Now that you’ve probably just spent hundreds of hours and possibly even thousands of dollars to build your web presence, one of most important decisions you’ll make next is where to host your website.

Choosing a Platform It may be true that Unix tends to be more reliable than NT, but it is even more true that any server when overloaded with sometimes 250+ web sites, like most web hosting companies do, will not be as stable as you need it to be. Don’t expect your site to incur 100% availability if you are on a shared virtual server. There are too many things that can go wrong when 250 different sites are competing for same resources. If your web host doesn’t publish how many sites they put on a single server, find out from them, they shouldn't have anything to hide. By way, 255 sites is maximum that Windows NT will allow per server, and most web hosts take full advantage of that for their lower end solutions.

Web sites running on NT/Windows 2000: *Rapid application development with scripting languages such as ASP or Cold Fusion. *Typically is easier to administer in a shared hosting environment. *If need ODBC to support database driven a site. *FrontPage tends to work better on NT

Web sites running UNIX/LINUX: *Scripting languages such as PERL, PHP or any CGI applications. *If you only need email or a static site, use Unix/Linux, it's cheaper. *Tends to be more reliable then NT in a shared hosting environment.

Web site running on a dedicated server: *If Uptime, user experience, branding, and site performance are a main concern. *If you new to hosting, check out Cobalt RAQ.

In making a decision on what is a 'fair' price, there are so many factors involved that it is difficult to pin-point an exact price range to expect. However, taking this into consideration, following are a few guidelines:

The first thing you need to decide is what type of Web Site you want. For example, will it be personal or business related? Will you need ecommerce services such as a shopping cart and a merchant account? Do you have any special requirements such as ability to run CGI scripts? How much can you afford to pay? The cost of Web Hosting varies widely, from free to thousands of dollars per month. However, you will find that a typical Hosting account ranges from $10 to $50 per month, depending on features available. These are just some of questions that you should evaluate before searching for a Web Host.

It's really impossible to say which is best for money but there are certain features you should look for such as:

Free Domain Registration Unlimited Autoresponders Unlimited E-Mail Aliases Secure Web Space For Order Forms Unlimited Traffic CGI-Bin, preferably with installed scripts 24 Tech Support

Keep in mind that 'you get what you pay for'. Chances are, for $10.00 per month, you won't receive any of above features. It depends on what you need and what your requirements are.