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How to Find Website Hosting Company
You've got an offline business you
want to move online, or you've got a
great idea for an online business, but
how do you choose a Web host for your
online business? Once you've got your
business name picked out and you have a
good domain name, you're ready to choose
the right Web host for your business. In
order to choose a good Web host, you
must identify the magnitude of your
hosting needs.
If your business is just a project to
earn some side cash, you may be able to
get by with a free hosting service,
although this is seldom the best option.
For a more professional look, most small
businesses go with shared Web hosting.
Shared Web hosting involves having your
site hosted on a computer that hosts
hundreds, or even thousands, of other
sites. Because the hosting provider
earns money from so many customers off
of a single computer system, this type
of hosting is very inexpensive. While
you don't get tailored customer service
or hosting setup, you should still
receive quality support and in some
cases the service is more reliable and
easier to get running than dedicated Web
hosting.
Dedicated Web hosting involves having a
computer connected to the Internet with
the sole purpose of running your Web
site. Dedicated Web hosting providers
may do all of the setup for you or may
let you have complete root access to the
computer to configure it yourself, or
some combination of the two. Either way,
it will be much more expensive than
shared hosting. But if you run a large
business, a high-traffic business, or
some type of Web service where speed and
reliability are a necessity, dedicated
hosting is really the only way to go. If
this all sounds like Greek to you, you
will probably want to go with the option
where they customize the server for you.
Or, you may even want to hire someone
full time to maintain the server.
If you're still not sure which type
of hosting is right for you, consider
the following questions and
recommendations:
1. Do you want your host to
advertise your competitors on your site?
If no, then avoid free hosting.
2. Do you need more than one
e-mail address? If yes, avoid free
hosting.
3. Will you have a lot of traffic
to your site? While many shared hosts
can handle heavy traffic these days,
dedicated servers will be much more
reliable during high traffic periods.
4. Are you going to be running a
lot of scripts on your site or providing
audio/video? Shared hosting can handle a
few scripts or audio/video clips, but
will buckle under your site and all of
the other sites on the host if you use
either extensively.
5. Do you need to have robust
databases on your site? If yes,
dedicated hosting is probably the best
choice, although shared hosting can
generally handle a few database tables
with 10,000 or less entries each.
6. Do you have just one or two
domains for your business or many
domains? If you are hosting many
domains, you are probably best off
getting a dedicated host and setting it
up to for shared hosting of just your
own domains.
7. What are your technical
support needs? Forget free hosting if
you have any support needs. Shared
hosting tends to have problems
identified faster because other site
owners complain. Dedicated hosts tend to
work the hardest to fix problems with
your hosting server because it is
tailored for you. But, the quality of
support really has more to do with the
quality of the host you choose than the
type of hosting. Look around the
Internet for customer reviews or
complaints before finalizing a hosting
purchase.
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