There are thousands of web hosts around today with thousands of plans to choose from for what was once a simple procedure seem like a daunting task for both newbie and pro alike.

Whether you’re looking for your first host or are looking to move to a better, there are 7 simple steps you must follow to succeed in choosing a great host.

1. Platform
The first and most crucial step in choosing a web host is to determine the platform of the web server running, usually a choice between Unix / Linux and Windows.

Your choice is largely determined by your website and the technologies used to create it, usually a website created with Microsoft technologies (ASP, VB) will run on Windows servers, while most other sites using open source technologies (PHP, Perl, Python, etc.) will run on Linux based systems.

2. Features
Once you’ve chosen your platform is the next step is to determine the functions you need from your web host. Take your time with this step as the feature lists of web hosts are getting longer and longer every day and while some plans may be similar on the surface, a good look at the job listings can be a different story.

Only you can determine which specific features you’ll need, but some key things to monitor are:

Disk Space
Bandwidth
Backups
Uptime
Money Back Guarantee
Domains allowed
Databases (Number & Type)
CGI, PHP, Perl, Python, SSI
Cron
E-mail Accounts

The list goes on, just remember to take your time and ensure that your new web host you with everything you need.

3. Cost
Often this is the only thing people consider when choosing their first web host, funds are usually tight and most hosts on the surface look very similar. Sometimes you get lucky and choose a good host, but more often than not proves to be a horror story.

I can not stress enough that choosing a web host based on price alone is asking for trouble, remember that the cost of your web hosting is more than just the monthly fee, to consider the total cost of ownership. TCO includes lost revenue due to downtime and slow speeds, downtime discounts, extra bandwidth charges, setup fees, additional feature costs, and your monthly fee.

Many hosts will require that you pay annually to the best price available to get but there are some that allow you to pay by the month and still the best price, it’s really a matter of personal choice of what payment method is works best for you.

4. Customer Service
Customer service is another aspect that is often forgotten until it is too late, something breaks and you have noticed and this delicious handige sellers that more than helpful in taking your money now nowhere to be seen, all the time you ‘re losing the sale of every minute.

You should not settle for anything less than 24/7/365 service, your site should be running all the time so it’s no good if your hosting company does not work during the holidays. Do not take the word for web hosting companies, claiming all 24 / 7 support, but few back up with consistent performance. Sure to test them at different times of day and night by phone, email and chat if they offer to live.

5. Support
An extensive knowledge base or faq can be a real time saver but also as an indication of the level of customer support and expertise you can expect to receive. Spend some time browsing the supporting parts of the website and see for yourself the level of support.

Questions are thoroughly answered in the knowledgebase?Solutions are real or are they just cut and paste answers?

6. Longevity
Do a whois on the domain name of the web host and find the creation date, less than one year ago and the risk that they will not be around next year increases. They had a large army, but having more than 95% of new hosts go out of business within one year that’s really not something you should take a chance.

7. Uptime
It is a fact of life that a web host can not be online 100% of the time, servers re-booted for the security and software updates and not updated any webhost that is facing the increased risk of successfully hacked.

99.9% uptime guarantees are fairly standard in the industry, however, a guarantee is only as good as how it is defined and the company behind it. Look for no less than one full month free hosting they do not meet their guarantee, a pro rata refund based on the amount of downtime is virtually worthless. Say you pay $ 10 for one month of hosting and your site is down for 24 hours. They will refund you for one day of downtime which ends is about 33 cents.

What is Linux / Unix-based hosting?

It means that the hosting is provided on Linux / Unix operating systems platforms. There is not much difference between these two types of operating systems because Linux / Unix is an enhanced version of Linux / Unix operating system. When applied only for web hosting companies for web hosting based on Linux operating system does not matter what you use on your computer as it is comparable with any operating system.

Usefulness

A few years ago, Linux operating system available only to professionals and if you are not experienced user had no future with this OS. In the last few years the situation has changed.Providers have done their best to provide users’ websites more convenient and easier to manage. In case you’re just a beginner you will find that web interface control panels. And if you’re an experienced user, you can manage your site through the shell.
Reliability

Experts say that Unix-based platform is one of the most reliable ones but it will mainly depend on maintenance stuff professionalism. Thus quality and stability of Linux-based web hosting will not depend on a sudden and operating system bugs yourself, your website operational consistency reliability.
Functionality

In this area, Linux differs from most other popular platforms. It can handle a large number of processes that occur at the same time.This gives you an opportunity to more of the server.
What scripting languages are available for Unix?

Unix supports a wide range of application languages, more than any other operating system. The most common applications of this type in C, C + +, Shell, Perl, Tcl, Python, Java and PHP.
What Is Unix Support databases?

Databases are available for Unix mSQL and MySQL. The one you choose will depend on your needs and your Host Provider. This is important for you when choosing a hosting company.
Cost

Linux operating system developed by Linus Torvalds as an alternative to other operating systems and is enhanced by many specialists around the world. Most of its versions are free. This circumstance makes Linux-based hosting much cheaper than any other. As for Linux versions are sometimes called Linux distributions. The most popular distributions are Red Hat and Mandrake. These are easy to install a lot of different tools and suitable for all web hosting type.
Why choose Linux / Unix-based hosting?

So, as already mentioned the use of this platform is cheaper and more convenient than others. All existing scripts such as PHP, function best when using the Linux-based web hosting. Linux / Unix based web hosting upgrade options to increase when using Shell and Telnet access. Linux / Unix-based platform is probably the most stable and reliable.

