Web Hosting
How To Choose the Right Web Site Hosting for Your Web Page
At present, metaldetectingworld.com is hosted at Blue Host. So far, I have found them to be reliable, honest and competent, with the people who understand the software and issues that surround running web servers.
Previously I used Apollo Hosting and had a bad experience with them. A few pages of my web site was down for two months, and no one at Apollo Hosting could find a reason why. Of course, I did not know about it until a visitor notified me about the glitch.
Here is a small list of other web hosts to consider: Hostgator, Micfo, CHIhost, INetU, Hostforweb, ValueWeb, Aplus, 247-Host, Hostway, OL7.
Nowadays, the Internet provides people with a great opportunity for sharing their interests and hobbies with others worldwide. Sooner or later almost everybody thinks about starting a Web site for themselves, and it is not hard to do at all. The web design and web site building software is available and easy to use - one does not have to know HTML and CSS codes in depth anymore. The only difficult and confusing business to get yourself into is Web Hosting. It is a competitive industry crowded with tens of thousands of companies ranging from 100mb for $99/month to unlimited storage for $2.99/month.
Here are the basic things you want to pay the most attention to when choosing web hosting company that would suit your web site's requirements:
1. Reliability and speed of access
The web host should be reliable and fast, and it should guarantee its uptime (the time when it is functional). One should look for a minimum uptime of 99 or higher. The host should provide some a refund or discount if it falls below that figure.
2. Data Transfer (Traffic/Bandwidth)
Data transfer, referred to as "traffic" or "bandwidth," is the amount of bytes transferred from one's site to visitors when they browse it. One should not believe any commercial web host that advertises "unlimited bandwidth". The host has to pay for the bandwidth, and if one consumes a lot of it, one might receive a bill for having "exceeded" the "unlimited bandwidth". If the web site does not have enough bandwidth then it might be dysfunctional till the limits are reset the next month. One should always stay away from any host that advertises "unlimited transfer." It is important to look for details on how much traffic the package allows.
3. Disk space
One should watch out for "unlimited disk space" schemes. Most sites need less than 5MB of web space, so even if the web host provides 200MB or 500MB (or "unlimited space"), one should be aware that not all that space would be used, so the large disk space should not be too big a factor in your consideration when comparing with other web hosts.
4. Technical support
The host's technical support should function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year around, and have staff working on weekends or public holidays. Many things go wrong at the most inconvenient of times very often. One should test the web host out by emailing at midnight and on Saturday nights, Sunday mornings, etc., and check out how long they take to respond. Besides speed of responses, one needs to check to see if they are technically competent.
5. Price
While price is always a factor, one should realize that "you often get what you pay for." It is not always true that the most expensive hosts are the best.
6. Control Panel
It allows one to manage different aspects of one's web account oneself. Typically the control panel should allow one to do things like add, delete, and manage email addresses, and change passwords for one's account. One should not go for a host where it is necessary to go through their technical support each time there is a need to change a password or add/delete an email account.
7. Monthly/Quarterly/Annual Payment Plans
Most web hosts allow their clients to select an annual payment plan that gives them a cheaper rate than if they were to pay monthly. It is better to pay monthly with all new web hosts until one's assured of their reliability and honesty. Paying monthly allows a client to switch web hosts quickly if the current host does not meet all requirements.