What do I look for in a
hosting company?
This is the most important question. The reason being
is that most people don't need half of what they are comparing
with different hosting companies. The most common things
to look for when you are hosting a small business or personal
site are:
- Email accounts (try to get at least as many as you
have employees)
- Setup in no less than 2 hours (most companies offer
this now)
- Sufficient Disk storage space (most sites only need
up to 50 MB, so don't be enticed by over that amount,
you won't need it!)
- Sufficient Data Transfer (okay this is the most misunderstood,
most sites only need about 1 GB. Yes that's right!)
- Uptime Guarantee (This is important. If they aren't
offering it, they can't guarantee it which is a bad
sign. A 98% Uptime Guarantee or above is average.)
- Money Back Guarantee (Don't go with a company that
doesn't offer this!)
- 24/7 Live Support (You will have to pay more for this,
but it comes in real handy if you site is down! Live
chat usually works just as good as phone support.)
- A NICE site creator tool if you don't want to buy
design software or hire a designer.
- E-commerce software IF you are going to setup shop
online
- FrontPage extensions IF you are going to use FrontPage
- The rest is really just gravy!
Can I switch hosting companies
if I don't like their services?
YES. Many people don't realize how easy it is to switch
hosting companies. All you have to do is re-publish your
site (in FrontPage just click 'Publish Web') to the new
address for the new hosting company. Most hosting companies
will give you your new ip address where you can publish
your site in as little as 10-20 minutes! Then just publish
your site, and don't forget to update your name servers.
This just means go to the company where you purchased
your domain name, and put in the name servers that the
new hosting company gave you. Your domain name will point
to your new hosting account in about 24-48 hours. Also,
you will need to create your new email addresses at the
new hosting company. That's it! So, don't feel like you
are stuck with a bad hosting company. You're not.
Do I have to buy my domain
name with my hosting account?
No. You can buy your domain name anytime. So, don't loose
the domain name you want just because you are researching
hosting companies. Buy that now. But, don't pay more than
$20/year since that is the average price these days.
