December 2005: October 2005: Hosting and Stock.

The MANOVERBOARD Telegraph, No. 19.

The Relocation.

Hello, I hope that this finds you well.

Two months ago, my family and I relocated in Western Canada while maintaining MANOVERBOARD in Brooklyn, New York. (Now I think I have some sense of what a logistics company actually does.) I've set up a new office and MANOVERBOARD has, quite possibly, more business than it ever has previously. It's an honor to be writing to you under these circumstances.

The reality of the remote office is real, though not without its initial hurdles!

In this month's Telegraph, I'm focusing on hosting. It's a little known and little examined technology but it's one that I've found is absolutely critical to a website's success and to a business's progress. I'll also briefly discuss a new stock photography website that launched a few months ago. The site offers a new and unusual take on stock photography.

Hosting 101.

I've been using various website hosts for, oh, about 10 years. I started hosting my own website back in 1996 with my Internet Service Provider in New York City. I've since evolved from using a very large hosting company to downsizing to a smaller one and now I'm jumping ship again to a mid-sized hosting firm that is just right. The large hosting was too hot: the company was basically selling hosting as a commodity with little personal service and little ability to customize a complex website. The small hosting firm was too cold: they offered solid basic support but could not offer immediate resources to expand or grow a site.

What really is hosting?

1. Hosting services vary widely but they all have in common the ability to allow HTML website pages, images, or other media to reside on a server (a fancy name for a networked, high-performance computer that resides in a controlled technical environment) so that others can download them. When you go to a website using a browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, you are literally downloading files that are on a computer housed somewhere.
2. According to Wikipedia, Web hosts are "companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center." In other words, a Web host is a company dedicated to running computers that can be shared by others on the Internet.
3. Hosting can also include a variety of additional services. For instance, by configuring a host in a certain way, a server can also provide e-commerce, email, a weblog, or an online bulletin board.

What makes a good website host?

1. A good host will provide a high-performance, always-on connection. This means that your website pages, images and files will be quickly delivered to a browser without errors or slow download speeds.
2. Just as importantly, a good host has very fast, and 24-hour, support. It's not common that you have to call or email a host but when you do, you want results immediately and without brush-offs.
3. The host should have strong security so that hackers and others can't infiltrate your website. The host should offer a range of reliable email services. And they should offer tools for you to grow your site when and if you need it.

The business of website hosting has changed dramatically. It's become a complex and highly specialized technology and one website host is no longer like the next. If you have questions about your host or about hosting, please feel free to contact us.

The Art Bureau.

A few months ago, MANOVERBOARD was involved in a major project: building the first-ever royalty-free stock photography site that was designed with Web standards. It was no small feat. Most stock photography websites are built using lots of tables and junk code because of the sheer number of images that have to be displayed. These sites often load very slowly and are full of extra features that are unnecessary for designers and other creatives looking for good stock photography.

The new website is The Art Bureau and it's both standards-compliant and accessible to everyone, including those with visual or other disabilities. As a part-owner of this new business, I'm happy to announce the site is up and running and doing well.

The next issue of The Telegraph will focus on your concerns around website design, online technology, or newsletters.

Best wishes,

Andrew Boardman, Principal