| Once you've got an affordable web site hosting plan, | | | | peace of mind |
| you should do a final check that it includes everything | | | | Uptime, the amount of time a web hosting provider |
| you need for your website. Below is a rundown of | | | | guarantees their servers to be available and not |
| the main things to look for. | | | | "down", is crucial. When a web server loses its |
| Disk space and data transfer | | | | connection to the Internet, potential customers (and |
| Remember - disk space is the quantity of data (such | | | | therefore money) are lost with it. Don't be fooled by |
| as HTML files and images) that can be stored on the | | | | affordable web hosting plans that promise 99% |
| website, but data transfer is the quantity of data | | | | uptime - that 1% could mean that your website is |
| that is allowed to be transferred from the website. | | | | not accessible for 14.4 minutes per day. |
| Most web hosting providers, even on affordable web | | | | Support is always extremely important. Being able to |
| site hosting plans, allow you to upgrade your | | | | contact your web hosting provider for help or |
| website's disk space and data transfer allowance as | | | | information is often invaluable to customers who |
| you need it. If this is the case with your web host, | | | | need problems resolved quickly. There are a good |
| you shouldn't worry too much about knowing exactly | | | | number of web hosting companies that offer |
| what disk space and data transfer allowance you | | | | telephone support, live chat support (allowing you to |
| need straight away. | | | | "chat" online with support personnel in real-time), and |
| Operating system and programming tools | | | | all web hosting providers should offer e-mail support |
| There are two main web hosting options when it | | | | at the very least. |
| comes to operating systems and programming - | | | | Some web hosting providers also offer features such |
| Windows and Linux. Windows-based hosts will allow | | | | as backup and load-balancing, although these often |
| for ASP, .NET, MS SQL and Access technology, while | | | | cost more and are only really for very large websites |
| Linux-based hosts will be more geared towards PHP, | | | | where problems leading to data loss could be |
| MySQL and Perl/CGI technology (although there can | | | | catastrophic. |
| be some overlap on both ends). What you require | | | | Where is your website? |
| depends very much on the technical, programming | | | | Although it may not seem a big issue, but the |
| side of your website - if you just need a static | | | | physical location of your web hosting provider (and |
| website with no special software, then this doesn't | | | | thus ultimately your website) is very important. You |
| really affect you. | | | | should look into where exactly your web hosting |
| Look beyond the price | | | | provider stores their equipment and servers, as well |
| When it comes to an affordable web hosting plan, | | | | as the type of connections they have to the |
| the cheapest is not always the best. Going with | | | | Internet. |
| something that costs as little as possible may well | | | | Almost all web hosting providers supply information |
| result in you getting a product that doesn't work as | | | | about their "data centres" (where they store their |
| well as it should - frequent downtime (or loss of | | | | hardware), and checking it out is a good idea. As well |
| connectivity to the website), bad customer support | | | | as things like their connection speeds, the physical |
| and slow connections are all symptoms of cheap and | | | | security of the site that their servers are stored on |
| not so cheerful web hosting. | | | | is important. |
| More than just web space: Uptime, support and | | | | |