Home Server Hosting - Should You Do It Or Not? – Part 2

Have you ever thought about hosting your own web server?  Before you take that step this is a good article to look at the pros and cons of such a move.  The article is in three parts.  Welcome back to part 2 today which looks at what to buy.  Come back for more tomorrow.  Let me know how useful you find this article with a comment below.

Hosting Your Own Web Server: Things to Consider – Part 2

By: Ant Onaf

What to buy?

·         First determine your budget. Be realistic and expect to spend at least $2,500 for a low-end server. For a low-end, quality server with other needed equipment and services I spent a little over $4,500 easily.

·         Determine your ISP (broadband) provider. Research and speak with several different vendors before deciding which broadband solution best suit your needs. Each provider plan is different and has different benefits, determine the best one which fits your needs. Bandwidth should be put into consideration when choosing your ISP.

·         A backup device should be purchased before implementing a server install. The backup device should be double the server storage space. This could be a standalone unit like an external hard drive or network storage device or the backup device could be multiple devices such as: backup tapes, disc, etc. The reason the backup device should be larger is because you want to be able to have months worth of backups and not just weekly or monthly backups. You should have at least 24 weeks of backups without the concern of storage space. The backup device or safe deposits should also be external, removable, and portable. This is so the backups can be stored in a remote location. Usually for safe-keeping, in event of a theft or disaster.

·         Determine your daily traffic goal (the daily traffic which you hope to see within 1 year ?C be realistic), divide that number by the daily traffic you currently receive, and then multiply that number by 5. That is the total number of GB space you need. 

Example: 

Daily Traffic Goal: 10,000 (Divided by) Current Daily Traffic: 500 (Times X) 5 = 100GB 

In the example you should purchase a 100GB Hard Drive, it is best to buy 2 or more drives oppose to 1. In this case, since 50GB drives do not exist or harder to find, you would buy two 60GB drives giving you a total of 120GB. 2 or more drives are usually needed in a server to configure the proper RAID option, in some cases 3 or more are needed. Your backup storage space should be a minimum capacity of 200GB (or 240GB, optional).

·         Determine your memory. If your web server daily traffic goal is 500,000 then I would recommend at least 2GB worth of memory. If it is a shared server, meaning it also has other server services running on the machine, especially a mail server or database server (which is not recommended) then your memory should at least be 3GB or more. Otherwise you can think small and upgrade as needed, a 1GB memory stick should be fine for starters.

·         Determine your network components, which NIC card best performs under high traffic levels and which router best performs for your LAN / web server. It is best to get a router which has a built-in firewall (commonly known as a ??hardware firewall??). Your ISP may provide you with a router or hardware firewall, this is how they are able to authorize your traffic on their network. Like a cable box does for cable television. The router also shares your IP address with other clients on your network. This enables you to share your internet connection without having to get a different IP from your ISP. The hardware firewall is simply a router with a built-in firewall, which means it shares your IP address as well as provides added protection to your network. It blocks bad addresses and ports at the forefront, before it can even make it to your computer. It is not recommended to rely only on a hardware firewall for security, this is just the first step. It is recommended to also include a software firewall (firewall software which installs on your computer) and it is recommended to continue timely security practices, such as updating and patching your system on a scheduled routine.

·         Determine your processor speed and power. Regardless of the amount of traffic you are expecting I would recommend a dual processor or greater. A dual processor or greater is best because if your website unexpectedly take off then you will be well prepared and if you host other server options or websites on the same server then you will have better performance. At the time of this writing the 64-bit platform is the processor direction. 3.8GHz is the most available speed. If your pockets can afford the latest technologies then that is ideal, but keep in mind at this particular time a 64-bit compatible processor is not necessary, without having many applications that require or deliver on that platform. That is a lot of speed going no where fast. Also, remember the power of the 64-bit platform and the greater the processor speed the more heat it produces, therefore it must be cooled much more rapidly and efficiently. At this time a dual 32-bit, 2.8GHz ?C 3.2GHz processor will suffice (even that is way more than enough). Though, if your pockets can afford it then the latest and greatest would be fine, you will be well prepared. Otherwise, do like most people and upgrade when the time comes.

·         Make sure you have a CD/RW drive. A floppy disk drive is not needed, but I do recommend it for making system restore disk. The CD/RW drive is needed because you need some type of removable storage device. You never know when you need to install a driver from a different location??like a ethernet driver. An external CD/RW drive is the best option, especially if you have multiple machines.

