Your lover will love you even more if you get them a pinata
Your lover will love you even more if you get them a pinata
Help Choosing a Great Domain Name
Whether you have a new product or service to bring to market, a brand study to protect, or simply want an easier email address that you never have to change, there are a few things to consider. The information below is provided to support you choose the right domain name.
If your desired domain study is already taken, don't worry. If you possess the trademark, you have rights. Even if you do not have rights to the name, the current registrant may be willing to trade or sell the study ... we crapper help.
Name Your Domain
Obviously, whatever of the best field obloquy are already taken. Don’t let that discourage you. Many worthwhile field obloquy are ease available. Here are whatever factors you should study when trying to choose a field name.
Importance Of Dot Com
Without a doubt, field obloquy success in .com are far superior to those success in the next best choice of .net, .org, or others. In fact, we recommend a much weaker study success in .com over a strong study success in .net. Why? Many people will only remember the main part of your field study and then type in the .com automatically afterward. If they find another site at that address you may hit just handed off a customer to your competitor for free.
Possible Exceptions
A possible omission might be for a not for profit business. Most non-profits choose the .org suffix and you may poverty to study this option if you are a non-profit. Actually, though, because so whatever people ease only think of .com, you may poverty to study buying both endings and having your web host re-direct the .com study to your web site also. Some television based or related companies are buying the newly popular \"Dot TV\" endings. Radio related sites might also poverty to study \"Dot FM\" names. It is too early in the game to determine is these \".tv\" or \".fm\" obloquy are worth the money.
Also, if you find a Dot Com study available, whatever people choose to also buy the corresponding .net and .org endings in order to preclude anyone else from trying to ride on their coattails. Whether or not this is worth the extra money is debatable.
The Shorter The Better
If torn between a couple different names, you may do well to only garner the shorter one. Not only does this order less typing by your visitors, it also usually conveys greater credibility. Which sounds more same a mart leader that you would poverty to buy from fishingsupplies.com or suppliesforpeoplewhofish.com?
Avoid Hyphens If Possible
If you tell someone to meet your site named \"TOILE” “BEDDING\" \"DOT\" \"COM,\" you can’t expect them to remember to type toile-bedding.com. They won’t. Only if you are strapped for study ideas or if your hyphenated deciding is much shorter than other available choices should you settle for hyphens. The omission for this rule is for companies doing business with a primary focus on Internet marketing. This is because whatever search engines will give preference to hyphenated obloquy because the hyphen generally bridges the most important keywords relating to the site’s content. This can be worth it if the site does not rely upon type-in traffic, but rather click-in traffic. In this case, it is ease wise to possess both the hyphenated version, as well as the simpler hyphen-free version.
Don’t Be Confusing
If your site sells sub sandwiches, don’t call it beddingproducts.com. People hunting for sub sandwiches won’t meet your site as they won’t derive what your site is really about.
Don’t Limit Yourself
Amazon.com can move to expand into whatever area they want. If they had originally called themselves books.com, it would hit been much harder to division into toys and electronics, etc. Consider if there is any existence of future expansion for your e-business and if there is, study yourself accordingly.
Unique Names Requiring Branding
This is another type of study you might study though it has strong cons along with its pros. Examples are this category of study are Amazon.com and Yahoo.
Pros – A catchy, unique study can be very memorable. It also allows your company to expand however you poverty - study the study Amazon.com vs. the study Travelocity.com.
Cons – It can be very costly to mart your unique study to the point where people know what your company is all abou
If your desired domain study is already taken, don't worry. If you possess the trademark, you have rights. Even if you do not have rights to the name, the current registrant may be willing to trade or sell the study ... we crapper help.
Name Your Domain
Obviously, whatever of the best field obloquy are already taken. Don’t let that discourage you. Many worthwhile field obloquy are ease available. Here are whatever factors you should study when trying to choose a field name.
Importance Of Dot Com
Without a doubt, field obloquy success in .com are far superior to those success in the next best choice of .net, .org, or others. In fact, we recommend a much weaker study success in .com over a strong study success in .net. Why? Many people will only remember the main part of your field study and then type in the .com automatically afterward. If they find another site at that address you may hit just handed off a customer to your competitor for free.
Possible Exceptions
A possible omission might be for a not for profit business. Most non-profits choose the .org suffix and you may poverty to study this option if you are a non-profit. Actually, though, because so whatever people ease only think of .com, you may poverty to study buying both endings and having your web host re-direct the .com study to your web site also. Some television based or related companies are buying the newly popular \"Dot TV\" endings. Radio related sites might also poverty to study \"Dot FM\" names. It is too early in the game to determine is these \".tv\" or \".fm\" obloquy are worth the money.
Also, if you find a Dot Com study available, whatever people choose to also buy the corresponding .net and .org endings in order to preclude anyone else from trying to ride on their coattails. Whether or not this is worth the extra money is debatable.
The Shorter The Better
If torn between a couple different names, you may do well to only garner the shorter one. Not only does this order less typing by your visitors, it also usually conveys greater credibility. Which sounds more same a mart leader that you would poverty to buy from fishingsupplies.com or suppliesforpeoplewhofish.com?
Avoid Hyphens If Possible
If you tell someone to meet your site named \"TOILE” “BEDDING\" \"DOT\" \"COM,\" you can’t expect them to remember to type toile-bedding.com. They won’t. Only if you are strapped for study ideas or if your hyphenated deciding is much shorter than other available choices should you settle for hyphens. The omission for this rule is for companies doing business with a primary focus on Internet marketing. This is because whatever search engines will give preference to hyphenated obloquy because the hyphen generally bridges the most important keywords relating to the site’s content. This can be worth it if the site does not rely upon type-in traffic, but rather click-in traffic. In this case, it is ease wise to possess both the hyphenated version, as well as the simpler hyphen-free version.
Don’t Be Confusing
If your site sells sub sandwiches, don’t call it beddingproducts.com. People hunting for sub sandwiches won’t meet your site as they won’t derive what your site is really about.
Don’t Limit Yourself
Amazon.com can move to expand into whatever area they want. If they had originally called themselves books.com, it would hit been much harder to division into toys and electronics, etc. Consider if there is any existence of future expansion for your e-business and if there is, study yourself accordingly.
Unique Names Requiring Branding
This is another type of study you might study though it has strong cons along with its pros. Examples are this category of study are Amazon.com and Yahoo.
Pros – A catchy, unique study can be very memorable. It also allows your company to expand however you poverty - study the study Amazon.com vs. the study Travelocity.com.
Cons – It can be very costly to mart your unique study to the point where people know what your company is all abou
AMD Vs INTEL...
One mainframe Core Against the Other
Having no preference to Intel, no preference to AMD, allows you to see that as a consumer, hyper-competitive companies tend to trade market ascendency from one season to the next. 'A' is not always going to be meliorate than 'B', and vice versa.
It'd be nice to have a third option, a 'C' to choose from, but sadly all of Transmeta's best technological advances have come under the Intellectual Properly gavel. Still, the effect it had on energy efficient processing is due more credit than history has bestowed... but that's a story for another day.
As it stands right now, Intel dominates the processor market - in value, in performance, in inertia. I'd be remiss to count AMD out just yet though.
Click Here!
AMD has been delayed by technological kinks, missed release dates that may have kept it in hair step with its largest competitor, and for meliorate or worse swallowed $5 Billion in debt for ATI at the first of this year. There are positive signs from AMD if you know where to look though...
The AMD 690G chipset is a resounding success for example, and if Intel has taught us anything, it's that chipsets pave the path to PC dominance.
AMD has not been asleep at the rotate on the processor front either. Much delayed perhaps, but not asleep. It is readying a new core, titled 'K10', and a slew of intermediary processors based on 'Barcelona.' Not much is known about the performance of AMD's upcoming 'K10' Phenom X2 and Phenom X4 desktop processors right now, but we should find out very shortly if the 'Agena' and 'Kuma' chips will give Intel a run for its money.
While much of AMD's success the last few years can be traced to its partners, Intel has guaranteed the success of the Core 2 Duo processor with substantially designed chipsets. As they say, \"it's the chipsets, stupid.\"
The Intel Core 2 Duo is a very efficient processor, its TDP values are roughly half of what the Pentium 4/D program ingest to be, and real world testing shows that complete computer systems equipped with an Intel Core 2 Duo ingest considerably less power.
This is all substantially and good, but the real ace up Intel's sleeve is not that it has a processor which is faster by some proportionality points, it's that the Core 2 Duo is faster and aggressively priced! I can't remember a time when you got so much value in a mainframe for so little.
Mind you, Intel's Extreme Edition processors are still priced in the stratosphere, but its regular desktop mainframe lines are very affordable. Compared to AMD processors in the same price bracket, Intel has the upper hand.
So as these things go, when it comes to AMD or Intel? Intel wins this round. The bottom line is only that Intel has outmaneuvered AMD, scrapping an entire generational branch of CPUs for a double headed offshoot that rocks. The Core 2 Duo performs rattling well, so it's what I've been recommending.
But before we close up this debate, there's one more point you should consider. Along with casting away brand loyalty and judging CPUs based on cold hard benchmarks, there's another option we rarely see mentioned on sites set with deconstructing the latest and large technology. If the computer you have right today does what you need it to, you rattling don't have to choose between AMD or Intel's latest do you? ;-)
Don't Agree? Speak up.
What do you think of the current AMD vs. Intel situation? If your opinion differs from mine, feel free to press your case by using PCSTATS feedback page or proving your side in the PCSTATS Forums. Find out about this and many other reviews by joining the Weekly PCstats.com Newsletter today! Catch all of PCSTATS latest reviews right here.
Related Articles
Here are a few other articles that you might enjoy as well...
- Computer Recycling - Where Should Old Computers Go?
- AMD vs. Intel, Will the Best mainframe Please Stand Up?
- The Art of Overclocking; Is It For You?
- AMD vs. Intel: It's An Eternal Struggle
- How to Fry a 1.4GHz Athlon in 4 seconds.
AMD vs. Intel: What to Get? Which is Better?
There are countless companies in the machine industry but there is only one battle that counts... AMD vs. Intel. This is a favorite topic in the forums, yet instead of blindly pledging allegiance to one mainframe or the other, let's verify a look behind the scenes and encounter discover which companies processor is the prizewinning bet.
Now I should say that I'm a hardware enthusiast at heart, so for me mainframe performance matters the most. I follow with equipment only as long as it keeps my PC at the front of the performance curve. After that, I drop it like a rock and move onto greener pastures, regardless if it's the same sort or not. After all, what's the point of sort loyalty? AMD and Intel don't fuck you back, no matter how much you might sing their praises. Put another way, it's not like AMD only sells to you, or Intel has a grinning effort of your mug on every pay record as a testament to your past processor purchases now is it?
The pleasant abstract about being machine enthusiast is that right now both AMD and Intel platforms support a aggregation of cross compatible hardware. Sure the mainframe and motherboards are papers specific, but you can share DDR2 memory, videocards and other peripherals easily enough. If PC speed is what you crave, you can jump from one processor papers to the next ever couple months, taking your memory, videocards, hard drives and everything else along with you.
Anyway, the point I'm trying make is this. As a hardware enthusiast you have the pick of some of the fastest machine hardware on the planet. Ignore the urge to follow with AMD or Intel discover of tradition, go discover there and encounter the prizewinning equipment based on benchmarks!
So, who offers the prizewinning performance - is it AMD or Intel? I'm glad you asked, the answer is....
...Intel. For the moment anyway, Intel's threefold and quad core processors are the power of the heap. In particular, the companies Core 2 Duo/Quad processor roster is out-pacing AMDs current Athlon64 X2/FX processor families. That haw indeed change by the end of Q4'07, or it haw not.
AMD is partly to blame for its underway situation. Big green has not refreshed its mainframe lineup since the last time PCSTATS dished the dirt on the AMD vs. Intel slugfest. AMD won the battle backwards then, but relying on the today somewhat dated K8 Athlon64 processor has left AMD without a good competing mainframe for Intel's \"Conroe\". Intel published performance results on \"Conroe\" for quite some time before it was officially released, so it's not same AMD was blindsided by it either.
Intel Climbs Back To The Top
For its efforts, Intel has undergone more than a few self-evaluations. It had to deal with a \"Prescott\" Pentium 4 voltage leak issue, it stopped pushing GHz as the singular processor metric and adopted the same kind of rating grouping AMD had been using for years. Then, Intel abandoned Netburst and modernized the P6 core into what we today know as the Core Solo and Core 2 Duo processor.
The Core Solo was nice, but Intel's Core 2 Duo is the real beauty. The mainframe was an immediate hit among gamers from the time of its release, and it continues to out pace comparable Athlon64 processors.
Intel's previous NetBurst structure had de-emphasized FPU noesis in favor of special instructions (SSE, 2, 3). This is partly the reason so some gamers ditched their Pentium 4/D computers in favor of AMD Athlon64 processors and it's more coercive FPU.
With the Intel Core processor architecture, the company eventually addressed the FPU issue. Intel's \"Conroe\" mainframe core has a rattling coercive FPU, and that has guaranteed a rattling welcome reception by gamers ever since.
As it stands in the fall of 2007, the Intel Core 2 Duo processor is generally more coercive than AMD's Athlon64 X2/FX series in games, and every around.
Whether you're working on multimedia tasks, workstation or meet need nakedness data crunching power, the Core 2 Duo trounces AMD's best nearly every time.
It's also proved its courage as an superior overclocker!
Early stepping Intel Core 2 Duo processors could overclock to 3.2 GHz+ on air cooling, and the recent 'G0' stepping can go even further. I've overclocked to the region of 3.8 GHz with the stock heatsink in fact.
By comparison, AMD's 90nm Athlon64 X2/FX processors have travail overclocking much past 3 GHz.... Make no mistake about it, clock for clock Intel's Core 2 Duo is currently faster than AMD's Athlon64 X2 and FX processors.
Thermal Output Improving
The Intel Pentium 4 and D processor series were notorious for consuming a lot of power, and consequently running quite hot. The structure Intel based the Core 2 Duo processors on is much better in this regard. While Pentium 4 structure was at one time headed towards 150W TDP (Typical Design power), some of its underway processors are today pushing 85W or less. One generation before, Intel Pentium D CPUs hovered around the 125W TDP range, late model Core 2 Duo processors (like the E6750 ) have a 65W TDP!
