The 7 Rules To Selecting The Right Web Host

The right web host is crucial to the success of any website. Here are a few things to look for when choosing one to host your site.

24-hour support. Problems don't just happen during business hours. You'll want a hosting company that provides 24 hour service, just in case your website goes down at an unexpected time.

A bandwidth policy you can live with. If you get a surge in traffic and exceed your arranged limit, you'll be charged for it. Check to see what their policy is on traffic overages.

A high guaranteed uptime. Your host should offer a guarantee of at least 99% uptime - and have a refund policy in place if your website goes down.

Satisfied clients. Ask the web hosting company for links to sites they host, and contact the webmasters. Are they satisfied with the host?

Essential features. With an e-commerce business, you may need SSL technology, a shopping cart, a MySQL database, and more. Make sure they offer the features you need.

Easy management and updates. Your host should provide a control panel to manage your web account, change passwords, and perform other administrative tasks yourself without going through their technical support.

Room to grow. Think ahead when choosing a hosting company - look for one that can accommodate your long-term plans for growth, not simply your website at present.

Take your time, research all your options, and be sure to check references - and you should be able to find a web host that meets your needs.

Guide to Hosting Your Website

There are a number of ways to publish a site on the Internet.

There are hosting companies that offer 'free' hosting accounts. Unsurprisingly there are always drawbacks with this option, as they have to make money somehow. This will often be in the form of advertising on your site, usually as annoying popups. You may also be limited in the amount of space you can have and the number of associated email accounts. You might also be prevented from using custom scripts like cgi or FrontPage extensions etc. Another option is to buy and install your own web server (very expensive and difficult). You would then need to buy a leased line connection either in your own premises or at a specialist centre. You could run it on an ADSL line but this is not a strong enough solution. A variation of this is to lease what is known as a 'dedicated server' where you are the only client using the server and it is maintained by the hosting company. But this can work out to be even more expensive than running your own. The most common option is to purchase a virtual web hosting package from a professional Web hosting company. Choosing a Web hosting company is a very personal decision based on your own unique needs. Switching web hosting companies can be a painful process that you'd only wish on your worst enemies. So try to choose a company that not only meets your needs today, but can also grow with you as you expand. Here's a list of more than twelve questions to ask before making that decision on where to host your website.

1) How much does their hosting cost?

This may seem like an obvious question, but fees and costs may not be obvious. For example, is there a set up fee? Are there extra fees for secure transactions? If you need to upgrade to a higher plan, what are the upgrade fees? What does it cost to host multiple URLs? What does it cost to have multiple URLs point to the same site? What do additional email addresses cost? Is there a fee for auto-responders? In short what is included in the cost and what is extra.

2) What is the minimum contract?

Is there a discount for a longer contract period? Often web hosting companies will offer discount for longer contract periods, but paying monthly or quarterly is very common. Make sure you are clear about the length of your obligation.

3) How much storage space is included?

What does additional space cost? Your disk space needs will vary based on your business. For example, a store that offers free music downloads in MP3 format will need lots of space for all those large music files. But a personal site with very few pictures and mostly text files will take up less space. You can estimate your disk space needs based on the amount of space your site takes on your own computer. Disk space can vary from 1 MB to 1000 MB.

4) How much bandwidth is included?

What does additional traffic cost? Traffic (also called data transfer or throughput) is the combined size of all the files transferred from your web hosting computer to your customer's browsers. For example, a 10K html page (holiday.htm) that includes three 50K images (beach.gif, forest.jpg., cycletrip.jpg) requested by 100 people generates 16 MB of traffic. The html page and the graphic files only require 160K of disk space -- but if many people visit -- they create throughput. Most web hosting plans offer a set amount of traffic for free. Most sites (especially those without any history) will not exceed the free traffic limits.

5) How many email accounts are included in the package?

