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Acquiring a dedicated hosting server is a great step toward getting the most out of your website. First of all, you increase the amount of traffic to your site, you can create a more impressive site than ever before, there is more disk space, and there is more bandwidth to work with. Second of all, the return on investment is considerably better than that of a shared server and credibility amongst browsers is enhanced.
The benefits of having a dedicated server are rather extensive in that the company can avoid many of the variables that interfere with the reliability of the server. Things such as overload, bad scripts, and bad codes are not really too much of an issue. The dependency on the web host is alleviated as is the lack of services and hardware that can be used to enhance the website.
In terms of hardware, it is important to choose suitable hardware that will enable the site to run efficiently. When choosing suitable hardware, consider these tips when doing so:
• Do research on what is a suitable processor to get the job done. How the processor is chosen is based on the amount of memory that is desired, what firewall options are required, and how big the hard drive needs to be. In other words, the choice of processor is going to be what controls the amount of space and protection that is provided to the website. Doing research on the internet to see which processor others are saying is best will ensure a good choice.
• Keep in mind that a Pentium 4 processor will perform better than a Celeron if hosting a number of powerful applications. The reason behind this is that the Pentium has a larger cache. However, Xeons may be the best bet because they actually perform better than the Pentium. Then again, choosing the AMD option may outperform Xeons by 30%, depending on the applications being powered. In other words, it is best to stay away from Celeron processors when choosing a processor.
• As for hard disks, keep in mind that hard disks do fail at some point. That is why it is good to have a second hard disk available for backup and even contact the hosting company regarding the costs associated with off-site backup. If your company decides to invest in a secondary backup system, try going with a SCSI because they have a lower failure rate. But it is inevitable that a hard disk will eventually fail. Again, do research on the internet to find the best hardware.
The processor and the hard disk are going to be the most important pieces of hardware acquired, aside from the actual computers. As for the actual computers, dedicated servers allow customers to choose their operating systems, so deciding which computer to purchase is not too difficult. The dedicated hosting services also allow the customer to choose their own hardware, so it is important to do all the necessary research to find the best fit for your particular business. Every site requires different amounts of memory and different speeds, so base the decision upon what is best and what it is you require.

Do you belong to the category of people that are just beginning to open a blog or website? If the answer is yes, whether you want to use your site for business or personal gains, you need to employ the services of a good hosting firm. Hence, you need to consult DreamHost; a very popular hosting firm in the whole wide world. You might have seen their adverts on television or the internet. However, if you have decided to signup with DreamHost, there are many hosting packages to choose from. The question is: which one should you go for?
Economy Plan: This plan is designed to suit users in the following ways.
1. It offers a staggering web space of ten gigabytes.
2. You can transfer up to three hundred gigabytes of data throughout a given month.
3. You can add up to hundred different customized emails for just a single account.
Since you are just beginning to tamper with blogs or websites, there is a high probability this plan would serve you. You can use up ten gigabytes of storage in a short period of time. There is only an exception and that is when you wish to upload pictures with large sizes in their thousands. Or perhaps you desire to also upload tons of videos on your site. A bandwidth of three hundred gigabytes won’t even serve you. At least, not until you site starts getting more than a hundred visitors per day. Therefore, if you are newbie in this, just opt for the economy package and nothing more.
Deluxe Plan: This is an opulent plan that provides customers with the features below:
- A storage space of a hundred and fifty gigabytes
- Users can transfer data online to the tune of a thousand five hundred gigabytes every month.
- You can add up to five hundred accounts of customized email addresses to your hosting account
This deluxe package would serve you if you already have an existing blog or website that you wish to move. If you have a store online or you are a painter; you need to upload loads of pictures that are high-sized. In this case, going for this opulent plan is vital.
Unlimited Plan: This unlimited hosting plan offers these features below
- You have a web space that cannot be exhausted, not in this lifetime
- You can transfer any amount of data online
- You can create a thousand emails for your sites.
The unlimited packages are good enough if you want a no holds barred affair for your site. There are no restrictions on what you transfer or how much space they consume. If your blog or website requires such an inexhaustible plan; you would readily go for it.
Another good thing with DreamHost is that you can always upgrade your present hosting package whenever you feel like doing so. This means that you are forcefully stuck to a particular plan for life.

