CWCS Managed Web Hosting Blog

Colocation Web Hosting Summary

2009-01-05T16:45:00.000Z

Feel assured your server is powerful and redundant for your business critical hosting requirements. Switch to Colocation hosting and use your own hardware!

Owning your own equipment can sometimes be enough for that extra reassurance you need in ensuring you have a reliable hosting setup. Colocation will ensure a hosting provider looks after your servers with redundancy, reliability, connectivity and support all taken care of.

Professionals within the IT sector may well benefit largely from Colocating equipment. Choice and availability is one obvious advantage, no matter how complex your setup is, you’re freely able to Colocate any type of hardware within your designated rack space. Rack space can be available to you as soon as you need it. This eliminates long setup times allowing you to configure and bring in your own equipment as soon as required.

Colocation is generally suitable for customers within the IT sector or with a dedicated IT support team. Knowledge will be required to maintain your own hardware and configure your server. A good way to view Colocation could be a service offering the critical web hosting necessities without the added costs of management and leasing the hardware.

Give your server a home… Choose Colocation Hosting today!

Free Web Hosting – is it really a bargain?

2008-12-29T11:51:00.000Z

When purchasing web hosting, as with all products and services in this world, it really is a matter of you get what you pay for. It is important to pay close attention to the features and services that /aren't/ on offer rather than what are as it is very common practice for a business to put great emphasis on what they are providing and thus over shadow the lack of important features.

Your standard free hosting will essentially provide a facility allowing for site content to be accessible over the internet and probably the allowance of mail boxes. Generally this will be accessible as a subdomain of their site i.e yourdomain.hostsdomain.co.uk. Limitations in bandwidth, space and also file compatibility are very common attributes associated with free hosting, not to mention a very limited amount of technical support, so if you are wanting more than a site comprised of static pages, finding a service that meets requirements that is also free may be a pressing task indeed.

Free hosting is also unfortunately not provided out of pure generosity, a webhost will be providing for one of two reasons generally; Either to promote their paid products and services or to utilize the visitors of your site by adding either their own or third party advertisements.

All in all, free web hosting does as it describes by providing a home for your site but there are non monetary costs that are invariably bundled within this deal whether it be the lack of required features, poor bandwidth or the inclusion of third party banners and pop-ups just to mention but a few of the downsides.

Wordpress Blog Hosting Upgraded

2008-12-22T09:34:00.004Z

The latest version of Wordpress is now available as a one-click install in our Supreme Control Panel v6.0 for the following Linux Hosting plans - Linux Professional, Linux Business and Linux Reseller Hosting solutions. Wordpress is a blog publication application, making it easy to have your very own blog on your web site.

Common reasons for choosing a dedicated server

2008-12-19T14:30:00.002Z

There are many reasons why you might want to get a dedicated server over shared or Virtual hosting. In this article we shall go through a few of them.

Performance

With a dedicated server you are not sharing server resources with other users who's domains could literally be doing anything. On many shared servers if one customers script is badly written or is over used it can cause a slow down or loss of service for all users on that server. With a dedicated server you get to isolate your sites from any others you have no control over.
Your requirements may be expanding and outgrowing the shared environment, you may want more control / performance. If you are running a PHP/MySQL driven site and are getting a few hundred users visiting your domains a day then consider getting a dedicated server to really allow you to optimise your server to suit your sites.

Even if on the face of it a shared or virtual server offers a higher spec or more memory, a dedicated server will almost always out perform its shared equivalent.

Control

If you want software that is not supported on our shared environment - you can install / compile any software of your choosing on a dedicated server. This enables you to have much more flexibility and choice in what you install. Many shared servers will limit what you can use, especially if it is resource hungry. With a growing array of software available, your sites might need the step up to a dedicated to fully exploit the latest technologies.

Security

You are able to fully manage the security on a dedicated server including passwords and firewalls, this will help keep your data secure and protect you from brute force attacks and other hacking attempts which are common place on the internet today. With a dedicated server you can know with a high degree of certainty exactly what is on your server, what the risks are and where you have secured yourself.

Webhosting: Windows or Linux?

2008-12-19T10:52:00.001Z

So you’re confused about the different operating systems?

