Wednesday, December 21, 2022

一天损失近150亿美元 90后"币圈神童"彻底跌下神坛

 一天损失近150亿美元,创下全球亿万富翁单日财产最大跌幅纪录。


一个看起来人畜无害的卷毛男孩,却在一天内带崩了世界几百亿美元的财富……

这个令人大跌眼镜的故事主角,叫山姆·班克曼·弗里德。

出生于1992年的他,在26岁到29岁短短3年时间内,通过钻研加密货币套利、经营币圈交易所FTX,迅速积攒了超过200亿美元(1美元约合人民币7元)的财富。

然而,币圈流传着一句话:币圈一日,人间10年。11月初,班克曼的“币圈旁氏骗局”露出马脚。11月8日,他还拥有的156亿美元净资产,一天后便蒸发到不足10亿美元。

一天损失将近150亿美元,94%的跌幅创下了全球亿万富翁单日财产最大跌幅纪录。此事件也被称为“币圈的雷曼暴雷时刻”,一众世界著名投资机构都被他“割了韭菜”。
近日,这个年轻富翁被警方带走,彻底跌下神坛。

“而随着币圈头部交易所FTX轰然倒塌,人们对加密货币颠覆传统金融的信仰也土崩瓦解了。”浙江大学国际联合商学院数字经济与金融创新研究中心联席主任盘和林对《环球人物》记者分析道。

曾被捧为“币圈神童”

在公开场合,班克曼的衣服总是皱皱巴巴。那头凌乱的卷毛和肥大的T恤,共同组成了他的“经典形象”。

班克曼是典型的“90后”。他喜欢网络游戏英雄联盟,也沉迷于指尖陀螺,以及其他属于年轻人的“宅文化”。

除此之外,他最大的兴趣就是“赚钱”。他曾说过“对改变世界、颠覆权威等宏大目标不感兴趣”,还说“如果哪天发现卖橙汁更赚钱,就去卖橙汁”。

有美媒报道,目前世界上在30岁前赚得200亿美元的年轻人有两个,一个是扎克伯格,另一个就是班克曼。

他是一个“赚钱主义者”。这种金钱观,可能来源于他那美式精英家庭的熏陶。

他的父母都是斯坦福大学法学院的教授,同时他们还分别是经济学家与著名税法学者。

他从小在斯坦福大学的校园里长大,但后来考入了另一所名校——麻省理工学院。

毕业后,他进入华尔街的简街资本工作,年薪百万。不过对于当时的他来说,这份差事更像兼职。

此前,班克曼已经发现加密货币间的套利行为可以赚取巨额财富。简单说,就是将加密货币从价格低的交易所倒卖到价格高的交易所。

几年后,他成立了一家名为Alameda Research的交易公司(以下简称为Alameda),专门从事币圈套利业务。最疯狂时,他一天内赚了上百万美元。

后来这个故事广为流传,他逐渐被捧为“币圈神童”。

不过据盘和林分析,这个神话背后,是班克曼“炫耀‘财技’,为自己的炒币能力背书”。因为不久之后,班克曼就不满足于简单的套利业务,而是盯上了加密货币交易所。

2019年,班克曼成立了FTX加密货币交易所,并发行加密货币FTT。“他讲了一个完美的故事:一个不懂加密货币只懂套利的华尔街交易员,却成功搞起了交易所。这个行为是个很大的噱头。”盘和林分析道。

FTX成立时,市场上已经有不少加密货币交易所。为了争夺客户,班克曼采取了激进的策略。

“FTX允许进行风险更高的交易,给足了客户杠杆,甚至能借出价值抵押品百倍的资本。”盘和林告诉《环球人物》记者:“FTX还提供了更多的衍生品交易项目,比如股权通证产品、现货合约与资本合并等,这为币圈‘炒家’们提供了很大便利。”

班克曼也很懂营销套路。他的目标人群十分明确:愿意接受如此激进的加密货币交易所的客户,一定是一群年轻、冲动、追求刺激的人。

于是,FTX斥巨资买下了美职篮(NBA)迈阿密热火队主场的冠名权,然后又宣布赞助电竞队伍TSM。最让FTX出圈的一次营销,是耗费千万美元买下“超级碗”赛事的广告。

在两分半的广告中,喜剧演员拉里·戴维将加密货币比作车轮、电灯泡、太空旅行等人类进步的标志,仿佛选择加密货币就是抛弃愚昧迈向先进。

很快,FTX成为全球排名前三的加密货币交易所。今年年初,FTX的估值一度达到320亿美元。

FTX的诞生让班克曼走上了“巅峰时刻”。近几年,他常在区块链和币圈扮演“救世主”的角色,给许多濒临破产的企业注入资金。许多圈内大佬甚至称他是“币圈的JP·摩根(美国银行家)”。