How many auto-responders are included? You usually have two choices for picking up email at your URL (for example yourname@yourcompany.com). You can pick them up directly (program your email software to pick up the mail at yourcomany.com -- this is called a POP account) or you can forward the mail somewhere else (for example to youraccount@mweb.com or youraccount@yahoo.com). If you have a serious business on the Web, it is an important part of your image to use your own domain name for all your mail. It simply shouts "Newbie!" (new to the Internet) if you place your Yahoo (yourname@yahoo.com) or Hotmail (yourname@hotmail.com) email address on your Web page. So, you can use yourname@yourcompany.com on your Web page -- but behind the scenes (where nobody can see) you tell your Web hosting to forward ALL your mail to where you want. And yes, that can be your Yahoo account or your M-web account. Auto-responders are a special kind of email address that automatically sends out a standard response to anyone who queries them.

6) Do they support FrontPage extensions?

This is only important if you plan to use Microsoft's Front Page to create your Website. In this case make sure your Web hosting company does support Front Page. Generally all Windows-based servers will support FP, and so will the majority of Unix servers, but it is worth checking beforehand.

7) Can you use your own scripts like CGI?

CGI (Common Gateway Interface) are small programming scripts that add functionality and interactivity to your Web pages. Most Web hosting companies have libraries of standard CGI scripts you can use for free. If you plan to advance past "standard" you will need to find a web hosting company that allows you to install scripts. Many will not, especially as many hackers nowadays exploit vulnerable CGI scripts. There is a trend for hosting companies to either allow approved scripts only, or to make a charge to examine scripts before upload. Can you run php scripts and does the server run asp? Extra considerations might be whether they have ecommerce (shopping cart) experience.

8) Do they provide usage statistics?

Most web hosting companies do provide monthly/daily reports. Ask to see them. You will notice a large variety in the usefulness and layout of these usage reports from one company to another.

9) What kind of technical support is provided?

Is their phone number on the website? Do they provide continuous technical support? What kind of support is available after hours? Can you call them? Some hosting web companies will not list their phone numbers. Who will you call when your site is down? Is the phone number a free number, or a premium rate number?

10) Where are their servers geographically based?

What is the size of their pipe to the internet backbone? Do they have more than one pipe with intelligent switching, so that if their main pipe goes down, the network will stay live by switching to an alternative pipe?

11) How long has the Web hosting company been trading for?

12) And finally, Ask for testimonials.

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FAQ'S - Hosting Frequently Asked Questions

What is Web Hosting?

Web Hosting is the term for publishing the files that form your web site so that it is available to the world on the internet. Every Hosting account comes with a certain amount of web space or storage, and you save your web site to this space – it is then available for users of the Internet. You can design your own website but you will always need someone to Host it – to provide you with the space that you will put your website on for the world to see. Hosting accounts also have a bandwidth limit – essentially, the amount of web traffic to and from your web space that your Host will allow.

What is a domain name?

A domain name is a sequence of letters and numbers which determine the address of your site. This site's domain name is "besttenhosting.com." You need to register a domain name before your web site becomes accessible at this address.

What are PHP, SQL, Java, IP, etc.?

Those acronyms refer to various features such as programming languages, databases, etc. that might be available with a hosting plan.

PHP is an free, open-source server-side scripting language. PHP code can be embedded in HTML. PHP files usually have extensions like .php or .php3. PHP language style is similar to C and Java. Here is the PHP group web site. Other popular server-side scripting languages are ASP, Perl, ColdFusion, TCL, Python, and JSP.

SQL - Structured Query Language. Limited programming language used for updating and performing queries on relational databases. All databases share a common subset of SQL. Most popular SQL databases available with hosting plans are MySQL and MS SQL.

Java-Sun's popular programming language. Java is a platform-independent (at least in theory), crash-protected, object-oriented language that can be used to write applets that run in a browser, servlets that run server-side, or independent programs. Java's syntax is similar to that of C++.

JavaScript- Simple, client-side programming language created by Sun and Netscape. JavaScript can be embedded in HTML pages to create interactive effects and do tasks like validate form data. JavaScript is a separate language from Java. All popular modern browsers support JavaScript. A few hosts support server-side JavaScript. IP- (Internet Protocol) is tha main protocol used on the Internet. IP Address- Internet Protocol Address. A unique number identifying all devices connected to the Internet. This number is usually shown in groups of numbers from 0 to 255, separated by periods, for example 2xx.3x.2xx.2xx.

What is shared (virtual) web hosting?

