Troubleshooting your hosting account

Even the best web hosting service providers cannot promise you a server free of any down time. As a layman, this is the time when you are not able to access the website (you often see the message saying “Host unavailable” or “unable to locate host”) or the speed of extracting the data from the website is very poor. However, for an entrepreneur having a business online, the server down time could be the worst nightmare, for this is the time when he may lose potential customers.

Though the regulations say that a server having more than 1% downtime (i.e. 3 days in a year) is technically not acceptable, in practical situations, even the best web hosting providers perform otherwise, although many have an excellent web monitoring facility.

However, at some times, the problem may not be located at the server end. If you are having a hard time editing your website & still not able to see the changes, here are a few tips that may come in handy. Check with your FTP software (Dreamweaver or so) for any blockages or restrictions created for your IP. Certain changes in your cpanel can also lead to unwanted consequences.

If the problem persists, do consult the customer care. Do not forget to add your IP address, the total duration of the down time experienced (some may experience ups & downs in the accessibility speed to the website) in the correspondence email. It is nice to know that unlike the breakdowns experiences in the past, down times are healed much faster nowadays.

Selecting the appropriate Operating System

An Operating System is in a crude sense, software (probably the most complicated one) which creates an interface between various applications, the computer hardware and the user (i.e. the input end). The most common operating system is definitely the Windows OS, developed & maintained by Microsoft Corporation. In a common man’s language, an OS is something which gives your desktop or laptop device a true meaning.

If you are thinking of establishing an online business related to computing and development, you need to select an optimum operating system, the way you select an appropriate web hosting package based on your Internet needs. In a similar fashion to a web hosting package, you need to chalk out your business requirements, your budget, prime aims & so on, from your operating system. You need to decide whether your OS will be staying on standalone machines or will be distributed & used on a multi-user network.

Unlike the regular user-friendly operating systems, there are some – like the UNIX based systems, which have been developed exclusively for large scale servers and commercial workstations. Many of them are ‘linked’ to their specific hardware. LINUX systems, though designed on the UNIX code, are much versatile in their application & are more user-friendly. The Macintosh OS is developed on the same platform and is primarily associated with Apple computers. Chrome, developed by Google, is an ultra light OS and is primarily aimed at those who are hooked up to the Internet most of their time.

Troubleshooting towards a safer Internet experience

Every online transaction (beginning from a single click anywhere on the web page) is recorded at both ends viz. your computer & the website server. When a third party records these clicks of yours, you can conclude that your Internet session is no longer safe. So if this is the case for amateur surfers, think about the stringent security measures you have to take when you have to protect your own website & its data from going into the wrong hands. A package from a reliable web hosting company & a few security tips will ensure your Internet sessions are safer for you as well as the viewers of your website.

A reliable web hosting company refers to one who will provide you the optimum security features & control over your web space. Opt for those who will help you troubleshoot your online as well as offline issues 24/7. Some may include an online firewall which will prevent data thefts & malicious attacks on your website.

These services, though premium, are a must for those who have commercial gains from their online business.
If you are using a software like Dreamweaver or so to manage your website & synchronize the data, carefully go through the user manual & troubleshooting guide. It is better to spend ample time over the technical things rather than repenting over the losses later. You can always communicate with your web hosting company to chalk out strategies which will help you make optimum use of your resources, technologies & to get troubleshooting aid for any problems that you may come across.

Why should you be careful when you choose web-hosting companies?

There are plenty of web hosting companies these days. Every webhosting firm promises many things, but when they have to deliver, some just fall by the side, and come a cropper. Therefore, it is advisable to be careful when you choose a web hosting company.

When you own a site and then get it hosted by a web hosting company, you are likely to entangle many web-hosting problems occasionally. Therefore, it is important that you find a good host, who has a viable customer support, and who will be able to provide you with onsite support and fix any existing problems. Always perform a little survey before you decide to choose a web-hosting company. Do not rush!

If you do a little browsing over the Internet, you will come across many webhosting services. Spend some time reading the sites, and search for some reviews about the site. It would be fantastic to read the reviews and know other’s opinions that have already used their services. At least you get a chance to know something about the company.