与此同时,他与美国政界的联系也越来越多。据《华盛顿邮报》报道,班克曼在上一个选举周期中,向各种竞选委员会等团体捐赠约4000万美元,其中多与民主党相关。

“过去几年,他对民主党事业的慷慨程度仅次于金融家索罗斯。”班克曼已成为美国民主党第二大捐助者。

去年,班克曼将FTX的总部从香港搬到了岛国巴哈马。他与10个好友一起在那里生活、工作。这10人都是他在麻省理工和华尔街结识的“兄弟姐妹”。邻居说,这些年轻的富翁常在海边的豪华公寓里彻夜狂欢。

“币圈旁氏骗局”的坍塌

近几年,币圈风暴越来越多,明星货币比特币与Luna币都经历了暴跌,无数人瞬间倾家荡产。

今年8月,班克曼还在接受《财富》杂志采访时谈到“币圈寒冬”。他认为“最糟糕的情况已经过去,这是一轮健康淘汰的过程”。然而仅过去3个月,FTX与FTT币就轰然坍塌。

导火索在今年11月2日被点燃。

当天,加密货币媒体CoinDesk发布一份报告称,班克曼的Alameda公司,账面上大部分资产都是自家交易所FTX发行的FTT币。

简单来说,就是班克曼为了让FTT币渡过寒冬,在资本市场玩起了“左手倒右手”的把戏。

“挪用自家交易所资金支撑FTT币的币值,然后通过虚高的币值来抵押贷款,从而构建起套取用户现金的资金池。”盘和林分析道:“这就是一种套上区块链和加密货币的外壳的庞氏骗局。将新用户的资金支付给老用户取现,就是拉新还旧。只不过班克曼不是让用户拉人头,而是自己画大饼,从而吸引更多人投资。”

消息传出后,币圈市场一片哗然。投资者开始陆续抛售FTT币,FTT币值不断下跌。

压死骆驼的最后一根稻草,来自币安创始人赵长鹏。11月6日,他在推特发出了清盘FTT的消息。

赵长鹏是FTX早期的主要投资者,持有逾5亿美元的FTT。他的抛售迅速引发FTT投资者的“挤兑”,一天的抛售金额高达50亿美元。

此时,班克曼正在四处寻找愿意为自己“补窟窿”的投资者,然而未果。此后,FTT的币价开始暴跌,从22美元直接跌成了零头2美元。班克曼本人的财富也如开头所说,几乎“一夜清零”。

眼看事情愈发不可控,班克曼终于承认,FTX挪用了客户的交易资金,借给了Alameda。然后,他宣布申请破产,辞去旗下公司CEO职位。

当地时间11月30日,班克曼通过视频远程参加了《纽约时报》的DealBook峰会,企图在这个场合为自己辩解。

他表示,自己只剩一张信用卡和10万美元的存款。“我搞砸了,如果可以的话,我愿意付出任何代价来扭转一些事情。我从来都没有试图欺骗任何人。”

显然,美国证券交易委员会和司法部等部门并不信任这种说法,他们对FTX展开了调查。

当地时间12月12日,班克曼在巴哈马的豪华公寓内被警方逮捕,当时他的父母正在那里看望他。之后,他将被引渡到美国接受审判。

次日,美国纽约南区首席检察官威廉姆斯正式对班克曼提出了8项刑事指控,其中包括合谋证券诈骗、合谋洗黑钱等。

若所有罪名坐实,班克曼将面临最高115年的监禁。

一地鸡毛之后

班克曼的受害者名单上“大咖云集”,包括红杉资本、新加坡政府旗下投资公司淡马锡、日本孙正义的软银,以及超53家VC银行和保险公司。此外,受害者中还有中国台湾的50万散户。

而相比受害者名单,此次事件更为特殊的一点,在于击溃了投资者对币圈的信仰。

盘和林说:“连FTX这样的头部交易平台都能一夜之间倒塌,人们愈发看清,虚拟货币根本没有币值保证,发行虚拟货币是一种私人铸币或者融资行为。而私人铸币者并没有遵循他们自称的‘原则’,那就是建立一个去中心化、完全用户主导、公正客观的虚拟货币圈。”

“许多币圈创始人嘴里全是主义,心里全是生意。他们发行虚拟币纯粹为了私利,需要让手中的币更值钱。为此,像班克曼这样不择手段的不在少数。他们想办法利用杠杆去撬动虚拟币价格,高杠杆往往伴随着高风险。”

这种方式在资本市场叫坐庄。“这种游戏在市场资金流动性充沛的时候玩得转,因为流动性水位高,钱到处乱窜。而近期美元不断加息,流动性水位下降,这种游戏就容易出事。”盘和林说。

与币圈一起“地震”的还有美国政界。

班克曼面临的指控中,有一项引起各方注意,那就是被控欺骗美国政府,提供非法政治捐款。

威廉姆斯称,班克曼将“数千万美元”的不义之财用于向美国政党提供非法竞选捐款。“这些肮脏的钱都被用来满足班克曼购买两党影响力,并影响华盛顿公共政策方向的愿望。”

