Thursday, August 18, 2011

Which Hosting Company is Right for You?

By William MacMahon


The importance of computer is surely on increase and as a result of which, each and every aspect related to computer is of paramount significance at this point of time. It is often found that people are in need of some information regarding this, especially when it is about a website or the world of Internet. This is a common need and goes without saying that having created a website, one is supposed to go to the world of Internet. Once you are in the realm of Internet, it endows you with three alternative options to choose from. The first two options are simple and well known. In fact, if they are placed in an order, they stand like- either hosting the site on your own computer or hosting the site on a server. These are the first two options and the third option is that of employing anyone else to live up to the job of hosting the site for you. To put it in a straightforward manner, the first two options that are talked about are very useful and practical. But, the issue is that these options are perfect if either you have fast connections or if this is all about business related sites. This is not something easy because such options can't be devoid of your vigilant eye to supervise. Moreover, this can only be done successfully if you do have a fast connection facility.

Opting for a web hosting company would be a great option to fall back on. The web hosts host your website on their server and you are given access to it via FTP for the purpose of uploading files on your website. Web hosting services are available for free, for a fee, and also a dedicated web hosting.

You need a huge cost to go for a dedicated web hosting and is mainly suitable for websites which is expected to have a good number of hits. The web host company hosts your website on their server, while using their connection.

But paid web-hosting does score over free hosting on several counts: There are better features provided in your hosting package, technical support is prompt, responsible and probably better, the net connection is faster as compared to free hosts, there wont be unwanted advertisements on your page and most importantly your needs shall be catered to as you pay for the services rendered.

Paid web hosting provides you with more number of features, like faster internet connection, good customer support, absence of irritating advertisements from the webpage, and also, as you are paying for the services, your needs will be taken care of.

There are some free web hosting companies which refrain from putting banners on your site, but they offer substandard services. In fact, many free web hosts have attractive features, but the low level of technical support is what pulls them down. A free web hosting package is good for entry-level webmasters. Web hosting companies offer certain features as mentioned below, but keep in mind that the list is inclusive and not exhaustive. But prior to that, you need to get friendly with a few terms:

URL/ Address- If you have a domain name, it's all right. Otherwise, you are in need of having a URL address. This is very important.

Space: Websites are built of web pages, which consume little space. For a small site of about a hundred pages, a space of 5MB is sufficient. But remember that graphics take more space than plain text, so if your website is one which has a lot of graphics, then go for about 15MB to 20MB space. Many web hosts offer unlimited space, but in most cases, you may not require it.

The Aspect of Bandwidth/ transfer- This refers to a monthly account. This monthly account is of the number of files transported from your site in a month. Well, if you are thinking about the best deal of bandwidth, it is to have the facility of unlimited bandwidth because as far as experience goes, 1GB is the minimum requirement even for an ordinary site.

CGI-BIN- this is required when you run interactive scripts like guest-books, counters etc. These sites can be remotely hosted while they carry the banners from the site that presents them.

SSI- It points towards a feature of special function. What it adds to your facility is that it lets you employ a plan of prompting your server to put something on your page. It can be either simple text or CGI generated code or anything like this.

My SQL/PHP/ASP Support- if you desire to maintain a database on your site you need database formats like these. ASP generates key sites often.

Technical Support: Free hosts do not provide such a good technical support as paid hosts do. As you might know, monitoring the websites is constantly required, and upon encountering any problem, you might need technical support from the host, so this bit is an important aspect of a web host.

E- mail- It is always wise to have a POP3 mail service as it lets you receive any message from your web-host before they send it to you. Actually, it is very common to have such mails provided you have a domain name.

FrontPage Extensions- these are some extensions that you require if you employ Microsoft FrontPage to construct your web-site. You can also include FrontPage components in your site.

SSL/Secure Server: This is needed for ensuring safe facilities for ordering from your website.

Statistics/Log files: You can have them to gain information about the users of your site, and get information about what has been downloaded from your website, which page has been viewed the most, etc.

FTP Accounts- with anonymous FTP, users can log in to an area of your site and download files. These allow you to upload files on your website.

Paid web hosting service: most web hosts charge a monthly payment for paid services, and they remove the advertisements present on your site, besides offering you good technical support as well. So if you can do some research work and get hold of a good paid web host, you can get rid of the unwanted advertisements. The costs range from $5 to $75 a month, though the dedicated servers cost about $150 a month.

It is always wise to have a list of sites hosted by your web-hosting company. You have this right because you pay them. Once you get this list, it is possible for you to know about the ins and outs of the web-hosting company, especially their technical assistance. This is of immense importance.

Always bear in mind to go through all their terms and conditions. It is often seen that some free hosts do ask you for the ownership of the copyright of your page. This is an obstruction to advertise on your own website. So, be aware of all the restrictions to advance properly.




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