Once your account is opened with your web host and you set the DNS for your site (see Part 1 and 2 for details) you can start uploading your content. The most common way this happens is through FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software, but there are a few other options.

The FTP protocol can transfer data files from one computer to another. Your web hosting company gives you the information you need to connect to your FTP site.

You would normally use software such as WS_FTP or FileZilla to connect. Your FTP address is usually ftp.yourdomain.com.

Your web host will also tell you where your files are uploaded to the server. There is usually a folder in the root directory of your website called public_html, www or something similar. This is where all the files from your website accessible to the public on the Internet to save.

You may need some settings in your FTP software to upload the files properly adapt. example. If you have a firewall on your computer (or a hardware firewall) you may need to set the transfer method to passive. And if you have a proxy server, you must adjust settings as well.

Files can be transferred with FTP in ASCII or binary mode. If the wrong mode to transfer, you can end up with errors. Your FTP software can automatically determine which method to use by looking at the contents of the files you transfer. It is possible that you might have to activate manually, however.

Files to be sent as ASCII, such as HTML (and variations like HTM, SHTML, etc.), TXT, ASP, JS, PHP, etc. Essentially, any file you want to open with a text editor should be transferred to ASCII.

Binary mode is used to transfer files such as images, binaries, and media files.

With your FTP software, connect to your webserver. Open the folder where you are going to see the files and then upload the files on your computer that you send to find. You can select individual files or entire folders via FTP.

Most of the pages on your website can be called anything you want, but the home page or main page in a subdirectories must be named index.htm (of. Html. Php, etc.) The name “index” tells the Web server that this is the file to be displayed by default.

So if someone goes to www.mydomain.com, what they actually going to see is www.mydomain.com / index.html, the web server just displays the file automatically so they do not need the index to enter . html “portion.

If you have an index file in every directory on your site, people are able to browse the folder and see “behind the scenes” on your website. This may be a security problem in some cases, so it’s always a good idea to place an index page in every folder, even if it’s just a blank page.

What other ways can upload your web site?

FTP is the only way to upload your web pages. Many web pages have transfer programs installed. Probably the most common example is Microsoft Frontpage. If your web host supports FrontPage, you can upload your site from Frontpage itself and do not have to worry about how or where to get things to wear.FrontPage takes care of everything for you.

Unless otherwise stated openly, most web hosting packages youâ € ™ ll find in your search are called shared hosting providers. What this means is that the server or servers that host your website are simultaneously hosting numerous other websites also. This gives you a discount on web hosting services in exchange for tolerating certain technical constraints such as bandwidth, disk space, upload and download speeds, security and privacy, traffic, and probably the most notable restriction – total control.

If you want total control not only about managing your website, but also about the very hard-and software used to run it, you should not review the shared hosting providers, but dedicated hosting providers. If your company is large enough or growing fast enough that his own Internet connection and server requires, you may need a dedicated web host.

Whatâ € ™ s the downside comes with dedicated hosting providers? In a word: responsibility. In most areas of life, with total control comes total responsibility, and itâ € ™ s no different with hosting providers. With a dedicated server, the onus is on you to buy, install and maintain the actual equipment – the server itself – mounted in the dedicated hosting providersâ € ™ data center.

Fortunately, you still get the benefit of their supposedly top-notch, round-the-clock security over the premises, but you remain fully responsible for the security of your cyber-premises. Also, dedicated hosting providers to ensure that the systems in the building all have uninterrupted and redundant backup power and environmental controls, but itâ € ™ s you need to maintain your equipment and cables and functioning in this idyll environment.

How to recognize whether itâ € ™ s at the time of a shared host to switch to a dedicated host? There are 3 main indicators to stay alert for:

Speed

If the traffic streaming through your shared server is slowing down your pace as they customersâ € ™ on your site (or your employees, if an in-house site), the time just to look more freely shared hosting. But if youâ € ™ ve tried different providers shared hosting with the same results, it may be time to remind yourself how impatient the average web surfer has to be. While youâ € ™ re jumping from shared host to shared host to try to save a buck, your customers are jumping ship. Your ability to quickly and efficiently customer transactions and inquiries can not be overstated.

Reliability

The limits of your control are nowhere more evident than in the field of reliability and safety. Itâ € ™ s not just that problems can arise: problems do. Itâ € ™ s the nature of the biz. And if you donâ € ™ t have unlimited access to your own operating system, software and database applications, etc., thereâ € ™ s not much you can do when one occurs.

Adaptability

If your business is growing rapidly, youâ € ™ re going to change many aspects of your web presence with them. You may often need to make your disk space and bandwidth, and experiment with using tweak different applications to better serve your changing needs. On a shared host, upgrading in such a way usually involves leaping from one œpackageâ â € €? œplanâ € or â €? to another.These packages are generally preset and may or may not serve your immediate needs. They can be riddled with programs that you donâ € ™ t yet, should such a defect in one particular program you do. Or the next jump up from your current plan has much more disk space and bandwidth than you need at the moment. With a dedicated server, you can make changes incrementally, step forward, one step back, heck, if you step aside – and whenever you want.

In large part, itâ € ™ s size and growth of your business that will determine whether you need a shared or dedicated hosting.Affordability and personal time commitment subsidiary observations are nice, but if your business is booming, you would do a great injustice to try and save a few bucks and a few extra hours per week of your time in exchange for slower and poorerquality of service for your customers.