盘和林也认为,班克曼的政治捐款中藏着野心:“他的目的可能是推进相关法案,将FTT这样的虚拟币合法化,从而掠取更大的利益。这在美国商界是普遍行为。”

如今,曾被美国政坛奉为座上宾的大金主班克曼,成了政客们避之不及的过街老鼠。

在今年的伯克希尔哈撒韦公司股东大会上,巴菲特如此抨击加密货币:“它不是一种有生产能力的资产,它的价值就是取决于下一个人给上一个拥有虚拟币的人付多少钱。”

“我不知道未来一年、五年抑或是十年,比特币等虚拟货币的价格是涨是跌,但有一件事我很确定,那就是它不会产生任何实质性的东西。”





Sunday, December 18, 2022

Joshua S. Friedman

 

Joshua S. Friedman
Born1956 (age 65–66)
Boston, Massachusetts
NationalityAmerican
Education
  • B.A. (Harvard College) Phi Beta Kappa
  • M.A. (University of Oxford) Marshall Scholar
  • J.D. (Harvard Law School)
  • M.B.A. (Harvard Business School) Baker Scholar
OccupationInvestor and businessman
Years active1984-present
Employers
  • Goldman, Sachs & Co.
  • Drexel Burnham Lambert(1984-1990)
  • Canyon Partners(1990-Present)
Known forCo-founder of Canyon Partners
TitleCo-founder, Co-chairman and CEO of Canyon Partners

Instead of buy the dips, it's sell the peaks, says Josh Friedman, Canyon Partners co-CEO

Here is the link. 

Josh Friedman, Canyon Partners co-CEO, joins 'Closing Bell' to discuss his market takeaway following the Fed's hawkish messaging, pressure on pricing due to an exodus of investments from mutual funds and headwinds facing the equity market.


Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Mini Desktop | Bestbuy.ca | Refurbished

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Refurbished(Good) - HP 800 G2 Mini Desktop Intel® Core™ i5-6500T 8 GB DDR4 256 SATA SSD Windows 10 Professional (64-Bit)

Model Number: 800 G2 Mini
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Walmart | Desktop

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Refurbished HP EliteDesk Desktop Intel i5-6400T 800G2

16GB, 256GB SSD

$248 

Pickup, Fri Dec 23 if ordered within 16 hours at BURNABY SW, Burnaby (free)
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Get it before Christmas!

Software:
This Computer comes with Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit! This package will arrive recently restored with Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit so you will be the first to use it. The restore partition will allow you to restore your computer back to the original state of purchase at any time and prevent expensive trips to the computer repair shop. The unit also comes with a 30 day Trial Version of Windows Office.
Condition:
Refurbished, Previously Used – Minor scuffs
Through our refurbishment Process, we test the entire computer for functionality including memory, hard drive, and keyboard tests. Computer may show very minor signs of wear and the overall condition is considered good with minor scrapes. Everything is guaranteed to be fully functional.
Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher :
As a Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher, we must follow strict requirements established for the MAR Program by Microsoft. These requirements are designed to ensure that you receive a high quality and Professionally refurbished computer. Being part of the MAR Program, also guarantees that you will receive a legal Certificate of Authenticity (C.O.A.) attached to the computer, and a valid version of Microsoft Windows 10 operating system installed on every computer that is purchased through us.
• Form Factor: Mini
• Processor: Intel i5-6400T
• Processor Speed: 2.2GHz
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• Operating System: Windows 10 Pro
• Condition: Refurbished
• Warranty: 1 Year Limited Warranty

If you buy something online but it's not everything you dreamed it to be, no worries! We're here for you.
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Florida Pushes Bill to Tame Storm-Driven Rise of Insurance Costs

 

Florida Pushes Bill to Tame Storm-Driven Rise of Insurance Costs

·3 min read

(Bloomberg) -- Florida’s legislature passed a bill that would create a state-backed reinsurance fund and attempt to ease litigation costs that have pushed a homeowners-insurance market already contending with monstrous storms toward the brink.

Most Read from Bloomberg

The bill passed in the Florida House of Representatives by a vote of 84 to 33 Wednesday afternoon after the Senate approved the legislation Tuesday, according to the Florida Senate’s website. The votes took place during a special session called by Governor Ron DeSantis in part to address the impact of Hurricane Ian on an insurance market that was already stumbling.

Larger insurers have spent years reducing their exposure to the state as litigation costs rose and the severity and frequency of hurricanes intensified, leaving smaller firms that mostly focus on Florida dominating the market and homeowners facing soaring premiums. Seven of those smaller carriers have gone insolvent in the past two years, according to a statement from the office of Senate President Kathleen Passidomo.

“We need to drive capital back to the market,” Florida Senator Jim Boyd, an insurance agent and sponsor of the bill, said Tuesday. “While it might not happen today, I believe we will see rate relief.”

One of the proposed changes would repeal the state’s “one-way” policy on attorneys fees for property claims. It requires insurers to cover the cost of litigation on behalf of plaintiffs who sue them successfully, but doesn’t force policyholders to cover such costs for their insurer if they lose.