It's true enough that the noesis values AMD and Intel take are not entirely comparable with apiece other, but amount grouping noesis measurements give a good foundation for comparison. I've conducted some noesis entertainer measurements recently, and those tests showed that Intel is genuinely move high noesis habit. An average Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 based computer grouping draws about 7W more noesis than a budget AMD Sempron 3600+ based PC grouping with its single mainframe core running at idle. You'd think the lower noesis budget AMD chip would be significantly easier on the juice than the fairly high end E6750 Core 2 Duo, but the difference is pretty small.
With an Intel Core 2 Duo grouping under load, amount noesis entertainer results are impressive. For instance, a Core 2 Duo E6750 grouping consumes 163W of noesis (total PC noesis draw) when running with both mainframe cores under load.
A comparable Intel Pentium D 940 grouping consumes 253W of noesis with both processing mainframe cores stressed, and an AMD Athlon64 FX-62 noesis grouping consumes upwards of 235W! It's clear you can save a lot on the programme bills by switching to a mainframe that sips electricity. Intel offers this, with great performance. (Please ready in mind that these are amount grouping noesis entertainer values, not meet the processor.)
I've often thought that Intel is the more innovative of the two companies when it comes to designing heatsinks for its processors. The underway Core 2 Duo bifurcated symmetric fin heatsinks are remarkably good, and rattling quiet.
Gone are the days of throwing out the stock heatsink for an after market cooler the second the box is opened... For good every around mainframe cooling, it's tough to beat Intel in terms of noise level. The stock heatsinks are meet so quiet, thanks in large part to 90mm fans and Pulse Width Modulation which allows the rotational speed to vary based on moment to moment thermal output.
Of course, these aren't the only reasons Intel is leading with the Core 2 Duo, as we'll talk about next, chipsets play a bounteous role....
Find The Cheapest Car Insurance And Get Low Rates Online Today...
Rates Are Getting Cheaper
According to digit of the larger online shelter excerpt providers, online rates are indeed getting cheaper - by a momentous amount. Data tracked by insurance.com each month shows that the cipher rate quoted online has dropped by $96 since November 2008. Just since the accumulation compiled in March 2009, rates dropped an additional .4 percent in April.
These results are momentous and reflect trends we check finished another accumulation providers. Insurance.com does their analysis based on a survey of 3,000 quotes returned on their site each month. Other notable statistics from their survey was that the cipher customer in Apr ransomed $548 over their existing yearly premium. Over 21% ransomed over $800 in annual premium. We have seen similar savings from another providers across the internet. So if you really want to encounter cheaper car insurance, perhaps the best thing you can do is get an online quote.
States With The Lowest Rates
According to the Insurance Information Institute (iii.org) for the most recent year accumulation is available (2006), North Dakota led with the cheapest rates across the country with an cipher rate of $530. Following intimately behind were Chiwere and South Dakota, each staying beneath the $560 cipher payment mark. The insurance.com study from Apr 2009 shows river and Chiwere directive the way with the lowest rates. Regardless, grouping in middle USA seem to get lower rates than another areas of the Country, particularly the Upper Midwest region.
The highest priced states for machine shelter in the iii.org study were New milker and Louisiana followed intimately by New royalty and Florida. Drivers in these states paid an cipher of more than $1600 on car shelter in 2006.
More Uninsured Drivers
We continue to encounter stories and statistics showing an increasing sort of uninsurable drivers during the underway scheme crunch - especially high risk drivers with higher rates. Although this is understandable, it does exhibit that regardless of compulsory shelter laws across the country that machine shelter is digit of the prototypal things to go when personal budgets get squeezed.
This is unfortunate because it doesn't termination in a lower sort of miles unvoluntary or accidents. The same sort of grouping are on the road regardless of whether a sizable sort let their shelter news lapse. Even more troubling is that it's the higher risk driver who is rejection coverage. What does that mean to you? Probably higher rates downbound the road. Losses where an at-fault driver does not carry shelter module be paid by the insurers finished your uninsurable motorist coverage. So insurers module more or less be paying discover the same turn in claims, with a same smaller pool of policyholders paying premiums.
Don't forget that it's generally against the law to control an uninsurable motor vehicle. At least take discover the peak liability news and shop for rates online in order to compare the cheapest quotes from different carriers. Car shelter should be digit of the terminal things you live without in arduous times.
Huge Rate Increase in New Jersey
Those of you that are Allstate customers in New milker should be embattled for a momentous rate increase upon your renewal. On May 7, 2009, Allstate declared that it would increase rates for policyholders in the Garden State by 8.9% across the board. According to the Insurance Information Institute data, New milker already led the country with the highest motor vehicle premiums before this increase. New milker suffers from extensive rate conception that was designed to lower rates but to date has solidified it as existence the most expensive land for machine shelter in America. Allstate originally asked for a 15% rate increase which was unloved by New milker regulators.
AIG Sells 21st Century Auto Insurance
Over the past several eld 21st Century Auto Insurance has taken a more prominent role in online, TV and candid advertising. 21st had been owned by harassed AIG. As a part of AIG's liquidation plan for certain assets, the machine shelter business of 21st Century has been sold to Zurich insurance. 21st reportable about $3 of premiums collected in 2008 with a majority of its sales existence candid purchases rather than finished an independent agent. Policyholders are existence assured that the transformation module be seamless and not recognizable....
According to digit of the larger online shelter excerpt providers, online rates are indeed getting cheaper - by a momentous amount. Data tracked by insurance.com each month shows that the cipher rate quoted online has dropped by $96 since November 2008. Just since the accumulation compiled in March 2009, rates dropped an additional .4 percent in April.
These results are momentous and reflect trends we check finished another accumulation providers. Insurance.com does their analysis based on a survey of 3,000 quotes returned on their site each month. Other notable statistics from their survey was that the cipher customer in Apr ransomed $548 over their existing yearly premium. Over 21% ransomed over $800 in annual premium. We have seen similar savings from another providers across the internet. So if you really want to encounter cheaper car insurance, perhaps the best thing you can do is get an online quote.
States With The Lowest Rates
According to the Insurance Information Institute (iii.org) for the most recent year accumulation is available (2006), North Dakota led with the cheapest rates across the country with an cipher rate of $530. Following intimately behind were Chiwere and South Dakota, each staying beneath the $560 cipher payment mark. The insurance.com study from Apr 2009 shows river and Chiwere directive the way with the lowest rates. Regardless, grouping in middle USA seem to get lower rates than another areas of the Country, particularly the Upper Midwest region.
The highest priced states for machine shelter in the iii.org study were New milker and Louisiana followed intimately by New royalty and Florida. Drivers in these states paid an cipher of more than $1600 on car shelter in 2006.
More Uninsured Drivers
We continue to encounter stories and statistics showing an increasing sort of uninsurable drivers during the underway scheme crunch - especially high risk drivers with higher rates. Although this is understandable, it does exhibit that regardless of compulsory shelter laws across the country that machine shelter is digit of the prototypal things to go when personal budgets get squeezed.
This is unfortunate because it doesn't termination in a lower sort of miles unvoluntary or accidents. The same sort of grouping are on the road regardless of whether a sizable sort let their shelter news lapse. Even more troubling is that it's the higher risk driver who is rejection coverage. What does that mean to you? Probably higher rates downbound the road. Losses where an at-fault driver does not carry shelter module be paid by the insurers finished your uninsurable motorist coverage. So insurers module more or less be paying discover the same turn in claims, with a same smaller pool of policyholders paying premiums.
Don't forget that it's generally against the law to control an uninsurable motor vehicle. At least take discover the peak liability news and shop for rates online in order to compare the cheapest quotes from different carriers. Car shelter should be digit of the terminal things you live without in arduous times.
Huge Rate Increase in New Jersey
Those of you that are Allstate customers in New milker should be embattled for a momentous rate increase upon your renewal. On May 7, 2009, Allstate declared that it would increase rates for policyholders in the Garden State by 8.9% across the board. According to the Insurance Information Institute data, New milker already led the country with the highest motor vehicle premiums before this increase. New milker suffers from extensive rate conception that was designed to lower rates but to date has solidified it as existence the most expensive land for machine shelter in America. Allstate originally asked for a 15% rate increase which was unloved by New milker regulators.
AIG Sells 21st Century Auto Insurance
Over the past several eld 21st Century Auto Insurance has taken a more prominent role in online, TV and candid advertising. 21st had been owned by harassed AIG. As a part of AIG's liquidation plan for certain assets, the machine shelter business of 21st Century has been sold to Zurich insurance. 21st reportable about $3 of premiums collected in 2008 with a majority of its sales existence candid purchases rather than finished an independent agent. Policyholders are existence assured that the transformation module be seamless and not recognizable....
Insurance part 2.
Excess
An immoderateness payment, also famous as a deductible, is the immobile contribution you staleness clear apiece time your automobile is restored finished your automobile shelter policy. Normally the payment is made directly to the happening repair \"garage\" (The constituent \"garage\" refers to an establishment where vehicles are serviced and repaired) when you collect the car. If one's automobile is proclaimed to be a \"write off\" or \"total loss\"(\"write off\" is commonly utilised in motor shelter to describe a container the worth of which is inferior than the cost of repair), the shelter consort module deduct the immoderateness agreed on the contract from the deciding payment it makes to you.
If the happening was the added driver's fault, and this is accepted by the ordinal party's insurer, you'll be able to reclaim your immoderateness payment from the added person's shelter company.
Compulsory excess
A obligatory immoderateness is the peak immoderateness payment your underwriter module accept on your shelter policy. Minimum excesses vary according to your personal details, driving record and shelter company.
Voluntary excess
In order to reduce your shelter premium, you may offer to clear a higher immoderateness than the obligatory immoderateness demanded by your shelter company. Your voluntary immoderateness is the extra amount over and above the obligatory immoderateness that you concord to clear in the event of a claim on the policy. As a bigger immoderateness reduces the playing venture carried by your insurer, your underwriter is able to offer you a significantly modify premium.
Basis of premium charges
Main article: auto shelter venture selection
Depending on the jurisdiction, the shelter premium crapper be either mandated by the polity or determined by the shelter consort in accordance to a framework of regulations set by the government. Often, the underwriter module hit more freedom to set the price on physical alteration coverages than on mandatory badness coverages.
When the premium is not mandated by the government, it is commonly derived from the calculations of an actuary based on statistical data. The premium crapper vary depending on many factors that are believed to hit an impact on the expected cost of forthcoming claims.[8] Those factors crapper include the automobile characteristics, the news selected (deductible, limit, awninged perils), the profile of the utility (age, gender, driving history) and the usage of the automobile (commute to impact or not, predicted punctuation distance driven).[9]
Gender
Men average more miles driven per year than women do, and consequently hit a proportionally higher happening involvement at every ages. Insurance companies cite women's modify happening involvement in ownership the youth surcharge modify for teen women drivers than for their male counterparts, but adult rates are generally unisex. Reference to the modify rate for teen women as \"the women's discount\" has caused confusion that was evident in news reports on a recently defeated EC proposal to make it illegal to study gender in assessing shelter premiums.[10] Ending the discount would hit made no disagreement to most women's premiums.[citation needed]
Age
Teenage drivers who hit no driving record module hit higher automobile shelter premiums. However, teen drivers are ofttimes offered discounts if they undertake further utility training on recognised courses, much as the Pass Plus plot in the UK. In the U.S. many insurers offer a beatific grade discount to students with a beatific academic record and resident student discounts to those who springy away from home. Generally shelter premiums tend to become modify at the age of 25. Senior drivers are ofttimes eligible for retirement discounts reflecting modify average miles driven by this age group.
Marital status
Drivers who are unmarried are ofttimes charged higher shelter premiums as opposed to mated drivers.
Vehicle classification
Owners of sports cars, muscle cars, whatever sport utility vehicles, and motorcycles would hit higher shelter premiums as opposed to auto cars, midsized cars, or wealth cars. However, in the housing of motorcycles, the chance of causing extensive alteration to added vehicles is relatively low (as opposed to alteration to oneself) and thus badness shelter premiums are ofttimes lower.
Distance
Some automobile shelter plans do not evolve in regard to how much the automobile is used. However, methods of differentiation would include:
Reasonable estimation
Several automobile shelter plans rely on a reasonable calculation of the average punctuation distance expected to be driven which is provided by the insured. This discount benefits drivers who drive their cars infrequently but has no actuarial continuance since it is unverified.
Odometer-based systems
Cents Per Mile Now[11](1986) advocates classified odometer-mile rates. After the company's venture factors hit been applied and the customer has accepted the per-mile rate offered, customers acquire paying miles of shelter protection as needed, same buying gallons of gasoline. Insurance automatically ends when the meter bounds (recorded on the car’s shelter ID card) is reached unless more miles are bought. Customers ready road of miles on their possess meter to know when to acquire more. The consort does no after-the-fact billing of the customer, and the customer doesn't hit to estimate a \"future punctuation mileage\" amount for the consort to obtain a discount. In the event of a traffic stop, an officer could easily verify that the shelter is current by comparing the amount on the shelter card to that on the odometer.
Critics point discover the possibility of cheating the system by meter tampering. Although the newer electronic odometers are difficult to listing back, they crapper still be defeated by disconnecting the meter wires and reconnecting them later. However, as the Cents Per Mile Now website points out:
As a practical matter, resetting odometers requires equipment plus expertise that makes concealing shelter venturous and uneconomical. For example, in order to steal 20,000 miles (32,000 km) of continuous protection while stipendiary for only the 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from 35,000 miles (56,000 km) to 37,000 miles (60,000 km) on the odometer, the resetting would hit to be done at least nine times to ready the meter datum within the narrowing 2,000-mile (3,200 km) awninged range. There are also coercive jural deterrents to this way of concealing shelter protection. Odometers hit always served as the measuring device for resale value, rental and leasing charges, warranty limits, mechanical breakdown insurance, and cents-per-mile tax deductions or reimbursements for playing or polity travel. Odometer tampering—detected during claim processing—voids the shelter and, under decades-old land and federal law, is punishable by heavy fines and jail.
Under the cents-per-mile system, rewards for driving inferior are delivered automatically without need for administratively cumbersome and costly GPS technology. Uniform per-mile exposure measurement for the first time provides the foundation for statistically valid rate classes. Insurer premium income automatically keeps pace with increases or decreases in driving activity, cutting backwards on resulting underwriter demand for rate increases and preventing today's windfalls to insurers when attenuated driving activity lowers costs but not premiums.
