Website Hosting - How to Select a Good Company

Trying to select a hosting package is much like purchasing a new car--there are many different types and ways to go, but in the end it really boils down to how you are going to get where you want to be and the features you'll need to get there. You certainly would not buy a Honda Civic to make an off-road journey across the Mohave Desert. Nor would it make sense to buy a Hummer to just drive around town.

So in considering the type of hosting package and company to host your website, you should first assess where you want your website to go and what you'll need to get there.

But first, let's understand what web hosting is exactly, and the many different features that need to be considered.

The Internet is a vast network of interconnected computer servers which house or host various pages of information, called websites. Hosting a website means to store and maintain a computer folder of various web pages. Hosting companies offer this service by providing computer hardware and software services. These services vary as much as cars do.

Some very important hosting features that should be a must for your hosting package, much like the importance of having a car with a motor and wheels, are the following:

* Security - Protection from Internet hackers. * Space - Ability to grow my site without size constraints. * Speed - How fast my website will load onto visitors computers. * Up Time - Dependability of the hosting servers from crashing. * Back Up - Protection from loss of data from my website. * Support - 24 hours support to handle problems. * Administrative Tools - For making changes to your site. * Email - The number and size of email accounts. * Hosting Company - History and track record for support. * Search Engine Submissions - Submitting to the major search engines.

Now, let's consider where you want your website to go and what you'll need to get there. Some questions to ask:

* Do I want my customers to be able to look up information on my website? If so, you'll need a database driven website with a hosting company that supports it. * Do I want movement on my website? If so, you'll need a web design company that can program flash for your site, as well as the ability to host the flash program. * What type and how much email traffic will I anticipate? This helps to determine the size and amount of storage you'll need for your hosted website. * How many web pages will I need? This also helps to determine the size of space needed for your hosting package. * Will I want to make ongoing custom changes to my website? If so, you'll need a hosting company that supports ongoing custom design changes. * Will my website have a lot of images and movement? If so, you'll need additional space for larger web files for these functions. * Do I want Internet Traffic to my Website? In order to receive traffic to your website, your hosting company needs to offer this service, or you'll need to hire a third party for this service. * Will I need Internet marketing help and consultation? In this fast-changing Internet world, it is important to have professional help and consultation.

The Better Business Bureau offers this advice:

"Choosing a Web Hosting Service for your Business Web Site. Is your business web site down again? Does it seem to have more downtime than uptime? You may want to consider changing your web hosting service. One of the most important decisions you will make for your business web site is selecting which web hosting service will display your web pages to the Internet. Choosing the right Internet Service Provider (ISP) to host your business's web site may feel like finding the right day-care center for your kids these days: Are they reliable? Will they be there next month? Do they know what they are doing? What services do they provide?"

Basically, it is important to find the right hosting company that will partner with you for all your hosting, design and consultation needs. The cheapest hosting is typically not the best route to go. It's cheap because it is a bare bones package, with little, if any support. That is a sure way to online business failure.

Brad Stone is CEO of Heritage Web Solutions, a USA Based Company, specializing in Designing and Hosting Affordable Websites for Small and Medium Size Businesses. With a staff of over 160 employees, Heritage Web Solutions has grown to a multi-million-dollar company in just 4 years, achieving a Top 1% National Ranking as reported by WebHosting.Info.

web hosting made easy

Hosting a website is important as it helps you to get easy and fast traffic for your website. Whatever business you are beginning, preparing a website, hosting it and getting the required traffic for it will help you to get success in your business easily.

General introduction

Hosting a website is important as it helps you to get easy and fast traffic for your website. Whether you are beginning with a small-scale business or a large scale organization, web hosting services are the most reliable and affordable way to get your website prepared and attract traffic within less time. There are web-hosting providers who provide the best web hosting services in quite less price with 30-day money back guarantee in case of any problems.

Common questions regarding hosting a website

Best web site hosting offers a series of questions in the mind of the service seeker. You should get a service that will best suit your needs and purposes. You should keep a backup copy of the files in your computer in case of any problem. Your question can include further information about the type of equipment or software that will be needed to set up the site. You need an UPS [Uninterrupted Power Supply] source that acts as a big battery to provide the server with power for 30 minutes or more. There is also special software that monitors the servers and restarts them if they quit serving pages.