·         Choose your operating system carefully. Choose the vendor which you are most comfortable with. Do not choose a MAC if you never used a MAC before. Just because your friend suggests it and says it is a piece of cake does not mean it will be for you. You are trying to get a web server online not re-learn a whole new system. Stay focused and grounded. If you are comfortable with Microsoft then go with Microsoft, regardless if the IT person at your job says Microsoft products are unsecure, Linux or Unix is more secure and much better for a web server. If you have never used Linux or (especially) Unix then you will be in for a ride of your life. Your web server experience will soon become a nightmare and you will have wasted thousands of dollars on equipment. Go with what you know, not what you are told. Each platform has its pros and cons: Microsoft is the user-friendly of them all; Mac is the web/graphic developer of them all; Linux is the open-source/developers paradise of them all; Unix is the most secure of them all. Each of them can be tweaked in ways to provide a solid, quality platform, it is best to stick with what you already know.

·         You should install on your system all the web services (such as: Apache, IIS, etc.), applications (such as: backup device software, RAID (Array) Manager), scripting languages (such as: PHP, Perl, etc.), CGI, Database (such as: MySQL, Microsoft SQL, etc.), and a web log analyzer (such as: weblog expert, nihuo, etc.). It is also recommended to perform system updates, security patches, and firewall installs and configurations. It is sometimes best to leave the security installs and configurations for after you have the system functioning properly to avoid any uncalculated problems. This way when you install the firewall and something stops working properly like connecting to your website from outside your network, you can troubleshoot assuming that it is the firewall, therefore you would begin by opening port 80 on the firewall. This method can save you a lot of hassle, but can sometimes be considered the unsecure method, especially if you don't have a hardware firewall already in place.

Next, there are a few things to consider before installing and configuring a server. Where to put it? A secluded, cool location is ideal, but if this cannot be accomplished then adjustments can be made. 

Author Bio
Ant Onaf is is in association with Data Center Life which is an employment portal for Data Center Jobs. Ant Onaf is an online internet marketer, web advertiser, content writer, and IT consultant. He has years of IT related experience and internet related experience. His ingenuity, dedication, and passion for technology, internet marketing, & writing has made him a monumental icon in the World Wide Web. His blog can be visited at www.journalhome.com/AntOnaf

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Source:  By Ant Onaf

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/web_hosting_articles/web_server_hosting.htm

Home Server Hosting - Should You Do It Or Not? - Part 1

Have you ever thought about hosting your own web server?  Before you take that step this is a good article to look at the pros and cons of such a move.  The article is in three parts.  Part one is today.  Come back for more tomorrow.  Let me know how useful you find this article with a comment below.

Hosting Your Own Web Server: Things to Consider – Part 1

By: Ant Onaf

Are you disgusted or disappointed with your current web host? Have you switched web hosting companies too many times? Have you thought of hosting your own website(s)? Do you have the ambition to control and manage your own web server?

If you answered 'yes' to the questions above, then you may be ready to host your own sites. This article will give you things to consider while making the switch. 

When being your own web host you should be technically inclined and have basic knowledge of operating systems, understand technical terms, understand how to setup a server environment (such as: DNS, IIS, Apache, etc.) have basic knowledge of scripting languages and databases (PHP, Perl, MySQL, etc.), be familiar with current technologies, and have a basic understanding of hardware and server components. 

You should realize the pros & cons. It is one thing to say, you want to host your own web server and it is another thing to actually do it. 

Pros:

·         Own sense of responsibility

·         Awareness level raised (you are at the frontline of all server happenings)

·         No monthly hosting fees/accounts

·         Incompetence no longer exist

·         Non-shared environment (dedicated server)

·         Unlimited websites, databases, content, storage, etc.

·         More bandwidth

·         No more waiting on someone else time

·         Complete control

·         Cons:

·         Exhausting at times

·         Faced with server/hardware problems

·         ISP business account (monthly business/broadband expense)

·         If server goes down then the website is offline

·         No technical support team

·         Software, hardware, and network expenses

There could be many more pros & cons but I've pointed out some of the major ones. Managing a web server starts as a full time job, you must constantly monitor its performance and security. This can sometimes be an exhausting task, especially if you currently have other responsibilities. Though, the control you will have over your website and its performance is rewarding enough. You no longer have to wait for technical support or approval to install a script onto the server. You can have as many websites and databases you want, as long as your hardware can handle it. You no longer have to go into the discussion forums and search for the best web host or rant about how much you hate your current host. You can even begin hosting family & friends personal websites. 

