One of the most important decisions you'll make for your business Web site is selecting which Web hosting service will display your Web pages to the Internet. With a good Internet Service Provider (ISP) you don't have many problems; with a poor ISP you have much pain. So how do you go about shopping?
Types of Web Hosting Services
First, let's examine the types of services available.
Dial-Up Access. There are thousands of local dial-up access providers in the country, each of which also provides Web page hosting for businesses. I've learned that ISPs either specialize in dial-up access or Web page hosting, and it's a rare ISP that ends up doing both well. Many dial-up access ISPs don't really understand the needs of small businesses, and aren't quick to improve service. After all, their bread-and-butter is dial-up access, and that's where their focus and investment goes. A few large companies have separate divisions for Web site hosting which help them avoid some of these problems.
Developer's Hosting. A second kind of service is becoming common. Web site developers commonly host the Web pages for the businesses which are their clients, often on a computer in the corner of their office. They often provide good service, since they are customer focused. The downsides may be: (1) price, (2) smaller connection to the Internet backbone, and (3) dependence, which we'll discuss below.
Web-Hosting Only. Increasingly you find companies which specialize in business Web site hosting. They allow no dial-up access (site owners gain access to their Web pages via FTP), which doesn't allow bandwidth (speed of connection to the Internet) to be compromised by access customers frequenting chat rooms. They provide a wide variety of services to their customers. This is where the bargains are to be found. How do you find them? Look at ads in the Web developer magazines at your local newsstand.
Industrial Strength Hosting. If you have a very high traffic site, you'll need to look to the largest national companies which provide mirror sites on both coasts, 24-hour staffing, redundant connections to the Internet backbone, and substantial prices. No bargains here, but you have the expectation of maximum reliability.
Think National
But how do I upload files to an ISP who doesn't have a local access number? you ask. You need local PPP access to the Internet, commonly offered in most parts of the US at $20 per month for unmetered service. This gives you a local e-mail address. It also gives you a connection which allows you to use an FTP program on your desktop computer, enabling you to upload files to an ISP anywhere in the world, so long as you have the correct username and password.
Let's say you sign up with a Web hosting service in Pennsylvania and you live in Texas. No problem. You get on the Web through your local ISP in Texas, and FTP your files to the ISP in Pennsylvania which hosts your Web pages. E-mail sent to your domain hosted in Pennsylvania is automatically forwarded to your local e-mail address in Texas. You set the return address on your desktop e-mail program to your business domain name, and no one will know (unless they bother to read all the e-mail header material) that you have hosting in Pennsylvania with forwarding to Texas.
Now, if your local ISP doesn't offer you the services and prices you need, you can shop anywhere in the country. (Anywhere in the world, actually, though transcontinental Internet connections can sometimes be very slow.) Non-US companies commonly set up Web sites hosted in the US, and have their e-mail forwarded half-way around the world.
What to Look For
Shopping for a Web hosting ISP is difficult at best, but these are some of the things to look for.
Size of Pipeline. The host computer is connected to the Internet backbone typically by T1 and T3 lines. A T1 can carry up to 1.5 mbs (megabits per second), while a T3 can carry 45 mbs. Small ISP hosts sometimes have ISDN connections to the Internet, or "fractional T1" connections (part of a T1). Look for T3 if you can, though a T1 isn't close to its maximum capacity. The expense of installing an adequate pipeline to the Internet is the chief barrier to setting up your own Web server computer in your office; telephone and other charges are pretty stiff, unless they can be shared with other businesses. Another alternative to explore is "co-hosting" your computer at an ISP's location to take advantage of his connection to the Internet.
Number of clients per machine. Ask how many business clients are assigned to each of the ISP's computers. (Don't be surprised to find out that many good ISPs use fast Pentium computers rather than something more exotic.) You may not learn too much by asking this, but you do learn if the ISP has any policy limits at all.
Space. ISPs usually assign you a certain amount of space on their computer. 5 MB is plenty of space for the Web pages and graphics for most business Web sites. I once jammed nearly 800 files and graphics into 5 MB. But ask if mail, log files, and system programs are counted in the 5 MB; these can sometimes take up considerable space. Web hosts which include mail and log files in the count commonly offer 15 MB minimum.
