Why Use Virtual Dedicated Web Hosting

Most webmasters on the net today are familiar with what the industry calls "shared" web hosting accounts. A shared hosting account is where you rent a small amount of space on a server which is shared among many other users.

This is a cheap way to get started online but it has many disadvantages - you will encounter email delivery problems because of spam complaints against other sites on the same server. You will find your site's grinding to a halt when someone else does some heavy database work on your server. You might even find your site going down because of a denial of service attack against someone else hosting hacking or piracy related material on your server (these type of sites attract antisocial elements!)

How can you avoid all of this drama?

By upgrading to a virtual dedicated server. A virtual dedicated server lets you run your sites as if you had your own "dedicated" server, except it is cheaper because you are really just using part of a server that has been split into multiple virtual dedicated servers.

You can find out more about this by searching Google for "virtual dedicated hosting". Virtuozzo is the main commercial software that web hosts use to run virtual hosting services.

You will find virtual dedicated server accounts starting at just $30 a month. You'll get a much larger chunk of bandwidth compared to shared hosting, and none of the problems that go with a shared host. You can also get multiple IP addresses that are exclusive to your sites.

So what's the catch? Not much. You'll probably spend a bit more on hosting each month. The main disadvantage of upgrading to virtual dedicated hosting is that you will need to be more technically proficient so that you can administer the server.

This requires a bit of time learning the necessary Linux skills to make sure your server runs smoothly.

Many hosting providers will have a "premium" support offering that includes a bit more hand holding - this is definitely recommended if you don't have much experience with Linux, or are new to virtual dedicated hosting.

With the increased speed and bandwidth that a virtual dedicated host offers, and none of the shared hosting headaches, the move is one you will never regret. So, the question now becomes, are to ready and willing to take-on the challenge of virtual dedicated web hosting and save yourself some hard earned cash? The choice is your...

Chet Holcomb of http://www.Webdesignslc.com a web site design hosting firm is a successful web designer who offers advice, and special services to clients.

Important Considerations When Choosing Web Hosting

There are many important issues to bear in mind when looking for a company to host your web site. If you're a beginner putting up a simple site that uses no programming or advanced features; then you would likely be fine with the starter packages offered by most hosting providers. Service, support, reliability and value added features like free PHP or java modules are probably most important to you. However if your site is for business and/or involves programming languages and/or ecommerce features, then you should be concerned with other issues:

- do you need unix or windows hosting ? If you site is written in .Net or Active Server Pages then you definitely need windows hosting as those technologies only work with Microsoft operating systems. Its the same if you use Microsoft databases like SQL Server or Access. Otherwise you would probably be ok with either platform. As it turns out, most companies offer both.

- do you need shared or dedicated hosting? If you expect very large amounts of traffic, or you need a lot of administrative control over your web site, or your site involves a complex setup of scripts, databases, multimedia content etc then you might need a web hosting company with dedicated hosting.

- how many domains and subdomains do you need ? Hosting companies all differ in the amount of domains and subdomains you can have within your web hosting plan. Think carefully about whether this is or will become important to you. Its good to have room for expansion for your web activities without having to switch your web hosting service if you decide to host a new domain, for example.

- disk space and bandwidth - make sure you have a good idea of the space and bandwidth requirements for your site. Most often, disk space isn't a big issue since the average web hosting company typically offers lots of space with even the starter web hosting plans. However if you're storing lots of data - video for example - than this will be something to look out for.

- do you need ecommerce features such as shopping carts or credit card processing ? These tend to differ by hosting provider, as does whether there's an extra charge involved.

- do you want custom PHP modules or other scripts? Some companies offer a selection of very useful PHP modules for no extra charge, typically with a simple installation menu. This can be great if you want to add a blog, MYSQL database, guestbook, or other PHP feature to your site.

- support - are there good resources available to you to help you out? Can you reach a live person at the web hosting company for assistance at no extra charge?

- reliability - do they claim 99.5% or greater uptime ?

- speed - If the hosting company's home page takes quite a while to load - then your site probably will to ! See that as a bad sign and move on.

- email services - think of your needs and make sure that you use a web hosting service that can provide you with the email solutions you want, such as POP2 based or web based, auto responders, number of addresses, etc.

I recommend the Top 5 Web Hosting Companies for good selections. They also run Ecommerce Web Hosting Services and Low Cost Web Hosting Companies.