| How
much storage space do you need? Well,
that depends on what you are planning to
do with your website. If you have only a
few pages of text and little to no
graphics or images, a 25 MB should be
more than you will ever need. Most
hosting packages start at 25 MB of
storage space. When comparing web hosting
companies for file storage space, be sure
to check their terms and conditions to
make sure they do not charge another
setup fee for upgrading to a packge with
more space. One way to determine the
size of your files in Microsoft Windows,
right click the Start button and click
Explore. Scroll down and select the
file(s) or folder(s) you plan on using
for your website. Right click on the
selected file(s) or folder(s) and click
Properties and you will see the size.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth
is the measure of how much data flows
through your site. It is usually
expressed in GB transfered per month. If
you are expecting a lot of hits (millions
of page views) to your site you will need
to get the most bandwidth you can afford.
For new web sites it may take a while to
get up to a significant bandwith. If you
find you are approaching the bandwith
limit, you can always upgrade to a plan
with higher bandwidth. Some plans allow
you to increase your monthly bandwidth
for an additional monthly charge.
E-Mail
Most
hosting plans include a significant
number of POP e-mail accounts and
unlimited e-mail forwarding.
POP
accounts can be accessed with your
current e-mail program and some hosts may
include a webmail interface for your POP
accounts. If you have several people that
work for your web site/business and want
them to have their own e-mail address,
you will need to select a hosting plan
with enough POP accounts.
E-mail
forwarding is when e-mail that is
addressed to your website gets redirected
to another e-mail address that you
specify. An example of e-mail forwarding:
for one of my websites mail addressed to mike-@-mrgoodbeer.com, sales-@-mrgoodbeer.com, and webmaster-@-mrgoodbeer.com all get
redirected to my Gmail address. With
e-mail forwarding you can easily track
where your e-mails are coming from. Be
careful though...the more e-mail
addresses you have, the more SPAM you
will receive.
Shared
vs Dedicated
When
comparing hosting plans, you may notice
plans for shared hosting and dedicated
hosting. Shared hosting simply means that
your web site will be hosted with other
websites on the same server or machine.
Shared hosting is good for the average
web site where speed is not a priority.
A
dedicated server is just that, a server
that is dedicated to your website. The
advantages of a dedicated server are
speed and control. The disadvantage is
cost, you will usually have to pay a much
larger monthly fee for having a dedicated
hosting plan. If you know nothing about
Unix, Linux, or network administration
make sure to get a managed dedicated
server. The hosting company will take
care of all the security and software
patches/updates that arise over time.
Make
sure to review the hosting company's
terms and FAQ concerning their dedicated
servers to determine if their service is
right for you.
Support
For the
companies that do not have 24 hour
support, you will have to determine if
their phone support hours meet your
specific needs. Make sure to note the
location of the company and offset the
support times for your time zone. If you
plan on working on your web site during
all hours of the day, make sure to choose
a company with 24/7 phone support;
otherwise, you will have to wait for them
to open before you can get help to solve
your problem.
CGI
Common
Gateway Interface (CGI) is a program,
also know as scripts, that can be run on
a website to make the site more dynamic.
CGI programs can be written in PERL, C,
Unix shell, and countless other
languages. It is best to select a hosting
plan that allows CGI because you will
undoubtedly run across an application or
game that you want to modify or include
on your site.
There
are many resources on the web that list
free CGI scirpts and countless companies
offering CGI scripts for you to buy.
MySQL
MySQL is
used for creating and maintaining web
based databases. If you anticipating
having some data on your site that your
users might want to sort you will
probably need to find a web host that
supports MySQL. Some hosting companies
specify how many databases you can have
on your site and charge an additional
monthly fee if you want more. You will
have to determine how many databases you
will need and select the appropriate web
hosting plan.
FrontPage
FrontPage
is a website creation and management
what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG)
tool developed by Microsoft. The files
generated by FrontPage may have
extentions asscoiated with them. If you
are using FrontPage to develop your site,
you will need to make sure that the
hosting plan you choose supports
FrontPage extentions or your web pages
may not display properly, if at all.
Server
Operating System (OS)
For most
basic websites you will not have worry
about which OS your web hosting company
is using. Most hosting plans are running
on either Unix or Linux. For some unique
web site features, you may need a Windows
based server.
Setup
Fee
Some
hosting companies charge a setup fee when
your account is created. This is usually
a one time fee and may be waived, in some
cases, when you pre-pay for your service.
Check the hosting company's terms
carefully to determine the details of
their setup fee.
SPAM
Filter
Most
hosting plans include some type of SPAM
filter for your e-mail accounts. This
feature can come in very handy if you are
using POP email accounts.
Shopping
Cart
Some
hosting companies provide shopping cart
features as part of their hosting plan.
You do not have to worry about this
featue if your web site is not selling
products. Also, there are many different
third party shopping cart applications
and CGI scripts available on the web that
you may choose to implement on your web
site such as the ones found at PayPal.
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