9 out of 10 startup on the cyberspace enterprises failed outside 5 years. They did not control to earnings quickly sufficient or remain operational because they did not comprehend the proper web hosting or ecommerce software for their company. After years of research and interviewing prosperous businesses, we originate the steps you can pursue to search the perfect hosting prepare that might provide for the needs of your ecommerce company. To avoid company failure and perdition of your investment, it is smart to avoid the principal pitfalls that come by lack of entrepreneurial and marketing intuition beside adherents these steps. To have a perfect hosting package for your website, you might want to learn the particular needs of your on the cyberspace company. This is the original step in the process of choosing the perfect ecommerce hosting package for your company. If not armed by this knowledge, you might definitely prepare an uninformed choice and end up by a solution that might either fail your company or verify too expensive to control. If your internet site needs server supported scripts which may not be provided by your ecommerce hosting plan, it might boundary the functionality of your internet site hence your ecommerce company. You so don’t want to remuneration expensive web designers or order expensive ecommerce hosting package if you don’t have fundamental intuition nearly your internet site to commence by. Second, you want to match the ecommerce solutions accessible in the marketplace. There is a broad catalogue to prefer out of. Some package provide basically the similar services yet could charge differently and in this case the difference could be really enormous. So, you want to check out the diversified packages in the marketplace. The internet site www.ecommercesolutionprovider.org provides acquaintance on diversified ecommerce hosting packages accessible on the world wide web. The websites recommends some inexpensive high attribute ecommerce hosting plans. These might come in handy if you are naive in web design and customizing your internet site for ecommerce might verify to be an uphill task. Cheap hosting plans save you a numerous amount more assets than using web designing services to customize your internet site. You might likewise want to analyze whole the tools and services provided below each hosting prepare. Not whole ecommerce hosting plans provide whole the services that may be particulate to your company. You might want to match particular ecommerce hosting plans to the needs of your company. If a particular hosting prepare does not perfectly suit into your company needs, it is right to discard that prepare and adopt one that meets your company needs. For instance, whole ecommerce websites might need a database for records; you could search that a hosting prepare could fail to supply for this creating it inappropriate for ecommerce company. It is so significant to check out the services and terms of apply that surround a particular ecommerce hosting prepare. Failure to do this could verify detrimental to your on the cyberspace company. In conclusion, it is necessary to study whole the accessible hosting plans to search out the one that might be right for your company. The benefits of a useful ecommerce hosting plan: it might save you assets and precious time in the lengthy proceed.

What is dedicated server hosting? Simply put, dedicated server hosting simply means taking an entire web server on rent from your hosting service provider. This is different from shared server hosting, where a number of clients are hooked to the same server and share the resources of the server jointly.

 

What are the advantages of dedicated server hosting?

 

If your e-business is showing any signs of expansion, then you should probably consider renting a dedicated server. When you rent an entire server, you have the freedom to customize the server as you wish. So, customized options are within reach. In case your website attracts huge traffic, then you will need the additional resources provided by a dedicated server. Besides, the extra money you pay ensures that you receive powerful, high-capacity servers with 24/7 on-line technical support, which is vital if you want to avoid downtime. Upgrades, when you need it, are faster and cheaper and can occur in less than 24 hours.

 

How to select the right dedicated server hosting?

 

The main reasons for you to buy dedicated server hosting are high traffic and business volumes. If you have a website that is large enough to justify the cost of a dedicated server, then the ideal host should give you access to excellent front end and back end tools. Most dedicated servers provide you with standard features like Cpanel and systems for maintaining the software you have installed on your server. Here are some points for you to consider.

