At some point, you may choose to change web hosting services. Whether you want to save money, your website requires more bandwidth, or you simply want to take advantage of advanced features and services, there are a number of smart and practical reasons for making the switch to a different hosting provider.

However, like many, you may be reluctant to switch web hosting services for fear of downtime. Downtime occurs when a website goes offline or becomes unavailable for a period of time as a result of a network or transmission failure. If you are using your website to operate your business, accept payments, drive sales, or build brand awareness, I think you will agree that time is money, and downtime can often wind up being very costly for a website.

So how can you transfer you website to a hosting service and experience little to no downtime? Choose hosting providers such as Webhostinghub.com who makes transferring your web site easy and effortless. Their worry-free, no-downtime transfer process provides you with everything you need to confidently migrate your website in four simple steps:

1. Sign up with Webhostinghub.com
2. Set up your emails and transfer your website files
3. Check your site from your free temporary URL
4. Transfer your domain name

Perhaps the biggest reason many website owners experience costly downtime issues when switching hosting providers is that they haven’t taken the precaution necessary to ensure that all of their website information has been successfully transferred over to the new server before they change and redirect their domain name server (DNS).

Webhostinghub.com resolves that problem by providing you with access to a temporary URL. This allows you to upload your files, create your email accounts and ensure that everything is working correctly before you transfer your domain and cancel your plan with your existing provider.

When switching your website to a new hosting account, it isn’t necessary to move your domain name registration as well, as your domain name’s name servers can be adjusted to point at any hosting account. However, if you do decide to move your domain name (because you prefer keeping all of your accounts with one company or because maybe you got a great deal on renewal registrations by changing hosting providers), you’ll need to release the URL from your previous registrar’s account.

Different registrars have different processes for conducting domain name transfers, but you’ll likely need to supply a code from your old registrar to your new registrar indicating that you want to move your domain name. While it’s not rocket scientist, it the process can be confusing and time consuming.

Another option is taking advantage of Webhostinghub.com’s Domain Concierge Service. For just $25 a domain, Webhostinghub.com’s expert support staff will do the dirty work for you. They will initiate the transfer process, get the official transfer codes from your former vendor, move the domains, and then notify you when the process has been completed. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

Webhostinghub.com has been in business for more than a decade and is consistently ranked #1 as being one of the best hosting providers in the business. Whether you’re starting a website from scratch or looking to move a site to another web hosting company, we recommend checking out Webhostinghub.com for a wide range of helpful tools and features that can help you do either — all for a low, competitive price.

Web Hosting Tutorial Series

Video #1: What is Web Hosting?

It might appear to the average web surfer that the Internet works all by itself. However, many website owners have come to learn that’s not the case at all. Web hosting is a critical component of how the Internet works today. But what is web hosting, really?

In order for your website to visible and available to the world, it hast to be hosted on a web server. Web hosting is a service provided by thousands of businesses – Internet service providers and/or web hosting companies – worldwide. They set up and maintain entire buildings called datacenters that are full of computer systems called servers.

The service these companies provide (in the form of a web hosting package) is access to your websites via the Internet. With this type of access you can also upload your websites – HTML pages, images, etc. When configured properly, computers around the world will quickly know exactly where to find them and making your website visible to Internet users all over the world.

There are several different types of web hosting providers – shared, dedicated, ecommerce, etc. If you are just getting started, more than likely you’ll need a shared hosting provider for your website. Shared hosting means that your website is hosted on a server that is shared by other customers and that your web hosting provider is the one responsible for managing and monitoring your site to ensure that it is always up and running. Inexpensive and popular, shared hosting is the easiest and most typical way to get started.

Ready to learn more about web hosting?

Even someone who is tech savvy and has lots of computer experience is likely to have many unanswered questions. We hope that most of those questions will be answered in the series of tutorials that follow.

Web Hosting Tutorial Series

Video #2: What are web servers? Why are they necessary?

This video tutorial will teach you what a web server is and why they are essential to running your website.

Web servers are computers that have been set up by a hosting company, usually in a facility called a datacenter. A web server’s primary purpose is to store the content of websites – HTML web pages, images, style sheets, etc – and then quickly deliver that information to a visitor’s browser when it is requested.

Ordinarily, a server is able to respond to at multiple requests at a time – even hundreds. However, the number of websites a server can comfortably host at a time depends on a wide variety of factors, ranging from the physical (server hardware) to demand (how popular a site is).

Even the most expensive server hardware isn’t very useful without the appropriate software. The most important software programs of a web server are also called servers, or daemons. Software servers are key to getting things done. At a minimum, most servers used for web hosting have at least these four types of software servers running at all times:

• HTTP or web – serves the websites
• FTP – enables you (and in some situations others) to upload information to the website
• Email – allows you to send and receive email messages
• Database – stores essential data and information essential for operating the website

Perhaps you’re wondering if web servers are even necessary or why you need to pay a company to provide you with this type of service. Why can’t you just run your websites from a computer at home? Trust us, there are several very good reasons:

1. Most ISPs (Internet Service Providers) specifically disallow people from running any type of web-related server on their networks. Doing so can potentially get your Internet account suspended or terminated.

2. In addition, most consumer broadband ISPs aren’t reliable enough for hosting websites. Do you want people to be able to visit your sites at all hours of the day, every day of the week? That won’t be possible if your Internet connection is acting up or your ISP is performing maintenance.

