As you know, it is just not sufficient to own a highly interactive and expensive website. There is no use having a highly sophisticated shopping cart if it cannot be accessed by outside world. The main aim is to gain visibility. Your website will be accessible to the public only when it is live online. It requires a 24/7 online presence of your website so that you do not miss out on opportunities that come your way. If the server you are using to host your website is going to break down frequently, then you will be disadvantaged at various levels. So server breakdowns are highly undesirable.
by David Nemer
Web hosting is a service that you may or may not be familiar
with, but every time you surf the internet you rely on this service to provide
you the information you are looking for. Web hosting refers to the specific
function of storing a web page in a computer, and allowing it to be seen by
others on a network. A web hosting provider stores the web pages on computers
very similar to the ones you have at your home and office. The main difference
between the computers used by hosting companies and the computers you use for
personal use is the software that is loaded onto them.
Computers that are used primarily for hosting web pages are
typically loaded with operating systems specifically designed to host web pages
or internet applications, and are called servers. Web hosting companies may
have only one server, or they may have hundreds or even thousands of servers
connected together through a common interface.
Generally a web hosting company will have a dedicated, fast
and reliable connection to the internet, allowing for quick access to the pages
they are hosting. If a company has many servers and not a lot of clients, many
times they will lease out the space on their servers
to third party companies. These third party companies can then remotely
administer the servers from anywhere in the world, allowing them to sell web
hosting services without having hardware on site at their location.
With thousands of web hosting companies on the internet
offering services ranging from basic, simple hosting plans all the way up to
thousand page interactive business sites, the process of choosing the right
hosting provider for your needs can seem daunting. There are several aspects of
hosting that are similar to every company out there though, and by knowing the
differences between these choices your decision about which hosting provider to
choose can be made much clearer.
* Software Before choosing a provider it's important to know
exactly what type of software the provider uses for hosting. Many people who
are new to internet web page building might be surprised to know that hosting
providers utilize different types of software for their service, and not all
applications will work with all different types of software. The two most
common types of software you will find are Unix, which
will generally also include the Linux family of software, and Windows, or
Microsoft type software.
* Bandwidth Bandwidth refers to
the amount of data transmission that the web hosting provider will provide for
your website. Generally, bandwidth is allotted in a per month format. I.E. - if
you choose account A. you will be allowed 50 Gigabytes of transmission per
month. If you choose account B. you will allowed 100 Gigabytes of transmission
per month, and so on. This is important to consider if your website will be set
up to allow downloads. If you plan on opening a website which sells software to
be downloaded from your site, make sure that you calculate how much bandwidth
will be used and make sure your hosting plan provides that amount of data
transmission.
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* Disk Space Disk space refers to the amount of space that your hosting provider will allocate for the storage of your site on their computers. Most sites themselves are not that large, unless you are planning on running a site with a lot of fancy graphics and a lot of pages. If you plan on storing videos, audio files, or lots of pictures and graphics which will be a part of your actual website design, then you will need more disk space from your web provider. A simple, mostly text based website, even with a certain amount of fancy graphics and design, will generally not take up a large amount of disk space on your web hosting provider's disk. An easy way to find out how much space you will need is to simply design your site, then put all the files into a folder on your computer. Just check the size of the folder with all your website's files in it to get a pretty good idea of the disk space required to store your site.
* Email Accounts Another thing to
consider when choosing hosting providers is email accounts. Most hosting will
come with email accounts, generally plenty of them for a typical site. Make
sure if you will be requiring a lot of email accounts that they are included in
your hosting plan. Also check with your provider to find out how those accounts
are setup, and what type of control you will be able to have over them. Most
hosting accounts come with several pre set email accounts and many non
designated accounts which you can setup yourself. Check and make sure you have
access to modify the settings of these accounts. Generally you will be able to
change the names of the accounts, and have them forwarded to an existing
account you already have setup.
Once you have a good idea of what type of resources your
website will require in these four critical areas, your choice of web hosting
providers can become a lot clearer. Remember that many companies will try and upsell you products and additional services that you
probably don't need. When getting started, it's a good idea to just start with
the basics. Get your site online and looking good, make sure it's working
correctly and all the links are pointing where they are supposed to, and then
start tweaking, fine tuning, and adding extra services
if you need them.
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About the Author
David Nemer is the owner of http://www.financialproductsdirect.com and a freelance writer.
To protect yourself, you need to shop around for a reliable web hosting service provider. While considering your web-hosting company and your web-hosting plan take into consideration your specific requirements. One of the common mistakes people make is to search for the cheapest web hosting company available online. They use cost as the main criteria to decide their web-hosting company. You might get a cheap offer, but in the long run it will be a very costly mistake as you lose your website traffic due to poor online performance.