Dedicated servers are the root of all webhosting setups, sometimes consisting of multiple servers all working together to process a web application or website.

Linux dedicated servers are common in complex setups as there are no licensing costs. Multiple dedicated servers running Linux would not only be more cost effective but also very reliable in server setups.

However, Windows dedicated server setups also have advantages over the Linux operating system. Windows is not community driven, this would mean for many users that the cost may be higher but the reassurance of support and regular updates would make a Windows dedicated server much more preferable.

Generally speaking, many users started out using a Windows operating system, learning Linux commands and switching from using Windows to Linux could require some time to get to grips with. Windows features the remote desktop utility, which makes it a strong competitor to Linux on usability. The graphic user interfaces throughout the Windows operating system could allow difficult tasks to be achieved more easily.

It’s best to start thinking about intended use of the dedicated server when deciding which operating system. You then could decide which technologies and scripting languages you want use, and the availability of them across the different operating systems. This will help guide you towards a Linux or Windows Dedicated server during the planning stages.

It’s not always an easy decision to make, other factors you may want to consider before signing a server contract could be:

Are the servers Admins trained and confident with the intended operating system?
Will the operating system work well with complex setups without compromising on performance and stability.
Are there any concerns in terms of updates and security?
How long is the license period? Is there an easy option to upgrade?
Will the operating system fall within tight budgets?

So what is the better setup? Windows or Linux dedicated servers?

The answer to this question is simple… It depends on the consumer’s requirements and individual preference.

Contact us, and we will help you make the decision!

The importance of choosing a web host with good customer service and support

2008-12-15T13:08:00.006Z

The entire ethos behind our technical support team is to ensure that you, as the client, get the most out of the package we provide. When looking to invest in webhosting, knowing to what extent support is offered can sometimes be as crucial as the product or service offered. Below are a few factors that should be looked at when choosing a support solution that meets you;

What support is offered?
It is important to investigate how your service is supported whether it be statically such as via knowledge base articles or if there is a more dynamic solution whereby there is an individual or team of individuals that are there to investigate your issues.

Articles are only useful if you know the right question, sometimes it is
essential to communicate the symptoms. If our knowledge base articles (support.cwcs.co.uk) do not answer your queries, we are contactable by telephone or email.

Response times
When time is a major factor, sometimes support needs to break from the constraints of normal office hours, especially when offering products that are remote to the paying customer. Our support system runs around the clock, if there is an emergency there will always be someone ready to listen. During office hours we strive to meet our own deadlines in replying to a support request of under two hours.

Webhosting is a multi dimensional industry, which is why it is important to have a team that have the knowledge and tenacity to analyse and solve issues that can cross many plains of expertise whether it be hardware, software or network related.

Beat the credit crunch - switch to us

2008-12-10T15:56:00.003Z

Right now, many directors and shareholders are aware of recent changes that have occurred affecting the day-to-day operation of millions of local businesses. Two words are being used to describe this current era and that’s… Credit crunch.

Information on the suspected causes of the credit crunch have been documented by wikipedia

Change is sometimes worrying and often avoided to maintain a smooth operation and keep workload low during this delicate time. Although it’s important to keep costs low and take advantage of offers for premium services at lower costs.

Web hosting contributes to businesses monthly outgoing costs. Whether it’s a dedicated server, colocation or a small hosting package for the company website. There may be an opportunity to reduce costs and even improve the service and reliability of your hosting setup.

A competitive market place ensures the lowest price is offered for the highest quality of service and support. Managed hosting ensures the company website is nurtured and responsibility is left to the hosting provider allowing time to focus on more crucial parts of the business operation.
Feeling stable and reassured with your hosting arrangements will help you to pull through this vulnerable time. Choosing a suitable hosting provider should not be solely decided on cost, a long-term provider offering opportunities to easily scale across hosting packages will accommodate for your businesses future growth.

CWCS Managed Hosting truly understands what’s expected from a professional Managed Hosting provider. We will work closely with your company to review your existing hosting setup and advise how you could benefit from changing providers. Contact us directly to see what we can do for you…

We’re in this together…

The importance of hosting your website in the country of its target market

2008-12-08T16:41:00.000Z

An often overlooked point to consider when choosing a web hosting provider is the physical location of the server. Research has shown that the average website user will lose patience with a site if the pages consistently take longer than 8 seconds to load. The proliferation of broadband has helped greatly but -something about eliminating the need to cross countries/continents and keep the data transfer local will offer better speeds.