3. Another consideration to factor in is the costs of running a computer for extended periods – this include the cost of any parts that may fail, plus increased electricity costs.

Still skeptical about why you can’t just use your personal computer as a server? A big factor to consider is the upload speed of your connection. While broadband connections are increasingly getting faster and faster, the upload speeds of your Internet connection are usually about 10-20 times slower than download speeds. When running a server on your computer, your upload speed would directly determine the total download speed shared across everyone accessing your sites. More than likely, you’ll only be able to offer up a megabit or two. Even if you’re just hosting a basic website with only a few pictures on it, that bandwidth will quickly be used up by only a few people.

On the other hand, a professional server with a hosting provider, offers connections that are as fast as 10,000 megabits. You’d have to pay a fortune to get even a 100 megabit connection to your house, whereas a hosting provider can offer you space on a server with an ultra-high speed connection for a fraction of the cost.

Up Next:

Now that you understand what a web server is, let’s move on and discuss the difference between shared, dedicated, and other types of web hosting .

Web Hosting Tutorial Series

Video #3: What’s the difference between shared, dedicated, and other types of hosting?

This video tutorial will teach you about the different types of hosting so that you can determine what type of service might be right your web site.

In our first video, we briefly touched on the different types of web hosting that are available on the market today. If you are just getting started, more than likely you’ll want a shared hosting provider for your website.

Shared hosting means that your website is hosted on a server that is shared by other customers and that your web hosting provider is the one responsible for managing and monitoring your site. Inexpensive and popular, shared hosting is the easiest and cheapest way to get started with hosting your website online.

However, if your account frequently uses up a lot of server resources – for example if your website draws incredibly high amounts of traffic or uses a lot of video – your hosting provider will probably require you to upgrade to something more suited to accommodate your website’s needs:

Reseller hosting. One option is another type of “shared” hosting called reseller hosting. This basically allows you to sell shared hosting accounts to other people. Sometimes a reseller server will be less crowded and better suited to websites with high resource usage.

Dedicated servers. A dedicate server is the most expensive form of web hosting, costing anywhere from $40-100 a month. However, unless you know how to manage the server yourself, a dedicated server is probably not a smart option. If you don’t know a thing about server administration, you would probably need an entry level managed server, which is even more expensive.

Managed dedicated servers. A managed dedicated server leaves the hardest parts of operating a server to experienced technicians, allowing you to focus more on your websites, less on the technology. Typically an entry level managed dedicated server will cost around $200 a month.

Virtual dedicated server. On a slightly smaller scale is the virtual dedicated server (VDS), also known as virtual private server (VPS). In this situation, a hosting company divides a very powerful dedicated server up into separate “virtual” servers using virtualization software. Each virtual server gets its own operating system, and acts almost exactly like a real dedicated server. How powerful a VDS truly is can vary depending on the hosting provider and the plan you choose.

How can you tell which one is right for you? It all depends on what your website requires. Shared hosting is well-suited for personal websites and small businesses. A dedicated server is more appropriate for larger hosting needs, yet is considerably more expensive. By knowing your site requirements, you can determine which is solution is right for you.

Up Next:

Now that you are clear on the types of different hosting, let’s talk about the software that allows you to manage your website, the control panel.

Web Hosting Tutorial Series

Video #11: What can get my web hosting account suspended?

For the most part, web hosting providers are reasonable and willing to work with their customers. At the same time, there are those certain aspects that are prohibited and can get your account suspended if you are not careful. To ensure you never have to face this dilemma, here are a few things that can get your account suspended from various providers.

For the most part, web hosting providers are reasonable and willing to work with their customers. At the same time, there are those certain aspects that are prohibited and can get your account suspended if you are not careful. To ensure you never have to face this dilemma, here are a few things that can get your account suspended from various providers.

One of the most common reasons for an account being suspended is if you exceed your storage and bandwidth limit or frequently use up a large amount of server resources like CPU and memory. There are providers that offer unlimited bandwidth and disk space that can help prevent this problem. The key is making sure the company is not a fraud as many that offer unlimited options tend to be.

Spam email messages that are sent from your account are another big no-no. Not only is this problematic for the provider, but for the recipient as well. Along those same lines includes hosting or linking to material that infringes the rights of a third party or any Federal, State or local laws, and hosting or linking to pornography.

As mentioned, there are those hosting providers that are reasonable and willing to work with customers. In such case, you may find the host will give you a warning before your account is suspended. However, you should never rely on a warning and stay on the safe side.

Outside of a suspended account, there are also those rare instances where the provider will simply terminate the account without a warning or suspension. If you are attempting to gain unauthorized access to someone else’s account or files, you can expect termination. The other instance where this may occur is if you verbally or physically abuse or threat the company’s employees. Whether it is over the phone, through email or in person, this is cause for immediate termination.

The thing you need to understand is that every hosting provider is different. They have different features, rules, and guidelines you will want to become familiar with prior to agreeing to any long-term contract of any sort.

After considering your options, it is vital you look at everything carefully. You will want to ask the hosting provider about their abuse, legal, or support department or check their acceptable use policy, terms of service, and other legal agreements to get clarifications. As long as you do not push the limits and steer clear of the mistakes listed in this article, you should have no problems with your account being suspended or terminated.

Up Next:

Learn more about uptime guarantees and how they affect your website.