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More About Backups, And How To
Monitor Your Sites Automatically

How To Backup Your Files

As I've already recommended, you should keep at least one up to date copy of your web sites locally.

So once you've got local copies of all your files, you can keep them on your computer for easy restoring if the need ever arises.

You can also copy them to CD using Nero or other CD burning software:

www.Nero.com

Since my web sites come to around 2 GB I would actually store them to DVD.

You can then store these secondary backups either at home or off site for more security.

You can also send your data to online backup services such as iBackup:

www.iBackup.com

Now all these backups may sound a little paranoid, but if your business depends on your web sites, and you don't want to depend on your web host 100%, keeping local backups and even offsite and online backups are good ways to rest easy.

And they must all be available for easy restoring to your web site.  And that's another reason to have a host that very reliably handles backups, since all the time you're re-uploading your data (2 GB would take a long time) you're once again losing potential customers.

And it's important to note that when backing up, make a note of all folder permissions, script settings, database settings...etc.

And be sure to very regularly backup your databases too.  This is very important, since generally databases are going to be updated often.

For example - my forum at InfoProfitsTalk.com which runs on a MySQL database updates throughout the day whenever a new post is made, whenever a user changes their settings, or whenever a new user signs up.  All this information is stored in the database, and I really shouldn't lose any of that.

Once I did lose around 4 hours of database updates while I was upgrading from a shared hosting account to a dedicated hosting account, and that lost me at least 6 posts from the forum.  Not great.

Instructions for backing up databases will usually be found within the web hosts' control panel. So check with your host for information on how to do that.

How Can Your Website Go Offline?

You should be aware of the different ways that your web site can go offline:

If you're moving your web site from one web host to another, as the internet learns to look for your domain at a new piece of land, for a couple of days you could have some on and off downtime.

That's why it's recommended you spend a long time researching and choosing the right web host so that you won't have to move in the future.

If your server becomes unstable or crashes entirely, that can cause downtime.  That's why you want a web host that won't put too many people on each server therefore making them unstable.

If there's a hardware failure on your server, that can cause it to become unstable or even crash, so your web host should have strict server monitoring and quick replacement of hardware.  As well as high quality hardware and multiple hard disks to reduce the risk of any downtime and data loss.

The hard disks should also be mirroring one another so that they can just take over if there's any issues.

There could be a data centre issue - like the "pipe" to the internet fails.  So make sure your web host has multiple pipes by different carriers to be able to cope with this eventuality.

Your web server can also become unstable if it simply gets too much traffic and can't cope with it all.

So how often do such disasters happen?

Well, if you pick the wrong host they can happen a lot.

So without spending the earth, make sure you're set for such disasters, because you want your shop open 24/7.

Now related to this are "downtime promises":

"We guarantee you 99.9% uptime"

Is a common one.

Well, think about that - that's around 43 minutes of downtime a month.

Not a lot, but that's not great.  So do the maths, and calculate what they're promising you.

And this is something most people don't do, but I strongly recommend you do it:

Read the terms and conditions

I've seen some that say (to paraphrase) "If we have more than 0.1% of downtime during any month, for every hour of downtime after that you get a 1% rebate next month".

Or similar.

The point is, it's important to note what hosting companies actually do when there is downtime.  You want to be properly compensated for any loss.

But ideally, there wouldn't be any downtime in the first place.

Who's Watching Your Server?

As mentioned you want your website up and fully functioning 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.

So someone has to keep a eye on the server and make sure everything's running fine.

A professional web hosting company will have server monitoring so that if there's any problem with the components of the server, or any other kind of problem they're immediately made aware of it.

There must also be someone physically near to the server 24/7 to solve any hardware issues.

The problem with resold hosting (that's where someone rents a server from a data centre and then resells that web hosting to other people) is that usually the person reselling it is nowhere physically near the server.

So if there's any hardware issues or anything like that, they have to try to resolve it over the internet from wherever their office is (often at home).

If that doesn't do it they then need to contact the data centre where the actual server is located and wait for them to look into and solve the issue.

So there's basically an extra level between you and your web server.  And this can cause more issues and can slow down issues getting resolved.

Plus of course people reselling web hosting are often small or even home based businesses and usually aren't able to offer true 24/7 support.  That's another whole 'nother potential issue.

So make sure any web hosting you take out is with people with physical access to the server, that it's being fully monitored 24 hours a day, and that there's professional support to fix any issue, available round the clock.

How To Watch Your Own Server

As well as trusting your host to keep a careful eye on your server, you can use services that allow you to automatically keep an eye on your web sites too.

Then, if your site is down or there's other issues you'll be able to see that clearly.

As I write this you can try out Net Mechanic server monitoring free at the following address:

www.NetMechanic.com/server_check/site_monitoring.htm

What Effect Do Scripts Have?

"Scripts"?

What are they, and how do they affect your web hosting decision?

Well, if you're not sure what scripts are -

A script is a piece of software that runs on your web server to do a certain task.

For example - if you want to keep an email list and send periodic emails to your subscribers, you would do that using a script.

If you wanted to keep a blog that automatically updates, you would do that using a script too.

And generally, with anything beyond simply serving web pages and graphics and downloadable files (like eBooks or software), scripts can add a lot of functionality to your site.  And sooner or later you'll most likely want to make use of them.

So how does that affect your web hosting decision?

Well - you'll have to see if your web host supports any scripts you want to run.

And if you run more powerful scripts you'll find that if you're allocated 1% of the CPU time on a shared server it just won't cut it.  Your script could run very slowly on a shared server.

An example of this would be a script for a busy affiliate program.

And also another consideration on a shared server is not all hosting companies actually limit how much RAM or CPU time one person can use.  Therefore a person who's sharing your server could use a disproportionate amount of the server resources.  And this works against you and could make the server unstable.

So as you need more power for your scripts, you'll want to move to a dedicated server.

Part 1 - An Introduction

Part 2 - What Exactly Is a Web Server?

Part 3 - Your Web Server Memory and Operating System Options

Part 4 - Bandwidth, and Backups

Part 5 - More About Backups, And How To Monitor Your Sites Automatically

Part 6 - Databases, Unmanaged Hosting, and More...