GPS-based system
In 1998, Progressive Insurance started a pilot program in Texas in which drivers conventional a discount for instalment a GPS-based device that tracked their driving behavior and reportable the results via cellular phone to the company.[12] Policyholders were reportedly more status about having to clear for the pricey device than they were over privacy concerns.[13] The program was discontinued in 2000.
OBDII-based system
In 2008, The Progressive Corporation launched MyRate to give drivers a customized shelter rate based on how, how much, and when their automobile is driven. MyRate is currently acquirable in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Maryland, New Jersey and Oregon. Driving data is transmitted to the consort using an on-board telematic device. The device connects to a car's OnBoard Diagnostic (OBD-II) port (all automobiles built after 1996 hit an OBD-II.) and transmits speed, time of day and number of miles the automobile is driven. There is no GPS in the MyRate device, so no location information is collected. Cars that are driven inferior often, in inferior venturous ways and at inferior venturous times of day crapper receive large discounts. Progressive has conventional patents on its methods and systems of implementing usage-based shelter and has licensed these methods and systems to added companies. Progressive has service marks pending on the cost Pay As You Drive and Pay How You Drive.
Auto shelter in the United States
Coverage available
The consumer may be protected with different news types depending on what news the individual purchases. Some states order that motorists carry badness shelter news to secure that their drivers crapper counterbalance the cost of damages to people or concept in the event of an automobile accident. Some states, much as Wisconsin, hit more flexible “proof of playing responsibility” requirements.[14]
In the United States, badness shelter covers claims against the contract holder and generally, any added cause of the individual vehicles, provided they do not springy at the same come as the contract holder, and are not specifically excluded on the policy. In the housing of those living at the same address, they staleness specifically be awninged on the policy. Thus it is necessary, for example, when a family member comes of driving age they staleness be added to the policy. Liability shelter sometimes does not protect the contract holder if they control any vehicles added than their own. When you drive a container owned by added party, you are awninged under that party’s policy. Non-owners policies may be offered that would counterbalance an individual on any container they drive. This news is acquirable only to those who do not possess their possess container and is sometimes required by the polity for drivers who hit previously been found at fault in an accident. Non-owners policies are also famous as Named Operator Policies. The policies are multipurpose for people whose drivers license has been suspended and they hit to hit shelter for their license to be reinstated.
Generally, badness news extends when you rent a car. Comprehensive policies (\"full coverage\") commonly also administer to the rental vehicle, although this should be verified beforehand. Full news premiums are based on, among added factors, the continuance of the insured’s vehicle. This coverage, however, cannot administer to rental cars because the shelter consort does not want to assume responsibility for a claim greater than the continuance of the insured’s vehicle, assuming that a rental automobile may be worth more than the insured’s vehicle. Most rental automobile companies offer shelter to counterbalance alteration to the rental vehicle. These policies may be unnecessary for many customers as credit card companies, much as Visa and MasterCard, now provide supplemental impinging alteration news to rental cars if the transaction is processed using digit of their cards. These benefits are restrictive in cost of the types of vehicles covered.[15]
Liability
Liability news is offered for bodily injury (BI) or concept alteration (PD) for which the individual utility is deemed responsible. The amount of news provided (a immobile dollar amount) module vary from powerfulness to jurisdiction. Whatever the minimum, the individual crapper commonly increase the news (prior to a loss) for an added charge.
An warning of Property Damage is where an individual utility (or 1st party) drives into a telephone pole and damages the pole, badness news pays for the alteration to the pole. In this example, the drivers individual may also become liable for added expenses related to damaging the telephone pole, much as expiration of service claims (by the telephone company), depending on the jurisdiction. An warning of Bodily Injury is where an individual utility causes bodily harm to a ordinal party and the individual utility is deemed answerable for the injuries. However, in whatever jurisdictions, the ordinal party would first exhaust news for happening benefits finished their possess underwriter (assuming they hit one) and/or would hit to meet a jural definition of severe impairment to hit the right to claim (or sue) under the individual driver's (or 1st Party's) policy.
In whatever jurisdictions: Liability news is acquirable either as a combined azygos bounds policy, or as a separate bounds policy:
Combined azygos limit
A combined azygos bounds combines concept alteration badness news and bodily injury news under digit azygos combined limit. For example, an individual utility with a combine azygos badness bounds strikes added container and injures the utility and the passenger. Payments for the damages to the added driver's car, as well as payments for injury claims for the utility and passenger, would be paying discover under this same coverage.
Split limits
A separate bounds badness news contract splits the coverages into concept alteration news and bodily injury coverage. In the warning presented above, payments for the added driver's container would be paying discover under concept alteration coverage, and payments for the injuries would be paying discover under bodily injury coverage.
Bodily injury badness news is also commonly separate as well into a peak payment per person and a peak payment per accident.
In the land of Oklahoma, you staleness carry at least land peak badness limits of $25,000/50,000/25,000. If an individual utility hits a automobile flooded of people and is found by the shelter consort to be liable, the shelter consort module clear $25,000 of digit persons medical bills but module not exceed 50,000 for added people injured in the accident. The shelter consort module clear concept alteration not to exceed 25,000 in repairs to the container that the individual hit.
In the land of Indiana, the peak badness limits are $25,000/$50,000/$10,000 so, there is a greater concept alteration exposure for only carrying the peak limits.
Full coverage
Full news is the study commonly referred to as Comprehensive and Collision. Insurers generally do not ingest this constituent because it implies broader news than actually exists.
Collision
Collision news provides news for an insured's container that is involved in an accident, subject to a deductible. This news is designed to provide payments to repair the dilapidated vehicle, or payment of the cash continuance of the container if it is not repairable. Collision news is optional, however if you plan on finance a automobile or taking a automobile loan, the lender module commonly insist you carry impinging for the finance constituent or until your automobile is paying off. Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) or Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) is the constituent utilised by rental automobile companies for impinging coverage.
Comprehensive
Comprehensive (a.k.a. - Other Than Collision) news provides coverage, subject to a deductible, for an insured's container that is dilapidated by incidents that are not considered Collisions. For example, fire, theft (or attempted theft), vandalism, weather, or impacts with animals are types of Comprehensive losses.
Uninsured/underinsured Motorist coverage
Underinsured coverage, also famous as UM/UIM, provides news if an at-fault party either does not hit insurance, or does not hit enough insurance. In effect, your shelter consort pays your medical bills, then would subrogate from the at fault party. This news is ofttimes over looked and very important. In Colorado for example, it was estimated in 2007 that 24% of drivers did not carry the land peak badness limits required by law. That is about 1 discover of every 4 drivers. Unfortunately, this number goes up significantly during recessions. In whatever area's it is estimated that 1 discover of every 3 drivers don;t carry insurance. Usually your limits correct your badness limits. Some shelter companies do offer um/uim in an umbrella policy.
In the United States, the definition of an uninsured/underinsured motorist, and corresponding coverages, are set by land laws.
Loss of use
Loss of ingest coverage, also famous as rental coverage, provides reimbursement for rental expenses related with having an individual container restored cod to a awninged loss.
Loan/lease payoff
Loan/lease payoff coverage, also famous as GAP news or GAP insurance,[16][17] was established in the early 1980s to provide protection to consumers based upon buying and market trends.
Due to the sharp decline in continuance immediately following purchase, there is generally a punctuation in which the amount owed on the automobile give exceeds the continuance of the vehicle, which is titled \"upside-down\" or perverse equity. Thus, if the container is dilapidated beyond economical repair at this point, the someone module still owe potentially thousands of dollars on the loan. The escalating price of cars, longer-term auto loans, and the crescendo popularity of leasing gave relationship to GAP protection. GAP waivers provide protection for consumers when a \"gap\" exists between the actual continuance of their container and the amount of money owed to the bank or leasing company. In many instances, this shelter module also clear the allowable on the primary shelter policy. These policies are ofttimes offered at the auto dealership as a comparatively low cost add on that crapper be put into the automobile give which provides news for the duration of the loan.
GAP shelter is necessary if you expect to owe more on the automobile give than the automobile is worth (referred to as being “upside down”). This crapper occur if you are not able to afford a large downbound payment and you acquire a automobile that depreciates rapidly, if you are stipendiary a high welfare rate, and/or if you are rolling whatever added expenses into the automobile loan, same money owed on a trade-in. GAP shelter is also common when leasing a container as leasers are still answerable for the automobile if it is totaled or taken just as if they had purchased it. [18]
Consumers should be aware that a some states, including New York, order lenders of leased cars to include GAP shelter within the cost of the lease itself. This means that the monthly price quoted by the dealer staleness include GAP insurance, whether it is delineated or not. Nevertheless, unscrupulous dealers sometimes prey on unsuspecting individuals by offering them GAP shelter at an added price, on top of the monthly payment, without mentioning the State's requirements.
In addition, whatever vendors and shelter companies offer what is titled \"Total Loss Coverage.\" This is kindred to ordinary GAP shelter but differs in that instead of stipendiary soured the perverse justness on a container that is a total loss, the contract provides a certain amount, commonly up to $5000, toward the purchase or lease of a newborn vehicle. Thus, to whatever extent the distinction makes no difference, i.e., in either housing the someone receives a certain sum of money. However, in choosing which identify of contract to purchase, the someone should study whether, in housing of a total loss, it is more advantageous for him or her to hit the contract clear soured the perverse justness or provide a downbound payment on a newborn vehicle.
For example, assuming a total expiration of a container valued at $15,000, but on which the someone owes $20,000, is the \"gap\" of $5000. If the someone has traditional GAP coverage, the \"gap\" module be wiped discover and he or she may purchase or lease added container or opt not to. If the someone has \"Total Loss Coverage,\" he or she module hit to personally counterbalance the \"gap\" of $5000, and then receive $5000 toward the purchase or lease of a newborn vehicle, thereby either reducing monthly payments, in the housing of finance or leasing, or the total purchase price in the housing of outright purchasing. So the decision on which identify of contract to purchase will, in most instances, be informed by whether the someone crapper clear soured the perverse justness in housing of a total expiration and/or whether he or she module definitively purchase a equal vehicle.
Towing
Car towing news is also famous as Roadside Assistance coverage. Traditionally, automobile shelter companies hit agreed to only clear for the cost of a tow that is related to an happening that is awninged under the automobile contract of insurance. This had left a gap in news for tows that are related to mechanical breakdowns, flat tires and gas outages. To fill that void, shelter companies started to offer the automobile towing coverage, which pays for non-accident related tows.
Personal Property
Personal items in a container that are dilapidated cod to an happening would not be a awninged under the auto policy. Any identify of concept that is not attached to the container should be claimed under a homeowners or renters policy.
Behavior based insurance
The ingest of non-intrusive load monitoring to detect drunk driving and added venturous behaviors has been proposed. [19] A US patent application combining this technology with a usage based shelter product to create a newborn identify of behavior based auto shelter product is currently open for public interpret on peer to patent.
An immoderateness payment, also famous as a deductible, is the immobile contribution you staleness clear apiece time your automobile is restored finished your automobile shelter policy. Normally the payment is made directly to the happening repair \"garage\" (The constituent \"garage\" refers to an establishment where vehicles are serviced and repaired) when you collect the car. If one's automobile is proclaimed to be a \"write off\" or \"total loss\"(\"write off\" is commonly utilised in motor shelter to describe a container the worth of which is inferior than the cost of repair), the shelter consort module deduct the immoderateness agreed on the contract from the deciding payment it makes to you.
If the happening was the added driver's fault, and this is accepted by the ordinal party's insurer, you'll be able to reclaim your immoderateness payment from the added person's shelter company.
Compulsory excess
A obligatory immoderateness is the peak immoderateness payment your underwriter module accept on your shelter policy. Minimum excesses vary according to your personal details, driving record and shelter company.
Voluntary excess
In order to reduce your shelter premium, you may offer to clear a higher immoderateness than the obligatory immoderateness demanded by your shelter company. Your voluntary immoderateness is the extra amount over and above the obligatory immoderateness that you concord to clear in the event of a claim on the policy. As a bigger immoderateness reduces the playing venture carried by your insurer, your underwriter is able to offer you a significantly modify premium.
Basis of premium charges
Main article: auto shelter venture selection
Depending on the jurisdiction, the shelter premium crapper be either mandated by the polity or determined by the shelter consort in accordance to a framework of regulations set by the government. Often, the underwriter module hit more freedom to set the price on physical alteration coverages than on mandatory badness coverages.
When the premium is not mandated by the government, it is commonly derived from the calculations of an actuary based on statistical data. The premium crapper vary depending on many factors that are believed to hit an impact on the expected cost of forthcoming claims.[8] Those factors crapper include the automobile characteristics, the news selected (deductible, limit, awninged perils), the profile of the utility (age, gender, driving history) and the usage of the automobile (commute to impact or not, predicted punctuation distance driven).[9]
Gender
Men average more miles driven per year than women do, and consequently hit a proportionally higher happening involvement at every ages. Insurance companies cite women's modify happening involvement in ownership the youth surcharge modify for teen women drivers than for their male counterparts, but adult rates are generally unisex. Reference to the modify rate for teen women as \"the women's discount\" has caused confusion that was evident in news reports on a recently defeated EC proposal to make it illegal to study gender in assessing shelter premiums.[10] Ending the discount would hit made no disagreement to most women's premiums.[citation needed]
Age
Teenage drivers who hit no driving record module hit higher automobile shelter premiums. However, teen drivers are ofttimes offered discounts if they undertake further utility training on recognised courses, much as the Pass Plus plot in the UK. In the U.S. many insurers offer a beatific grade discount to students with a beatific academic record and resident student discounts to those who springy away from home. Generally shelter premiums tend to become modify at the age of 25. Senior drivers are ofttimes eligible for retirement discounts reflecting modify average miles driven by this age group.
Marital status
Drivers who are unmarried are ofttimes charged higher shelter premiums as opposed to mated drivers.
Vehicle classification
Owners of sports cars, muscle cars, whatever sport utility vehicles, and motorcycles would hit higher shelter premiums as opposed to auto cars, midsized cars, or wealth cars. However, in the housing of motorcycles, the chance of causing extensive alteration to added vehicles is relatively low (as opposed to alteration to oneself) and thus badness shelter premiums are ofttimes lower.
Distance
Some automobile shelter plans do not evolve in regard to how much the automobile is used. However, methods of differentiation would include:
Reasonable estimation
Several automobile shelter plans rely on a reasonable calculation of the average punctuation distance expected to be driven which is provided by the insured. This discount benefits drivers who drive their cars infrequently but has no actuarial continuance since it is unverified.
