. It's not always true that the best hosting services are always the most expensive. Do your research and then finalize.

Support, Security, Guaranteed uptime and Backups

Security and backups are two very important aspects that you need to consider. You should always choose a web hosting service with reliable telephone support. Some also offer 24/7 support through local or toll-free numbers. In case you are running an ecommerce website then security is one aspect that you just cannot discard. Your web hosting service provider should be such that they can monitor things round the clock and ensure no unwanted intruder can hack your site. After all it's your website and it is really worth looking into this aspect of web hosting.

Source:webhostinggeeks.com

Company Profile:

Fasthosts has delivered market-leading online services to the home, office and SME markets since 1999. They have a successful track record in providing high value, award winning products and currently promote themselves as a one-stop-shop for internet services.

Year Established: 1999

Number of Employees: 100+

Number of Accounts: 1 Million+

Awards:

Fasthosts regularly receive prestigious industry plaudits - most recently being rated Number 1 for budget hosting by the leading industry news portal, Web Host Directory. Their dedicated servers have been ranked in the PC Plus magazine Hotlist, for unbeatable value for money. They were also twice listed in the Sunday Times Tech-Track 100 Fastest Growing Technology Companies, and have also been named as the No.1 choice for ecommerce hosting, three times.

Products and Services:

As one of the UK's largest web hosting providers, Fasthosts offers a comprehensive range of web solutions including domain name registrations, email solutions (including mobile email services), shared web hosting, dedicated servers, online payment services, reseller web hosting and feature-rich broadband packages.

Web Hosting:

Fasthosts Web Hosting packages cater for beginners and experienced users alike. They currently offer three main solutions;

Plans:

	-	£3.99 pm + VAT	/ 1.5GB web space	/ 200 Mailboxes / Websites Statistics
	-	£7.99 pm + VAT	/ 4GB web space	/ 600 Mailboxes / Websites Statistics
	-	£15.99 pm + VAT	/ 10GB web space	/ Unlimited Mailboxes	/ Websites Statistics

The Home package poses amazing value, offering you the use of the Fasthosts site-builder tool (more on that later), 1.5GB of web space, graphical visitor statistics and virus, spam protection and 200 standard mail boxes, 5 of which offer advanced features.

The Developer package offers all of the above plus a rise to 4GB of web space and 600 mail boxes, 10 of which offer advanced features. Many other technical advances are included or available as add-ons, but unfortunately some can be quite pricey.

Also offering superb value for money, the Business pack, which provides all of the above plus a rise to 10GB of web space, unlimited mail boxes including 15 with advanced features. As with the Developer package there are a variety of additional technical add-ons available.

As mentioned above, Fasthosts offer a free site-builder tool, aptly named Sitebuilder. This is offered with every hosting package, albeit only a 10-page version. If required you can upgrade instantly using your online control panel, to either a 25 page version costing a very reasonable £2 extra per month or to the unlimited version, which will cost you an extra £3.75 p/m.

Sitebuilder allows you to build a website using templates and a whole host of tools, without the need for any HTML knowledge. Initially Sitebuilder can prove a little tricky, but with a little perseverance it doesn’t take long to create a great looking layout and design for your website. There are few limitations, and everything can be amended should you change your mind. When you really get the hang of what you are doing it is possible to add virtually anything. It is even possible to add your own HTML code and/or alter any code that is already in place. This lets you add such things as buy-it-now buttons, enabling you to take credit card payments or, with the setting up of an account, make use of Pay-pal.

Domains:

Fasthosts is fantastic for Domain Registration, enabling easy registration for both UK and International domains alike. All domains are registered through an associated service UKreg - www.ukreg.com

The general registration process is efficient, professional and very fast, especially in comparison to other providers.

The pricing is also fairly competitive - expect to pay £5.90 for a .co.uk (2 year registration), and £8.89 for a .com (1 year registration).

One thing worth mentioning are the regular special offers – at the time of writing this article Fasthosts were offering a FREE .co.uk domain for 2 years with every .com domain purchased – not bad!

Servers:

Fasthosts Dedicated Servers are unique in combining the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors with unlimited bandwidth. The solutions are extremely attractive for users who need to upgrade their dedicated server affordably, or for businesses seeking to reduce investment costs by outsourcing their server solution.

Fasthosts Dedicated Server packages are ideal solutions for hosting data such as websites or business application software. They provide a secure environment for data which is stored on its own dedicated server unit. Users enjoy the full power of the hardware and dedicated access to bandwidth, as well as root access and independent remote management of the server at all times.

Fasthosts Dedicated Servers are an extremely cost effective choice as they are supplied with unlimited traffic which can be a costly extra and risk factor with many other providers. Coupled with Fasthosts’ high-speed internet connectivity, via 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) channels, users have peace of mind that there are no limits on the data that they can exchange. Fasthosts Servers are also guaranteed to be maintained with the latest security and operating system updates.