 

Windows or Linux: Linux, if you are technically savvy and want a cheaper hosting plan. Linux servers are versatile. Windows servers are more expensive since they require bigger machines to run on and incur licensing fee. However, Windows servers are very customer friendly. Check out your comfort level and make your selection.Managed or unmanaged: Unmanaged dedicated server hosting plans come with hardware, OS and web server – and that’s all! Simply put, you only get the storage space, security and bandwidth from your host. You will have to deal with any technical issues that crop up on the way. This is enough if you are adept at handling your server yourself. But, if you are more of a businessperson than a computer geek, you may be better off with a managed hosting plan which will provide you with all the tools you need to get your server up and running properly, without any hassles.Speed: On the information highway, speed is everything. Choose a service provider who gives you top-grade bandwidth. Downtime should be nonexistent. So, look for a service provider who has the ability to re-route traffic to your website, in case your connection goes down. References: Before you drop your money into the box, ask for references from existing clients. You do not want a service provider whose quality of service is below your expectations. Find out if the provider has the know-how and the technical backup to follow through with their promises. High performance, easy management, quick maintenance and good search engine rankings are necessary for the success of your business. Look for a provider who can give you all these and more.

One of the first obstacles everyone starting up online faces is that of choosing the right hosting and domain name deals for their sites. This is an issue that is consistently present throughout one’s online presence. With a large number of hosting companies competing for your attention, how can you make sure that the deal you choose is indeed the best one for you?

The following are a few attributes that you need to look at before choosing any hosting package:

1. Cheapest is not best – One of the biggest mistakes you can make is choosing a plan based on what is the cheapest web hosting package out there. Instead, learn to compare the relative value of each hosting package with its competitors. The best thing to do is to choose a yardstick or a comparative standard against which you can compare all the hosting packages you see. So once you are fairly certain that hosting company A is a good option, then look a little more and see if you can find a cheaper deal. Then compare the features that both of the companies provide and choose the better one. Weigh the relative price and the relative features to see which one is better.

2. More is not better – Many hosting companies intentionally or unintentionally mislead people by showing them the extremely high bandwidth and disk storage space. You will almost never reach even 10% of the bandwidth limit on any of these packages, so don’t even use that as a yardstick for measurement. And if you do plan on receiving that high traffic, you should be using a dedicated server anyway.

3. Popular is not better – A more popular company is not necessarily the better provider. A classic case is that of iPower. It was once a very popular hosting company with many satisfied customers. As the company and the name grew, the quality of the service went down the drain. When looking for the cheapest web hosting package, don’t take gross popularity into account, take the actual reputation into consideration.

4. How many domains? – This is an important question any more. Very few people use only one domain throughout their online existence. Most use two or more, and many use more than 5 or 10. It is important to see what your hosting provider’s policy on more domains is. There are still many hosting companies that will only host a single domain with each hosting account. Relatively few will allow you to host many domains and even less will allow unlimited domain names to be hosted on their account. If you plan on increasing your scope of online activity, consider these packages. Usually the cost is barely higher.

5. How many sites? – Among the hosting companies that allow you to host multiple domains, see how many of them allow you to host unlimited SITES. Some hosting companies give the illusion that they allow unlimited domain hosting. On further investigation, you may find that all this means is that you can store your domain on their server, nothing more. For all practical purposes, that’s useless. What you need to look for is how many sites are allowed on a given account. There are very few web hosts that are still cheap that give these options, but they are definitely there!

6. The Customer Service – Before signing on with any given company, contact the customer service with questions, even if you already have the answer to them. This will give you a first-hand view on how efficient, courteous and useful the customer support is. Use at least 2 mediums. Usually, you can contact support by phone, e-mail, or live chat. Definitely use the phone, and choose from the other two.

As is clear, there are many things that need to be considered before making the decision about signing on with a specific web host. All of these issues and attributes need to be fulfilled to your satisfaction before purchasing from a single place.