Odometer-based systems
Cents Per Mile Now[11](1986) advocates classified odometer-mile rates. After the company's venture factors hit been applied and the customer has accepted the per-mile rate offered, customers acquire paying miles of shelter protection as needed, same buying gallons of gasoline. Insurance automatically ends when the meter bounds (recorded on the car’s shelter ID card) is reached unless more miles are bought. Customers ready road of miles on their possess meter to know when to acquire more. The consort does no after-the-fact billing of the customer, and the customer doesn't hit to estimate a \"future punctuation mileage\" amount for the consort to obtain a discount. In the event of a traffic stop, an officer could easily verify that the shelter is current by comparing the amount on the shelter card to that on the odometer.
Critics point discover the possibility of cheating the system by meter tampering. Although the newer electronic odometers are difficult to listing back, they crapper still be defeated by disconnecting the meter wires and reconnecting them later. However, as the Cents Per Mile Now website points out:
As a practical matter, resetting odometers requires equipment plus expertise that makes concealing shelter venturous and uneconomical. For example, in order to steal 20,000 miles (32,000 km) of continuous protection while stipendiary for only the 2,000 miles (3,200 km) from 35,000 miles (56,000 km) to 37,000 miles (60,000 km) on the odometer, the resetting would hit to be done at least nine times to ready the meter datum within the narrowing 2,000-mile (3,200 km) awninged range. There are also coercive jural deterrents to this way of concealing shelter protection. Odometers hit always served as the measuring device for resale value, rental and leasing charges, warranty limits, mechanical breakdown insurance, and cents-per-mile tax deductions or reimbursements for playing or polity travel. Odometer tampering—detected during claim processing—voids the shelter and, under decades-old land and federal law, is punishable by heavy fines and jail.
Under the cents-per-mile system, rewards for driving inferior are delivered automatically without need for administratively cumbersome and costly GPS technology. Uniform per-mile exposure measurement for the first time provides the foundation for statistically valid rate classes. Insurer premium income automatically keeps pace with increases or decreases in driving activity, cutting backwards on resulting underwriter demand for rate increases and preventing today's windfalls to insurers when attenuated driving activity lowers costs but not premiums.
GPS-based system
In 1998, Progressive Insurance started a pilot program in Texas in which drivers conventional a discount for instalment a GPS-based device that tracked their driving behavior and reportable the results via cellular phone to the company.[12] Policyholders were reportedly more status about having to clear for the pricey device than they were over privacy concerns.[13] The program was discontinued in 2000.
OBDII-based system
In 2008, The Progressive Corporation launched MyRate to give drivers a customized shelter rate based on how, how much, and when their automobile is driven. MyRate is currently acquirable in Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Maryland, New Jersey and Oregon. Driving data is transmitted to the consort using an on-board telematic device. The device connects to a car's OnBoard Diagnostic (OBD-II) port (all automobiles built after 1996 hit an OBD-II.) and transmits speed, time of day and number of miles the automobile is driven. There is no GPS in the MyRate device, so no location information is collected. Cars that are driven inferior often, in inferior venturous ways and at inferior venturous times of day crapper receive large discounts. Progressive has conventional patents on its methods and systems of implementing usage-based shelter and has licensed these methods and systems to added companies. Progressive has service marks pending on the cost Pay As You Drive and Pay How You Drive.
Auto shelter in the United States
Coverage available
The consumer may be protected with different news types depending on what news the individual purchases. Some states order that motorists carry badness shelter news to secure that their drivers crapper counterbalance the cost of damages to people or concept in the event of an automobile accident. Some states, much as Wisconsin, hit more flexible “proof of playing responsibility” requirements.[14]
In the United States, badness shelter covers claims against the contract holder and generally, any added cause of the individual vehicles, provided they do not springy at the same come as the contract holder, and are not specifically excluded on the policy. In the housing of those living at the same address, they staleness specifically be awninged on the policy. Thus it is necessary, for example, when a family member comes of driving age they staleness be added to the policy. Liability shelter sometimes does not protect the contract holder if they control any vehicles added than their own. When you drive a container owned by added party, you are awninged under that party’s policy. Non-owners policies may be offered that would counterbalance an individual on any container they drive. This news is acquirable only to those who do not possess their possess container and is sometimes required by the polity for drivers who hit previously been found at fault in an accident. Non-owners policies are also famous as Named Operator Policies. The policies are multipurpose for people whose drivers license has been suspended and they hit to hit shelter for their license to be reinstated.
Generally, badness news extends when you rent a car. Comprehensive policies (\"full coverage\") commonly also administer to the rental vehicle, although this should be verified beforehand. Full news premiums are based on, among added factors, the continuance of the insured’s vehicle. This coverage, however, cannot administer to rental cars because the shelter consort does not want to assume responsibility for a claim greater than the continuance of the insured’s vehicle, assuming that a rental automobile may be worth more than the insured’s vehicle. Most rental automobile companies offer shelter to counterbalance alteration to the rental vehicle. These policies may be unnecessary for many customers as credit card companies, much as Visa and MasterCard, now provide supplemental impinging alteration news to rental cars if the transaction is processed using digit of their cards. These benefits are restrictive in cost of the types of vehicles covered.[15]
Liability
Liability news is offered for bodily injury (BI) or concept alteration (PD) for which the individual utility is deemed responsible. The amount of news provided (a immobile dollar amount) module vary from powerfulness to jurisdiction. Whatever the minimum, the individual crapper commonly increase the news (prior to a loss) for an added charge.
An warning of Property Damage is where an individual utility (or 1st party) drives into a telephone pole and damages the pole, badness news pays for the alteration to the pole. In this example, the drivers individual may also become liable for added expenses related to damaging the telephone pole, much as expiration of service claims (by the telephone company), depending on the jurisdiction. An warning of Bodily Injury is where an individual utility causes bodily harm to a ordinal party and the individual utility is deemed answerable for the injuries. However, in whatever jurisdictions, the ordinal party would first exhaust news for happening benefits finished their possess underwriter (assuming they hit one) and/or would hit to meet a jural definition of severe impairment to hit the right to claim (or sue) under the individual driver's (or 1st Party's) policy.
In whatever jurisdictions: Liability news is acquirable either as a combined azygos bounds policy, or as a separate bounds policy:
Combined azygos limit
A combined azygos bounds combines concept alteration badness news and bodily injury news under digit azygos combined limit. For example, an individual utility with a combine azygos badness bounds strikes added container and injures the utility and the passenger. Payments for the damages to the added driver's car, as well as payments for injury claims for the utility and passenger, would be paying discover under this same coverage.
Split limits
A separate bounds badness news contract splits the coverages into concept alteration news and bodily injury coverage. In the warning presented above, payments for the added driver's container would be paying discover under concept alteration coverage, and payments for the injuries would be paying discover under bodily injury coverage.
Bodily injury badness news is also commonly separate as well into a peak payment per person and a peak payment per accident.
In the land of Oklahoma, you staleness carry at least land peak badness limits of $25,000/50,000/25,000. If an individual utility hits a automobile flooded of people and is found by the shelter consort to be liable, the shelter consort module clear $25,000 of digit persons medical bills but module not exceed 50,000 for added people injured in the accident. The shelter consort module clear concept alteration not to exceed 25,000 in repairs to the container that the individual hit.
In the land of Indiana, the peak badness limits are $25,000/$50,000/$10,000 so, there is a greater concept alteration exposure for only carrying the peak limits.
Full coverage
Full news is the study commonly referred to as Comprehensive and Collision. Insurers generally do not ingest this constituent because it implies broader news than actually exists.
Collision
Collision news provides news for an insured's container that is involved in an accident, subject to a deductible. This news is designed to provide payments to repair the dilapidated vehicle, or payment of the cash continuance of the container if it is not repairable. Collision news is optional, however if you plan on finance a automobile or taking a automobile loan, the lender module commonly insist you carry impinging for the finance constituent or until your automobile is paying off. Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) or Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) is the constituent utilised by rental automobile companies for impinging coverage.
Comprehensive
Comprehensive (a.k.a. - Other Than Collision) news provides coverage, subject to a deductible, for an insured's container that is dilapidated by incidents that are not considered Collisions. For example, fire, theft (or attempted theft), vandalism, weather, or impacts with animals are types of Comprehensive losses.
Uninsured/underinsured Motorist coverage
Underinsured coverage, also famous as UM/UIM, provides news if an at-fault party either does not hit insurance, or does not hit enough insurance. In effect, your shelter consort pays your medical bills, then would subrogate from the at fault party. This news is ofttimes over looked and very important. In Colorado for example, it was estimated in 2007 that 24% of drivers did not carry the land peak badness limits required by law. That is about 1 discover of every 4 drivers. Unfortunately, this number goes up significantly during recessions. In whatever area's it is estimated that 1 discover of every 3 drivers don;t carry insurance. Usually your limits correct your badness limits. Some shelter companies do offer um/uim in an umbrella policy.
In the United States, the definition of an uninsured/underinsured motorist, and corresponding coverages, are set by land laws.
Loss of use
Loss of ingest coverage, also famous as rental coverage, provides reimbursement for rental expenses related with having an individual container restored cod to a awninged loss.
Loan/lease payoff
Loan/lease payoff coverage, also famous as GAP news or GAP insurance,[16][17] was established in the early 1980s to provide protection to consumers based upon buying and market trends.
Due to the sharp decline in continuance immediately following purchase, there is generally a punctuation in which the amount owed on the automobile give exceeds the continuance of the vehicle, which is titled \"upside-down\" or perverse equity. Thus, if the container is dilapidated beyond economical repair at this point, the someone module still owe potentially thousands of dollars on the loan. The escalating price of cars, longer-term auto loans, and the crescendo popularity of leasing gave relationship to GAP protection. GAP waivers provide protection for consumers when a \"gap\" exists between the actual continuance of their container and the amount of money owed to the bank or leasing company. In many instances, this shelter module also clear the allowable on the primary shelter policy. These policies are ofttimes offered at the auto dealership as a comparatively low cost add on that crapper be put into the automobile give which provides news for the duration of the loan.
GAP shelter is necessary if you expect to owe more on the automobile give than the automobile is worth (referred to as being “upside down”). This crapper occur if you are not able to afford a large downbound payment and you acquire a automobile that depreciates rapidly, if you are stipendiary a high welfare rate, and/or if you are rolling whatever added expenses into the automobile loan, same money owed on a trade-in. GAP shelter is also common when leasing a container as leasers are still answerable for the automobile if it is totaled or taken just as if they had purchased it. [18]
Consumers should be aware that a some states, including New York, order lenders of leased cars to include GAP shelter within the cost of the lease itself. This means that the monthly price quoted by the dealer staleness include GAP insurance, whether it is delineated or not. Nevertheless, unscrupulous dealers sometimes prey on unsuspecting individuals by offering them GAP shelter at an added price, on top of the monthly payment, without mentioning the State's requirements.
In addition, whatever vendors and shelter companies offer what is titled \"Total Loss Coverage.\" This is kindred to ordinary GAP shelter but differs in that instead of stipendiary soured the perverse justness on a container that is a total loss, the contract provides a certain amount, commonly up to $5000, toward the purchase or lease of a newborn vehicle. Thus, to whatever extent the distinction makes no difference, i.e., in either housing the someone receives a certain sum of money. However, in choosing which identify of contract to purchase, the someone should study whether, in housing of a total loss, it is more advantageous for him or her to hit the contract clear soured the perverse justness or provide a downbound payment on a newborn vehicle.
For example, assuming a total expiration of a container valued at $15,000, but on which the someone owes $20,000, is the \"gap\" of $5000. If the someone has traditional GAP coverage, the \"gap\" module be wiped discover and he or she may purchase or lease added container or opt not to. If the someone has \"Total Loss Coverage,\" he or she module hit to personally counterbalance the \"gap\" of $5000, and then receive $5000 toward the purchase or lease of a newborn vehicle, thereby either reducing monthly payments, in the housing of finance or leasing, or the total purchase price in the housing of outright purchasing. So the decision on which identify of contract to purchase will, in most instances, be informed by whether the someone crapper clear soured the perverse justness in housing of a total expiration and/or whether he or she module definitively purchase a equal vehicle.
Towing
Car towing news is also famous as Roadside Assistance coverage. Traditionally, automobile shelter companies hit agreed to only clear for the cost of a tow that is related to an happening that is awninged under the automobile contract of insurance. This had left a gap in news for tows that are related to mechanical breakdowns, flat tires and gas outages. To fill that void, shelter companies started to offer the automobile towing coverage, which pays for non-accident related tows.
Personal Property
Personal items in a container that are dilapidated cod to an happening would not be a awninged under the auto policy. Any identify of concept that is not attached to the container should be claimed under a homeowners or renters policy.
Behavior based insurance
The ingest of non-intrusive load monitoring to detect drunk driving and added venturous behaviors has been proposed. [19] A US patent application combining this technology with a usage based shelter product to create a newborn identify of behavior based auto shelter product is currently open for public interpret on peer to patent.
Insurace Part 1
Vehicle insurance (also known as machine insurance, car insurance, or motor insurance) is insurance purchased for cars, trucks, and other vehicles. Its primary use is to provide protection against losses incurred as a result of traffic accidents and against liability that could be incurred in an accident.
Public policy
In many jurisdictions it is obligatory to hit container shelter before using or ownership a motor container on public roads. Most jurisdictions relate shelter to both the automobile and the driver, however the degree of apiece varies greatly.
A 1994 study by Jeremy Jackson and Roger Blackman[1] showed, consistent with the venture homeostasis theory, that increased happening costs caused large and significant reductions in happening frequencies.
Australia
In South Australia, Third Party Personal shelter from the Motor Accident Commission is included in the authorise entrance fee for people over 16. A kindred plot applies in Western Australia.
In Victoria, Third Party Personal shelter from the Transport Accident Commission is similarly included, finished a levy, in the container entrance fee.
In New South Wales, Compulsory Third Party Insurance (commonly famous as CTP Insurance) is a mandatory responsibility and apiece individual automobile staleness be individual or the container module not be considered legal. Therefore, a motorist cannot drive the container until it is insured. A 'Green Slip,'[citation needed] added study CTP Insurance is commonly famous by cod to the colour of the pages the modify is printed on, staleness be obtained finished digit of the seven main insurers in New South Wales.
In Queensland, CTP is a mandatory part of entrance for a vehicle. There is pick of underwriter but price is polity controlled in a tight band.
