Which Hosting Company is Right for You?

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.

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.

So the other alternatives are of course, free or paid. And the most common question asked is that why should I pay for something that I can obtain for 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.

The general features that are offered by web-hosts are listed below, but by no means is the list exhaustive. These are a few terms you need to be acquainted with to get your site hosted-

URL/Address: If you don’t have a domain name, then you might need a URL address.

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.

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 of paramount significance as far as your dealing with interactive scripts like guest-books, counters is concerned. It provides you with the facility of remote hosting also bearing the banners from the site that live up to the task of presenting them.

SSI: This is a special function which channelizes the server for inclusion of a given thing on your webpage. It could be text, or any other thing.

MySQL/ASP/PHP Support: These are basically database formats which help you maintain database on your website. ASP’s normally generate key sites.

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.

The Aspect of Statistics/ Log Files- This is responsible to let you view the usages i.e. the downloaded files and the visited pages.

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.

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.

Lastly, always read the fine print. Go over the terms and conditions, since it has been seen that some free web-hosts claim ownership of the copyright of YOUR page and bar you from advertising on your own website! Keep in mind the restrictions and stipulations before venturing to put up you website on the internet.