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Web Hosting - How To Select A Web Host As with many purchases, our first impulse when selecting a web hosting company is to go with the cheapest. Hey, they're all alike, why pay more? Au contraire. There are a number of objective criteria that separates one web hosting company from another and money is only one of them. And not the most important one. Selecting a company based on price alone is equivalent to selecting an auto mechanic on price alone. Sure, he may maintain or fix your car cheaper. But will the car spend all the time in the shop and none on the road? The first consideration is 'horsepower'. Do they have the capacity to carry your load and deliver decent performance? Most hosting companies will advertise that they have huge bandwidth and hundreds of servers. They're usually telling the truth. But there's a difference between existing capacity and usable capacity. If they also have thousands of sites with millions of visitors per day the available or free capacity will be much lower. A big pickup truck may be able to tow 5,000 lbs. But not if it's already carrying 4,999. Be sure to ask about available capacity, and have the prospective company back it up with reliable numbers. If you can't interpret the information they provide, find someone to help you do so. Next, and a very close second, is reliability. A lot of power is worthless if it's cut often. Outages are a normal part of business. Even Google and Microsoft go down from time to time. The difference is, it happens rarely and they have failover plans. That means, if their site/system does go down it's either up again in a flash, or you never see the outage because a backup system kicks in automatically and seamlessly. Be sure to grill the company closely about their up time. They'll often tout 99.6%, or some such figure. But, like the on-time figures of the airlines, those numbers can be shaded by adjusting the definition of 'up time'. What matters to you is whether your visitors will be able to reach your site at any time of the day or night they might want to. Find out what systems, both technical and human, they have in place to deal with failures of all sorts. Servers can go down, networks can fail, hard disks can become defective and lose data even when the other components continue to work fine. The result is YOUR site is unavailable, which is all that matters to you. The web hosting company should be able to deal with all of that and have you up again very quickly. Last, but not least, is security. With the continuing prevalence of viruses and spam, you need to know that the web hosting company you select has an array of methods for dealing with them. That means a good technical plan and staff who are knowledgeable in dealing with those issues. The old saying: 'an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure' is more true here than anywhere else. All these issues are central to finding a web hosting company that can deliver the services you need. After those criteria are satisfied by a number of candidates, then you can start narrowing them down by price.

Free Downloadable Software – Not Always a Scam Do you want to download free software off the World Wide Web, but you are afraid of getting your computer infected with a virus, spyware or other bad cyber invaders? If so, you will be happy to learn that there are many websites that specialize in legitimate free downloads that won't cause your computer to become awash in viruses or spyware. Here is a just a brief sampling of different websites that specialize in free (and safe) downloadable software. These sites let you enjoy the best of the web without the danger of less reputable websites. Get Your Fill of Entertainment at Download.com Are you looking for a place where you can download free games and tools? If so, Download.com should cause you to rejoice. This site contains a wide range of games, tools and utilities. This website bills itself as a haven for "safe, trusted and spyware-free" software. Savvy web surfers know that Download.com offers the best library of legal and totally free software downloads, game downloads and music downloads. This website is also known as a well-regarded repository of credible and relevant information about the latest game releases, software updates and other free downloads. All of the downloadable software found on this site is put through a rigorous set of tests. Moreover, registration is fast and free. You can even write your own reviews for software and participate in the active CNET forums. From fun to functional, you can probably find what you are looking for right here. Update Your Drivers for the Smoothest Web Experience In order to make sure that you always get the smoothest online experience possible, make sure to update your drivers on a regular basis. DriversHQ.com offers you an easy way to make certain that you always have the best and latest drivers on your computer. This site allows you to detect its own Driver Detective software services. Drivers Headquarters is known as the best driver update service. This service is easy to use and it is designed to help you upgrade your update your drivers in a safe and fast manner. They even have new drivers that support XP and Vista programs. Use their driver detective to find what needs to be updated, and to update your current drivers. Tired of Nagging Software Updates? Then Head On Over to Nonags.com Are you tired of downloading software, only to have it nag you with updates on a regular basis? Are you tired of being hassled by your own downloads to buy the upgraded versions? Here is a refreshing website that offers you downloads that do not put a limit on the number of days you can use them, and that do not constantly pester you to purchase the upgraded version of the software download. This website is an amazing compendium of the latest freeware, along with editor picks and user ratings. Get the Latest and the Greatest at Tucows Where can you turn for the latest and the greatest in safe software downloads. If so, you will want to place a bookmark on the Tucows.com website. This is one of the most amazing collections of safe and effective downloadable software. You can choose from freeware, shareware and pay software. Tucows.com features software downloads for your Windows PC, your Mac, Linux-based systems, your PDA and programs to streamline and improve your online experience. This site has become a popular spot to find hard-to-find software for Mac computers. Enjoy the editorial ratings and the myriad range of programs and tools. Enjoy everything from poker software downloads to design programs that help you achieve your highest level of creativity.

Web Hosting - Databases, What Are They and Do You Need One? 'Database' is one of the most commonly used terms that one encounters in web site design. Yet, what they really are and whether they're essential is often not clear to novices. A database is a collection of organized data, stored in files that have a specific structure. It's that organization and structure that allows for easy and rapid storage and retrieval. The need for a database generally only arises when you have a certain amount of information and that information needs to have some structure. If you have a half-dozen names and addresses to store, a database is usually overkill. If you have a blob of data with no relationships between any of the items in that blob, maintaining a database is usually more trouble than it's worth. Maintain a database? Yes, like other complex systems a database, to be effective, needs to be designed properly at the outset then kept 'tuned' for good performance. The alternative is to gradually allow the database to become more and more disorganized. That leads to difficulty in use, poor speed of retrieval and more frequent failures. With MySQL, Access or MS SQL Server, the three most common choices of database product for web sites today, setting up a database is relatively simple. Even those with limited technical skill can get one up and running just by following some simple instructions. But some thought should be given to how you want the information organized, and to maintaining the system during its lifetime. Suppose you have a set of names, addresses, email addresses, products purchased, date purchased and amount. If you have only a few dozen records it matters very little how these pieces are arranged and related. A database usually isn't even warranted in this scenario. Once you have several thousand or more records, it matters a lot. Speed, the ease of expanding the set of attributes (like adding, say, product category), and other issues come into play. Even those with little technical expertise, but a willingness to exert logical thought and invest some time, can build a very robust database. Think about how you would organize a set of data (called 'tables'). Should Name, Address, and Product be in the same table? Or should the personal information be stored in one table and any product information (product, price, ...) in another? Some experimentation may be needed to get it right, but the choices have an impact on how easy the tables are to maintain. It also affects the speed with which programs can fetch old data and store the new. Having a database also introduces new maintenance issues for the server administrator, since backups usually need to be done differently. Recovering a failed database is usually more complicated than simply re-copying files from yesterday. Ask your hosting company what tools and skills they have for dealing with any database system you consider. It's true that introducing a database creates more complexity and the need for additional thought and administrative effort. At a certain level, professional expertise will be needed. But clearly the advantages outweigh the costs in many cases. Companies large and small eventually use databases to store and organize data. At some point, you may be fortunate enough to be one of them.