USA Reseller Web Hosting: Unix or Microsoft?

USA Reseller Web Hosting: Unix or Microsoft?

If you're in the USA, and you're planning to get into the USA reseller web hosting industry, you need to consider one major issue, first and foremost: would you like to offer Unix-ready features along with Microsoft-only ones?

Offering Microsoft-only services may seem to be the smart choice, but supporting Unix is its own asset, which could open a world of opportunities for you as a USA reseller web hosting outfit. In fact, if you have avenues to ask for both Microsoft and Unix support from your web host, all the better!

One downside to reselling web space instead of putting up your own server is that you don't get to control the basics. As a reseller, you may be able to change things around via the standard control panel. You may even have limited access to certain features like merchant accounts and secure site hosting. But when you want to switch between operating systems, or OS-es - it's unfortunately not your call, but your web host's.

Web hosts determine the kind of OS-es that run on their servers. Many web hosts offer both Windows and Unix features, by using Unix machines as servers, and then just running Windows programs and servers within these machines. Over time, Unix server OSes have become increasingly tolerant of Windows programs, which makes a Unix server a sweet deal for web hosts and resellers alike.

Unix servers are cost efficient because they are ideal for running open source programs. Preferring open source programs help save on operational costs, since they're mostly free for use, depending on the specifications of the persons or outfits who developed the codes to be used. When you run paid programs or servers on your machines, you don't only need to think of the cost of buying the software - you also need to consider the potential costs of license renewal.

There is, after all, no assurance that software licensing will cost the same throughout the years! And you have to consider that in your profit projections if you are running a webhost. Thankfully, you don't need to be concerned with that as a reseller. However, as a reseller, you should be aware of what software your potential customers will need.

If your web host only supports Unix and open source features, you run the risk of losing a big part of your clientele. But you run the same risk if your host only supports Microsoft and Windows! As a USA reseller web hosting outfit, you should be intimately aware of the needs of your target market.

Need web hosting ? Compare before you buy

Need web hosting ? Compare before you buy

The internet is one of the most important tools in the modern times. What started off as simply a mode of transfer of data is today used for a wide variety of purposes. Today, it plays a very important role in commerce and finance, all across the globe. These days, a large number of products are sold over the net. So, you will find products ranging from safety pins to cars and nails to large factories on sale on the internet. It is perhaps due to this ever growing popularity, that a large number of firms, enter the arena of internet marketing.

As a result of this, more and more websites are coming up each day. As a matter of fact, it does not seem to be a distant reality, that some day, every person would be having a separate website of his or her own. In order to cater to this growing demand for websites, web hosting services have come up as an effective tool. In recent times, a number of portals have come up, which offer web hosting services. These websites offer various web hosting plans that you can choose from, depending upon your requirements. However, one of the most important aspects in this regard, is to select the appropriate web hosting service. It gets typically difficult, to select an appropriate service which can help you achieve your objective.

Web Hosting Geeks can be of great help in this regard, in case you are facing such a dilemma. This particular site, offers you reviews of the various sites, which offer web hosting services, dedicated server hosting and other products. This would help you in analyzing the various plans that are being offered to you and eventually in the selection of the appropriate plan, which suits your requirements. This site provides you with unbiased and independent reviews of web hosting providers, which provide the best in terms of price and value. It provides a view of economical web hosting services with a fee structure of $10 a month. Also, all the web hosting plans offer at least one free domain name registration, as well as thirty days money back guarantee. So, now, you can have a review of the web hosts.

Dedicated servers offer a number of advantages for your business. Irrespective of whether you are running an ecommerce web site or you are looking for extra security, dedicated servers play a very vital role. In this regard, this website also can provide you with adequate assistance.

You can also opt for green hosting services and contribute towards environmental cause. Green web hosts are those, which make use of renewable sources of energy, for running their datacenters.

What is Linux/Unix-based hosting?

It means hosting that is provided on Linux/Unix operating systems platforms. There isn't much difference between these two types of operating systems because Linux/Unix is an improved version of Linux/Unix operating system. When just applying for web hosting companies for web hosting that is based on Linux operating system it doesn't matter which one you are using on your computer as it is commensurable with any operating system.

Usability
Some years ago Linux operating system used to be available only for professionals and if you were not an experienced user you had no future with this OS. In the last couple of years the situation has changed. Providers have done their best to make users' web sites administrating more comfortable and easier. In case you're just a beginner you'll find friendly control panels that include Web- interface. And if you are an experienced user you can control your site by means of shell.

