Websites for Individuals and Small Business

Web Site Hosting

Once your new web site is complete it needs a home. Web site Hosting company's fill this need. Unless you host the site on your own servers (an expensive and technologically challenging option) independent hosting company's are your best solution.

The terminology of the features these company's offer can get confusing. Basically it boils down to getting the services your web site needs at a reasonable price. Some of the terms you will see, and brief explanations are:

Hosting space: How much space on their computers your site can have, measured in megabytes or gigabytes as 100 megabytes. Most company's have more than enough space for the average site. It usually doesn't become an issue unless you have a large graphical, large shopping cart, or a corporate site.

Bandwidth: How much information can pass through your site before you get charged for more. Again most company's offer you more than enough for the average site. Bandwidth is measured in megabytes or gigabytes per month as 20 gigabytes per month.

Email addresses: are usually offered in blocks as you get 10 email address with your hosting plan. Most plans offer more than enough and you can usually get more if required.

SQL databases: If you have a shopping cart, or mailing list program or other programs that use a database you will need this feature. It is not included on some low end web hosting plans.

CGI, Php scripting: This allows you to run these types of scripts on your site. Examples are form to mail programs, and others. This is usually included in most hosting plans and is a good idea to have.

Control Panels: This is included in most plans today. It is a panel you log into from the internet that allows you to control features of your plan, without having much technical or programming knowledge.

Hosting company's make their money by putting many websites on a single server(computer). For most sites this is Ok as long as they don't overload their computers. If you have a large site or database and scripting requirements, contact the host, you may require a less crowded server for your site.

There are thousands of hosting companies on the internet. Do your research, try to go with a hosting company not a reseller if possible. If a company's offer sounds too good to be true it is.

Hosting can be a complex issue if you have any questions go to our contact page we will be happy to help.

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Need a more custom site, or have a larger business or project? Contact us, if we are unable to build a site for your needs, we will refer you to someone who can.

Don't forget we do custom logos and grapics also. You are charged the hourly fee for this service.