Looking for somewhere to host your website? To some people the term ‘web hosting’ is a bit of a mystery. But the simple answer is web hosting is a service you will need if you want to have a website that can be seen by others on the World Wide Web. A web hosting company provides the facilities that enable you to display your website to anyone who wishes to view it. This is achieved by the hosting company using powerful servers with lots of web space. (Think in terms of massive storage space many times greater than your computer’s hard drive) This is where the web pages of many websites reside. They are secure and password protected so that nothing can be uploaded on to them except by those authorised to do so. However, the web pages can be downloaded and viewed by anyone connected to the internet using a browser such Internet Explorer. But how do you find a web hosting company, and which one should you choose to get the best service? As with many commercial products and services, when you look more closely you will find that you are faced with a bewildering variety of options that can be included or not included in your web hosting package. So it’s important that you understand what exactly it is you’re getting when you pay for this type of service. Some of the things to consider are.... CUSTOMER SUPPORT - does the company provide a 24 hour support service if a problem arises? Look for a company provides a 24/7 customer service and technical support line so that if or when there is a problem you can contact them immediately to resolve the issue. AMOUNT OF WEB SPACE - do they provide enough space for your needs? Most sites only require a few megabytes of web space so it’s unlikely to become an issue unless your site becomes extremely large and uses lots of graphics or large files RELIABILITY - look for a service that guarantees a minimum of 99% uptime, which means that your site will rarely, if ever be unavailable for access to your visitors. (On rare occasions servers may be down for maintenance but a good web host provider will have back-up facilities in place) DATA TRANSFER - this is often referred to as bandwidth and describes the amount of information that can be downloaded over a period of time. Always check to see how much monthly bandwidth is allocated with each hosting plan. Most websites will never reach the maximum allowed even on the most basic plan. But if your site ever becomes hugely popular with thousands of daily visitors then the bandwidth soon gets eaten up. If or when this happens you could always consider upgrading your chosen host plan to a more expensive one that allows more bandwidth. EMAIL, POP3, MAIL FORWARDING AND AUTORESPONDERS - a good web hosting company will provide these with your hosting plan. You should be able to have the facility to set up a number of email addresses for your chosen domain name example: info@mysalescompany.co.uk, customerservice@mysalescompany.co.uk etc., and be able to redirect them to your existing email address if you wish. Also, the ability to be able to set up an automated reply message using an autoresponder is a very useful feature to enable you to respond quickly to enquiries. SSL, MySQL, ECOMMERCE - these are important features if you’re planning on setting up a website to sell products online. Some web hosting plans provide these to enable you to set up a secure server (SSL) for keeping customer information and accepting credit card details via a shopping cart for electronic transactions (ecommerce) MySQL is also necessary where a database is required. Obviously these kind of features cost more but are mostly essential if you intend to sell goods from your website. PERL-CGI scripting, FTP access, FRONTPAGE EXTENSIONS - these are features that a webmaster may use in the design and management of your site. PERL-CGI scripting enables you to include interactive features such as contact forms, visitor counters, forums and guestbooks. FTP access allows you to transfer your website pages and associated files such as graphics and audio files, to your webspace using an FTP program. FRONTPAGE EXTENSIONS are required if you use FrontPage to build your site. in which case it's better to publish it to the web using FrontPage’s own method, so look for ‘Frontpage Extensions’ among the features listed when you’re considering which hosting company to use. CONTROL PANEL - a control panel will allow you to log in to check your website stats (see how many visitors your site is receiving, how long they stay and where they are coming from) as well as other useful tasks such as adding, deleting, and managing your email addresses, setting up autoresponder messages, mail redirects and so on. You will also be able to keep tabs on your bandwidth useage, change passwords for your account and carry out various other tasks which you may find useful in the management of your website account. Choosing a good web host There are a number of very good web hosting companies out there, but there are also some poor ones. First of all, don’t even consider using free web space. As you would expect, there are too many drawbacks to this type of service. If you want to project a professional image for your business or organisation then you must use a good web space provider, which, as you would expect, you will have to pay for. But the good news is, the best web hosting companies offer a variety of web hosting solutions that cater for all types of needs. With prices that suit all pockets. If you’re based in the UK we would recommend any one of the following as a good place to start. They are all well respected companies with affordable, secure web hosting plans that provide a host of useful features. Take a look at the different packages that they offer and compare their prices and features to find what suits your requirements. |