CGI-bin Access. Business accounts need to be able to reference programs in a cgi-bin directory, which includes a cgi program which generates the e-mail message sent out by Web page forms. So long as a good forms-to-email program is available in the host's main cgi-bin, that may be all you need. If you or your Web site developer need to write custom programs, though, you'll need your own cgi-bin directory. But here's the problem. Most Web hosting ISPs allow FTP access to a cgi-bin directory but not Telnet access. This can significantly slow down programming development time. If you don't have Telnet access, for example, you won't be able to compile any programs written in C or C++. You have to rely on the ISP's technical support to do that for you -- when he gets around to it. ISPs say that limiting Telnet access helps them keep out hackers, which is true. But if it is at the cost of getting your Web site working, the cost may be too high. Ask: "Do you allow us Telnet access to a cgi-bin directory?"
Virtual Hosting. These days nearly every ISP offers what is called "virtual hosting" or a "virtual domain." This allows you to have your own domain name such as http://www.yourcompany.com rather than use your ISP's domain name with a subdirectory designating your site, such as http://www.isp.com/yourcompany/. You definitely want virtual hosting. Sometimes an ISP will offer something called a "vanity domain" such as http://yourcompany.isp.com. Don't bother. Pay $100 to register a real domain name, and consider that an investment in marketing your company on the Web.
E-Mail Aliases. Once you have a virtual domain, ask your ISP how many e-mail addresses you are allowed. Many ISPs allow you to set up multiple "aliases" such as sales@yourcompany.com or info@yourcompany.com. Also ask if different aliases can be forwarded to more than one e-mail address. For example, I have a client with partners in Germany as well as offices in California, with e-mail aliases for each of them. For the smaller business, you probably don't need POP (Post Office Protocol) e-mail boxes on your Web hosting site. The POP e-mail box you have with your local access ISP is probably enough. But larger businesses may want to have multiple POP e-mail boxes at the Web hosting ISP. (Ask your MIS staff member. If you don't have an MIS staff member, you probably don't need this.)
Dependence. How free are you to choose another Web hosting ISP if this one doesn't work out? If your Web site developer provides hosting, what kinds of contracts lock you into using those services and for how long? So long as your name is listed as the "Administrative Contact" with InterNIC, you can transfer your domain to another ISP, though your previous ISP can slow down the process unless he cooperates. Make sure your Web site developer isn't listed as the Administrative Contact or it may be more difficult to switch to a new developer if the need arises. You can see who is currently listed by checking your domain at http://rs.internic.net/cgi-bin/whois
Support. How many hours a day are technical support staff available? How quickly do they respond? How much help do they provide? If you need 24-hour technical support -- and larger companies and high-traffic Web sites do -- then expect to pay substantially more. People are much more expensive than machines.
Extra Features for Business
Make sure you inquire about the availability of mailing list management programs such as Majordomo for newsletters, and autoresponders for automatic responses to e-mail messages sent to certain addresses. If you have software demos available for download, you'll want "anonymous FTP" capability. (This differs from FTP access to your Web pages which requires your username and password. Nearly all ISPs make that available.) Also make sure that your Web host ISP provides some sort of statistical data on visitors to your Web pages. Counters are not considered professional, and don't give nearly as much information. If you plan to take credit card information over the Web, you'll need to have SSL Security. If you plan to display databases on your Web site, be very careful to get an ISP whose operating system is compatible with the system you use to maintain the database.
What Should You Expect to Pay?
The best advice is to know the services you really need, and only pay for those. The typical six-page small business Web site with a single response form, for example, can find good virtual hosting with multiple e-mail aliases, cgi-bin access, and a T3 connection to the Internet for $18 to $25 per month. If you need SSL Security, expect to pay $35 to $75 per month. Setup fees are typically $50, though sometimes higher for special features. Prices will be higher in many localities. Large companies and high volume Web sites will pay much higher rates to get the services they need.
But I am paying too much! you cry. Find out what you need and then shop around. When you discover a better deal, see if your current ISP will match it. (Life is more competitive these days when business customers can get Web hosting any place in the country.) And when comparing Web hosting prices with your local ISP's hosting rates, remember that you'll have to pay $20 per month for access anyway, so figure that into the equation.
The most difficult thing to learn is how responsive the Web host ISP is to fixing problems which arise. How slow is the site during peak hours? Does the ISP host a very high volume site which slows everybody else down? This kind of information is difficult to find out except by asking some of the ISP's current customers.
Like much shopping, referral is often the safest. And referrals to the best ISPs is what you pay your Web site developer to give you. Select your Web site developer before you select an ISP. But if you plan to shop on your own, at least you have a list of questions to ask, which can help steer you to the best service/price ratio possible.
http://www.wilsonweb.com/articles/webhost.htm
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Infamous porn and phishing ISP rolls Bank of India
Security firm SunBelt, which discovered the Bank of India’s hacked Web site was serving dangerous malware, says the infamous Russian Business Network (RBN) -- an ISP linked to child pornography and phishing -- is behind the attack.
