Hosting TutorialPlease use this tutorial to resolve any myths you've heard or questions you may have regarding hosting before continuing your search for a hosting provider.Chapter One - Overview Chapter Two - Relative Pricing Chapter Three - Space Requirements Chapter Four - Bandwidth Requirements Chapter Five - Email Information Chapter Six - Counters and Statistics Chapter Seven - Real CGI-Bin Chapter Eight -Control Panel Chapter Nine - Mailing Lists/News Letter Chapter Ten - E-Commerce Chapter Eleven - FTP Chapter Twelve - Connection and Reliability Chapter Thirteen - Support Relative Pricing among HostsOverviewSetup Fee Registration Fee Monthly charges Quantity Discounts Overages Moving, Closing Overview Prices vary Wildly among ISP's and hosting providers, from FREE to $2000.00 a month and more. The #1 worst thing you can do is to sign up with a Free Hosting Provider. The Banner they put on your page is bad enough, many even put your page in a frame. (older browsers won't work with frames) But, just to show how disreputable these lying money grubbers can be, they require you to give up all rights to anything you put on your page on their site. They own the copy rights to your text, graphics, and even programs, and ideas. JUST SAY NO. Read the Terms of Service carefully, if they protect the company and say nothing about the level of service you should receive, then mark them down in your notes as BAD. Back to the top Setup Fee Setup fees are another one of those areas where there is NO consensus in the hosting community. Back in the stone age, 1997, accounts were still setup by hand and the labor was technical and tedious. The setup fee was a way of recouping that cost. Now your site is setup instantly, as soon as your credit card clears (also instantly) there is no labor, no expensive support tech to pay. If they do charge a setup fee, ask why? Then consider a more modern approach to hosting, if they have to set up by hand; the support is going to be laborious too. No one needs to be paying for space then wait for the support staff to do simple stuff because the system isn't automated. Who needs a computer that isn't automated? Just say no! Back to the top Registration Fee Guess what? Some people actually charge more to register you with interNIC than we charge for the name, registration, and 2 years parking. Many charge 49 to 59 bucks to register your domain name, then you are charged 70.00 by Network Solutions, and parking is as high as 10 dollars a month. For 2 years that's $369.95. At Network Solutions it's only $119.00. At Rosserver.com it's $39.90 for 2 years, that's it, no separate bill from anyone. Don't pay more than $19.95 a year for a domain name. Even if you decide to host elsewhere. Back to the top Monthly Charges Almost everybody has a site under $10.00 now-a-days. Read the terms, and feature descriptions carefully. Most of these less than $10 sites have the life stripped out of them. A real IP address is a must, resolving your domain name is essential, and if you are placed on a machine low on the priority list, you will be served up as slow as the free sites! $5.95 or $7.00 a month is NO bargain for slow service with no features. Don't be fooled into buying unlimited bandwidth or 300 mb storage, if your needs do increase to that point, you won't be able to tolerate the bad service from the discount place. Get Quality first, a good company can keep up with your needs, and charge you just for what you need. Our service is so completely automated that you will find an upgrade button in your control panel for adding features. Our system is so automated that we CAN charge less for Real Quality, not $4.95 or even $7.00, but our budget account with a real IP address and our automated control panel 20 mb storage and 500 mb bandwidth is $9.95 monthly or $7.96 per month when paid a year in advance Back to the top Quantity Discounts One of the best ways to get a better price is to leverage your ability to pay up front. Many good hosts offer quantity discounts, for paying for several months at a time. There is less room in our less expensive accounts for discounts, but we save some money just by submitting only one charge to the credit card. Our discounts are: "Price is Everything" accounts: 5% for 3 mos. 10% for 6 mos 15% for 12 mos. "Size Matters" and "Bandwidth Rules" accounts: 5% for 3 mos. 10% for 6 mos 20% for 12 mos. plus free domain name Value Oriented Account: 5% for 3 mos. 10% for 6 mos. 25% for 12 mos. plus free domain name "Reseller" and "Price is no object" accounts: 10% for 3 mos. 15% for 6 mos. 25% for 12 mos. plus free domain name Back to the top Overages Some hosting companies charge next to nothing for an account, but charge extra for everything. They advertise "One dollar hosting" but with the minimum complement of package extras, their service falls short of Rosserver and costs more. Let's all just say no to deceptive business and advertising practices. Going beyond the set limits for your account, such as for space and transfer will incur a charge for the overage. Many a sneaky ISP recoups their profits, lost faining low prices, by charging a fine similar to a late fee on a video rental. Many times the regular rate. Better Hosting Providers don't penalize you for doing well, we encourage it. The prices for extra space and bandwidth are right in line with our regular prices and if the overage is temporary like because of an advertising promotion, then there is no need to step up to a more expensive account, just pay for what you need extra that one time, and back to normal after that. Back to the top Moving, Closing Until I bought my first Real Server, I had never stayed with a Virtual Host, for a full six months. Even when I had payed in advance, the support staff would let me down, or the machine would be down too much, I would move to a new hosting company. Internic used to take as much as 4 weeks to move the domain name. I would have down time before the new site became active. All hosts that I have dealt with and that I have ever heard of, turn their back on a moving client. I have even had one of my domain names kidnapped by one former host. I have instructed my support staff, and I promise to you, that we will continue to support you, help with the transfer, and keep your files online for up to an extra month to help make your transition smooth. Come on! Come over to Rosserver.com Web Hosting and experience dedicated support. Back to the top
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