The Web Hosting Tutorial That Doesn't Suck

Watch this video at Youtube

You should really watch the video to get the best explanation but here goes otherwise:

Uptime with my hosting is a VERY high priority for me with ShowYourAdHere.com. A couple minutes of downtime is bearable, but 3 hours or longer absolutely will not work.

The following is a solution for people that need their site to have the best odds of being up 100% of the time. I'll present 2 solutions, but first:

How Web Hosting Works High Level

There is a Dns Server that gets your request for a web page first.

It takes the urladdress.com and resolves it to an ip address like 132.70.433.34

Basically, that ip address is where your files, pictures, and good stuff is located, we call it the web server.

The way it should work is if the server with your files is down the dns server will just send your visitors to another server. Good.

So what's the problem?

Do NOT let your host manage your DNS

For most of you, including myself until last week, you let your host handle your dns.

Now, when your host goes down, so does your DNS. Bad,bad. There is nobody to tell your visitors to go somewhere else, they are left staring at a blank page and you look like a 3rd grader set the website up.

Introducing Failover Dns

Do NOT let your host handle your dns if you want the best odds of keeping your website live 100% of the time.

Outsource it. I went with a solution called http://www.dnsmadeeasy.com/ failover dns.

Now every couple of minutes DNSmadeeasy checks to see if my server is up. If it's not up it will send visitors to another server I tell them to ;)

Wow, what a beautiful world now ;)

Of course you need another server, but most people have a shared hosting account somewhere that is under utilized that could host a few pages. (if not get one for under $10 per month)

Now that you've got your dns and hosting squared away, let's figure out what to do if your server goes down, because you actually have the POWER to DO SOMETHING now!

Scenario One - Complete Redundancy

This is where you duplicate the entire contents from server 1 onto server 2. The majority of your visitors will never miss a beat if a server goes down.

This is easy with a static website, however for a dynamic website like a blog this solution is difficult to pull off.

Don't sweat though, you can still not show your visitors a "page not found" for hours and provide something useful or better for your users.

The mini site of your site

On server two, assuming server one goes down and the dns sends people to server two now, ANYTHING is better than a "page not found".

In fact, for you widget developers, it's the difference between locking up every single site your widget is on or having the ability to not show the widget or degrade however you like.

There are other options, even a "be back soon" screen with a cute picture is better and shows you at least are still in control. Maybe put your help desk info or contact email/info.

Throw some help files or faq up there for them to read until server one gets online. Maybe let them make suggestions or interact with your site on a limited basis on server 2.

Maybe update them in REAL TIME why they can't have full access to the site but you are working on it and you can keep the communication lines up the entire time.

Just a few suggestions. When you aren't letting your host manage your dns, the sky is the limit, and you won't get caught looking like a third grader manages your hosting.

Happy Hosting

I'm still learning the hosting ropes but I'm trying to learn them quickly and doing all I can to keep my websites live 100% of the time. I started with showyouradhere.com and 45n5.com is next ;)

I will be moving my sites to the scenario that degrades smoothly and at a later date I will be trying to make my main sites 100% redundant.

If you have anything to add I'd love to hear it. Or if you have any questions about the hosting scenarios mentioned above I can try my best to answer them.

Thanks for all the help last week all. :) Happy Hosting.



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