The service provider in question has developed a notorious reputation, with Verisign classifying it as "the baddest of the bad" in the ISP world in June 2006.
According to Verisign threat intelligence analyst Kimberly Zenz, RBN is different to other service providers because "unlike many ISPs that host predominately legitimate items, RBN is entirely illegal."
"A scan of RBN and affiliated ISPs' Net space conducted by VeriSign iDefense analysts failed to locate any legitimate activity. Instead, [our] research identified phishing, malicious code, botnet command-and-control (C&C), denial of service (DoS) attacks and child pornography on every single server owned and operated by RBN," Zenz wrote in a recent report.
Zenz added that the RBN almost exclusively attacks non-Russian financial institutions and its leaders' family ties with a "a powerful St Petersburg politician" effectively offer it immunity from prosecution.
In an interview with ZDNet Australia, Patrik Runald, senior security specialist at F-Secure, said: "No one knows who the RBN is. They are a secret group based out of St Petersburg that appears to have political connections. The company doesn't legitimately exist. It's not registered and provides hosting for everything that's bad."
"Their network infrastructure is behind a lot of the bad stuff we're seeing and it has connections to the MPack group [a well-known group of cybercriminals which used Mpack software to steal confidential data]," said Runald.
Runald said that in the case of the Bank of India's hacked Web site, RBN used an IFrame to launch another window which then pushed victims to a Web page containing malicious code.
"That page contained links to three other pages on other servers," said Runald. "At the time we started looking into it two out of three URLs had been taken down. The one remaining was trying to use an exploit from 2006 to affect systems with a Trojan downloader. Once infected, that downloader would go out and download another piece of malware, including other downloaders," said Runald.
The Trojans used in this case were designed to steal passwords from PCs and upload Trojan proxies in aide of developing a botnet.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Infamous-porn-and-phishing-ISP-rolls-Bank-of-India/0,130061744,339281722,00.htm
The service provider in question has developed a notorious reputation, with Verisign classifying it as "the baddest of the bad" in the ISP world in June 2006.
According to Verisign threat intelligence analyst Kimberly Zenz, RBN is different to other service providers because "unlike many ISPs that host predominately legitimate items, RBN is entirely illegal."
"A scan of RBN and affiliated ISPs' Net space conducted by VeriSign iDefense analysts failed to locate any legitimate activity. Instead, [our] research identified phishing, malicious code, botnet command-and-control (C&C), denial of service (DoS) attacks and child pornography on every single server owned and operated by RBN," Zenz wrote in a recent report.
Zenz added that the RBN almost exclusively attacks non-Russian financial institutions and its leaders' family ties with a "a powerful St Petersburg politician" effectively offer it immunity from prosecution.
In an interview with ZDNet Australia, Patrik Runald, senior security specialist at F-Secure, said: "No one knows who the RBN is. They are a secret group based out of St Petersburg that appears to have political connections. The company doesn't legitimately exist. It's not registered and provides hosting for everything that's bad."
"Their network infrastructure is behind a lot of the bad stuff we're seeing and it has connections to the MPack group [a well-known group of cybercriminals which used Mpack software to steal confidential data]," said Runald.
Runald said that in the case of the Bank of India's hacked Web site, RBN used an IFrame to launch another window which then pushed victims to a Web page containing malicious code.
"That page contained links to three other pages on other servers," said Runald. "At the time we started looking into it two out of three URLs had been taken down. The one remaining was trying to use an exploit from 2006 to affect systems with a Trojan downloader. Once infected, that downloader would go out and download another piece of malware, including other downloaders," said Runald.
The Trojans used in this case were designed to steal passwords from PCs and upload Trojan proxies in aide of developing a botnet.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/security/soa/Infamous-porn-and-phishing-ISP-rolls-Bank-of-India/0,130061744,339281722,00.htm
Is Choosing an Internet Provider Important?
Is choosing an Internet Service Provider an important decision? It is to the service providers all vying for your business. That is why they come up with special package deals and business or personal packages ideally suited to accommodate your needs. That is why they spend so much money on advertising and marketing, to try and attract you to their side. The decision is of the utmost importance to them indeed.
But is it important to you? It is if you like to shop around and get value for your money or if you have specific needs and are looking for a specific package. It is if you want to take advantage of a specific deal or special offer from a specific provider. It is if you have had previous good or bad experiences with providers or have heard of people who have had good or bad experiences with specific providers. It is if quality of service is important to you because all things being equal in the world of business and customer service, not all companies offer their customers service of the same high quality.
