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In my previous article, I have already made you familiar with some features which normally a web hosting company would deal with. I am now going to mention some few more features so that you get a better understanding about the entire web hosting package which you have purchased from a web hosting company. The features are as follows:

1) Customer service or customer support:

Whether you are an expert or a newbie in web hosting, it is essential to have a web host which provides good customer support system. Some of them would prefer to search quick answer without seeking staff. So, if there is huge database, normally it’s searchable. Some web hosting providers come up with a video tutorial facility in order to guide the person step by step in setting up a new account. Good for beginners. If a person is not interested to find the answer of a big pool of database, in that case, he can get the direct answer from someone who knows it. Direct customer support can come in the form of email support, phone support and web chat support.

2) Reliability and uptime commitment:

You must choose a web hosting provider which is reliable from the uptime point of view. Imagine a situation where your visitors come in contact with your website and suddenly notice that it’s not accessible. In such a case you will definitely lose credibility and you could even lose a sale. If your web hosting provider cannot provide 99% uptime then it time to quit and move on to some who is genuinely reliable. A good web hosting provider will know how to minimize downtime with the help of a good management systems implementation. It is very essential from a web hosting provider to install a redundant back-up system. I mean that if there is any interruption of internet connection, at that time, the alternate internet connection will be in force. There are also sophisticated software being used in order to monitor the uptime of the concerned web host.

3) Using efficient network facility:

The web server setup and local area networks play an important role in dealing with the speed of data transfer. However, how fast your website gets displayed also depends on the type of network connections. There are so many web hosting providers who still use internet connection through T1 or T3 connections. The top Web hosting companies use optical carrier lines. Usually a T1 line will offer data transfer rate of 1.5 mbps while a T3 type of connection can offer data transfer at a rate of 43 mbps. It all depends on the capabilities of a web hosting provider which is in the form of features that are incorporated within the hosting package.

4) Popularity to survive as a host:

A web hosting company must be popular in the eyes of the customer. A web hosting company might have the best feature offered and unbeatable customer support and also reliability intact but without a good marketing plan, the company may not survive. These days, there is a lot of competition In the market and a web hosting provider should have sufficient members and also a steady growth of new members in order to survive in this highly competitive industry.

Talking about various features in a web hosting package – ( Part 1)

A web host is a service provider who basically puts your web site on a computer which is connected to the internet. In this case, the computer that we are talking about is called as a server. A web hosting provider normally has a fast connection to the internet and they have the ability to host thousands of websites on many servers. The web host rents out space to you so that you can have your website seen on the World Wide Web. Once you give the responsibility of hosting your website to an internet service provider, you then need not to worry about the complicated server technology and also about the proper technical maintenance. All this issues are handled by the hosting company. Hence, you can free yourself from website maintenance work. There are many features that come along with the web hosting package provided by the web hosting provider. They are as follows:

1) Control Panel:

cPanel is the most popular control panel. The control panel is basically an interface for accessing your website on the web server. It allows you to update and customize your website.

2) Disk space:

Your disk space requirement depends upon your website. If your website does not have too many graphics, sound and video clips or downloadable files then in that case you predict your website space requirement to be approximately 50MB. However, you can always have some extra disk space left for incase you need to upgrade your website.

3) Bandwidth:

Here, bandwidth is referred to the amount of data that is transmitted and received through the internet. The bandwidth gets consumed when the visitor makes a request for certain files available on the website and then downloads the same on to his or her computer.

4) Email Account:

Email account facility is provided so that you can check your emails. You also have pop3 email account facility, where you can check emails using outlook etc.

5) Scripting language:

The top web hosting companies use unix and linux platform, php, perl and cgi. There are all different languages provided by the hosting company. Choose a hosting company that also provides latest version.

6) Database provision:Check whether your website needs a lot of data that must be dynamically accessible. Example: user accounts, maps, interactive news, forums etc. If your website requires a lot of database then you have to choose a host which deals with the same. MySQL is a popular database program and It’s operating system is linux.

One must understand that if you have opted for more disk space and bandwidth then you will have to pay more fees. So, one must choose a web hosting package based on the present requirement and also see that the company provides after sales service