“Despite multiple broad-reaching property insurance reforms passed by industry supporters in the past three sessions, there have been minimal improvements to the insurance marketplace that actually benefit consumers,” Ron Haynes, a vice chair with the trial lawyer trade group Florida Justice Association, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, this round of reforms is a massive over-correction that takes away homeowners’ property rights and leaves Floridians at the mercy of their insurance company.”

Another measure would eliminate a rule that allows property-insurance policyholders to sign away their right to collect payments to another party, such as a contractor or plumber. That’s led to “unnecessary litigation,” according to the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation.

The legislation also would create an optional reinsurance program funded by premiums from participating insurers as well as $1 billion from the state’s 2023 general revenue.

Last Resort

Reinsurers have also been pulling back from Florida, spooked by the weakness of many primary insurers. And many homeowners who are unable to secure affordable coverage have been pushed to policies offered by the state-backed insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. The reforms include a mechanism meant to move policies away from Citizens and back into the private market.

The bill represents the “most extreme measures” ever taken by the state to tackle the property insurance crisis, said Jeff Brandes, a former state senator who has been outspoken on the challenges facing insurers in Florida.

“There is still some additional work that needs to be done, but this at least puts us on a path that we can survive,” Brandes said. “This should bring new capital to the market and I think it will ultimately create lower rates and more competition.”

--With assistance from Michael Smith.

Desktop | Less than $300 dollars

 

Refurbished(Good) - HP 800 G2 Mini Desktop Intel® Core™ i5-6500T 8 GB DDR4 256 SATA SSD Windows 10 Professional (64-Bit)


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Laptop | Bestbuy | refurbished

 

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Brand: Microsoft
Model Number: 1ZZ-00002
Web Code: 15999467
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remier Seller
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Tuesday, December 13, 2022

EverSQL SQL Query Syntax Check & Validator

 Here is the tool to check MySQL syntax. 


Virtual Private Servers (VPS) Web Hosting

 Here is the article.

Virtual Private Servers (VPS) Web Hosting

Have you ever wanted to put your website into its own machine but do not need all the power and space of a full dedicated web server? Virtual Private Servers, or VPS, fill that intermediate space. VPS are basically virtual machines, much like one that you might run on your own computer to mimic another PC running within your computer. To the web server and operating system running within the VPS, it appears as though they own the entire computer. Each VPS has a certain amount of disk space, RAM and bandwidth allocated.

Web hosts that provide VPS often give their customers virtually complete control over their VPS, allowing them root access (or administrator's access). You can thus usually install and run any software you want into your VPS, host any number of domains you wish, and so on. You are basically the boss of your own virtual server.

While Virtual Private Servers have certain benefits over full dedicated web servers, you should note that it usually runs slower with less resources than if you were to have your own real dedicated server. If your website has drastically outgrown shared web hosting, a VPS may not necessarily be the best solution. You may need to go with Dedicated Servers (Web Hosting) instead.

Related Pages

VPS Web Hosting

TsoHost 

This UK web host offers a variety of VPS packages, the cheapest of which costs £36.66 per month (paid annually). You get 1 Xeon Core for the CPU, 768 MB RAM, 20 GB SSD, 400 GB bandwidth, SSH, CPanel control panel, a dedicated IP address, PHP, Perl, ZendGuard and ionCube loaders, mod_rewrite, unlimited MySQL databases, cron jobs, SVN and git clients, custom error pages, geolocation, etc. If you're wondering about the odd name (I was), it is a palindrome, where the word is the same whether you read it forwards or backwards.

GoDaddy.com Virtual Dedicated Hosting 

This web host offers VPS hosting, which they call "Virtual Dedicated Servers", for as low as $29.99 per month (paid monthly; if you pay for longer periods in one go, the amount is smaller). This package includes 10 GB of disk space, 500 GB of bandwidth, FTP, SSL certificate, 3 dedicated IP addresses, PHP, Perl, etc.

DreamHost Managed VPS Hosting

This web host offers several VPS hosting packages for as low as $10.00 per month. The cheapest package provides 1 GB RAM (which you can increase/upgrade, if you need to), 30 GB SSD storage, unlimited websites, unlimited traffic, unlimited email at your domain, free SSL certificates, a control panel, unlimited MySQL databases, etc.

PHP MySQL website | Web hosting

 Here is the article.

How to Choose a Web Host

by Christopher Heng, thesitewizard.com

Choosing for a web host is one of the first few things you will need to do when you create a website. So what are some of the things you need to look for? The criteria for choosing a free web host and a commercial web hosting solution are slightly different although they do overlap. Since thesitewizard.com caters to people who might be looking for either of these types of hosting, I will deal with each of these in turn. If you are only interested in one of these types, you can simply skip to the appropriate section. I have written these sections to be as independent of the other as possible.

