Let’s dive right into the definition of shared hosting.
Shared hosting
Shared Hosting is one of the most common and affordable hostings. Multiple users will use a shared server or group of servers in order to host the website.
Advantages of Shared Hosting
One of the greatest advantages of shared hosting is affordability. People often think that shared hosting sites are not speedy. People have this notion because the performance provided by shared hosting companies in the early ’90s and 2000s were not up to the mark. However, in today’s date, the shared hosting servers are managed properly and there is no chance of platform patches.
Difference between Shared Hosting and WordPress Hosting
Shared Hosting is the hosting platform in which WordPress can be installed. Some vendors term this shared hosting as WordPress hosting because WordPress is the most commonly used platform. In the case of WordPress hosting the server is particularly optimized for WordPress.
Difference between Shared Hosting and VPS Hosting or Dedicated Hosting
In the case of shared hosting, multiple users share resources( RAM, CPU, etc) in the same server. However, in case of VPS Hosting or Dedicated Hosting resources are not shared. That makes VPS Hosting or Dedicated Hosting more expensive.
How to get started with Shared Hosting?
As an avid user of Bluehost, I must say that Bluehost is one of the most reliable shared hosting platforms available to users today.
This is the cheapest plan you can get for a Blue Host account. The price as of now is $3.95 per month (normal $7.99 per month). This is the perfect plan for beginners who are new to the world of the domain and hosting but want to own a WordPress site.
The main features of the Blue Host Basic Plan are as follows
This is one of the most popular plans for Blue Host hosting. The price as of now $5.45 per month (normal price of $10.99 ) This is a great plan for people little bit advanced users who want to promote their site for small businesses.
The main features of the Blue Plus Plan are as follows
Websites You Can Install: Unlimited
Website Space: Unmetered
Bandwidth is Unmetered
FREE Domain (for 1 year)
FREE SSL Included
You can park up to unlimited domains
You can park up to unlimited domains
Can use unlimited email accounts
Marketing offers of $200 included plus over $24 /yr in extras
This is one of the most popular plans for Blue Host hosting. The price as of now $5.45 per month (normal price of $14.99 ) This is a great plan for people advanced users who want to promote their site for small businesses.
The main features of the Blue Plus Plan are as follows
Websites You Can Install: Unlimited
Website Space: Unmetered
Bandwidth is Unmetered
FREE Domain (for 1 year)
FREE SSL Included
You can park up to unlimited domains
You can park up to unlimited domains
Can use unlimited email accounts
Marketing offers of $200 included plus over $80 /yr in extras
Spam Expert included
1 Domain Privacy
Code Guard Basic
cPanel Account Control Panel
Secure Shell, FTP
There is another package called Blue Host Pro which comes with some additional features in addition to Blue Host Prime. Some of the additional features include Dedicated IP, Domain Privacy, SSL Certificate, and Code Guard Basic.
My recommendation is to take Plan Plus or Plan Prime for a longer time span of 2 to 3 years. The important thing about time span is that higher term plan gives more savings. Another advantage of Blue Host is faster speed and loading. Further, Blue Host provides excellent 24 by 7 customer support. In addition, Blue Host offers free marketing offers to promote the site using Google or Facebook which will help to promote on various channels.
If you want to have a website the first thing to do is to have a domain name. Domain name comes in various forms. In general, the most typical domain name ends with .com. For example, www.apple.com is a domain name. Apart from domain names that end with .com, domain names can end with .org, .in, .xyz, .co, .app etc.
Most people buy a domain name and hosting from the same company. However, one can buy a domain name from one company and hosting from another company. There are a number of players who sell domain names at a different price. Although domain names can be bought from any company, it is great to buy domain names from known and significant players.
The number 1 popular domain name company is Go Daddy. The company is the largest domain name registrar with around 17 million customers.
Name.com is an ICANN accredited domain name and hosting company based in Denver, Colorado. The company has around 1.9 million domain names under registration.
Namecheap.com is another ICANN registered domain name & hosting company based in Phoenix, Arizona. The company claims to manage around 7 million Domain Names.
Windows PC has been a target of hackers looking for new ways to access the system. From malware, files attacks, viruses there are plenty of attacks out there. Therefore, no matter how careful you are the reality is that you need a solid antivirus to protect your PC or your Laptop from harm.
