Choosing A Website Host

Choosing A Website Host by Joseph P Helberg

When choosing a web hosting company you will first want to ask
yourself what are you looking to get out of hosting? What exactly are you going to be using your website for? Are you looking to start an online business and want to earn extra money with it? If you answer yes to this question, then there are certainly some things to considered before you dive in.

There are free web hosting packages available and are very easy to set up. However, if you are going to be running your website as a business or trying to earn extra money with it, then I would recommend staying away from the free option. The reason here is that while free sounds good and you may be working on a limited budget, you will not be able to produce a very "Professional" looking site. There are also other features that you will need or want that come with most hosting packages that simply won't be available with a free account.

Features of certain web hosting packages are what you will have to consider based on what you want to do with your site. If you are going to be selling ebooks, for example, then you may want the ability to accept credit card orders. If you are going to be providing a lot of information via downloads, then you may want unlimited bandwidth (Bandwidth is a term used to describe how much information can be transmitted over a connection).

One of the most important features of a hosting company (to me) has to be customer support. This can be the difference when counting on your website up time and keeping your site running smoothly, especially if you are just starting your first website or have little experience. There is simply no substitute for great customer support, which sometimes seems like a lost art these days!

I have been with a few different hosts in my 12 years of being online so I have seen the good and the not so good. Now I am not a website genius or expert programmer but I had one experience when a company I was with at the time could not figure out the issues my site was having (not going to go into details or name names) but I had to eventually figure out the problem for myself and it cost me a lot of down time!

Needless to say I wasn't with the host for long! That is again why I cannot stress enough about having great customer service. And that is why I would recommend http://www.hostgator.com. They have excellent customer support.


They have different packages to fit your needs. They also offer Wordpress if you are thinking about setting up a blog site. At Hostgator, Wordpress is a "one click" install and you are on your way. Very simple, very user friendly! So if you want a great web hosting company with great customer support check them out today and get started. They have great web hosting packages and are very affordable, even on a limited budget!

Get your free step by step guide on how to start your own website and make money with it. Free today when you sign up to my 100% free newsletter, dedicated to helping you start and grow your own website and make extra money with it. Head over to:
http://homeinternetearnings.com

Article Source: Choosing A Website Host

How To Monitor An Smtp Server

How to Monitor an SMTP Server by Alertra

When a user in an organization sends an email, a lot happens behind the scenes. When the user clicks send, the message is handed off to a service running the simple mail transport protocol (SMTP). It is the job of the SMTP service to contact the recipient mail server and transfer the message to the mail server. If the SMTP service stops responding, mail cannot be sent.

There are several reasons a mail server could lose its ability to send mail. Here are just a few:

1. The mail server could lose its connection to the Internet.

2. The mail server could run out of resources (like disk space) which might cause the operating system to crash or hang.

3. A mail administrator could make a configuration error that might cause the service to become confused about how to send mail.

4. A mail server could be added to a blacklist preventing it from sending mail to any recipient server using that blacklist as resource to eliminate spam.

Since outgoing mail is a function that is critical for almost every organization, it is very import to have in place some method to monitor the service. Some website monitoring services also provide support for monitoring SMTP. Here's how it works:

First, the website monitoring service will attempt to establish a socket connection with the SMTP server using the transmission control protocol (TCP). This involves sending a SYN packet to the SMTP server and waiting for an ACK packet in response. If no ACK is received, the monitoring service knows that the SMTP service is not responding to requests.

Next, assuming the ACK was received and a socket connection has been successfully set up, the monitoring service will try to communicate using protocol commands. Here is one way that could work (you can test this out for yourself using the well-known terminal program Telnet):

1. If the connection was established, the mail server will respond with its banner, usually something like "Connected to mail.somedomain.net." If no banner is received, something is probably wrong.

2. Next, the monitoring service will introduce itself just as if it were a mail user by sending the "HELO" command followed by an origin domain for the email. So the complete command might look like "HELO my.domain.net."

3. If all is going well, the SMTP server will respond with something like "250 Hello my.domain.net, pleased to meet you."

At that point it is established that the SMTP server is responding to connection requests and is ready to receive more commands. If the monitoring service notices a failure at any of these points it can log the failure, the time, and any content that was received which may help diagnose the problem. The service will then send out alerts by email, SMS text or even using a real phone call.

