Choosing a Web Host
Posted by Lindsayanng on March 1st, 2009Feel insanely overwhelmed with the infinite amount of web hosts there are out there? Well, I can help you choose the right one.
Now, I can say right off the bat, sign up with HOSTMONSTER and you will have no worries ever.. But then again, you don’t know me, so why trust me?
So I can going to give you some criteria to look at, some links to look at reviews, and then you can decide whether or not you want to sign up with hostmonster.
When you are searching for a web host, you want to get the most for your money, but you also don’t want to choose one that is going to scam you with promises of low prices.
Let me just tell you a quick story before we move on.
I needed to get a web host for my husband’s photography website. At the time, we JUST wanted a website to host pictures on. We weren’t planning on having an entire e-commerce setup like we have now, but we just wanted a basic web host that is cheap and easy. I had already hosted 1 website on hostmonster, but they offered a LOT of extras that I did not feel that we needed for this website. So I did some searching and found GLOBAT. I will tell you right now RUN from GLOBAT. We signed up for the $3.00 per month hosting which $2.00 cheaper than hostmonster, and hostmonster requires you to pay up front for a certain number of months, where as GLOBAT let you pay monthly. I thought it was a perfect fit. BOY was a wrong. When we signed up, apparently the fine print said that they had the right to upgrade my account at any time, and they sure did exercise that right! We went from $3.00 a month to $75 a month in 2 months! Unfortunately i was not on top of my bank statements at the time and we did not catch it until 4 months later! That’s an extra $72 a month for 4 months for a total of $288 We fought them but unfortunately their customer service is based out of India and they did not speak english well (nothing against people from India, but customer service in my opinion should be based in the country from with the company originates to make communication easier). We never recovered that money.
So back on track. The few things that you absolutely should find out about your host
- 24 Hour PHONE customer support. Internet support tickets are slow and frustrating, and if you are anything like me, you do your website building late into the night. Also, even if you do a lot of your website building during the day, your website is available all of the time, and things can happen at any moment. 24 hour phone support is just a nice security blanket.
- Server side scripting* abilities like PHP and Perl
- Multiple mySql databases*
- Bandwidth*
- Storage Space
- e-mail account support (so you can have an email like yourname@yourdomain.com)
- A control panel (I prefer a control panel called cPanel) with access to an online File Manager*
- Free shared SSL Certificate *
- Control of your own php.in i file
- access to your .htaccess file
- option to change your “register globals” off
Now, I am SURE that a lot of these things sound greatly complicated and way over what you think you might need, but TRUST me, you will want these things.
Things like email and unlitmited space are obvious and I am sure that you understand what they are.. Space to put ALL of your stuff on the server, and emails so that you can have your own domain emails.
Bandwidth: is the movement of data from your website to your viewer’s browsers. Every time someone looks at your website, they are downloading all of the content onto their browser. Even a simple website will have a lot of information to be downloaded. When you start out, your bandwidth will be low because you will have few visitors. That is ok, but the whole idea of having a website is to get visitors. Why limit yourself from the begining. Its best to start with a company that will allow you to grow with them.
Server Side Scripting: is something that is very complicated, but you need it. If you plan on having an e-store, a forum, or a blog, you will need server side scripting. PHP especially, is used to simplify websites. It is used in one way like a template. Instead of having 10 separate pages all with the same information on them, you use server side includes and instead of creating a new page, you just change the inner content. Take this blog. You notice that the top header, right sidebars, and the footer are always the same and the inside content changes based on what you click. It is a server side include that takes care of that. PHP and Perl is also used to talk to your mySql database. If you want ANY type of content management, blogging, or e-commerce shopping cart, you will NEED this.
mySql Database: is two things. mySql is just a database management system, much like wordpress or blogger is your blog’s management system. mySql holds your databases. A database is used to store information that will be called upon through your PHP scripting. All blogging and shopping cart software use mySql databases. For instance, all of your posts don’t have their own web page, instead the content is stored in a database and when a user clicks on a link, that link is written in php and it calls for the post to be displayed from your database. In shopping carts, it is the same idea but with product information. mySql is something that I am still learning. I understand the inner workings of it, but there is a language all of it’s own to create specific tables and functions in your databases. If you want ANY type of content management, blogging, or e-commerce shopping cart, you will NEED this.
SSL Certificate: is something that is not offerd by every host, but it is very useful if you have an e-commerce website. An SSL Certificate will encrypt infomation that customers put into your website. So if your customer is logging into their account on your website, that log in information should be funneled through an encrypted tunnel so that people can not intercept it and steal it. This is different, however from a secure payment gateway though. You can read a detailed description of this on THIS post.
php.ini file: is a file that all of your scripts like wordpress or shopping carts will use. It tells the php how to act. It is not something that you will nessecarily HAVE to mess with, however there are addons and plugins that sometimes require access to changing this file. Some hosts will not allow you to touch it. This is where you would change the configuration for register globals
register globals: is a function inside of your php.ini file that regulates the variables in your php coding. All you need to know is that you SHOULD have register globals OFF by default as it is the standard now for php scripting. You should ask your host if they require register globals to be on or off, or if you can control it. You don’t really need to know what you are talking about, just make SURE the answe is. “We prefer register globals OFF but you have access to your php.ini file” Anything other than that, you should find a new host.
