Choosing a Web Hosting Partner
la...@bluemotorcycle.com
can be a challenge. There are literally thousands of companies that
offer similar products and services. It can be a difficult task for
anyone, but it doesn't have to be. We have broken the decision
making down into a simple paper
Web hosts are basically divided into three categories; free (or nearly
free) hosting, low cost hosting, and premium hosting.
Free hosting is popular because it costs no money. If you are looking
to host a personal web page, this may be for you, but if you are in
business, you will have to consider the following characteristics of
free web hosting;
1. Most free web hosting services require you to display banner ads to
pay for the service they are offering. You will have no control over
these ads.
2. Hosting a business site at a free web hosting provider can make
your organization appear unprofessional.
3. Free web hosts do not generally support advanced features such as
databases and PHP and Perl languages. These features give modern
professional web sites a slick appearance and interface. Your
organization may not use them now, but in the future you probably will
as you grow.
4. The free hosting sites don't handle domain email accounts.
Having an email account ending in hotmail.com, aol.com, or yahoo.com is
seen as unprofessional.
The bottom line is, if you want to be taken seriously, steer away from
these 'free' web hosting solutions.
In the paid web hosting arena, there are many choices and service
options. You can pay anywhere from $5.00 - $24.00 per month for
varying levels of service and features. Below is one of our
company's packages (The Business Plan) and a breakdown of the
features and what they mean:
1. Hosting space: 2500 MB hosting - This is the storage space for
your website. Think of it as 'square feet' in the Internet
real-estate world. The more space you have, the more things (web
pages, video files, documents, pictures, etc.) you can put on the web.
Most medium sized and SOHO businesses use less than 20MB for a typical
web site, so 2500 is plenty.
2. Data transfer: 40 GB transfer - Data transfer (or bandwidth) is
an important aspect of a web hosting package. If your data can not be
transferred, no one will be able to visit your web site. Most
customers do not use anywhere near their allowed data transfer limits.
Unless your website's primary function is streaming video and audio,
this should be more than enough. If you do go over the allotted
bandwidth, additional bandwidth is available with all of our packages.
3. Domain Names: 1 Domain name and 10 SubDomains hosted. This is the
name of your website. SubDomains are simply descriptors used to divide
your Domain into separate areas. For example, if your Domain was
anycompany.com, you may set up SubDomains for each department (i.e.
billing.anycompany.com, service.anycompany.com, forum.anycompany.com,
etc.).
4. Email accounts: 100 POP3/Web Email accounts and 100 Email aliases.
Having enough email accounts for your organization is crucial. At a
minimum, you will need one email address for each employee, contractor,
and department. In addition to this, you will need aliases to forward
to actual accounts. For example, if Bob is your salesman, you could
have and alias called sa...@anycompany.com forward to
b...@anycompany.com. Setting up email accounts properly can give your
organization a more professional look (i.e. bil...@anycompany.com,
ser...@anycompany.com, webm...@anycompany.com, in...@anycompany.com,
etc.) While these accounts can all be automatically forwarded to
Bob's email account it is much better than having b...@anycompany.com
listed as the primary contact for all of your departments. POP3
accounts are important because they allow you the flexibility to use
either web mail or Outlook applications to retrieve and manage your
email.
5. Database: 1 MySQL database. Database driven web applications are
what make web sites interactive. Instead of just being static
brochures, these allow the user to interact directly with your company.
6. Mailing Lists: 5 Mailing lists. Mailing lists allow you to stay
in touch with your clients with an easy interface. Having multiple
mailing lists makes managing your communications easier.
7. Control Panel: An easy to use control panel interface. Having an
easy way to manage your domains is of vital importance. The best
services, such as Bluemotorcycle.net, offer a web interface that allows
you to manage email addresses, web pages, databases, spam filters,
trouble tickets, and traffic and bandwidth statistics.
8. Support and Guaranteed Uptime: 24/7 Tech support, 99.9% Uptime. If
your website and email is the lifeline of your organization, you will
want someone there to help you whenever you have a problem. This is a
crucial aspect of your hosting service.
It's important to find a hosting service that fits your needs and
offers a level of service you feel comfortable with. Doing a little
homework before deciding on a hosting service will provide you with
much peace of mind later. Visit http://www.bluemotorcycle.net for
more information on web hosting.