The time for a packet of data to travel half-way round the world then back again is approximately 0.2 seconds.

There are 2 main identifiers that most search engines use to determine the target market for you site. These are the TLD (like .com or .co.uk) and the country that the website is physically hosted in. Ideally both of these identifiers will help the search engines to determine this, but one of the two is usually sufficient.

If your website is a .com site for the UK market, but you chose to host this outside of the UK, then it makes it harder for a user to find your website, as the main identifiers that a search engine uses aren’t telling them that.

Another big reason for this is that roughly 14% of searchers use the “pages from the UK” option when searching with Google. The only way for Google to know to put your website in this restricted part of the engine is if you are identified as a UK website.

Say NO to cheap web hosting and YES to a premium service at a competitive rate

2008-12-05T11:20:00.001Z

Browsing the Internet is a daily task for many, with millions of website hits every single second of each day. The importance of websites can sometimes be truly underestimated.

Cheap web hosting providers are using sales techniques to grab the attention of buyers, undercutting quality web hosting providers by offering initial attractive deals. Avoid being trapped by these cheap web hosting providers by researching the company and questioning deals, which appear just too good to be true.

Like with many products and services, the after sales support and relationship with the web hosting provider is critical. Cheap web hosting providers may let you down after the initial sale, which could lead to disaster in the long run. Rather than focusing on just the features of a web hosting package, try to see past the initial sweeteners by focusing more on the actual reputation and after sale support the company offers.

Quality should never be compromised with cost in relation to finding a suitable web hosting provider. In actual fact the cost of a website disaster or time used on nursing a website could have a bigger impact on your business than it would to spend that little bit more for a quality service.

Avoid cheap web hosting providers and invest comparatively. Sit back and allow your provider to worry about maintaining your websites. Leave your business in the hands of a trusted company with many years experience… See CWCS's answer to Cheap Web Hosting

Colocation Hosting Terminologies

2008-12-04T15:10:00.001Z

To the average person, colocation isn’t an everyday term used when discussing web hosting. It may be familiar to some, but considered a grey area to many.

Colocation is effectively moving a web server or a number of hosting servers into a data centre environment. The hosting company would usually provide the connectivity, power and space. The data centre infrastructure provides redundancy, security, and reassurance to the company and is therefore a popular web hosting solution.

Whilst considering and discussing colocation, you may hear various terms and phrases you don’t understand.

Not to worry… read on and be prepared for the technical colocation jargon…

1U

1U is the minimum size for a rack-mounted server; the size refers to the height of the server. Different specifications and brands of servers come in different sizes.

UPS

UPS stands for uninterrupted power supplies; backup power is essential in a data centre environment to ensure your co-located servers are not affected in the event of a power outage.

FM200

Fire suppression system used in a data centre environment. The waterless system is capable of extinguishing a fire in less than 10 seconds.

Cluster

A server cluster consists of multiple servers operating a single task. Different server cluster setups are common in complex hosting setups.

Full rack/half rack

A rack is the container for multiple servers and devices, a full rack can hold up to 42U.

BGP

BGP is routing technique; it is often used in a data centre environment to switch connectivity across multiple Internet providers to create an effective fail-over system.

NIC

Network Interface card is a hardware device common in most servers, its required to connect your servers to the network to serve as a web server.

CAT 5

The common type of cable used when connecting standard devices or servers.

VPN

Virtual private network is a revolutionary way of using the Internet to connect devices containing sensitive data using encryption techniques.

SAN/NAS

Two similar types of storage devices often used as a central storage point in complex hosting setups. Transfers speeds are usually one advantage of using a specific storage device.

Why you should pay for web hosting

2008-12-02T12:03:00.001Z

With ever increasing broadband bandwidth speeds it is becoming increasingly tempting to host web services in-house rather then laying out for the expense of web hosting with a specialised web hosting company, especially when you can acquire the hardware easily and cheaply to do the job.

