WordPress has a very bad reputation when it comes to taxing a server. It’s known for killing servers under high load, especially without caching, and at times being a resource hog.

However, running a blog, with any application, is far from the most taxing thing you can do to your server. If you are really interested in making a run at burning down your data center, there are much worse things that you can do.

While it is true that it is an apples to oranges comparison in most cases, especially since there are light and heavy apps for almost any purpose, here are five applications for a server that you need to think twice about before moving forward, lest you find out that you’ve run out of power.

To be clear, I wanted to think of things that the average web hosting user might actually do casually. Developers, for example, can do far worse things to a server but they are usually more aware of the potential damage and, thus, don’t need as much warning. Read the rest of this entry »

WordPress is far and away the most popular blogging platform for bloggers running their domains. It is free, powerful, stable and well-understood by most in the blogging community.

However, those who do know it also know it can be rather difficult to host at times. A dynamic platform running on PHP, it can crush servers when put under load, especially small shared hosting accounts. WordPress sites are famous for collapsing under a Digg or similar traffic spike.

Because of this, many users have become intimately familiar with WP Super Cache, a caching plugin that reduces server load by serving static pages when possible, rather than dynamic ones. This makes the site both faster and more stable, especially under load.

However, a new caching plugin, W3 Total Cache, may completely change the game for WordPress users. Not only can it serve static pages, but it can also interact with a CDN, offloading your images and other static files. This can make your site faster and cheaper to host all at the same time.

To see how it works, we have to take a look under the hood. Read the rest of this entry »

Though first founded in 2003, Squarespace has been attracting a lot of attention lately.

Simply put, Squarespace is not a traditional Web host that offers a space for you to run your site, it is an entire hosted blogging platform that, like WordPress or any other CMS, allows you to easily set up and manage a site without messing with any HTML code.

It might seem like the perfect service for beginners, but several celebrities have been using the service including Miles Davis, Jamie Kennedy and Dane Cook as well as many organizations including the World Wildlife Fund and at least one of Twit.tv’s blogs.

Likewise, WordPress.com, Automattic’s hosted WordPress solution, offers a VIP service aimed at enterprise customers. They too have attracted several big name customers including the BBC, CNN and Gigaom among others.

But why would these customers, who could obviously afford to host their sites themselves or with anyone they choose, opt to go with a hosted blog/CMS platform? Given how trivial it is to install WordPress or another CMS on a blank server, it seems odd to accept the perceived limitations of such a service.

However, underneath the surface lies a set of compelling features that may just change the way you, as well as others, choose to host their site in the future. Read the rest of this entry »

Abuse policies are one thing that few hosts publicize. They are usually kept quiet, buried in the footer of a host’s site or footnotes in the lengthy legal agreement users sign.

Host don’t want you to see them, read them or think about them. But they should.

These abuse agreements are the tools that hosts use to keep unseemly customers out while still providing service to the good guys. These rules enable them to provide quality service to all without worrying about the handful who might wish to misuse the network.

Because of this, as unseemly as they might be, abuse agreements are important and, more accurately, important to get right. Too loose of an agreement and a host can become a haven for spammers and others who become “bad neighbors” on the Web, too tight and even well-intended Webmasters can run afowl.

So what should you be looking for in a good abuse policy? Here are a few things to consider. Read the rest of this entry »

Nearly every major shared hosting provider offers some sort of reseller program. This includes Site5, Hostgator and SurpassHosting.

The idea behind these hosting accounts is that you get a block of server space, usually for only a modest amount more than a traditional shared account, and you then turn around and resell that space to multiple customers, thus making a profit. This has enabled many of the Web’s smaller hosting companies to take flight and is the way some of the larger ones got their start.

But most hosting customers aren’t interested in creating their own hosting company. They aren’t interested in making a profit from reselling their accounts and don’t want the headaches that come with being a Web host provider.

Still, that does not mean that they should overlook the reseller accounts. Not only are they often great deals, offering more hard drive space, bandwidth and domains than regular shared accounts, but they also offer more power.

So why should a regular hosting customer check out the reseller page, here are a few things to consider.

Reseller Hosting Features

In addition to the extra space and extra bandwidth, reseller accounts also, typically, come with a slew of interesting features that might appeal to regular hosting customers.

1. WHM/CPanel: Though most basic accounts come with CPanel, WHM is the administration Web hosts use to manage accounts on their service. It allows you to create accounts (domains), pull them offline and allocate resources to them. It also makes it easier to do CPanel transfers, making it easier to move one site to another server.
2. Custom Nameservers: Rather than having your nameservers be something like ns1/ns2.yourhost.com they can now be ns1/ns2.yourdomain.com. Though most visitors don’t see your nameservers, it adds an element of professionalism to your site and some claim can help with search engine ranking.
3. Billing System: Most reseller programs come with their own billing system. Not particularly useful in most cases, but if you ever do offer hosting to a friend, it can be handy.
4. Domain Reselling: Though not a feature of all reseller accounts, many allow you to resell domain names for a profit, which means you get access to cheaper domain names than if you had purchased through a regular registrar.

In short, a reseller hosting account gives you greater control over your slice of the shared server. You can set up new domains, control how much resources they can use and generally administer your domains in a way that, previously, only your host could do.