Reliability
Experts claim that Unix-based platform is one of the most reliable ones but it will mainly depend on maintenance stuff professionalism. Thus quality and stability of Linux-based web hosting won't depend on some sudden system bugs and the operating system consistency itself secures your web site operating dependability.

Functionality
In this area Linux differs the most from other popular platforms. It can handle a lot of processes that happen at the same time. This gives you a possibility to get more from the server.

What Scripting Languages Are Available For Unix?
Unix supports a wide variety of application languages, more than any other operating system. The most common applications of such kind include C, C++, Shell, Perl, Tcl, Python, Java and PHP.

What Databases Does Unix Support?
Databases available for Unix are mSQL and mySQL. The one you choose would depend on your own needs and your Host Provider's offers. This is important for you to review when choosing a hosting company.

Cost
Linux operating system was developed by Linus Torvalds as an alternative to other operating systems and is being improved by many specialists all around the world. Most of its versions are free of charge. This circumstance makes Linux-based hosting much cheaper than any other. As for Linux versions they are sometimes called Linux Distributions. The most popular Distributions are RedHat and Mandrake. Which are easy to install have a lot of different utilities and suitable for any web hosting type.

Why choose Linux/Unix-based hosting?
So, as it was mentioned before using this platform is cheaper and more convenient than others. All existent scripts, like PHP, function best when using the Linux-based web hosting. Linux/Unix based web hosting upgrading possibilities increase when using Shell and Telnet access. The Linux/Unix-based platform is probably the most stable and reliable.

ASP Hosting Simplified

ASP Hosting Simplified

ASP stands for Active Server Pages. It is a technology that enables users to design and creative interactive pages for their websites, using something called “server-side scripting. What do we mean by interactive? Forms, in-site search engines, blogs, user forums, newsletters, calendars, WhoIs searches, web-based email, polls, surveys, hit counters and more.

Best of all, with ASP, no longer do webmasters have to concern themselves with what browser a visitor to their site is using. With ASP hosting, your website will appear identically on all computers, on all browsers, a claim that HTML simply cannot make.

Anytime a browser requests a webpage that has the .asp extension where the more familiar .htm or .html would be, the hosting providers web server interprets any ASP scripts in the program first and foremost, before delivering any HTML info to the browser. This is why you cannot simply run ASP websites with just any hosting company. The hosting company you choose must have servers that support ASP, or else the ASP scripts you use will be rendered useless.

When examining web hosting companies to find one that supports ASP, you must look specifically for ASP support. Do not simply assume that because a hosting company supports “most web-based scripts, from CGI to Perl that it supports ASP. If it doesnt say so in an obvious place on the sales site, go to the hosting companys FAQ and look for ASP. And since most FAQs are searchable, this shouldnt be difficult to do. If youre really enamored with a particular hosting company (or their current promotion) but can find no information on ASP support, consider contacting them via email, telephone, or web chat to find out. Its possible that they do support ASP and just have a lousy sales site (which may be an indicator of an altogether different sort).

Microsoft brought ASP to the world, and as such provides the platform - Windows - on which ASP generally works best. In order to play around with ASP scripts on your web pages, youll have to download and install onto your system an ASP server, like Microsofts Internet Information Services (IIS) or Microsofts Personal Web Server (PWS) -- one or both of which is included with most Windows packages for no extra charge. If you use Windows on your machine and have never encountered IIS or PWS, chances are its because you have to the program to your hard drive using the Windows software CD-ROM or through your control panel, since its often not included as part of the “Basic Install.

Incidentally, Windows ME and Windows XP Home Edition are lacking in support for ASP scripts. But were willing to bet the forthcoming Windows Vista probably does.

For those webmasters on a PC that isnt Windows-based, all hope is not lost. Sun Microsystems has developed a program called Chili!Soft ASP that allows other servers -- such as Red Hat, Apache, and Secure Server -- and other operating systems -- such as Linux, Solaris, and AIX -- to support ASP hosting.

Writing and using ASP scripts is easy too -- at least its no harder than HTML, with all commands occurring between and instead of and. Not so big a difference, is there? And you can find an abundance of software tools all over the web (many for free) that helps even the greenest novice create interactive web pages rife with ASP.

ASP is such a versatile language that more and more hosting companies are finding themselves compelled to add ASP support to their hosting packages just to remain competitive. This, of course, is only to your advantage as you can comparison shop around for the best ASP hosting offerings right alongside all the other features youre looking for.

