Web Site Hosting: What
You Need to Know
Every web site needs hosting.
It is your little parking
spot on the Internet where
your web site files sit.
You must have it in place
to have a site, but there
are many flavors of hosting.
This article will give
you the knowledge to choose
the hosting solution that's
right for you.
You need space. The question
is: How much?
With most
basic hosting packages,
you get 400 megabytes of
space on the hosting server
(the machine where all
your files - and others
- are stored). This is
A LOT of space and more
than adequate for most
small to medium sized business
hosting requirements. However
if you know you will be
serving up, say video clips
(which can be very large),
you may want to upgrade
your hosting account to
allow for more space. Typically
you have about 10 gigabytes
of transfer per month.
This means that in your
plan the amount of data
traffic from your site
in that month must be below
10 gigabytes (lots of people
hitting your site at once
would mean lots of traffic
flowing through the virtual "pipe" to
your site). Again, you
will probably not bump
into this ceiling with
a normal web site. If you
plan on selling on the
web, most hosting companies
have an e-commerce hosting
solution with requirements
better suited for selling
on the web.
Other options you usually
get with a hosting service
include a web-based control
panel and email accounts.
A control panel lets you
access the information
and files on your site
from one web site. Here
you can add web pages,
view your statistics (like,
how many folks have viewed
my site last month?), and
adjust settings. An add-on
of many hosting accounts
is free email addresses.
Say your company (www.AceWidgets.com)
has 12 employees. You can
set up an email account
for all employees, so Bill
Jones in accounting has
an email address of BJones@AceWidgets.com.
Jay in Human Resources
has one too, and so on.
You still have to set up
the email software on each
person's computer for them
to view their new mail
account, but the hosting
company can provide assistance.
How Does my Web Site Name
Tie in?
Your web site address
(called the "Domain
name") points to your
hosting account. You will
need to pick out and reserve
the name you choose(a good
site to check on whether
the name is taken already
is: www.easywhois.com).
Then you tell the domain
name registration company
where you have your hosting
(they can be the same company).
Once they make the "link" that
connects the two (domain
name to hosting) you are
all set. Upload your HTML
files and your site is
live!
So how much will this
cost?
Hosting is fairly
reasonable for most applications.
You can find basic hosting
in the $15 to $20 range
per month. I would stay
away from the $7.95 a
month hosting offers. When
something seems too good
to be true, it usually
is, and you will end up
giving up key features
you may need later on.
Hosting can run into the
hundreds or thousands of
dollars a month if you
are a large corporation.
Shop around as well.
You want a company to be
in it for the long haul.
A great site to start your
hosting research is on
www.cnet.com at: http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6540_7-5138854-1.html.
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Kaufman Web Design™ |