[ To skip to the section on choosing a commercial web host, click here. ]

Choosing a Free Web Host

  1. Advertising

    Most free web hosts impose advertising on your website. This is done to cover the costs of providing your site the free web space and associated services. Some hosts require you to place a banner on your pages, others display a window that pops up every time a page on your site loads, while still others impose an advertising frame on your site. There is really no hard and fast rule which is to be preferred: some people hate a pop-up window, other webmasters dislike having to stuff banner codes into their pages, and many people cannot stand an advertising frame (which may cause problems when you submit your website to search engines). Whichever method is used, check that you're comfortable with the method.

    Note that free web hosts without forced advertisements aren't necessarily good news. Without viable means to recover the costs of running their server, such hosts close with alarming frequency.

  2. Amount of web space

    Does it have enough space for your needs? If you envisage that you will expand your site eventually, you might want to anticipate future expansion. Most sites use less than 5MB of web space. Indeed, at one time, one of my other web sites, thefreecountry.com, used less than 5MB of space although it had about 150 pages on the site. Your needs will vary, depending on how many pictures your pages use, whether you need sound files, video clips, etc.

  3. FTP access

    FTP is the most common method used by people to transfer their web pages and other files from their computer to their web host's computer, so that it can be viewed by anyone in the world.

    Some free hosting providers only allow you to design your page with their online site builder. While this is useful for beginners, do you have the option to expand later when you become experienced and their online page builder does not have the facility you need? Online site builders also have significant disadvantages, a subject which I discuss at length in my article comparing online site builders with standalone web editors.

    FTP access, or at the very least, the ability to upload your pages by email or browser, is needed. Personally, I feel FTP access is mandatory, except for the most trivial sites.

  4. File type and size limitations

    Watch out for these. Some free hosts impose a maximum size on each of the files you upload (including one with a low of 200KB). Other sites restrict the file types you can upload to HTML and GIF/JPG files. If your needs are different, eg, if you want to distribute your own programs on your pages, you will have to look elsewhere.

  5. Reliability and speed of access

    This is extremely important. A site that is frequently down will lose a lot of visitors. If someone finds your site from the search engines, and he/she tries to access it but find that it is down, he/she will simply go to another site. Slow access is also very frustrating for visitors (and for you too, when you upload your site). How do you know if a host is reliable or fast? If you can't get feedback from anyone, one way is to try it out yourself over a period of time, both during peak as well as off-peak hours. After all, it is free, so you can always experiment with it.

  6. PHP and/or Perl

    (In case you're wondering: What is PHP and Perl?)

    It's quite possible for a website to work even without PHP or Perl access. For example, you can always use one of the many free script hosting services available that provide web statistics, search engines, forms, polls, mailing lists, etc, without requiring you to dabble with Perl or PHP scripts.

    However if you really want to do it yourself, with the minimum of advertising banners from these free providers, you will need either PHP or Perl access. Note that it is not enough to know they provide PHP or Perl access: you need to know the kind of environment your scripts run under: is it so restrictive that they are of no earthly use? For PHP scripts, does your web host allow you to use the mail() function, which allows your scripts to send email? For Perl scripts, do you have access to sendmail (a computer program) or its workalike?

  7. Bandwidth allotment

    Nowadays, many free web hosts impose a limit on the amount of traffic your website can use per day and per month. This means that if the pages (and graphic images) on your site is loaded by visitors beyond a certain number of times per day (or per month), the web host will disable your web site (or perhaps send you a bill). It is difficult to recommend a specific minimum amount of bandwidth, since it depends on how you design your site, your target audience, and the number of visitors you're able to attract to your site. In general, 100MB traffic per month is too little for anything other than your personal home page and 1-3GB traffic per month is usually adequate for a simple site just starting out. Your mileage, however, will vary.

Choosing a Commercial Web Host

  1. Reliability and speed of access

    Not only should the web host be reliable and fast, it should guarantee its uptime (the time when it is functional). Look for a minimum uptime of 99%. In fact, even 99% is actually too low — it really should be 99.5% or higher. The host should provide some sort of refund (eg prorated refund or discount) if it falls below that figure. Note though that guarantees are often hard to enforce from your end — especially if the host denies there was any downtime. However, without that guarantee, the web host will have little incentive to ensure that its servers are running all the time.

  2. Data Transfer (Traffic/Bandwidth)

    Data transfer (sometimes loosely referred to as "traffic" or "bandwidth") is the amount of bytes transferred from your site to visitors when they browse your site.

    Don't believe any commercial web host that advertises "unlimited bandwidth". The host has to pay for the bandwidth, and if you consume a lot of it, they will not silently bear your costs. Many high bandwidth websites have found this out the hard way when they suddenly receive an exorbitant bill for having "exceeded" the "unlimited bandwidth". Always look for details on how much traffic the package allows. I personally always stay clear of any host that advertises "unlimited transfer", even if the exact amount is specified somewhere else (sometimes buried in their policy statements). Usually you will find that they redefine "unlimited" to be limited in some way.

