Hosting

How to Pick a Good Host for Your Website

If you decide to build your website yourself, you have to decide who you want to host your site. Here's what you need to know before you decide:

Internet Service Provider or Host - There are pros and cons to each. Some website programs, like the new online website building tools, don't require complicated uploading, and hosting is included. However, if you build your site yourself, or hire a web designer to build it, you will need to know the difference between an ISP and a host.

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are the companies who provide web access and email. Sometimes they will provide free web hosting to customers of other products, but these websites are often limited in size in traffic. That means that you will be able to post only a limited amount of information on your website, and that if it becomes too popular (which most business owners would think is a good thing), the ISP might shut it down, at least temporarily. ISPs will shut down free websites when the visitors are using so much bandwidth that other products and services provided such as email are slowing down.
Web hosts are the companies who load your website onto a computer (server) that allows it to be viewed by surfers on the Internet. Web hosts usually do not provide Internet access, but when you hire them to host your website they will usually provide greater storage capacity and bandwidth, and faster site-loading times than the free site options provided by most ISPs.

What to Look Out For - Basically you want to know if they are professional web hosts, or just want to be. Security, reliability, and support are key questions to ask about the company you hire to host your website.

Business-friendly - some hosts are intended for small-scale personal sites only, and some will shut down your business site if it becomes so popular that it uses up more bandwidth than they'd like.
The amount of space that comes standard, and how much it costs to upgrade. 50 MB is usually enough for most sites. If you plan to use a lot of images or advanced features and programming like Flash or Shockwave, you may need more.
How many visitors are you allowed each month before the ISP or web host will shut you down? Some hosts will charge you extra fees if you have more visitors to your site than they expect, and others will simply shut down your site to avoid problems for their other clients, or ask you to move (more likely with ISPs than web hosts).
The reliability of their "uptime." Some web hosts are small, fly-by-night operations that can't or won't guarantee how reliable their servers are. When the server goes down, customers can't visit your site. You should look for guarantees of at least 95% uptime reliability. 99% is better. (There will be the occasional technical glitch, of course, so if anyone promises you 100% reliability, don't trust them.) Does the server ensure emergency and uninterruptible power supplies that kick in when the power grid goes down? And are there redundancies that kick in when needed?
Is there back-up power? Their back up power should be both A/C and diesel to cover any and all emergencies.
Redundancies - All of their systems should feature redundant back-up systems to ensure security and reliability.
How often are sites backed up? And where is the data stored? In a fireproof safe or off-site are the best scenarios. Also ask about firewalls that help keep hackers and data thieves out of the system.
Is the server room secure? Is it locked and monitored by an alarm system? Or located in some college student's basement?
Carrier class firewalls - home users often have firewalls of their own to protect their personal information from attacks by hackers and viruses, but the home version isn't enough to protect your website. To ensure that the information you post on your website is secure, look for carrier class firewalls which should be a feature of any professional web hosting operation.

For a summary comparing the various ways by which you can get a website, see Table 2.

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