All About Web Hosting

There are so many web hosting companies out there, how are you meant to decide which one will suit you best?

Don't worry; just have a look at these pointers to ensure that you make the right decision.

Budget - You need to make sure that the hosting plan you choose fits in with your budget. There are hosting plans for only a few dollars and many offer a cheaper first month. If you have a large business website you may need to spend more than a small family website, which could possibly be hosted for free, if you are willing to the hosting company post ads on your site.

Uptime - What is the point of having a website if it isn't up and functioning for people to see? Make sure the hosting company you choose guarantees 99% uptime. You should also check reviews online to ensure that customers are actually experiencing good uptime. Don't just take the web hosting companies word for it.

Customer Service - I have read some terrible reviews of web hosting companies customer service. You need friendly and helpful service 24/7. This will ensure you can set up your site quickly and easily and iron out any problems. You should also ensure that the site provides virus and hacker protection.

Control Panel - You want the hosting process to be easy as pie. It can be if your hosting company provides an easy to use interface. This will mean that you can upload files easily and can manage your website easily.

Hostgator = 9.5/10

Hostgator is one of my favourite hosting companies for many reasons. One of which I have to say is that they recently went green. They purchase renewable energy credits up to 130% of their total power consumption. I realise that is not the best reason for choosing a host, so here is some more info to help you make your decision.

1. Customer Friendly and Excellent Support - Hostgator are well known for providing excellent support and that makes all the difference when you are sorting out your hosting package.

2. Uses Cpanel - This is one of the easiest ways to manage your website hosting. Cpanel is known to be very user friendly and is one of the most populat interfaced. Hostgator uses Cpanel, making is easy to manage your hosting.

3. They support PHP4 & 5, SSH, Cron jobs, Python, Ruby On Rails etc. Also, all the packages include enough POP3 accounts(20 for Hatchling and unlimited for others).

4. Dual Xeon servers - Reliable and fast

5. 99.9% guaranteed uptime.

6. Price - Hostgator is very fairly priced and gives you all the resources you need from a shared host.

Update: You can get started with Hostgator for just 0.01cent! All you need to do is type in 'wordpress" in the code box and you will get the discount.

You may find that you would like to change your web host. This could be for many reasons. You may find that your current host does not fulfill your bandwidth or disk space requirements, or perhaps you have experienced bad customer service, or maybe you have heard great things about another web hosting company and want to try them out. Some people prefer to stick with a hosting company that they are dissatisfied with due to the difficulties of switching host. The good news is that it does not have to be hard to switch web hosts and you should definitely consider it, if you are not happy with your current service.

Remember not to shut down your old account straight away. You will need to make sure your website stays up and running whilst you choose your new hosting company and set up your new account. Take time when choosing the best host for you. You need to ensure that the host you choose provides you with what the old one could not. You should also ensure that it is easy to upgrade should your hosting needs change in the future. It is a good idea to read reviews on various companies to get a good idea of what they offer.

Once you have paid for and set up your new web hosting account, you will need to download your old account files and upload them to your new host. This is an easy task, which you can do by simply using the FTP client of the host company. Just use your old host's FTP to transfer the files to your desktop and then use your new host's FTP to upload the files to your new provider. Make sure you keep your old hosting account active throughout this stage and stay open to communication by using the same active email address for both companies.

The next step is to ensure that your website is functioning and that all the links still work. You can then change your domain name servers. You can obtain your domain server from your new web host, once you are registered. You may also be able to contact your domain name registrar and they can transfer it for you.

The new domain name server will take around 24-48 hours to set up and be fully functional. In the meantime your old web host is responsible for the website. After your complete website and domain name server has been moved to the new host you can finally cancel your old hosting account and start enjoying your new one.