.htaccess file: is similar to the php.ini file but instead it controls the html in the website. More specifically, it controls who can access your html (or web site). There are maliscious people out there. My website once got hacked the first 2 days it was live, so don’t think you are safe because you are small. Being able to control your .htaccess file is very important. You might notice in your logs that some IP address is spending too much time in an area of your site people normally wouldnt (like a contact page, or other form type page) you can do the WHOIS search and make sure its not google or some other search engine. If it looks malicious, you can block them using your .htaccess file. HOWEVER, with hostmonster, you don’t NEED to access your .htaccess file. They make it even easier. They allow you to go into your control panel and just go to security and type in the IP address in the field where it asks you who you want to block. VERY awesome, VERY easy. But you do wan to control that area of your website – most definitely.
You also want to make sure that your host does not try to talk you into other “services” that they will say that you need, but it is just a ploy to get you to sign up and pay more. I was working with a client who was hosted with GoDaddy. GoDaddy has been involved in some sketchy endeavours like stealing domain names and such. Anyways, the guy had signed up not knowing a lot about websites, so he purchased a “website tonight” account where you have to pay EXTRA to use their website builder. This is just a little ridiculous since other hosts will give you their website builder for free. But that was not the scam. They told the person that he really NEEDED what they call “domain privacy.” Domain privacy is something that you have to pay an additional $8 for and what they do is when someone looks up your domain name HERE, instead of giving your actual information, it gives the host’s information. Now, this is a REALLY bad idea for businesses because as a business, you want to be as transparent as possible. You want people to know that the website/domain is owned by the same company that is displayed on that website. For bloggers, its a personal choice, personally I am ok that people can find me email address if they search my domain name. You can see my WHOIS search here for webdesignforidiots.net. I am pround that I am the owner of this site. You can also verify there that my website is infact hosted by HOSTMONSTER.
So if you end up on another blog who is touting a hosting account, check up on them. They might just be trying to sell you an account for a profit. Use that link and look up their domain. See if they are really practicing what they preach!
I will always suggest that before you settle on a hosting account, call the customer service and ask questions. When I first signed up with HOSTMONSTER, I felt SOO lucky. I had no idea how to get my website from my computer to the internet. All i knew was I had to buy a host and somehow link my computer to the server and upload it. So after I signed up I called. HOSTMONSTER actually has REAL computer geeks working on their customer service team!! They are people who understand websites and hosting, and they talk to you like they are really trying to help you, and not just flipping through an answer book! Its a great thing!! So i called them and had no clue. The guy walked me through step by step and even went above and beyong and taught me how to use DREAMWEAVER. I have not seen any other host’s customer service will will help you with scripting and software issues – its not technically their job.
HOSTMONSTER also has a great option called SIMPLE SCRIPTS. Simple Scripts has saved me MANY MANY hours of frustration and heachaches. Simple Scripts is a neat little option in your control panel. When you click on it, you are brough to a list of scripts. OSCOMMERCE, ZEN CART, WORDPRESS, BLOGGER, FORUMS….. and then some. All of those things you can install with LITERALLY one click. So you want a wordpress blog? Go to simple scripts, click on it click install and you’re DONE. It creates the database and your first username and password for you and you are ready to roll. Same with oscommerce. One click and the website and database is all set for you. Even go to the installation support forums for those things? Poor people kill themselves trying to install it?? Not you. Just one click and you are ready to roll.
There is SOO much more that I can tell you about HOSMTONSTER, but i am getting long winding.
SO what I will tell you is to go and see what other people are saying, MANY will agree with me that hostmonster is a GREAT host.
HOSTMONSTER makes it to the TOP 10 EVERY time!
I am not familiar with some of the others on the top 10 like “just host” and “blue host” All i can say is from my experience with Hostmonster.
IF YOU SIGN UP FOR HOSTMONSTER THROUGH THE LINKS IN MY POST (not the top ten links) HOSTMONSTER WIILL BE GIVING $65 TOWARDS A NEEDY PUPPY!!!!!
Read his story here:
Want to know who is offering this awesome content? Here it is! Someone who is relatively new to web design. I am new enough to still remember how absolutely frustrating it was to try and get anything done in this field, but have also been around long enough to be able to help those that are where I was a year ago.
Aside from web design, I run the office of my dad's engineering business, and do book keeping by trade.
I love my pets.. All 6 cats, 1 peg legged dogs, and 1 hedgehog. LOVE THEM!!
Oh yea, and my husband. He lets me chase my dreams and I let him do the same. We are happy people because of it. Read more from this author
