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Before coming directly to the characteristics of good and cheap web hosts, first it's better to have a review of the fundamentals.
Defining a Web Host.
A web host is a service provider that places websites of its customers on a server, which is connected to Internet.
For providing this facility a web hosting provider generally has a high-speed Internet connection as they have to host thousand of web sites on many servers depending upon the requirements. Essentially the host providers rent out space where a user can get his website made available to the whole world through the World Wide Web.
The best part of using a web hosting facility is that now its easy to manage your website even for a layman as all the technical aspects like maintenance of complicated server technology, technical maintenance etc is now the work of your hosting providers. Now you can easily focus on your own Internet business in stead of spending hours on updating a web server.
Features offered:
Features
The followings are the features available in most web hosting plans:
Control Panel
A control panel is an interface by which access of a website on web server is made possible It helps in setting up and constantly updating as well as customizing the website, setting up email accounts etc.. Some hosting providers customize their own control panel so as to enable them to upgrade and expand it when and where required.
Disk space
Most of the sites that have lots of graphics or video clips or large downloadable files can easily use 500MB of disk space. Do NOT fall for hosting companies offering “unlimited space” or “unlimited bandwidth” for $5 per month. They are simply doing what we call “overselling”. If you website should ever really need a large amount of space or bandwidth, they will usually find a clause in their small print to kick you off the server.
Bandwidth
It is the amount of data sent or received through your website. When a visitor downloads files from your website to his own computer that is the amount of bandwidth that you will need to have. Again, overselling is rife in the market. The vast majority of websites never need more than 5Gb of bandwidth per month, and if you need more, you can usually buy additional bandwidth for a small amount
Email Accounts
With the use of POP3 email accounts one can check email from Outlook, Netscape Mail, Eudora or any other Email software. Most hosting companies also provide webmail, which means you can easily access your email from anywhere in the world.
Scripting languages:
Before you select a host, make sure they provide at least the most popular scripting languages and databases on their servers: PHP, MYSQL, Perl, SSI, cgi.
Databases
For displaying a large amount of data like user accounts, stock prices, maps, Interactive news, message boards and forums etc you will need an account that offers a database. For this MySQL,is the most popular and powerful. Besides language, many other features are also available, like the ability to handle millions of entries all at once, flexibility and speed allowing storage of logs and big pictures, ability to scale well under heavy traffic conditions. All that makes MySQL ideal for database-intensive or e-commerce-enabled Web sites.
Customer Support
Customer support is also an important criterion when selecting a good web hosting service, and it is equally important both for an expert as well as a layman.
Following are the essentials for a good support system:
Efficient customer staff
In order to get fast and good response quick customer support is a must. The following are few forms of customer support:
a. Email support
b. Phone support: Generally for sales and technique aspect it is used. A well-equipped and knowledgeable staff knows and problems and provide with immediate and relevant remedy without wastage of time.
Clove Chat support: Some web host companies also has live chat support for their customers, but irrespective of how many support channels a company is offering its more important that the available staff is responsive to the needs of their customers.
Trustworthiness, Speed and Uptime Guarantee
For any hosting company, if its own website is not available or accessible, then it tends to not only loose customers, but also it harms their credibility. Therefore it’s important to check if web host provider is guaranteeing at least 99% uptime. However to ensure maximum uptime, installation of redundant back-up systems is quite important "Redundant means having an alternative Internet connection on the verge of interruption of the main Internet connection. It tends to minimize downtime and is a part of a host provider's management system. For a matter of speed, how fast a site is depends upon the types of network connections. Other matters like routing, web server set up and local area networks also play an important part but still they are after the factor of Internet connection.
Many hosting providers still connect to the Internet through T1, or T3 connections. However the best one would be one using OC (Optical Carrier) lines.
A T1 line offers data transfer rate of 1.5 Mbps (megabits per second), while a T3 line supplies data transfer rates of 43Mbps. OC-1 refers to a circuit that transmits 51.85Mbps. Higher levels are multiples of that speed. Ultra-High Speed OC3 and OC12 lines offer 155Mbps and 622Mbps respectively. Some hosting providers have connections to major Internet backbones at the speed of OC48 (2488Mbps) and OC96 (4976Mbps).
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