    In addition, while bandwidth provided is something you should always check, do not be unduly swayed by promises of incredibly huge amounts of bandwidth. Chances are that your website will never be able to use that amount because it will hit other limits, namely resource limits. For more details, see the article The Fine Print in Web Hosting: Resource Usage Limits.

    To give you a rough idea of the typical traffic requirements of a website, most new sites that don't provide video or music on their site use less than 3 GB of bandwidth per month. Your traffic requirements will grow over time, as your site becomes more well-known, so you will need to also check their policy when you exceed your data transfer limit: is there a published charge per GB over the allowed bandwidth? Is the charge made according to actual usage or are you expected to pre-pay for a potential overage? It is better not to go for hosts that expect you to prepay for overages, since it is very hard to forsee when your site will exceed its bandwidth and by how much.

  3. Disk space

    For the same reason as bandwidth, watch out also for those "unlimited disk space" schemes. Many new sites (that don't host videos or music) need less than 20 MB of web space, so even if you are provided with a host that tempts you with 100 GB (or "unlimited space"), be aware that you are unlikely to use that space, so don't let the 100 GB space be too big a factor in your consideration when comparing with other web hosts. The hosting company is also aware of that, which is why they feel free to offer you that as a means of enticing you to host there. As a rough gauge, thesitewizard.com, with nearly 400 pages in April 2013, used only about 18 MB for all its pages and associated files.

  4. Technical support

    Does its technical support function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (often abbreviated 24/7), all year around? Note that I will not accept a host which does not have staff working on weekends or public holidays. You will be surprised at how often things go wrong at the most inconvenient of times. Incidentally, just because a host advertises that it has 24/7 support does not necessarily mean that it really has that kind of support. Test them out by emailing at midnight and on Saturday nights, Sunday mornings, etc. Check out how long they take to respond. Besides speed of responses, check to see if they are technically competent. You wouldn't want to sign up with a host that is run by a bunch of salesmen who only know how to sell and not fix problems.

  5. FTP, PHP, Perl, SSI, .htaccess, SSH, MySQL, Cron

    If you are paying for a web hosting account, you really should make sure you have all of these.

    Note that some commercial hosts do not allow you to install PHP or Perl scripts ("What is PHP and Perl?") without their approval. This is not desirable since it means that you have to wait for them before you can implement a feature on your site. The ability to create or modify ".htaccess" files is needed if you are to do things like customize your error pages (pages that display when, say, a user requests for a non-existent page on your site) or to protect your site in various ways (such as to prevent bandwidth theft and hotlinking, password-protect a directory (folder), etc).

    SSH access is useful for certain things, including testing certain scripts (programs), maintaining databases, etc. MySQL ("What is MySQL?") is needed if you want to set up a blog or use a content management system. Cron is a type of program scheduler that lets you run programs at certain times of the day (eg, once a day). Check to see if these facilities are provided.

  6. SSL (secure server)

    If you are starting a new website, it's probably best to use SSL, where your website is accessed using a web address that begins with "https://" instead of "http://", from the very outset. A detailed explanation of what SSL is can be found in my article How to Move Your Website to SSL (ie, Convert from HTTP to HTTPS). You don't have to read the entire article, just the first few sections explaining what SSL is, and the discussion on the advantages and disadvantages of using SSL for a website. The rest of that article is meant for people who already have a website, and need to convert it to use SSL. Since you are just starting out, you should get it done at the very beginning so that you can avoid all the headaches and risks that come with altering the web address of every single page on your website.

    Note that this is not an option if you are selling goods or services through your website and plan to collect credit card payments yourself. Such sites must have SSL.

    At the time I write this, some web hosts give you an SSL certificate for your website for free, some charge you a small one-time fee for installing a free SSL certificate, some charge you for the SSL certificates which they sell and still others charge you monthly (recurring) fees in addition to the SSL certificate fee.

  7. Email, Autoresponders, POP3, Mail Forwarding

    If you have your own site, you will probably want to have email addresses at your own domain, like sales@yourdomain.com, etc. Does the host allow you to set up whatever email addresses you want on your domain, so that mail can be forwarded to your current email address, or placed into a mail box on your web hosting account itself? Can you set an email address to automatically reply to the sender with a preset message (called an autoresponder)? Can you retrieve your mail with your email software?

  8. Control Panel

    This is called various names by different hosts, but essentially, they all allow you to manage different aspects of your web account yourself. Typically, and at the very minimum, it should allow you to do things like add, delete, and manage your email addresses, and change passwords for your account. I will not sign up with a host where I have to go through their technical support each time I want to change a password or add/delete an email account. Such tasks are common maintenance chores that every webmaster performs time and time again, and it would be a great hassle if you had to wait for their technical support to make the changes for you.

  9. Multiple Domain Hosting and Subdomains

    For those who are thinking of selling web space or having multiple domains or subdomains hosted in your account, you should look to see if they provide this, and the amount that they charge for it (and whether it is a one-time or monthly charge, etc).

