by Matt Hedges
You must have worked very hard in creating your website, so don’t let the work go in vain by adopting half-hearted efforts in getting the website online. You have three options to choose from in this regard. First, you can host the site directly on your computer, second is hosting it on a server, and the third option is to get a third-party host it. The first two alternatives are mostly used in practice and are good for people with a fast internet connection, and even for sites that are inclined towards businesses. Monitoring regularly is required for the maintenance of the web server in this case.
So, if you forget about these two options, the other option that remains is that of having a web-hosting company for this job. When we talk about such companies, it must be said that they are planned to accommodate your site with the aid of their server. The interesting thing is that you have the chance to get into it in order to upload your files on the site. If the aspect of web-hosting is categorized into different sections, we get three types of web-hosting. They are free web-hosting, paid web-hosting and dedicated web-hosting. The most expensive option is that of the dedicated web-hosting and this is perfect if your site is in need of a great attention. Here, the company lives up to the task of hosting your website on their server with their connection.
You need a huge cost to go for a dedicated web hosting and is mainly suitable for websites which is expected to have a good number of hits. The web host company hosts your website on their server, while using their connection.
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.
Some free hosts do not place their banner on your website, yet in most cases the services are not good enough. Some free web hosts have brilliant features but the tech-support is unreliable! For a small site, or if you are just venturing into this field go for a free web-host in the initial stages.
As far as the free web-hosting is concerned, they lack in the aspect of reliability notwithstanding having some brilliant features. Honestly speaking, their service is not up to the mark, although, there are some free hosts who do not put their banner on your website. You can consider these options if you have a small site or you are a beginner in this field. The web-hosts provide you with certain features and a list of such features is given below. This is not certainly an extensive list. Let me put it in this manner that in order to get your site hosted, you are expected to know about certain terms.
URL/ Address- you need a URL address only if you do not have a domain name already.
Space- as a web page most sites require very little space, and 5MB is adequate for a small site, which will take over a hundred pages. Most of the times graphics take up about 35KB of space, but if it is a graphics intensive site, or one featuring downloads, then you will need around 15-20MB. Unlimited space though offered by many web-hosts is not required as such.
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- a special function feature, which lets you maneuver the server to include something on your page. It could be anything like simple text or CGI generated code etc.
MySQL/ASP/PHP Support: These are basically database formats which help you maintain database on your website. ASP’s normally generate key sites.
Technical Support: Free hosts do not provide such a good technical support as paid hosts do. As you might know, monitoring the websites is constantly required, and upon encountering any problem, you might need technical support from the host, so this bit is an important aspect of a web host.
E- mail- It is always wise to have a POP3 mail service as it lets you receive any message from your web-host before they send it to you. Actually, it is very common to have such mails provided you have a domain name.
FrontPage Extensions- If you have Microsoft Frontpage for modifying your website, you need such extensions. Front page items are also possible to be had in your site.
SSL/Secure Server- this is essential to ensure secure ordering facilities on your web-site.
Statistics/Log files: You can have them to gain information about the users of your site, and get information about what has been downloaded from your website, which page has been viewed the most, etc.
FTP Accounts: Users get the option of downloading files by logging into an area of your website with anonymous FTP. Basically, File Transfer Protocol [FTP] allows you to upload files on your server.
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.
It is always wise to have a list of sites hosted by your web-hosting company. You have this right because you pay them. Once you get this list, it is possible for you to know about the ins and outs of the web-hosting company, especially their technical assistance. This is of immense importance.
Always bear in mind to go through all their terms and conditions. It is often seen that some free hosts do ask you for the ownership of the copyright of your page. This is an obstruction to advertise on your own website. So, be aware of all the restrictions to advance properly.
About the Author:
About the author: Matt Hedges, 12 year veteran of the web hosting industry, is the head staff writer for
WebHostingMadness.com, a
web hosting review site.
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