There are many characteristics that you should generally expect all web hosts to include:

1. High Availability: All features in world are worthless, if your site is not available when your visitors try to access it. This incorporates many different components. Do they use quality servers and hardware? Do they have multiple redundant connections to Internet? Do they have a lifecycle management program in place to ensure that you are not being hosted on a server built in 1987? (Most data centers plan for servers to have a 3 – 4 year lifecycle.)

2. Guarantee: Don’t settle for them telling you that they have best hardware and networks; ask them to back it up. Most hosts include a money-back guarantee of some sort. Given that it takes time to register or transfer domain names, develop your site, and upload it, make sure that host you choose offers you enough time to really evaluate their services. Thirty days is a pretty common guarantee. Be sure to test speed of their support responses during this period (and during different hours of day), even if you don’t need it immediately. You do not want to find out too late that host doesn’t quite live up to your expectations.

3. Support: Your host should ideally offer support 24-hours/day. Some hosts offer this via e-mail or live chat, and others offer telephone support. Keep in mind that there is usually a financial trade off for different types of support, as they each involve different costs to host, which will inevitably be passed on. If you are type of person, who needs to talk to someone on phone to resolve an issue, make sure your host offers that as a support option, and be willing to pay a little more for it. Also, as stated in number two, be sure to test your host before your guarantee expires.

Does this sound like you?

If so, this article was written for you. Hopefully after reading it, you will have a better understanding of all terms associated with web hosting and find a hosting company that is right for your business.

File Storage Space

Usually hosting companies sell different packages centered around storage space. Storage space is specified in kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), or gigabytes (GB); a megabyte is 1000 kilobytes and a gigabyte is 1000 megabytes.

How much storage space do you need? Well, that depends on what you are planning to do with your website. If you have only a few pages of text and little to no graphics or images, a 25 MB should be more than you will ever need. Most hosting packages start at 25 MB of storage space. When comparing web hosting companies for file storage space, be sure to check their terms and conditions to make sure they do not charge another setup fee for upgrading to a packge with more space.

One way to determine size of your files in Microsoft Windows, right click Start button and click Explore. Scroll down and select file(s) or folder(s) you plan on using for your website. Right click on selected file(s) or folder(s) and click Properties and you will see size.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth is measure of how much data flows through your site. It is usually expressed in GB transfered per month. If you are expecting a lot of hits (millions of page views) to your site you will need to get most bandwidth you can afford. For new web sites it may take a while to get up to a significant bandwith. If you find you are approaching bandwith limit, you can always upgrade to a plan with higher bandwidth. Some plans allow you to increase your monthly bandwidth for an additional monthly charge.

E-Mail

Most hosting plans include a significant number of POP e-mail accounts and unlimited e-mail forwarding.

POP accounts can be accessed with your current e-mail program and some hosts may include a webmail interface for your POP accounts. If you have several people that work for your web site/business and want them to have their own e-mail address, you will need to select a hosting plan with enough POP accounts.

E-mail forwarding is when e-mail that is addressed to your website gets redirected to another e-mail address that you specify. Most plans include unlimited e-mail forwarding. An example of e-mail forwarding: for one of my websites mail addressed to mike-@-mrgoodbeer.com, sales-@-mrgoodbeer.com, and webmaster-@-mrgoodbeer.com all get redirected to my Gmail address. With e-mail forwarding you can easily track where your e-mails are coming from. Be careful though...the more e-mail addresses you have, more SPAM you will receive.

Shared vs Dedicated

When comparing hosting plans, you may notice plans for shared hosting and dedicated hosting. Shared hosting simply means that your web site will be hosted with other websites on same server or machine. Shared hosting is good for average web site where speed is not a priority.