5. Backups: Pretty self explanatory, but make sure that your host is backing up your data each night, and ideally provides a way for you to back it up on your own. Whenever you are going to make significant changes to your site, make a backup, and be sure to always keep a copy of your site on your local PC. I can’t tell you number of people I’ve spoken to who didn’t have a local copy of their site, and lost their site on hosts server for whatever reason.

There are also some subjective aspects to choosing a host. These are types of requirements which are based on your personal preferences and needs.

1. Your Market: Many hosts choose to focus on specialized markets, either because of personal interest, or a specialized skill set. For example, if you are looking to host a church web site, you may look for a host which focuses exclusively on churches. They are probably better suited to address your specific content needs. Keep in mind though, that you should not expect to give up on items above for subjective requirements. A church focused web host is useless if they can’t keep your site up and running.

2. Hosting Plans: With cost of hardware and network connectivity coming down every day hosts are increasingly offering more and more features. The bottom line, and something that all hosts know, is that 99% of customers will not use even 1% of what they are allocated, so don’t over emphasize features you don’t care about. Spend some time determining what you truly need for your site and then look for a host that meets those needs. If your site is 10 MB, does it really matter that hosting plan includes 2000 MB?

3. Community: If you are type of person who likes to interact with your fellow webmasters, you will probably prefer a host which offers an online forum for interacting with other customers. This gives you a great place to ask questions, read announcements, and discuss features with people who are with same host as you.

The list of considerations could go on, but key is to find a quality host which meets needs of your site. To that end, I recommend documenting your needs BEFORE you begin looking for a host. Estimate your space and bandwidth requirements, determine what features you need, and look for a host which meets your needs at a price that meets your budget.

Make sure to review hosting company's terms and FAQ concerning their dedicated servers to determine if their service is right for you.

Support

For companies that do not have 24 hour support, you will have to determine if their phone support hours meet your specific needs. Make sure to note location of company and offset support times for your time zone. If you plan on working on your web site during all hours of day, make sure to choose a company with 24/7 phone support; otherwise, you will have to wait for them to open before you can get help to solve your problem.

CGI

Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a program, also know as scripts, that can be run on a website to make site more dynamic. CGI programs can be written in PERL, C, Unix shell, and countless other languages. It is best to select a hosting plan that allows CGI because you will undoubtedly run across an application or game that you want to modify or include on your site.

There are many resources on web that list free CGI scirpts and countless companies offering CGI scripts for you to buy.

MySQL

MySQL is used for creating and maintaining web based databases. If you anticipating having some data on your site that your users might want to sort you will probably need to find a web host that supports MySQL. Some hosting companies specify how many databases you can have on your site and charge an additional monthly fee if you want more. You will have to determine how many databases you will need and select appropriate web hosting plan.

FrontPage

FrontPage is a website creation and management what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) tool developed by Microsoft. The files generated by FrontPage may have extentions asscoiated with them. If you are using FrontPage to develop your site, you will need to make sure that hosting plan you choose supports FrontPage extentions or your web pages may not display properly, if at all.

Server Operating System (OS)

For most basic websites you will not have worry about which OS your web hosting company is using. Most plans are running on either Unix or Linux. For some unique web site features, you may need a Windows based server.

Setup Fee

Some hosting companies charge a setup fee when your account is created. This is usually a one time fee and may be waived, in some cases, when you pre-pay for your service. Check hosting company's terms carefully to determine details of their setup fee.

SPAM Filter

Most hosting plans include some type of SPAM filter for your e-mail accounts. This feature can come in very handy if you are using POP email accounts.

Shopping Cart

Some hosting companies provide shopping cart features as part of their hosting plan. You do not have to worry about this featue if your web site is not selling products. Also, there are many different third party shopping cart applications and CGI scripts available on web that you may choose to implement on your web site such as ones found at PayPal.

------------------------------------------------------------------ You may reprint this article (can be found at http://www.mrgoodbeer.com/hosting/ )in any form but all links to MrGoodbeer.com in credits, title, body, and this footer must not be altered.