Shared (or virtual) web hosting is the most fitting way of hosting for 99% of web sites. It means that a web hosting company will have one or more servers (computers constantly connected to the Internet that run a web server software such as Apache or IIS) that will be running multiple web sites (it will be shared). Unless a web site is exceptionally busy or requires a lot of bandwidth, this is the least expensive way to get a real web site. You can still have your own IP address with virtual hosting and the site won't look any different to users. Other options are dedicated, co-location, or doing it yourself web hosting. In those options you have the whole computer to yourself and you can do things like install your own software.

Can I keep my domain name when I change a host?

Yes. We recommend that you register your domain name with a separate registrar before getting a hosting plan. Then, when you need to move to another host, you just need to point your domain's name servers to this new host. If you registered your domain name with a host and now you want to move, you should find your registration records or contact this host and ask them how to control your domain name. If you have a problem, you can usually see the name of the registrar by performing a "Whois" query on your domain name and contact them.

Does it make a difference what type of desktop computer I use?

No. This will only make a difference if you develop scripts that you want to use without changes on your web site. FrontPage extensions can also be done on Unix (or Linux) servers.

Will I have forced advertising on my site etc.?

It's a good question to ask before paying for hosting. Free web hosting or very inexpensive hosting sometimes force advertising. In fact on most web sites you can put your own ads if you'd like.

What is domain parking?

Domain parking lets you cheaply reserve a domain name for future use and display an "under construction" default page on it. You can register a domain and not park it anywhere but then your site will simply be inaccessible until you get a web host. Some registrar let you park your domain for free.

What is full-service web hosting?

"Full-service" can refer to a variety of services offered in addition to providing web space, transfer, and emails for a web site. For example, it could be 24/7 toll free phone support, web design services, or web site content maintenance services.

What are the numbers listed under "space" and "transfer"?

Space is the amount of "stuff" you can put on your web site. Available space is usually listed in megabytes (MB, millions of bytes). Single letter takes up one byte. HTML files are usually rather small (this file is about 25,000 bytes) but pictures and programs can get quite big. Your scripts, emails and stats will also take up space on your host.
Transfer is the amount of "stuff" that visitors to your site can download before you reach your monthly limit. Transfer is usually listed in gigabytes (billions of bytes). After the transfer limit is reached for the month, you will need to pay extra for additional transfer at higher rates. For example, if an average visitor to your site views 3 HTML pages of 20 KB (thousands of bytes) each and 8 small embedded pictures of 10 KB each, and you get 500 visitors per day, you will require at least (3 * 20 + 8 * 10) * 500 * 30 = 2,100,000 KB = 2.1 GB of transfer per month.

How do I pay for web hosting?

The methods of payment which are accepted depend on each individual host. Almost everybody accepts credit cards such as Visa and MasterCard. Vast majority of plans require periodic (usually monthly up to yearly) payments.

How do I upload my site?

The main method of uploading files to your site's account is by using FTP. When you sign up with a host, you will probably get an FTP account that lets you access files in your account (usually ftp.yoursitename.com, your main account name and password). Then you can use a built-in Windows or Internet Explorer FTP client, or some other software that supports FTP such as CuteFTP, WS_FTP, or Total Commander, to transfer files from your hard drive to your account. If you don't get an FTP account or if you prefer a Web interface, you can use your account control panel's File Manager instead. Yet another method is to use an SSH or telnet client software, such as SecureCRT, to upload using Zmodem protocol (sz and rz commands).
All these methods will work fine, but we recommend using dedicated FTP programs as the preferred solution because these programs have the best user interfaces and support advanced options like setting file permissions and resuming aborted file transfers.

What is uptime?

Uptime is the percentage of time that a web site is working. For example, if some host has an uptime average of 99.86%, this means that your site will be down for a total about 1 hour each month. We monitor uptime of customer websites of many web hosts and we display this data on the host's details page. Some hosts also offer "uptime guarantees" but this is not as valuable as it might appear (see our gotchas page for more details).

Can I use Java applets, JavaScript, and Flash pages on my site?

Yes. Those are client-side technologies, so the host doesn't have to do anything to support or enable them. Any browser (such as Internet Explorer or Netscape) that supports them is enough, so any host will do. It doesn't matter whether Java or Flash are listed among the plan's features, they are supported by default.

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