Another important question about best web hosting services can include about the domain specifications and the number of domains that can be hosted per account. A domain name is basically a website address that becomes the URL [Uniform Resource Locator] of the site. If you have 2 domain names and want to go for the same site again, then you will be charged extra for the domain names. However, if you plan to host several sites, then you can ask for a volume discount or about a reseller package.

Other questions poised by the customers

If you are interested to know about the uploading of your files to the account, then you should know better about the 24 hour FTP process. As for the log files or Stats, the hosting companies either provide you with raw logs for your account or provide you with some sort of online statistics. Make sure that the logs contain specific information about search engines on words and phrases used, how long the visitor stayed in the particular website, the entry pages, number of page visits, broken links and errors, and exit pages.

To know more about the cheap inexpensive web hosting services you should contact different service providers who will offer you with a range of best web hosting services and their estimated prices. You can choose the best web site hosting services that will suit your purposes

Webhosting tips for choosing affordable and cheap web hosting

Webhosting tips for choosing affordable and cheap web hosting

The Basics:

If one wants to put his/her web site online, Web hosting offers the opportunity. For making a site go online, no matter it is having large or small content one has to go onto a web server. Thus a web server is simply a larger and much more powerful computer than user's own computer. On these servers one's Internet content simply sits for people to access and view the information available. These web servers are stored within data centers; all what is required is simply renting some space on the server.

Why to use a web hosting service?

The first reason to choose is its affordability. The work of the web hosting companies includes looking after and updating all software required to maintain one's site, adding security patches making sure that one's content is safe from hackers/viruses and unwanted Spam. The first step after registration of web site's name is hosting it with the web server. In case there comes any difficulty with the web site, full technical support is supported by the hosting company. In chases one chooses to host by own, it will cost too much on hardware, bandwidth and ongoing software updates.

What is shared web hosting?

While searching for a web host Company one will find that many are offering shared web hosting. Shared web hosting is simply a server that has a number of different web sites sitting on it simultaneously. In case of shared web hosting one will be allocated a certain amount of disk space on the server and this allows user to have a number of web sites hosted on one server. It is a very secure service even though one is sharing the server with many different companies, as no other company will have access to other's files. There are many people having wrong opinion that using a shared service will make the web site act slowly. In case of shared web hosting the information will be displayed and downloaded equally as fast as if it where on the server on it's own. The concept used by Web host companies is that they offer shared hosting simply to use up all the space on the server, there is no benefit to user or them having empty hard disk space.

Why good hosting is required?

If one has developed a web site for business opportunity or to sell merchandise online what all is needed is reliability as downtime costs much money. Therefore less downtime means the better chance of making money by the user. One is required to compile a whole list of questions to ask the web host company when it comes to hosting his/her site. It is necessary to have a guaranteed response time if any problem occurs with the site or if it goes offline. One needs to have 24-hour access to his/her files with 24-hour support if the site is in business of selling products online, as most of the sales could be made in the evening or nighttime. Thus it is very important to have support all time for any issues that could arise. Not only that to check the effectiveness of site it is also important to look for Statistics i.e. how many unique hits (people visiting one's site) one is getting so that one can see the trend of people just visiting to those who are buying. Thus one should check in advance the stats offered by different companies as some web host companies offer very substantial stats while others can be less informative, so one should always ask for a demonstration before finalizing any host.

Mouth publicity is a great way to hear as to who are a good host and a bad host. One should ask his/her colleague or who is already taking the experience of that host. There are several good as well as bad hosts in the market, therefore one should ask the questions and make sure that he/she is confident with the replies before signing up.

Will hosting in own country or another, effects the web site?

It is quite interesting to know if the company is providing 24 hour support to allow for time differences, then one should have the same level service as if the web host company was based just down the road. Thus it makes no difference if the host is of same country or of another. There are many people thinking hosting their website outside of their registered country will lead to losing their domain identity, which is totally wrong example if one is based in Ireland and is having a computer website it would be something like www.computerparts.ie The. I.e. is the identity of Ireland but if one wants his site hosted in the US then he/she would still keep the. I.e., and there is no need to change to. Com. Thus the great thing about web hosting is that the world is oyster and one can shop online globally until one is satisfied with the service.