However, many of the costs of hosting are hidden and aren’t simply the cost of the internet line and the server itself. Take into account for example the power consumption. Having a server and network equipment on 24/7, especially dedicated servers with large storage capacities, can increase your costs dramatically now electricity prices are increasing well above inflation. The cost of the software licensing and the specialist skills required to install and maintain it can sometimes be far higher than all the other costs put together.

Finally you need to take into account the cost of keeping a server up 24/7 which is something many companies find to be business critical. Redundant power supplies, air cooling, internet connectivity and disks can double the cost of your non-human costs.

Using a web hosting provider will make much better value for money as the cost of backup systems, human resources, software and hardware costs are almost always included in the costs quoted for the packages on offer and due to economies of scale the costs will be much cheaper than going for it alone.

Earn ££££ from web hosting - Become a CWCS Affiliate Today!

2008-11-28T18:57:00.012Z

CWCS Managed Hosting is pleased to announce the launch of our affiliate program, where you can receive commission when referring customers to us. Every customer you refer to us via an unique affiliate link, you will earn 10% commission from that sale. £10 will be added to your account when you sign up. Signing up is easy, simply log into your online billing account and click "Affiliates", within two clicks your account will be setup and you can start earning ££££ from our feature-rich and competitive web hosting and dedicated servers plans.

If you do not have an account with us, you can sign up to be an affiliate by clicking here.

If you would like further information, please contact us.

Dedicated Servers with RAID – Do You Really Need it?

2008-11-27T09:05:00.003Z

With many businesses converting to online trading, websites are now considered one of the most important assets to a business. As you may know, dedicated servers are the backbone of the hosting setup. Different types of dedicated servers include Windows dedicated servers and Linux dedicated servers, although the server specification is what makes the dedicated server a reliable hosting platform.

RAID is one of the fundamental differences between a desktop machine and an actual hosting dedicated server. Dedicated servers need a higher level of resilience and redundancy because of the crucial role the server has in maintaining your websites uptime.

RAID hard disks consist of multiple disks working synchronised with each other replicating all data. This allows for each hard disk to have an available fail-over in the event of one hard disk failing. There are many different types of RAID available for more advanced forms of redundancy, the different levels of RAID are determined by the amount of hard drives and the way the data is distributed across the drives.

So… does your dedicated server need RAID?

It is strongly advised to have a dedicated server with RAID; hard disks have moving parts, which make the life of a hard disk much less compared to other hardware components. Dedicated servers with RAID may cost more, although in the long run you will find it costs a lot less than the impact a hard drive failing would have on your business.

As a managed hosting provider we are able to offer a range of dedicated servers, our Windows and Linux Professional and Enterprise dedicated servers include RAID, details and specifications can be found on our dedicated servers page.

How to determine space and bandwidth requirements for your website

2008-11-24T11:56:00.001Z

A question we often get asked at CWCS is "how do I know how much bandwidth I will be using or how much space I will need?"

To answer that question we will break it down into two parts. Firstly, the easiest one is:

Web Space

Almost all FTP and PC programs will allow you to work out the size of a file or folder. When you want to work out how much web hosting space you need, you should simply use the tools on your computer to calculate the size of all the web files you are going to upload. This is the bare minimum your site will need. Obviously if you expect to grow the site you should add an extra buffer onto the top of this. If you have areas on the site allowing your users to upload images or so on, then it becomes a little harder to calculate. The best thing to do is to take the average file size you expect your customers to upload, the number of files you will allow them to upload and the number of customers you hope to have. Then add on about 25% for the unexpected.

Bandwidth

Due to increases in bandwidth allowances it is not usually so much of a problem or restraint as it used to be, however it is important to try to predict bandwidth usage to prevent any problems in the future.

The best way to calculate it is with web statistics, however this is not always possible. The second best and less accurate way is to take how many viewers you expect on your website, then take the average amount of data they will download and taking into account any large media files they might download and this will be your expected bandwidth. Always add at least 25-50% for seasonal changes and also any web promotions you might run.

