Today choosing a hosting company is not an easy task. Varied number of web-hosts and resellers with their varied pricing schemes makes the task discouraging.

Every customer who plans to host a website needs to understand this important aspect that is, being very cheap or costly does not by any means specify the quality of service received.

The minute one decides to host, the first thing that strikes anyone is the cheap hosting rates in the newspaper.

When one starts checking the prices, he might find amazing range of plans and features. In such a case what would he do?

He would need to answer to these questions. What are the expectations from the site one is hosting? Whether it is a personal site where one wants to display flair or establish ones life on the net or is it a commercial site? Will the site be mission critical, that everything should be worked fine always? So that if at all it goes down, what will be the priority one would be attaching to having it up as soon as possible?

Once one gets the answer to all the questions, one has a plan of action to proceed. On the basis of ones priorities, one can shortlist ones choices among the wilds of hosts. One can finalize ones future host on the basis of a small set of criteria.

Firstly try short listing at least 15 hosting companies. Then carry on checking their inception dates, history and their values and ideology. Mostly these things are highlighted in the sites. Secondly try to check their pricing and try to average out the features received and the net pricing. Then finalize these companies in order of best value for money.

Half of the job is done once this is done. One should never choose the cheapest option available in haste. At this stage, one now needs to try and find news about the performance of these hosts. Locate hosting companies that were given more votes of support. Decide for oneself which hosts seem to have made mistakes that were least damaging to their clients by Checking the bad things said about these hosts. Keep in mind no one in this world so far is perfect. Mistakes happen, but one should give importance to how this mistake was rectified, during this crisis his clients had to face, what sort of attitude was taken up by the hosting provider and the preventive measures he has taken to prevent such future recurrences.

To find out the response time to ones queries from these hosts is the important step at this time. Response time one to two days after asking is the last thing any person wants in this digital age. More important criteria would be the quality of response as response time alone is not the main criteria. Did one get convinced with the sales person that ones site is important to them, can they provide ones needs well, and assure one of their quality services? In general they are worthy of consideration and able to understand and align with ones views on expectations, only then are they worthy of consideration. By the time one reaches this stage, one can now cross out quite a few hosts from the list.

Following up on the uptime of the servers, going to the forums that these hosts provide, and the harms these hosts cause to their clients and then the general sort of crowd one finds there. Beware! If one finds too technical a crowd, one could find ones site having downtimes as a result of the experiments these people try. Site should always be hosted with Hosting companies that provide Spartan features or is more in the line of hosting sites of ones kind. As they are specialized with the server features and specifically software’s one is using they are advisable thus ensuring stability and timely maintenance.

Ensuring that one knows the quality of bandwidth these hosting companies have, their disaster recovery plan and finally the average number of clients they host per server is the last and final criteria when choosing these hosts. Chances of server going down, higher probability of slower site accesses and more is more when one is having more hosts.

One gets the chance to eliminate a host or two with each stage of choosing, till one finally ends up with a smaller list of hosts. Find out who among them would offer better customer service and a wider variety of communications (forums, mailing lists, phone, chat, help-desk etc) by contacting these hosts personally.

Many web-hosts’ joining the bandwagon and starting with the simple intention of and had never thinking of a long-lasting growth was one of the biggest problem that most customers faced during the dot-com bust. They got swamped with the requests, once they started receiving more and more orders and thus could not properly scale their work force in tune with the growing needs and also could not ensure the quality of hardware etc they ordered. Finally they ended up closing shop or selling out to a bigger host. Therefore an indicator of the reliability of the host is the time that these hosts have been up and running.

One needs to be more careful on the server hardware being used if cheaper prices are being offered. Having quality food or just having food in either case one will survive, but the health of person having quality food will be better than the person having just food. Same is the case with ones site. More the acclaim and reviews ones site would receive and in the longer run would be better with superior provider. Only when one wants to host a temporary site for advertisements or wants to know critical importance of ones site only then one should decide on a cheap host.

The user can try the given below guidelines to make the process of finding “cheap” hosting service a lot easier.

1. Act smart:

The user should keep his/her mind sharp while dealing for a use or rather acceptable use policy of that particular cheap web host. One can easily locate fair deal, due to immense competition prevailing in the cheap web hosting industry however if the user find a host offering features at an extremely cheap amount as compare to other hosts, then, BEWARE, user should never deal with such people.

2. Perform additional research:

A user should confirm about the host from several sources like reviews, related details from search engines, and even by verifying their experience in this particular sector. One should go to the support pages and see whether their provided support level matches one’s requirement or not. One cannot expect to receive best ever support for every mere little trouble which user receive through payment less than per month.

