• http – Status of Apache web server
• mysql – Status of MySQL database (You may be required to add Service Uptime‘s IP addresses to your web host’s white list to enable this)
• pop – POP mail server
• smtp – SMTP mail server (outgoing mail)
• web page – Scans for a particular text on a web page

You may choose not to monitor all of the services but some sites do require that you monitor all of its services. For example, if you’ve got a newsletter script on a domain, it is best that you monitor the pop, smtp, http, mysql services. For extra protection, use the web page service too.

I also pay Service Uptime to send me SMS alerts when the services of my web sites are down. From my experience, it would be better to send the SMS alerts on the 2nd or 3rd failure onwards. If not, you might deplete your SMS balance really quickly with a lot of false alarms.

Won’t My Web Host Monitor My Web Host For Me?

Most of the time, they won’t do it for you – At least not for free! If you’re going to pay them to monitor your web sites, I think it would be cheaper and better for you to get your own account at Service Uptime. It is common practice to have your site down for ages without your web host alerting you because it they don’t think they have any obligation to do it for you.

Once you monitor your own web sites with Service Uptime, you will understand why 99.999999% uptime is rarely achievable.

How I Keep Track of My Monitors

I use a simple spreadsheet to keep track of my Service Uptime monitors.

This helps me to organize my available credits so that I can maximize my subscription plan with Service Uptime.

Why You Should Use Service Uptime?

More often than not, the lost revenue you incur when your money-making sites are down would be greater than the amount of money you pay to Service Uptime. What is $0.16 per SMS alert and $5 a month when your $50 per day money-making web site is down for 3 days without you knowing it and without your web host doing anything about it? Do the math, it is not worth it to not monitor your web sites.

How to Turn Off AWStats in WHM

If you plan to use Google Analytics like me, you should turn off all the “Stats Programs” on your WHM. You may do this yourself if you have WHM access or ask your web host to do it for you. I am sure they would be glad to turn this off for you because it saves server resources for them.

• Click on the “Tweak Settings” link on the menu on the left of your WHM screen.
• Uncheck all the options in the “Stats Programs” section.
• Click on the “Save” button to save the changes.

What that means is the .htaccess file of WordPress is invalid on a Zeus web server. I uploaded the .htaccess file to the root folder of the web host and it disappears after I refresh the root folder. I read this blog post on how to activate WordPress permalinks on a Zeus web server and solved the problem.

I did not do it by create a rewrite.scipt file in the root folder. Instead, I entered the following code from the blog post I mentioned above into the control panel of the Zeus web server.

RULE_0_START:
# get the document root
map path into SCRATCH:DOCROOT from /
# initialize our variables
set SCRATCH:ORIG_URL = %{URL}
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI = %{URL}
# see if theres any queries in our URL
match URL into $ with ^(.*)\?(.*)$
if matched then
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI = $1
set SCRATCH:QUERY_STRING = $2
endif
RULE_0_END:
RULE_1_START:
# prepare to search for file, rewrite if its not found
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME = %{SCRATCH:DOCROOT}
set SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME . %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI}
# check to see if the file requested is an actual file or
# a directory with possibly an index. don’t rewrite if so
look for file at %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME}
if not exists then
look for dir at %{SCRATCH:REQUEST_FILENAME}
if not exists then
set URL = /index.php?q=%{SCRATCH:REQUEST_URI}
goto QSA_RULE_START
endif
endif
# if we made it here then its a file or dir and no rewrite
goto END
RULE_1_END:
QSA_RULE_START:
# append the query string if there was one originally
# the same as [QSA,L] for apache
match SCRATCH:ORIG_URL into % with \?(.*)$
if matched then
set URL = %{URL}&%{SCRATCH:QUERY_STRING}
endif
goto END
QSA_RULE_END:

Here’s what it looks like:

If you ask me, unless you have a very good reason to use a Zeus web server, get an Apache web server instead to avoid this little annoyance.

Types of Web Hosting Review Sites

• Independent user reviews of web hosts
• Biased user reviews of web hosts created just to make an affiliate commission
• Web hosting review forums created for the discussion of web hosts

Independent User Reviews of Web Hosts

My favourite place to read reviews of web hosts is Web Hosting Magazine. They have a very detailed review criteria and a strict review process. They have both editor reviews and user reviews of web hosts. Although they display banners and ads for some web hosting companies on their web site, they do not have affiliate links in their reviews, which is a very refreshing change. They do not artificially place certain web hosts at the top of the list for the sake of money.

Biased User Reviews of Web Hosts

Some web sites like to list the “top 10″ web hosts on their web sites and give them ratings on the different features of a web host. If you visit such a web site and make a decision on their information alone, you would have been duped. Compare more than one web host review site and see if the top web hosts appear in most the reviews. Chances are, you will find a huge difference from someone’s “top 10 list” to another web site’s “top 10 list”. They usually have very vague review guidelines. I tried to leave a negative review on one of these sites and they disapproved the review because they felt that the web host I was giving a negative review of was good.