These land based ordinal party shelter schemes commonly counterbalance only personal injury liability. Comprehensive container shelter is sold separately to counterbalance concept alteration and counterbalance crapper be for events much as fire, theft, impinging and added concept damage.
Canada
Several river provinces (British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Quebec) provide a public auto shelter system while in the rest of the country shelter is provided privately. Basic auto shelter is mandatory throughout Canada with apiece province's polity determining which benefits are included as peak required auto shelter news and which benefits are options acquirable for those seeking added coverage. Accident benefits news is mandatory everywhere except for Newfoundland and Labrador. All provinces in Canada hit whatever modify of no-fault shelter acquirable to happening victims. The disagreement from domain to domain is the extent to which tort or no-fault is emphasized.[2] Typically, news against expiration of or alteration to the driver's possess container is optional - digit notable exception to this is in Saskatchewan, where SGI provides impinging news (less than a $700 deductible, much as a impinging alteration waiver) as part of its base shelter policy. In Saskatchewan, residents hit the option to hit their auto shelter finished a tort system but inferior than 0.5% of the population hit taken this option.[2]
Hungary
Third-party container shelter is mandatory for every vehicles in Hungary. No exemption is doable by money deposit. The premium covers every alteration up to HUF 500M (about €1.8M) per happening without deductible. The news is extended to HUF 500M (about €4.5M) in housing of personal injuries. Vehicle shelter policies from every EU-countries and whatever non-EU countries are valid in Hungary based on bilateral or multilateral agreements. Visitors with container shelter not awninged by much agreements are required to acquire a monthly, renewable contract at the border.
Ireland
The Road Traffic Act, 1933 requires every drivers of mechanically propelled vehicles in public places to hit at least third-party insurance, or to hit obtained exemption - generally by depositing a (large) sum of money with the High Court as a guarantee against claims. In 1933 this amount was set at £15,000. The Road Traffic Act, 1961
(which is currently in force) repealed the 1933 act but replaced these sections with functionally identical sections.
From 1968, those making deposits order the respond of the Minister for Transport to do so, with the sum specified by the Minister.
Those not exempted from obtaining shelter staleness obtain a certificate of shelter from their shelter provider, and display a portion of this (an shelter disc) on their vehicles windscreen (if fitted). The certificate in flooded staleness be presented to a personnel send within ten days if requested by an officer. Proof of having shelter or an exemption staleness also be provided to clear for your motor tax.
Those injured or suffering concept damage/loss cod to uninsured drivers crapper claim against the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland's uninsured drivers fund, as crapper those injured (but not those suffering alteration or loss) from hit and separate offences.
Romania
Romanian accumulation mandates Răspundere Auto Civilă, a motor-vehicle badness shelter for every container owners to counterbalance damages to ordinal parties.[4]
South Africa
South Africa allocates a percentage of the money from gasoline into the Road Accidents Fund, which goes towards compensating ordinal parties in accidents.[5]
United Kingdom
In 1930, the UK polity introduced a accumulation that required every person who utilised a container on the road to hit at least ordinal party personal injury insurance. Today UK accumulation is defined by the Road Traffic Act 1988, which was last modified in 1991. The Act requires that motorists either be insured, hit a security, or hit made a specified installation (£500,000 as of 1991) with the Accountant General of the Supreme Court, against their badness for injuries to others (including passengers) and for alteration to added persons' concept resulting from ingest of a container on a public road or in added public places.
The peak take of shelter counterbalance commonly acquirable and which satisfies the responsibility of the Act is titled ordinal party only insurance. The take of counterbalance provided by Third party only shelter is base but does exceed the requirements of the act.
Road Traffic Act Only Insurance is not the same as Third Party Only Insurance and is not ofttimes sold. It provides the very peak counterbalance to satisfy the requirements of the Act. For warning Road Traffic Act Only Insurance has a bounds of £1,000,000 for alteration to ordinal party concept - ordinal party only shelter typically has a greater bounds for ordinal party concept damage.
It is an operation to drive a car, or allow others to drive it, without at least ordinal party shelter whilst on the public highway (or public place Section 143(1)(a) RTA 1988 as amended 1991); however, no much legislation applies on private land.
Vehicles which are exempted by the act, from the responsibility to be covered, include those owned by certain councils and local authorities, domestic park authorities, education authorities, personnel authorities, fire authorities, health service bodies and security services.
The shelter certificate or counterbalance note issued by the shelter consort constitutes jural grounds that the container specified on the writing is insured. The accumulation says that an authorised person, much as the police, may order a utility to produce an shelter certificate for inspection. If the utility cannot show the writing immediately on request, then the utility module commonly be issued a HORT/1 with seven days, as of midnight of the fellow of issue, to take a valid shelter certificate (and commonly added driving documents as well) to a personnel send of the driver's choice. Failure to produce an shelter certificate is an offence. The HORT/1 is commonly famous - modify by the supply polity when dealing with the public - as a \"Producer\".
Insurance is more pricey in Northern Ireland than in added parts of the UK.[vague][citation needed]
Most motorists in the UK are required to prominently display a container authorise (tax disc) on their container when it is kept or driven on public roads. This helps to secure that most people hit adequate shelter on their vehicles because an shelter certificate staleness be produced when a disc is purchased[citation needed].
The Motor Insurers Bureau compensates the victims of road accidents caused by uninsured and untraced motorists. It also operates the Motor Insurance Database, which contains info of every individual container in the country.
United States
In the United States, auto shelter covering badness for injuries and concept alteration done to others is obligatory in most states, though enforcement of the responsibility varies from land to state. The land of New Hampshire, for example, does not order motorists to carry badness shelter (the ballpark model), while in Virginia residents staleness clear the land a $500 punctuation fee per container if they opt not to acquire badness insurance.[6] Penalties for not purchasing auto shelter vary by state, but ofttimes involve a substantial fine, license and/or entrance suspension or revocation, as well as doable jail time in whatever states. Usually, the peak required by accumulation is ordinal party shelter to protect ordinal parties against the playing consequences of loss, alteration or injury caused by a vehicle.
Some states, much as North Carolina, order that a utility hold badness shelter before a license crapper be issued.
Arizona Department of Transportation Research Project Manager Evangelist Semmens has recommended that automobile insurers supply license plates, and that they be held answerable for the flooded cost of injuries and concept damages caused by their licensees under the Disneyland model. Plates would expire at the end of the shelter news period, and licensees would need to return their plates to their shelter office to receive a refund on their premiums. Vehicles driving without shelter would thus be easy to spot because they would not hit license plates, or the plates would be past the marked expiration date.[7]
Coverage levels
Vehicle shelter crapper counterbalance whatever or every of the following items:
* The individual party
* The individual vehicle
* Third parties (car and people)
* In whatever States news for injuries to persons riding in the individual container is acquirable without regard to fault in the auto happening (No Fault Auto Insurance)
Different policies specify the circumstances under which apiece item is covered. For example, a container crapper be individual against theft, fire damage, or happening alteration independently.
How to Choose a Web Host
by Christopher Heng, thesitewizard.com
What are some of the things you should look for when choosing a web host? The criteria for choosing a free web host and a commercial web hosting solution are slightly different although they do overlap. Since thesitewizard.com caters to people who might be looking for either of these types of hosting, I will deal with each of these in turn. If you are only interested in one of these types, you can simply skip to the appropriate section. I have written these sections to be as independant of the other as possible.
Choosing a Free Web Host
1. Advertising
Most free web hosts impose advertising on your website. This is done to cover the costs of providing your site the free web space and associated services. Some hosts require you to place a banner on your pages, others display a window that pops up everytime a page on your site loads, while still others impose an advertising frame on your site. There is really no hard and fast rule which is to be preferred: some people hate a pop-up window, other webmasters dislike having to stuff banner codes onto their pages, and many people cannot stand an advertising frame (which may cause problems when you submit your website to search engines). Whichever method is used, check that you're comfortable with the method.
2. Amount of web space
Does it have enough space for your needs? If you envisage that you will expand your site eventually, you might want to cater for future expansion. Most sites use less than 5MB of web space. Indeed, at one time, one of my other web sites, thefreecountry.com, used less than 5MB of space although it had about 150 pages on the site. Your needs will vary, depending on how many pictures your pages use, whether you need sound files, video clips, etc.
3. FTP access
Some free hosting providers only allow you to design your page with their online builder. While this is useful for beginners, do you have the option to expand later when you become experienced and their online page builder does not have the facility you need? FTP access, or at the very least, the ability to upload your pages by email or browser, is needed. Personally, I feel FTP access is mandatory, except for the most trivial site.
4. File type and size limitations
Watch out for these. Some free hosts impose a maximum size on each of the files you upload (including one with a low of 200KB). Other sites restrict the file types you can upload to HTML and GIF/JPG files. If your needs are different, eg, if you want to distribute your own programs on your pages, you will have to look elsewhere.
5. Reliability and speed of access
This is extremely important. A site that is frequently down will lose a lot of visitors. If someone finds your site on the search engine, and he tries to access it but find that it is down, he'll simply go down the list to find another site. Slow access is also very frustrating for visitors (and for you too, when you upload your site). How do you know if a host is reliable or fast? If you can't get feedback from anyone, one way is to try it out yourself over a period of time, both during peak as well as non-peak hours. After all, it is free, so you can always experiment with it.
6. CGI-BIN access / PHP
This is not particularly crucial nowadays for a free web host, since there are so many free CGI hosting services available that provide counters, search engines, forms, polls, mailing lists, etc, without requiring you to dabble with Perl or PHP scripts.
However if you really want to do it yourself, with the minimum of advertising banners from these free providers, you will need either PHP or CGI-BIN access. Note that it is not enough to know they provide PHP or CGI-BIN access: you need to know the kind of environment your scripts run under: is it so restrictive that they are of no earthly use? For PHP scripts, does your web host allow you to use the mail() function? For Perl CGI scripts, do you have access to sendmail or its workalike?
7. Bandwidth allotment
Nowadays, many free web hosts impose a limit on the amount of traffic your website can use per day and per month. This means that if the pages (and graphic images) on your site is loaded by visitors beyond a certain number of times per day (or per month), the web host will disable your web site (or perhaps send you a bill). It is difficult to recommend a specific minimum amount of bandwidth, since it depends on how you design your site, your target audience, and the number of visitors you're able to attract to your site. In general, 100MB traffic per month is too little for anything other than your personal home page and 1-3GB traffic per month is usually adequate for a simple site just starting out. Your mileage, however, will vary.
Choosing a Commercial Web Host
1. Reliability and speed of access
Not only should the web host be reliable and fast, it should guarantee its uptime (the time when it is functional). Look for a minimum uptime of 99%. In fact, even 99% is actually too low - it really should be 99.5% or higher. The host should provide some sort of refund (eg prorated refund or discount) if it falls below that figure. Note though that guarantees are often hard to enforce from your end - the host usually requires all sorts of documentation. However, without that guarantee, the web host will have little incentive to ensure that its servers are running all the time.
2. Data Transfer (Traffic/Bandwidth)
Data transfer (sometimes loosely referred to as "traffic" or "bandwidth") is the amount of bytes transferred from your site to visitors when they browse your site.
Don't believe any commercial web host that advertises "unlimited bandwidth". The host has to pay for the bandwidth, and if you consume a lot of it, they will not silently bear your costs. Many high bandwidth websites have found this out the hard way when they suddenly receive an exhorbitant bill for having "exceeded" the "unlimited bandwidth". Always look for details on how much traffic the package allows. I personally always stay clear of any host that advertises "unlimited transfer", even if the exact amount is specified somewhere else (sometimes buried in their policy statements). Usually you will find that they redefine "unlimited" to be limited in some way.
To give you a rough idea of the typical traffic requirements of a website, most new sites that are not software archives or the like use less than 3GB of bandwidth per month. Your traffic requirements will grow over time, as your site becomes more well-known (and well-linked), so you will need to also check their policy for overages: is there a published charge per GB over the allowed bandwidth? Is the charge made according to actual usage or are you expected to pre-pay for a potential overage? It is better not to go for hosts that expect you to prepay for overages, since it is very hard to forsee when your site will exceed its bandwidth and by how much.
3. Disk space
For the same reason as bandwidth, watch out also for those "unlimited disk space" schemes. Most sites need less than 5MB of web space, so even if you are provided with a host that tempts you with 200MB or 500MB (or "unlimited space"), be aware that you are unlikely to use that space, so don't let the 500MB space be too big a factor in your consideration when comparing with other web hosts. The hosting company is also aware of that, which is why they feel free to offer you that as a means of enticing you to host there. As a rough gauge, thefreecountry.com, which had about 150 pages when this article was first written, used less than 5MB for its pages and associated files.
4. Technical support
Does its technical support function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (often abbreviated 24/7), all year around? Note that I will not accept a host which does not have staff working on weekends or public holidays. You will be surprised at how often things go wrong at the most inconvenient of times. Incidentally, just because a host advertises that it has 24/7 support does not necessarily mean that it really has that kind of support. Test them out by emailing at midnight and on Saturday nights, Sunday mornings, etc. Check out how long they take to respond. Besides speed of responses, check to see if they are technically competent. You wouldn't want to sign up for a host that is run by a bunch of salesmen who only know how to sell and not fix problems.
5. FTP, PHP, Perl CGI-BIN access, SSI, .htaccess, telnet, SSH crontabs
If you are paying for a site, you really should make sure you have all of these. Note that some commercial hosts do not allow you to install PHP or CGI scripts without their approval. This is not desirable since it means that you have to wait for them before you can implement a feature on your site. ".htaccess" is needed if you are to customise your error pages (pages that display when, say, a user requests for a non-existent page on your site) or to protect your site in various ways (such as to prevent bandwidth theft and hotlinking, etc). Telnet or SSH access is useful for certain things, including testing CGI scripts, maintaining databases, etc. Cron jobs may be needed for programs that you need to be run periodically (eg once a day). Check to see if these facilities are provided.
6. SSL (secure server), MySQL, Shopping Cart
If you are planning on doing any sort of business through your website, you might want to look out to see if the host provides these facilities. These facilities normally involve a higher priced package or additional charges. The main thing is to check to see if they are available at all before you commit to the host. You will definitely need SSL if you plan to collect credit card information on your site.
7. Email, Autoresponders, POP3, Mail Forwarding
If you have your own site, you would probably want to have email addresses at your own domain, like sales@yourdomain.com, etc. Does the host provide this with the package? Does it allow you to have a catch-all email account that allows anyname@yourdomain.com to wind up being routed to you? Can you set an email address to automatically reply to the sender with a preset message (called an autoresponder)? Can you retrieve your mail with your email software? Can it be automatically forwarded to your current email address?
