WEB HOSTING PACKAGES

If you’ve tried to create a website using the free web hosting space that came with your broadband package — or you’ve tried out some other free web hosting services —

You will already know the main drawbacks. Quite apart from the fact that your website address isn’t particularly personal or memorable, you may also want faster server speeds, more space and extras such as database access and scripting services that let you create a more dynamic site.

Hosting packages offer a set amount of storage and bandwidth limit — the amount of data that can be downloaded from your site — for a monthly fee. You should work out how much space and bandwidth you’ll need. Most hosting companies will slow down your connection or charge you extra if you exceed your monthly bandwidth, rather than shutting your site down.

Some web hosting packages include a domain name, so you can choose something short and memorable. Email accounts usually included with the package, along with tools tohelp you manage your site. Some packages come with complete web creation tools but others don’t. Some support Microsoft FrontPage extensions, which means you can design a website in FrontPage and publish directly to your hosting package from our desktop.

A Consideration

One consideration you will need to make is whether to opt for Linux or Windows based servers. This will be influenced by your choice of web-design application or scripting language, and the advanced features you want. If you want a dynamic site that creates web pages on demand, you need a combination of a scripting language and a database. The most popular combination is MySQL for the database, which holds the content, and the PHP scripting language, which extracts content from the database. You can use a database for many things, such as a chat forum or a content management system. Each function usually needs its own database, so plan your needs from the outset and choose a package with sufficient databases.

Reliability is also important, as you don’t want your site to disappear for days on end. Look for a provider’s ‘guaranteed uptime’, which tells you the percentage of time the server remains accessible online. Even an uptime of 99.9 per cent could mean your site is inaccessible for 40 minutes every month. It may be worth paying for this level of uptime if you earn money from your website. You can also check forums to see how other users rate a particular company for its technical support.