With thousands of web hosting providers all around competing for one’s business, it may be confusing to find the one that’s right for one’s web site. The following are some key considerations that can help one to narrow down his/her choices to the most affordable and best options to meet one’s personal, professional or business web page needs.

What is the kind of web site that one is planning?

One’s personal web page has far different needs than one professional web page and that needs a different style of hosting than an eCommerce storefront. There are several web hosting companies offering plans sized to fit any size of style of web site. Thus selecting an appropriate plan depends upon the purpose for which one is developing his/her site.

Personal Web Page Hosting

Just like hosts there are dozens of free servers that will host your personal web pages for free, and many of them even offer most of the perks that one gets with a paid web hosting account. If one wants a personal web page without the ads, though, he/she can get a web page hosting for as little as $4.95 per month with no advertising, and with support for things like PHP and mySQL. There are many affordable web hosting packages that even register a domain name for free.

Professional Web Page Hosting

If one is setting up a web site for a professional firm, he/she will definitely want to opt for a web page hosting provider offering excellent support, free or cheap domain name registration and a good web site builder with professional looking templates to make creating one’s web site easy. If one is planning to take orders or any sort of customer information via his/her web site, then he/she will also want a web hosting provider that offers one secure server access (SSL).Thus depending on the features one opts for ,one can pay $4.95-$29.95 per month.

Business/eCommerce Web Page Hosting

If one’s business web site is more than informational web pages about his/her business, his/her web hosting package should include eCommerce software like a shopping cart, a checkout, a payment system and SSL access. Thus one needs more space and bandwidth allowance than a typical personal site. One can find many affordable eCommerce web hosting packages starting at around $14.95 per month.

Enterprise Level Web Page Hosting

Does one need space for one’s business to collaborate on projects, store information for easy retrieval and to track orders, deliveries and work hours? One requires a web hosting company that specializes in providing enterprise level web hosting solutions to large businesses. The best web hosting account should include the highest level security access to keep one’s important information secure, 24/7 customer support and tools to make access easy for all his/her employees. An affordable enterprise level packages start at around $99 per month and range upwards from there depending on the amount of customization and use that one’s web pages will obtain from it.

After completing the tough part i.e. creating the web site, the next further step to be followed is to host it, so that public can find ones site. The bad web host company traps the customers who are new to this web world and are web host seekers. There are many factors to be considered while selecting a web host, but the factor placed at the top is none other than price. All the users want cheap web hosting but if the web hosting is chosen on the basis of only price then it will not satisfy other requirements.

One should be very careful while choosing the web hosting company.

If one is having the budget he can fix to it, if one is not having much idea about web hosting he/she may wonder “how do they make money” its better to be away, the chances are in order to save cost, the web site will be hosted with less bandwidth resulting in a very slow accessible and unprofessional web site. Also in this case, the customer support will be absent or very less.

One should be very clear about his/her requirements from the web hosting company, if the customer do not choose the company as per his/her requirements then its not the fault of host but only he/she will be solely responsible for that .Its good to make a list of requirements such as particular files needed and thereafter he/she can send his/her requirements to multiple hosting companies and can wait for the company come back with the greater service.

If any user is having more than one web site to host, as in case of affiliate marketers, its not good to put all sites with single host in the very beginning rather one should be 100% confident with the service and start with one web site as a test. The user should also keep in mind that if he/she wants to host all of his/her websites with one host company only, all it takes is, one problem to bring all his sites down and could result in lose of revenue. It is good to host some of the websites by another company so they can work even in case of problems.

Some web host companies offer testimonials on their own web site from valued customers recommending them. Seeing is not believing, one should call these customers and get a face value recommendation for him/her self.

What to do with the problems?

Now the problems can arise either due to the customer’s fault or by the web host company. There is no certainty of the technological Problem to occur, as it can occur any time but it’s all depending upon the host company how to handle such problem in order to keep the customer. If the user finds his/her web site dropping off line or slow downloading at a regular basis, then he/she should move to another web host company. If the problems pertain and the company is not paying attention to it means they are showing arrogant behavior towards their customers. Support is vital from a web host company and it should be 24 hour if it’s a large organization.

