How to choose a Web Host

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Published on: 19-07-2004
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Introduction

An introduction to webhosting services

If you have your own website, you will have some form of a webhost providing the service that allows you to store the information contained within your site to be accessible over the internet. Some ISPs supply free webspace, which is not the sort of hosting this article covers. If you own a domain name, you will need an independent hosting provider.

You will need a domain name (the address you would type in to access a website, i.e. www.pcreview.co.uk), which can be registered from domain registrars. The price of a domain name depends greatly on the domain type (.com, .net, .co.uk, etc...) and the type of registrar. Registerfly and GoDaddy are popular registrars that have some of the best prices and features.

Hosting Features

Some choices you will have to make for a host

Once you have your domain name registered, you need to find a suitable host. You will need to make a few calculations and choices about the sort of host you will require.

If you have a very large website which has over 5,000 visitors per day with active forums and several intensive scripts, you may need a dedicated server. This is your own server based in a data centre, you own/rent the whole server and can choose your own operating system and utilities. This is only recommended if you either know a lot about website management or employ someone to do this for you.

If you have a small/medium website you will probably want virtual/shared hosting. This means that several hosting accounts are stored on a single server and the accounts share all the resources available, yet are completely separate to each other. This is the most common route for hosting, as there are plenty of specifications and prices to suit all.

A more uncommon form of hosting is Virtual Private Servers (VPS) or Semi-Dedicated, which combines the previous two types. There are several "virtual" servers on a single server - which means each user can install "modules" independently to each other and also have a set proportion of all the system resources (i.e 25% of the CPU, memory and hard drive).

Although most users will almost certainly need a shared hosting account, there are several factors you will need to consider to choose the correct package. Operating System, Bandwidth, Disk Space and Control Panel options are the most important points to consider:

Operating System:

The two standard webhosting operating systems are Windows and Linux. Linux is often significantly cheaper and has the greatest compatibility with most scripts. Unless you specifically need a Windows host, I would suggest Linux. Even if you have never used Linux, there will be no need to learn now, as this is simply a platform to host your files. If you want to use ASP or use Windows applications, Windows is of course the ideal choice.