For most monitoring applications, this is enough to get a basic sanity check on the functioning of the mail server. Some website monitoring services go further by allowing you to design a script to thoroughly test the mail sending process. This more advanced process involves interacting with a POP3 or IMAP4 mail server as well.

Alertra is a leading provider of website monitoring and alerting services. If you are searching for a website monitoring company using keywords, monitoring website or server monitoring service, visit our site. As part of our website monitoring service, we provide timely alert notifications and access to detailed reporting.

Article Source: How to Monitor an SMTP Server

Monitoring Website Performance Effectively

Monitoring Website Performance Effectively by Alertra

Most website monitoring services send an e-mail once they detect a server outage. Maximizing uptime is important, but it’s only part of the picture. It seems that the expectations of Internet users are increasing all the time, and today’s users will not wait very long for a page to load. If they don’t receive a response quickly they will move on to the competition, usually within just a few seconds.

A good website monitoring service will do much more than simply send an alert when a website is inaccessible. The best services will break down the response time of a web request into important categories that will allow the system administrator or web developer to optimize the server or application to provide the best possible overall response time.

Here are 5 important components of response time for an HTTP request:

1.DNS Lookup Time: The time it takes to find the authoritative name server for the domain and for that server to resolve the hostname provided and return the appropriate IP address. If this time is too long the DNS server must be optimized in order to provide a faster response.

2.Connect Time: This is the time required for the web server to respond to an incoming (TCP) socket connection and request and to respond by setting up the connection. If this is slow it usually indicates the operating system is trying to respond to more requests than it can handle.

3.SSL Handshake: For pages secured by SSL, this is the time required for both sides to negotiate the handshake process and set up the secure connection.

4.Time to First Byte (TTFB): This is the time it takes for the web server to respond with the first byte of content after the request is sent. Slow times here almost always mean the web application is inefficient. Possible reasons include inadequate server resources, slow database queries and other inefficiencies related to application development.

5.Time to Last Byte (TTLB): This is the time needed to return all of the content, after the request has been processed. If this is taking too long it usually indicates that the Internet connection is too slow or is overloaded. Increasing bandwidth or acquiring dedicated bandwidth should resolve this problem.

It is extremely difficult to diagnose slow HTTP response times without all of this information. Without the important response data, administrators are left to guess about where the problem lies. A lot of time and money can be wasted trying to improve different components of the web application in the hope that something will work. It’s possible to completely overhaul a web server and application only to find out the whole problem was really slow DNS responses; a problem which exists on a different server altogether.

Use a website monitoring service that does a lot more than provide simple outage alerts. The best services will break the response time into meaningful parts which will allow the administrator to diagnose and correct performance problems efficiently.

Alertra is a leading provider of web site monitoring and alerting services. We monitor the availability and performance of Internet-connected devices. As part of our site monitoring service, we provide timely alert notifications and access to detailed reporting.

Article Source: Monitoring Website Performance Effectively

General Reasons To Get A Free Psychic Reading

General Reasons To Get A Free Psychic Reading by Allan Ryckman

Professionals are defined as individuals who possess an immense amount of skill to be able to practice a specific profession. Doctors, lawyers, mechanics, and even writers are all considered to be professionals in the fields that they practice. One type of professional that people tend to overlook is psychics. You can get a free psychic reading to help you with many different things that occur in your daily life.

Psychics are often times seen by many people to be connected with the dark arts. In the past, if anyone could tell you things about your future or see into certain things in your life that you were unable to, people believed these individuals were possessed by the devil. These accusations could not be any further from the truth; psychics help people make it through difficult times.

A few of the reasons why an individual may wish to obtain readings from these professional seers is to help them get over difficult conflicts they faced in the past, learn to cope with their daily lives, receive predictions of what their future may hold, as well as deal with the death of a loved one. Believe it or not, there are a lot of people that choose to obtain readings to help them cope with issues that happened to them when they were younger.

Psychics can help these individuals that have been afflicted by trauma learn to let go of the past and focus their attention towards the future. By providing a healing on these individuals, psychics can wash away the bad and bring in the good. Remember, for every bad thing that has happened in your life there are three good things that have.

Readings that are given by psychics are seen as an alternative method to therapy for some people. There are more people that you may think that actually seek out these professionals to help them learn to cope with their present day life. Perhaps they are dealing with stress at work, or are unsure if they are doing the right thing to progress in their lives; psychics can help these individuals determine if what they are doing is right or wrong.

