How to Choose a Web Host
Once you decide that you need web page either for your business, non-profit organization or simply a fun personal page, you then have the Herculean task of choosing a web host. Hopefully, the host you choose will be easy on the pocket, and offer maximum uptime, enough bandwidth support, appropriate web-space, and excellent customer service and support. Most web hosting services will not excel in all areas, however if you take the time to make an informed decision you can have it all!
The type of web services you desire and the purpose for which the web site is being created plays a major role in the choice for a web host. If the web site to be hosted is a commercial website, checking uptime period of the considered server is vital. Anything less than 99.5% uptime would be unacceptable for most commercial web sites. This is because search engines may be indexing your site at any moment of time and if your site were down it would lose its chance to be indexed on that particular search engine and hence lose probable business. Also, existing customers who would be visiting your site and are unable to load your web page may develop a negative impression about you that could harm business reputation. If the site is for a non-profit organization, a club or any personal page intending to only keep related people informed about certain aspects, a requirement for 99.5% uptime might not be a major criterion in your decision.
Another important aspect is the amount of file space that host offers. An average commercial web site normally contains not more than a few hundred web pages, some java or php scripts and image and multimedia files. All this information ordinarily does on not require web space more than 50-100 MB. Some hosts will charge a lot for additional space, while others will provide much more than 50-100 MB at a minimal cost.
Bandwidth is another issue you should carefully consider. If your site is just a personal homepage, it is unlikely you will get much traffic. However, if your site is an ecommerce site and you are expecting upwards of a thousand visitors a day, you should check the monthly bandwidth allowance that the host offers, since you will be charged if your site goes over this amount.
Make sure to check what “extras” the host offers. Does it give you up to 3 email accounts, or up to 100? Does it allow you to setup subdomains? What technologies does it support? For instance, if you plan to use PHP, make sure that server actually has PHP installed!
Finally, you should check out the web host’s reputation. Have they been in business a long time? Do they have a good reputation within the industry? Are they known for customer service? If your web site is a critical piece of your business, it would be wise to entrust it to a reputable hosting service.
Paul Herbert is very interested in UK web hosting. Learn more at http://www.hosting-netexplorers.co.uk/web_hosting_uk/web_hosting_packages.php.
Tags: host, SEO, web host, Web Hosting, web page, web siteAvoid Getting Ripped Off - Spot Bad Web Hosts
Firstly, go to the potential host’s website. Find their contact details and call them (if they don’t have a phone number, then you should not bother - it means that this host is most likely operated from somebody’s bedroom. If they call and it doesn’t sound like a business (kids screaming in the background, not a professional, business greeting, etc), you should also ignore the host.
While you are at the website, look at the general design. Click on a few links. Do they have a support forum? If the website does not look professionally designed, you shouldn’t give up on them, but a you should see a warning flag - it could mean a new company without the staff to properly support you. When you looked at the forum, did you see a lot of unhappy customers? If you only see one or two, you can ignore them - everybody has customers that complains, and many of them over things that is out of the hosts control. If the general mood of the forum is pleasant, it usually means the customers are happy. If you see a LOT of complaints, you should find somebody else. If it’s a very empty forum, you should also go somewhere else - it most likely means that it’s a company without a lot of customers.
The last things you can do is to look up how old the company is. New companies are usually small and will not be able to provide proper support if something goes wrong (the owner and only staff member will most likely have a day-job). The easiest way to see how old the company is, is to see how long ago he’s domain was registered (the address of the site e.g. microsoft.com). If it was registered recently, you should be wary, but if it’s a few years old, it means the company will have many happy customers, or they wouldn’t still be around. Doing this lookup is tricky sometimes, but the easiest way by far is to go to www.hostinginfo.ws - find the “Domain Lookup” link and click on it. You must then type in the domain name of the host, without the www bit. For example, www.microsoft.com will become microsoft.com.