Fasthosts' latest range of Dedicated Server packages comprises the DS250 (80GB disk space), priced from £49/month+VAT, DS450 (250GB disk space), priced from £69/month+VAT, the DS650 (500GB disk space), priced from £99/month+VAT and the DS850 (500GB disk space), priced from £189/month+VAT. With no set up fees and prices comparable to high-end hosting packages, Fasthosts Dedicated Servers offer top-spec server technology with minimal upfront investment and a remarkably low total cost of ownership. Fasthosts’ 1 Month Free offer is the company’s latest move to help demanding users upgrade to the best server technologies affordably and with ease.

	-	£49 pm + VAT	/ 2 x 1.8 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo	/ 512 MB RAM	/ 80GB HD
	-	£69 pm + VAT	2 x 2.13 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo	/ 1GB RAM	/ 250GB HD
	-	£99 pm + VAT	/ 2 x 2.4 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo	/ 2GB RAM	/ 500GB HD
	-	£89 pm + VAT	/ 2 x 2.66 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo	/ 3GB RAM	/ 500GB HD

Significantly, all Fasthosts servers are housed in a superior data centre environment in the UK. All service and technical support is provided 24/7 from the UK by email or phone.

E-Commerce Solutions:

Fasthosts were previously voted as the leading eCommerce web host. Easy to set up and ready for all types of business - when combining any of Fasthosts' web hosting or server solutions with the professional payment gateway eMerchant, your site will instantly have the facilities to compete with the very best eCommerce websites out there.

eMerchant is priced at only £20 a month, with a one off set-up fee of £100. eMerchant is one of the most affordable payment solutions on the market which can be seamlessly integrated with new or existing websites.

eMerchant allows acceptance of credit and debit card payments directly through your website with a full internet merchant account, in association with the Bank of Ireland.

Email:

All Fasthosts email hosting packages include a range of mailboxes with features to suit your needs. From POP3 to business-class Microsoft Exchange, all Fasthosts mailboxes are designed to work on your own domain name, providing a highly professional email service.

Setting up mail accounts is a relatively painless process through, as is using them. Access to mail accounts is made available through your personal control panel.

	-	£1.25 pm + VAT	/ 2 Advanced POP3 Boxes	/ 5 Standard Boxes	/ Webmail
	-	£9.99 pm + VAT	/ 5 Standard POP3 Boxes	/ 1 Exchange 03	/ Webmail	/ Mobile Mail
	-	£19.99 pm + VAT	/ Unlimited Standard POP3	/ 2 Advanced Boxes	/ 3 Exchange	/ Web/Mobile Mail

Fasthosts' powerful email infrastructure enables you to "mix & match" different types of mailbox on the same domain name, for complete flexibility. Start by signing up for a Fasthosts email package, and then add extra mailboxes instantly when you need them.

Reliability:

One thing you can rely on with Fasthosts is reliability of service. This is ensured by way of multiple Tier 1 connections with redundant server disks, firewall protected servers, and raw log files.

Fasthosts have invested millions in making their data centre the most reliable and secure anywhere, and it is certainly evident. Their data centre offers the ultimate in security, uninterrupted power, climate controls, and state of the art server hardware and software.

Fasthosts corporate website was monitored for 909 days, ending up with an overall uptime of 99.99%.

By providing the uptime percentage for Fasthosts corporate website, we hope to help you in your research on their past uptime performance.

At 99.99% overall uptime, Fasthosts uptime is considered excellent.

Control Panel:

Fasthosts control panel is segmented between its different offerings, with additional features as you move to more expensive packages. The reseller tab enables management of customer details, and allows for creation of multiple FTP accounts, user control panels and so on.

The general interface has several main icons including; configuration, Web building, Webmail and statistics and Fasthosts dial, a free local rate access service. The web building icon takes you to an HTML creation system – as mentioned above - called Sitebuilder.

When you select the configuration menu, you are presented with an overview of your sites settings with navigation links that take you to more detailed options. You can analyse your sites bandwidth between specific dates, configure POP3 accounts and auto-responders, and add virus protection and spam filtering.

The entry level account is fairly basic, but more powerful packages give you the ability to create secured directories, multiple logins and so on. There are also sections to configure MSSQL and MySQL databases and to add streaming media to your site.

Fasthosts uses their Matrix Stats system for its statistical reporting which provides stacks of information, including hits, hits per session duration, average hits per session duration, average hits per session and so on. You also get detailed referrer information including search engine referrals, and a “whos on” feature that shows the site visitors currently accessing your site.

Fasthosts control panel is simple enough for beginners, but provides lots of features for power users.

Customer Support:

Customer support is all UK based, and currently available by phone or e-mail, both methods requiring pin/account numbers for security reasons.

Phone support is the quickest, as you would expect. The call centre is UK-based and operates any time of the day or night. Our calls where answered and dealt with promptly. If the person who answered our call couldn’t assist, we were quickly passed on to a more experienced member of the team.

