Welcome to Midnight Webs

Web design, Ecommerce & Web Hosting Resources
Midnight webs is our attempt to put basic Web Hosting & Ecommerce Hosting information into plain English for anyone struggling to understand the choices available.

Midnight Webs! Can web sites really be made at any other time of day?

On this site you will find information, links & resources on web hosting, domain registration, ecommerce & other web related issues. There are links to resources or services that we think you might find useful. Some are sponsored links to help us maintain the site. Our web hosting advice, below is practical advice, learned from our experience as a web hosting customer for the last few years.

Web hosting Q & A
Practical advice for anyone contemplating registering their first domain or hosting their first web site.

Which is the best country to host a web site?
This depends very much on where your main target audience are located. The closer your site is to them the faster your pages are likely to load. If you expect visitors from all over the world then the USA is probably best as it tends to have faster links to more places & seems to be the most central point of the internet. Host your site as close as you can to your visitors. This may also help your rankings with some local search engines.

How do I know if a hosting company is good or bad?
The million dollar question! It's tricky if not impossible to judge a web hosting company until or unless you try them out. It is relatively easy to compare the deals & capacities offered but very hard to know how stable their servers are or how helpful & fast is the support. We have generally found that you get what you pay for. That is not to say that all cheap hosting is bad but for us it has been less stable & slower responding than our more expensive hosting. It serves a good purpose & providing a few glitches are not likely to cause serious problems it can be the best choice. If your site is a busy one where problems or downtime can be expensive it's probably better to go with a reputable company that guarantees 99.9% uptime & promises rapid support.

Do I need ecommerce hosting to run an ecommerce site?
No but you may find it useful if don't have the time or knowledge to use other solutions. Ecommerce hosting often includes a ready made web shop or web store where you simply have to add your text, images & products to begin selling. It is normally more expensive than a regular hosting account and you may be more limited with design & layout. You could also then be stuck with the hosting company as you can't move your store. The alternative is to purchase web store software or web store templates with integrated shopping carts. This is more flexible but will require more time & some web design knowledge, however simple the solutions claims to be.

Another solution is to have an ecommerce site made for you by a web design company. This can be pricey but will save you lots of time & frustration & hopefully get you something more tailored to your exact needs.

Where should I make Domain registrations?
There are many options with domain registration from registering a new domain with your web hosting company to holding a separate domain registration account with one of the domain specialists such as Network Solutions or NameCheap. It depends partly on budget & the number of domains you are planning to register. The cheapest option is often to register & hold domains with your web hosting company. This is fine with 1 or 2 domains especially if you are happy with your current web host. If you plan to amass a number of domains & eventually activate these domains with different hosting companies you may find it much simpler to have a separate domain holding account with a domain specialist. We have chosen this route which is more expensive but gives far more flexibility as you have full control of your domains. If you are unhappy with your current hosts & decide to move your domain the process is quick & simple & you can make the changes yourself by changing the DNS servers to point to your new hosts nameservers.

Windows or Unix hosting?
The choice between Windows & Unix hosting is also the choice between ASP & PHP. If you plan to use one of these 'active' page systems you will have to be hosted on the right platform. Windows hosting usually gives you the option of using ASP & Unix hosting the option of PHP. Which is best? There is no clear answer to that & both do similar things. Unix hosting is more widespread, often cheaper & said to be faster.

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