Website Hosting

For a brief introduction to web hosting go to: Get Started. This page will look at website hosting in greater detail.

The most common way to purchase a hosting package is via the web. There are hundreds of companies offering this service, so it is worth shopping around to find the right deal for you.

A couple of things that are worth considering from the outset. First, it might be wise to choose a hosting company that has offices in your own country. Secondly, use the web or read web related magazines to see what companies are being recommended, how often they advertise, and how long they've been trading, etc.

Hosting companies usually offer a range of packages and payment plans. Though rare, be aware that some hosts charge an initial set-up fee in addition to yearly hosting charges.

Hosting Packages - What You Get

Most website hosting companies will offer you a choice of different hosting packages or plans. Each package will contain list of all the wonderful things that you are getting for your money. Unfortunately, experience suggests, most people have no idea what much of his 'jargon' means.

Hosting Package Jargon Explained

Server Types

Just a quick word on server types. Generally there are only two server types offered by Hosting companies, and these are the 'Linux Server (Apache)' and the 'Windows Server (IIS)'. 95% of all websites are run using Linux Servers, and unless you have any special requirements, just go with this.

In fact Hosting companies often don't even mention the server type for 'standard' hosting packages - you can assume these will be Linux/Apache based.

Don't make the mistake in believing that, because you're using 'Windows' on your computer, you need to use a Windows Server. They're not related.

JavaScript can be used to create a 'server' application, but that is beyond the scope of this article.

Shared Server/Dedicated Server

Shared servers host more than one website, and are perfectly adequate for 95% of websites. More expensive Dedicated Servers are more suited to sites that receive thousands of 'view' requests per hour.

Websites

Many hosting packages offer you the option to host more than one website. This can be useful if your organisation has two or more specialisms that it would be beneficial to separate. Or perhaps you work in several geographic regions that deserve their own website? See also: Domain Names.

Web Space

Much like the storage capacity on your own devices, this is how much space you have been allocated to store your website's files.

Much of this space will used for storing your media files such as images, video and audio, as well as any download documents (PDF, Word Docs, etc.) you offer on your website. If you use a database, this is usually stored separately and is not included as part of web space allocation.

Generally, the more you pay for your hosting package, the more space you get. This can range from say 100Mbs of space to 100Gbs or more.

Remember, that unless your website includes huge amounts of media (especially self-hosted video/audio), you really don't need that much web space. You should be making your web page media files as small as possible anyway, in order that they download quickly. See Website Performance

It's important to continuously monitor your web space usage, as some hosts will either remove your website or charge you for exceeding your limits.

Traffic/Data Transfer Per Month

This refers to how much data is served (transferred/downloaded) to all your website visitor's every month.

Every time someone visits your website, your host has to transfer all the pages, image files, etc, to that persons computer for them to view. Effectively each visitor to your site eats up a little of your data transfer allowance.

Web hosts are usually quite generous with these limits though, with many mid-range hosting packages offering unlimited traffic.

SSL

Secure Socket Layer is a facility that allows you to have web pages where visitor's can safely enter sensitive information on-line. An obvious example would be credit card details. When websites use SSL, it is indicated by a closed padlock icon in a web browser's address bar, and the protocol will be HTTPS. Most hosting packages offer SSL by default on your primary domain name, however if you create more than one domain name/website on the same package, and you want these to be SSL secure too, you may be charged.

Email Accounts

This allows you can create multiple email addresses based on your domain name and manage them via a traditional email client. Many hosts also offer you the option to access accounts via the web (Web Mail)

Some people choose not to use these unique domain-based email accounts, sticking instead with generic 'service' domains like gmail. We'd recommend you do use them, especially if you add email contact details on your website. It makes for a more profession impression, and makes your domain name more visible.

Email messages and attachments are stored on a separate server (mail server), and are not included as part of your 'web space' limit. Hosting packages do sometimes however, place limits on how much email storage is available to you.

Databases

Most websites require at least one database to help with site management. Hosting packages may place limits on how many databases you can have, and how big these databases can be (Mbs).

Unless you intend to set-up multiple websites, or you need a space for extensive web development, then you generally only need one database. Database size limits are probably more important, as your database will inevitably grow over long time periods. You can always upgrade your package should this ever become an issue though.

Control Panel

This is a web application giving you access to your hosting package account and settings. From here you can make adjustments to your account details, such as contact information and payment methods. It is also where you can set-up email accounts, create sub-domains, upload files and create databases. The Control Panel will additionally offer information on your website's status: how much web space you're using, how close you are to your data transfer limits. Most hosting packages allow you to view detailed statistical information about who's visiting your website from the Control Panel too.