How to Find a Reliable Hosting Company
You must have worked very hard in creating your website, so don't let the work go in vain by adopting half-hearted efforts in getting the website online. You have three options to choose from in this regard. First, you can host the site directly on your computer, second is hosting it on a server, and the third option is to get a third-party host it. The first two alternatives are mostly used in practice and are good for people with a fast internet connection, and even for sites that are inclined towards businesses. Monitoring regularly is required for the maintenance of the web server in this case.
So the easiest alternative would be to use a web-hosting company. They are designed to put up your site using their server while you could access it via FTP to upload your files on the site. Web-hosting is of three types- free, paid and dedicated. Dedicated hosting is the costliest option available and is suitable only for sites that entail such attention. Your website is hosted by the company on their own server with their connection.
It is often found that people are inquisitive about the need or role of paid web-hosting as there is the option of getting this service free.
Then comes the two other options - free web hosting and paid web hosting. It is very normal if a question comes into your mind as to why anyone would pay for a service which he can get for free. There are many advantages which accrue to a paid web hosting.
If it is a paid web-hosting, you have fast connection (if compared to free web-hosting) and much more responsibility and technical support. Not only this, they live up to your requirements at the drop of a hat and you also don't get any unnecessary advertisements on your page.
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- you need a URL address only if you do not have a domain name already.
Space- As far as the aspect of space is concerned, it needs to be said that usually a space of 5MB is enough for a small site and this much space is perfect for over a hundred pages. Normally, what happens is that the graphics occupy a space of about 35KB. Having said this, one must know that it requires a space of 15-20MB in case of a graphics intensive site or one featuring downloads.
Bandwidth/Transfer: This is calculated monthly, and is based on the total number of files which are transferred from your site in the month. This is where unlimited bandwidth kind of helps, since you need at least 1GB space per month for a normal website.
CGI-BIN: If you run interactive scripts on your website, such as counters, guest books, etc., then you will need this. You can remotely host the site while the banners are carried from a third-party website.
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 Assistance- As mentioned earlier, a paid host can endow you with better technical support than a free host and your site is in a great need of this. This technical assistance can be had through either e-mail, phone or fax.
E- mail- particularly if you have a domain name, most web-hosts will convey e-mails for you. A POP3 mail service permits you to connect to their server and get your own messages rather than have them readdress those to you.
FrontPage Extensions: These extensions are required only if you use the facility of Microsoft FrontPage for construction of your website. Also, the FrontPage components can be added to your website as well.
SSL/Secure Server- this is essential to ensure secure ordering facilities on your web-site.
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: Users get the option of downloading files by logging into an area of your website with anonymous FTP. Basically, File Transfer Protocol [FTP] allows you to upload files on your server.
About Paid-hosting: most free web-hosting can be upgraded to ad-free hosting for a minimal monthly fee and usually with better technical support. So you can search out a better web-host and dump those unwanted advertisements. It usually costs $5 to $75 per month, as compared to the dedicated servers which cost around $150 per month.
If you are paying your web-host you must enquire about certain things like, a list of the sites hosted by them. You could get in touch with some of these sites and verify the web-host details from the site-owners. And do ask about the technical support they are willing to provide you with as it the most important service they can render.
Thoroughly read the terms and conditions outlined by them. Some of the free web hosts claim to own the copyrights of our webpage which restricts you from publicizing your own website. So take care of all these issues before you sign the agreement and pay hem the amount.
So the easiest alternative would be to use a web-hosting company. They are designed to put up your site using their server while you could access it via FTP to upload your files on the site. Web-hosting is of three types- free, paid and dedicated. Dedicated hosting is the costliest option available and is suitable only for sites that entail such attention. Your website is hosted by the company on their own server with their connection.
It is often found that people are inquisitive about the need or role of paid web-hosting as there is the option of getting this service free.
Then comes the two other options - free web hosting and paid web hosting. It is very normal if a question comes into your mind as to why anyone would pay for a service which he can get for free. There are many advantages which accrue to a paid web hosting.
If it is a paid web-hosting, you have fast connection (if compared to free web-hosting) and much more responsibility and technical support. Not only this, they live up to your requirements at the drop of a hat and you also don't get any unnecessary advertisements on your page.
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- you need a URL address only if you do not have a domain name already.
Space- As far as the aspect of space is concerned, it needs to be said that usually a space of 5MB is enough for a small site and this much space is perfect for over a hundred pages. Normally, what happens is that the graphics occupy a space of about 35KB. Having said this, one must know that it requires a space of 15-20MB in case of a graphics intensive site or one featuring downloads.
Bandwidth/Transfer: This is calculated monthly, and is based on the total number of files which are transferred from your site in the month. This is where unlimited bandwidth kind of helps, since you need at least 1GB space per month for a normal website.
CGI-BIN: If you run interactive scripts on your website, such as counters, guest books, etc., then you will need this. You can remotely host the site while the banners are carried from a third-party website.
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 Assistance- As mentioned earlier, a paid host can endow you with better technical support than a free host and your site is in a great need of this. This technical assistance can be had through either e-mail, phone or fax.
E- mail- particularly if you have a domain name, most web-hosts will convey e-mails for you. A POP3 mail service permits you to connect to their server and get your own messages rather than have them readdress those to you.
FrontPage Extensions: These extensions are required only if you use the facility of Microsoft FrontPage for construction of your website. Also, the FrontPage components can be added to your website as well.
SSL/Secure Server- this is essential to ensure secure ordering facilities on your web-site.
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: Users get the option of downloading files by logging into an area of your website with anonymous FTP. Basically, File Transfer Protocol [FTP] allows you to upload files on your server.
About Paid-hosting: most free web-hosting can be upgraded to ad-free hosting for a minimal monthly fee and usually with better technical support. So you can search out a better web-host and dump those unwanted advertisements. It usually costs $5 to $75 per month, as compared to the dedicated servers which cost around $150 per month.
If you are paying your web-host you must enquire about certain things like, a list of the sites hosted by them. You could get in touch with some of these sites and verify the web-host details from the site-owners. And do ask about the technical support they are willing to provide you with as it the most important service they can render.
Thoroughly read the terms and conditions outlined by them. Some of the free web hosts claim to own the copyrights of our webpage which restricts you from publicizing your own website. So take care of all these issues before you sign the agreement and pay hem the amount.
About the Author:
This article is published with permission from WebHostingMadness.com, a provider of hosting company ratings, articles and helpful guides on web hosting.
posted by Howard Kline at
2:48 PM
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