This doesn’t have to be very expensive. Most products give their basic version for free. With an amazing array of free versions available you might think why you need to buy a paid version. However, the paid versions offer much more features than the free versions. For example, features like spam filters, parental controls, advanced firewalls are available in the paid versions. Therefore, it is better to buy the paid versions.
And some commercial packages comes with a price you can easily afford. So what are the great products that are available in the Anti-Virus product segment?
Bit defender Anti-Virus
Bit defender is one of the most accurate and reliable software in the anti-virus segment. The anti-virus performs web filtering which keeps malicious viruses at bay. It’s anti-phishing module blocks dangerous sites and informs the user of any malicious sites. Although it may consume more resources it delivers great performance and often more than enough to justify the price.
Norton is a top quality anti virus available. The main advantages of Norton are it blocks even brand new malware. Also, it does not consume more system resources. Further, the price of Norton AntiVirus is far less than its peers which makes it more lucrative.
Kaspersky Anti-Virus relies on the core security essentials like web filtering of malicious URLs, an intelligent Anti-Virus engine detects and removes threats. Also, the program rates high on ease of use.
McAfee is an award-winning Anti Virus software. This software was used even before many new Anti-Virus software came into the picture. The Anti-Virus offers comprehensive protection. Some of the salient features are virus and threat protection, safe browsing, protection of multiple devices, security management console, file lock, and password manager.
It is evident that if you have a Windows Computer or a Laptop you will require an Anti-Virus Software. While Mac and Linux do not have many viruses and Trojan horses, Windows still welcomes a lot of malicious viruses. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to protect yourself by installing an Anti-Virus software.
In the previous post we have seen about browsers for Desktop. In this post let’s delve deeper into the field of mobile browsers.
Mobile usage over the years have increased by a significant amount. People today spend most of the time in mobile rather than in desktops. Therefore, a good mobile browsing experience is required so that people can surf more.
Mobile browsers are available for two main mobile platforms namely iOS and Android. And most of the mobile browsers available are free of cost. That means you can easily download it from the App Store. Here are some of the main mobile browsers available today.
Google Chrome: As we have seen in the previous post about the Google Chrome desktop browser. Like the Desktop browser, Google Chrome is also available for mobile devices. Some of the salient features of Chrome are: Chrome is a relatively fast browser, the browser allows safe browsing, allows Incognito Mode to allow for safe browsing, etc. Another important feature of the Chrome browser is the built-in Google translate, Voice Search, and the Data Saver feature which allows navigating the web with more than 50% less data.
Platforms available: iOS, Windows, Download Google Chrome for mobile here.
2. Safari: This is a great web browser available for iPhones and iPads. The browser has an awesome user interface. Some of the salient features of the Safari browser are the auto reader view, block cookies option and an option to save web pages for the Safari Reading List.
Platforms available: iOS, Download Safari for mobile here.
3. Firefox Focus Browser: Mozilla makes two Firefox applications for the mobile platform. One is the Firefox browser and another is the Firefox Focus Browser which is its “privacy browser”. The Focus browser is fast and it allows one tap erase of its history. The browser is also light-weight and can be installed easily.
Platforms available: iOS and Android Download Firefox Focus for mobile here.
4. Opera Mini Browser: Opera browser is good but the Opera Mini is a great browser. Some of the excellent features are data savings, faster browsing, smart night mode, video boost, etc. While the Opera browser is available for Android, Opera Mini is available for both iOS and Android.
Platforms available: iOS, Android and other basic phones.
5.Dolphin Browser: This is a new browser. It offers some lovely features for mobile web browsing. These features include multiple tabs bar, personalized search, incognito browsing, ad block, HTML 5 Video player and so on.
6. Surfy Browser. Windows phone users use the Surfy Browser. This browser is used for voice search plus a lot of other features. Some of the salient features include the text to speech engine, searchable history, night dimmer and private browsing at startup.
7. Puffin Browser: It sounds like Muffin but it’s called the Puffin browser. This is a relatively new browser available in the market today. Puffin Browser claims itself to be a super fast browser. And there claim is indeed true. I checked the Puffin browser it loads pages twice as fast as any other browser available in the market.
In addition to the super fast speed, Puffin allows colored themes, incognito mode, secure browsing, and huge bandwidth savings.
Thus we saw various different browsers today. I wrote this post only after testing each one of them individually. The browsers of today have improved a lot. For example, many people haven’t heard of the Puffin Browser. And slowly the new browsers are being increasingly accepted. If you see the download count you will be amazed to see that Dolphin browser has already around 50 million installs.