Backing up your website with the Plesk Control Panel

2008-11-14T11:29:00.004Z

Today, most people are aware of the importance of taking regular backups of irreplaceable files and documents, however few consider that this also applies to data on your websites as well. We are regularly contacted by customers who have accidentally deleted or overwritten a important file, causing inconvenience, loss of revenue or worse. Whilst we take regular backups of all our production servers, we recommend all customers take independent backups of their data, especially if you are about to make changes to your website such as upgrading your blog or forum software etc.

The Plesk control panel has a built in back up feature which will allow you to backup and restore snapshots of your entire website and databases. The backup files can be stored in a repository on the server, uploaded to a remote FTP site or downloaded to your personal computer. The remainder of this blog entry will explain how to use this feature.

To create a backup login to your Plesk control panel. Once logged in, click on the Home link in the left column. You should then see a list of domains in your account, click on the domain you want to back up. In the top row of icons you should see a floppy disk with a green arrow labeled 'Backup', click on it. You should now be on the Backup screen, there are four Icons, click on 'Create Backup'.

You should now be on the Backup file creation screen. Enter a name for the backup file and a comment if you wish, then click on the Back Up button. It may take a while depending on the number and size of the files on your site. When it is done you will see the backup file you created in the Backup files repository. To restore the backup file you created, click on it then click on the restore button.

For the other Backup features, please refer to the online help in Plesk or pages 135–144 of the Plesk manual for Domain Administrator's (http://download1.swsoft.com/Plesk/Plesk8.6/Doc/en-US/plesk-8.6-win-domain-administrators-guide.pdf).

The latest version of the Plesk Control Panel is included in our Windows Web Hosting, Windows Dedicated Servers and Linux Dedicated Servers plans.

Dedicated Servers – Do I need more than one?

2008-11-13T10:20:00.003Z

So you have a dedicated server or plan on taking out a dedicated server for a new or existing project…

The journey begins with a single dedicated server processing all of your services such as website, email and databases…. What are the limitations with a single dedicated server? What happens when your requirements reach a stage when a single dedicated server just isn’t enough?

Complex Hosting

Although the journey begins with a single dedicated server, there are no boundaries on how far you want to take your hosting setup. We are able to offer a setup, which includes a number of dedicated servers load balanced for intensive processing and redundant failover.

It is possible to have a full rack of servers with specialist equipment such as hardware load balancers, SAN devices, firewalls, and it’s even possible to setup a VPN to servers within your office network for secure data transfer.

As a Managed Hosting provider we have flexible approach to individual customer requirements. No matter how complex your requirements are; we will always go that extra mile to provide the desired setup at the best possible price.

Who Needs Multiple Dedicated Servers?

Having more than one server gives customers the reassurance in there hosting setup.
You need to be confident that your web hosting can still deliver under intensive hardware strain and will still manage should one of the server nodes fail. Long-term it costs a lot less to have a setup with multiple servers than the impact it could cause if a single server failed.

This type of hosting is suitable for any business that requires that extra reassurance with there website hosting. It is always recommended to have multiple servers. Companies that have had bad experiences in the past with their hosting provider would largely benefit from the reassurance this setup has to offer.

How many Dedicated Servers do I need?

Its not always the easiest task determining your required hosting setup, with technical advisers always ready and up for a challenge, contact our expert team to discuss exactly what you need.

From one dedicated server to a clustered load balanced setup we take every enquiry seriously and will vision exactly what is recommended for your business, contact us now:
http://www.cwcs.co.uk/contact/

Reseller Hosting - What is it and why you might need it

2008-11-10T09:37:00.001Z

You may be familiar with hosting a single website on a single account, but what if you want to host another website, or you plan on hosting lots of websites?

Do you buy a hosting package for each account, well you could but then you would have lots of different accounts spread out across different servers making management a nightmare. What you can do is purchase what is a Reseller hosting package, this gives you a single account which allows you to create hosting packages when you need them, without having to place another order for a new account.

With such freedom you can host your friends websites or even start your own little hosting company. CWCS now hosts websites and servers for many customers around the world, but its not known that when CWCS started it used a reseller package to sell hosting to its customers before building its own data centre.

A Reseller package is not ideal for everyone but it does give a much more affordable viable hosting solution for people who will need to host multiple websites. Why not try one of our Reseller Web Hosting packages?

