Web Hosting

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. There are huge numbers of companies that offer web space on their server for their customers and also offer Internet connectivity in general in a data center. There can be various types of web site hosting companies. The main classification is the free web site hosting and the paid web site hosting service companies.

Some of the things you should look for when choosing a web host.

To begin, every website is hosted on only 3 platforms: Unix, Windows NT, Macintosh. Very few sites are hosted on a MAC server, so the majority of webhosts use Unix or NT. For these reasons we will focus on only those 2 platforms.

Reliability and speed of access :

Speed, security and reliability are extremely important for the success of any online business. While choosing a reliable web hosting service you need to ensure that this is taken care of. A site that is not available, not updated on time or is down, will lose many online visitors. Slow working websites are very frustrating. So how do you know if a hosting company is reliable or not.

Amount of web space:

A web hosting service provider would usually assign you a certain amount of space on their server. You need to ensure that does it have the right amount of space for your website. For the same reason as bandwidth, watch out also for those "unlimited disk space" schemes. Most sites need less than 10 MB of web space, so even if you are provided with a host that tempts you with 200 MB or 500 MB (or "unlimited space"), be aware that you are unlikely to use that space, so don't let the 500 MB space be too big a factor in your consideration when comparing with other web hosts.

Multiple Domain Hosting and Sub domains

For those who are thinking of selling web space or having multiple domains or sub domains hosted in your account, you should look to see if they provide this, and the amount extra that they charge for this (whether it is a one-time or monthly charge, etc).

Data Transfer

You also need to see if the hosting company provides you with sufficient bandwidth for efficient data transfer. After all it's your website and you need to ensure that you are getting the best services for the money you invest.

E-mail accounts

Many hosts will provide you with 10 or more e-mail accounts for your online business. The number of accounts you need may affect which host you choose.

Server type

Most web hosts have Windows 2000, Unix and Linux servers. If you plan to run a simple website, you will not need to worry about the server the web host provides because most simple websites run off one of these three servers.