GX BLOG

THE TECHNICAL STUFF

 

What should one look for when hosting a site.

The answer to this would be best explained if the question is restructured as ‘What will the Web Master gain by giving away free space on his server?

 

What goes at the back of his mind when publishing his offers?

 

1.       Good publicity

2.       Great support and reliability so as to get ranked among the best à good publicity

3.       Sharing the work load(as in promoting the ads it gets) with dumb people thinking they are getting a website for FREE à get rich à publicity in the business class

4.       Competition with other Providers à publicity and marketshare

 

So the base line ends in publicity..in any case everything is about business…

 

What most Providers restrict Free users to do ?

 

1.       Providing a lot of webspace for free might prove fatal.Peopla might just use the webspace for uploading their personal content..which might or might not be legal(that’s besides the point).Uploads thus made will not generate any revenue. So what is to be done? Restrict FTP usage.

a.       What happens when webspace is less à A 100 MB of webspace is more than enough for a personal  website hence no comments since most providers use this feature to highlight their offer…Statements like Well it is not giving me FTP support…but it is giving me 500MB….what nuts!…if it doesn’t provide FTP how on earth can somebody fill up 500MB….???????(P.S:  With FTP you can get direct access to the folders you have on that server ..almost like accessing a local drive on your computer) .

b.      What else are the side effects à If you don’t have FTP most likely you will have to use their online WEB DESIGNING TOOLS to edit your pages. That means if the concerned WEB DESIGNER given to you is the worst software ever made on earth………hop jump and leap…you will have no other alternative(I faced such a problem once and literally jumped with frustration, hurt my knee and hopped for two minutes )

2.       Providing Rights to use Java scripts,PHP(no server side programming though) can again be fatal.

Who knows somebody would develop a code to infect the server itself.Omigosh….these free users…why did we give them space in the first place.Hence,Such supports are a strict NO NO for most of the providers.

a.       What happens if you don’t have the support à In one word you end up creating dull looking static webpages that cannot take user inputs and cannot use widgets .Not to mention that you can forget getting Ads for your site since almost every good Ad feed uses java scripts.Hence if not PHP and other stuff,at least look for javascript support.

b.      What Else à Many templates use embedded Java Scripts so that you could actually play with your Webpages and change the getup almost everyday.CSS is fine but javascripts according to me is a must.

 

3.       Server Speed is another area for loop-holes.Why should some server dedicate its processors for free users.Mostly they keep all the free users in a separate bin and recycle them on a time slot basis(sometimes on priority basis) through processors that ought to have been thrown away long ago but due to technical difficulties  or emotional bonding(if not something else) they are still in business.They will say like “you will get a 2.5% processor load” or some other crap.Bottomline,look for Unlimited server speed.

4.       Data Transfer: Like in our broadband connections…..dear users you will get a 1 GB data transfer per month…????….what happens if my allotted I GB crosses the limit before the end of the month.Should my users stay away from my website for the rest of the days.Should I start maintaining a calendar or should I watch out for all users linking to my site like a Head Teacher and warn them if they unnecessarily reload the pages…?….Dont fall into the loop…get the maximum limit gettable.

  

In any case apart from these basic points other areas are also to be looked into.How is the support.Do they demand information about your entire family tree before letting you in?

Do they provide a SANE domain name…mostly the domain names offered for free end with such ridiculous DOT suffixes ,your users will rather prefer not to log on to your site rather than remembering the God Damn URL.Also check thoroughly what happens if you delete your account. Does your data get really deleted if you delete your account at a later stage…you get it what I mean..

Lastly check for POP Ups that come with your free site.Normally you will not get one without a Ad.

(Check if you can).If you cannot,make sure you have FORCED TEXT ADS and nothing more than that.

There are a lot of othe factors but I guess the above would do just fine.

 

Nevertheless If you have any queries or want to share your views,do let me know.

Happy WebHosting

 

Regards

GX

http://gyanxchange.page.tl