Virus Problems and Hackers

It is the responsibility of the company to ensure that the files of the customers are protected from virus and hackers at all times. There are number of companies having their web sites hacked and that happens only due to the reason that their web host company had not got the latest patches and security software applied. The new comers to web hosting should always ask how often updates and what software is used to protect web sites.

Tips:

One can have a good earning by his/her web site or can be this only source of income for him/her. Therefore one should always do his/her own backups of the web site. If due to any reason the web host company experiences problem and has no backups available, then the whole business could go stop. Backups are very crucial and have to be done as regular as possible in order to avoid problems afterwards. Some companies have testimonials on their web site from customers, one should not be afraid to call these guys for an up to date reference.

One should be very careful while dealing with host companies and should check recommendations and references very carefully. Always one should ask for the full contact details of the web hosting company, as there are many people who simply go online and have an email address only as the contact. Now if their email goes down and one needs to contact them one should have their full details at hand. One should always shop around for the different web hosting plans and should compare all the features available. On comparison it’s sure to get large differences, therefore it’s very important to check each and every thing before final sign up.

These days, anybody can afford to order a feature-packed web hosting plan for next to nothing; however, cheap price cannot said to be the decisive factor which one should have to considered while purchasing web hosting services. This article provides a lesson of not considering the best price and features as the only passport of getting a good web hosting company but also emphasizing on reliability and honesty. If one is investing his/her money and effort into finding paying customers and he/she wouldn’t like to lose them in the condition just in order to save a few dollars per month on a web hosting service.

If a user is searching for a web hosting company, it is not a matter of concern that it is just for the inception of a web or the move of an established site; the user has to widen his/her thinking area before coming to a judgment that along which company he or she has to go with:

Customer support

Website hosting service is not restricted just to storage or bandwidth. Lacking customer support, a top-notch service is also nothing. If one is owning a business website, it is both duty and requirement of his/her hosting provider to be available for the service- 24/7, as any time any sort of technical fault may arise; neglecting it the hosting provider may suffer from serious shortage of customers and money.

Downtime assurance and service monitoring

It is a minor inconvenience to go down when it is a case of personal website; but it is serious when it comes to business website. Can anyone guess how much amount of profit would he/she lose if his/her site had been down for a week? As it is a trend of spending a large amount on advertising the website a long downtime can be lethal for today’s companies.

Basically, there are two rules upon which one can relay:

1. One should check if there is an uptime guarantee offered or not. An ideal service-oriented provider will not only give a money-back guarantee, but also offer a discount or free service as compensation for downtime. A company which avoids taking such liability will not provide an ideal service.

2. One should not go with a company claiming 100% uptime, as there is no such thing as a server with 100% uptime. If anyone ever announces that their server has a 100% uptime; one can easily conclude that they are either lying or they don’t perform the necessary upgrades that avoid a machine from being compromised.

Reputable web hosts will post statistics on their site, the remedial solution for the questions like for e.g., what is the frequency of interruption. How about the average percentage of downtime? If these aren’t posted, ask; if the answer isn’t forthcoming, that is not going to be a good sign. If one still likes to go with a host which doesn’t monitor servers, one has to do it by his/her own.

Backups

IS there any host who is safe against different types of technical and programical failures, the answer is NO! So, one should make sure that the company runs scheduled backups. The other probable advice would be that one must always have a backup of his/her website himself/herself, as one cannot predict what exactly is going to happen next. CPanel, currently the most popular web hosting management software, has a very comfortable backup-making tool. Which allows the user to backup files and databases quickly and easily, so backups are not a long head ace.