8. Control Panel
This is called various names by different hosts, but essentially, they all allow you to manage different aspects of your web account yourself. Typically, and at the very minimum, it should allow you to do things like add, delete, and manage your email addresses, and change passwords for your account. I would not go for a host where I have to go through their technical support each time I want to change a password or add/delete an email account. Such chores are common maintenance chores that every webmaster performs time and time again, and it would be a great hassle if you had to wait for their technical support to make the changes for you.
9. Subdomains, virtual hosting
For those who are thinking of selling web space or having multiple domains or subdomains hosted in your account, you should look to see if they provide this, and the amount extra that they charge for this (whether it is a one-time or monthly charge, etc).
10. Server
Is the type of operating system and server important? Whether you think so or not on the theoretical level, there are a few practical reasons for looking out for the type of server.
In general, if you want to use things like ASP, you have no choice but to look for a Windows NT/2000/XP machine for your server.
Otherwise my preference is to sign up for accounts using the often cheaper, more stable and feature-laden Unix systems running the Apache server. In fact, if dynamically generated pages that can access databases (etc) is what you want, you can always use the more portable (and popular) PHP instead of tying yourself down to ASP. Another reason to prefer Unix-based web hosts (which include web hosts using systems like Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, etc) using the Apache web server is that these servers allow you to configure a lot of facilities that you typically need on your site (error pages, protecting your images, blocking email harvesters, blocking IP addresses, etc) without having to ask your web host to implement them. Knowledge about configuring Apache servers is also widely available, and can be found on thesitewizard.com's Configuring Apache and .htaccess pages as well.
11. Price
I was actually hesitant to list this, but I guess it's futile not to. However, I would caution that while price is always a factor, you should realise that you often get what you pay for, although it's not necessarily true that the most expensive hosts are the best.
12. Monthly/Quarterly/Annual Payment Plans
Most web hosts allow you to select an annual payment plan that gives you a cheaper rate than if you were to pay monthly. My current personal preference is to pay monthly with all new web hosts until I'm assured of their reliability and honesty. Paying monthly allows me to switch web hosts quickly when I find that the current host does not meet my requirements: this way, I'm not tied down to a bad web host because I have prepaid for an entire year. I do this even if the new web host guarantees that they will refund the balance if I'm dissatisfied, since at the point I sign up, I have no assurance that they will honour their guarantee. Later (usually after many months or even more than a year), when I'm satisfied with the host, I often change payment plans to the discounted annual plans.
13. Resellers?
Not all hosting companies own or lease their own web servers. Some of them are actually resellers for some other hosting company. The disadvantage of using a reseller is the possibility that you are dealing with people who don't know much about the system they are selling and who take longer to help you (they have to transmit your technical support request to the actual hosting company for it to be acted upon). However, this also depends on both the reseller and the underlying hosting company. It is thus wise not to rule out all resellers; there are a number of reliable and fast ones who are actually quite good and cheap. In fact, a number of resellers sell the same packages cheaper than their original hosting company. If you find out that a particular company is a reseller, you will need to investigate both the reseller and the real hosting company.
14. International
If you don't stay in the USA, you have the option of hosting your site with some local provider. The advantage here is the ease of dealing with them (they are after all easily accessible by phone call or a visit), your familiarity with the local laws and easy recourse to those laws should it be necessary. It should be your choice if your target audience is local (eg a local fast food delivery service). On the other hand, hosting it in USA has the advantage of faster access for what is probably the largest number of your overseas visitors (particularly if you have an English-speaking audience). You also have a large number of hosting companies to choose from, and as a result, cheaper prices too.
15. Others' Reviews
You should make it a point to check out what others have to say about the web host. Some of the places you can do this include:
o The newsgroup news:alt.www.webmaster. As you should always do when reading reviews (of anything), read the reviews posted here with a pinch of salt. Some glowing reviews may come from people working for the web host itself, disguised as multiple satisfied customers. Likewise, negative reviews of a particular host can sometimes come from unscrupulous competitors of that host.
o thesitewizard.com's review, "Which Web Host Would You Recommend? (FAQ)", found at http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/webhosting.shtml
o Although not often, I sometimes make comments about a particular web host in my Budget Web Hosts page on thefreecountry.com as well.
Don't skip this step, or you might find yourself being suckered by a host that everyone else is steering clear of.
What are some of the things you should look for when choosing a web host? The criteria for choosing a free web host and a commercial web hosting solution are slightly different although they do overlap. Since thesitewizard.com caters to people who might be looking for either of these types of hosting, I will deal with each of these in turn. If you are only interested in one of these types, you can simply skip to the appropriate section. I have written these sections to be as independant of the other as possible.
Choosing a Free Web Host
1. Advertising
Most free web hosts impose advertising on your website. This is done to cover the costs of providing your site the free web space and associated services. Some hosts require you to place a banner on your pages, others display a window that pops up everytime a page on your site loads, while still others impose an advertising frame on your site. There is really no hard and fast rule which is to be preferred: some people hate a pop-up window, other webmasters dislike having to stuff banner codes onto their pages, and many people cannot stand an advertising frame (which may cause problems when you submit your website to search engines). Whichever method is used, check that you're comfortable with the method.
2. Amount of web space
Does it have enough space for your needs? If you envisage that you will expand your site eventually, you might want to cater for future expansion. Most sites use less than 5MB of web space. Indeed, at one time, one of my other web sites, thefreecountry.com, used less than 5MB of space although it had about 150 pages on the site. Your needs will vary, depending on how many pictures your pages use, whether you need sound files, video clips, etc.
3. FTP access
Some free hosting providers only allow you to design your page with their online builder. While this is useful for beginners, do you have the option to expand later when you become experienced and their online page builder does not have the facility you need? FTP access, or at the very least, the ability to upload your pages by email or browser, is needed. Personally, I feel FTP access is mandatory, except for the most trivial site.
4. File type and size limitations
Watch out for these. Some free hosts impose a maximum size on each of the files you upload (including one with a low of 200KB). Other sites restrict the file types you can upload to HTML and GIF/JPG files. If your needs are different, eg, if you want to distribute your own programs on your pages, you will have to look elsewhere.
5. Reliability and speed of access
This is extremely important. A site that is frequently down will lose a lot of visitors. If someone finds your site on the search engine, and he tries to access it but find that it is down, he'll simply go down the list to find another site. Slow access is also very frustrating for visitors (and for you too, when you upload your site). How do you know if a host is reliable or fast? If you can't get feedback from anyone, one way is to try it out yourself over a period of time, both during peak as well as non-peak hours. After all, it is free, so you can always experiment with it.
6. CGI-BIN access / PHP
This is not particularly crucial nowadays for a free web host, since there are so many free CGI hosting services available that provide counters, search engines, forms, polls, mailing lists, etc, without requiring you to dabble with Perl or PHP scripts.
However if you really want to do it yourself, with the minimum of advertising banners from these free providers, you will need either PHP or CGI-BIN access. Note that it is not enough to know they provide PHP or CGI-BIN access: you need to know the kind of environment your scripts run under: is it so restrictive that they are of no earthly use? For PHP scripts, does your web host allow you to use the mail() function? For Perl CGI scripts, do you have access to sendmail or its workalike?
7. Bandwidth allotment
Nowadays, many free web hosts impose a limit on the amount of traffic your website can use per day and per month. This means that if the pages (and graphic images) on your site is loaded by visitors beyond a certain number of times per day (or per month), the web host will disable your web site (or perhaps send you a bill). It is difficult to recommend a specific minimum amount of bandwidth, since it depends on how you design your site, your target audience, and the number of visitors you're able to attract to your site. In general, 100MB traffic per month is too little for anything other than your personal home page and 1-3GB traffic per month is usually adequate for a simple site just starting out. Your mileage, however, will vary.
Choosing a Commercial Web Host
1. Reliability and speed of access
Not only should the web host be reliable and fast, it should guarantee its uptime (the time when it is functional). Look for a minimum uptime of 99%. In fact, even 99% is actually too low - it really should be 99.5% or higher. The host should provide some sort of refund (eg prorated refund or discount) if it falls below that figure. Note though that guarantees are often hard to enforce from your end - the host usually requires all sorts of documentation. However, without that guarantee, the web host will have little incentive to ensure that its servers are running all the time.
2. Data Transfer (Traffic/Bandwidth)
Data transfer (sometimes loosely referred to as "traffic" or "bandwidth") is the amount of bytes transferred from your site to visitors when they browse your site.
Don't believe any commercial web host that advertises "unlimited bandwidth". The host has to pay for the bandwidth, and if you consume a lot of it, they will not silently bear your costs. Many high bandwidth websites have found this out the hard way when they suddenly receive an exhorbitant bill for having "exceeded" the "unlimited bandwidth". Always look for details on how much traffic the package allows. I personally always stay clear of any host that advertises "unlimited transfer", even if the exact amount is specified somewhere else (sometimes buried in their policy statements). Usually you will find that they redefine "unlimited" to be limited in some way.
To give you a rough idea of the typical traffic requirements of a website, most new sites that are not software archives or the like use less than 3GB of bandwidth per month. Your traffic requirements will grow over time, as your site becomes more well-known (and well-linked), so you will need to also check their policy for overages: is there a published charge per GB over the allowed bandwidth? Is the charge made according to actual usage or are you expected to pre-pay for a potential overage? It is better not to go for hosts that expect you to prepay for overages, since it is very hard to forsee when your site will exceed its bandwidth and by how much.
3. Disk space
For the same reason as bandwidth, watch out also for those "unlimited disk space" schemes. Most sites need less than 5MB of web space, so even if you are provided with a host that tempts you with 200MB or 500MB (or "unlimited space"), be aware that you are unlikely to use that space, so don't let the 500MB space be too big a factor in your consideration when comparing with other web hosts. The hosting company is also aware of that, which is why they feel free to offer you that as a means of enticing you to host there. As a rough gauge, thefreecountry.com, which had about 150 pages when this article was first written, used less than 5MB for its pages and associated files.
4. Technical support
Does its technical support function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (often abbreviated 24/7), all year around? Note that I will not accept a host which does not have staff working on weekends or public holidays. You will be surprised at how often things go wrong at the most inconvenient of times. Incidentally, just because a host advertises that it has 24/7 support does not necessarily mean that it really has that kind of support. Test them out by emailing at midnight and on Saturday nights, Sunday mornings, etc. Check out how long they take to respond. Besides speed of responses, check to see if they are technically competent. You wouldn't want to sign up for a host that is run by a bunch of salesmen who only know how to sell and not fix problems.
5. FTP, PHP, Perl CGI-BIN access, SSI, .htaccess, telnet, SSH crontabs
If you are paying for a site, you really should make sure you have all of these. Note that some commercial hosts do not allow you to install PHP or CGI scripts without their approval. This is not desirable since it means that you have to wait for them before you can implement a feature on your site. ".htaccess" is needed if you are to customise your error pages (pages that display when, say, a user requests for a non-existent page on your site) or to protect your site in various ways (such as to prevent bandwidth theft and hotlinking, etc). Telnet or SSH access is useful for certain things, including testing CGI scripts, maintaining databases, etc. Cron jobs may be needed for programs that you need to be run periodically (eg once a day). Check to see if these facilities are provided.
6. SSL (secure server), MySQL, Shopping Cart
If you are planning on doing any sort of business through your website, you might want to look out to see if the host provides these facilities. These facilities normally involve a higher priced package or additional charges. The main thing is to check to see if they are available at all before you commit to the host. You will definitely need SSL if you plan to collect credit card information on your site.
7. Email, Autoresponders, POP3, Mail Forwarding
If you have your own site, you would probably want to have email addresses at your own domain, like sales@yourdomain.com, etc. Does the host provide this with the package? Does it allow you to have a catch-all email account that allows anyname@yourdomain.com to wind up being routed to you? Can you set an email address to automatically reply to the sender with a preset message (called an autoresponder)? Can you retrieve your mail with your email software? Can it be automatically forwarded to your current email address?
8. Control Panel
This is called various names by different hosts, but essentially, they all allow you to manage different aspects of your web account yourself. Typically, and at the very minimum, it should allow you to do things like add, delete, and manage your email addresses, and change passwords for your account. I would not go for a host where I have to go through their technical support each time I want to change a password or add/delete an email account. Such chores are common maintenance chores that every webmaster performs time and time again, and it would be a great hassle if you had to wait for their technical support to make the changes for you.
9. Subdomains, virtual hosting
For those who are thinking of selling web space or having multiple domains or subdomains hosted in your account, you should look to see if they provide this, and the amount extra that they charge for this (whether it is a one-time or monthly charge, etc).
10. Server
Is the type of operating system and server important? Whether you think so or not on the theoretical level, there are a few practical reasons for looking out for the type of server.
In general, if you want to use things like ASP, you have no choice but to look for a Windows NT/2000/XP machine for your server.
Otherwise my preference is to sign up for accounts using the often cheaper, more stable and feature-laden Unix systems running the Apache server. In fact, if dynamically generated pages that can access databases (etc) is what you want, you can always use the more portable (and popular) PHP instead of tying yourself down to ASP. Another reason to prefer Unix-based web hosts (which include web hosts using systems like Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, etc) using the Apache web server is that these servers allow you to configure a lot of facilities that you typically need on your site (error pages, protecting your images, blocking email harvesters, blocking IP addresses, etc) without having to ask your web host to implement them. Knowledge about configuring Apache servers is also widely available, and can be found on thesitewizard.com's Configuring Apache and .htaccess pages as well.
11. Price
I was actually hesitant to list this, but I guess it's futile not to. However, I would caution that while price is always a factor, you should realise that you often get what you pay for, although it's not necessarily true that the most expensive hosts are the best.
12. Monthly/Quarterly/Annual Payment Plans
Most web hosts allow you to select an annual payment plan that gives you a cheaper rate than if you were to pay monthly. My current personal preference is to pay monthly with all new web hosts until I'm assured of their reliability and honesty. Paying monthly allows me to switch web hosts quickly when I find that the current host does not meet my requirements: this way, I'm not tied down to a bad web host because I have prepaid for an entire year. I do this even if the new web host guarantees that they will refund the balance if I'm dissatisfied, since at the point I sign up, I have no assurance that they will honour their guarantee. Later (usually after many months or even more than a year), when I'm satisfied with the host, I often change payment plans to the discounted annual plans.