Dedicated servers offer first class web hosting

2008-11-07T09:33:00.001Z

It’s natural to be drawn towards the most attractive price when it comes to a service that is not always thoroughly understood. Web hosting is sometimes considered a grey area within the IT industry; even skilled web designers are not always up to scratch with different web hosting options.

So, why part your cash for a dedicated server when various smaller packages are available for a reduced cost?

A web-hosting package that is not suitable for a large business could cost your business severely in the long run. A dedicated server is always ideal for businesses that rely on a website or application within the day-to-day business operation. Think of a hosting server as a container for your website, if the container is not the right size and cant accommodate growth it will fall over and collapse.

Dedicated servers are the roots to all hosting packages; even the smaller packages are hosted on dedicated servers, although you share the machine with other users. We always advise to invest comparatively and allow your business to breath with a dedicated server.

First class web hosting is a term we feel can be used to describe the service included when considering a dedicated server. You receive a super fast service with no interruptions and all the luxuries thrown in. All servers are located in our high specification Nottingham data centre with facilities in place to ensure the smoothest hosting experience possible.

Take a look at our great dedicated server offers!

Joomla Hosting Upgraded

2008-11-02T15:17:00.004Z

We have upgraded Joomla to the latest version on our advanced load balancing linux web hosting platform. Joomla is a powerful, yet simple to use, content-management-system (CMS) which can be used to create websites. It can also be used to easily manage every aspect of your website, from adding images, updating text to updating products in your catalog.

Joomla is available at no charge (free) on Linux Professional Hosting, Linux Business Hosting and Linux Reseller 1 and 2 plans.

Colocation – What are the advantages?

2008-10-31T08:19:00.000Z

For many of us, colocation means hosting at the lowest possible cost, with total control over equipment.

If you looking to cut costs and maintain/improve excellent server uptime, colocation may be the ideal solution for your business.

So, what exactly is colocation?

The term colocation can sometimes sound quite frightening to new businesses searching for hosting arrangements. The thought of a managed server sounds much more appealing, although in many cases parting the extra cash for a managed server is not always necessary.

With co-location, we give your server a home and provide all necessary functions required to have your server online. We take care of your server and ensure all possible disaster eventualities are prepared for, allowing you to relax and not worry about any potential problems that could arise.

Space is available for all types of setups, from small 1U servers to a full rack full of equipment. Like a hotel, you will receive a luxury service with all expenses covered. With our dedicated support team onsite, you can request for a server to be rebooted even without leaving your office, day or night.

Different options are available for businesses interested in colocating, find all the information you need on our colocation hosting page.

Is colocation for my business?

There is certain knowledge required when colocating a server; you will need to maintain the operation and setup of the server. Businesses that have servers located in-house would always benefit from colocation, the running costs will be a lot less and the reassurance of our redundant data centre is a key advantage of choosing to colocate.

As a reputable company we own 2 data centres located in the midlands, both located in the city of Nottingham and each run independently. This gives customers the option to have servers running in separate data centres in a fail-over configuration for total resilience.

Moving servers from their current location may seem to be an unnecessary and complicated task, although you will save money in the long run. How could a power or network outage affect the day to day running of your business?

Talk to us and find out further information about what colocation is all about with our contact page.

CWCS introduces new Web Hosting Linux Cluster Platform

2008-10-27T09:12:00.001Z

When hosting a new website or even an existing website, one of the most important factors is the uptime your web hosting provider offers. If your website is offline due to a hardware failure, this will affect your business and would also have a major impact on your search engine rankings.
It is important to ensure a web-hosting provider has the correct setup for the hosting server to ensure downtime is always avoided. Many cheap web hosting providers may seem to offer attractive packages, it is always important to find out specifics when considering a web hosting package for your precious website.

We are proud of our new platform, we understand that not all customers have the budget to host there website on a dedicated server. That’s why we aim to offer the most resilient service web hosting could possibly offer. We have recently implemented a new platform for many of our Linux hosting packages, the benefits of the new setup can be found below, with details of how your business will benefit from it.

