Finding a Webhost

When you start your online business and want online presence, you need a good webhost. A webhost is the computer server that has your web files. Whenever a user tries to access your site user his/ her computer, the webhost “serves” your site. Because of this, your webhost needs to be up and accessible all the time. Of course, there is no such webhost. All computers need some downtime for the usual server maintenance. A good webhost would usually promise you a ninety-nine percent up-time.

Here’s what to look for in a webhost:

1. Uptime: Ideally, your webhost should be able to promise you ninety-nine percent up-time. You would want to be accessible to your site visitors as much as you can.

2. Disk space: Just how much disk space will the webhost give you for your site/ sites? Paid hosts offer space starting at ten megabytes. Assess how much space your site will need in the long run. Consider that you might need to add pages and heavy images in the future. Your database and email will also eat up disk space so you need to factor these in too.

3. Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the data transfer capacity that is allotted to your account. Whenever a user accesses say a 10 kilobyte page on your site, it uses up 10 kilobytes of your bandwidth. Bandwidth allotment is per month and often starts at 100 megabytes.

4. Operating System: Linux and Windows are the two popular server operating systems. There is an increasing preference for Linux servers because of its proven security standards. Windows servers have a more familiar user interface though.

5. Web Administration Control Panel: As site owner, you will need to manage your web account though a server control panel. Some control panels are very user friendly and have a lot of features and options. Others are bare bones and hardly let you do anything except the basics..