Ask yourself, how technically advanced are you? Many times you do not have to be a tech guru or anything of the sort, but you must be very resourceful. You must know how to find resolutions and answers to problems, quickly and efficiently. This means you must be internet savvy. Not just the average surfer, who surfs aimlessly, but you must be the surfer who can always find what they are looking for. This is key, because with any server environment you are going to run into problems and finding the answers are most accomplished online, using multiple resources, search techniques, and engines. Sure you can hire someone to fix your problems, but as we should have learned from the "web hosting", having someone do it for you isn't always the best option. Here is a test to see if you are ready to find solutions. I need a solution to a Microsoft Windows 2003 Server Event Error - "Event ID: 1056' it's a DHCP Server Error. How would you search? Go ahead find the solution. 

Did you first go to Google? If you did, that was a nice effort and common for most, plus a good place to start, but usually it is best to start at the developers' website. In this case "microsoft.com" would have been the first option. Why? Google would more than likely provide you with the answer from Microsoft and other sources, but you don't want to get inaccurate information from other sources. It is common to get information from Microsoft that would not specifically resolve your problem, but the developer should always be your first place to search for the answers. Now search the error again and go to the Microsoft site and find the solution. 

You should had found this link: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;282001 (Event ID 1056 is Logged after installing DHCP) 

What search phrase did you use? It should have been Event ID: 1056, because the Event ID is the exact error, it pinpoints your exact problem without broadening your search. Sometimes the error description is also appropriate to search, just the error description by itself or in combination with the Event ID. It depends on your error, your search feedback, your ability, and technique. For this example I did not include the error description. 

Google or Yahoo! should have been your second option (the two largest search engines). Then search other smaller and niche search engines. A good search site which makes use of Google's operator tags is www.soople.com. Next you should search within forums and discussion groups. If you are pretty internet savvy and have a plentiful or few forums and discussion groups which you frequent then you might actually visit those places before visiting Google or Yahoo!. You can even visit those before visiting the developer site since it is a trusted source, but I wouldn't recommend it, I still would go to the developers' site first. Okay, so now we have planted our feet and have familiarized ourselves with being internet (search) savvy. We are ready to purchase a server! 

When making a server purchase you need to consider a few things before doing so. What to buy? A top of the line, quadruple processor, and super fast turbo server is always ideal, but many times it is not logical or affordable. Therefore, you need to weigh your options (sensibly).

Author Bio
Ant Onaf is is in association with Data Center Life which is an employment portal for Data Center Jobs. Ant Onaf is an online internet marketer, web advertiser, content writer, and IT consultant. He has years of IT related experience and internet related experience. His ingenuity, dedication, and passion for technology, internet marketing, & writing has made him a monumental icon in the World Wide Web. His blog can be visited at www.journalhome.com/AntOnaf

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Source:  By Ant Onaf

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/web_hosting_articles/web_server_hosting.htm

How To Choose The Best Web Hosting For Your Needs - 8 Types Of Hosting Explained - Part 2

How confusing do you find it when you are considering the right web host?  Here are some factors you will want to take into account when choosing your web host.  This article is in 2 parts.  Welcome back to part 2.  Today this article will look at added features and pricing structure.  Leave a message below to let me know how useful you find this article.

Choosing The Right Web Host - The Hardest Customer Task To Solve – Part 2

By: Richard Clement

Fourth thing to consider: Added Features

Various internet hosting companies offer a variety of services. Web hosters provide a listing of overwhelming features to hosting plans to entice you into joining their services. However, more importantly, what features you need and what ones you don't need. Make a list of what you know your website must be able to do and find out if the company you are researching can make it happen for you.

If you are paying for a website, you should definitely be getting email accounts and FTP access. Don't settle for a site without them. Make sure the email addresses are for your domain and not at your host's domain. FTP access is critical is you intend to do any amount of uploading files to your server. Don't settle for web applications. Also, you will want a host that provides a user control over these two features. Examples of services include also visitor counts, e-mail forwarding options, real time chat, shopping cart functions, and web statistics. The list goes on. With a predetermined needs list in hand, you won't forget to ask important questions.

Fifth thing to consider: Pricing Structure

If the previous four steps check out, then you need to consider price and this can vary widely. You need to consider setup fees, monthly fees, plan discounts and optional extras in your calculations. Don't let price be the primary factor in your decision unless you are launching a personal page. For ecommerce, businesses and organizations, the quality of the service is more important. Some companies offer you no monthly fees, but check the fine print before agreeing to anything. Free sites almost always have popups or require space invasive banners. Don't simply look for the lowest price. You need to know how much the prices will grow as you expand your services and customer base. Ask about a variety of scenarios. For example, a small business owner who knows he will only need a small site to get started should ask about internet service provider hosting prices for medium sized websites with a larger number of visitors.Think for the future!

