Website hosting

You have your website designed and looking great. Now you need to host the site somewhere. A website is just a computer program that produces web pages as well as running shops, sending emaila or anything else you have asked it to. For this to happen you need a computer that is permanently connected to the internet. This is know as the hosting computer.

There are some free deals for website hosting available, however they usually have one or more of the following limitations:

a) Show advertising on your site for the company supplying the hosting
b) Only be able to host a simple web site with HTML or flash pages
c) Run fairly slowly
d) Having to use the suppliers website address e.g. www.giveawayfreehosting.net/yoursite
e) Unable to send emails from the website

The company that supplies you with the website will want to host the site, but their price may not be as competitive as some of the other companies you can find on the internet. It is important to make sure that the company building your website does not insist on you hosting your site with them. It is not wrong to use them, however if they insist on it, you could be in a difficult situation should you fall out with the company and they will not let you take the website away.

If you are looking for a company to host your website there are certain things you need to look for.

a) Do they host your email?
b) Can they support the language your website is written in.  (.aspx/.php/.cfm - ask company building your website)
c) Do they supply the database engine (if any) that your website requires
d) Are there any limits to how much traffic you get to your site? If so how much do they charge for going over the limit?

In conclusion price is important in today's business environment, but it is not the only thing that is important.