13. Resellers?
Not all hosting companies own or lease their own web servers. Some of them are actually resellers for some other hosting company. The disadvantage of using a reseller is the possibility that you are dealing with people who don't know much about the system they are selling and who take longer to help you (they have to transmit your technical support request to the actual hosting company for it to be acted upon). However, this also depends on both the reseller and the underlying hosting company. It is thus wise not to rule out all resellers; there are a number of reliable and fast ones who are actually quite good and cheap. In fact, a number of resellers sell the same packages cheaper than their original hosting company. If you find out that a particular company is a reseller, you will need to investigate both the reseller and the real hosting company.
14. International
If you don't stay in the USA, you have the option of hosting your site with some local provider. The advantage here is the ease of dealing with them (they are after all easily accessible by phone call or a visit), your familiarity with the local laws and easy recourse to those laws should it be necessary. It should be your choice if your target audience is local (eg a local fast food delivery service). On the other hand, hosting it in USA has the advantage of faster access for what is probably the largest number of your overseas visitors (particularly if you have an English-speaking audience). You also have a large number of hosting companies to choose from, and as a result, cheaper prices too.
15. Others' Reviews
You should make it a point to check out what others have to say about the web host. Some of the places you can do this include:
o The newsgroup news:alt.www.webmaster. As you should always do when reading reviews (of anything), read the reviews posted here with a pinch of salt. Some glowing reviews may come from people working for the web host itself, disguised as multiple satisfied customers. Likewise, negative reviews of a particular host can sometimes come from unscrupulous competitors of that host.
o thesitewizard.com's review, "Which Web Host Would You Recommend? (FAQ)", found at http://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/webhosting.shtml
o Although not often, I sometimes make comments about a particular web host in my Budget Web Hosts page on thefreecountry.com as well.
Don't skip this step, or you might find yourself being suckered by a host that everyone else is steering clear of.
Basic Features to Choose Domain.
1. 24/7 reliable tech support
2. Your own domain name (www.yourname.com)
3. At least 10GB of monthly transfer (traffic)
4. A minimum of 20MB - 50MB of server space
5. Unlimited true POP email accounts - name@yourdomain.com
6. Unlimited email aliases
7. Email forwarding
8. Unlimited autoresponders
9. Your own unrestricted CGI-Bin
10. Access to SSL Encryption for secure transactions
11. MySQL Database
12. Perl
13. htaccess password protection
14. Server Side Includes (SSI) support
15. Design (and upload to) your site using Netscape or
other HTML editing software
16. Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions for those
utilizing FrontPage
17. Unlimited free access to your server via FTP/Telnet
18. Easy access to your log files
19. Statistics on visits to your site
20. Referral Program
2. Your own domain name (www.yourname.com)
3. At least 10GB of monthly transfer (traffic)
4. A minimum of 20MB - 50MB of server space
5. Unlimited true POP email accounts - name@yourdomain.com
6. Unlimited email aliases
7. Email forwarding
8. Unlimited autoresponders
9. Your own unrestricted CGI-Bin
10. Access to SSL Encryption for secure transactions
11. MySQL Database
12. Perl
13. htaccess password protection
14. Server Side Includes (SSI) support
15. Design (and upload to) your site using Netscape or
other HTML editing software
16. Microsoft FrontPage Server Extensions for those
utilizing FrontPage
17. Unlimited free access to your server via FTP/Telnet
18. Easy access to your log files
19. Statistics on visits to your site
20. Referral Program
Choosing Web Hosting OS (Operating System)
First things you have to choose with web hosting plan is web hosting operating system. It could confusing to choose which is the best. Here is list of web hosting operating system and information about the performance.
Linux
Linux, a version of UNIX, is a very versatile platform that serves a number of functions well. It is particularly suitable for meeting your Internet requirements, such as mailing, streaming, Web serving, and fileserving. Linux is a very cost-effective choice it uses hardware efficiently, and allows for more web sites per server, thereby lowering the cost of hosting per account. Linux servers are compatible with certain Microsoft extensions and applications, for example, MS SQL (a database program) or Microsoft Front Page (a web authoring tool). Many engineers prefer the flexibility, security, and control of Linux servers. Linux is Open Source (free) software and a host of free programs are available to users of Linux.
Microsoft Windows NT/2000
Window's 2000 graphical user interface makes it user-friendly and provides a familiar interface for most IT teams to work with. It integrates well with other Microsoft applications and there are a wealth of commercial applications available for this platform. Particularly attractive is the integration with Microsoft Application Server (ASP) which allows the creation of dynamic web pages linked to SQL databases, and other Legacy back office systems.
Sun Solaris
Sun Solaris servers offer the highest level of resources and power - these are the most robust servers! Sun has a proven track record and is deployed in many large Fortune 500 corporations. It is a mature platform and there are a large number of applications and development tools available. Because of Sun's capacity and stability it is ideal for high-traffic functions, such as database servers, high-traffic Web servers and mission-critical servers.
Cobalt RaQ
The RaQ was designed for virtual (shared) hosting of multiple Web sites. It's simple administration makes it a great first Web server. Its flexible administration interface also allows you to share administration responsibilities among your staff.
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a version of BSD that was designed for the X86 processor. FreeBSD is a very stable open source operating system, and a good alternative to Linux. It is an extremely well-integrated and tested system, and is inexpensive. There are a large number of free applications available for use with it
Linux
Linux, a version of UNIX, is a very versatile platform that serves a number of functions well. It is particularly suitable for meeting your Internet requirements, such as mailing, streaming, Web serving, and fileserving. Linux is a very cost-effective choice it uses hardware efficiently, and allows for more web sites per server, thereby lowering the cost of hosting per account. Linux servers are compatible with certain Microsoft extensions and applications, for example, MS SQL (a database program) or Microsoft Front Page (a web authoring tool). Many engineers prefer the flexibility, security, and control of Linux servers. Linux is Open Source (free) software and a host of free programs are available to users of Linux.
Microsoft Windows NT/2000
Window's 2000 graphical user interface makes it user-friendly and provides a familiar interface for most IT teams to work with. It integrates well with other Microsoft applications and there are a wealth of commercial applications available for this platform. Particularly attractive is the integration with Microsoft Application Server (ASP) which allows the creation of dynamic web pages linked to SQL databases, and other Legacy back office systems.
Sun Solaris
Sun Solaris servers offer the highest level of resources and power - these are the most robust servers! Sun has a proven track record and is deployed in many large Fortune 500 corporations. It is a mature platform and there are a large number of applications and development tools available. Because of Sun's capacity and stability it is ideal for high-traffic functions, such as database servers, high-traffic Web servers and mission-critical servers.
Cobalt RaQ
The RaQ was designed for virtual (shared) hosting of multiple Web sites. It's simple administration makes it a great first Web server. Its flexible administration interface also allows you to share administration responsibilities among your staff.
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a version of BSD that was designed for the X86 processor. FreeBSD is a very stable open source operating system, and a good alternative to Linux. It is an extremely well-integrated and tested system, and is inexpensive. There are a large number of free applications available for use with it
How To Pick The Best Web Hosting Company..?
There are a lot of Web Hosting Company. First you should choose Good and Reputable company, then you should Filter that to the Best. Here is the criteria to pick the best Web Hosting Company.
Back End/Network Operations Centers
This is where your accounts are actually housed. Sometimes a hosting provider will lease a part of a larger network and sometimes a hosting provider will develop their own. It is important to find out what kinds and how many fiber optic connections the NOC has. Make sure there is plenty of redundancy built in. Make sure the NOC is managed 24/7, even on holidays. Make sure there are fire suppression systems in place. Last but not least, ask about security. Make sure there are plenty of security measure in place.
Customer Service
Are they friendly? Do they answer their telephones? Are you put on hold and if so, for how long? If you have to leave a message, do they respond quickly? Does the rep on the other end know what they are talking about? Look at their network page and see if they have reports of down time or issue statements about problems.
Technical Support
How long does it take to get questions answered and tasks performed. Send a test support message and gauge the response times. See if they offer 800 toll free support.
Ticketing Systems
Do they have a ticketing system that tracks performance times. This is key. If a hosting company has this, they are serious about improving internally.
Domain Names
Do they offer domain name sales? This can help to consolidate your vendor costs. See about getting a discount on domains if you are buying in bulk on a monthly basis.
Branding You
Does the hosting provider offer branded support? As you grow, you will need to expand and see if the hosting provider will set you up with your own technician in your company name. Do they offer branded control panels and name servers? You need these tools to grow. Find out how easy it is to set these features up for your own account.
Scalable Discounts
If you are growing at a rapid rate, ask for better pricing and discounts. It is ok to ask. It's even better when you get it and will
reduce your overhead.
Financial Overview
Is that particular company in the red of black? Do they have a good cash flow? How fast is the host growing and can they handle the growth? What are they doing to grow and maintain the customer service level you expect. Are they near a buy out or planning
Back End/Network Operations Centers
This is where your accounts are actually housed. Sometimes a hosting provider will lease a part of a larger network and sometimes a hosting provider will develop their own. It is important to find out what kinds and how many fiber optic connections the NOC has. Make sure there is plenty of redundancy built in. Make sure the NOC is managed 24/7, even on holidays. Make sure there are fire suppression systems in place. Last but not least, ask about security. Make sure there are plenty of security measure in place.
Customer Service
Are they friendly? Do they answer their telephones? Are you put on hold and if so, for how long? If you have to leave a message, do they respond quickly? Does the rep on the other end know what they are talking about? Look at their network page and see if they have reports of down time or issue statements about problems.
Technical Support
How long does it take to get questions answered and tasks performed. Send a test support message and gauge the response times. See if they offer 800 toll free support.
Ticketing Systems
Do they have a ticketing system that tracks performance times. This is key. If a hosting company has this, they are serious about improving internally.
Domain Names
Do they offer domain name sales? This can help to consolidate your vendor costs. See about getting a discount on domains if you are buying in bulk on a monthly basis.
Branding You
Does the hosting provider offer branded support? As you grow, you will need to expand and see if the hosting provider will set you up with your own technician in your company name. Do they offer branded control panels and name servers? You need these tools to grow. Find out how easy it is to set these features up for your own account.
Scalable Discounts
If you are growing at a rapid rate, ask for better pricing and discounts. It is ok to ask. It's even better when you get it and will
reduce your overhead.
Financial Overview
Is that particular company in the red of black? Do they have a good cash flow? How fast is the host growing and can they handle the growth? What are they doing to grow and maintain the customer service level you expect. Are they near a buy out or planning
Simple steps in choosing a host
1. Do your research here and on the internet to find a host that works for you.
2. Every host has had some problems, but that doesn't make them bad.
3. If you find a host that's too good to be true, it probably is. Just remember this, you get what you pay for.
4. There's no such thing as unlimited bandwidth and storage space, so don't waste your time with hosts that offer this.
5. Once you find a host ask questions to see if they fit your needs, and see how long it takes for them to respond.
6. Go with a host that has a 30 day money back gaurantee.
7. I have nothing agains't one year hosting payments up front, but if you're starting out it's better to pay monthly.
Read More......
Label: How To Choose Web Hosting
How to Select a Webhost that Fits Your Needs
Whether you're considering starting a website or you have one and want to possibly move it, this article can help you decide what the best webhost means to you.
To begin, every website is hosted on only 3 platforms: Unix, Windows NT, Macintosh
Very few sites are hosted on a MAC server, so the majority of webhosts use Unix or NT. For these reasons we will focus on only those 2 platforms.
Unix and NT both offer various options and have different abilities. Your choice of which platform to use depends on what applications you want your site to run and the amount of control you want to have over your site.
2. Every host has had some problems, but that doesn't make them bad.
3. If you find a host that's too good to be true, it probably is. Just remember this, you get what you pay for.
4. There's no such thing as unlimited bandwidth and storage space, so don't waste your time with hosts that offer this.
5. Once you find a host ask questions to see if they fit your needs, and see how long it takes for them to respond.
6. Go with a host that has a 30 day money back gaurantee.
7. I have nothing agains't one year hosting payments up front, but if you're starting out it's better to pay monthly.
Read More......
Label: How To Choose Web Hosting
How to Select a Webhost that Fits Your Needs
Whether you're considering starting a website or you have one and want to possibly move it, this article can help you decide what the best webhost means to you.
To begin, every website is hosted on only 3 platforms: Unix, Windows NT, Macintosh
Very few sites are hosted on a MAC server, so the majority of webhosts use Unix or NT. For these reasons we will focus on only those 2 platforms.
Unix and NT both offer various options and have different abilities. Your choice of which platform to use depends on what applications you want your site to run and the amount of control you want to have over your site.
Web Hosting Guide for Beginner
First and foremost, for non-IT savvy, it might be a little tough for them to comprehend the meaning of web hosting. I believe if you search it on any search engine, of course there will be answer and explanation for them. But, how far do you really understand? Honestly, when I first get to know this term few years back, I had problem understanding myself. Then, I found one simple explanation that might be easy for people to understand. So, today, if anyone were to ask me what is "web hosting", i'd explain as follows...
Imagine you are homeless and you want to rent a room or buy a house. In order to get a shelter for yourself, you need a room. So, you imagine yourself as the website and the room as the hosting that you need to place yourself in. That means your website need a web hosting. Then, that's the time you start finding yourself a web hosting provider. Here, web hosting provider would be the house owner who rents you the room. So, in order for your website to be available and browsed by Internet users, you need to make sure your website is hosted in a web server provided by a web hosting provider.
So, when you finally understand what web hosting is, next will be the time to find out more about the different types of web hosting available. You have shared hosting, dedicated hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, and colocation hosting. You name it, the Internet has it! So many to remember and differentiate..so, let's get the ball rolling with...
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting means that a web server has its resources shared by many other websites. Or you can put it as, in a house, there are many tenants. Usually small or normal e-commerce businesses will choose this type of hosting. Websites with high traffic might not be able to choose this type of hosting due to insufficient webspace.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting refers to hosting in which you rent a server from your web hosting provider and will be placed at your web hosting provider's datacentre. They will provide software installation and connection to Internet. This will indicates that the website owner has control over the server as they don't share it with other websites. In short, dedicated hosting is where only 1 user hosted on the server machine and have a full privilege over the server to manage it by themself. The server machine will be still belongs to the web hosting provider.
Colocation Hosting
Well, this hosting has the features which are almost the same as dedicated hosting EXCEPT that you provide your own server and web hosting provider just help you to plug it into their datacentre. You need to install own software and hardwares. Everything is DIY.
