How to Choose a Web Hosting Company
Copyright 2002 Herman Drost
Laptop Battery Ok, you have your web site built and are now confused as to all the choices you have in order to find a home for your site.
> Choosing a Web Hosting Plan Choosing a Web Hosting Plan Overview There are approximately 100 million Web sites on the Internet. They are "hosted" on computers (called web servers) all over the world. The web server (computer) where your Web site's information, photos, etc. reside, may be located in a home or office, but ideally, in a secure data center, and maintained by a "web host" (like WestHost). Web hosting clients simply upload their Web sites to either a shared web server (where many other clients are also hosting), or a dedicated web server (where the entire server is their own), which the web host maintains to ensure the Web site is always available, and can be accessed quickly (a fast download).
Thinkpad It is good to make a right choice the first time, because if you have to move to another hosting service, it will cost you time and you will lose some of your valued customers due to the downtime setting up with another host.
How many customers are they serving per server Depending on the Web hosting plan or the Web hosting company the server that your hosted on might be a little more packed than you might think. A responsible Web hosting company will not overstuff the servers they own or collocate. Most of the time, sharing a server with several different companies is not a bad thing though. However, you do need to ask your Web hosting company about the numbers. If you are shopping around for Web hosting, you need to ask each company about the client per server ratio. Go with the company that fits your other needs, and has the least amount of clients per Web hosting server.
Microsoft You will also have to pay set up and hosting fees for a new account.
established web hosting provider sometimes hosts up to thousands of websites. For that reason, a web hosting company need many web servers (essentially, these are computers) to store the website. And all these web servers are connected to the Internet through high speed Internet connection and housed in a physical building called data center In order to guarantee all the web servers are safe, secure and fully operational all time, 7 environment with fire protection, virus detections, computer data backup, redundant power backup and complete disaster recovery capabilities.
Laptop Computers Here are some basic things to consider when choosing a Web Hosting Service:
Aplus.Net, a leading web hosting company and Internet solutions provider, new promotions created to give consumers an advantage in the competitive world of eCommerce in the new year. Reflecting Aplus.Net's concern with the growing fraud and security risks throughout today's Internet landscape, the company has chosen to offer consumers an incentive to bolster their dedicated servers with secure firewall services. Under this promotion, Aplus. up fee (a value of $99) when customers choose to add a firewall service to their dedicated hosting plan.
Laptop Computer 1. Speed and reliability of the servers and hardware
Make sure they have a high-speed connection
(preferably T3 or higher) to the Internet.
Dedicated Server An advanced form of web hosting where the customer generally has complete control over the server. Dedicated Servers are typically housed in data centers. Dedicated servers may be compared to shared web hosting servers; where in shared hosting you find the web hosting company administering and control the server, a dedicated server is typically controlled by the server's owner and he or she controls which websites are hosted on the server.
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Desktop Computer *Effective Bandwidth Management -
opt for unlimited bandwidth for your site.
Notebooks *Backup Systems - good hosts will have back
up systems in place to guard against power failures,
which will cause you to lose data and customers.
Lenovo 2. Features
Compatibility with existing Software and Skills
Is your host's server, software and support services compatible with the skills and software you are using? For example if you are using FrontPage to create your site, make sure they have FrontPage extensions installed on their server.
Some of the basic features of a hosting service should include:
Hard Drive Domain name registration
At least 5MB of allocated space
Unmetered bandwidth
Free Technical Support
POP3 E-Mail Accounts
Email Forwarding
Email Auto-responders
Email Aliases
FTP Access
FrontPage Support
Own CGI-Bin Access
Free Perl, CGI
Server Side Includes (SSI)
Password Protection
Reseller/referral program
30 day money back guarantee
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Gateway Name
Laptop Parts Email
Software
Hard Drives Hosting Plans from $30/Year
Electronics How Much Hosting Space Do You Need?
Canon How to Transfer Your Web Site to Another Host
Without Losing It.
Desktop Pc Flexibility and room for growth - Keep in mind the future needs of your web site. If the traffic to your site explodes, or in the future you may need a database solution then your host must be able to accommodate the changes.
Desktop Computers Quality of their support services
Think Pad Quality of existing customers - ask for any BIG current customers that are hosting with that service.
Opinions of existing customers - ask for any testimonies of existing customers to get feedback from them concerning reliability and support.
Stability - you do not want your hosting service to go out of business (like what happened to many of the free hosts) and leave you stranded. Check how many years they have been in business.
Support and Responsiveness - Make sure you can contact them 24/7 by phone or email. Test the quality and efficiency of response by sending them an email pertaining to some question you may have before you sign up.
Repair 3. Types of Hosting Services
Free Hosting:
Free sites are for people whose sites are small and do not expect much traffic.
Data Recovery Pros
It's Free
For small non business sites
Cisco Cons
No usage of domain names
Limited technical support
Unreliability of servers, software
Limited web space, technical support
Host may shut down due without notice
Keyboard Virtual Hosting: (also known as domain or shared hosting).
This is the most popular and cost effective form of hosting.
Monitor Pros
Low cost
Great for the average business sites
Good technical support
Desktop Cons
Multiple sites on server
Sometimes slow updates
Limited security and control due to the large number of sites on 1 server
Use your own domain name (www.yoursite.com)
Infosys What can you expect to pay?
Refurbished Laptops Expect to pay $5 - $50/month for a small web hosting package of 20-50MB of allocated space for your site. This will be enough for up to 20 pages with a few graphics on each page. You may find less expensive ones if you are lucky.( isitebuild.com/sitehosting.htm). Most small web sites use only 2-3MB. Make sure you can upgrade your hosting plan, should your site expand.
Wipro When you sign up for a monthly service, there is usually no fixed length contract, so you can terminate your contract at any time. Your commitment is month to month although you often will get a discount if you sign up for 1-2 years.
Lap Top If you follow these basic guidelines, you will have a reliable, efficient and satisfying hosting service that will contribute to the success of your business for many years
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Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) owner and author of http://www.iSiteBuild.com
Affordable Web Site Design and Low Cost Web Hosting
Subscribe to his "Marketing Tips" newsletter for more original articles.
subscribe@isitebuild.com. You can read more of his in-depth articles at:
http://www.isitebuild.com/articles
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