Choosing A Web Host
Which hosting plan is right for you?
Choosing a hosting plan can be a daunting process for the beginner. With all of the options and hosting companies available, it often takes a Propeller-Head to figure out of the plan that best fits your needs.
The first step when looking for your hosting company is to consider the following points:
- What kind of support does the hosting company provide?
- Does the hosting company provide telephone support?
- Does the hosting company provide alternate methods of support such as e-mail, Instant messenger, or Live Chat?
- Does the hosting company provide 24X7 year round support (including holidays)?
- Does the hosting company use Windows, linux, or both types of servers?
- Does the hosting plan provide FrontPage Extensions?
- Does the hosting plan have stats?
- Can you setup or remove e-mail accounts on your own?
- How much control does the hosting company’s control panel give you over your own website?
- Have you searched the web for negative/positive commentary on the hosting company?
The Second step is to assess which type of hosting system your website needs. there are basically two types of servers; Windows or Unix/Linux (Linux is the more common, open source equivalent of Unix. For the purposes of this article, to avoid confusion, I will only be mentioning Linux from now on.).
The easiest ways to distinguish between the two are cost and programming languages. Windows servers tend to cost a bit more for hosting than Linux servers. If you have a new website or are creating a new website, go with a Linux server, because your options are still open.
If you have an existing website and are thinking about moving to another server, you must weigh several factors in making your decision:
- Is your site currently on a Linux or Windows server?
- Do you have a custom shopping cart, and if so which type of database did the developer use, MDB (Windows), SQL (windows) or MYSQL (Linux)?
- Do you have a MYSQL based Blog or Forum such as WordPress or PHPBB installed on your website?
You may or may not have additional considerations about your website. It’s easiest to ask your web developer which type of server your existing website must be setup on.
The Third Step is to consider the functionality & cost of the hosting plans offered and your specific needs.
- Will you be adding additional domains/websites to your plan?
- Do you want a Blog or Forum hosted in your own website?
- Are the hosting company’s rates reasonable
- Does the hosting plan your looking at provide a website control panel?
Finially the Last Step, read my recomendations:
Hostgator a Linux based Hosting company offers incredible rates, packages, and services. This is the company for you if you want multiple sites at one low cost. The control panel hostgator uses (CPanel) puts the control of your website in your own hands and they are very generous with features.
Hostgator provides three basic plans and several sub plans, so you will find one that meets your needs:
- Web Hosting - This option is ideal if you have a couple of domains, or want to setup a one page sales letter site. With the exception of their Hatchling plan, these account allow for an unlimited number of domains and MYSQL databases. One thing to bear in mind if you have a lot of domains you want to setup, is that these accounts nest the other sites inside of the primary domain; you can have unique e-mail addresses, but not stats, and if you accidentally damage the main domain, you could knock all of them offline.
- Resellers - If you have multiple domains and have been thinking about getting a dedicated server but can’t justify the cost, go with a reseller account. you get all of the benefits of a dedicated server without having to maintain the server itself. Another advantage to the Reseller plans is that each site is completely independant, with unique stats.
- Dedicated Servers - If you have a LOT of sites (Like Tom Antion), go with a dedicated server.
HostGator also offers 24X7 365 Telephone, e-mail and Online Chat Support.
What’s Cpanel?
CPanel is, in this humble Propeller-Head’s Opinion the best website hosting system available on the web (I’ve used quite a few systems over the years). Cpanel lets you take control of your website by allowing you to manage nearly every aspect of your website.
List of most Commonly used Features in Cpanel:
- Mail - Complete mail administration system for users, forwarders, spam filtering, and more.
- Web Mail - 3 interfaces to choose from
- Change password
- Park Domains - Same as a pointer
- Addon Domains - Nest additional websites inside of your main account
- FTP Manager - Manage FTP Users and Accounts
- File Manager - Upload/Maange the files in your website
- Disk Usage - How much space are you using?
- Backup - Quickly download compressed files containing website files, stats, and email or your MYSQL databases.
- Password Protect Directories
- Error pages - Setup a redirect for moved, or removed pages so visitors don’t see 404 errors
- Subdomains - Create a subdomain (subdomain.yoursite.com) complete with stats and e-mail
- MySQL Databases - Add, remove or manage databases
- Redirects - setup redirect for websites, pages, or directories in or outside of your domain.
- FrontPage Extensions - Install, repair, or remove FrontPage support
- Web/FTP Stats - Choose from several options, and programs
- Raw Access Logs - Propeller-head version of stats
- Raw Log Manager - Archive your stats to manage your disk space usage
- Error Log - See which errors your visitors are getting, so you can fix them
- Subdomain Stats - See usage for your subdomains.
- Hotlink protection - prevent other websites from linking to your images and steeling your bandwidth
- Fantastico - Quickly and easily add Free applications to your website (Blogs, Forums, Chat Rooms, Guest books, and more..)
Net10.Net a Windows based hosting company has been consistantly reliable over the years. I setup my first site on their servers in in 2001 and in that period of time have experienced less than 5 hours of downtime. They offer two stats packages to choose from (Urchin or WebTrends) and have built in spam filters on the mail servers (there is even a downloadable tool for managing your spam quickly and easily). In addition to high marks on reliability,
Net10.Net a Windows based hosting company gets an A for Speed. At this time, net10 hasn’t implemented their control panel system, so you need to contact them for modifications to your account (which they always do quickly) such as password protected directories or seting up a database. You do however have a full control panel for your websites e-mail accounts and spam filtering.
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