Choosing a Reliable Web Host

Today, more people and more are becoming aware of the opportunities offered by the Internet. Home based businesses, web bloggers, and companies are realizing the massive benefits of putting a website online.

Just as tenants rent an apartment you will need a space online where your website or blog files will be stored. It is very important to choose your web host wisely.

In step 1 of creating an online presence (website or blog) we discussed how to find a domain name. In this next very important step we will be helping you find a reliable web host for your website or blog and explaining what to look for when searching for the ideal host for your domain.

There are 3 main types of paid web hosting, they include:

Shared webhosting - With shared website all domains (there could be thousands of domains hosted on the one server) share common server resources.

Co-location hosting - This type of web hosting is best suited for highly experienced veterans with a great amount of hosting experience.

Dedicated webhosting - Dedicated hosting can be self-managed or unmanaged. Managed dedicated hosting is when your server is maintained and monitored by a skilled web administrator. Unmanaged dedicated hosting is when the server is maintained by you. Dedicated servers can be very expensive to rent and unmanaged dedicated hosting can be very time consuming.

You will need to evaluate the requirements of your website and applications (any scripts you wish to run) to choose what kind of hosting to use taking into consideration including email, scripting software and operating system (Windows or Linux).

Due to the expense of dedicated hosting and the popularity of a Linux box (server) over Windows server hosting, and the fact this series of articles is written with the beginner in mind, we will be studying the most popular, and in my opinion best hosting package, which is shared hosting with php, cgi, perl supported languages and mysql databases.

At the end of this article we will recommend some reliable secure web hosts supporting these features. Whether you go with our recommendation is entirely up to you, the choice is yours, however we ask you to keep in mind that what may look to be a good hosting deal may in fact be what is called re-seller hosting.

Re-seller web hosting is where someone rents space on a server and then sub divides the space in order to sub-sell web hosting. The main problem with this is if a problem occurs and you need it fixed by your host then it may take some considerable time because the hosting re-seller is not actually the person who manages the server. In order to resolve a problem you need to contact the re-seller (often you will not know you are on re-seller server space), who in turn will contact the server manager. All this takes time and you could find your website is down for hours, if not days, as the problem gets shuffled back and forwards trying to find out exactly what is wrong. It is for this reason we strongly advise you to only host with proven and reliable webhosts.

Things to look for when choosing a web host.

1) Good support - Very important. You need a webhost that will respond and fix any problems asap. Preferably find a webhost that offers 24/7 live chat support via their website or by phone.

2) At least 99% Uptime - 99.9% is better. This is extremely important if your website is a business venture or your means of income. Uptime is how long a website can stay online without interruptions. Downtimes are caused by a server that often reboots due to system crashes.

3) Your hosting interface (your control panel) should be Cpanel. Cpanel is the most popular control panel for your hosting and is supplied free by most web hosts, although some hosting providers use other control panels such as plesk, we advise the use of Cpanel due to its ease of use for the beginner webmaster. Cpanel will enable you to setup email accounts, manage your files and databases, and gives you many tools to manage your website hosting. Cpanel will often include a system named Fantastico, which makes the installation of scripts such as guestbooks, bulletin boards, blogs, and wordpress, very simple.

4) Lots of web space or disk space. Over time your website or blog will grow as you add new pages and content etc. You may also find yourself adding several scripts to manage and add features to your website. All this requires web space. We recommend a minimum web space of 1GB. Some webhosts allow you to host multiple domains from one account. If you choose a webhost that allows you to host more than one domain then you will definitely need more disk space than 1GB.

5) E-commerce features such as Agora shopping carts. If your website sells products or services you will need a shopping cart program. Many webhosts offer a shopping cart for free.

6) SSI - Server side includes - Most scripts these days use SSI's to include data, be sure your webhost supports or can activate SSI for your domain.

7) Hacker safe - Your web site hosting company must provide you with top-notch security. They should have all the important security issues such as firewalls running to protect your web site from hackers. A firewall is a security device, (software or hardware), which acts like a barrier to secure the server from possible hacker or DOS (denial of service) attacks.

8) Speed - Your host must be fast or else you lose visitors waiting for your web pages to load. Your web host should be "multi-homed" or connected to multiple backbone carriers. Look for a web host with at least a T1 connection going to the Internet carriers. A T3 connection or faster is better.

9) Bandwidth - also referred to as transfer - The higher the bandwidth the better. If your site will be displaying a lot of graphics, then you will require a lot of monthly bandwidth. Look for a host offering a minimum of 20GB's bandwidth per month. If your website(s) use over their allotted bandwidth in a month some hosts will instantly suspend your site while others will charge you a fairly hefty fee per extra GigaByte and sometimes Megabyte. Always choose a high bandwidth webhost, however be wary of some web hosting companies offering "unlimited" bandwidth as there are often fineprint terms that stipulate fair use policies.

10) Installed languages - Be sure your new web host supports the language your scripts are written in, for example: php, perl, cgi, mysql as at a later date, if not immediately, you will need to install program scripts that require your server to have these interpreters installed.