ASP Hosting Simplified

ASP Hosting Simplified

ASP stands for Active Server Pages. It is a technology that enables users to design and creative interactive pages for their websites, using something called “server-side scripting. What do we mean by interactive? Forms, in-site search engines, blogs, user forums, newsletters, calendars, WhoIs searches, web-based email, polls, surveys, hit counters and more.

Best of all, with ASP, no longer do webmasters have to concern themselves with what browser a visitor to their site is using. With ASP hosting, your website will appear identically on all computers, on all browsers, a claim that HTML simply cannot make.

Anytime a browser requests a webpage that has the .asp extension where the more familiar .htm or .html would be, the hosting providers web server interprets any ASP scripts in the program first and foremost, before delivering any HTML info to the browser. This is why you cannot simply run ASP websites with just any hosting company. The hosting company you choose must have servers that support ASP, or else the ASP scripts you use will be rendered useless.

When examining web hosting companies to find one that supports ASP, you must look specifically for ASP support. Do not simply assume that because a hosting company supports “most web-based scripts, from CGI to Perl that it supports ASP. If it doesnt say so in an obvious place on the sales site, go to the hosting companys FAQ and look for ASP. And since most FAQs are searchable, this shouldnt be difficult to do. If youre really enamored with a particular hosting company (or their current promotion) but can find no information on ASP support, consider contacting them via email, telephone, or web chat to find out. Its possible that they do support ASP and just have a lousy sales site (which may be an indicator of an altogether different sort).

Microsoft brought ASP to the world, and as such provides the platform - Windows - on which ASP generally works best. In order to play around with ASP scripts on your web pages, youll have to download and install onto your system an ASP server, like Microsofts Internet Information Services (IIS) or Microsofts Personal Web Server (PWS) -- one or both of which is included with most Windows packages for no extra charge. If you use Windows on your machine and have never encountered IIS or PWS, chances are its because you have to the program to your hard drive using the Windows software CD-ROM or through your control panel, since its often not included as part of the “Basic Install.

Incidentally, Windows ME and Windows XP Home Edition are lacking in support for ASP scripts. But were willing to bet the forthcoming Windows Vista probably does.

For those webmasters on a PC that isn’t Windows-based, all hope is not lost. Sun Microsystems has developed a program called Chili!Soft ASP that allows other servers -- such as Red Hat, Apache, and Secure Server -- and other operating systems -- such as Linux, Solaris, and AIX -- to support ASP hosting.

Writing and using ASP scripts is easy too -- at least its no harder than HTML, with all commands occurring between. Not so big a difference, is there? And you can find an abundance of software tools all over the web (many for free) that helps even the greenest novice create interactive web pages rife with ASP.

ASP is such a versatile language that more and more hosting companies are finding themselves compelled to add ASP support to their hosting packages just to remain competitive. This, of course, is only to your advantage as you can comparison shop around for the best ASP hosting offerings right alongside all the other features your looking for.

8 Things You Need To Know When Changing Your Web Host

8 Things You Need To Know When Changing Your Web Host

Changing from one web host to another can become necessary if your website becomes popular and your current host can't meet your needs for bandwidth, storage, etc. This can be especially true if your site is hosted on a free web host.

If a move become necessary, be sure to plan it carefully. The first step is to decide on a new hosting company, of course.

Once you have found a host that can meet all your needs, you need to move your site on to the new server. Before making any moves, be sure to back up your website from the old host.

If your website isn't well structured and has been growing haphazardly, this is a good time to consider redesigning things. That could simply mean a new page design or it could mean redesigning your database and content storage.

For the first 48 hours after moving to a new host, you should use a redirect page on your old site, that automatically forwards people to the new one. This will ensure that your visitors will see the new site, even if its IP address hasn't propogated yet.

It takes about 48 hours for a new website to get listed on most domain servers across the internet, so after that you should be fine.

A few more suggestions for an easy transition include:

1. Find out whether your new host is running on Unix or Windows and make sure it will be compatible with everything you're moving from the old host.

2. Check to see how much storage you need for all your files and content on your current site, and make sure you get enough on the new host to give you room to grow.

3. Check to see what services your new host offers, and make sure anything you have been using on your current host (like autoresponders, mail forwarding, etc.) is available.