Acceptable use policy

Web hosts may have 200-300 or more clients per server; one cannot predict the exact number, as companies possess different hardware; while, each hosted website has different resource usage. One cannot ignore the probability of that a few of those customers host illegal content. There are several web hosts who have had their servers unplugged, resulting in their clients’ websites going down. Definitely ,one would never like to put his/her business at risk and locate the website hosted on the same server along with illegal pornography and software sites, so to avoid such types of problems one must check host’s acceptable use policy to find out, whether the host takes care of what’s hosted on their servers or not.

Hosting one’s site on an uncared-for server will also result in a low speed. If somebody on the same server sends spam, the server’s IP address will be blacklisted and he/she will have serious problems as recipients would stop his/her receiving emails. Spam is being sent almost everywhere, so having one or two red records isn’t that bad; but, if there are more, it may become a problem later on.

Infinite bandwidth and web space

If one talks about the adage “you get what you pay for” it ideally suit for the Web hosting industry. One should not fall in the craters created by the hosts like for e.g., unlimited allowances, as there is neither unlimited bandwidth, nor unlimited web space. Host’s pay for each GB of bandwidth themselves. One can think that hard drives are free but they aren’t. They are just a mirage to attract customers. The average website doesn’t use more than 1GB of bandwidth per month; the customer is satisfied as he/she bought something “unlimited” and through this host automatically receives a new customer, on whom they don’t need to spend more than $1-2 USD per month. But for imagination what would happen if one person had a website, burning much more bandwidth than an average site does, and he signed up with a hosting company offering unlimited traffic? The host would simply suspend his account and tell him, that it was via too much bandwidth. There even several companies there which offer unlimited bandwidth for the user and have a statement on their requisites of service, explaining that unlimited bandwidth means 40GB which they actually mean, for example.

Will someone really own his/her domain name?

If a user buy a domain name together with a website hosting package, he/she must make sure that the host is registered the domain name under his/her name or not. The name usually should be written in their FAQ, but, if there is no such information is provided, the user simply needs to take a step and contact them. This will also give the user a chance to detect whether their customer support team is fast enough or not. If the hosting company registers domains under someone else’s name, the user may have to face the challenges switching hosting providers later. If the user is in such situation, he/she have to file for a Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which costs much beyond both domain name and web hosting service together.

Control Panel

A necessary tool for easiness and for regular maintenance, including, email mailbox additions/deletions, password resets, web additions, web count reports, statistics etc. This tool is unavoidable if the site is meant for any sort of business. That is why it is currently the most demanding web hosting management software. It is behind the screen role of a next-generation web hosting control panel system that allows a user to manage his/her domain through a web interface. The key idea is to transfer as much of the control of managing users web site to him/her; So one can say that, user have the ability to manage all the dimensions of e-mail, files, backup, FTP, CGI scripts, web site statistics, etc.

Value-added services

In the regular interval of time, hosting companies offer diverse sort of value-added services in order to give themselves an outstanding look. Of course, these are an advantage, but customers forget that many of the services cannot be applied in any of the field. But still some of the valuable features are mentioned below:

1. Auto-installer script –

Play a role saving the user’s time if he/she is going to install a forum, image gallery, content management system, etc. Installation procedures on an auto-installer script can be done in seconds and can be easily performed by novices by avoiding difficult tasks generally related with installations.

2. Online website builder –

Mainly dedicated with showing the way by moving on which the user can design a website in a few minutes without having any creation software and knowledge. One very powerful website builder established in the market is Site Studio; this quality based editor allows for ease of use, full control of color schemes and themes, one-click publishing, and a collection of templates to brought into use.

The last tip

The purpose of this article is to feel the users that price and allocations cannot be given reference over importance of quality of service; if the user possess limited budget, then the price can be a valid criterion, but if not, it should not be given much importance.

By going through this article and asking questions, one can narrow down the list of web hosts to the extent where the user by his/her own can make the judgment between what is right and what is wrong

Your website is your company’s calling card on the internet so you need to have one you’re proud of and does the job it’s meant to, and offer pleasant viewing for your browsers which can only be achieved with quality web development. That means getting a professional web development company to develop your site and create web based solutions for your business. But before approaching a web design company, you should clarify your requirements. Here’s how you do it.