Reseller Hosting
Reseller Hosting is a hosting where the account owner has the priviledge to allocate the webspace and bandwidth access and resell them to his clients. This shows that reseller hosts act like a middleman and is usually not responsible for any software or hardware intallation. They only buy webspace and resell to clients.
VPS Hosting
VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. It is almost the same as dedicated server. Hence, it's sometimes called Virtual Dedicated Server. Generally, it means that the account owner has the feeling as though his owns a dedicated server. In real sense, it's actually separating a physical server into several independent hosting spaces or VPS-es, each isolated from the other.This will allow you to create and manage multiple sites and domains and take full control of your VPS with root/administrator access which allows you to access the virtual hard disk, RAM and to reboot your private server independently from other VPS-es.
Domain Name
After we are done with the different types of hosting, there is something else which I want to touch on. It is none other than the "domain name". So, ever wonder what is domain name? Wow, sounds technical? Not really actually. Don't be scared. Last time, when I saw the words domain name, it freaked me out too. Now, when I got used to it, it's not that nerve-wracking after all. So, domain name is just the normal web address or url (Uniform Resource Locator) you type in the "address" area when you open a browser. Examples of domain name are "exabytes.com". You know? Just the normal web address. Well, since it's a web address, it's a unique name. Hence, there will be no other same domain name. In fact, domain name is actually corresponding with numeric IP address. So, every domain name will have its numeric IP address. For example, the IP address for exabytes.com is 72.18.131.206
When you see exabytes.com, ever wonder ".com" stands for what? It actually stands for commercial. Whenever you see .com, .org, .net or others which ends after the final dot or period (.) of a url, it is known as top-level domain. It actually tells you what kind of website it is, indirectly. And the commonly used domain name extension nowadays will be .org, .net, .com. However, there are a lot of new domain extension up for grab lately such as .aero, .info, .museum, and .name. Next in the list that I shall explain is, Country Level Domain Name. Examples of country level domain name is exabytes.com.my. It has ".my" as its country code top-level domain (ccTLD). .my here represents the country "Malaysia". Of course, different country will have different ccTLD. For example, .jp stands for Japan, .au for Australia, .ca for Canada.
There are more to learn in order to excel in web hosting industry. Hopefully this simple guide will help all those novice out there. There are other things you need to know as well. But, it will be in my next article. Cheers!
Imagine you are homeless and you want to rent a room or buy a house. In order to get a shelter for yourself, you need a room. So, you imagine yourself as the website and the room as the hosting that you need to place yourself in. That means your website need a web hosting. Then, that's the time you start finding yourself a web hosting provider. Here, web hosting provider would be the house owner who rents you the room. So, in order for your website to be available and browsed by Internet users, you need to make sure your website is hosted in a web server provided by a web hosting provider.
So, when you finally understand what web hosting is, next will be the time to find out more about the different types of web hosting available. You have shared hosting, dedicated hosting, reseller hosting, VPS hosting, and colocation hosting. You name it, the Internet has it! So many to remember and differentiate..so, let's get the ball rolling with...
Shared Hosting
Shared hosting means that a web server has its resources shared by many other websites. Or you can put it as, in a house, there are many tenants. Usually small or normal e-commerce businesses will choose this type of hosting. Websites with high traffic might not be able to choose this type of hosting due to insufficient webspace.
Dedicated Hosting
Dedicated hosting refers to hosting in which you rent a server from your web hosting provider and will be placed at your web hosting provider's datacentre. They will provide software installation and connection to Internet. This will indicates that the website owner has control over the server as they don't share it with other websites. In short, dedicated hosting is where only 1 user hosted on the server machine and have a full privilege over the server to manage it by themself. The server machine will be still belongs to the web hosting provider.
Colocation Hosting
Well, this hosting has the features which are almost the same as dedicated hosting EXCEPT that you provide your own server and web hosting provider just help you to plug it into their datacentre. You need to install own software and hardwares. Everything is DIY.
Reseller Hosting
Reseller Hosting is a hosting where the account owner has the priviledge to allocate the webspace and bandwidth access and resell them to his clients. This shows that reseller hosts act like a middleman and is usually not responsible for any software or hardware intallation. They only buy webspace and resell to clients.
VPS Hosting
VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. It is almost the same as dedicated server. Hence, it's sometimes called Virtual Dedicated Server. Generally, it means that the account owner has the feeling as though his owns a dedicated server. In real sense, it's actually separating a physical server into several independent hosting spaces or VPS-es, each isolated from the other.This will allow you to create and manage multiple sites and domains and take full control of your VPS with root/administrator access which allows you to access the virtual hard disk, RAM and to reboot your private server independently from other VPS-es.
Domain Name
After we are done with the different types of hosting, there is something else which I want to touch on. It is none other than the "domain name". So, ever wonder what is domain name? Wow, sounds technical? Not really actually. Don't be scared. Last time, when I saw the words domain name, it freaked me out too. Now, when I got used to it, it's not that nerve-wracking after all. So, domain name is just the normal web address or url (Uniform Resource Locator) you type in the "address" area when you open a browser. Examples of domain name are "exabytes.com". You know? Just the normal web address. Well, since it's a web address, it's a unique name. Hence, there will be no other same domain name. In fact, domain name is actually corresponding with numeric IP address. So, every domain name will have its numeric IP address. For example, the IP address for exabytes.com is 72.18.131.206
When you see exabytes.com, ever wonder ".com" stands for what? It actually stands for commercial. Whenever you see .com, .org, .net or others which ends after the final dot or period (.) of a url, it is known as top-level domain. It actually tells you what kind of website it is, indirectly. And the commonly used domain name extension nowadays will be .org, .net, .com. However, there are a lot of new domain extension up for grab lately such as .aero, .info, .museum, and .name. Next in the list that I shall explain is, Country Level Domain Name. Examples of country level domain name is exabytes.com.my. It has ".my" as its country code top-level domain (ccTLD). .my here represents the country "Malaysia". Of course, different country will have different ccTLD. For example, .jp stands for Japan, .au for Australia, .ca for Canada.
There are more to learn in order to excel in web hosting industry. Hopefully this simple guide will help all those novice out there. There are other things you need to know as well. But, it will be in my next article. Cheers!
Tips for Choosing a Good Web Host
1. Starts with you. Determine your needs. Space, bandwidth and budget.
a) Space – Cover your needs and allow for expansion if needed.
b) Bandwidth- Same as above.
c) Budget – Set a realistic budget for yourself. How much are you willing to spend? Lowest price too highest. Being a little flexible on your price will give more hosting choices.
2. Follow some basic guidelines for even considering a hosting provider.
a) Does the host have phone number? At the very least a web host should provide you with a contact phone number. This doesn’t have to be a 24-hour a day number but your future host should be available during normal business hours in their respective time zone. A toll free shows a willingness to provide convenience for their customers.
b) Do they provide at least 24/7 Support Desk? Support is important, this is a must. You should have access to support 24 hours a day. Test the support desk. Choose anytime of the day or night and contact the support desk to test response times, ask any questions you might have. A response time under an hour is good; less than thirty minutes is considered excellent.
c) Take a good look at their web site. This sometimes can be over looked but I believe this says something very important about the hosting company. If they care about how they present themselves to the public, they are more apt to care about other things like service and maintaining a high reputation.
d) The hosting company should provide you with an Acceptable Use Policy, Terms of Service and a Privacy Policy as well. It is in your best interest that you read these policies and understand them before you pay for services.
e) Do they have an Uptime Guarantee? We won’t set a number on this but a hosting provider should be willing to disclose what their commitment to service is. A professional company will have this included in their Terms of Service.
f) Do they provide a Money Back Guarantee? Again, this should listed in their Terms of Service.
g) Payment Options – A host should provide their customers with more than one payment option. Credit cards and other payment option such as PayPal or something comparable.
3. Make a list of at least four to five possible hosting providers that fit your needs from the guidelines above and do some research.
a) Search these forums and others to see what type of information you can find on the host.
b) Compare features and price of the hosts on your list.
c) Contact the host either by phone, email or support desk and ask any questions you might have.
d) Check Testimonials – If the host has a list of testimonials if possible send an email to one of those customers and ask for their feedback on the host. Most people are happy to give a recommendation. This can also help determine if the testimonial real or a fabrication.
e) Finally you might want to consider doing a ping test if you can, check some customers web sites if listed, see how fast they load.
f) Make your choice, sign up and good luck.
There are so many hosting companies out there today, and the choices are close to endless. These guidelines are not fool proof in anyway but if you follow them you will have a better chance finding a host that you can trust in delivering quality service and save you from moving from host to host. In twelve years of buying web hosting and dedicated servers I have never once had a provider suddenly disappear on me in the middle of the night. Good luck and good hunting.
a) Space – Cover your needs and allow for expansion if needed.
b) Bandwidth- Same as above.
c) Budget – Set a realistic budget for yourself. How much are you willing to spend? Lowest price too highest. Being a little flexible on your price will give more hosting choices.
2. Follow some basic guidelines for even considering a hosting provider.
a) Does the host have phone number? At the very least a web host should provide you with a contact phone number. This doesn’t have to be a 24-hour a day number but your future host should be available during normal business hours in their respective time zone. A toll free shows a willingness to provide convenience for their customers.
b) Do they provide at least 24/7 Support Desk? Support is important, this is a must. You should have access to support 24 hours a day. Test the support desk. Choose anytime of the day or night and contact the support desk to test response times, ask any questions you might have. A response time under an hour is good; less than thirty minutes is considered excellent.
c) Take a good look at their web site. This sometimes can be over looked but I believe this says something very important about the hosting company. If they care about how they present themselves to the public, they are more apt to care about other things like service and maintaining a high reputation.
d) The hosting company should provide you with an Acceptable Use Policy, Terms of Service and a Privacy Policy as well. It is in your best interest that you read these policies and understand them before you pay for services.
e) Do they have an Uptime Guarantee? We won’t set a number on this but a hosting provider should be willing to disclose what their commitment to service is. A professional company will have this included in their Terms of Service.
f) Do they provide a Money Back Guarantee? Again, this should listed in their Terms of Service.
g) Payment Options – A host should provide their customers with more than one payment option. Credit cards and other payment option such as PayPal or something comparable.
3. Make a list of at least four to five possible hosting providers that fit your needs from the guidelines above and do some research.
a) Search these forums and others to see what type of information you can find on the host.
b) Compare features and price of the hosts on your list.
c) Contact the host either by phone, email or support desk and ask any questions you might have.
d) Check Testimonials – If the host has a list of testimonials if possible send an email to one of those customers and ask for their feedback on the host. Most people are happy to give a recommendation. This can also help determine if the testimonial real or a fabrication.
e) Finally you might want to consider doing a ping test if you can, check some customers web sites if listed, see how fast they load.
f) Make your choice, sign up and good luck.
There are so many hosting companies out there today, and the choices are close to endless. These guidelines are not fool proof in anyway but if you follow them you will have a better chance finding a host that you can trust in delivering quality service and save you from moving from host to host. In twelve years of buying web hosting and dedicated servers I have never once had a provider suddenly disappear on me in the middle of the night. Good luck and good hunting.
Web Hosting
Top Podcast Hosting
Here are list of the best and selected podcast hosting I found on internet, some are free podcast hosting.
1.Hipcast/Audioblog
Audio video podcast start from $9.95/month, free trial for 7 days
2.BlastPodcast
Free podcast hosting, earn revenue from your podcast
3.Jellycast
Actually it is free podcast hosting but require $10 setup fee to avoid abuse from spammer.
4.Podcast FM
Has a free plan, and first month free for all plans, starting from £4.95/month
5.PodKive
Up to 120GB Storage Space for enterprise podcast solution
6.Podcast Ready
Best Free Podcast hosting. Podcast Ready makes finding, managing and delivering podcasts easier.
7.SwitchPod
Free 450MB podcast hosting and unmetered bandwidth
8.PodshowCreator
Complete Podcast hosting solutions from free to dedicated podcast hosting
9.Avmypodcast
Podcast hosting selected by Yamaha Musical Instruments
10. PodBean
Best Free Podcast Hosting with complete high-end features.
11.Godaddy
Big Hosting company made entry in podcast industry. Affordable with huge space hosting.
12.Ourmedia
Free community podcast hosting.
13.OdeoStudio
Create and publish podcast for free.
14.CreativeCommons Publisher
Tag your audio and video files with information about your license and upload to internet archive for free hosting
15.Podomatic
Free with 500MB storage and 15GB/month bandwidth
Label: Podcast Hosting
Web Hosting Control Panel
Control Panel is a graphical web-based web-hosting control panel, designed to make administration of websites easy. Almost all of web hosting include this feature in their hosting plan.
Features in control panel included Domain Management, DNS Management, FTP/File Management, Database Management, E-mail management, Web Traffic statistic, SubDomain, Script Installation etc.
You can upload your files for your website from control panel file management. I Think it will simplify your job to upload your website files with control panel rather than with FTP.
There are a lot of web hosting control panel brand. From the famous one cPanel, SiteBuilder, Lxadmin, DirectAdmin, H-Sphere, ISPConfig, ISPManager, Plesk, HSPComplete, Webmin. Click on the name to try the demo.
Label: Web Hosting Features
Cheap Website Hosting PHP
I found a lot of PHP web hosting on internet, some cheap some highly expensive. After few research on hosting forums I collected some cheap high quality web hosting for PHP site. Here are the list of Good quality PHP website hosting :
1. ExclusiveHosting"Best Choice"
PHP and MySQL support web hosting. Price $2.95/month Free Setup
+ Free Domain Registration, Almost all features included in package.
- Paid Annually but you have 30 day money guarantee
2. HostMonster 
PHP and MySQL support hosting. Price $4.95/month Free setup, Free Domain
+ Big Storage (300GB), Accept Multiple Domain (You won't wasted that big space :), 100 MySQL Database
3. WhipOrbit 
PHP and MySQL support web hosting. Price $1.50/month Free setup
+ 3 MySQL Database, support almost all PHP hosting needs.
- Not included domain name
4. SiteFlip 
PHP and MySQL support web hosting. Price $0.99/month Free setup
+ Unlimited MySQL database, Good upgrade option
- Domain not included, $8.8 domain registration annually
5. BigBlueHost
PHP and MySQL support web hosting. Price $3.95/month Free Setup
+ Unlimited MySQL, all features included, one month free if you paid annually.
- Not included domain name