Pedro Garcia asked:




First, let me clarify something. There are many reasons why you would want to have your website professionally hosted. However, people in certain situations are better off hosting their site themselves. For example, if you are starting a new business or playing with an idea that you are not sure will work, you might not want to pay a hosting company to host your site, at first. Hosting the site yourself will allow you to save money that you can use to grow your business. Once your business starts growing and your site starts getting a lot of visitors, then you will find it necessary to pay a web hosting company to host it for you, but until then, you need to test the waters.

If you have a computer and a high speed internet connection (DSL/Cable) you can host your own website. You will need to keep your computer on and online 24/7, which should be no big deal. Besides this, you need only to follow the 7 steps I describe below, to make your website available to users on the internet:

1) Install a web server: Most Windows operating systems either come with a web server, or one can be downloaded for free depending on the version of Windows. The web server is the program that runs in the background on your computer listening to requests from people on the internet. It’s the software that finds your pages in your computer and sends them to the users requesting it.

2) Configure the web server: In this step you simply tell your web server where to find your website that is sitting somewhere in your computer.

3) Get a domain name: In this step you decide on the name that you want for your site and buy it from a provider. Domain names are cheap and you pay the fee only once a year.

4) Configure DNS: This is where you associate your website name with the IP address of your computer so users are transferred to your computer when typing the name of your website.

5) Configure your router: Your router needs to know about the computer that has the web page so it knows where to forward users to.

6) Dynamic IP solution: Most people have a dynamic IP address given to them by their ISP. This means the IP address of your computer might change. This is a problem because DNS needs to know the IP address of the computer that people need to be forwarded to when typing a domain name. There is a way to solve this problem without having to pay your ISP more money for a static IP. There are applications that will automatically update DNS when your IP changes.

7) Securing your server: The last step is to make sure your computer is protected from malicious programs on the internet by having the necessary software installed and configured.

Meghan Morrison asked:




Hosting multiple domains on a Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a great way to establish a web presence. If you only intend on having one website then this point is moot, but if you are bent on becoming a web guru, you will likely need more than one website to do this.

A disadvantage when it comes to shared server sites is that you would need to pay for additional domain names as well as the additional server space. The advantage to VPS hosting is you can purchase one virtual private server and outfit it to meet your web hosting needs. Again, the domain names will need to be purchased but they will be considerably less in this option.

When dealing with multiple domains on VPS you are offered the utmost in efficiency and convenience. You are able to handle all of your domain names using one control panel which is another convenient feature. Multiple domain hosting through your VPS offers you a greater web visibility.

Your web presence can be expanded and you can bring people your own points of view in many different ways. You can set up a news content site, a web directory, an e-commerce store. You could also set up a site to promote your pay per click earnings. Using the Fantastico application you can make use of your multiple domain sites and you can add your own words of wisdom through blogging, forums, photo or video galleries, or support centers for those who need them. Using multiple domains can allow you really expand your presence online.

As far as cost goes, your multiple domain names should not cost you any more than what it would if you bought them with shared servers. You can purchase domain names through the hosting company who uses established companies to bring more traffic to your site.

Once you have these multiple names and your domains become active you can manage them easily through the control panel of your VPS. Depending on your VPS host you can set up email accounts, FTP accounts, databases and sub directories for each domain.

There are many affordable packages available online, it only takes a little research to find them. The prices for VPS and multiple domains should be only a little higher than shared server hosting plans. Finding the right service provider for your domains could mean the difference between you being just another internet blogger and you becoming the next online sensation.

Derek Rogers asked:




There are more web hosting companies around today than there ever has been in the past. The prevalence of these companies has caused the services they provide to proliferate and improve; primarily due to the fact that competition is almost always the catalyst for development and improved services. One popular trend in this burgeoning industry is unlimited web hosting. What exactly is it, and what does it mean for you or your company?

Unlimited web hosting is a specific kind of plan that a wide number of companies will offer these days. Essentially an unlimited plan can be free from restrictions in several different ways. One way is the number of domain names that you can host on one plan. With an unlimited option, you’ll be able to have as many domains as you’d like all under one roof.

Another form of unlimited hosting will be in terms of how much storage space you have. All of the files you host take up space, and an unrestricted plan allows you to take up as much space as you want. This means you can store pictures, video clips and anything else without fear of repercussions.

Along the same lines, you can end up with an unlimited bandwidth plan. You can think of bandwidth as the energy that your site needs to function. The more visitors your site has, the more energy it needs to run. The more services that people use on your website, the more energy it needs and so on. Therefore, limitless bandwidth is a powerful way to be sure that your website will always be up and functioning smoothly.

Unlimited hosting can also refer to the amount of databases that you can create on your hosting plan. A database is a way to store and retrieve information, and many tools and services make use of them including popular blog and CMS platforms.

Of course, an unconstrained plan can include all of these different factors. In addition, many unlimited hosting options allow you to have as many email and FTP accounts as you’d like. The bottom line is that you end up having access to a huge array of services, and you can utilise as much of them as you’d like to.

So how can web hosting companies survive while providing unlimited services? You would think that they would outrun their own abilities, and the costs will become too great. The truth however is that the vast majority of individuals and businesses on limitless plans don’t use that much space or bandwidth.

Therefore an unlimited plan provides the best of both worlds. You get to rest easy knowing you won’t encounter problems, the web host gets to rest easy knowing they provide a great service without running afoul of their business strategy.

If you’re looking for a web hosting plan for yourself or your company, then you may want to consider an unlimited plan. As described, there are many different forms of unlimited plans, ranging from unlimited domain name hosting to unlimited database creation and much more.