Firstly, you must establish your goals. What’s the purpose of your web site? Are you selling products, displaying your portfolio, announcing your services? What do you want your visitors to do? Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes. What do they expect to find at your website?

Next you have to set your budget. Having these figures in hand at the beginning can help in your negotiation with the web design companies. But don’t reveal your budget. Always get quotes based on your needs first. The first thing you would probably do if you live in Liverpool is, go to Google and search for web design companies in Liverpool. Take the advantage of the global reach of the internet and search for web design agencies in UK. Also take into considerations if you have any technical staff you employ, would you need to do the maintenance of the sites yourself? If you do not have the staff, then web based solutions could be the right option for your web development, which are offered by many web design agencies in the UK, how would you find these companies? Just do a quick search in Google for web design agencies UK and it should bring up a long list of web design agencies in the UK. But then it is down to you to single out the right company for your web development needs. However, you could do a more specific search for certain areas like web design companies Manchester , which would be more local so you can go to see your web development company when you may need to. Web design companies in London would tend to be more expensive compared to the rest of the country

Establishing your goals in this way allows you to clearly explain your requirements to the web design agency that you choose. In fact, these are the same types of questions that web development companies ask at the start of any project. Having the answers readily at hand means you have a better chance of getting the site that you want. Plus, the information you gather from these questions can help in choosing the right web development company.

Finally we come to the all-important step of choosing a web design company. Remember that building a website involves the separate skills of design and development. You need a company with expertise in both web design and web development. And if the firm has business skills, then better still, as you will find if you search for web design companies in Birmingham, they have a lot of al round skills in web development and offering web based solutions.

In fact the ideal web design and web development firm should also offer SEO consulting and marketing advice. Searching for web design companies Leeds would give you less choice of web development and SEO, however, if you searched for web design companies Manchester or web design companies London, you would find more companies with mixtures of different skill sets to make your web design and web development project successful, also the firm should be knowledgeable about the fast-changing world of ecommerce and be able to offer solutions such as database integration, content management, and shopping carts, for example. A firm that has this all round knowledge will be able to come up with ideas and advice that lead to total development solutions. So how do you find your dream design firm?

The first thing to do is to make a shortlist of website design and web development companies and check their online portfolios. See if their designs look like they’d work for your concept. Is the layout clean and easy to navigate? Is the image of the company presented well and is the website’s purpose immediately clear? Be wary of designs that are heavy with flash animations, or feature graphics but little text. This suggests the design firm values form over function which is ineffective if you’re trying to sell something. Check if the company has offered web based solutions in the past, ask if you can speak to any of their client who have had web based solutions and web development done from them. Remember, you want to find one firm that can handle both the design and development aspects of website creation. Finally, you should ask for customer references. Then, get in touch with existing clients and ask about their experience with the web design company.

It’s not easy to find the right website design company for your needs. But if you follow the above guidelines, you’ll be able to find the right web design agencies UK for your business. You can find web design companies in all of the UK’s major cities such as Manchester, London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Leeds.

Before coming directly to characteristics of good and cheap web host first it’s better to have review of the fundamentals.

Defining Web Host.

A web host is a service provider that places websites of its customers on a server, which is connected to Internet.

For proving this facility a web hosting provider is generally having high-speed Internet connection as they have to host thousand of web sites on many servers depending upon requirement. Essentially the host providers rent out space where a user can get his website made available to whole world through www i.e. World Wide Web.

The best part of web hosting facility is that now its easy to manage the website even for a layman as all the technical aspects like maintenance of complicated server technology, technical maintenance etc us now the work of these providers. Now one can easily focus on his own Internet business for rest there is host provider.

Now coming to the point following are the features offered.

Features

The followings are the features available in most web hosting plans:

? Control Panel

A control panel is an interface by which access of website on web server is made possible, it helps in setting up and constantly updating as well as customizing the website. Some host providers customize their own control panel so as to enable them to upgrade and expand it when and where required.

