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| Website Hosting |
One of the most difficult decisions for any web developer is which company you should use to host your new website. Of course, you could host your site
at home on your own server, but this can be risky and expensive. That's why most people starting out on web development tend to choose one of thousands of
commercial (and some are even free or very cheap) packages that are currently available. But as with everything in life, you only get what you pay for - so cheap or free is not always good news.
This page won't tell you which is the best hosting deal available, but hopefully it will help you in making your choice of host. The magazines like .NET and Web Designer are full of adverts for hosting packages,
but beware some of these companies as they might be small outfits providing only a service of sorts on one server in their attic. If possible, check these out against other people's experiences and recommendations - a good place
to find these is the .NET forum, which has a section on peoples' experiences with various hosts - try it out at .NET forum -
quite a few companies get mentioned here. Also worth looking up any company on Google to see what that might show you.
Any decision about who hosts your website will need to be based not only on the cost of the package but also
what you want your site to do. Is it going to be a static site, which perhaps just shows your family photos, or is it going to be an interactive site, using
databases, shopping carts and guest books for example. If you are looking to develop an interactive site, you need a package that provides one or more databases plus the capability
to develop programs, normally in the CGI bin using PHP or PERL. It is at this stage that you normally have to choose between LINUX or Windows Servers - these are the two most popular
operating systems for hosting websites. It's your call, my only advice would be that Windows based solutions normally come at a cost for the tools or solutions you use, whereas LINUX
solutions generally use Open Source software, which is normally free - so long term costs of ownership are generally less for LINUX systems - but at the end of the day it's your call.
When I choose a host there are a number of questions that I normally ask the company - this is probably not a comprehensive list - if you have some questions to add to this list, please
post them on my forum so others can see them. My questions are normally:-
- Okay the first question is how much - but check out what you get for your money
- Support is crucial - is it 24/7 - how many people work in support - is it available by email or phone or text
- What software is provided - I recommend PERL, PHP, MYSQL - but check it's the latest version
- Is a Control Panel (this takes a lot of the work out of administering the site) provided free of charge
- What operating system is provided - Windows or LINUX
- What add-ons are included as standard - Shopping Cart, Guest Book, Site Statistics, CPAN modules etc.
- Can you upgrade stuff and how do you go about it
- How many different databases can you set up and are tools to manage them provided
- Servers - how many does the company have - what specification are they - how may other clients do you share your server with (and also the database server - normally a seperate server) - how much disc space do you get
- Bandwidth is important - it restricts how much traffic to your site is available - normally on a monthly basis. If you develop a successful site (we all aim to do that after all) then anything less than 15gb per month is no good.
- Where are your servers located - abroad is no big deal normally - but for example hosting in the US will tend to add about 700ms to the return trip of your message and make your site's performance slightly slower.
- What does the company do for you - will they help you upgrade your site/software - do they do regular back-ups and will they be able to restore for you - are they friendly
- Always check out some reference sites that are already using the company and the package you are considering
- Normally avoid reseller accounts like the plague
All my sites are currently hosted by Supanames - they are a good price for a range of packages - but support is not always brilliant, a bit
slow at times and not always helpful. Check out my wife's site CraftsByCarolyn or my son's football team Ampthill Pumas - both hosted by Supanames.
Probably all of this is no help - but if you want to discuss hosting in more detail, then use the Contact Us page - unfortunately at the end of the day, you pays your money and takes your chance!!
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Today's date:
Sunday, 14 March 2010
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Coolshed inhabitant |
Shivering in the Shed |
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