SpeedHost.in Blog Hosted on WordPress

Traceroute is a command which can show you the path a packet of information takes from your computer to one you specify. It will list all the routers it passes through until it reaches its destination, or fails to and is discarded. In addition to this, it will tell you how long each ‘hop’ from router to router takes.

If your website is not reachable then traceroute give you valuable information to know where exactly the problem lies, wheather your ISP or the Server.

If you are using Windows, select Start > Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt. This will give you a window like the one below.

If you are using Mac, go to Spotlight > Terminal and type in traceroute follow by the website or IP

Enter the word tracert, followed by a space, then the domain name.

The following is a successful traceroute from our office computer in New Delhi to speedhost.in:

Firstly it tells you that it’s tracing the route to speedhost.in, tells you the IP address of that domain, and what the maximum number of hops will be before it times out.

Next it gives information about each router it passes through on the way to its destination.

1. is the internet gateway on the network this traceroute was done from (an Motorola Wifi modem in this case)
4-6. is the ISP the origin computer is connected to (airtel.in)
8. is a router on the network speedhost.in is hosted on
9. is the computer speedhost.in is hosted on (2-1.dsr02.hxtntx2.theplanet.com)

Each of the 3 columns are a response from that router, and how long it took (each hop is tested 3 times). For example, in line 2, the first try took 4ms (4 milliseconds), the second took 17 ms, and the third took 10ms.

You will also notice that the time it took quadrupled while passing through the global-gateway network.

This is extremely useful when trying to find out why a website is unreachable, as you will be able to see where the connection fails. If you have a website hosted somewhere, it would be a good idea to do a traceroute to it when it is working, so that when it fails, you can do another traceroute to it (which will probably time out if the website is unreachable) and compare them. Be aware though, that it will probably take a different route each time, but the networks it passes through will generally be very similar.

Related Articles:
1. Are the servers down or is it my Internet Service Provider issue?
2. How can i flush my DNS?

There are many web hosting companies on the internet which provide you with free hosting accounts. Why pay for something when you are getting it for free… right? Well, nothing good comes for free and this is why i am writing this article to point out a few limitations a free web hosting company would have and not mention them.

1. They have the right to run ads on your hosting account without your permission
2. You may not be able to add your own domain name to the account
3. If they allow you to add your domain name then there is a charge for it
4. You have very limited disk space
5. You will not be able to create professional email account
6. You will not rank well on Search Engines as your domain name will be a free subdomain (e.g. myspace.freehosting.com)
7. You will not be able to have dynamic content on your free hosting
8. You will not be able to run a blog or a ecommerce portal
9. Most of the time java scripts are disabled on free hosting and so you will not be able to add Google Adsense and make money from your website
10. You have very limited Support

The above are just a few limitations when you host for free, why not choose a professional host when you are getting hosting for as low as Rs.600/year?

To make this comparison i went to the Yahoo Small Business Website Hosting plan and on the top there was written in a big bold letters NO MORE LIMITS and with a tagline stating Unlimited Web Hosting, i read through their sales pitch only to find out that they will only allocate 5GB space to every user and for more space the user will have to email yahoo. Although this is free of cost but then why boast of unlimited hosting when clearly they have set a 5GB limit.

Anyways to simplify the comparison process, i have mentioned the points below which will make it really easy for the end user. I will be taking our Silver Web Hosting Plan as a benchmark to compare the Yahoo Hosting Package

- Web Space

Yahoo: 5GB
SpeedHost: 10GB

- Email Addresses

Yahoo: 1000 Email ID’s
SpeedHost: Unlimited Email ID’s

- Data Transfer

Yahoo: Unlimited
SpeedHost: 100GB (More than enough for any business website)

- MySQL Database

Yahoo: Unlimited
SpeedHost: Unlimited

- SubDomains (e.g shop.speedhost.in or blog.speedhost.in)

Yahoo: No Information
SpeedHost: Unlimited

- Control Panel

Yahoo: Yes
SpeedHost: Yes

- Hosting Yearly Price

Yahoo: 2999 / year
SpeedHost: 2000 / year

Clearly SpeedHost.in give your more value for money for Rs.999 / year lesser than Yahoo Hosting.

There are many time when you are not able to access your website and the reason most of the time is ISP problems, there is a simple way to check if is a problem with the server of is it just an ISP issue.

http://www.ismysiterunning.com/ is an excellent website which lets you check if your website is down for just you or is it the same for everyone else.

For the past few days if you have not been able to access your website / emails etc, the the reason is your ISP. Both Airtel and BSNL are having major internet issues and they have not given any guidelines for its rectification.

For the time being we have switched to Reliance USB Netconnect and thankfully that seems to be working perfect.