Using third-party services to strengthen your web hosting
Today the topic is strengthening (or diversifying) your web hosting configuration to limit to impact of any downtime on your life.
The common problem
The vast majority of websites, especially those that are set-up for the average person or business, are at the mercy of an “all your eggs in one basket” structure. You pay $5/month for web hosting, and you point your domain to that web host. They take care of your email and websites. Life is simple, life is good, until something goes wrong.
It is inevitable, no matter how much you pay for hosting, that at some point something will fail. Your website will fall offline. This also means your email will be inaccessible, and messages will bounce. The only thing still up is frustration.
I’m going to share with you the set-up I use that distributes your eggs to multiple baskets. It means that if your website is down, your email is not, and vice versa. (in part 2 I’ll talk about how to avoid site downtime entirely) The nice part is that this stronger, more flexible web configuration is entirely free to put into action. Just follow along…
Overview of the process
1. Set-up Third-party DNS hosting – This is the “air traffic controller” for your website that makes this whole thing possible.
2. Outsource your email hosting – I recommend using Google Apps Standard, which will let you run email under your domain (not @gmail.com) and use the best webmail interface I’ve ever encountered.
3. Change some things on your web host – You’ll still use the same web host to deliver your website to visitors. However, there are a few changes to make so it is working smoothly with the new configuration.
4. Update your domain registration – The final step pulls the trigger and makes everything live.
Ready to do this? The whole process will probably take about an hour, won’t require any significant technical know-how, and it doesn’t cost a cent… though I will recommend a couple worth-paying-for upgrades along the way.
