| Web Hosting Checklist | | | | company provides all the scripts, PHP5, CGI, fast |
| While there are a large number of web hosting | | | | CGI, Perl, Python, and SSI for you. |
| providers all over the world, if you are new to web | | | | Email accounts |
| hosting industry, you may be confused about finding | | | | This is another important feature for your online |
| a low cost yet reliable one. In this article, I will give | | | | business. You need to check out that your hosting |
| you a brief checklist which you must truly consider | | | | solution includes email accounts for your staff. Email |
| when you are shopping around. | | | | features, such as unlimited email account, POP3 |
| 1. Disk space | | | | account, web mail, mailing lists, auto responders, |
| 2. Bandwidth | | | | catchalls, spam filter, and mail forwarding etc should |
| 3. Domains | | | | be support for the ease and security of your |
| 4. Programming language | | | | business. |
| 5. Email accounts | | | | E-commerce features |
| 6. E-commerce features | | | | The purpose of hosting your website on the internet |
| 7. A good control Panel | | | | is to make business and profits. Except that you will |
| 8. A good technical support | | | | definitely only focus on blogging instead of online |
| 9. Flexibility | | | | business, you need to get a shopping cart for your |
| 10. Additional service | | | | website so that your customers to order and buy |
| 11. A robust infrastructure | | | | your products. Check out with the web hosting to |
| Disk space | | | | make sure they offer shopping carts for your |
| The disk space is space used to hold the files that | | | | current or future business requirements. |
| make up your website, including html files, graphics, | | | | A good control Panel |
| scripts and multimedia content. Every hosting account | | | | A control panel in web hosting refers to the interface |
| has a certain allotment of disk space. When you are | | | | provided by the hosting company for the |
| looking for a web host, you need to find a provider, | | | | maintenance and monitoring of the hosted website. |
| who can offer you more disk space so that you will | | | | You get administrative control over your domains, |
| free of worry about overuse. Especially, if your | | | | email accounts, database and web stats among other |
| website including things like download files, pictures, | | | | features. The main purpose of a control panel is to |
| music and video, you will require more disk space. | | | | enrich user experience by providing a number of |
| Bandwidth | | | | tools that dramatically reduce administrative |
| Bandwidth (also known as data transfer), refers to | | | | challenges. One of the most widely used control |
| the total amount of data that downloaded or | | | | panels on the market is cPanel, which allows you to |
| uploaded from a particular website or web hosting | | | | control various aspects of your hosting account and |
| account during a given time (usually a month). A web | | | | even provides details on bandwidth and other |
| hosting account is restricted to stay under its | | | | statistics. |
| monthly bandwidth allotment just like the water | | | | A good technical support |
| traffic limited by the pipe. If you are going to have a | | | | It is important to make sure that your web hosting |
| lot of visitors or to host large files, video or photo, | | | | company provides you professional customer |
| then you need a high bandwidth plan. | | | | support. Their responses should be fast and make to |
| Domain names | | | | the point. There are many web hosting companies |
| What is a domain name? Domain name is the address | | | | that can very quickly identify the problem, but take a |
| on the internet. If you are going to start any kind of | | | | lot of time to solve the problem. It is extremely |
| online business, you need to get a unique domain | | | | important that you can access to their support via |
| name (address) so that your website can be reach | | | | different ways, email, tickets, knowledge-base, |
| by people from all over the world. For example, the | | | | phone, forums. If you really want to make profits |
| domain name identifies the location where this web | | | | with whatever online business you have, you should |
| site is hosted. Many of you may wonder you need to | | | | select a web host that has excellent customer care |
| register a domain with domain register; this is not | | | | and technical staff that is professionally trained to |
| always the case, many web hosting company offer | | | | handle all sorts of problems. |
| you free domain name if you hired their web host. | | | | Flexibility |
| This will save you money. Just like, the company | | | | In the initial days, a business may not require a large |
| hostease offers free domain name for life and | | | | space and rich feature to support the website, as |
| multiple sub-domain. | | | | the business expanding, you may need new |
| Programming languages | | | | applications and service, therefore you need to |
| Many newbie may ask question on forum likes | | | | upgrade your package. You need to find a hosting |
| "Which is the best programming language? Is it PHP, | | | | company who can offer you various hosting plan |
| ASP, CGI or any other? " There is not really the best | | | | according to your business requirements. |
| language to use. It really depends on what you are | | | | Additional service |
| trying to do, on what platform. If you are going to | | | | A reputed company will also provide additional |
| using a Linux shared host, then PHP is probably the | | | | service, such as, Security Socket Layer certificates, |
| best. If you are on a windows hosting, then.asp | | | | domain registering, website designing to ensure that |
| might be a good choice. Personally, Linux web hosting | | | | the customer can enjoy a one-stop solution. |
| with PHP and MySQL is my favorite. | | | | A robust infrastructure |
| PHP is short for "Hypertext Pre-processor" and | | | | Last but not least is the up-time issue. Although most |
| becoming increasing popular for creating dynamic web | | | | web hosting services will offer you at least 99% up |
| pages. It can replace Microsoft Active Server Pages | | | | time, there are still a few out there offering less than |
| (.asp) technology on Linux/Unix server. PHP enjoy | | | | that. Do not settle for a hosting service that cannot |
| great popularity due to the open source root, which | | | | offer 99% up time guarantee. Only with high quality |
| means you can use it freely. As a conjunction with | | | | services that backed by powerful data center and |
| PHP, MySQL is well known for its quick processing, | | | | cooling systems, you will not be interrupt by the |
| proven reliability and ease of use. MySQL is an | | | | performance issues of the server. Try to make sure |
| essential part of almost every open source PHP | | | | that the servers are monitored 24/7 to avoid any |
| application. Of course, it would better if the hosting | | | | possible external threats. |