Sam’s Blog

We get asked regularly if we offer plans with unlimited (or huge) amounts of space and bandwidth like some other well known hosts.

The simple answer is , No, and the reason is also simple, lying to our customers is not something we feel happy to do.

Advertising plans with unlimited bandwidth or space is simply a marketing ploy used by some less than honest web hosts to sell to unsuspecting and inexperienced customers something that can’t in reality exist.

As a rule a single server will usually have maybe up to 2000 GB’s of bandwidth per month allocated to it, so how can a web host offer a single customer more bandwidth than the whole of the server they’re hosted on has available to it. Answer: they can’t and the offer is a lie.

How the unlimited space and bandwidth “Con” works!

In hosting circles it is a well known fact that people on the whole don’t know how much space and bandwidth their site is going to need, and so if they can take an unmetered/unlimited plan then they don’t have to make the customer think about it. The customer feels that if their site suddenly becomes popular they are covered because there’s no bandwidth limit.

Unfortunately the fact is that the opposite is usually the case. Unlimited plan hosts are by definition over-sellers, they rely on the fact that in most cases a website will use very little space and bandwidth, and so they pack their servers with customers vastly overselling the space and bandwidth available to the server. The same goes for hosts offering huge amounts of space and bandwidth.

What this means is that when a site does start to use a high amount of bandwidth, (or god forbid the site gets hit by Digg) or a client decides to make use of the huge amount of space they were promised and uploads their digital photo or video collection, the host then has to act quickly to remove the customers site so as not to bring the whole over-sold server to it’s knees.

This usually comes in the shape of an email or phone call telling the customer that their site is using more server CPU cycles than is allowed, and asking the customer to upgrade or risk losing their hosting, in many cases though is just means the site is shutdown without notice.

So what about us?

In our case we never oversell our servers, and we only offer plans with a realistic amount of space and bandwidth. We never allocate more space and bandwidth than is allocated to each of our servers, in fact we generally allocate less than 50% of a servers overall resources to allow for the growth of the customers on it, and to allow for the odd occasion when a customers site may suddenly gets an unusually large amount of traffic.

Another thing we don’t do is immediately disable sites that go over their allocated space or bandwidth limit, in fact unless it is an ongoing problem and we’ve heard nothing from the customer from multiple communications your site will be safe, we’ll also first advise how the customer can reduce their usage to come within their limits (properly compressing images or removing log files etc)..

The final word.

The last question you should really ask yourself is this – Can I trust my valuable website with a host that is less than honest with me??

I know I wouldn’t…

Anyway don’t take my word for it, I work for a web host after all. Just visit these independent sites to read what they have to say about the unlimited space and bandwidth Con.

http://www.findmyhosting.com/truthunlimited.htm
http://www.calvinleong.net/blog/2008/06/10/choosing-a-webhost-unlimited-bandwidth/
http://forums.webhostdir.com/showthread.php?t=14899

For some great “Limited” space and bandwidth plans please visit our main website at http://www.servwise.com.

It is always important when taking sensitive customer data over the internet that the data is encrypted in transit and stored securely. Secure storage is a subject for another time but for now I’m going to talk about security during transit most commonly achieved on the web using SSL (Secure Socket Layer).

Secure Socket Layer (AKA Transport Layer Security)

I won’t go into exactly what SSL is or how it works exactly as you can find out all about that from our friend Wikipedia (Link at end). What I will talk about here is the differences between the different types of SSL certificate on the market today.

But before I examine the different types of SSL certificate I wanted to first discuss the difference between standard SSL and shared SSL.

What is a Shared SSL

Many shared hosting accounts (Including ours) come with a free shared SSL Shared SSL. As its name suggests a shared SSL certificate is shared amongst many users. A common misconception is that this means it is less secure, it isn’t, it simply means that a single secure domain is shared amongst many hosting clients, the actual security is the same as if you used your own personal domain certificate.