Resilience

Our new cluster setup has been implemented to offer the most advanced form of resilience a professional web host could possibly provide. Multiple servers are working together to ensure a backup server is readily available in the event of a system failure. There will no impact to your websites should a problem occur with one of the servers. Our resilience setup ensures peace of mind allowing you to focus your attention on other aspects of your business.

Performance

As a Managed UK Web Hosting provider, we believe all our hosting packages should never compromise on performance. We are able to deliver high amounts of resources on our smaller packages ensuring each customer is able to host their websites without experiencing any form of slow down. We have achieved this on our new Linux cluster setup by using separate servers for each individual service running. Having separate server allows each server to focus entirely on its intended use.

Features

With the new Linux cluster servers in place, we have introduced a new supreme control panel. The new version for the control panel is version 6.0; it offers more features than ever before including WordPress, Joomla and a PHP bulleting board.

Support

With over 10 years experience within the web hosting industry, we like to think our trained staff can handle any support query within the quickest time possible. Our control panel interface was designed in-house; each and every support technician is fully trained to support our in-house systems.

Scalability

Implementing the new cluster system has proved to accommodate customers with rapid website growth. More resources are now readily available allowing customers to upgrade between various packages without changing physical server. This ensures a smooth upgrade process is always maintained.

We consider ourselves as a professional UK web hosting provider with a proactive approach to new technologies. Improving our setup is essential to maintain our excellent uptime and to ensure we offer the most uninterrupted web hosting experience. Our new Linux cluster setup is just one of our steps we have taken to maintain our excellent reputation and professional service. Take at look at our web hosting plans to view further information on what we can offer for your business.

Pay per Click (PPC) Advertising

2008-10-16T10:50:00.001+01:00

Internet advertising is a way of reaching out to a massive audience targeting a specific market. Within the past 10 years the growth of the Internet has caused many large businesses to resort to spending thousands each year on internet marketing. Many businesses even rely on the Internet as their only form of advertising, and are entirely Internet based.

What can the Internet bring to my business?

Whatever type of business you run, using the Internet as a marketing tool will ensure you portray your message effectively to your targeted audience. Remember, the Internet is always available and just about every business now has access to it.

Think of the Internet as a worldwide community with everyone involved contributing towards it. The possibilities for Internet marketing are endless; with pay per click schemes, you can choose your own budget. You only pay for each visitor that links to your website, this new method in advertising is revolutionary. Advertising on a pay as you go basis not only ensures you do get visitors, it also ensures you stick to your budget.

What pay per click schemes are available?

Google are leading within the Internet industry at the moment with the rapid growth of their search engine. It only makes sense to do business with a recognised company with the largest amount of Internet traffic. Google AdWords allows customers to advertise on premium space which guarantees hits to your website, and if it doesn’t generate hits… you don’t pay for it!

Google AdWords is not a new form of marketing to many, although new businesses moving towards the Internet for advertising could possibility be put off by the lack of understanding and cost. This is where we can help your business…

We are offering free Google AdWords to every new customer signing up to a new hosting package. With £30.00 worth of Google AdWords you can experience Google advertising for no additional cost to your business. Every hosting plan includes general statistics on each unique visitor to your website. By monitoring statistics you can review how the advertising has improved your website traffic.

We don’t just stop there, for a total customer marketing experience. We now are offering £50.00 worth of Microsoft adCenter with all hosting packages. Use your Pay Per Click vouchers effectively to give your business a boost, taking advantage of Internet marketing from all angles.
Head over to our Google AdWords page to find out more, or you can call us to find out what we can do for you and your business, please find contact CWCS.

10 Things To Look For When Searching For A Suitable Web Hosting Provider

2008-10-09T09:04:00.004+01:00

1. Support

With hosting being a specialised area within the IT industry, after sales support offered should to be second to none. Your business relies on a hosting provider to be pro-active and ready in the event of a disaster. Support is considered the number one underlying factor that digitises a good hosting provider among its competitors. Do your research before making a decision.

2. Guarantees

What promises does your hosting provider make?

A service level agreement should always be in place for bigger orders including dedicated servers. Read into the small print and find out exactly what is offered if the provider fails to deliver the promised service.