Once the lookup is complete, you will get all sorts of information about the host, including the name, address, phone number and when the domain was registered. The last thing to do is to see if any of the information looks fake (e.g. a phone number of 123-1234) - if it does, you should not do business with them. If a company does not give you their real address and phone number, would you like to do business with them? Would you give them your credit card number?
There are many good hosts, but even more scam artists and rip-offs. If you follow the information in this guide, you shouldn’t encounter any of them. One thing you should always remember. If your gut feeling says a company is bad, then they most likely are.
Juan van Heerden is the owner of Hosting Info, a website that provides detailed reviews on web hosting services and information on picking the right host. You can visit his website at: http://www.HostingInfo.ws for more related information.
Tags: choose hosting, choose web host, finding hosting, Web Hosting, web site, webhosting, website, wwwSave Money - Only Pay For The Options You Use To Host Your Website
Every Web Hosting Provider offers you a multitude of options, and if you’re new to the game of Hosting a Website, this can be a daunting task in knowing which options to choose from. I have often come accross people that are paying too much for what they’re actually doing with their website. If you don’t use a database, why pay for it?
Knowing what each option is for, can really save you from paying more than what you really need to pay.
HTML: Websites are written in a language called HTML, and this is the basic function that every Web Host offers you - without HTML, there is no web site.
HTML code tells the web server what the website should look like, where to load the images, and the links to other pages. HTML isn’t really difficult, and is fairly easy to pick-up. To learn more about HTML you can go to http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp which has some great tutorials on HTML. You can also use tools like Front Page and Dreamweaver to build pages,but having a basic knowledge of HTML can only help.
DISK SPACE: The size of the disk space is important if you’re going to have a big website with lots of pages. This is where your pages get stored, and you need space for them. I always like to start small, and then upgrade as my requirements grow.
BANDWIDTH: When ever somebody visits your website, information is being transferred from your website to their web browser. This transfer creates traffic that is and this traffic is measured as Bandwidth. As with diskspace you can usually upgrade this as needed. I have found that it’s better to go with a webhost that charges you extra whenever you go over the allocated amount as this usually ensures that your website stays up and running even if it costs you a bit extra.
PHP/ASP/CGI: Allows you to write various scripts into your website that does little extras that HTML cannot do on it’s own - Anything from allowing people to make comments on your website to creating full member areas. If you want a website that allows people to interact with your website, then you most probably will need some form of Scripting. There are alot of free scripts out there, with PHP being the most popular. It’s important to first know what scripts your website’s going to be running, before going for a webhost - as not all webhosts offer every type of scripting solution out there.
DATABASES: If you want to store hugh amounts of data to make available to your visitors, or run a content management system like Joomla, then you’ll need a database for this. You also need a way to get the data in and out of the Database, so you’ll need PHP as well - But, most web hosting companies will give you
both options bundled together.
CONTROL PANEL: There are various control panels that web hosting providers use, and they all perform the same function - allowing you to control your website. I have no real preferance for any specific control panel, as they pretty much all do the same thing.
DOMAINS: Most Webhost providers will register a domain for you at a extra cost. Be sure to check out registrars of domains, to see if you cannot buy it for cheaper. Registering a domain at something like Go-Daddy.com is pretty cheap, and pretty easy to do. What makes it sometimes better to go via the hosting company is that they will manage the whole aspect of the domain for you, where with a service like Go-Daddy it’s up to you to manage the whole domain - So, it’s sometime a cost saving option to go with the Web Host.
A lot of these options you can add to your website as you need them. It’s not always best to go for the most expensive package out there. Find out what you need, and then only purchase those options you need. You can save yourself some real money at the end of the day.
Finding the right Web Site Hosting Provider is important. Read reviews of Web Hosting Providers at Web Hosting Provider Review
Gerard Korsten is a Web Master who uses various Hosting Companies and runs the website: http://www.HostingProviderReview.com
Tags: hosting options, hosting provider, Web Hosting, web site, web site hosting