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How To Find a Reliable Web Hosting Company

Much before you start your search for a reliable web hosting company, list down your particular web hosting needs. Keep in mind things like the amount of space required, the number of emails, how much would you allocate for transfers, whether you will require a database or even a shopping cart. Consider whether you might want chat features, set up a forum or need a merchant account. Doing this is essential because for a web host to be reliable, it has to cater to your specific needs. The few things that every web host should have are as follows:

Reliability and Up Time

Find out how much Uptime your web host guarantees for your site, for greater Uptime means greater accessibility. Certain web hosts guarantee Uptimes of nearly 99.5%! Enquire about the hardware, safeguards and the connection stability, all of which minimizes downtime.

Pricing

Your web host should charge you a reasonable price and offer you flexible ways of making the payment. Look out for hidden costs, setup fees etc. But setup fees are now charged by most major companies to cover their costs for having quality technical support.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth often becomes an essential factor in either advancing your business' growth or curbing it. Some web hosts offer you small bandwidth, meaning you have to pay extra, if you cross the data transfer or download limit, while others offer greater bandwidth in roughly the same price. Choose prudently. Also never fall for the 'Unlimited Bandwidth' trap, for there is no such thing. Having a minimum of 1 GB of data transfer set for your website, allows for greater traffic when your site becomes a hit.

Disk Storage Space

Space is another crucial factor as far as growth is concerned. You will find web hosts offering you 20 to 50 MB space while others offering 100 MB space, at again roughly a similar price. Go for the ones offering 100 MB and greater, for otherwise you will end up paying $5 to $10 more for every 10 MB additional space.

Server Speed

Before zeroing on your web host, check the server speed. Use a free tool like Net Mechanic to gauge the access speed for all facets of access like connect time, download time, DNS lookup, network speed and absence of timeouts. The download time figures will tell you how fast or reliable the server is. Run a speed check on all the prospective web hosts that you decide, both in peak hours and non-peak hours.

The Basic Features

Choose a web host that offers a wide array of features from the beginning. Some web hosts may charge you extra for features that they add on every month.

Multiple Domain Names

If in case you use more than one domain name, find out if your web hosting account will allow multiple hosting and if they will charge more for this service. Some web hosts do not charge anything extra for multiple domain names.

Email Autoresponders and Mail Forwarding Accounts

Ensure that you are able to forward emails from your web hosting account. If you have several websites, it becomes very easy and efficient if all your email is forwarded to your ISP service. You can then read all the mail at once, without having to log into each of your accounts. Another device that saves time and acts as a great marketing tool is Autoresponder, a program that sends any pre-written message that you want to anyone who mails you. This reduces your own workload a lot but still helps you stay connected with people and increase your publicity.

Mailing List

Check whether the web hosting company allows for mailing lists to be prepared. A mailing list or an online, e-mail based discussion group can come in handy when distributing your ezine and for other promotional events and marketing gigs.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol or FTP service comes with almost every web hosting company, as it is a basic service. It allows quick and efficient file transfer from your Website to others and vice versa.

Setting up Anonymous FTP accounts

Having this facility helps you set up a FTP site which allows other people to access that and download files that they need. Setting such anonymous FTP accounts are profitable if you want people to make large downloads of software or free e-books etc. The best thing about FTP accounts is that while file transference or download, if your internet facility disconnects or the phone company cuts you off, you can always continue the download from where you left, after you reconnect.

Using a SSL Server or a Secured Server

If your business involves monetary transactions through your website, using a secured server is an absolute must. Often you have to pay extra web hosting charges for this facility, but without having a secured server can scare away your potential customers. Taking online orders and transference of sensitive and important information like credit card numbers require a secure server, as a SSL server allows such information typed into a form to be encrypted before sending it from the user's Web browser to the server.

CGI Scripts

CGI scripts are usually used to obtain information from any form and then this information is conveniently sent to your email account. Decent web hosting companies are bound to have a library of CGI scripts which can be used by people hosting their sites. But the best web hosting accounts will allow you to add your own desired CGI scripts and use them. Go for web hosts which allow you this provision, for even though you might think you don't need to use CGI scripts that much, you might need them later.

Advanced Features

If your website needs advanced features and applications like Java Applets, RealAudio/Video, Password Protection, Database Access and PHP check with the web hosting company whether they are equipped with such advanced features.

Backup

Almost every web hosting service will make sure to backup your web directory every day. Not providing this basic service is almost unthinkable these days. In fact certain web hosts provide you with unnecessary and unimportant backups just to make sure that your website is not lost in the melee.

Guarantee

There are a host of web service providers out there, and it often becomes difficult to distinguish between them or even trusting them. Accounts which offer a guarantee or schemes like a money back policy within a month, if you are dissatisfied with the services always helps in deciding things. Web hosting accounts offering the money back policy also turn out to be efficient and reliable in their services.

Being Flexible

A stagnant web hosting service can be the worst bane for your website and your business. It too needs to grow along with your website and business. So if you desire to include newer features like ecommerce, it should be able to upgrade and provide you with facilities like shopping cart, storefront or a merchant account. The web host should have constant upgrades an should be ready to provide you services like more web space, or your own dedicated server or even a forum.