There are several sensitive areas, which a user should take into consideration while selecting a web host:

1. Disk space

2. Bandwidth

3. Scripts and utilities

4. Dedicated/Shared servers

5. Customers service/Support

6. Uptime/Reliability

7. Price

8. Free Hosting Providers

1. Disk Space: It denotes space provided by the host to the user in which he/she can locate his/her web site. It can ranges from 25MB to GBs to store all the essential requirements of the user. One can easily calculate storage space if his/her site is already constructed by considering all the aspects. This is the least requirement by the user. For sure success one should go for a plan having additional resources in comparison to user’s current requirement.

2. Bandwidth: One of the crucial parts to verify is regarding bandwidth. There are several sites, which loose their host due to excessive downloads causing budget going beyond their expectations. Occasionally, host even charges in hundreds of dollars for the additional bandwidth. One should confirm about this before dealing with any of the host. Usually, ideal-hosting providers deliver initial bandwidth of 25 to 50 GB to the users.

3. Scripts and Utilities: Does one’s priority is dynamic information related to his/her products and services? If the answer is yes! Then user’s plan should include a database tool. One cannot deny the fact that, Databases are extremely multitalented and will change according to the operating system, which the user chooses for his/her hosting server.

If one talks about further famous scripts it usually includes chat rooms, forums, blogs, and calendar programs and help desk software. Such scripts, which come along with user’s hosting plan, are pre-configured by the service host so that user can properly work on their server. There are several hosts which even propose the Fantastico script package known to be the combination of 36 different free scripts which a user can easily install to his/her website.

Next thing to consider is the 3rd party script. These are those scripts which are available on the net to purchase and one can easily install to his/her website. One should note that there are only few of the scripts, which one can run on both the operating systems i.e. Windows and Linux; however, others are meant for only one operating system to be used.

4. Dedicated or Shared Servers: If one talks about the key difference between a dedicated and shared server then it is that there are several sites present on a shared server, however, there is only one website in case of a dedicated server.

Through a shared server one can save a high amount. If one talks about the drawbacks then Spamming and blacklisting from different search engines are the key problems. Such problems arise due to the reason that several sites are assign to one particular IP address. One should demand for a separate IP address for his/her website (on additional monthly charges) to secure the user from such problems.

Dedicated servers are considered best for big, highly trafficked websites, which requires large amounts of server resources to run. One of the negative points of dedicated server is that the server’s resources are divided across all the sites it’s hosting and answering page requests for. Thus, if one is working in a dedicated environment he/she always has to keep an eye on his/her resources. Another disadvantage is that dedicated servers costs around $50 per month or even more whereas shared hosting can be purchased for mere 5$ a month.

5. Support system: Another important aspect to consider is support. What is host’s response time? Does their phone support is 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

Additional features one should verify for:

Is there POP email account, if yes, then how many?

What no. Of database is there?

Is there Web based e-mail with the host?

Does they provide Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus filters?

Do they provide the facility of Password Protected to user’s directories?

Is their frequent backup if by chance crash in server takes place?

Does user get some money return back, if he/she is dissatisfied with services?

Does there is assistance for Perl, PHP, Crontab and Secure Server Layer?

There are several good hosting providers in the market, who known for their rapid response and numerous amounts of other excellent qualities for reasonable price.

Hence, one should before choosing should keep in mind the above-mentioned points, which can prevent the user from unexpected future problems.

6. Uptime and Dependability: Another influential factor. Is there any performance guarantee provided by the host? Can user expect a refund if he/she is suffering from downtime form a very long period? Is there any money back guarantee in the contract? There are several hosts in the market who refund full or partial amount of monthly fees (excluding spamming or other illegal activity) if user is dissatisfied with their service quality and want to quit their service option.

7. Price: In general one will get hosting service between the ranges of $5.00 – $10.00 dollars a month; it may very according to features provided. Service below $5.00 a month is quite awful in usual sense. Similarly, any service above $12.00 a month can provide not only a package of awesome features but probably can also include a complimentary domain name; a unique offer not provided by everyone.

8. Free Hosting Providers: In today’s market one can enjoy website hosting at quite nominal amount. Hence, there is nothing worthwhile in going for a free web hosting; as there is nothing free as it seems like.

Conclusion:

One can end the search on an ideal host by thinking ahead. One should purchase as much possible bandwidth and disk space at the most reasonable price he/she can. One should know that every website requires room to groom which user needs to deliver without any form of much risk.

Not everyone who is new to the internet knows what hosting is so I will assume no knowledge of hosting on your part. Bear with me if you have some experience in this area.

Hosting is usually renting an area on a server or large computer or rack of computers on a hard drive. Most hosting is shared or sharing space on a single hard drive. Dedicated hosting is where a whole drive or computer is dedicated to one customer’s website and files.

Everyone of the websites you see on the internet is stored somewhere on a host computer and it is displayed using html and CSS so that a person’s browser will display the page you see.

Choosing a good host is one of the most important things you need to do.

I could write a separate article on choosing a domain name but I think the two are so related in nature as to be better dealt with together in this article.

Choosing a domain name is nothing more than picking a name by which your URL or web address is known by on the internet. For example, one of my sites is called www.healyourselfnow.net. This is a domain name. I could say that the domain name is important, and so it is, but you need to know more than that.