Email support took a little longer, but when the response arrived it was succinct, to the point and solved my problem.

As a side note, Fasthosts also offer a thorough FAQ, searchable how-to articles, whitepapers on using all the included technologies, setup guides, user manuals, and customer discussion forums.

Price and Value:

Fasthosts offer a good range of plans to meet the various needs of their customers, all offering good value. The best value is clearly evident in the mid-range and above levels of shared hosting plans. The benefits to these packages are clearly worth the investment.

In terms of price, Fasthosts is very reasonable in comparison to many other web hosting companies. The one down-side is the extra charges extra for additional features, which can be a little pricey. We feel your primary factor when searching for a good web host should not be price. Yes, price is one factor but you need to take into consideration other factors before deciding, including reliability and customer service, 2 areas in which Fasthosts excel.

Source:hostinggeek.co

General

Host Papa is a shared hosting company operating 100% on green energy, which is sufficiently rare to be noticed.

Host Papa’s data centers are located in Toronto, Canada which allows for the same high speed connections as US datacenters while helping to maintain costs lower than in the US.

• Created: 1995
• Offices: Ontario, Canada
• Data center: Toronto, Canada
• Domains served: 15,000+
• Servers: owned by HostPapa

User Experience

Our HostPapa test site showed excellent response and uptimes.

Follow up:

• Control panel: cPanel
• Application installer: Fantastico Deluxe

HostPapa’s technical support can help you install or upgrade to the latest version of most popular web application, including – of course – b2evolution.

We were able to perform 5 simultaneous FTP uploads, which ensures easy site maintenance and updates.

Customer satisfaction

HostPapa has been reported to provide both a good infrastructure and good support.

Technical specs

• MySQL 5.0.45 - Up to date
• PHP 5.2.45 - Up to date
• UTF-8 and mbstring: supported

Overall, the platform is state of the art.

Section updated April 30th, 2008.

Security

Web Hosting Pad is running suPHP and there is strong isolation between user accounts.

SFTP is not available.

Overall security is good.

Hosting Plans

HostPapa offers a single hosting plan:

	HostPapa Plan
Monthly fee (× 12 mo)	$6.95
Monthly fee (× 24 mo)	$5.95
Monthly fee (× 36 mo)	$4.95
Disk space	Unlimited
Transfer	Unlimited
Included domain name	free
Domains per account	Unlimited
b2evo auto install	yes

Source:b2evolution.net

General

InMotion hosting has been providing businesses with web hosting since 2001 from their offices in Los Angeles, CA and Virginia Beach, VA. They do not outsource tech support -- all support is done from their Virgina Beach office.

They are the only host in this price range to give you the option of hosting from two geographically different data centers - one in downtown L.A. and the other just outside of Washington, DC.

Having the option to choose a datacenter near you can save you a lot of time if your business heavily relies on interacting with your website backoffice during the day.

InMotion's position is definitely oriented towards business hosting rather than personal web hosting. They offer the whole range of hosting plans from starter shared hosted plans, to virtual private servers to dedicated / managed servers.

User experience

InMotion test site showed to be very responsive.

Follow up:

We were able to perform 10 simultaneous FTP transfers, which is outstanding and makes site maintenance extremely fast.

InMotion uses the industry proven cPanel architecture. No surprises there. The default settings allow for good operation without running into annoying limitations.

The default settings allow for reasonable operation without running into annoying limitations.

Customer satisfaction

Our satisfaction surveys show that what their customers appreciate the most is the quality of the tech support.

This concurs with our own findings that InMotion Hosting focus on the latest proven stable version of server software components in order to provide their clients with the highest stability and a seamless experience.

We have also noticed that InMotion was rated "A" by the Better Business Bureau (L.A.) which is excellent and sufficiently rare in the hosting industry to be noted.

Technical specs

• PHP version: 5.2.6 -- Up to date
• PHP security: Very Good (suPHP)
• MySQL version: 5.0.67 -- Up to date
• GD library: 2.0.34 -- Up to date

Overall, the platform is state of the art (16GB or 32GB of RAM, 2 Quad Core Xeons, 15,000 RPM SAS Hard Drives...)

Section updated on Feb 26th, 2009

Security

SFTP is not available.

Overall security is good.

Hosting Plans

	Basic	Launch	Power	Pro
Monthly fee (× 1 mo)	-	-	-	$19.95
Monthly fee (× 6 mo)	-	-	-	$19.95
Monthly fee (× 12 mo)	-	$7.95	$9.95	$18.95
Monthly fee (× 24 mo)	$4.00	$6.95	$8.95	-
Disk space	150 GB	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Transfer	1,500 GB	Unlimited	Unlimited	Unlimited
Included domain name	free	free	free	free
Sites per account	1	2	6	16
Domains per account	2	6	26	unlimited
MySQL databases	1	2	50	200
b2evo auto install	yes	yes	yes	yes

Source:b2evolution.net