Many of these features are similar to what you get when you obtain a VPS account from most providers. However, there are some limitations to be aware of before taking the plunge.

Limitations

Though you’ll have greater control over your domains and your account, you will not be “root” on the server either.

Unlike a VPS or a dedicated host, you will not be able to install your own applications or servers. For example, you can’t add a different version of PHP, change out your FTP server or alter your server settings beyond adding and removing accounts.

Even though you are the administrator over the domains you control, you are still just a user on a shared host. Where a VPS or dedicated server can give you root access to your server, your reseller account just replaces your host for some of the more common functions that you might need as a user.

Also, reseller account tend to have hard caps on bandwidth and storage space where many regular shared accounts do not. If you prefer “unlimited” hosting, a reseller account is not right for you. However, bear in mind that unlimited hosting comes with restrictions on what you can do with the account, such as file hosting, where reseller accounts usually do not.

Still, there are times where reseller hosting might be a good deal and well worth considering, especially for those whose needs are beyond what can easily be done with a shared host, but they don’t quite need the full resources of a VPS or a dedicated server.

Bottom Line

Most hosting customers probably won’t have much use for the features of a reseller account. If you only plan on running a few sites and there is a good hosting plan that fits your need, a shared plan is likely best.

However, those who operate a lot of sites, such as Web designers or those who purchase domains regularly, may want the additional control and flexibility of a reseller account.

The “sweet spot” for reseller accounts sits between shared hosting and a VPS. If you need more control than a shared account provides but don’t need the resources of a VPS, a reseller account is a good bet.

It’s one of the most frustrating hosting-related problems, especially for a small business. You go to send legitimate email, whether its personal, business or a legitimate mailing list, and find that much of it either bounces back as spam or is promptly placed in the recipient’s junk folder.

As both human beings and legitimate marketers, we expect our emails to make it to their destinations without any side trips through spam filters. However, for most of us, it is inevitable that least some of our mail will get caught up, undeserving casualties in the war on spam.

But while an occasional blocked message might be a sign of bad spam logic on the receivers end or a hyper-sensitive filter, regular and repeated problems could be a sign of something worse.

One of the worst possible scenarios is that your outgoing mail server may be placed on one of many dozens of public and proprietary spam blacklists. This can cause your mail, no matter how legitimate, to get bounced or junked before the receiver even has a chance to look at it.

But how does one get on such blacklists? The answer may lie with your host. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the advantages of having a VPS account is that you can play Web host to some of your friends. Currently, four people other than my wife and I have six different sites on my VPS, most of them small blogs or static sites. They’re not a burden by any stretch, at least no under normal circumstances and, since I’m nowhere near maxing out my VPS’ resources, they’re free to host effectively.

Typically, when I set up these accounts, I have just used the WHM/cPanel defaults, which include unlimited bandwidth and server space. Typically that has never been a problem, my friends sites usually take up only a few 100 MBs and draw almost no bandwidth.

That is, it wasn’t a problem until earlier this week.

What happened was a painful reminder that, even in friendships, sometimes you need to set firm boundaries as vague ones can be accidentally crossed and wind up hurting everyone. Read the rest of this entry »

Changing web hosts is always a pain.

Even if you just run a basic blog using WordPress or MovableType, you have to first copy all of your files, move your database(s), check to make sure your permissions are ok, check your account settings, edit your host file, test the new site out and then point the DNS servers to your new domain.

It’s a long, time-consuming process that can take hours for even the most basic transfer.

However, if you use WHM and Cpanel, you can take out a lot of the steps. WHM supports what it calls “Transfers” or “Account Copies” that allow you to move the entire contents of a CPanel account, including the files, databases and settings, over to the new server with just your username, password and old site’s IP address. Even better. if you have multiple accounts on another WHM set up, you can import multiple accounts at once.

But even if you don’t have root access to your CPanel account, (IE: No WHM access), you can still use CPanel to transfer your site from one server to another, the process is just a bit more manual.

Either way though, you get to cut out a lot of the painful steps that make moving hosts such a nightmare to begin with and it is a method well worth knowing and being aware of. Read the rest of this entry »

Previously we discussed why a content delivery network (CDN) can speed up your site.

But what if your situation is different? What if you are using a small shared hosting account but want to house a lot of media. Is it better to:

1. Upgrade your hosting account and get more bandwidth/server space
2. Use a file host for your media, such as an image host (Photobucket, Imageshack, etc.), audio host (Libsyn, Talkshoe, etc.) or video host (YouTube, Vimeo, etc.)

The answer isn’t straightforward and there are many pros and cons to both systems. In the end, there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution here so it is important to weigh the benefits and take an hoest look at your hosting setup. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s only one thing worst than hosting problems – having to move web host.

If you’re having issues with your current host, you should always try to sort them out first and, only after cooperation has failed, pack up and leave.

But not all hosting problems can be fixed easily by your existing host. Widespread and recurring outages, security problems on the host’s end and many other issues can’t be resolved trivially by support personnel and the decision has to be made to endure until a last problem is found or move on.

However, many problems can be. If your site is experiencing one of these problems you might want to talk with your host before cancelling your account. Doing so might save you an unneeded move and prevent you from being just as unhappy at your new host. Read the rest of this entry »