What do you look out for? That depends on your requirements and whether you have business or personal needs. Your first concern more than likely will be the connection, will it be reliable and resilient and will the broadband be clean and fast? There is very little worse than a dodgy connection that hangs up on you every ten to fifteen minutes out of temperamental spite or that shuts down if you open up more than three pages at a time or that works at a snail’s pace. In fact snails would probably make it across your office floor and be half way back before you’ve managed to open a page.
Second, perhaps, is security. Do they offer protection from spyware, spam, viruses and hackers? There is a company that offers 100% protection against known and unknown viruses, spam and spyware. Now that is confidence. Who wouldn’t want that kind of guarantee backing them up?
The ability to communicate effectively and manage your email might be another concern. Most service providers either provide an email management system or work in conjunction with an already existing system. A lot of service providers work in conjunction with Microsoft Outlook. Outlook can be configured and personalised to reflect your business and personal needs. Outlook can also be set up for intranet for inter-office communication as well as Internet so that you can communicate globally.
If you’re a business you might be concerned about an extension to the office for your employees to enable them to work from home or while they’re traveling or visiting clients or whatever the case maybe, in order to increase mobility. You would like that connection to be as secure and reliable as the regular office connection. They should be able to connect up anytime and anywhere with confidence.
Even though you have to pay for a good service provider, the advantages of having one should pay for themselves. They include a reduction in costs in support overheads and removing problems involved with running an in-house solution. The costs themselves should be in the form of an all inclusive fixed monthly fee so that you know exactly what you are paying for every month and the payment can be easily arranged e.g. debit order.
So to answer the question we asked right at the beginning, “Is choosing an Internet Service Provider an important decision?”: Yes it is. It is very important if you run a business or have very specific personal needs. There are more than likely package deals out there that will seem tailor made for you if you just shop around a little and do a little research. Many people however, go with the flashiest adverts because they remember them, or the ones that advertised the latest sale. People like that are a marketers dream because they are the most easily influenced. Not too sure how the service providers feel about that though.
Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers Star Internet Service Provider one of the leading Internet Service Providers in the UK
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sandy_Cosser
But is it important to you? It is if you like to shop around and get value for your money or if you have specific needs and are looking for a specific package. It is if you want to take advantage of a specific deal or special offer from a specific provider. It is if you have had previous good or bad experiences with providers or have heard of people who have had good or bad experiences with specific providers. It is if quality of service is important to you because all things being equal in the world of business and customer service, not all companies offer their customers service of the same high quality.
What do you look out for? That depends on your requirements and whether you have business or personal needs. Your first concern more than likely will be the connection, will it be reliable and resilient and will the broadband be clean and fast? There is very little worse than a dodgy connection that hangs up on you every ten to fifteen minutes out of temperamental spite or that shuts down if you open up more than three pages at a time or that works at a snail’s pace. In fact snails would probably make it across your office floor and be half way back before you’ve managed to open a page.
Second, perhaps, is security. Do they offer protection from spyware, spam, viruses and hackers? There is a company that offers 100% protection against known and unknown viruses, spam and spyware. Now that is confidence. Who wouldn’t want that kind of guarantee backing them up?
The ability to communicate effectively and manage your email might be another concern. Most service providers either provide an email management system or work in conjunction with an already existing system. A lot of service providers work in conjunction with Microsoft Outlook. Outlook can be configured and personalised to reflect your business and personal needs. Outlook can also be set up for intranet for inter-office communication as well as Internet so that you can communicate globally.
If you’re a business you might be concerned about an extension to the office for your employees to enable them to work from home or while they’re traveling or visiting clients or whatever the case maybe, in order to increase mobility. You would like that connection to be as secure and reliable as the regular office connection. They should be able to connect up anytime and anywhere with confidence.
Even though you have to pay for a good service provider, the advantages of having one should pay for themselves. They include a reduction in costs in support overheads and removing problems involved with running an in-house solution. The costs themselves should be in the form of an all inclusive fixed monthly fee so that you know exactly what you are paying for every month and the payment can be easily arranged e.g. debit order.
So to answer the question we asked right at the beginning, “Is choosing an Internet Service Provider an important decision?”: Yes it is. It is very important if you run a business or have very specific personal needs. There are more than likely package deals out there that will seem tailor made for you if you just shop around a little and do a little research. Many people however, go with the flashiest adverts because they remember them, or the ones that advertised the latest sale. People like that are a marketers dream because they are the most easily influenced. Not too sure how the service providers feel about that though.
Sandra wrote this article for the online marketers Star Internet Service Provider one of the leading Internet Service Providers in the UK
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sandy_Cosser
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