Gah, my post got lost in cyberspace -_-;; *goes to type again*

Greetings, all, my name is Lain, and I finally decided it was about time I posted instead of lurking. Quick, run away while you still can! :P

First off, I want to say that I think WHT is great. I always refer people looking for hosting to here and Sitepoint. I wish someone had told me about this place when I first started out looking for a domain/host, then perhaps I wouldn't get screwed by my registrar and host. Now that I'm a bit wiser I want to help newbies out, too.

Anyway, I'm starting a project for my other domain, geek-chic.net. It's going to be a guide to buying a domain/hosting, along with some tutorials (how to ftp, how to set up pop3 mail, etc). The target audience is girls ages 13-17. You would be amazed at the amount of girls out there who are getting domains because "everyone else has them." They also look for hosts that offer "unlimited" bandwidth and space. =/ So I hope my project will help a lot of beginners.

Here are some questions I had in mind:

1. How do you calculate uptime? If a host offers 99.5% uptime, how much downtime does that equal?

2. What is a NOC? What is a NAC? What is Akabanza (sp) << sounds like something from a Harry Potter book :P

3. A lot of people look at hosting packages but not server specs. What is the difference between a host that uses their own custom-built servers and one that doesn't? Which is better? What is the current server spec a person should use when comparing hosts?

4. What registrars would you avoid? I have Registerclub.com (Bulkregister) due to past experiences.

5. What hosts would you avoid? So far I have TacidBlue, *****, and DigitaliBiz (from past experience).

6. This probably doesn't exist, but a lot of girls are looking for a host that offers mp3s.

7. What are the advantages/disadvantages of purchasing a reseller account versus a regular hosting package?

8. What is a traceroute? What do you mean when you "ping" a site?

More annoying questions as I think of them. Thanks in advance.

- Lain

P.S. The sponsor links at the top of the page, are they by-click or by-lead?

1. Usually hosts calculate uptime for the total month in 5 minute intervals, Its highly unlikely that in the past 5 years of hosting that you see a host that actually keeps track of this information, if they do, they make a very big deal about it then after a few months, it fades away

99.5% translates to 3.6 hours of downtime

2. NOC = Network Operations Center...this is where companies can co-locate (meaning they buy a server and ship it to the NOC) and the NOC will connect it to their feed which can range from a T1 connection to a OC-48

2a. NAC- this is a company that collocates servers
2b. Akabanza - I think those are those Chinese entrées my wife orders hehe, j/k, its actually Alabanza, this is a reseller company that offers a "full package" server for hosting companies, they have their own control panel and hosting solution for the hosting company

3. Pretty much not much, there are pluses and minuses to both, really its a matter of figuring out what. Custom servers basically mean that the server was made out of scratch from various parts, and non-custom are just the opposite, they were made in a factory somewhere with alike parts... When shopping for a host, it really doesn't matter which you would prefer, its more of a sales tactic then anything else

4. Network Solutions :)

5. egehost.com

6. Many hosts allow mp3's but only if the mp3s are copyrighted by the account holder, this is pretty unlikely unless the account holder is a rock band

7. If you get an account from the reseller, there's really nothing different, your just purchasing your account from a authorized reseller of a company, what's the difference? mainly a few things, price and support, you may pay a slightly higher fee when going to a reseller and other is support, often resellers don't have alot of accounts, so they have alot more time to deal with your problems then the host themselves, which may have 100x more accounts the reseller and 100x the support requests

8. traceroute is something you can use to show the path of your data to and from the host your trying to check on. A traceroute is mainly used to show where a connection might be messed up. Doing a traceroute will show you where your connection is going and how fast its taking to get from one router to another

8b. Ping is sorta a "shorter version" of a traceroute which shows the amount of time it takes to get from your computer to the server your connecting to.

9. ask the mod's :)

9. Ask Matt :D

9. The ads are for special people, or so it seems.

Originally posted by Sesran
9. The ads are for special people, or so it seems.

What does that mean ?

It means you and I can't have any :D

Maybe...... the ads are for people who pay?? :D