Nobody knows what the past holds for them, but psychics can provide you with a few clues of what you can expect to occur in your future. In fact, one of the main reasons why people choose to frequent these professionals is to try to uncover things that are going to happen to them. Having a little bit of insight into what is going to happen in your future, can help you prepare for it.

The death of a loved one causes a lot of people to wonder about many different things that they never thought about in the past. Death opens up many different spiritual doors that may have never been opened in the past. Most people seek out help from psychics as a means to assure them that their loved one is in a better place.

Before you get a free psychic reading you should already know what you are going to ask prior to attending the rendezvous. Most people choose to obtain the assistance of psychics to have questions answered. These professionals can help you get through difficult times, and answer questions that may have went unanswered.

You can find a brief summary of the reasons why you should get a free psychic reading via the Net and information about a reputable online free psychic reading provider, now.

Article Source: General Reasons To Get A Free Psychic Reading

What Is Server Downtime?

What Is Server Downtime? by Alertra

Server “downtime” is the term that is used to describe a period of time in which a server or website is unavailable. Server downtime and outages occur when a system is unable to perform its primary functicons. Downtime can be the result of a planned event, such as a system upgrade or routine maintenance. It may also be the result of unexpected issues such as server overloads or system crashes.

Planned Downtime versus Unplanned Downtime:
Server downtime is unavoidable in certain situations. Planned downtime, such as the downtime that is associated with server maintenance and upgrades, can be planned for properly and notice can be given to your customers. When such downtime is scheduled, it is scheduled in advance. This allows you to give your customers notice regarding the downtime so they are made aware of the fact that your website will be unavailable during a set period of time. Notifying your customers of planned downtime in advance results in less frustration and does not impact the reputation of your company.

Unplanned downtime, on the other hand, can be a frustrating experience for customers and potential customers. Your website visitors may be unable to make or purchase or access features of your website that they need. If you want to maximize your profits and reduce customer frustration, you need to make sure that unplanned downtime is minimized and that you are monitoring the level of server downtime that your website is experiencing.

What Causes Unplanned Downtime?
As explained above, unplanned server downtime can be caused by a number of factors. Improper system configuration, hardware failure or other system failures can result in unplanned server downtime. Server overloads and bandwidth issues are other problems that can result in unplanned server downtime. Catastrophic failure at the data center where your server resides can also result in serious downtime issues.

How Much Downtime Should You Expect?
The amount of downtime you should expect will depend on how often you perform server updates and maintenance as well as the quality of your service provider. You can take measures to minimize planned downtime, such as the implementation of server clustering. Server clustering provides you with continuous messaging availability through the services of a standby server in the exchange cluster while you perform maintenance on the primary node. Unplanned downtime, however, is not so easy to manage. That is why it is crucial that you keep an eye on server outages and slowdowns and monitor your server’s performance. If you have anything less than 99.9 percent uptime, there is a problem and you either need to upgrade your server or change to another service provider.

How to Monitor Your Server Downtime:
You can’t fix a problem if you do not know that a problem exists. It is nearly impossible (and is definitely not cost effective) to have an employee monitoring your website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The best way to ensure that you are on top of any server downtime issues that may arise is to utilize the services of a website monitoring company. A website monitoring service can keep an eye on your websites, servers and routers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and will alert you when your site is experiencing outages or slowdowns. If you notice that you have more downtime than you should be experiencing, you can take measures to correct the issue.

Alertra is a leading provider of website monitoring and alerting services. If you are searching for a website monitoring company using keywords, monitoring website or server monitoring service, visit our site. As part of our website monitoring service, we provide timely alert notifications and access to detailed reporting.

Article Source: What Is Server Downtime?

How To Monitor Your Website

How to Monitor Your Website by Alertra

In today’s world, it is critical for every organization to maintain the best possible performance and reliability for its website. However, website monitoring can be complicated; there are a lot of factors involved. Here are some suggestions to make sure every aspect is covered.

1.Ping the router. This is the first line of defense. If the Internet connection goes down, nothing else matters. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have their own outages from time to time that can occur due to a variety of reasons: Carrier failures, internal equipment failures, mistakes by engineers like router configuration errors and natural disasters. The last link in the chain before public Internet access reaches the web server is the ISP’s router. The router can be monitored using the ICMP protocol, commonly known as ping.