3. Check support:

These types of businesses would not survive as capable support personnel demands money. If one talks about larger companies and Windows plans then they are generally quite costly. It is a matter of fact that, cheap web hosts sell additional amount of space and bandwidth, predicting not total exploitation of it by the user. It is quite usual and there will be no negative impact on the user if he/she utilizes all the owed space and bandwidth. The user should be aware of the fact that, cheap web hosts often do not have full command over their servers and it is possible that they might have a dedicated server with another company in order to save their cost. Due to this reason only they are sometimes forced to depend on others to perform some physical tasks like replacing some hardware on the server or other sort of technical problem which they are unable to handle.

GoldPuma is one of the best affordable, reliable windows web hosting providers on the web. They offer full featured Windows Web Hosting plans from only $3.99 /month! MS Access, MS SQL, MySQL, FTP, PHP4 or PHP5, ASP, ASP.NET v1.0/2.0/3.0/3.5, ASP AJAX, ColdFusion, DotNetNuke 4.0…

GoldPuma is a value based company striving to operate efficiently and cost effectively. They started small, and will continue to operate small in terms of effectiveness, in order to reduce unnecessary overheads. Their goal is to offer affordable and cheap web hosting services at the most reliable manner, and attract and retain value conscious customers.

Compare their prices with the competitors. They discount as much as 40% in prices of well known web hosting providers without sacrificing quality. They not only offer cheap web hosting, but also offer very feature rich hosting plans.

GoldPuma offers affordable web hosting, domain name registration, and web design services to individuals and small businesses. They do not charge initial setup fee or require long-term commitments. You simply pay for the services that you use on a monthly basis. They offer reliable, guaranteed and best-value web hosting and domain name services in the industry.

While many hosts provide unlimited databases, GoldPuma is one that does limit the number and size, yet for the average user this does not impose a problem. Their economy Windows/Linux plans (10 GB space, 300 GB bandwidth) can handle over 50,000 web pages and 300,000 monthly visitors. You can also upgrade your plan at any time.



     Conclusion:

     GoldPuma is overall a reliable host with valuable services and responsive support that is based on a solid company. They let their clients do monthly payments, so  why don’t you try their services for a month?

  http://www.GoldPuma.com

I was recently found a new product from Vista Web Photo Gallery.com, http://vistaphotogallery.com/, an IT company. The new product has the same name, Vista Web Photo Gallery, http://vistaphotogallery.com/, and it helps users to create albums of photos and put them online. Vista Web Photo Gallery is announced as the only software that creates AJAX-powered on-line picture galleries without the need for server side setup. It means you just upload files generated by the program to your web server and it will run instantly, even if it’s a free web hosting without a cgi, php, asp, mysql support.

I’m not a pro of html design or web coding, so I wanted to find out how easy it is to make that “high-end image gallery apps that look and behave exactly like desktop software”. I downloaded the free test version of software from the VistaPhotoGallery.com web site http://vistaphotogallery.com/vistaphotogallery-setup.exe and installed it on my home computer (I’m on Windows).

After running through a fast installation procedure, Vista Web Photo Gallery opens on your desktop – and right away you see step-by-step hints in the main window on how to get your photo web gallery ready.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OddNt6Ea0Ks/SQBm9bSq0eI/AAAAAAAAAA4/__8NSie5VFM/s1600-h/0.jpg

In short, you should drag and drop image files, add descriptions and tags, and then publish using “Publish Gallery” button.

Vista Photo Web Gallery’s interface is very simple and clear. You’ll see a toolbar running along the top, “Tags”, “Date Taken”, “Folders” trees at the left, and an picture data panel that runs beneath the main window. If you ever used the standard Photo Gallery software that comes with Windows XP or Windows Vista, you’ll find Vista Web Gallery very familiar.

I dragged and dropped some photos from Windows Explorer, thumbnails appeared in the preview window and the “Date Taken” tree at the left was filled with dates of images. Then I tried to drop four folders with my recent photos, more that 300 in total – no problem, all thumbnails were displayed in the main panel and folder names were added to “Folders”.

