• Services
  • Web hosting
  • Computer repair
  • Consulting and training
• Web site examples
  • Bob Speller campaign
  • Long Point Biosphere
  • Simcoe and District Youth Soccer Club
  • Long Point Bay Anglers' Association
  • Otter Creek Ginseng
  • Donnybrook Fair
  • Albright Electrical
  • South Coast Mediations
  • Long Point Causeway Improvement Project
  • Busschy Equipment Repair
  • Susan Bennett (artist)
  • Pereira Cottage Rentals
  • Otter Valley Rod and Gun Club
  • White Buffalo Tobacco
  • Eric Hoskins campaign
  • Smelko Law Office
• About Guardian
  • Introduction
  • Suppliers
  • Previous work

Web hosting & design

I offer two web hosting plans: a personal package for $100 per year and a business package for $200 per year. These plans are less expensive and have more features than those offered by any other local web hosting company.

I can also design your site for you, if you wish. Here are some examples of my previous work.

Features common to both hosting plans

Free unlimited number of email accounts: you may have as many email accounts as you wish for no additional charge. Each email account takes the form of "name@yourdomain.com". For example, if you purchased the domain "example.com" you could have "joe@example.com", "bob@example.com", "sales@example.com" or any other address you choose. Just tell me what you want and I'll set it up for you.

MySQL databases: databases are the secret to having a really great site. You can make a site without a database but it will be static, like a brochure. Adding a database allows you to add interactive features with constantly changing information such as message forums, blogs, online catalogues, and such. Every site I sell has a database already hooked up and working. You can have up to ten separate databases on a personal account, and one hundred on a business account, though the odds are you'll never need more than one.

Webmail interface: this allows you to pick up your email from any computer without installing additional software. This is handy while traveling.

FTP Access: you can update your site directly through the use of FTP (file transfer protocol) software if you wish. The easiest way to update, though, is to just email me your requests.

PERL, PHP4, PHP5, Python, Ruby and TCL support: These are common scripting languages to allow more advanced functions on a web site. Generally this isn't something you'll have to worry about, but it does mean that if you find a cool script you want to run on your site, the odds are very high that I'll be able to get it working for you immediately.

Web Site Statistics: You can view full statistics for your site at any time. This allows you to keep track of how often people read your site and which search phrases they are using to get to your site. These stats are presented in a manner that is easy to understand and includes graphs and pie charts.

Differences between personal and business hosting packages

The differences between packages come down to price, disk space, and bandwidth allowed. Bandwidth is a measure of your web site's traffic.

The business account is a much better deal, but most personal and small business sites will do just fine with a personal account. You can always start with a personal account and bump up to a business account if you feel you need it. There are no setup fees.

There is an additional one-time charge of $15 to register a domain, if it's one that didn't exist before. It's easy to transfer an existing domain as well.

Data Centers

I approach web hosting with the same degree of professionalism I do everything else. If you let me host your site it's not going to be on some mouldy computer in my back office, like some fly-by-night local hosts use. I rent servers in two world-class data centers. One is the i-Advantage Data Center in Hong Kong and the other is the Savvis Data Center in Boston. Currently I prefer using the data center in Boston as I think it provides a slightly more responsive connection, but the Hong Kong one is available if for some reason you don't want your site hosted in America.

Here's a few features of the Savvis data center:

• A redundant network of multiple fiber trunks from multiple sources. This ensures your site will be available no matter what happens.
• Redundant power on the premises.
• Multiple data backup procedures.
• Only the best and most reliable brands of hardware.
• Environmental controls: Sophisticated HVAC, fire suppression and seismic engineering capabilities protect from natural and man-made catastrophes.
• Tight physical security: This includes 24/7 video surveillance and on-site security guards, locked computer cabinets, bullet-proof glass and walls, biometric access controls such as palm scanners, and highly-secure off-site vaults for backups.
• For every 3 production servers they keep 1 online spare server. If a production server fails, it will be immediately replaced with a spare server, and the latest backup will be restored. This will ensure a 99.9% uptime at least.
• Savvis received the highest score of all data centers tested by Network Computing magazine. You can read a scan of this article here. This is the kind of host you need if you're serious about protecting your data and ensuring that your web site is always available. Local companies that store their web sites on computers in their back office can't even begin to compete on this level

What this boils down to is if you host your site with me, you get a world-class facility with world-class support staff and you don't have to worry about a single thing. And you get it cheaper than you would if you went with anyone else. If you can't use me for anything else, use me for this. You'll never regret it.