? Disk space

Most of the sites that have less data or graphics or video clips or big downloadable files can use 50MB of disk space easily. This helps in further growth for reseller as he can use that space of host providers for other purpose.

? Bandwidth

It is the amount of data sends or received through a unit of time. When a visitor downloads files from website on his own computer then that time it is the bandwidth which is making that possible.

? Email Account

With the use of POP3 email accounts one can check email from Outlook, Netscape Mail, Eudora or any other Email software.

? Scripting language

As now the latest technology is based on Unix and Linux platform only host that support latest versions languages like php, perl and CGI must be selected as that can only provide the optimum utilization of money one is paying.

? Database

For displaying big amount of data like user accounts, stock prices, maps, Interactive news, message boards and forum etc that should be accessible also there is a need for an account that offers a database. For this MySQL, most popular and powerful built on Linux operating system is used. Besides language, many other features are also there like ability to handle millions of entries all at once, flexibility and speed allowing storage of logs and big pictures, ability to scale well under heavy traffic conditions that all together makes MySQL ideal for database-intensive or e-commerce-enabled Web sites.

Customer Support

Customer support is also an important criterion while selecting a good web host service and it is equally important both for an expert as well as a layman.

Following are the essentials for a good support system:

? size of the database.

Size of the database is an important feature as it helps in providing quick search for any answer and thus helps in getting solution of any problem without even bothering customer support staff. If the database is large its easy to search for information from it. Some web host providers even provide video tutorial guide, which helps in step-by-step setting up of account even for a layman.

? efficient customer staff

In order to get fast and good response quick customer support is a must. The following are few forms of customer support:

a. Email support

b. Phone support: Generally for sales and technique aspect it is used. A well-equipped and knowledgeable staff knows and problems and provide with immediate and relevant remedy without wastage of time.

Clove Chat support: Some web host companies like Lunar pages and Globat even have live chat support for their customers, but irrespective of how many support channels a company is offering its more important that the available staff is responsive to the need.

Price calculation on basis of ratio of Disk space to Bandwidth ratio What is the amount that one must pay depends upon the disk space and bandwidth that is available with the host plan. Thus price must be ascertained keeping in mind the above two factors.

Popularity

Besides all of the above features it’s all in vain if web host is not offering an effective marketing plan. It is so because if a web host provider is not having good customers or members as well as steady growth of them, then it’s not possible for them to survive in this competitive world.

The popularity of a particular web-hosting provider can be judged by the number of awards won as well as the reviews of other websites and also from the ranking in Alexa traffic.

All the hosting providers listed on our Top 10 Cheap Web Hosting Directory are among the top 40,000 most visited websites in the world.

Trustworthiness, Speed and Uptime Guarantee

For any company if its website is not available or accessible, then it tends to not only loosing of customer but also it hampers credibility therefore its important to check if web host provider is guaranteeing at least 99% uptime. However to ensure maximum uptime, installation of redundant back-up systems is quite important “Redundant means having an alternative Internet connection on the verge of interruption of main Internet connection. It tends to minimize downtime and is a part of host provider’s management system For a matter of speed, how fast a site is depends upon the types of network connections. Other matters like routing, web server set up and local area networks also play an important part but still they are after the factor of Internet connection.

Many hosting providers still connect to the Internet through T1, or T3 connections. However the best one would be one using OC (Optical Carrier) lines.

A T1 line offers data transfer rate of 1.5 Mbps (megabits per second), while a T3 line supplies data transfer rates of 43Mbps. OC-1 refers to a circuit that transmits 51.85Mbps. Higher levels are multiples of that speed. Ultra-High Speed OC3 and OC12 lines offer 155Mbps and 622Mbps respectively. Some hosting providers have connections to major Internet backbones at the speed of OC48 (2488Mbps) and OC96 (4976Mbps).