Choosing a web hosting company

Choosing a host for your website is an important decision. There are many web hosting companies around, all of whom make claims to be the cheapest at their level, but few offer really reliable hosting with the ease of use that you need. A few things you should consider when evaluating the various hosts are:

• Do you want to be responsible for contacting the hosting company when your site goes down? 
  It might seem tempting to get a hosting package for £2.99 per month, but if it’s up to you to set it all up and maintain the website, and you aren’t 100% comfortable with the technology and how it all works, perhaps you would rather someone else handled it and you simply paid them each month.
   
• What server platform and other requirements will your site need?
  If you haven’t had your site built yet, DON’T buy a web hosting package yet! Your web developers will tell you what is required to run the website you ask them to build for you - listen to them! If they suggest something, check it out, but let their experience guide you as much as possible, as you can then go back to them in the future if any problems develop.
   
• Do you have a domain name already?
  A good idea is to register the domain name with one company (such as 123-reg), but then host the website with another company. This basically covers you in case the hosting company disappears - you can then simply point your domain name to another host. If they were controlling the domain too, you might not be able to get hold of them to change what you need to.

Remember your web company can do everything for you, including editing the domain records to point to your webspace, but remember - always make sure any domain name that they register on your behalf has you as the registrant (owner).

What is a web host?

A web host is a business that has banks of large capacity computers (servers), that hold all the pages and graphics that will make up your website when it has been designed and built.

When someone types in your domain name into a web browser, a central database (kind of like a yellow pages for websites) looks up where that website is hosted through a series of numbers called an IP address (like a phone number), and points the request to them. When the request comes in to the web host, they send that request to your particular webspace and the website is served to that user.