4. If your current website is created using Microsoft Frontpage, make sure your new host supports Frontpage extensions.

5. Check to see what your new host's policy is for extra bandwidth, in case your site continues to get busier.

6. If the new host's server is a shared server, check to make sure there are no adult sites hosted on the same system. They can get busy and cause all the other sites on the same server to slow down.

7. Check the review sites and forums for customer feedback about your new host before signing up. These are good indicators of the level of service you can expect.

Once you have your data uploaded to your new host, test your site to make sure it's working properly. You should be able to preview your site before you fully switch your domain name to the new address.

Small Business Owners Web Hosting Guide

Small Business Owners Web Hosting Guide

Your small business website needs to be hosted on a web server or simply a server (another name for computer) that is connected to the World Wide Web so that anyone can access your website.

Choosing a web hosting company for your small business website is easy if you follow the guide I have layout for you. Depending on the scale of your business, the type of business you run and your level of technical competency, there will always be a right hosting provider just for your business.

The general rule of thumb in choosing a web hosting provider boils down to:

Excellent Customer Support

Company Stability

Robust Datacenter

Affordability

Excellent Customer Support If all things being equal, I would rate customer support as my number 1 determining factor in choosing a web hosting provider. Relying on testimonials found on the provider's site is a common approach to assess a company's level of customer excellence but it is also quite an outdated one. After all it's not uncommon for some providers to fake the testimonials. Instead I suggest you follow my way of assessing their customer support.

Sizing its level of customer support is sometimes as easy as finding out whether they have enough employees to support their level of business growth. You should look at the Customer to Employee ratio, CE ratio, as a benchmark.

For example, according to our records SiteSell Inc has approximately 15,000 customers and employs about 30 support staff, it has a CE ratio of 500 (15,000/30 = 500), you can expect a much higher level of customer satisfaction and a faster response time when compared to another provider who is serving 100,000 customers but only have 75 support staff. Their CE ratio would stand at approximately 1,333. Basically you should look for a professional hosting provider with a low CE ratio.

Getting As Close As You Can The other accurate way to assess the real status of its customer service is to get as close as you can to the company whenever possible via the following means:

Live Chat - Check to see if it's 24/7. It helps to know that you can have your questions answered almost immediately with a live chat function. Test it out by answering some basic questions to see its response time and also test its level of technical competency. Not critical but it's good to have.

Email - Send them a test mail to see how fast they respond, allowed up to 24 hours. Ask about anything but just do not be afraid to ask.

Number of Telephone Lines - Check to see if there are separate telephone lines for sales, customer service and technical support. I hate companies who use only 1 line to serve everyone. A professional small business hosting provider should have this in place. It is not uncommon for reputable providers to charge for telephone support.

Forum - The real condition of any web hosting company's customer support is really found in its members forum if any. You will get a good dose of complains and praises but if the complains outnumber the compliments; it's time to raise a red flag.

Company Stability A company's stability can be measured by the length of time they have been in business, the number of customers they have served and are serving and lastly their financial standing.

Personally as a business owner myself, a web hosting company that has been around for at least 5 years would have weathered all sorts of ups and downs in the online world, and their chance of being around is much higher than a company that has been around for less than 1 year.

Financial Stability Though public listed web hosting providers have better financial transparency than the privately-owned ones, they are not necessary always in a better financial shape than them. Bottom line, you would host your small business with a company that you know is growing in their customer base. For example, Interland having been in business since 1995 is currently serving less than 200,000 websites and this number has been decreasing. It is most likely less profitable when compared to IPower in operation since 2001 and is serving over 400,000 websites as of this writing!

Another aspect of company stability lies in its ability to remain relevant in this highly competitive industry. For example, as the number of internet users increase and streaming multi-media becomes the norm, you want to place your business with a profitable web hosting company who is able to constantly improve on their offerings so that the performance of your website is able to keep up with visitors' expectations.

Robust Datacenter Datacenters are where the web servers are resided on, and ultimately where your webpages will be accessed from. A strong and credible small business web hosting company would have the ability to own and managed their data centers or through colocation.

On one hand it might seem that is the best thing any decent web hosting company would do, but on the other hand, there seems to be a trend whereby the marketing and sale aspect of the hosting business has been outsourced to resellers.

The rationale behind this is quite simple, a web hosting company should focus on what it does best, i.e. make sure all servers are up and running. And a reseller role is to sell the hosting plans and is to focus entirely on doing just that without getting bogged down by technical issues.

