Find Out Where To Get Reliable And Inexpensive Web Hosting

Choosing a web host can be very tedious. There are so many to choose from and so many features available. The good thing is that web hosting services have dramatically lowered their prices.

Before you select a web host, some of the features you’ll want to consider are:

• The server type
• The space available
• The bandwidth available (how much data you can transfer each month)
• The amount of email accounts available
• The programming languages available (cgi,php,asp,etc.)
• Database availability (MySQL)
• and most important, the downtime.

This is just a small list of the major things you should look at.

For server types, there’s two major types: Unix based and Windows based

For server space, you’ll have to decide what type of content you’ll be providing. If you plan on using a high level of bandwidth for video and audio, you might be better going to a 3rd party company. If you’re website is just text and average sized images, most budget webhosts start off at over 5000 MB’s of space.

As for bandwidth, for most sites, 1 GB/mo is plenty. However, if you find a host that provides more than that, the more the better.

Another thing to consider is email. Some web hosts provide 1 or 2 email accounts, while some provide unlimited accounts. If you plan on providing emails to your staff or family members, think first about how many email accounts you’ll need.

If you plan on utilizing a shopping cart system, a high traffic forum, or content management sytem, you’ll also want a MySQL database. To run all of this software, you’ll have to make sure your server supports the language their written in. Most server packages support PHP and CGI. If you’re planning to utilizes these, you’ll want to go with a UNIX based server to avoid any incompatibilities.

Finally, you’ll want to look at downtime. If you have a server that’s guaranteed to be up 99.7% or more of the time, that’s a server you would want to consider. The higher the better.

There’s a lot of other factors to consider, but if you follow all of the factors I’ve mentioned, you’ll most likely end up with a good host.

For this site, I’m using Dreamhost. It’s a premium host that provides 3000 email accounts, you can also host an unlimited amount of MySQL databases, domains and subdomains, you get 1 TB of transfer (that increases), and 20 GB’s of server space that increases over time as well. They also have their own one-click installer that automatically installs programs like WordPress, PHPBB, and OSCommerce. It’s a premium web hosts that’s highly affordable.

So if you want to be able to build tons of sites without worrying about running out of bandwidth and have total control, have your sites hosted on Dreamhost.

If you’re just starting out or you just want affordable and reliable hosting, go to 1and1.com.