Web Hosting Review Guide (continued)

Web Hosting Features and Scripting

Having discussed support and the calculation of resources for your web site, we are now going to investigate some of the features that your web hosting should offer. In addition, we will be looking at some of the script hosting capabilities that you should be expecting from your web host.

It might seem an odd thing to mention, but you should always consider the reliability of your web host. If their servers go down on a regular basis, not only is it really annoying, but it will cost you money, especially of your site is being used for commercial purposes.

Many hosts will give you an indication of 'up time'. Some actually mirror sites on different servers, so that if hardware failure take place for example, your site will continue to operate on the mirror. This is an expensive feature mind, and only worth considering if your web site earns your living for you.

Any host that does not make backups should be dismissed out of hand. Whilst it is always your responsibility to back up your own sites (it is not hard to do, ask your host to help you if you don't know what to do), you need to have the additional safeguard of an onsite backup as well.

Some hosts will tell you all about the technical specifications of the server on which your site is hosted. It is always comforting to know that a host does keep upgrading their hardware. The risk of failure, and in turn down time for you, is reduced considerable if the servers on which your site is hosted is maintained on a regular basis.

Another feature that you should look into is website security. Hackers abound, sadly, and you need protection from these criminals. A good web host will offer a very secure environment for your web site.

Another feature is that of MySQL databases. Not all sites will require a database, but very often you will want to be able to create and use one. Check that your web host does allow you to create MySQL databases; and more than one too. If they allow you up to 5 then I would say that would be plenty for most normal usage.

Web Hosting Features - Scripts

One important area of any host is its ability to run simple software scripts. There is only so much that you can do with static HTML pages, and if you want to develop your site to any extent, then you will need to have the capability of running scripts from within your site.

The two most common types of script are Perl (cgi) and PHP. Both should operate as standard on any decent host, although getting the scripts to run on your site may take a little tweaking.

In my experience, the best hosts will offer you help with getting scripts to run. It would be unfair and unrealistic to expect them to install scripts for you, but the hosts I use have always helped me when a script wouldn't run, and 99% of the time have been able to get them running for me. It is one way to identify good web hosting support from mediocre web hosting support in my opinion.

Scripting languages such as PHP for example, does get upgraded on a regular basis, and it is important that your site continues to be able to support the latest scripts. One area that is vitally important is security, and software such as that written in PHP do get updated to be more secure.

A good host will allow you cpanel access to your web site. This is the control panel from which you can control much of your site. You can also install many scripts automatically from the cpanel as well, which is a blessing, especially for those of us who are technically challenged (and there is no shame in that!).

If you want to run a blog from your site for example, then cpanel would allow you to automatically install Wordpress for example, perhaps the number 1 blogging platform; which is free!

We hope that we have given you a hand in deciding the best web hosting company for your needs. Please let us know how you are getting on, and how we can help you any further.

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