Keep also in mind that the most expensive plan is not necessarily the best, and the biggest name company may not be the right match for you.

Many perfectly fine packages for small businesses now run between $15 - $25 per month. Some people say that there are three types of Web Hosts: free hosts, cheap hosts and good hosts - and there is more than a grain of truth in this.

A good web host company will not tie you into a long-term contract that will prevent you moving if you don't like the service. 

Final words:

The most important thing to remember is to research and shop around. The are options and features that are offered by a wide variety of web host providers that is bound to suit you. The more requirements you have, the most likely you pay more. But paying for a quality web host provider is a good investment especially if your business will in the future become more reliant on the Internet. Finally, don't hesitate to ask questions and inquire about the services of web hosts - you don't want to regret it later.

Finally you can find more information about web hosting services visiting my site www.itstandard.net.

Author Bio
Richard Clement is an online publisher dedicated in helping online users in various categories. He is an online marketing specialist and owner of ItStandard.Net hosting company. For more info visit his site http://www.itstandard.net

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/web_hosting_articles/choosing_right_web_host.htm

How To Choose The Best Web Hosting For Your Needs - 8 Types Of Hosting Explained - Part 2

How confusing do you find it when you are considering the right web host?  Here are some factors you will want to take into account when choosing your web host.  This article is in 2 parts.  Today this article will look at storage space and data transfer, reliability and technical support.  Come back for more tomorrow.  Leave a message below to let me know how useful you find this article.

Choosing The Right Web Host - The Hardest Customer Task To Solve – Part 1

By: Richard Clement

Can we take this whole internet thing one step further and host our site ourselves on our own PC? Well, the basic answer is no! If you need to get a site live quickly or cheaply, it can be nearly impossible to do it yourself. Outsourcing these tasks to professional web host prividers that will save you money and headaches. The company will lodge your site on a web server, make the necessary connections between your domain name and their server configurations and then you're up and running. Your site is out there on the internet for all to see . But there are so many web hosts. How can somebody choose between them?

Different companies offer different plans, features, transfer rates and support levels, so how can you choose what's right for you?

The problem is that there are so many, and to some shoppers, there is a lot of technical jargon that can get in the way of picking the right one. This article is meant to simplify matters a bit by giving a reasonable way to estimate a web host's value.

The first thing to be done is to decide what you need your page to do.Is this you personal site, business site or some organization's site. Do you think selling things on your site, or maybe managing a forum , do you need a hit counter ect. These are just some of the questions you need to answer yourself before even starting to choose.

There are more factors in what will determine the best hosting provider for you and that will be the primary goal of this artcle.

First thing to consider: Storage Space and Data Transfer

A small information site or personal site will usually only require a few megabytes of disk space, however, data transfer depends on the size of the pages your are offering your visitors multiplied by the number of visitors. Therefore, a popular and graphics heavy website requires a greater monthly transfer than a text site. You should look at a minimum of 2 GB (2000 MB) data transfer a month. Check with the company that they can upgrade your account if your site increases it's need for storage or monthly data transfer. Prepare for growth now so that you are not caught off guard by unexpected costs when you go to expand your services.

Second thing to consider: Reliability

For any online business, uptime is critical. You absolutely cannot go with a host that has an uptime of less than 95%.

No web host can have 100% uptime, and it's impossible to guarantee. Avoid any hosts promising more than they can deliver. Most claim 99.9% uptime, but due to the nature of computers and communications equipment, outages will and do occur occasionally. You can contact a company and ask, but they will tell you they're very reliable. Instead, ask for a couple of sites they currently host, that you can check out for yourself. The word of mouth is probably most powerful in helping to judge these companies.

Third thing to consider: Technical Support

Critical to success, you'll need an internet hosting company that can help you resolve problems quickly with the least possible disruption to your site activity. As most hosting companies offer inclusive technical support, you shouldn't pay extra for this. If you're not offered 24 hours/7 days you should look elsewhere. Most hosts have email support, but keep an eye out for hosts that have phone numbers listed. These are obviously more valuable. Though some hosts have excellent turn around on email service requests, there's no substitute for actually being able to talk to somebody if you need to. The test is to contact the company and ask questions. If they don't reply within 48 hours, or don't reply at all, consider another hosting company. A good company should reply within 24-48 hours.

