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Web Hosting - Do It Yourself Administration, Things to Consider
The choice of whether or not to try to administer your own web site brings with it a host, pun intended, of issues.
For most web site owners, the primary focus is naturally on creating, maintaining and enhancing the site. That often is just part of managing an entire business, for which the web site is just the means to an end.
That implies there will be little interest in or time left over for technical administration like database maintenance (tuning, space management, security, bug fixes), establishing and maintaining backups to ensure they're successful and usable, email administration, disk space management, applying operating system fixes for bugs and security, and other tasks.
But cost is always a factor in any business. Paying for technical help can burden the budget of a new and struggling business.
Consulting fees can range from a few dollars an hour to over $100. On the lower end, the poor skill level and quality of work will make it not worth even that small amount. On the higher end, you can quickly rack up expenses that will bust your business.
Permanent employees are usually somewhere in the middle of that range when you add up salary, employment taxes and more. Often, server and/or web site administration can be paid for as part of the web hosting package. That cost is usually lower than independent contracting help, but those staff are usually tasked with maintaining dozens if not hundreds of servers and sites. They can, therefore, give very little individual attention to yours.
Often, novice web site owners are intimidated by some of the technical requirements for server or site administration. But, as with anything, a little familiarity can show that the knowledge required is more modest than one might expect. Administration in many cases involves fairly elementary, and frequently repetitive, tasks. These can be learned easily. Using a test site or a free hosting service is a good way to practice and learn without risk or cost, other than time invested.
Once that initial hurdle is jumped over, administration can be done quickly and some even find it interesting. It allows the site owner to exercise additional control over the total product, and there's satisfaction in being able to say 'I did that' even if you prefer not to do it forever.
That real-life learning experience also allows the site owner to better judge any consultants or staff that are hired. It's much easier to judge if someone is providing you with an accurate assessment of a problem if you've solved it yourself. Any time-estimate they provide to fix it can also be better calculated if you've had to do it yourself.
Every web site relies on a variety of factors, usually unseen, in order to continue to function properly. But the fact is that they misbehave from time to time. Deciding whether to tackle those problems yourself depends on your available time and skill set, and what it will require to get things back on track. In other words, it's a standard cost-benefit analysis that everyone has to undertake every day in life.
Web Hosting - Unix vs Windows-Based Hosting, Which Is Better? An operating system functions largely out of sight, or at least is supposed to. It doesn't matter to non-geeks how a file gets stored, or how memory is used, or how simultaneous processes share the limited resources available on a computer. These are among the basic functions of any operating system. Yet, you can find very passionate supporters - who offer very detailed lists of pros and cons - for every operating system. Why? Because, though the low-level functions of an operating system do their work out of sight, there are many other features that rise to visibility. Sometimes, they do so when they're not supposed to. Weighing the pros and cons objectively could consume a book. But to select a web host operating system, a manageable level of considerations apply. They can be weighed even by those who don't know a processor queue from a pool cue. Learning Curves For most web site owners, administering the site/server is just overhead. It's not something they take pleasure in doing and they have plenty of other things to worry about. Many wouldn't know how and have no interest in learning (rightly so, given their priorities). Consequently, ease of administration is paramount for such people. Whether a Unix-based site (usually Linux these days) is easier to administer than Windows depends on your current skill set and the type of tools and level of access the web hosting company provides. But in general Linux is more difficult to install and maintain than Windows and the learning curve is steeper. FTP and Control Panels Often, you don't have to care. For many, the operating system is fairly transparent. FTP file transfers to get a new web page up to a Windows server are very much like they are to a Linux-based site. The user/administrator simply doesn't see what's behind the curtain. Many companies provide other utilities that completely mask any awareness of the operating system underneath. When that's the case, the web site owner has no reason to care, until or unless they need or want to go 'inside the black box'. Performance Performance issues can be relevant in selecting which operating system host type to choose. But for the most part, that aspect is outside the web site owner's control. Overall performance can be good or bad on either system, depending on many factors that the publisher will rarely see. The issue is a wash, as far as tipping the scales is concerned. What is more likely to be seen by a web site owner, at some point in their (and their site's) development is the database product that can be used to store information. Databases Microsoft SQL Server is relatively simple to use, yet extremely powerful and can deliver great performance. But it doesn't run on Linux. At least, not without special software to emulate Windows, which usually kills performance. On the other hand, with a bit of time invested, MySQL isn't significantly more difficult to learn than MS SQL Server and there are many free installations. Cost may well outweigh other considerations for most on this issue. Programming Languages Last, but not least, there are differences in programming languages that can be (or at least typically are) used on Windows vs Unix. If you have programmers who are skilled in Visual Basic, ASP and other Microsoft technologies, then a Windows-based host will be your preferred choice. For Perl and PHP programmers, Linux is the more common platform of choice. No single factor can push you to one versus the other operating system. And, in the long run, it isn't the primary consideration, unless you just enjoy playing with operating systems. Dove Beauty Product Lover? Get Free Products! The Internet is a great resource for many things in everyday live. Whether someone loves food, toys or health care products, it is available on the Internet. Many companies even offer free samples of their new or changed products to customers. One of these companies is Dove. The Dove web page offers anyone free samples, trial sizes and sometimes even full size promotion offers to anyone interested. On the companies web page a whole page is dedicated to their current offers and free samples. The free samples of Dove are available to anyone over 18 years of age living in the United States. The promotions and trial sample products change frequently and therefore there is not guarantee that one can get the product seen on the page a few days or weeks ago. The trials are shipped directly to the customer’s home and area true product of Dove. Anything from lotions to hair care and other company products might be offered for trial on this page. Sometimes the company also offers coupons, discounts and rebates for certain products on this web page. Getting free products for dove beauty products lovers is actually very easy. All the dove lover has to do is visiting the Dove Special offers page and fill out a form to request the sample or samples. From there the company takes care of the rest and ships the products to the customer while supplies last. The forms that the customer has to fill generally ask for the name, address, e-mail address and birth date. As with so many things on the Internet, one should move carefully giving away certain information. While name and address are necessary for delivery of the product and this information does not bare such a great risk, it is okay to give away this information. When it comes to the birth date and e-mail, one should be more careful. The birth date of a person can be used in identity theft, and even though this is a big company and the company itself will not steel the identity, the Internet is the medium the user uses to enter the information and therefore it is necessary to be cautious. It is always better to not have ones birth date float in cyberspace available for anyone seeking to do wrong. Many dove lovers have commented that they did not have any problems or increased mail after entering their e-mail address, but if one worries about this kind of thing, there is always the possibility to use a free e-mail account, that is used as a dummy in such cases. Sometimes, some of the Dove offers are not listed on the free samples page at Dove right away, since they are part of another promotion and therefore it is also essential to check some of the other freebie pages for Dove sample offers. The various freebie online pages offer a collection of all links that currently lead onto free Dove products and are therefore very useful in the search for samples. Since the Internet is not always the answer, dove lovers also should make sure to check stores for any promotions. Often time’s companies sent stores free samples to distribute to their customers to get them trying something new, and to spread their product to a wider variety of customers. This is the harder way to get to free samples, since these promotions are not generally on a calendar as such and therefore one has to either know when through store employees or has to be a t the right time at the right place. The best bet for Dove lovers is still the free sample page that the company offers. |