by Ragnar Loðbrók | Offshore Services, Online Privacy
The Eleven Most Important Reasons to Choose a Web Hosting Company
The factors surrounding your choice of a web hosting company will likely depend on your specific goals, needs, and budget. For most, however, there are certain qualities they seek in a web hosting solutions provider. Before you make a choice, consider these eleven important factors in your selection.
- Uptime – One of the biggest factors in the selection of a web hosting company is its reliability. A hosting services provider should not just boast of their uptime, they should be able to guarantee it. Server reliability and backup systems have improved tremendously through the years. Today, you should expect near 100% uptimes that are guaranteed.
- Customer and Technical Service – Costumer service and technical support often go hand in hand when considering a web hosting company. This is the “human” component of web hosting which is so important when you need to have a problem resolved. If you have an issue, you should be able to connect with someone in a timely manner. You should be treated as a valuable customer with every contact.
- Choice of Hosting Plans – Not every website is equal or has the same requirements and not every web hosting company offers the same services. You'll want to make sure the hosting provider you choose can accommodate the traffic, software, and applications important for your website's functionality. Finding out your hosting company is inadequate after you have made your choice can be problematic.
- Security – Today, more than ever, security should be a concern when selecting a web hosting company. Two factor authentication methods for client logins, server SSH logins, and other security features can help ensure the security of your websites. Not asking questions regarding security can be asking for problems.
- Location – Location can be a factor for several reasons. The location of a data center can not only affect how quickly users can access its servers, but you'll want a hosting company in a country that is stable politically. It should be an Internet-friendly country that embraces freedom of expression and has regulations that protect web-related freedoms. Its location should have a solid technical infrastructure adding to reliability.
- Environmentally Friendly – As the world begins to have a greater understanding of how much energy is consumed by data centers and how they contribute to pollution, finding “green” or organic web hosting solution providers has increased in importance. These eco web hosting companies take steps to use energy efficiently, often passing savings onto their clients. Using a "green" hosting company also provides marketing opportunities for companies who want to appeal to this market.
- Pricing – While pricing isn't necessarily at the top of the list, it would be naive to think it isn't a significant factor. You certainly don't want to pay for more than you need and you want to get what you pay for.
- Testimonials – This shows how current and previous customers view a web hosting company matters. Look for a web hosting company who is willing to share testimonials from real customers about their services.
- Payment Options – More payment choices and payment flexibility can make working with a web hosting company more convenient. There are plenty more options available out there than credit cards.
- Anonymity – For many companies, anonymity can play an important role in a choice of a web hosting company. If this is important for you, make sure to inquire about the steps a web hosting solutions provider takes to keep you anonymous.
- A Satisfaction Guarantee – You'll want to select a hosting company that has enough confidence in its products and services to guarantee them with a money back guarantee. If a service doesn't back its services, consider your other options.
Not all web hosting companies are the same. When you consider all of the above, we think you'll discover why more and more companies of all sizes from all parts of the world are choosing OrangeWebsite.com as their hosting services solutions provider.
How OrangeWebsite Measures Up
OrangeWebsite meets and exceeds expectations. We have a 99.9% uptime guarantee that is backed with 24/7, knowledgeable technical support. We serve customers in over 100 countries in time-zones across the globe. We have a variety of hosting plans to suit almost every budget and every technological need. Plans can be paid for by using Bitcoin, PayPal, wire transfers, and even cash by mail. We are an ultra-secure hosting provider located in Iceland, considered one of the safest hosting countries in the world.
We have quick load times to both Europe and North America. Iceland obtains almost all of its electricity from renewable energy sources like geothermal and hydroelectric, helping us achieve our status as an eco web hosting provider. Because of our climate, we use much less air conditioning to cool our data center servers, using less energy.
OrangeWebsite provides our clients the ability to place a selection of "Green Seals" on the pages of their websites. These easy to install digital labels indicate that your organization cares enough about the environment to use an eco-friendly hosting provider. We take steps that protect your anonymity and offer a 30 day money back guarantee. View our testimonials online and learn more about getting started today.
Choosing a web hosting service provider is an important decision. Choose wisely. We invite you to discover the benefits of OrangeWebsite.com.
by Oliver Bensson | Hosting Security, Offshore Services
It is not a wrong thing to prefer to remain anonymous online.
In discussions about our digital lives, some people question the need for strict privacy around one’s internet activity. “If you’re not doing anything wrong“, they’ll say, “Why does it need to be private?”
There are plenty of responses to this question: “right” and “wrong” are not always clear-cut, they can be redefined depending on who’s looking, and even some “right” things are just plain nobody else’s business. But instead of abstract arguments, real-life situations make the point much more clearly.
Legal Differences
One example comes from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, regarding the seizure of domain names by the government of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. This was part of a state initiative to fight online gambling, which is illegal in Kentucky. However, online gambling is not illegal everywhere. The defence for the domain owners made the case that these domain names are not property located in Kentucky, which means the state has no jurisdiction over them, even though gambling is illegal in that state.
This example illustrates how “right” and “wrong” can be very fuzzy in some cases. No matter what your personal opinion about gambling, it’s simply true that it is legal in some places and illegal in others. If a website offers a service which is legal in some jurisdictions, should the domain name be subject to legal action from a jurisdiction where that service is illegal?
Activists and Whistleblowers
If anyone needs the protection of anonymous communication, it’s whistleblowers and other activists. From human rights activists to corporate whistleblowers, these individuals and groups take on powerful organizations which often have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. With a fraction of the resources of those larger organizations, activists may rely on privacy and anonymity while they pursue their work, especially when gathering information. This gives a degree of power back to the activists, who can control when and where they will reveal their information publicly.