Author Bio

Richard Clement is an online publisher dedicated in helping online users in various categories. He is an online marketing specialist and owner of ItStandard.Net hosting company. For more info visit his site http://www.itstandard.net

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Source: By Richard Clement

What is the best website hosting and best WordPress hosting? Top 3 Hosting Review of 2018 – Part 2

With so many available web hosting plans out there it can be difficult to know what to look for.  Read this article for a good idea of what features to look for when assessing hosting plans. It’s in 2 parts.  There are 12 features covered in this article.  Some features were covered in part 1 yesterday.  Welcome back to part 2  Leave a comment below to let me know how useful you find this article.

What Features To Look For When Applying For Good Hosting Plan – Part 2

By: Richard Clement

·         Webmail & SMTP - A web based email program. Most web hosting companies do provide webmail access to their customers. Often it comes with addressbook, rich text editor, spelling checker, and all the features of any other email program offers. Email becomes key part in your life once you launch the website. Check if the hosts provide with Webmail to check your mails thru a web based interface such as Squirrelmail or Horde. Checking email will be faster if you download the mails thru email clients such as Eudora or Outlook Express. Only if SMTP or IMAP support is enabled you can use this option. All our recommended hosts has this feature.

·         SPAM Filter - No email user is free from a spam attack. It is the Email equivalent of junk mail. It is becoming one of the biggest problems in the Internet today.Hence you need to have spam filters installed on the server where your website resides.

·         HTTPS (SSL) access to your hosting account. SSL is used for secure communication between the user browser and the server. The information is encrypted and secure. SSL is usually used for eCommerce sites and sites that require submission of other sensible information like usernames and passwords. To have an SSL on your site you can use the shared SSL certificate provided by your hosting company or you can purchase an SSL certificate for your site and ask the host to install it.

·         Shell (telnet or SSH) access to your account. SSH is used for secure access to your account. SSH is usually offered on Unix hosting plans. You can zip, unzip files, change permissions of files, run certain programs on the server.

·         Sub-domains for creating sub-sections to your site without having to use directories in URLs

·         Shopping Cart - A shopping cart is a piece of software that acts as an online store's catalog and ordering process.

These are the most common features of a good web hosting plan. A reputable web hosting provider should offer you at least these ones in his hosting plans. There are some more additions you can get from a good provider. For more info on that topic you can visit my site www.itstandard.net and get what you need.

Author Bio
Richard Clement is an online publisher dedicated in helping online users in various categories. He is an online marketing specialist and owner of ItStandard.Net hosting company.For more info visit his site http://www.itstandard.net

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Source: By Richard Clement

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/web_hosting_articles/hosting_plan_features_look_for.htm

What is the best website hosting and best WordPress hosting? Top 3 Hosting Review of 2018 - Part 1

With so many available web hosting plans out there it can be difficult to know what to look for.  Read this article for a good idea of what features to look for when assessing hosting plans. It’s in 2 parts.  There are 12 features covered in this article.  Some features were covered in part 1 yesterday.  Welcome back to part 2  Leave a comment below to let me know how useful you find this article.

What Features To Look For When Applying For Good Hosting Plan – Part 2

By: Richard Clement

·         Webmail & SMTP - A web based email program. Most web hosting companies do provide webmail access to their customers. Often it comes with addressbook, rich text editor, spelling checker, and all the features of any other email program offers. Email becomes key part in your life once you launch the website. Check if the hosts provide with Webmail to check your mails thru a web based interface such as Squirrelmail or Horde. Checking email will be faster if you download the mails thru email clients such as Eudora or Outlook Express. Only if SMTP or IMAP support is enabled you can use this option. All our recommended hosts has this feature.

·         SPAM Filter - No email user is free from a spam attack. It is the Email equivalent of junk mail. It is becoming one of the biggest problems in the Internet today.Hence you need to have spam filters installed on the server where your website resides.

·         HTTPS (SSL) access to your hosting account. SSL is used for secure communication between the user browser and the server. The information is encrypted and secure. SSL is usually used for eCommerce sites and sites that require submission of other sensible information like usernames and passwords. To have an SSL on your site you can use the shared SSL certificate provided by your hosting company or you can purchase an SSL certificate for your site and ask the host to install it.

·         Shell (telnet or SSH) access to your account. SSH is used for secure access to your account. SSH is usually offered on Unix hosting plans. You can zip, unzip files, change permissions of files, run certain programs on the server.