I very liked “Date Taken” tree functionality. All the pile of photos I dropped to the program, were sorted by date, so I could easily navigate through years, months and days of feelings and memories I’m already thinking about using this software as a organizer for all my photo collection. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OddNt6Ea0Ks/SQBpj1D-eOI/AAAAAAAAABA/8LPcAMeUaxo/s1600-h/1.jpg

Vista Web Photo Gallery offers some options for working with tags, including the “Tags” tree and “Add Tag” field on image info panel. I added several tags and several captions for my photos without any troubles.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OddNt6Ea0Ks/SQBp9imH8eI/AAAAAAAAABI/bq8WJjgcJXw/s1600-h/2.jpg

Ok, not bad so far. I had a photo gallery on my computer, but what about online gallery? Much to my surprise, generating the image web gallery was even easier than I imagined! http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_OddNt6Ea0Ks/SQBqd4iHHqI/AAAAAAAAABQ/796t3hus6eI/s1600-h/3.jpg

I clicked “Publish Gallery”, selected a folder to save, a couple of seconds, and .. WOW! The gallery was opened in my Internet Explorer, but at the first look I didn’t realize that it’s my finished photo web gallery! Great vista-like style design, the same “Tags”, “Date Taken”, “Folders” trees at the left with the same “on-fly” sorting and filtering, picture thumbnails with zooming on mouseover and changing the preview mode – all looks and acts as a Windows desktop application but inside the web browser.

Finally, I uploaded the folder with generated gallery to my free webhosting account at 50webs.com, http://eskolahti.50webs.com/, and it ran at the first try without any efforts from my side in spite of the fact that 50webs does not support PHP, CGI or any server scripts in free hosting plans. You can see my gallery at http://eskolahti.50webs.com/. It’s not a full web gallery I made, just a small part for public eye, but as a sample it’s very good.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_OddNt6Ea0Ks/SQBwHxi2-BI/AAAAAAAAACI/9uEWsR-KJH8/s1600-h/4.jpg

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_OddNt6Ea0Ks/SQBugOczBVI/AAAAAAAAAB4/bpbYNjBizXU/s1600-h/5.jpg

Vista Photo Gallery is an excellent software that is friendly to amateur website developers, but at the same time is powerful enough to meet the needs of more-advanced users. The advanced AJAX-powered engine is the key feature that makes photo galleries looks and performs great. I had some experience with other gallery generators before, but Vista Web Photo Gallery, http://vistaphotogallery.com/, is definitely best in both easy-to-use and final result.

Virto Ajax Web Part Kalender für Microsoft SharePoint — jetzt in der deutschen Sprache erreichbar

Virtosoftware — Entwerfer des Web-Teils und Hinzufügen für SharePoint — annoncierte Deutsche Lokalisierung des Virto Web Part Kalender für SharePoint.

Vitro Web Part Kalender ermöglicht den Benutzern alle ihren Ereignisse aus verschiedenen SharePoint-Listen in einem einheitlichen Bildfeld anzusehen. Vitro Kalender ist auf der Grundlage der Ajax Technologien geschaffen und bietet den Benutzern leistungsstarke Möglichkeiten, zum Beispiel:



— Gantt-, Tag-, Woche-, Jahr-Bildfelder

— Färbung-Kodieren 

— Google-Stil

— Optionalen Pop-up-Hilfetext

— Vorschau der Abbildungen und der Bilder 

— Ziehen und anderes mehr

Virto Web Part Kalender für SharePoint bietet den Benutzern auch die Möglichkeit, das beliebige neue Ereignis nur mit einem Mausklick zu erzeugen! ! In Vitro sind auch solche Instrumente des Editieren eingesetzt, die die Arbeit mit SharePoint leicht und bequem machen. Wenn Sie das Datum des Ereignises zu ändern brauchen, ziehen Sie es einfach in die entsprechende Kalenderzelle.

Vitro Web Part Kalender unterstützt auch MOSS Audience Targeting (System der Adressendateneingabe). Das ist der leichte Weg für den Unterschied der Information unter Ihren verschiedenen Abteilungen. Die Benutzer, die zu diesem System nicht gehören, können die Positionen aus dieser Datenquelle auf ihrer Kalender-Seite nicht sehen.

Optional Tooltip (Optionaler Pop-up-Hilfetext) ist das andere nutzbare Instrument von unserem Web Part Kalender. Er ermöglicht die schnelle Vorschau der beliebigen zusätzlichen Information über Ihre SharePoint Ereignisse, zum Beispiel, Bezeichnung, Uhrzeit, Ort, Beschreibung und andere Felder, die Sie möchten, einschliesslich die Vorschau der angehängten Abbildungen.

Das ist exklusive Funktionalität, die nur im Virto SharePoint Web Part Kalender präsentiert ist. Sie können ihn testen nach dem Ladevorgang und der Einsetzung der Kalendar Probenversion.