  10. Web Server and Operating System

    Is the type of operating system and server important? I have discussed this issue at length in the article "Should You Choose a Linux or a Windows Web Hosting Package? Is There Such a Thing as a Mac Web Host?"

    In general, most people will want to sign up for a web host offering a Unix-based system (like Linux, FreeBSD or OpenBSD) and running the Apache web server. Most web-based software assume your website is running on such a system, and you will usually experience fewer compatibility issues with it. There are also a lot of guides available on the Internet on configuring such systems, so finding help when you need it is easier as well.

    In my opinion, the only time when you will want to use a Windows server is if you're running Windows-specific programs on the server. But even then, you'll probably be better off looking for a PHP-equivalent, and using a Unix-based system.

  11. Price

    I was actually hesitant to list this, but I guess it's futile not to. However, I would caution that while price is always a factor, you should realise ("realize" in US English) that you often get what you pay for, although it's not necessarily true that the most expensive hosts are the best.

  12. Monthly/Quarterly/Annual Payment Plans

    Most web hosts allow you to select an annual payment plan that gives you a cheaper rate than if you were to pay monthly. My current personal preference is to pay monthly with all new web hosts until I'm assured of their reliability and honesty. Paying monthly allows me to switch web hosts quickly when I find that the current host does not meet my requirements: this way, I'm not tied down to a bad web host because I have prepaid for an entire year. I do this even if the new web host guarantees that they will refund the balance if I'm dissatisfied, since at the point I sign up, I have no assurance that they will honour their guarantee. Later (usually after a couple of years), when I'm satisfied with the host, I may change payment plans to the discounted annual plans.

  13. Resellers?

    Not all hosting companies own or lease their own web servers. Some of them are actually resellers for some other hosting company. The disadvantage of using a reseller is the possibility that you are dealing with people who don't know much about the system they are selling and who take longer to help you (they have to transmit your technical support request to the actual hosting company for it to be acted upon). However, this also depends on both the reseller and the underlying hosting company. It is thus wise not to rule out all resellers; there are a number of reliable and fast ones who are actually quite good and cheap. In fact, a number of resellers sell the same packages cheaper than their original hosting company. If you find out that a particular company is a reseller, you will need to investigate both the reseller and the real hosting company.

  14. International

    If you don't stay in the USA, you have the option of hosting your site with some local provider. The advantage here is the ease of dealing with them (they are after all easily accessible by phone call or a visit), your familiarity with the local laws and easy recourse to those laws should it be necessary. It should be your choice if your target audience is local (eg a local fast food delivery service). On the other hand, hosting it in USA has the advantage of faster access for what is probably the largest number of your overseas visitors (particularly if you have an English-speaking audience). You also have a large number of hosting companies to choose from, and as a result, cheaper prices too.

  15. Others' Reviews

    You should make it a point to check out what others have to say about the web host. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done.

    There are many reviews of web hosts around. Some are reviews made by a single webmaster on their own site, others are posted on webmaster forums. However, as you should always do when looking at reviews (of anything), read them with a pinch of salt. Some glowing reviews may come from people working for the web host itself, disguised as multiple satisfied customers. Likewise, negative reviews of a particular host can sometimes come from unscrupulous competitors of that host.

    In addition, even if the review is genuine, be careful about trusting a glowing review from someone who has been with a web host for only a few months. While that person may be perfectly honest, you can't really tell the quality of a web host if you've only been hosted on its server for so short a time. That person could simply be going through what webmasters jokingly call the "honeymoon period".

    The converse is also true. Honest bad reviews about a web host from brand-new webmasters are problematic too. You have to evaluate carefully whether the bad review is actually a reflection of how bad the web host is, or how inexperienced the webmaster is. That is, the newcomer may ascribe faults to the web host that are actually his/her failure to properly understand how to do things. The root of the problem here is that there are many technical aspects to creating a website that can easily trip a newcomer. I have read supposedly-bad reviews of web hosts that actually say more about the newness of the webmaster than the quality of the web host.

    Anyway, before you ask, you can read my review of the web host thesitewizard.com currently uses at https://www.thesitewizard.com/archive/webhosting.shtml. On occasion, I may also make a comment or two about some of the hosts I list on the Budget Web Hosts page on thefreecountry.com.

    Don't skip this step, or you might find yourself being suckered by a host that everyone else is steering clear of.

The Myth of the Perfect Commercial Host

In general, I doubt that there are any "perfect" web hosting companies around. Note that even if you are prepared to pay a huge price for your hosting needs, it does not guarantee that your host is any good. This is an interesting industry where a high price does not necessarily yield quality hosting and support.

On the other hand, one thing you can probably be sure of is that you will not get top-notched support if you only pay rock bottom prices. When the price charged is extremely low, which company can afford to hire enough good help to cater to all its users?

Like me, you'll probably end up settling for a trade-off between price, reliability and features that you're willing to live with.

What to Do Next

If you are puzzled as to what to do after you sign up with a web host, please read How to Create a Website. It takes you step-by-step through the entire process of making a website.

