How to Recognize a Professional Web Hosting Company

One of the big problems is that when you are looking for a professional web hosting company, you are often at a loss to what you have to look out for to be able to identify a good professional company.

Because there are so many companies out there, you might be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information out there. So this article is really a checklist on some of the things that you might want to look out for when you are choosing one of these companies, and keep this list close to your mind as you go through the list.

One of the more important things to look out for is the range of services that they have, and they should give you an option of having a shared server option, a virtual server and a dedicated server option.

Those tiers should also be split into two main categories of consumer and professional level web hosting solutions. There should be as much options as possible when considering what to choose and how you can level them out to fit your own needs online. This is something that is quite important as well.

Another thing you need to think about is the level of hardware that you are getting. One of the things that most good and professional web hosting companies often offer is a range of hardware options that you can choose from. Some might be lower level servers to high level servers, depending on your needs of course.

One thing that gets most people is that they are often stuck with limited choice, and no matter how intensive their online operations might be, they are often limited by the hardware of the companies that they have chosen and this is something that needs to be addressed from the start.

Another thing is the security features that are on the web hosting company's plan. One thing that you need to know is that the most important feature on your web site is the sort of security that you need to be able to promise to your customers.

For one thing, you need to be able to know that you need to protect against and that list can include Trojans, worms, malware, spyware and hackers. Also, since the financial transaction is also one of the more important things when thinking about the Ecommerce side of web hosting is that you also need to be able to give your customers the peace of mind that their financial information is safe and sound.

These are some of the things that you need to know when you are looking for a professional web hosting company. You need to be able to get a checklist of this whenever you are appraising one company from another, and see the features and services that they are trying to offer to you. It is important that you need to get a good web hosting company that is professional and can give you the level of reliability that you need.

How to Find a good Web Hosting provider?

There is no one service which will please everyone. You can find free web hosts services by searches on Google and other search engines for "free web hosting".

How to choose a choose web hosting provider Choosing a free web host can be tough, especially since they are many who claim to be the best free hosts around. There are some that are great, some that are average, and some that are really bad. They might offer nice features, but with ads on your site.

They wont put advertisements on your site, but have really bad features and/or support. Choosing a good free host is usually a hit or a miss, and can be frustrating at times. Remember that you don't get any guarantees with free hosting, so if your site isn't there when you wake up next morning, you can't complain about it because its free!

Make sure you have these features when choosing a free host:

• More than 100Mb disk space
• More than 1Gb bandwidth
• At least 1 FTP account
• Free subdomain (i.e yourname.freewebhostprovider.com)
• Allowed to host your own domain
• No ads on your sites
• Some good free hosts may offer:
  cPanel Control Panel or DirectAdmin Control Panel
  MySQL Databases, PHP, CGI
  Email Accounts
  Allowed to put up your own ads
  Reliability (this is hard to determine)
  Automatic software installer (Install a blog in minutes!)
  Community Forum, to discuss your website(s)

You can’t really expect too much from a free host, since they are providing the service for free.

THE IMPORTANCE OF WEB HOSTING SECURITY

What do you look for in a web host? A low price? Reliability and good support I hope. If you’re anything like today’s ambitious webmaster, you’re on the hunt for the best features. There’s a lot of programs and management tools available to make your site standout but I bet there are some features you pay no mind at all. Often overlooked but one should never forget about critical security features as they will help to keep your web hosting environment protected from an array of threats.

Security features are abundant but here some you simply can’t do without:

SFTP

Short for Secure File Transfer Protocol, SFTP is more efficient and secure variation of FTP. In its purest form, FTP only has the ability to transfer files, leaving them vulnerable to a range of security breaches such as eavesdropping, tampering and even interception of the entire file. A web hosting company offering SFTP provides you with the ability to secure your files in transit with SSH (Secure Shell Host), a protocol that protects data with government recommended 128-bit encryption.

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer or SSL, should be incorporated on any website that sells products or services. SSL is a standard encryption protocol designed to keep Internet communications secure. If a web hosting company doesn’t support a shared or private SSL certificate, you need to turn in the opposite direction and find yourself another provider.

Data Backups

Data backup and restoration is not only something that should be practiced with the files on your hard drive, but those on the web host’s server as well. All it takes is one technical difficulty or natural disaster for the web hosting company to lose a server and all of your website data. The good thing is that most providers perform redundant backups to ensure that your data can be restored in the event of a failure. To be on the safe side, I recommend looking into a web host that offers a utility that allows you to backup your own data.

