Website Hosting Reviews And Tutorials

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If you’re looking for an ‘off the shelf’ solution for your website then Softaculous could be for you.  Softaculous is the leading auto installer having some 310+ scripts available which means you can get almost any application with just the click of a mouse.

All leading hosting company will be using a common control panel such as cPanel, H-Sphere, InterWorx, Plesk and Softaculous integrates with them all. So once you’ve purchased your domain and hosting you can easily install the application that’s best for you.

The Top applications include – WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, WHMCS etc.

Whatever you’re looking to create Softaculous is going to have something that will almost always fit.  The total 310 (and still adding) applications are catagorised into the following:

PHP include:

Blogs

MicroBlogs

Forums

Image Gallaries

Mails

Polls and Surveys

Project Management

E-Commerce

ERP

Guest Books

Customer Support

Frameworks

Educational

DB Tools

Music

Video

RSS

File Management

Others

JS include:

Libabries

PERL include:

Blogs

E-Commerce

JAVA include:

Portals/CMS

Project Management

Blogs

Forums

Softaculous could save you time and money……

WordPress is becoming very popular and according to their official website powers over 17% of the web from blogs to simple websites to portals and enterprise websites.

The main benefits of WordPress is simplicity but there are many others, for example:

Flexibility – You can create any type of website, it’s just limited by your imagination.
Easy Theme System – You get two default, but you can create thousands from the theme directory.
Plugins – There are thousands of Plugins to choose from, so you can simply enhance the functionality of your site.
Search Engine Optimisation – According to their official website 80-90% of the work is done for you, not checked this out completely but many of the boxes are ticked.
Easy Publishing – Very quick and easy to add a post and publish in minutes. Use your PC, MAC, tablet or phone.
Multilingual – Publish in over 70 languages.
Media Management – Uploading images and video is child’s play. Want to embed a uTube video, just cut and paste the code.
Installation and Upgrades – Just one click installation and upgrading
Full Standards Compliance – You know that your site will be web compliant as set by W3C.
Own Your Data – No one else has access to your data, it’s yours.

Developer Features
There are lots of advanced features so that developers can get under the hood with, such as:
Plugins – Create and develop your own
Theme System – Create WordPress themes for customers by using the WordPress API to create themes as simple or as complex as you like.
Application Framework – Build an application with help from WordPress with translations, user management, HTTP requests, databases, URL routing.
Custom Content Types – For more flexibility you can add a few lines of code to create your own custom post types, taxonomies, and metadata.
Latest Libraries – WordPress has the latest script libraries. Including jQuery, Plupload, Underscore.js and Backbone.js.

Your hosting provider should provide a one click install from your control panel for WordPress.

After some research we found these hosting companies to be among the top in Ireland (in no particular order). We’ll be back with some other country specific Top 5

Hosting Provider Ireland – Blacknight.com
Hosting Provider Ireland – Hostingireland.ie
Hosting Provider Ireland – Letshost.ie
Hosting Provider Ireland – Irishdomains.com
Hosting Provider Ireland – Digiweb.ie

Let us know if you know of any others….

There is sometimes confusion out there for people who are new to the web or maybe trying to get online.  The confusion is based upon whether people should use a domain registrar or web hosting company to get their website up on the web.

The answer is that often there is no difference between the two.  Domain Registries will focus on domains as their lead product, but will almost always offer hosting for your website.  Hosting companies on the other hand will focus on web hosting as their lead product, but will also offer domain registration.

There are two very simple factors to think about:

1. Whoever you choose to host your website with make sure you determine which country your site is hosted in, is it in the country you reside in and that is relevant to your domain.  For example if a .ie domain, is your site hosted in Ireland.

2. Whoever registers your domain, are they an authorised registry for that domain in that country and can ensure you’re domain is registered correctly.

We’re not saying these are the only considerations, but important if you want good search engine performance.

Here are our top 5 tips in choosing a web hosting company…

1. Reputation – Has the Hosting company being in business for some time and is well know for it’s service and support?
2. Getting in Touch – Obviously you can send an email or submit a ticket, but can you call a person and talk through any problems you have?
3. Security and Location – Make sure your site is hosted where you think it is, and is in at least a Tier 3 Datacentre. If it’s the other side of the World you will have support issues simply because of the time difference. Nothing worse than needing a quick answer and have to wait 6 hours or more.
4. Technical Expertise – Do they have the expertise that you need for your hosting requirements, do they know what they are talking about?
5. Value for Money – Don’t go for the cheapest, go for value. Read the small print and make sure there is no nasty hidden charges.

Many cloud computing companies are claiming to be the best thing since sliced bread. Suddenly there are thousands of cloud computing companies all claiming to be the best, and so the obvious question is, who is?

Well common sense says that there can’t be just one and there are so many factors that determine what makes a good cloud company. Some may say that size does not matter, but of course that simply is not true.

The simple answer is that the best Cloud Computing Companies are the ones that are right for you, can deliver all the standard benefits of the cloud, including security, high availability, scalability, fast deployment and offer clear benefits to your organisation over and above their competitors.

Whatever your cloud computing need make sure you have have a detailed RFI – Request for Information and then follow up with a refined RFQ – Request for Quotation and don’t just settle for what may at the outset look great value. Make sure your cloud service provider backs up there quotation with a full SLA – Service Level Agreement and Contract.