Choosing a Web Host.
Free or paid hosting is the first choice that a person has to make if he/she wants a web site. Let us consider free hosting in a realistic manner and not be led astray by the many myths surrounding this.
The common thinking is that:
1 Free hosts only last a short period, often 1 year or less.
2 Free hosts never get listed in search engines.
3 Free hosts give very poor service.
In many cases, all of these are true, but there are some notable exceptions. For example, freeservers.com have some of the fastest and most reliable servers on the Internet and sites last forever - often to the user's embarrassment if the site was only used as a test. These sites can be listed by search engines if they meet the quality standards. Yahoo's Geocities is a good example of sites that get listed easily. If you have full FTP access and can make your own pages, including the meta tags, then there is no reason why search engines wont list you. Unfortunately, many free hosts only allow you to write the actual body content, the head section being out of your control.
The real downside is that you have a rather large advertisement bar across each page, or an annoying pop-up, and everyone is made well aware that you are using a free server. My objection is not the advertising being present, but the content of the adverts. Gambling ads go against my moral and religious beliefs. The sites that offer advertisement free pages are the untrustworthy ones. How do they make money? In all cases, you have the problem that you do not own the domain name, so moving to another host, if you are not satisfied, is not an option.
If you choose paid hosting, then you must choose between Windows or Unix based servers. If you want to use ASP or other Microsoft only programs, remember that you are limiting your target audience to those using Windows systems. Unix systems (Linux, BSD, Solaris, etc.) reach all users regardless of their operating systems, but without ASP, etc.
Paid hosting has become within the reach of everyone. Prices have dropped considerably in the last year or two. Now, if you are paying more than fifty dollars a year, you are probably being ripped off! It is quite possible to find a reliable host for less than twenty dollars per year, including domain name registration. Which one is reliable? That's a difficult question to answer. The expertise of the server administrator is the most important factor.
Most servers are physically located in huge 'farms' but are actually administered from an ordinary office or even the home of the person employed by the hosting company. Note here that I am saying person, that is one person! Companies that advertise 24/7/365 service from 'teams' of qualified personnel should not be believed. There simply isn't a big enough profit margin to employ large numbers of staff. If you can find a hosting company close to your home, and can visit their office to talk directly to the 'admin', you have probably found the best solution.
It used to be a case of "You get what you pay for" but that isn't necessarily the case anymore. Operating systems and server software have become so standardized that you should expect "all the trimmings" no matter how little you are paying. Prices should be based only on disk space and bandwidth. Anyone charging extra for FTP access, MySQL, sub-domains, domain parking and so on, is cheating you!
Bandwidth is the major part of the price. You need enough, but don't over estimate your needs because you will just waste money. Make sure that your site wont suddenly be cut off if your bandwidth is exceeded, and that your hosting package can be upgraded whenever more bandwidth or disk space is required. Hosts that offer less than 1Gb of bandwidth per month are just foolish - avoid them. Also, "unlimited bandwidth" should ring alarm bells.
Make sure that the software on the server is reasonably up to date. For example, you can check that perl is at least version 5.6 and preferably 5.8, avoiding any system that has a lower version. PHP should be version four point something or higher. These two items will give you a general idea of the server's age.
When you have finally decided on a potential candidate, ask which sites are already hosted on that server. Then check them yourself, emailing the owners to ask for their recommendations or otherwise. A web site is very much public, so hosting companies should never be reluctant to disclose their clients on the pretense of privacy.
Finally, a money back if not satisfied agreement is a must. Some problems should be expected in the first few days, but certainly within a week all should be going well. If not, get out quick! But be sure to keep hold of your domain name and get it transfered to another server without charge.
A few years ago, I found my "dream come true" free server that had no ads, a proper Cpanel interface, and was very fast and reliable. It was at hostrocket.com, and that free site is still going strong so I can highly recommend this host. Hostrocket still gives free hosting. Indeed, it is worth paying although they are a little expensive for hosting a single site but they have a great offer for hosting up to ten sites on one account. Furthermore, they have an afilliate system that can earn you good money for introducing new customers. So if you have a couple of friends that also buy this host package, you could get your own hosting for free afterall.