Using our Windows Hosting shared SSL service as an example, if your site were called http://www.mypets.com, then you could create a shared SSL address via our Windows Control Panel of https://secure1.servwise.com/mypets/ which would map to your website allowing your visitors to browse your whole site using this secure domain and sub-folder. The obvious disadvantage here is that the secure domain is not your own website domain and so in terms of trust a visitor may have less trust in your website’s security than if the secure domain was your own.

However if the shared address is just say for accessing your own website admin pages or a private area then a shared SSL address is a great FREE way to secure your data in transit.

However if trust and professionalism is important to you then using your own SSL certificate is the recommended way to ensure visitors trust your site.

Choosing an SSL certificate

One thing you should understand when choosing an SSL certificate for your site is that any 128bit SSL certificate even a self-signed (Self generated) one is technically just as secure as any other 128bit SSL certificate, When you buy an expensive SSL certificate you’re not actually buying more security.all your buying is more trust (The perception of trustworthiness). If you want a more secure certificate you need to opt for a 256bit certificate.

The major differences between certificates primarily effect the level of “TRUST” that is perceived by a visitor to your website. They are the level of entity validation of the SSL owner, the validation features (Dynamic site seal and EV) and the issuers name (The perceived trust in the SSL issuer).

Here are some of the things you should check before buying an SSL certificate.

Is the certificate signed by a root certificate authority?

Many are, Verisign, Geotrust, RapidSSL, Comodo to name a few, always look for a single root issued certificate otherwise you may have trouble as you’ll need to add additional certificates in a chain to make the certificate work without giving a browser alert, Our RapidSSL and Geotrust Certificates are all single root issued certificates.

What is and do I need a Dynamic site seal?

A dynamic site seal is basically a piece of code provided by the SSL issuer that you can place on your site (Sometimes this will display a dynamic graphic or html with your name on it) which when clicked opens the SSL issuers site and shows a page providing information about your SSL certificate and who it is registered too. This can add an element of “TRUST” for the visitors of your site.

What are Quick Validation and Full Validation certificates?

A quick validation certificate is where when issuing the certificate only the domain owner is authenticated using an email to an address at the domain. It’s simple and fast but and you can normally have your certificate in under an hour but provides no additional trust for the user, however it will work just as well at securing the information. A Full Validation certificate takes longer as in many cases your business or personal identity will be validated as well as the domain and you will have to provide proof in the form of authenticated documents etc, this will usually mean if a visitor decides to read the details of the SSL certificate in the browser that instead of just mentioning the domain it may also mention the business entity in the certificate details adding more trust for the visitor.

What is and do I need an Extended Validation (EV) certificate?

EV is a relatively new concept for SSL and is only really supported fully in the very latest browsers (Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3 etc), in older browsers it works just like a standard SSL certificate, it is a special certificate type that although technically no more secure it provides more “TRUST” to your visitor by turning the browser address bar green to indicate your site is highly trusted and fully validated, no need for the visitor to manually view your certificate to validate ownership as your business name is also clearly displayed in the address bar.

What is a Wildcard SSL certificate?

When you register a standard certificate it is registered for one domain or sub-domain only, so a registration for “domain.com” will only work for https://domain.com, it won’t work for https://www.domain.com or https://secure.domain.com, so if you need the certificate for https://www.domain.com then make sure you enter www.domain.com in the registration. A Wildcard SSL certificate is the exception and allows you to use the same SSL certificate on multiple sub-domains of a domain e.g. www.domain.com or secure.domain.com as well as just domain.com, if you need to secure a lot of sub-domains then this can be a cost effective way to do it.

So in the end which SSL certificate should you purchase?

That question is obviously down to your own personal requirements. A basic quick SSL certificate can cost under $12 per year from us and will provide just and much actual security as one costing 100’s of dollars. However if you want your customers to have extra trust in your website (for example your transmitting sensitive private financial or medical information) then the advantages of a fully validated or extended validation (EV) certificate can out way the costs.