Web Hosting Review Forums

Forums can be a good place to find some real user reviews of web hosts but at the same time, web hosting companies plant their own “spies” and “salespeople” in web hosting review forums to sell their services. A few examples are the forums at DigitalPoint.com, WebHostingTalk.com and SitePoint.com. These forums may be very messy and you won’t find an easy way to list the best web hosts in a user friendly way. I would not use the information from forums as my primary decision to get a web host. Instead, I would use it as supplementary information to the independent user reviews.

Web Hosting Reviews from the Search Engines

Simply type the following in any search engine:

• Web hosting company + review / review
• Web hosting company + complaints

You’ll see a huge list of web hosting reviews that could be one or more of the types of review sites listed above. Try to ignore the ads on the right and top of the search engine result pages because those are just paid text ads. Sometimes, you might stumble on a review on someone’s blog, which can be an honest review or a dubious one. Take the reviews you find from the search engines as supplementary information to the independent user reviews as well. There is too much web hosting review junk out there.

Conclusion

Take your time to look for a web host that suits your needs. Read the terms and conditions BEFORE you sign up and try not to sign up for plans that require to pay more than 1 month up front because they may not refund you your money if you decide to quit before your contract period is up. Furthermore, try not to get your web domain from a web host as this may get a bit complicated. You need to find out who really owns the domain name and whether you may move the domain out of the web hosting company in the future.

Photo web hosts are also a good way to put all your pictures taken from time with family, friends and co-workers into one place to share with your friend or to store them safely. Whenever you sign up for social networking sites like Friendster, MySpace or Facebook, you can use image codes, HTML or links to place the pictures on your profiles. It’s a great way for the public to see just who you really are and get to know you as a person a little better.

Who Needs To Use Photo Web Hosting?

• Forum posters who would like to post pictures onto forum discussions
• Anyone who wishes to share their photos online
• Webmasters who would like to reduce the bandwidth usage on their own web sites by upload pictures to photo sharing sites
• Photographers, web designers and artists who would like promote their work on sites like social photo sharing sites like Flickr

Benefits of Photo Web Hosting Sites

There should be some form of photo to HTML tool for users to post their images to web sites, forum posts and social networking sites. This makes it easy for non technical users to insert photos into other web sites. Slideshows, picture cubes, and in more recent times videos, can be created to spice up your web site or social networking profiles. Even the popularity of picture phones have come into play for photo web hosting sites as you can now download pictures right to your phone. Best of all, you do not need to have your own web host to store your photos.

Disadvantages of Photo Web Hosting Sites

The only real disadvantage to using photo web hosting sites is the restrictions on photo sizes and bandwidth. It isn’t uncommon for a photo sharing site to disable your pictures once it has received a lot of hits from internet users. What happens is, they will ask you to upgrade your account to a paid account to continue the hosting of your photos. If you host your own photos on your own web site, you won’t have to deal with any of this.

Benefits of Reseller Web Hosting

To secure the space and bandwidth as a reseller, you may need to rent a dedicated server or virtual server from a hosting company. Some resellers also resell shared hosting services. In these cases, you’ll be given permission to resell a certain amount of the bandwidth and disk space to your customers without having to rent an entire server.

There are a number of different reasons you might want to become a web hosting reseller. Typical resellers of web hosting include web design firms, web developers and systems integrators who want to offer web hosting as an add on service. Even some web hosting companies are actually resellers. Webmasters who would like to host more than one domain on a web server are also likely customers of reseller web hosts. Reseller hosting lets you set up a business online inexpensively – it’s a lot less costly than buying and running your own servers.

Reseller hosting plans are usually very customizable, and resellers can create their own service plans and price structure. It’s even possible to establish your own branding, using name servers and customized control panels.

Resellers don’t have to be technical geniuses. To be a reseller of web hosting, you don’t have to know a lot about the technical aspects of web hosting. The operator of your data center is responsible for maintaining the hardware and the network infrastructure. The owner of the dedicated server handles configuring, securing, and updating the server. However, you’ll be responsible for handling the interface between yourself and your customer base. Any problems with the hardware, software, or connection can be forwarded to the provider of the hosting you resell.

Disadvantages of Reseller Web Hosting

The downside of reseller hosting is that you sacrifice a certain degree of control over your hosting. If the provider of your bandwidth and hard drive space doesn’t keep up their end of the bargain, your customers will hold you responsible for the poor service they’re experiencing. Fortunately, you can avoid this problem by choosing a good provider.

Who is the Best Web Host Reseller?

According to webhostmagazine.com, an independent web hosting review site, httpme is the best web host reseller. Take a look at all the top web host resellers and compare features and service plans to find out which one will work best for you.

