Choosing a web hosting service

The most important features to consider while looking for a good web hosting service are:

- Reliability and speed of server

Finding a web hosting provider that has its own technical support team to offer the availability of your website 99.5 percent up-time guarantee. Many web hosting companies on the internet are in fact web hosting resellers without having their own dedicated web hosting facilities and generally have neither have the technical and hosting resources nor the expertise to offer a good service, and also may be more expensive compared to their parent web hosts. Web hosting companies that have many years of hosting operation experience are generally the most reliable web hosts. Some vendors offer a trial hosting period before you opt them for regular hosting.

- OS

Do you use an operating system continuously updated? If not, it will be difficult to get the latest scripts to develop your website. Are you searching for Red Hat Linux, Mandrake, Debian, SuSE, Slackware or CentOS? To view the latest stable version of Linux www.kernel.org visit. To ensure that Windows has the latest version with all patches updated.

If using dedicated server technology such as ASP or JSP and management of Microsoft applications such as Microsoft Access or Microsoft SQL Server requires a Windows. Linux servers are compatible with MySQL databases with PHP technology and are much cheaper.

- Languages and Databases

Must be a good database management system, must have Linux operating system, and supports PHP applications, Perl, and MySQL databases.
Must provide access to the cgi-bin folder on the website. This will be especially useful if you plan to develop e-business.

If using Windows servers, it must at least provide for Access database management system and SQL Server relational DMBS.

- Support

Check the web hosting company should at least offer support via e-mail, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and every day of the year, and ensure that it should also provide phone support because the website may go offline while it is facing difficulties. Make a test of every detail, and submit your questions to see if the web host responds quickly and effectively enough to meet your website’s needs.

- FTP Access

Some providers offer very cheap FTP access to your domain, which is essential if you want to add content to your site regularly. Check whether you can change permissions and have multiple FTP accounts that will be useful if your page is created by more than one person.

- Email

How many email accounts provided? Must offer POP accounts in order to access your mail from your computer and also to manage your web email directly from the web. See if they offer auto very useful especially if you want an e-commerce or link to your website.

- Control Panel

You must have an intuitive control panel that allows a complete management of your account. The best control panels are useful software preinstalled scripts. Some of the best known are: Elephant or Fantastico, Cpanel, Plesk and Ensim Hsphere and in all programs are useful for creating a website

- Domains

You must have at least one domain with provision for hosting infinite sub domains under it. The best web hosting companies offer usually 5 or more domains.

- Statistics

Is your web hosting provider provides detailed web traffic statistics with day-to-day traffic data access to monitor traffic to your website?

- Disk Space

The minimum is 100 MB recommended for cheaper accommodation.

- Bandwidth

The main difference between basic web hosting plans and paid hosting services is that the paid hosting service is more expensive as the amount of monthly bandwidth allowed per month is quite large compared to the free web hosting services.

To calculate how much monthly bandwidth you need, multiply your daily visits X 30 days in the following manner:

Example: 100 visits per day, 5 page views per visitor, with pages that occupy 45 kb: 100 visits per day X 5 page views per visitor X 45 kb page size X 30 days per month = 675,000 KB = 675 MB per month bandwidth is required.

Try to hire the maximum bandwidth that can afford with your budget. Care providers that offer unlimited bandwidth, so read the fine print of the terms and conditions that often have some sort of restriction. Make sure the monthly bandwidth supplement will apply if you exceed the allocated monthly bandwidth, and you should have easy options for increased bandwidth allotment if required.

- E-commerce

If you are going to put your shop online or have services offered through the website, you will require a good and reliable shopping cart, should have provision for secure payments, and should be able to securely transfer data. So ensure that the hosting comes with SSL.

The average price of a professional web hosting is usually between 4 and 50 US dollars per month depending on the web hosting services offered by the web hosting company. So compare all web hosting companies before you opt for the right web hosting services suited for your website’s needs, and do not be afraid to ask related questions to the web host. Also check that the customer service provided by the web host is quick and is of top quality.