·         Sub-domains for creating sub-sections to your site without having to use directories in URLs

·         Shopping Cart - A shopping cart is a piece of software that acts as an online store's catalog and ordering process.

These are the most common features of a good web hosting plan. A reputable web hosting provider should offer you at least these ones in his hosting plans. There are some more additions you can get from a good provider. For more info on that topic you can visit my site www.itstandard.net and get what you need.

Author Bio
Richard Clement is an online publisher dedicated in helping online users in various categories. He is an online marketing specialist and owner of ItStandard.Net hosting company.For more info visit his site http://www.itstandard.net

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Source: By Richard Clement

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/web_hosting_articles/hosting_plan_features_look_for.htm

What Is Web Hosting? Explained Simply | GoDaddy

Are you looking for a web hosting provider and wondering what you should be considering?  Does it seem confusing with all the different features they all seem to offer?  If you read this article it may not seem as confusing as it first appears.  Here are 7 basic features that Carl Madison describes as the most important features in his article.  Read on and leave a comment to let me know what you think.

Web Hosting Features

By: Carl Madison

Finding a Web hosting provider seems like a difficult job. You think you've found a provider, but then another one offers some Web hosting features a little different than the first provider. So you have to decide what to do. Many of the features you won't even use. A Web host provider will add alot of features to your package to make it enticing. Instead of talking about all the features, I will discuss which ones are important. If you have a simple website, you can combine these features with a cheap web hosting package and be okay. Below are the most important features.

1. Disk Space

One of the biggest concerns you may have is how much disk space(also disk storage or web space) you may need. It all depends on how your website is created. First, let me tell you that Web host providers will show you disk space they provide you in either GB(gigabyte) or MB(megabyte). 1 GB equals 1024 MBs. A website with text only can get by with about 20 megabytes. However, if you add graphics and videos, you will need more disk space. The more things you add to your website, the more disk space you will need.

2. Bandwidth

Bandwidth(or data transfer) is the amount of information your website can deliver to visitors that surf your site. When someone surfs your website or downloads anything from your site, they are using bandwidth. A Web hosting provider usually gives you a month to month supply of bandwidth. If you are planning on having a website with few visitors, then the minimum bandwidth allowed by your provider(between 1GB and 5GBs) should be enough. 

Here is some information you need to know when you are calculating bandwidth: 

1024 Byte = 1 Kilobyte (KB); 1024 Kilobyte(KB) = 1 Megabyte(MB) ; 1024 Megabyte = 1 Gigabyte(GB) 

Note: Some Web host providers don't calculate bytes in 1024's. They instead use 1000 to make it easier. This is something to remember if your calculations are a little different than the providers. You should ask your provider if you want to know which number they use.

3. FTP 

FTP(File Transfer Protocol) is a method of transferring files from one computer to another. This gives you the ability to upload your website to your Web hosting provider. In addition, it makes life easier because you can copy lots of files at one time. 

4. Customer Service

Technical Support is very important. You should find a company that gives you 24/7 customer service. You may have some issues with your website that need to get taken care of right away. The longer the wait, the more potential visitors to your website you could be losing.

5. Email Services

You definitely want to have email access so you won't have to give your personal email address to visitors of your website. You should get a few email addresses to use for different reasons.

6. Site Statistics

Site Statistics are important because you can keep track of how many people are visiting your website. Therefore, you can know how well your site is doing. In addition, you will be able to determine how much bandwidth is being used.

7. Reliability

If you find a cheap web hosting plan, it doesn't mean you can't rely on them. Furthermore, you should have a provider you can count on to keep your website up and running. Most web host can guarantee your site will be up and running 99.9% of the time. If you come across a web host that guarantees less uptime, I wouldn't recommend you use their services.

Conclusion

These seven features, in my opinion, are features you should have for a basic website. Now if you are planning on doing more than putting basic information on your site, then you should look at other features that may pertain with what you are going to do. For example, if you're going to run programs on your website, then you will need to look into the different types of scripts(PHP, CGI, PERL, SSI, etc....). Another example is if you are doing business online then you want to have security on your site like SSL. As I said earlier, there are alot of features that come with your web host package, but most of them you won't need. If you need more than the seven listed above, chances are you already know what you need because you will have built your website around those features. These seven are for a person who wants to put a basic website together, with information about their business. Now all you need to do is find an affordable web hosting provider to go with these features and you are on your way.

Author Bio
Carl Madison is an established author for www.hostdata101.com

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

Source: By Carl Madison

http://www.articlegeek.com/internet/web_hosting_articles/297-webhostingfeatu.htm