PHP | .htaccess file | How to prevent image bandwidth theft with .htaccess

 Here is the article. 

How to Prevent Image Bandwidth Theft With .htaccess


by Christopher Heng, thesitewizard.com

If your website displays beautiful pictures, you may encounter the ugly situation where your photos and other images are used without your permission on other sites. Even worse, those websites "hotlink" your pictures, that is, they don't host the pictures directly on their site, but embed them into their pages by linking to the copy on your site. This way, not only do they infringe your copyright, but they also make you pay for their bandwidth.

System Requirements

The solution outlined in this article requires your site to be hosted on a machine using the Apache web server. In addition, your web host must allow you to override the server's configuration using a .htaccess file. For the more technically inclined, it uses the facilities provided in the mod_setenvif Apache module.

If this is not the case for your website, you cannot use the suggestions given here. You might wish to use my alternative solution, a PHP script that block image bandwidth thieves instead.

(To find out if your web server fulfills the requirements stated here, try checking up the documentation on your web host's website — the information is usually available on their list of web hosting packages, price lists or on their order form. Alternatively, contact their technical support and find out from them.)

Steps to Take

Protecting your images using a .htaccess file is trivial.

  1. Put all the images you wish to protect from being stolen (bandwidth-wise) in a separate directory.

  2. Create an ASCII text file named .htaccess and save it in that directory. Note that the name starts with a fullstop ("period" in US English) and is entirely in small letters (ie, lowercase). Cut and paste the following lines into that file:

    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://www.example.com/" locally_linked=1
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://www.example.com$" locally_linked=1
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://example.com/" locally_linked=1
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^http://example.com$" locally_linked=1
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^https://www.example.com/" locally_linked=1
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^https://www.example.com$" locally_linked=1
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^https://example.com/" locally_linked=1
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^https://example.com$" locally_linked=1
    SetEnvIfNoCase Referer "^$" locally_linked=1
    <FilesMatch "\.(gif|png|jpe?g)$">
      Order Allow,Deny
      Allow from env=locally_linked
    </FilesMatch>

    Change "example.com" to your real domain name. If your site can be accessed using other domain names (eg "www.example.net"), be sure to add an additional SetEnvIfNoCase line for each of those domain names (with the URLs appropriately changed to the addresses of your domains. On the other hand, if your site can only be accessed using one domain, for example, using only "www.example.com", feel free to delete the non-www versions, although it is probably a good idea to leave it there in case you ever change your mind in the future. The cut and paste code above caters to the usual case where most sites can be accessed with or without the "www" prefix. It also works whether your site is accessed with HTTPS or plain HTTP.

    Do not correct my spelling in the code snippet given above. "Referer" (with only one "r" in the middle of the word) is the word that needs to go into the .htaccess file — do not change it to "Referrer". Yes, I know the spelling is wrong in every single variant of English. Unfortunately, that spelling error was built into various Internet software in ancient times, and cannot be changed now since too many sites depend on it being spelt this way. (It's the problem faced by popular software: the programmers can't fix mistakes they made in the past, because everyone now depends on that mistake working exactly as it used to.)

That's all there is to it. The above file should protect all images that have ".gif", ".png", ".jpg" and ".jpeg" extensions.

Remember to use an ASCII text editor (also known as "text editor" or "plain text editor") to create the .htaccess file. Do not use Microsoft Word or Wordpad. Notepad (found on all Windows systems) is fine.

Explanation: .htaccess to Block Unauthorized Image Usage

Whenever a browser sends your web server a request for an image, it usually also sends the URL of the page that linked to that image. The above .htaccess file causes the server to check this URL (via mention of "Referer" in the above snippet) and if it is one of the authorized URLs that you specify, it will set an internal flag called "locally_linked". This internal flag is technically called an "environmental variable". If the URL sent is not in this list of authorised URLs, the flag (or environment variable) is not set. Note that we also set the "locally_linked" variable if the browser does not send any URL at all: this occurs when the visitor accesses your site using a browser or a proxy that suppresses the referring URL.

The web server then checks if the file requested has an extension in the list given above (gif, png, jpg and jpeg). If so, and the "locally_linked" variable is set, it will send the image. Otherwise it an error will be sent.

What Happens When A Bandwidth Thief Links to Your Image

After you create the .htaccess file, if some other site tries to link to your image from their site, they will find that the image will not display on their site. On the other hand, your images should generally load fine on pages on your site.

Potential Problems

Like the PHP solution, this method relies on the HTTP_REFERER header being properly sent by the visitor's browser to your site. Some browsers, anonymous surfing proxies and personal firewalls allow the user to change what is sent. These software or proxies may thus (potentially) transmit HTTP_REFERER headers with some user-specified value.

When this occurs, the image will not appear even when the visitor is on your site (which means that your own page will have broken link images), or it may appear even when it is displayed on the thief's site.

Hopefully the percentage of people who encounter this is small, but be aware that these situations do occur.