3. Flexibility

Assess how flexible the provider is from the initial contact, as your business grows requirements could change. You do not want to be stuck with a provider that can’t meet the demands of your business. Seek a provider that goes that extra mile to stretch to meet your requirements. Ask questions about services that are not listed on the website to assess how flexible a hosting provider is.

4. Relationship

For large hosting requirements a personal service is essential to ensure a good business relationship is maintained. In the event of an emergency you will need to know who to contact, who is able to deal with your query effectively with the quickest response. Ensure your provider will contact you regularly and provides a personal contact.

5. Infrastructure

Data centre infrastructure should consist of a solid setup able to cope with extreme situations from natural disasters to intruders. Equipment should be in place to protect the data centre environment with procedures supporting it. It’s important to ask about infrastructure before committing to a critical hosting service.

6. Reputation

Moving to a new hosting provider and assessing a company is not always an easy task. Research can help identify any major problems and quickly rule out companies from being suitable. Search for awards received and use recommendations on hosting comparison websites, avoid companies with a big name but a bad reputation.

7. Location

Not only is the location important to ensure the quickest connection, search engines actually use the physical location of your website as a determining factor to the listing position within the search results. And, find out if the support team are located at the same location as the data centre, support agents should always have physical access to each and every server.

8. Scalability

With any service that’s likely to change, its important to seek information about options available within the near future. Ensure there are no hidden costs when changing services. Is the company able to cope with your requirements in case of rapid expansion?

9. Features

Hosting packages always come bundled with a specific set of features, ensure you have exactly what you need before committing to a package. Be specific with your requirements and allow the company to recommend a hosting plan. The more information you provide about your business will make it easier for the company to determine exactly what is suited.

10. Cost

Cutting costs is important to all businesses, although you should always invest comparatively. You may pay a much larger cost later on if your hosting service is not suitable. Assess your own business and measure how important a web presence is to your business. Watch out for offers that seem too good to be true, as they usually are.

What’s new: CWCS Managed Hosting - Features are upgraded!

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We have squeezed a massive amount of features into our smaller packages giving each package a total boost.

With mailboxes, web space, and Data transfer being the main focus of the upgrade, each and every customer can enjoy much more feature rich packages at the same low cost.

Our Windows Business plan now offers a massive 50GB UltraFast UK Web Space, 6,500 Mail Boxes, 350GB Data Transfer, Host 3 Domains, Email Anti Virus & Spam and much more at just £19.99 (+ VAT) per month, this is more than enough for most business customers. The total web space available is large enough to handle a massive amount of storage, reducing the physical limitations of the package.

Just take a look though our web hosting packages for full listings of all features available across the different plans.

Internet Browsing

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Internet browsing can actually now be considered as a technique or even a skill, choosing unique keywords and narrowing a search term to only include specific results is the key to gathering information quickly.

Like driving a car, many people seem to adopt their own technique that works for them. Good techniques will help you to avoid ending up places you don’t want to be and will direct you to the exact information you require.

The Internet is a massive community, which consists of billions of individual websites. Using broad search terms such as “car” or “vehicle” will only bring back a humongous amount of results.

A technique you could try is to include quotation marks around a string of words or a phrase you specifically need information for. This will filter through the results including only results with that particular search term.

E.g. searching for “Managed Hosting” will bring up all websites with the phase “Managed hosting” in the exact order, specified within the quotes.

Have you ever been searching for particular information, although the search engine completely brings up everything you don’t want?

Annoying isn’t it… There’s actually a technique that can be used on most search engines to exclude certain search terms within your results. Tags can be added for keywords you want to include within your search, and also keywords you do not want to include.

The search tags are “+” for include and “–“ for exclude.

Lets do a test!

If you were searching for web hosting you may choose to search “UK web hosting”. This is generally a very broad search; it may often bring up companies offering web design rather than only hosting.

Try narrowing your search, “UK web hosting –design”. Notice how the results change excluding the word “design” from the results.

You can be as creative as you like with search terms, aim to spend less time searching and more time reading through the valuable information.

Many companies now design their websites knowing what type of search terms are used by a majority of people. You may find that you end up in the same place a number of times, when searching for a particular product.

By paying more attention to each actual website address within the search listing, you can easily skip past many results that are not suitable for the information you need.