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Article by: Paul Nelson
Competition is fierce in the web hosting market
these days, and that's good news for those searching for a good
solution. But because there are a bunch of questionable and low
quality hosting companies on the net, it is important to think
about a number of factors that will help determine what is right
for your website. When approaching or looking at possible services,
you must first decide whether you want to develop the website
yourself (or by another third party) and just have it hosted,
or have it both built and hosted by one company. If you are considering
this question before actually diving in to develop your site,
there are real advantages to using the latter option. If the people
who build your site also host it on their own servers, then any
problems that arise can be troubleshot much more quickly and efficiently,
and with less potential for prolonged downtime.
That brings me to the next issue to keep in mind: how much uptime
is provided. There is a wide range of quality to found in regard
to downtime. All other selling points and features won't mean
much if your website cannot be found by potential viewers because
the hosting company's servers are not well-maintained and operating
smoothly and consistently.
After you consider these two questions, what remains to be done
is to simply decide what features will be necessary for your particular
site or business. The primary elements you will be looking for
are: a) amount of storage (MB), b) monthly bandwidth, c) database
availability (MySQL), d) scripting languages offered (PHP and
Perl at least), e) subdomains or subfolders offered, f) number
of POP3 accounts for email, and g) an FTP account. Note regarding
bandwidth: pay close attention to how and what the company will
charge you for additional bandwidth used in a billing month (some
of the less scrupulous out there will stick it to you here).
Before you actually pull the trigger on a service, consider two
final issues. Make sure it is easy to reach the company. Consider
where in the country or world the company is located (particularly
for international hosting companies), and what means they make
themselves available. Ask if the host can be reached quickly and
easily by email, IM, and/or toll free phone number. Lastly, some
web hosting companies will charge additional set-up fees, or use
yearly contracts and some will not. So decide what is relevant
and important for your business with these things in mind, and
you will have no trouble finding the website hosting services
you need.
Paul Nelson is an internet safety advocate, and an authority
on the subject of web hosting. For immediate answers to your web
hosting questions, visit http://www.hostingforeveryneed.com/.
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