Cheap Webhosting - Is It For You

Cheap Webhosting - Is It For You

There's an old adage which states that "You get what you pay for".

In most areas of life, and business, this holds true. Not necessarily so, however, in the webhosting industry. Often, you pay too much, and don't get what you pay for.

Several weeks ago I got a call from a web designer friend of mine.

"John," He said "You won't believe this".

He went on to tell me about a Plastic Surgeon he was redesigning a website for. This client was paying $600.00 per month for his webhosting account.

"The incredible thing is" He related, "I can't get the current host to return my phone calls or emails".

After looking at this clients needs, I was shocked to find that there was nothing special about his site that justified his being on anything other than a basic shared webhosting plan. We quoted him a monthly rate of under five dollars.

In this case, the client was being raped by an unscrupulous host who was not only overcharging him, but not even providing the basic support he needed.

This is an extreme example, no doubt, but it all to often characterizes the poor deal which most website owners fall into.

Several years ago, there was no such thing as a webhosting industry. Nearly all websites were hosted by local ISP's. The average monthly cost for hosting a website was $20.00 per month. Often, if you called the ISP with a technical question, they would tell you to buy a book or take a class.

Around 1996, we saw the emergence of a few "webhosting" companies. These were companies which were strictly committed to hosting websites. Using the economy of scale, they were able to offer incredibly useful webhosting packages for around $10.00 per month. What's more, some of these companies provided useful tech support which was geared towards meeting a website owners needs.

Fast forward to 2005 and we now see the emergence of a new type of web host - the cheap webhosting provider. These are companies which offer hosting for less than $5.00 per month.

Generally, cheap webhosting providers are newer companies. There's a reason for this. It's extremely difficult for the older companies to lower their prices when they already have a large customer base which pays higher prices. They'd be slashing their gross, and most companies just can't afford that.

So how do cheap webhosting providers offer such a low price to begin with?

Part of it is that servers, hard drive space and bandwidth are much, much less expensive than they were several years ago. Cheap webhosting providers capitalize on this.

Another part is that cheap hosting providers use a different business model than the older providers. Webhosting is a very competitive business. Until recently, web hosts attempted to compete by providing the most tools and features. The problem with this model is that not everyone needs everything. Most web hosts provide free backup services to all of their clients. Backups are costly, and not everyone needs or wants them, but everyone pays for them because they're built into the cost of the package.

A cheap webhosting provider, on the other hand, might give you the basic features that everyone uses, but offer weekly backups as an available add on feature, putting the cost of backing up websites on only those customers who want that service.

This all sounds great, I know, but what about service? Will I get competent and fast customer support from a company which charges me $4.00 per month?

The answer, surprisingly, is usually yes.

Obviously, not all cheap webhosting providers will give you great service. But not all expensive webhosting providers will give good service either. Our Plastic Surgeon friend couldn't get his $600.00 host to return his emails.

But, with a cheaper provider, the key for the providers success is customer retention. A savvy web host will endeavor to please his existing clients by providing the best support possible.

Cheap Webhosting Tips

Webhosting is a service that enables you to upload and store a site's HTML documents and related files on a Web server that can be accessed through the internet. Another term for webhosting is site hosting.

With a number of webhosting companies on the internet, it is sometimes hard to find the one that offers true cheap and quality webhosting. Before, you began to search for companies that offer cheap webhosting, it is important to know what exactly you are looking for. This includes your site features, internet programming languages, database connectivity features, email addresses, domain name, traffic you expect and many other considerations.

Some cheap webhosting services offer 'unlimited bandwith'. This is a false claim since 'bandwith' refers to the amount of information between the hosting servers and the end user. Another important consideration in choosing a cheap webhosting is its support services. You must know how prompt the cheap webhosting company can address the problems you encountered. Do some research on the webhosting company's website. Know how long they have been in operation. Then know if the company offers the service you are looking for.

