Web Hosting - Choose A Host That Matches Your Home Business Needs

Choose A Host That Matches Your Home Business Needs

With plethora of hosting companies offering services, choosing a good web host seems an intimidating task. The technical jargon is hard to decipher and that makes it difficult further. It is better to prepare beforehand and then search for offers rather than acting otherwise.

What is web hosting? If one compares the web to land hosing is the place where your office or website will be placed. Server is the computer which stores your website files and allows them to be viewed on clicking the link to your site.

With free hosting out of question for business and dedicated hosting being too expensive, shared hosting is the only and good option for home business. As the name suggests, in shared hosting your site is stored with many others unlike dedicated hosting which stores only your site.

Now let us discuss other features:

?Disc or Server space:

This is the space on hard disk of your server that will be allotted to your site. Without graphics a typical web page occupies 40 ? 50 Kb. Now 1000 kb = 1 MB. Allowing space for graphics too and need for any future expansion anything between 50 -100 MB should be good enough if you are not running a flashy website. Many companies offer space up to 1 GB (1000 MB) but if you do not require, do not fall for the offer.

?Bandwidth:

A very important aspect and often overlooked. This is the amount of actual data that can be transferred from the web server that holds your website. It is directly linked to the number of visitors to your site. If you have 10000 visitors per month with few downloads you will require anything between 5 -6 GB per month. More downloads means higher requirement. As your business grows you will need more. For starting 10 GB should be good enough. That leaves you with extra margin.

?E- Mail aliases:

This lets you formulate an e-mail address on your site address e.g. anything@ your sitename.com where anything can be support, live support, help, info, subscribe etc. Anything! This makes your business look professional. Look for you needs but anything around 10 is good enough. Many companies offer unlimited aliases too.

?Watch for these too:

If you plan to accept payment on your side an access to SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption is must. If you want your site to be interactive you would need to install cgi(Common Gateway Interface). So better to look for a host who supplies you your own cgi bin.

If you wish to create your site in Microsoft FrontPage then check whether your host provides FrontPage extension. If you plan to run a site with database then MySQL should be a desired feature.

Your host should also provide you free access to your server. You should have free access to log files and statistics of the traffic your site receives. If your host offers referral programme it is better.

?Customer Support:

This matters a great deal to your business. You will need this help whenever you run in trouble. If your host is not supportive or is not prompt enough then it could mean loss in your business. See that you are provided a good and meaningful support. Send them a question or two. Study the response. Find out if they are available on phone in case you are in emergent situation.

Make sure that this service is free and they will not charge anything in name of customer support.

Finally, you will have to find what matches your business needs. Search before you settle for a deal. Narrow down your choice to a few prospective hosts. Look for their reputation. Ask them examples of sites hosted.

Check with their existing clients and find how satisfied they are. Most good business hosts are available between $ 15- 50 with few differences that could matter to the individual.

You can start small and upgrade later provided your host gives you this option. Select the one who allows you to expand if the need arises.

Just two words before you go. "Select carefully"

Arun Pal Singh runs a successful business from home at http://www.homeforprofits.com He is also publisher and editor of Home for profits' income course, a free newsletter with hundreds of tips for home business which can be subscribed by mailing to homeforprofits@getresponse.com

Car Insurance Rates | Dental Insurance | Health Insurance | Home Owner Insurance | Life Insurance Quote

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

Server Host: Where Does My Web Page Go?
For those of you who don't really understand where or how your web page is sitting on your hosting sever, this is a basic over view of how it works.A server is basically hardware and software and protocol. We will go over these three basics of your hosting server.Server hardware.Server hardware is so similar to your old PC hardware that the price of server hardware has come down considerably. Down enough that it's tempting for a lot of us to host our own server. But that's a whole different article. All a server is:Very fast processor. A large amount of RAM. A vast amount of Disk Space.Connection to a T1 line (access to the outside world).The hardware is housed in very large office buildings. There are many racks of servers filling these climate controlled rooms. Most of the server host brag of the...(related: Web Hosting)

Adult Web Hosting: The All You Need To Know
What sort of web hosting options should you go for if you want to host an adult website? You need to remember that this is the most critical aspect of your adult website. Facts like shared or dedicated adult web hosting, the maximum allowed bandwidth, the average uptime of the server and the server space should be critically taken into consideration while researching for your adult web host.Now let us visit some points in detail to make sure that you choose the right adult web host to host your adult website.SHARED OR DEDICATED ADULT WEB HOSTING?Most web hosts provide shared web hosting by default. By 'shared web hosting' we mean that your website is being hosted on a server that hosts other websites too. For a basic website with lim...(related: Web Hosting)

The Top 15 Essential Ingredients Of Every Windows Hosting Plan (package)
First things First. Why would you like to have Windows Based Hosting when there are Linux packages for cheaper rates ? The answer is ? it depends on what application you are looking to use for your hosting. Consider the tools and scripting languages you plan to use ? if you use PHP, Perl or MySQL, Linux is the way forward. If apps are Microsoft-specific, then Windows...(related: Web Hosting)

Web Site Hosting For Your Business ? Free Or Paid?
It's time to choose! Should you spend some money to get a web hosting solution for your business or get one for free?Yes, the big mo...(related: Web Hosting)

Virtual Private Servers (vps) Web Hosting
A Virtual Private Server (VPS), also referred to as Virtual Dedicated Server (VDS), provides the features of a dedicated server for multiple web hosting customers to share. At first instance it sounds contradictory, how can you have a dedicated server if it is being shared by multiple users? Isn't that a regular shared or virtual hosting environment? It is true that with a Virtual Private Server you still share system resources like the CPU and RAM with other users but the resources are allocated in such a way that you c...(related: Web Hosting)

Choosing The Wrong Server Will Literally Make Or Break You
Choosing the right web server will be one of the most important decisions you will ever make with your online business. Why? Because the web server you choose will literally make ...(related: Web Hosting)

Webhosting Explained
Web hosts are service companies that provide space on their servers for internet users. Web hosts provide online systems for inte...(related: Web Hosting)

Good Web Hosting ? What Is It?
With hundreds of web hosting companies to choose from today it can be hard to know which ones a...(related: Web Hosting)

Hosting Options For An Ecommerce Web Site
Deciding how to host your ecommerce Web site and what approach to take can be daunting. There are several approaches available, each with different advantages and disadvantages.StorefrontsIf you have a small business, you may want to consider a storefront or an online mall. For a fee, these services help you build a small Web site to sell your products. These "site in a box" Web site services include everything you need to sell online.Features and support vary by program and can include options such as search engine placement, credit card processing, and advertising. These tend to be template services...(related: Web Hosting)