2.Check the web server’s software and operating system. Make sure the server is alive by testing its ability to respond correctly to connection requests. Before a server can worry about creating a web page and returning it, it has to be able to establish socket connections with clients. Servers use the transmission control protocol (TCP) to manage as many as thousands of simultaneous connections.

3.Make sure the web server responds to HTTP requests. The HTTP protocol drives the Internet. The web server must respond to valid requests with a 200 OK message. Other responses may indicate a problem with the server. For example, if the server has a problem with resources or a back-end process stops working correctly, the web server may begin returning 500 Internal Server Error responses.

4.Make sure the content returned is valid. If a back-end process such as a database query fails, the web server may return an error page from the database with a 200 OK response. Although the response is valid, the page returned is definitely not what the user was expecting. Check the content for key words that prove everything is working correctly.

5.Make sure transactions are working. Transactions come in many forms. Some examples are: a simple log in function where a user enters a username and password to gain entry to a site, a signup form for a newsletter and an online purchase order transaction. Some transactions are very simple and others are quite complex. The more complex the transaction, the more things there are to go wrong. A simple change by a developer can have an unexpected consequence in a deep level of a transaction. The entire transaction process needs to be thoroughly tested on a regular basis.

All of these things need to be done on a regular basis. It’s possible to do these tests manually, but a much better solution is to use a website monitoring service to perform the tests automatically and frequently. Schedule all of these tests to run at least once an hour. Processes that are critical to the success of an organization may need to be tested as often as once a minute.

Alertra is a leading provider of website monitoring and alerting services. We monitor the availability and performance of Internet-connected devices. As part of our website monitoring service, we provide timely alert notifications and access to detailed reporting. We offer monitoring service to all sizes of businesses right from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.

Article Source: How to Monitor Your Website

How To Minimize Losses From Server Downtime

How to Minimize Losses From Server Downtime by Alertra

Server downtime… It’s a problem that evercy company operating online must deal with. The fact of the matter is that any amount of downtime can equate to lost profits. So how do you know if your server is experiencing downtime? How can you tell if you are losing profits due to an outage or slowdown? Furthermore, what can you do to prevent “invisible” profit loss from servers that are performing poorly?

There are a number of ways to minimize server downtime and to keep track of any outages or slowdowns that your site may be experiencing. Here are some tips to help you manage and avoid server downtime and minimize your losses.

Know What You’re Dealing With:
The first key to minimizing any losses that you may incur due to server downtime is to know exactly how much downtime you are experiencing and when slowdowns are occurring. After all, you can’t take care of a problem if you aren’t aware that the problem exists.

Unless you have someone watching your website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you’re going to need a program to notify you of any server downtime and outages that may be occurring. A website monitoring service will allow you to get a handle on exactly what you are dealing with and whether or not downtime, outages or slowdowns are becoming an issue for your company.

Upgrade Your Server:
If you notice that downtime is indeed an issue, the issue needs to be addressed quickly. Server downtime equates to lost profits.

If you are experiencing significant downtime, one of the first things you will want to do is look at the server that you are using. It’s possible that the server isn’t up to par or can’t handle the amount of traffic that your website is receiving. If this is the case, you will want to upgrade your server or consider converting to a dedicated server (if you do not already have one).

When you do upgrade your server, make sure you utilize a service that will perform the upgrade with minimal downtime. After all, the purpose of the upgrade is to minimize server downtime and potential profit loss. You do not want the upgrade itself interfering with the profits of your business.

Make Sure Your Site is Optimized:
A good way to avoid server slowdowns is to optimize your website for fast connections. One way to do this is through HTTP caching. When you optimize your site with HTTP caching you provide a local copy of resources so that the connections do not take as long when loading data.

You can also optimize your site by reducing the number of HTTP requests that your site receives. You can do this by simplifying the design of your site or by using combined files along with inline images and image maps.

Continually Monitor Performance:
Once you have corrected your server downtime problems, make sure that you keep an eye on the performance of your site. As your website grows, your server needs will grow as well. By using a website monitoring service you can ensure that your servers are working as they should be. If you notice that downtime and slowdowns are increasing again in the future, you will know that you need to address additional upgrades at that point. Consistent attention to these details will enable you to minimize any losses that could occur due to server outages and slowdowns.

Alertra is a leading provider of website monitoring and alerting services. We monitor the availability and performance of Internet-connected devices. As part of our website monitoring service, we provide timely alert notifications and access to detailed reporting.

Article Source: How to Minimize Losses From Server Downtime