Click here to view our affordable SSL certificates

For more information about SSL in general please visit Wikipedia.

So far I have only really talked about ServWise and our affordable hosting packages. But this time I want to discuss the Web Design business (My other favourite topic) and specifically the subject of “How much should I expect to pay for a new website?“.

Many people ask me this question, and more than often I am surprise at the perception people have about how little it should cost to produce a professional corporate website. In part I think this is down to the prominent advertising of free or cheap web design systems that give the impression that all web design is easy and takes only minutes.

These systems will generally use pre-programmed templates that in many cases will look quite professional, but you have to remember that you are not buying a personal design, its probably being used by 100’s if not 1000’s of other websites and will be very limited in the amount of customisation you can make.

So in an effort to educate and inform I’ve listed a few example price ranges that I beleave are fare for the most common types of website systems for the typical SME business based on the many years experience that I have had producing high quality web site solutions for these types of client.

Basic website with a pre-made design
Example Technologies : xhtml, css
Pages : 5-10 A4 sized pages.
Price : £200-£500

Basic website with a bespoke design
Example Technologies : xhtml, css
Pages : 5-10 A4 sized pages.
Price : £400-£800

Medium sized website with a bespoke design and features like drop-down menus using javascript (dhtml)
Example Technologies : xhtml, css2, javascript (dhtml)
Pages : 20-30 A4 sized pages.
Price : £700-£1500

CMS (Content management system) driven website using an off the shelf open-source CMS and incorporating a bespoke template design
Example Technologies : SQL, php, xhtml, css, javascript
Pages : Unlimited via CMS
Price : £1200-£2000

CMS (Content management system) driven website using an off the shelf open-source CMS and incorporating a bespoke template design and including eCommerce
Example Technologies : SQL, php, xhtml, css, javascript
Pages / products :Unlimited via CMS
Price : £3000-£5000

Bespoke CMS (Content management system) driven website incorporating a bespoke template design
Example Technologies : SQL, php, xhtml, css, javascript
Pages / products : Unlimited via CMS
Price : £6000-£10000

Bespoke CMS (Content management system) driven website incorporating a bespoke template design including eCommerce
Example Technologies : SQL, php, xhtml, css, javascript
Pages / products : Unlimited via CMS
Price : £8000 and above

As with any competitive market you are likely to get prices ranging wildly based on by who and where the work is done, however the prices listed are what I would say in the UK should get your a fairly decent website. Don’t expect to get a Facebook or Amazon for those prices though.

Anyway that’s all for this post, I hope it provides some valuable information and for those looking for a new website and don’t forget to ask for a FREE quote at WiredEyes.com

back soon.

Okay so I’m more lazy about my blog than anyone I know, Only one post and then my next post is 6 months later. Guess it just goes to show how busy I am, starting a new business from scratch is always a time consuming effort. Anyway I’m back now and hopefully my next post won’t be in another 6 months time. (Although at least it would be consistent)

Anyway so what has happened in the last 6 months. Well we’ve added lots of nice new features to our service offerings, many more cheap as chips domain names  and We’ve increased our “Novice” plan space by a massive 300% to a generous 100MB which you can buy for less than a (Family size ) can of beans.

We’ve upgraded our DotNetPanel Control panel to include some great new reseller features, including full reseller ecommerce so you can literally become a fully blown Hosting company with all the trimmings for only about the price of a medium deep pan pizza per month.

Now your asking why am I comparing our prices to basic food items. Well apart from liking food a lot and living in Italy so obviously liking pizza, quite honestly it’s easier than listing our prices in all 4 currencies that we offer them in. Plus you see just how inexpensive our services are in comparison to common everyday things you really understand the cost off. Anyway it works for me.

In the near future you can expect to find some great deals on SSL certificates and dedicated servers all available at really great prices, for which I’ll find food items to compare them with later.

Anyway thats all I’ve got, back to the grindstone and hope to be back here a little sooner next time.

Ciao for now.

Sam M