Sie können weitere Information über Virto Web Part Kalender finden und Gratisproben bekommen auf http://www.virtosoftware.com/ajax-kalender-fur-sharepoint.aspx

In recent years, online shopping has become very popular among all classes of people. The sheer idea of being able to shop from the comfort of home and getting them delivered at the doorstep is exciting for many online users.

The Internet is abound with online shopping guides that help customers to choose the right product from the right place. Because the Internet has made it easier for new products to be introduced faster, an online shopping guide is vital to know where the best brands/products are sold.

Here are some tips to help you shop smart on the Internet.



1. Price Comparison Sites – Take help from price comparison sites that list different varieties of the same brand and their price listings. Some sites even provide information on shipping deals and user reviews for different products.

2. Coupons – Check out sites that offer sales coupon codes as part of their promotional activity. In fact many sites send their past and regular customer’s coupon codes when a discount sale is planned.

3. Deals – There are some sites that alert customers when a great deal is being offered by a particular site, say ebay.com. All you have to do is mention the product type and your email address.

4. Google alerts – Lets you know the latest information on any thing as and when the information is released on the Internet. It can be used to find latest information on new releases of consumer electronic goods.

5. Social Media – Many marketing organizations are now releasing their deals and offers on social networks. This way, word spreads faster on the products and there are more takers for the discount offers. So being part of any social networking site helps to be aware of what is selling where.

6. Personalized shopping – There are some sites that provide shopping answers to customers. For e.g., if a customer wants to know where he can get HDMI cables or where he can get great discounts for denim wear; other users pitch in with answers regarding the price, usage and place of sales. This way, the user procures first hand information from another user like him, which helps in making right product choices.



With so many ways to shop smart on the web, take a plunge and see how well you are guided into making the right purchasing decision.

Happy Shopping!

PHP Frameworks:

PHP is finally getting the attention that i deserves, yes I have always believed that PHP is one of those neglected languages, neglected because they are used in abundance but there isn’t enough programs or as we call them frameworks to work on PHP. But that was until the release of PHP 5. After the release of PHP, there is a range of Frameworks available.

Today we review and understand closely the various frameworks available for PHP. Some of the most popular frameworks for PHP are:



The Zend Framework.

The Prado Framework.

CakePHP Framework.

Symphony Framework.



These frameworks are ofcourse the most popular ones and there are more than 40 frameworks for PHP and it is very difficult to know which framework suits you the best and will be the most productive for your web development and enterprise goals.

Ofcourse all these frameworks are free and provide a host of services to satisfy almost all of the web development needs of a web designer or a website owner. Some of the most common features of all these PHP Framework are as follows:



PHP 5: Thats obvious! All the frameworks support both PHP 5 version of the PHP.Only “The Prado Framework” support the PHP 4.x version of the PHP as well as the PHP 5 version of the PHP.

Multiple DBs: All the above mentioned frameworks support multiple databases to be used without making any setup and configuration changes.

Validation: All the four frameworks have an inbult validation and a filtering component which can be used.

MVC: All the four frameworks have the MVC that is the Model View Controller setup.



So, these are the few components and controllers that are common in most of the PHP based frameworks and therefore one should look out for these components when downloading or using a PHP framework.

Now let us see a brief introduction about each of these PHP based frameworks and their salient features:



Zend Framework:Zend Framework is a component based framework with components for almost all of the programming needs of a PHP programmer or PHP developer.



Some of the components in the Zend Framework are:



zend_acl

zend_auth

zend_cache

zend_config

zend_consolegetop and many more.





Prado Framework: The Prado framework provides the following benefits for web application developers.





reusablility

Ease of use

Robustness

Performance

Team Integration





CakePHP:



Some of the important features of CakePHP are as follows:



Model, View, Controller Architecture

View Helpers for AJAX, Javascript, HTML Forms and more

Built-in Validation

Application Scaffolding

Application and CRUD code generation via Bake

Access Control Lists

Data Sanitization

Security, Session, and Request Handling Components

Flexible View Caching



Like all other frameworks cakePHP is also component based framework.



The Symphony Framework:



Some of the features of the symphony framework are as follows:



simple templating and helpers

cache management

smart URLs

scaffolding

multilingualism and I18N support

object model and MVC separation

Ajax support

enterprise ready



Thus these are the best options available for frameworks relating to PHP and one should review all these features of all these frameworks against his needs and choose the appropriate framework to work on!

Any suggestions and comments as always are welcome.