The landscape of browsing is changing fast. People have more choices now. With improved AI technologies, browsing experience will improve further. In the future, there is a possibility for AI maneuvered browsers.
A right web browser can make a large difference in everyday browsing efficiency. It mainly depends on what priority you have. It may be that you need faster browsing, more security, better downloadable extensions or a great user interface.
However, it can be quite challenging to break out of your comfort zone when it comes to browsers. Many of us may search Amazon or Google for a better mobile phone but haven’t searched in the net if there are better browsers around.
Here are some of the browsers that are transforming web search today.
Mozilla Fire Fox: This is one of the earliest browsers known. This browser was one of the widely used browsers in the 2000’s. This browser lagged behind Google Chrome in terms of speed. However, with the release of Fire Fox Quantum the speed of the browser has increased substantially. Fire Fox is not only great in terms of speed but also in the use of system resources. For example, the browser makes frugal use of RAM even when the tabs are wide open. Also, the new browser has taken care of the privacy aspects which has made it even more attractive. However, there is the lack of Flash support and the browser doesn’t sync with iOS devices yet. Download Fire Fox Here.
2. Google Chrome : Another browser that is widely used is the Google Chrome browser. This browser is one of the best browsers available in the internet. The browser has a cool look, is fast and is incredibly stable. If you have a resourceful system this browser is the most efficient browser. However, the browser is heavy and uses system resources compared to other browsers. Another great feature of this browser is the incredible support for extensions. You can really customize this browser and make it your own browser.
3. Opera Browser: This browser is recognized by the red colored ring. This browser controls only around 1% of the market. However, this browser has also some interesting features. For example, this browser is good for slow connections. The browser has a feature called Opera Turbo which compresses the web traffic routing it through the Opera servers. This browser also has an integrated Ad blocking feature which comes along with it.
4. Microsoft Edge: This is one of the most successful browsers of Microsoft after Internet Explorer. Some of the salient features of this browser are the super fast speed. The browser claims to be faster than both Fire Fox and Chrome. This browser offers full integration with Windows 10. However, the browser lacks backward compatibility. But the user interface is perfect and it has a built for providing a pleasant web browsing experience.
5. Vivaldi Browser: This browser provides a unique browsing experience. In this browser, you have the built-in space for taking notes while browsing at the same time. The user can also put the important links in the left-hand side of the browser. The structure and style of the interface fully depend on the user. The Vivaldi is built on Chromium which allows the user to expand it with extensions from the Chrome Web Store
What I liked about this browser is the incredible customization that it provides. However, the browser speed is relatively less compared to its peers.
6. Tor Browser: Tor Browser is built to keep browsing private. It is perhaps gives the most secure browsing experience. The good thing about the Tor browser is that nothing is tracked and stored and basically you can forget about cookies. However, the speed is slow compared to its peers. Therefore, this browser can be used along with another browser particularly if you want to browse in private mode.
7. Safari Browser: This browser is supported only in Mac and iOS platforms. It is a great alternative to Google Chrome and Fire Fox. The web browser has a customizable tool bar, reader view, iCloud, etc. It can be said that this browser is made exclusively for Apple fans.
It can be seen that each browser is unique in its own way. While it is entirely up to the user to choose the browser it is always advisable to use two browsers. This helps to optimize the user experience for various kind of situations. For example Opera browser can be used in conjunction with the Google Chrome browser to optimize the performance. In a similar way, you also use other browsers. The good thing about today’s browsers is that almost all browsers are stable compared to the 90’s browsers.
The user today has more choices than the early ’90s where Microsoft Internet Explorer was the only browser available. There are many more browsers today which is good news for users. Another good thing about the browsers is that it is free of cost.
In the future, there is hope that a more improved browser will evolve because of the extensive use of AI technologies in computing. With increasing use of AI, browsers of the future will be able to do a lot more.
Windows PC has been a target of hackers looking for new ways to access the system. From malware, files attacks, viruses there are plenty of attacks out there. Therefore, no matter how careful you are the reality is that you need a solid antivirus to protect your PC or your Laptop from harm.
3. Opera Browser: This browser is recognized by the red colored ring. This browser controls only around 1% of the market. However, this browser has also some interesting features. For example, this browser is good for slow connections. The browser has a feature called Opera Turbo which compresses the web traffic routing it through the Opera servers. This browser also has an integrated Ad blocking feature which comes along with it.