Make sure that the chosen firms provide customer support within a period. There are firms who will never fix any web host problems on time. Then, imagine how your business is likely to suffer in such cases. Apart from how the web hosting company provides customer support, you must also learn about the company’s experience. The more the company survives in the market, the more it has done reasonably well to be in the market. Finally, to say in short, experience is the key when you choose web hosting companies.

Buying international calling cards on cheap hosting service

International calling cards are being sold like hot cakes. If you notice, you will find many of the calling cards website is hosted on cheap hosting service. Calling cards have a host of features, and one of them is instant messaging feature.

However, of late, you will find that you don’t even need a calling card to use instant messaging service. There are many sites these days that allow you to make use of messaging your friends and relatives anywhere across the globe through the site. These entire sites are hosted on cheap hosting service. They make a real good business. It’s a good revenue stream for many instant messaging website owners. The other step you can take is to blend your phone calling information with PC trouble shooting guide. Having both on a single platform will eventually help your site to have more value.

Instant messaging is a huge rage among young users. What you need to provide is your number. You obviously need to have a mobile number. You need to use a mobile number to get registered, and then you can use instant messaging service free of cost. It’s remarkable that you don’t have to pay a single pie to utilize the service, which is truly amazing. You get a chance to use the instant messaging service to send endless number of messages to anyone you wish to.

Gone are the days when you have to type message on your mobile’s small keypad to send message across. It has now become easier. A free service and that too, a convenient way of sending message by typing on your computer’s keyboard.

New Gadget – System Unstable

Ever been so overeager to install a new software or a new gadget that you end up having an unstable system? Ever been greeted by the blue-screen of death after a program or driver upgrade? Then first, DO NOT PANIC, for there are some steps you could do to remedy the situation and pulling out all your hair won’t do you any good for sure. If you are using Xp, then system restore would be a good thing to do and should you have a recent back-up or restore point, it would mostly revert the damage you may have inadvertently done to your computer system. But this XP feature has to be enabled first so to be sure you prevent catastrophe in the event of incompatibility issues, then do a restore point before you do anything (the situation presented earlier). Having a device that suddenly fails can be resolved by rolling back the driver for that specific device to restore proper operation. (more…)

TeraByte Hard Drives – Bigger is always better ?!?

The advent of the Terabyte hard drive has many techies drooling about the endless possibilities in terms of the amount of data they can hold. Though still quite expensive, there are certain situations where such a huge drive would be advantageous such as with use in video and animation which tends to be quite hard drive space hungry. Bigger is better, right? Not always, for consider this, you may have a terabyte of data stored into a compact drive but what would happen to that very terabyte of information should your hard drive suddenly fail? Having several drives is still better due to the redundancy that exists, and is the reason why servers have several hard rives in a RAID configuration that has the ability to either have several hard drives having the same information, ready for hot swapping should the primary hard drive fail without much problems. (more…)

Hardware Upgrades – Are they still worth it?

That would be a question that you yourself would have to address for determining the feasibility of such a task depends mainly on cost. Consider these points, if you are upgrading your computer because it has considerably slowed down, then a total retrofit or even replacement would be in order. This would be more akin to older machines that may have already been serving you for a good couple of years, besides, you may not be able to find any compatible hardware anymore due to the fast pace at which technology advances. (more…)

XP’s Restore Points – Using them

The Restore point option of Windows XP has the operating system taking a snapshot of your overall system (mostly the system areas on the hard drive along with documents), saving compressed information about the hard drive’s contents at regular intervals allowing almost instant file restoration should the computer experience a system crash. These restore points can be set manually on when it is to take snapshots of the system for backup or as experienced XP users know, every time you opt to upgrade a critical part of your operating system that may have bearing on the overall stability of your computer. (more…)

Boosting your startup speed

Here are a few tips to help speed up your computer and / or laptops’ boot up speed:

1. Run disk defragmenter.

It helps compress and organize all the files in your disk, eliminating empty spaces on the disk that delays the computer when it starts up. it’s a long wait, but the benefits are worth it in the end. Try defragging your disk when going on an errand or before going to bed so you don’t have to suffer the long wait too much.

2. Eliminate any useless startup programs.
Simple type ‘msconfig’ in your Run box in the Start Menu, and go to the Startup tab. There you’ll see which programs Windows loads during start up. Look at the Command column and look at the programs which you can do without at startup, and uncheck the appropriate Startup Item.