How to choose a Web Host

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Published on: 19-07-2004
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Features

Other features to look for

There are many other factors that will influence your host and package choice, other than the majoy factors outlined above. If you intend to use a forum or some other database scripts you will need a database service running, the most common being MySQL. This is included with many Linux hosts as standard, and is able to run almost any database application you would wish. There are other services such as MSSQL which are very costly, luckily this one is free! Hosts often limit the number of databases and increase the amount with higher plans - in reality 3 would be enough for anyone! If you do need more, you can always store 2+ databases in 1 by prefixing the tables.

POP3 accounts are important for e-mail sending and receiving. These are the accounts which you can assign to individual users as e-mail addresses. You will need enough accounts for the amount of e-mail addresses you wish to assign. This number will often be quoted as "unlimited" as there are only so many accounts you can create.

PHP or ASP should be included on Linux/Unix and Windows based systems respectively. These are very common coding languages, and many scripts will require one of these (depending on your OS choice). Almost every host will include this, along with CGI access.

Other features that may be quoted could be autoresponders, spam filters, etc... all of which may be useful to you, but vary from host to host. These are basically "freebies" that the host can give away to you with the accounts, as they take up very little resources. If a plan doesn't quite have enough, the host may be flexible when creating your account.

Further Selection

How to narrow your potential list down even further

When you have narrowed down your potential hosts that meet your specifications, there are several other factors that can significantly effect the choice of selection. Burstable bandwidth, transfer speeds and server location are all important factors to consider.

Unless you have an extremely small site, you will want bandwidth that is burstable. This means that you can download for a huge speed for short periods of time as well as download at a constant low speed for a longer period of time. You will still use the same amount of bandwidth, but the data transfer speed to the client computer can be increased. Almost any host will use this method.

Transfer speeds can be an important factor if you have large pages or downloads available on your site. There is no point in having a fast server if the transfer will be lagging at 56K speeds on an ADSL connection. Check with the host to see if there is a test download you can try out, and measure the download speeds you get in comparison to other sites. Sub 200k/s would be no good for a large site, as users on fast connections would not see the benefit.

If your site is local to a particular area or region, it is always best to locate it there. For example, if you have a "UK Fishing Site" it would be best to locate the server in the UK if you want to achieve the best server performance. Having the server in the same country also means that you will end up with support based in that country (usually), so if something goes wrong, you can always give them a call. The shorter server distance correlates with a lower ping time, meaning that the site is more "responsive" (a 30ms "ping" is achievable from the UK-UK on a good connection, whereas 150ms may be closer from UK-US).

If you have a site that has large downloads or you need to host on a budget, a US host may be the best option. Many hosts that have offices in countries like the UK, France, Australia etc.. also have servers in the US, but managed from the office in another country. This allows a much cheaper package with a high level of service, mainly as the bandwidth costs are much cheaper in the US. This option may be a good compromise for speed/price.