Network Security

Aside from protecting your files and website transactions, you also need to keep an eye out for security features that protect the web hosting company’s network. Do a little research to learn how the web host is protecting their infrastructure, keeping in mind that intrusion detection systems, firewalls, DDoS protection, virus and spam filtering are common features. Servers are prime targets of hackers and malicious code writers so if the hardware is breached or goes down, your website will suffer right along with it.These are just a few of numerous security features a web hosting company should offer to ensure the safety of your website data. Hackers are constantly trying to crack into web servers while malware writers are releasing new infectious strains everyday. A web host that doesn’t take this into mind is essentially leaving you wide open for exploitation.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT PAID WEB HOSTING THREE STEPS

Choosing a paid Web hosting services provider can be a challenge. There are literally thousands of companies that offer countless products and services. It can be a difficult task for a novice as well as for a seasoned professional, but it doesn’t have to be. We’ve broken the process down into three steps.

Step One: Free or Paid Hosting?
Step Two: Determine Expectations
Step Three: Compare Hosts in the Right Category

Step One: Free or Paid Hosting?To pay or not to pay?A large percentage of Web sites are ‘free’ and posted by individuals for personal reasons. Typically, these sites are associated with one of the larger portals such as Yahoo or AOL and consist of a page or two with limited content. If you’re looking to put up a personal site like this, look no further than the solutions offered by these two companies. The tools and applications such as email, community interest portals and photo management software provided are straightforward and make setting your site up very easy.

The downside to free hosting? Generally you'll have to put up with banner ads on your homepage or other ads you don’t get to pick. To be fair, it’s how these companies can afford to set up your infrastructure for free. All the same, you have no control over whose ad shows up on your site. If that’s unacceptable, a paid hosting solution (some start lower than $5/mo) might be your best bet.

Most Web hosting companies bundle services into a series of packages. The standard hosting service component is normally a bundle of disk storage space (where your site is stored) and bandwidth (the capacity for data transfer of a wired or wireless communication system.) In addition, hosting companies usually bundle email services with standard plans. The email service contains POP and IMAP solutions which direct email received through your site to desktop applications (Outlook® or Exchange®.) “Web-mail” is also provided to view and manage email through a Web browser.

Frequently, small businesses want a Web site that functions only as an online brochure that provides information about the business but not sell products. Standard packages are ideal if you’re building a simple brochure site. Additional service packages offer eCommerce, media intensive applications for video and audio sharing and dedicated servers, designed to back-up more complex business requirements. Paid solutions pretty much come down to whether you’re going to sell products and services online or just display information in a brochure format and what kind of customer and technical support you’ll require.

Step Two: Determine ExpectationsYou Get What you Pay ForThere are basically two price levels prevalent in Web hosting. There’s a large group of Low Price or Discount hosts that offer nice solutions from below $5 to $15 per month and there are hosts that offer solutions that start above $15 and the pricing goes up from there. Companies such as Affinity have developed a number of different hosting brands to help simplify the customer experience. As an example, Affinity uses the Host Save and Win Save brands for their low-cost hosting solutions and the Value Web brand for their premium services.

Customer service is usually the primary difference between inexpensive hosting solutions and the higher priced options. Here’s where the “you get what you pay for” maxim comes into play. Prior to choosing a provider it’s important to determine how serious you are. In other words, if the site is your small business lifeline, where you’ll find customers, display, sell and even ship products you probably don’t want a hosting company that won’t answer calls when there’s a problem. On the contrary, many experienced professionals would rather not talk to someone and prefer technical support and customer service through email or online chat.

Clarifying expectations ahead of time can mean the difference between a great online experience or completely frustrated and without support. The extra $10 per month may be worth the piece of mind it buys.

Step Three: Compare Hosts in the Right CategoryOnce you know whether you need a standard hosting plan or an eCommerce solution and whether low price or premium (a.k.a. better customer support) hosting is right for you, it’s time to shop. Any of the major search engines will provide a multitude of responses with a query such as Web Hosting or eCommerce hosting. You can even narrow your search with more definition. A search for “Cheap eCommerce hosting” will yield mostly companies whose solutions fall in the low price category.

Take some time and visit several hosting company’s Web sites. Go over plan options and see which offer the services and support that match your expectations. Because of the similarities, hosting plans can become confusing. Most major providers have a “Compare Plans” page you can print. Its good to print out the various packages and have them in hand while you shop.

Using Affinity’s Value Web brand as an example, some hosts offer a portal where you’re free to ask existing customers if they’re satisfied and recommend the provider. Look for this function as you shop, it’s an excellent tool in how to determine whether a company is right for you. Unless you’re an experienced professional you shouldn’t buy a solution without at least first talking to a sales rep at the company.

This gives a sense of the company’s commitment to its customers. Many also call the technical support numbers to see how long it takes to answer and how friendly and knowledgeable the staff is. Companies such as Affinity combined sales and support departments so when you order an account you’re talking to a technical support representative as well. This creates a forum in which all questions can be answered without having to be transferred to other departments.

It’s important to find a hosting relationship that fits your needs and whose level of involvement you feel comfortable with. Following these steps will make choosing a Web hosting solution easier and, hopefully, even fun.