How to choose the right website hosting company by Alicia Harper
If you have a website or would like a website you're going to need a website
hosting company. The good news is there are tons out there to choose from. The
bad news is you're going to have to learn a little bit about web hosting to be
able to choose the right one for you. That is what we are going to discuss in
this article, to help you choose the right web host for your company/personal
website.
What is a web host company?
A web host provides the service that allows you to store the information that
makes up your website. A web host stores your website's information on a web
server. Each time you type a web address into your browser , the browser asks
for your website's information from the web hosts server and then the browser
displays it on your screen. Basically, if you don't have a web host or your own
server, you don't have a website. Some ISP's (Internet Service provider)
provides web space but, this is not the type of web hosing we will be
discussing.
Types of hosting plans
The next thing you are going to need to know is that there are different types
of hosting that is available to you. There is virtual / shared hosting. What
that means is that the web host company hosts more than one account on that
server. There is also dedicated which basically means you would get your own
server. Another type (which is not as common as the first two) is VPS (Virtual
Private Server) and what it is, is " virtual " servers on the actual server and
the user can add different modules within their server. The user can also
allocate how much CPU usage or memory easy module gets. Most users will
generally only need shared hosting unless you have a large website with over
5,000 visitors per day and large scripts. If that is the case you will need
dedicated hosting.
Types of Operating Systems
There are three different types of operating systems for servers. There is
Linux, Unix and of course Windows. Just because your computer is a PC doesn't
mean you have to opt for Windows web hosting. The operating system you use on
your desktop has little to do with your choice of web hosts. As long as you
understand how to use your FTP or web publishing software, your can use either
operating system.
When it comes to Web hosting, Linux has for some time, been widely considered
the best Operating System for Web servers. It's typically found to be the most
reliable, stable and efficient system. If your website, like most web sites, is
what might be termed "brochure-ware" then Linux servers are ideal. A web site
housed on a Linux operating system will have very high up-time and very low
downtime.
If you intend to create your website using ASP, FrontPage, the .NET
environment, Windows Streaming Media, Access, MSSQL, or any of the other
Microsoft proprietary technologies then you probably need to use a Windows
host. All other languages are able to be hosted on either platforms. Basically,
unless you are specifically using features that are unique to one platform or
another your time will be much better spent looking for a really good quality
host than a really good quality server.
Email
If you have your own site, you would probably want to have email addresses at
your own domain, like you@yourdomain.com. Does the host provide this with the
package? Does it allow you to have a catch-all email account that allows
any_e-mail@yourdomain.com to wind up being routed to you? Will you have the
option to send auto responders for your e-mail accounts? Can you retrieve your
mail with your email software? Can it be automatically forwarded to your
current email address? Can you check your e-mail on the web? These are
questions that you should ask when searching for the right web host.
Down time
This is extremely important. A website that is frequently down will lose a lot
of visitors. If someone finds your site on the search engine, and clicks on it
to find it us unavailable, they will simply shop somewhere else. Slow access is
also very frustrating for visitors. How do you know if a web host is reliable
or fast? The best way to find information about a web hosting company is to
search the net. Once you have decided on a web host to check out, typetheir
name in Google. As you look through the results, you will see that some of the
pages that come up are actually reviews of that company. Now look at the review
websites to see what everyone else is saying about potential web hosting
companies. Remember to take reviews with a grain of salt. As reviews can
usually be posted by anyone anonymously and you can't please everyone all the
time!
Traffic or Data transfer
Data transfer is the amount of bytes transferred from your website to visitors
when they browse your website. Always look for details on how much traffic the
package allows. To give you a rough idea of the typical traffic requirements of
a website, most new websites are likely use less than 3GB of bandwidth per
month. Your traffic requirements will grow over time, as your website becomes
larger and more popular. You will need to check to see if you will
automatically be charged for going over your bandwidth limit or are you
expected to pre-pay for it. Personally, with my web host I have 30 GBs of data
transfer and I host 7 domains and one sub-domains. I currently only use 750 MBs
/month. My websites have a total of 30, 000 visits per month and have about 2
million hits/month.
Price
Unfortunately price is always a factor. You should realize that you often get
what you pay for, although it's not necessarily true that the most expensive
hosts are the best. Your best bet would be to go with a web host that is
neither cheap nor expensive but, in between.
Technical support
Does the web host company's technical support function 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, all year around? Make sure you get a response for the web host company
quickly not just the next day. Another thing to check is that the phone number
they provide actually is answered by a real person. This I know from personal
experience. Make sure it is not an automated system that eventually ends with
an answer machine that asks you to leave your name and number. Besides speed of
responses, check to see if they are technically competent. You wouldn't want to
sign up for a host that is run by kids. Would you?
About the Author
Alicia Harper is the owner of a Vancouver
Web Design Company and is a Vancouver
Web Designer. She has written many articles about small business
websites, you can view them all on her website.
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