Almost all the state of the art data centers should come equip with high level of security, uninterruptible power supplies and most importantly employs the latest technology to enable your website to be always up and running and is always accessible by high connectivity, i.e. fast access to your website.

Affordability Before I elaborate further, it's important to establish that after qualifying a company with the above points, there is no such thing as the best small business web hosting plan, but only the right hosting plan for your business. This is probably the last thing you should look at before deciding on the hosting provider.

Generally there are 2 main types of hosting that are available for you to choose from. They are the Linux web hosting and windows web hosting. Within these 2 platforms there are also another few subcategories of web hosting types that you need to understand before you can finally decide on the right web hosting for your small business.

To continue reading this article, please visit my site Small-Business-Web-Hosting-Guide.com for a no-nonsense approach to assessing web hosting companies for small business owners.

Web Site Hosting : From Domain Registration to Getting it Online

Web Site Hosting : From Domain Registration to Getting it Online

Once you've chosen your domain name and got it registered, what's your next step?

Your web host will give you the details you need to get your site up and running. This will include passwords to log into your website account, the paths to the directories where you need to upload your information, and most importantly the addresses of your domain name servers.

DNS servers are the link between your domain name (mydomain.com) and your IP address (a numbered address like 123.456.78.9. Every web server on the internet has a unique IP address.

If your website is hosted on a dedicated server, your IP address is unique to your website. Your website will respond whether someone types the domain name or the IP address into their browser.

Most websites are hosted on shared servers, however. What this means is that a single server hosts many websites, and each one shares the same IP address. If you enter the IP address of a shared server in your browser, it won't display your website.

DNS is the "translation" layer between domain names and IP addresses that allows multiple sites on one server.

Configuring Your Website On DNS

When you register your domain name, it will be pointing to the DNS servers for your chosen registrar. Until you have a account set up with a hosting service, your domain will usually point to an error page or an "under construction" page.

Keep in mind that there's no time limit between registering your domain and choosing a web host. Some people register domains and never actually get a website hosted on them.

If you've bought your domain with plans to use it, you'll need to sign up for an account with a web host and upload your website's files to their server.

The first step in making your website active is to change the DNS servers on file with your domain registrar to the ones that are given to you by your web host.

The DNS server information will look similar to this:

Primary Name Server: NS1.SOMEDOMAIN.COM (123.456.78.9) Secondary Name Server: NS2.SOMEDOMAIN.COM (123.456.7.89)

You'll get this information from your hosting company when you sign up for a hosting account. If you can't find this information, you'll need to contact your web host to get it. Otherwise your website won't be accessible from the internet.

Once you have this information from your host, you'll need to change the settings on file with your registrar to the new addresses. If your domain name was included with the purchase of your hosting, the web host will normally update this information for you automatically.

Once the DNS servers are registered it can take up to 48 hours for your site to be accessible across the internet. This is because of the way the DNS system works.

The domain names and IP addresses are stored in a database that is distributed through thousands of computers around the world. Each computer keeps a small part of the database cached and if they get a request for an unknown domain, they have to forward that request to another computer until the information is found.

This database gets updated on a constant basis on each of these computers, but it can take some time for your new website's information to spread throughout the world.

7 Simple Steps For Choosing A Great Web Host

7 Simple Steps For Choosing A Great Web Host

There are thousands of web hosts around today with thousands of plans to choose from making what was once a simple procedure seem like a daunting task for both newbie and pro alike.

Whether you're looking for your first host or looking to move on to a better one there are 7 simple steps you must follow to succeed in choosing a great host.

1. Platform
The first and most crucial step in choosing a web host is determining the platform the web server should run, usually a choice between Unix/Linux and Windows.

Your choice is largely determined by your website and the technologies used to create it, generally a website created with Microsoft technologies (ASP, VB) will run on Windows servers while most other sites using open source technologies (PHP, Perl, Python etc) will run on Linux based systems.

2. Features
Once you've chosen your platform the next step is determining the features you'll need from your web host. Take your time with this step as the feature lists of web hosts are getting longer and longer every day and while some plans may look similar on the surface, a good look at the feature lists may tell another story.

Only you can determine the specific features you'll need, but some key things to keep an eye on are:

Disk Space
Bandwidth
Backups
Uptime
Money Back Guarantee
Domains Allowed
Databases (Number & type)
CGI, PHP, Perl, Python, SSI
Cron
Email accounts

The list goes on and on, just remember to take your time and make sure your new web host is going to provide you with everything you need.