Make sure that the plan you choose corresponds to the base of customers you most wish to serve. A good plan that’s not suited to your customers still won’t work for you. Check out your clients’ needs and the way they’re planning to use your services to determine what you need to offer. Make sure you use a stable host, too. There’s little worse than having to move all your sites and interrupt service as you change hosts. Being a reseller of web hosting can be very profitable for the right person. You just have to be sure to choose the right services and be sure that you can meet the needs of your customer base.

Web hosts, refer to companies that provide web hosting services, usually own the computers that run the web servers and lease partial or full control of their web servers to you.

It is also possible to get a web hosting service from web hosting resellers, who resell the web hosting services they got from web hosts that own their own web servers.

Web hosts usually offer a number of different services that include email, databases, web domains and bandwidth for your web site.

The type of web hosting you need will depend on your available budget and needs.

Dedicated Web Hosting

Dedicated hosts are recommended for very large web sites that receive a lot of traffic and activity.

This one of the most expensive web hosting services because a web host loans a web server exclusively to you. Hence, the name dedicated server because no one but you has access to the web server but you or your company.

In most situations, the web host is responsible for making sure the hardware and software is working in tip top condition. If you know what you are doing, you may request to manage the web server yourself, which is usually done online instead of being at the location of the web server.

Virtual Private Server (VPS) or Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS) Web Hosting

VPS servers usually have multiple users using the same web server but not as many users as a shared hosting environment.

A VPS server will appear to each user as though they were using a dedicated server but they won’t be able to use 100% of the server resources as each VPS user has a specific amount of server resources allocated to their account.

VPS services usually come with managed web hosting and 24/7 technical support. VPS web hosts are great for web sites that have exceeded their limits on a shared hosting environment.

I host some of my web sites on a VPS server because I need my web sites to be fast, stable and up 99% of the time but I do not need the features of a dedicated server.

Co-Location Web Hosting

Co-location is a type of full service hosting where you provide your own server to a company that sets it up in their co-location centre and allows you to use their bandwidth for a fee. You’re responsible for server maintenance and must update it and keep it running yourself.

This is a great way of hosting your own web site if you’re tech savvy enough to have your own server, but it is too hard for most of us. Some businesses use a co-location centre for backup purposes and to save costs.

Shared Web Hosting

Shared web hosts are usually shared among a lot of users on the same web server.

Shared hosting is usually the cheapest option and it is recommended for small web sites without a lot of traffic.

You cannot expect to host big web sites on a shared web server. Web hosts usually “oversell” their web server’s resources by promising each customer more server resources than they can possibly allocate to all of the users on the web server.

What happens is they will either politely ask you to upgrade your web hosting plan or simple suspend your web hosting account for using too much resources. I have experienced this a couple of times and it was not a pleasant experience.

Read the fine print of every shared web hosting plan thoroughly and carefully to see how they actually handle users who use much resources on their web server. The problem is, it is not understandable by most people and that is how they make money.

Reseller Web Hosting

Reseller web hosting is a form of web hosting whereby the account holder of a particular web hosting service is allowed to resell or share their allocated resources on a web server to other customers.

This is great for webmasters who have a lot of web sites, new and small web hosting companies as well as some web design companies. This is how I manage to provide free web hosting for my clients as described on my services page.

So if you meet someone who tells you they can provide you with web hosting, ask them if they own any web servers and do they have a team working 24/7 making sure they are up and running properly. If the answer is no, chances are they are using a reseller web hosting plan too.

Free Web Hosting

Free hosting, for instance, usually restricts the user to a small amount of space or bandwidth and requires him or her to allow ads to be placed on the site in exchange for the hosting. Sites like the now defunct Yahoo! Geocities used to work on this model.

Blog Hosting

Blogging hosts like WordPress.com and Blogger.com are like free web hosts that allow you to use their blogging platform to create blogs.

Image Hosting

You may make use of image hosting services like Flickr, Photobucket or Tinypic to upload your pictures. Although they have some restrictions on the image size and bandwidth, they are usually enough for most users.

Video Hosting

Sometimes uploading a video onto your own web server isn’t a good idea due to the bandwidth constraints. It is better to upload a video to video sharing web sites like Youtube to get more exposure for your videos and save on your bandwidth usage.

Which Web Hosting Service Should You Get?

For personal bloggers, you should be able to get by with free blog hosts, image hosts and video hosts for a while. Once your blog becomes very popular, you might consider getting a domain name and a shared web host at the minimum.

For businesses expecting light traffic, a shared web host or reseller host should be sufficient. Once you start getting a lot of down times or warnings from your web host, it might be necessary to upgrade to a VPS server. Again, once you are starting to max out the resources of your VPS server, you might have to upgrade to a dedicated web server.