Shared hosting is the most common way of hosting a website. In general, a shared web hosting is a server shared by multiple users and websites. Hostmonster, for example, is a shared hosting providers. Shared web hosting is also known as virtual hosting sometimes. However, it shouldn’t be confused with virtual private server (VPS) as they are two totally different things.

How shared web hosting works?

As said, shared web hosting simply means multiple website hosted together on a same computer servers. The resources of the server – RAM, hard disk, processor, and Internet gateway – are all shared by the websites hosted on it. The number of websites hosted on a shared web host is basically unlimited. In most of the case, website on a shared hosting are sharing the server box with hundreds of other websites.

The logic behind shared hosting is simple – to minimize the cost of hosting a website without jeopardizing its performance.

What’s good about shared hosting?

Shared hosting is cheaper than all other hosting options. As the server resources are shared, the cost of maintaining the server are shared among websites owners as well.

Also, running website on a shared hosting requires less technical knowledge. The server is shared, thus all hosting accounts using it has no access to the server root folder. Shared hosting website owners simply spend less time and effort in maintaining their web server as the jobs are done by the hosting provider.

Disadvantages of shared hosting

Unfortunately, shared hosting does come with certain disadvantages. Some key cons with this type of hosting services are:

• For certain web host, shared hosting means limited disk space and bandwidth.
• Shared hosting = shared IP, you have little control to avoid your website IP from being blacklisted as spam.
• Root access is normally not available with shared hosting accounts.

Bottom line: Should you go with shared hosting?

Shared hosting is always the best options for starters and newbies in webmastering or blogging. A good shared hosting are reliable, affordable, and never short of hosting features that add values for their client’s websites. In case you are looking for an affordable shared hosting service, check out Hostmonster – they might not be the best but I think their price is reasonable and worth trying.

XOOPS actually stands for eXtensible Object Oriented Portal System. It is a web content management system (CMS) powered by PHP. The CMS is an open source software released under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) and is free to use, modify and redistribute. The light weigth system is an ideal tool for developing small to large dynamic community websites, intra company portals, corporate portals, weblogs and much more.

Some key features of XOOPS according to the officials are:

Database-driven XOOPS uses a relational database (currently MySQL) to store data required for running a web-based content management system.

Fully Modularized Modules can be installed/uninstalled/ativated/deactivated with a click using the XOOPS module administration system.

Personalization Registered users can edit their profiles, select site themes, upload custom avatars, and much more!

User Management The ability to search for users by various criteria, send email and private messages to users through a template-based messaging system.

XSupported World-wide OOPS was created and is maintained by a team of several hard-working volunteers working from all over the world. The XOOPS community has more than dozen official support sites around the world for support of non-English speaking users.

Multi-byte Language Support Fully supports multi-byte languages, including Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Korean, etc.

Versatile Group Permissions System Powerful and user-friendly permissions system which enables administrators to set permissions by group.

Theme-based skinnable interface XOOPS is driven by a powerful theme system. Both admins and users can change the look of the entire web site with just a click of a mouse. There are also over 60 themes available for download!!

XOOPS at HostMonster

XOOPS is supported by HostMonster via Fantastico. The latest version available with the hosting service is 2.3.1. Installing XOOPS at Hostmonster is pretty easy – you’ll be asked to input some basic info such as admin access data, site name and slogan, installation path, email address and that’s all. Once click ‘Install’, the system will automatically install XOOPS and configure the necessary on a new database.

Attached above is the installation page of XOOPS at Fantastico.

HostMonster is one of the very few hosting companies that support Fantastico and SimpleScripts for auto script installation. This makes HostMonster stands out from the other hosting companies as they support a wide range of web application and scripts.

Applications supported by Fantastico

Here’s the list of scripts supported by Fantastico at Hostmonster. With the help of Fantastico, these scripts can be installed in just a few minutes. All you need to do is to input some basic configuration info (such as installation path, naming, users password, etc) and the system will helps you to setup everything including script installation and database configuration.

Applications supported by Simple Scripts

On the other hand, here’re what you can get from Simple Scripts.

About osCommerce

osCommerce is an Open Source based e-commerce software that is available for free under the GNU General Public License. osCommerce features a rich set of online shopping cart functions that enables online store and e-commerce website owners to setup, run, and maintain their online stores with minimum effort and with no costs. With over 8 years of operation, the software has built a showcase of over 14,100 online shops that have been voluntarily added to the live shops section, and powers many thousands of more online shops worldwide.

Why a cart software matters?

There are several crucial reasons why a e-commerce website should run a shopping cart system and process its own transactions. A good shopping cart software should support a wide variety of e-business operations – this include processing payment and orders, tracks inventory, maintains customer profiles, provides security and makes shopping online easy. This allows e-commerce website owners to track customer habits, inventory levels, and read daily sales report, and in turn, improve his/her business operation on a continuous measures.

More over, a good shopping cart solutions always comes with built in security features. Customers prefer to shop at a business with a shopping cart web design as they are trusted over other methods of purchase. A hacker proof shopping cart system offer users a secured shopping experience – which is crucial in term of your business reputation and customers’ safety.

osCommerce at Hosmonter

Hostmonster support a wide variety of shopping cart software including osCommerce. osCommerce can be installed easily at HM using Simple Scripts or Fantastico. Figure below shows how osCommerce can be auto-installed using Simple Scripts (version 2.2.RC.2a).

For a fresh setup, all you need to do is to setup your store name and your osCommerce designated path. The installation will automatically check your server and database if it’s properly configured before installation and create database for you whenever requested.

Everything’s working alright with my website operation but I’m seeing MySQL failed in my server status – See mysql (5.0.75-community-log) failed at figure below. Wrote an e-mail to the supports but there’s no response back yet. I’ll contact the online chat staffs if this goes on. Besides the database errors, I’m not seeing any major issues with Hostmonster server, here’s the print screen of my server status with HM.

It’s been nearly one year since I first signed up with Hostmonster. I’m not very happy with their customer supports due to the scam alert thing and several incidents where the customer supports are not telling the truth but besides that, everything has been good with the hosting company. I remained positive with the web host. In case you are looking for a cheap yet reliable hosting and are okay with moderate customer supports (well, nothing’s perfect, right?) then you should check out Hostmonster.