3. Cost
Often this is the only thing people consider when choosing their first web host, funds are usually tight and on the surface most hosts look very similar. Sometimes you get lucky and choose a good host, but more often than not it turns out to be a horror story.

I can't stress enough that choosing a web host based on price alone is asking for trouble, remember that the cost of your web hosting is more than just the monthly fee, think about the total cost of ownership. TCO includes lost sales due to downtime & slow speeds, downtime rebates, extra bandwidth charges, setup costs, extra feature costs, and your monthly fee.

Many hosts will require you to pay yearly to get the best price available though there are some that allow you to pay by the month and still get the best price, it's really a matter of personal choice as to what payment method works best for you.

4. Customer Service
Customer service is another aspect that is often forgotten about until it is too late, something breaks and you need it fixed and those wonderfully handy sales people who were more than helpful in taking your money are now nowhere to be seen, all the while you're losing out on sales every minute.

You shouldn't settle for anything less than 24/7/365 service, your website needs to be running all the time so it's no good if your hosting company doesn't work during the holidays. Don't take the web hosting companies word for it, they all claim 24/7 support but few back it up with consistent performance. Be sure to test them out at various times of the day and night via phone, email and live chat if they offer it.

5. Support
An extensive knowledge base or faq can be a real time saver as well as being an indication of the level of customer service support and expertise you can expect to receive. Spend some time browsing the support sections of the website and see for yourself the level of support provided.

Are questions in the knowledge base answered thoroughly? Are real solutions provided or are they just “cut and pasteâ replies?

6. Longevity
Do a whois on the web host's domain name and find out the creation date, anything less than a year ago and the risk that they won't be around next year increases. They could be a great host, but considering more then 95% of new hosts go out of business within a year that really isn't something you should be taking a chance on.

7. Uptime
It's a fact of life that a web host cannot be online 100% of the time, servers need to be rebooted for security and software updates and any web host that doesn't get updated faces the increased risk of being successfully hacked.

99.9% uptime guarantees are pretty standard in the industry however a guarantee is only as good as how it is defined and the company behind it. Look for no less than a full months free hosting should they not meet their guarantee, a prorated refund based on the amount of downtime is virtually worthless. Say you pay $10 for a month of hosting and your site is down for 24 hours. They will refund you for one day of downtime which ends up being about 33 cents.

There you go, 7 simple steps for choosing a great web host. It's not rocket science, just a little research and investigating that can save a lot of heartache in the future.

Game Server Hosting - Ping or Die

Game Server Hosting - Ping or Die

Game servers are usually developed in a form of a standard component that can be found in many games that have a multiplayer option. After this kind of business became popular, hosting companies immediately responded to the growing demand and started offering dedicated servers for online gaming to both those who want to make business and to those who are simply enthusiastic. Generally game server hosting caters to two main groups of online games – those available from the main server, and those that operate through a series of distributed ones.

Centralized servers are mostly often used to host games that require these servers to be able to host thousands of users playing at the same time. The main server stores all the necessary data about the game environment and the cyber world is there 24 hours 7 days a week. The game goes on no matter if the user is online or offline. To participate in the game, a player usually needs special client software that connects to the main server. One of the most popular game using the technology of centralized servers is the World of Warcraft.

Another model is the distributed servers technology. This one is usually utilized by enthusiasts and small businesses. In this model the software is distributed onto several dedicated game servers. As an example, real-time strategies are usually based on this technology. They need frequent updates of the game world that is executed through messaging between users and servers. There should be a master server in this chain to control messaging between the whole bunch of distributed servers. Low latency and fast ping time - that is what needed for this model to be successful and ensure the fast speed of messages reaching the server and coming back to the user. Users usually choose servers with the best ping rates and connect to them to play online. That is why game server hosting companies connect their servers to the fastest networks. Security, operating system and applications tweaking and thorough configuration are also very important.

Hosting providers usually supply their clients with game server hosting services that include the most technologically advanced servers and network connections, very often with the preinstalled software to start online gaming business immediately. The most popular games using the technology of distributed servers are: Doom 3, Medal of Honor, Halo, Unreal Tournament, Counter Strike, Quake 3 etc.

Game server hosting providers are expected to significantly increase their revenue due to such rapid growth figures of online gaming. Many hosting companies have already build up a wide range of special game server hosting offers including even those for $30-40 a month. This is significantly cheaper than many low-performance dedicated servers.