Web Hosting 101, The Basics

Web Hosting, Web Space, Email Features

Contracts, Domain Names, Domain Privacy

Traps and Hosting Information Everyone should know

August 12, 2023
By: RSH Web Editorial Staff

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Web Hosting 101
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The Basics of Web Hosting

Web hosting is what makes it possible for your website content to be seen by others on the Internet
Purchasing a web hosting account can be confusing for most beginners. Especially with so many hosting companies trying to get you to sign up when you don't know what all this hosting stuff is all about.

Web Server

A web server is a fancy name for a computer that connects to the Internet. Web servers are used for hosting websites and data for web applications. They can host multiple websites. Web hosting service providers purchase and maintain the web servers, connectivity, and any associated services to host websites. Web servers communicate with Browsers using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP and HTTPS).

What You should know about Website Hosting

The problem with buying webspace for most of us is that we really do not know what we are looking at. We simply buy what sounds like the "biggest" package we can get. Or the first package we see and think all hosting companies are the same. Or what they see on a TV commercial and think that is the best and cheapest way to go.

Long Term Contracts

You need to watch out for long term contracts, they look like they're saving you money. But the renewal fees are sometimes double and triple. And their money-back guarantee is normally only for 30 days. Not the length of the plan. So if you sign up for a 2-year contract and after 3 months you want to leave, you could be out the remainder time, money and some companies even hold your Domain Name until the end of the contract.

Trap - Ridiculous Discounts for Website Space

$1 Web Hosting, $1.99 Web Hosting. Be careful here. After this discount, you will be paying the full price for their hosting plan. Which after the discounted period normally will be much more than you think. And they almost always try to sell you other services that are normally free or that you do not need. We have seen companies like GoDaddy and Bluehost go from $78 to more than $250 a year.

Trap - Massive SSL (HTTPS) Costs

Hosting providers have found another cash maker. Google and other companies started pushing for Secure SSL connections on all Websites. But most website owners do not know about free SSL certificates. Like what RSH Web Services offers.

Social Media

Trap - Domain Privacy Costs

Without domain privacy, or WHOIS privacy protection, all of your contact information (address, phone number, name, etc.) is available to the public. With WHOIS privacy, your personal information is shielded and normally the information belonging to your Domain Registrar is visible instead. But did you know it is required by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and more importantly it costs the Registrar company nothing to implement
So why do most hosting companies charge for this service?.

Webspace

Claims to have "Unlimited" webspace, features and transfers may sound like the best package you can get, but in reality there are many important factors to consider in buying webspace. To make things even more confusing, some hosting companies are just outright lying to their customers.

The "Unlimited" Trap
When shopping for a website, keep in mind that many companies offer MUCH less space than what is in our hosting packages and call it "Unlimited"
In making this claim, the company will cover themselves with some tiny, well hidden fine print, or simply rely on their customers not using all of what they are paying for.

When the customer do not use all of what they pay for, they can use that space to cover another customer who is using more than what they thought they might. One of the problems with this technique is, they have to cheat all the customers that don't use more space than they expected, to support those who do. What do we mean by "cheat"? Read the fine print closely with the "Unlimited" packages.

Here is an example of the above at work. This is a direct quote from another host's website:.

*The unlimited traffic and disk storage policy has been established for the ease of use and enjoyment of all our customers. We reserve the right to limit your disk usage and/or traffic if your site is negatively affecting the performance of our other customers.

Limit To What? How Much Is It Really?
They don't say. It pretty much leaves how much space and traffic you can use for your site up to the hosting company. Apparently, it sounds good for them to say "NO LIMITS!" in their ads, and they probably fool a lot of people who don't read the fine print.

Keep in mind webspace itself does not make the package. What is just as important is what comes with it.

Traffic - Unlimited

Just as "unlimited space" is a physical impossibility, so is "Unlimited Traffic". Beware of companies that offer this as a feature, as there is always some type of fine print that releases them from actually giving you "unlimited hosting traffic". One common stipulation, is to offer you "unlimited traffic" with a little link to the fine print of: If you use more than 20% (or even 10%) of system resources, you do not qualify for unlimited traffic. Bottom Line: if you are limited to a percentage of system resources (or limited to anything else for that matter) then it's nothing short of a lie to represent a hosting package as having "Unlimited" anything!

It's important that you understand that when you buy webspace. What exactly is offered in any given package. This means understanding each feature, so that you'll know if you want or need it, and that it is actually available to you.

Blog Hosting

Email Features

100 - 500 - Unlimited POP accounts Wow - Such a deal! Now think about it (And read the fine print on sites that offer unlimited POP accounts) - How many POP email boxes do you really need. You probably already have one with a free web-based account such as Gmail. Or even your ISP provider as well. Unless you're running a site for an extremely large company, chances are you will never need more than 3 to 5 POP email accounts. Many companies advertise "Unlimited Pop accounts" because it makes their packages seem bigger, and probably 98% never use more than about five.

Secured Socket Layer

Check to see what they charge for SSL Certificates (HTTPS) If you accept credit cards on your site, you will HAVE to have one. Here's one "unlimited" hosting company's quote: "$449 One time setup fee, and $20 monthly fee The secure server setup includes the purchase of a $349 Digital ID"
With RSH Web Hosting, your SSL certificates are free.

PHP and MSQL2 Support

PHP is the most popular scripting language for web development. It is free, open source and server-side (the code is executed on the server). MySQL is a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) that uses Structured Query Language (SQL). RSH Web provides both features at no cost to you.

Server Side Includes

SSI (Server Side Includes) are directives that are placed in HTML pages, and evaluated on the server while the pages are being served. They let you add dynamically generated content to an existing HTML page, without having to serve the entire page via a external program. RSH Web also provides this at no cost to you.

Cgi-bin

Having your own cgi-bin is extremely important, because CGI scripts are used in so many ways to do so many things. With your own cgi-bin (not just access to a community one) you have the option of using scripts that are needed to run your site. There are many free versions of just about any script you can imagine all over the net. With our packages, you can either use the ones we provide or install your own. A few examples of some scripts: Guestbooks, site searches, Forms and email forms, Counters, Rotating banner ads, website traffic statistics programs. Most "Unlimited" hosts will not give you access to a cgi-bin. Even if you know nothing about cgi-scripts, with a little reading, and some practice, most scripts that you find (for free) are easily implemented into your website.

You should look at legitimate Reviews before you purchase and make sure that you can verify the features that you want in a website before ordering.

Also see our Fake Hosting Review Websites. This will show you who not to believe and why.

We welcome your comments, questions, corrections and additional information relating to this article. Please be aware that off-topic comments will be deleted.
If you need specific help with your account, feel free to contact us anytime
Thank you

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