You should normally choose a domain name that is a keyword for your site. For example, if you are targeting computers as your main keyword, you could use Cheapcomputers.com or Greatcomputers.com. This is just an example, but you get the general idea. Many people use hyphens in the name, but I don’t recommend them as the search engines don’t like them.

Security is another issue. How secure is your site? If you are selling the host should offer SSL certificates at a reasonable price of less than 30.00 so that your transactions are secure. Also, do you have a virus scanner and does your host offer leech protection to protect your images and to prevent other members from giving out passwords to restricted areas of your site.

Does your host support Fantastico or one click access to important scripts like a CMS or content management system like JOOMLA or MAMBO that allows editing or updating of your web site content with the ease of using a word processor. No knowledge of html or css is needed. So anyone in your office can contribute to website content with minimal training! Also, you can add a learning managment system like Moodle, or a live chat program or forum and instantly make your website interactive.

An interactive website is considered “sticky” or a site that will attract and keep visitors coming back to, over and over again.

The last and most important issue in choosing a good web host is customer support. Does your host offer 24 live chat support? There are things that can affect your site and you need the security and peace of mind that comes from knowing that you get competent friendly advice even at 3 am. Live chat is interactive like using Microsoft Messenger except that you are talking on a secure line for the express purpose of customer support. Live ticketed support uses a ticket and email based support system that is not as interactive as live chat but sometimes is necessary to solve a more complex problem with your site.

So to summarize, does your host offer tutorials on your site for cpanel or whm if you are hosting more than one site? Does your host offer scripts with one click installation?

Does your host offer excellent chat based and ticket based customer support? How fast is their turn around time on that support? After all, it does you no good to have 24 hour support if no one answers your call. Does your web host offer competitive prices? I would be remiss if I did not mention that bargain prices are not at all important if your host offers web design with your hosting or some other extras that are not available at other hosts. If you are new to the net, and don’t have much experience you will need a lot of support at first to help you get to know that you are doing.

For example ebooks, templates, and software that you can re sell for money with master resale rights. It is acceptable for your host to charge up to 30.00 per month if they offer web design assistance and offer ebooks, software, and templates, and a template based site builder that can put up a decent site in less than an hour. Economy hosting does not measure up for newbies.

If your host can answer “yes!” to all of these questions then you can rest assured that you have chosen a good host.

Your host determines your success on the internet as much as your efforts do, so choose wisely.

Bluehost is a web hosting company founded by Matt Heaton and it is based in Provo, Utah. They run large data center which is based in Orem but their offices have moved south a mile to Provo. Bluehost has grown rapidly and is now one of the biggest providers of shared web hosting. They have a no frills one plan fits all offering. Bluehost is just about shared hosting as Matt Heaton has often explained. They want to just focus on this one offering and do that well. Depending on the period for which you decide to order web hosting from Bluehost you pay between 9.95 monthly or 6.95 depending on the ordering cycle you enter. The longer the duration of your hosting contract the cheaper the monthly rate you have to pay.  The standard shared hosting package comes with all the features you would expect from such a plan including cpanel. You can login easily into your cpanel from the bluehost main page and start your web venture from scratch in there. If you are familiar with this control panel it is no different from other hosts although Bluehost does allow a more liberal scripting environment. For instance you can edit your php.ini at the account level and they also support more programming languages than other shared web hosting plans like Python and Ruby on Rails.  Installing new scripts is no problem because their cpanel features the fantastico script installer package and it is by and large pretty up to date with the latest versions. Some of the most popular scripts in this package include wordpress, phpbb, phplist, drupal, and joomla.  Support at Bluehost is provided via phone, email and live chat. The two I have relied on were email and live chat. With both live chat and email if you bump into a level 1 technician it may be wise if he can’t resolve your query straight away to try again and get a higher level engineer as they are usually very good. All in all Bluehost is a host that provides a very good shared hosting package at a fair price and offers good support.

Bluehost is a web hosting company founded by Matt Heaton and it is based in Provo, Utah. They run large data center which is based in Orem but their offices have moved south a mile to Provo. Bluehost has grown rapidly and is now one of the biggest providers of shared web hosting. They have a no frills one plan fits all offering. Bluehost is just about shared hosting as Matt Heaton has often explained. They want to just focus on this one offering and do that well. Depending on the period for which you decide to order web hosting from Bluehost you pay between 9.95 monthly or 6.95 depending on the ordering cycle you enter. The longer the duration of your hosting contract the cheaper the monthly rate you have to pay. 

The standard shared hosting package comes with all the features you would expect from such a plan including cpanel. You can login easily into your cpanel from the bluehost main page and start your web venture from scratch in there. If you are familiar with this control panel it is no different from other hosts although Bluehost does allow a more liberal scripting environment. For instance you can edit your php.ini at the account level and they also support more programming languages than other shared web hosting plans like Python and Ruby on Rails. 

Installing new scripts is no problem because their cpanel features the fantastico script installer package and it is by and large pretty up to date with the latest versions. Some of the most popular scripts in this package include wordpress, phpbb, phplist, drupal, and joomla. 

Support at Bluehost is provided via phone, email and live chat. The two I have relied on were email and live chat. With both live chat and email if you bump into a level 1 technician it may be wise if he can’t resolve your query straight away to try again and get a higher level engineer as they are usually very good. All in all Bluehost is a host that provides a very good shared hosting package at a fair price and offers good support.

I’m hosting the website from my home computer.