Trying to Do the Right Thing
Privacy isn’t only valuable to people taking on the big global issues, nor is the need for online privacy a new story. Both these points are demonstrated by the example, from all the way back in 2005, of a librarian who thought poetry contests should be more fair, and was ousted by his domain registrar.
Any person who takes a strong stand on something risks pushback. Even when there are no legal considerations, social pressure can be a strong deterrent against doing the right thing. True privacy can give people the ability to say what they want and minimize the risk of social as well as legal consequences.
Privacy on the internet is extremely important, and we take it extremely seriously. If you need anonymous web hosting or domain registration, please contact us.
by Oliver Bensson | Freedom of Speech, Hosting Security, Offshore Services
Whistleblowers are the only people who tell us about what is happening behind the closed doors.
Whether it is the pharmaceutical industry in the news for mislabelling a new drug or a fresh government scandal, it is clear that whistleblowers are sometime the only people who tell us about what is really going on behind the doors of power and money.
One example is Tyrone Hayes, a biologist who was hired by a large agribusiness to study one of its herbicides, atrazine. When Hayes’ research found that the chemical caused deformations in animals exposed to it, he was attacked by industry insiders and his work was smeared both within the scientific community and online:
According to company e-mails… its public-relations team compiled a database of more than a hundred “supportive third party stakeholders”, including twenty-five professors, who could defend atrazine or act as “spokespeople on Hayes”. The P.R. team suggested that the company “purchase ‘Tyrone Hayes’ as a search word on the internet, so that any time someone searches for Tyrone’s material, the first thing they see is our material”. – The New Yorker
What’s more, the Environmental Protection Agency based their conclusion that the chemical was safe largely on a group of studies done by the corporation that makes it.
Whistleblowers like Hayes are a fundamental litmus test of our freedom of speech. Usually, dirty corporate and government tactics remain hidden until someone on the inside breaks the silence. If the news is any indication, the protections that ought to be in place for those individuals are not entirely effective. Many people who expose government incompetence or corporate cover-ups are attacked and scrutinized, both through their connections online and in their private lives. A lot of web hosting services in the United States and parts of Europe that have attempted to set up secure spaces for these whistleblowers have had to face their own seemingly insurmountable legal troubles.
One this is certain: corporations and governments will spare no expense to ensure that once information leaks from within the halls of the organization, it is quickly and quietly suppressed.
But there’s a way to fight back!
OrangeWebsite is a whistleblower’s best friend and an offshore hosting service dedicated to the principles of free speech. With our secure servers located in Iceland, outside of the jurisdiction of both the U.S. and the E.U., we’re able to allow you a conduit to the outside world without jeopardizing your identity or disclosing your vital information. Whether it’s a place to hold documents or publish vital data, we’ll never expose you to outside risk.
We take the integrity of our customers’ information very seriously. That’s why we incorporate policies such as two-factor authentication and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection. Your information is not our business and we will only keep the minimum we need to administer your services, which makes us pretty unique among web hosting companies.
If you would like to hear more about ways in which an offshore server can give you the unparalleled benefits of free speech, contact us today for a consultation regarding your needs. Get some peace of mind knowing what you had published to the web will not be turned over by your hosting service at the drop of a hat.
by Oliver Bensson | Freedom of Speech, Offshore Services
Freedom of speech is not to be taken for granted in the modern world.
Freedom of Speech should be an inalienable right, but social media makes things a little more complicated. Everyone is “free” to express themselves however they wish on their Facebook or Twitter feeds, but the line between expressing an opinion and offending someone of consequence is thin — and can have powerful implications for the person doing the offending. What does freedom of speech really mean in a world so constantly plugged in?
Professor Steven Salaita, a prominent scholar of American Indian and indigenous studies with six books and numerous articles to his credit, was offered a job at the University of Illinois. He packed up his life and his family and moved to a different state to take the job. There was a delay as he finished up some obligations at his previous school, and during that delay a newspaper printed some of his tweets regarding Israel’s attack on Gaza. These tweets were critical of Israel and they offended some people.
As more and more people (read: wealthy donors) complained to the University, the school finally made the decision not to hire Salaita. The fact that these tweets were not made during school hours or on school property was apparently immaterial. The professor had an excellent record of teaching and communicating with this students, and he was punished for speaking his mind on the internet, as most of us do so “freely.”
The fact is that freedom of speech in this world is only free up to a point. You can only speak your mind “so much” before it can get you into trouble. Now that we all jump on Facebook or Twitter to broadcast what we had for breakfast, we have to be constantly vigilant about how everything we say may offend someone and therefore jeopardize our own careers. Perhaps this is an inevitable consequence of being so connected, but is it right?
Freedom of speech is defined as “the political right to communicate one’s opinions and ideas using one’s body and property to anyone.” It’s a nice theory, but unfortunately the real story is very different. While it’s likely that people like Steven Salaita will have to keep watching what they tweet for a long time to come, it’s important that we work toward a world of freer expression. And those who offend people more powerful than rich university alumni need a safe platform to do so.
If you’re looking for a way to express yourself online without risking your livelihood, you might consider offshore web hosting in a country with the some of the world’s most progressive free speech laws. If you don’t want to identify yourself on your website, you don’t have to. All you need is an email address and an opinion.
For more information on freedom of speech please contact us.
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