If you purchase your own domain name, make sure that the cheap webhosting company supports them and they give you one email address. A number of companies offer 10 or more custom pop email accounts with unlimited forwarding address with sometimes no additional costs.

Linux based cheap webhosting services are usually cheaper that Windows, offers PHP and MySQL and telnet accounts. Linux is often used by cheap webhosting companies because Linux based languages and databases are free to install. Windows are usually more expensive that Linux, should support ASP, could have Cold Fusion, Access, SQL Server at additional cost.

It is hard to find cheap webhosting using Windows since it is expensive for a hosting company to purchase. Cold Fusion, Allair, SQL Server need to be purchased at quite a high price. Access is sold at a very minimal price. If you are looking for extra features in your Windows host then you should be ready to pay extra. If you are looking for a cheap webhosting service, then a Linux based service would be the one for you. However, if you are using Microsoft Access databases, a Windows based hosting service with Access support is a requirement.

When choosing a cheap webhosting company, you must check their support services, do some research from others and compare your requirements with that of the cheap webhosting company's offerings before you take the plunge.

Cheap Webhosting

Web hosting refers to the internet hosting service that provides individuals organizations and users with online systems for storing information, images, video or any content accessible via the Web. The companies that supply server space for storage of Web sites on the Internet and other additional services like Internet connectivity or Website creation.

A service provider who places our web site on a computer which is connected to the internet is called web host. Web hosting companies may use computers just like the one we have but they are set up to serve websites and are called server. A web host will have fast connection to internet and host thousands of web sites on many servers. The web host rents out the space to us so that we can get our website up on the World Wide Web.

While some large web hosts have their own datacenter (collection of servers) some rent a server from a bigger web hosting company and then resell the space under their own company name.

There are numerous web hosting companies today in the market with different types of plans at different prices. The key factors considered while developing a web host plan are server type, disk space, bandwidth and e-mail accounts.

Some common server types are Windows 2000 server, Linux and Unix. The type of sever used depends on the complexity of the website having database functions. Bandwidth requirements will depend on the traffic of the sites.

If the web site has more number of pages, music files, images, video files or other content it would require more disk space. A higher traffic would need more bandwidth.

It is generally believed that if we choose for cheap web hosting then the quality of the service will also be low. Today we have numerous companies that provide us the service at low costs but with good quality. If we require low bandwidth, our website has less number of pages, less number of email accounts then we could chose for cheap web hosting service.

These days there has been a considerable increase in the need for dynamic web content that is used by firms and individual customers to manage online business operations which has made the data exchange between web browser and the web server a complicated process than before. If the concern runs a small business then cheap web hosting is the best option. Shared web hosting has enabled to provide web hosting at cheaper prices. Share web hosting provides a share on a server for very low prices. Small websites choose cheap web hosting but if we can permit free ads on the top of our websites, and if the website will not be enlarged in terms of its pages and content then we can choose free web hosting.

How to choose the right web hosting company

First some considerations about the domain name(s)

Domain names do not really have anything to do with web hosting and can be registered independently from the web hosting package. There are advantages if you have domain name and web hosting separate. For example, if the web hosting company you selected fails to provide a good service, all you need to do is find a better web hosting company and change the domain name settings. If you have domain name and web hosting with the same company and the company ceases trading, the last thing they think about is your web hosting or domain name. By having them separate, you are lowering the risk.

Disadvantages of registering the domain name with your web hosting company

Many web hosting companies offer to register domain names on your behalf. You think that your domain name is with your web hosting company, when, in fact, they register it through some third party registrar for you. You then receive an invoice in 2 years time from a company you never heard of, ignore it, and in the worst case lose your domain name.

Furthermore, in many cases, you will not get access to your domain name details nor will you be given a domain name control panel. Why do you need a domain name control panel? You need to be able to update the contact information for your domain name(s). If you move house for example and don't update you domain name details and for some reason you need to change registrar etc. (or because your web hosting company ceased trading), you are in danger of losing your domain name because you cannot prove any longer that you are the owner of a certain domain name.

Also, a domain name control panel allows you to change email forwarding, web forwarding, and most importantly, the domain name servers, as well as some other settings. Check out www.123-reg.co.uk if you want to find out more about that.

Have a good look around online and check out different web hosting providers. There are many large web hosting companies out there such as 1and1. The advantage of registering with a large web hosting company is that they have hardly any downtime and their servers will be fast and up-to-date with the latest spam protection etc. Web hosting can be costly though if you reqister with a large web hosting company and if you want any additional services, you will have to pay for them. Support can be an issue too - you usually have to fight through hundreds of "Frequently Asked Questions" before you are allowed to send an email to their support team. You might also have to call a Premium Rate phone number if you need to speak to someone urgently. These rates can rate from £0.50 to £2 per minute (!) or even more. In most cases, you will receive good support, but in some cases you might be put through to an unexperienced person who has to speak to their supervisor to double-check things frequently - and all that at a premium rate!

The biggest problem with large web hosting providers is that if you miss the annual payment and do not react to their payment reminders - they will remove your website, your account, without further notice. In some cases, there will not be any chance to recover your website. With a large web hosting company, your website is just a number in a very large pool of websites. If they lose your custom, so what!

Web hosting with a smaller web hosting provider

If you find a reliable smaller web hosting provider, chances are that you will receive a personal service, and support questions are answered with a lot more detail and a lot quicker. Most likely, you can call a UK landline or an 0845 or 0870 number which is a lot cheaper than £2 per minute. In some cases, you might be able to receive a reply to your support question - which you sent on a Saturday evening - that same night.

If you miss your payment with a smaller web hosting company, they will most likely call you personally and remind you on your late payment. They are keen to keep you as a customer and will probably not remove your account and your website immediately.

Web Statistics

Ask the web hosting company if they provide extensive website statistics. You want to know how many visitors have accessed your website, what search terms they used to find your website in Google and other search engines, how many visitors you have per day, on a certain day of the week, and so on. Please also ask if you can have access to the website log files. You might think that adding a website hit counter will provide enough information, but that is actually the most inaccurate method of counting your website visitors - and apart from that they look tacky and unprofessional. Your web hosting company should provide statistics that are at least as comprehensive as Webalizer and if statistics are important for you, you need to have access to your log files which can then be analyzed with statistics analysing software (such as Surfstats).

E-Mail issues to watch out for

Before you take out web hosting, ask them if they provide SMTP/POP3 which you need to set up email accounts. If you want one or several e-mail addresses with your website - such as sales@mydomain.com - the web hosting company needs to provide SMTP/POP3 setup. Some web hosting companies only allow you to receive emails sent to sales@mydomain.com, but they will not allow you to use these e-mail addresses to send e-mails from. They will simply argue that you can use your Internet Service Provider E-Mail address - such as joe.smith@btopenworld.com. This does not look professional at all, and you should avoid web hosting companies that do not provide SMTP/POP3 service.

Web Hosting Costs

Web Hosting costs can vary greatly. You can take out web hosting for as little as £15 per year, or you can get web hosting, including 5 email addresses, 100 MB web space (which is a lot for a small business presence) for as little as £30 per year (check out www.plugsocket.com). If you buy a web design magazine (such as NET - www.netmag.co.uk), you will see many adverts from bigger web hosting companies. Check out their prices, their policies, and maybe give them a call - you will find out how long it takes until your call is answered.

Do not jump in because it is cheap, and conversely, do not think the service must be great because it is expensive. Check out what is on offer and then make an informed decision.

Free Webhosting with your internet service provider

Please do not use this! Your internet service provider company provide an internet connection. That is what they specialise in. They sometimes "throw in" free web hosting for up to 100 MB or even more. They normally do not provide SMTP / POP3 setup for the sending / receiving of emails related to your website (such as sales@mydomain.com), nor will they provide databases, server scripting language support and such like. Usually, you can only upload websites developed in pure HTML, and in some cases you will not be able to use FTP software for uploading your files and managing your files on the web server. Your business website will proabably use some sort of server-side scripting language - such as ASP, PHP etc. and maybe use a database such as MySQL. If your website is with your Internet Service Provider, the support for this service can be poor and the account can sometimes not be upgraded to include server-side scripting languages, and/or databases.