Here is a list of facts you might want to consider when selecting a host for your site
Cost
Does your family photo album really need an expensive all singing and dancing webhost
Web Space Available
The 5Mb your ISP gives you when starting out may not be enough.On the other hand do you really need 100Mb of space for your home page?
Able to Register & Host a named domain
(if relevant)
May not be such an issue for some. See seperate article for more
Bandwidth for access
expressed in Gb/months or Kb or Mb/sec.
Effectively the larger the figure the faster your site can be accessed and more people can easily look at it at the same time.If you exceed your monthly allowance your site may be suspended.
If your site traffic gets heavy you might need to increase this.
Guaranteed or estimate Server uptime (%)
indication of how frequently they breakdown
Ease & Security of access for changing site
Some hosts limit you to making only occasional changes. Others give you 24hr secure FTP access. Security can also vary greatly and some companyies chuck in free email virus scanning etc.
Support details
Range from freephone to premium rate no.
E-mail accounts or mail forwarding
If you've registered your domain you may well want the old trend site email addresess e.g. webmaster@yoursite.com
CGI support
Likely to be the first more advance technologies you use (guestbooks, forums counters etc.). Do they provide scripts, can you use your own ?
Support for Streaming media, WAP, Frontpage extensions, PHP, Cold Fusion and other technologies you might need
You might not need these to begin and many will offer upgrade service, but it should be an option you might want to think about for the future
Secure server facilities available
Usually extra cost. Allows you to turn your site into online shop
Who do they already host
Try out connecting to these site to see if any problems with speed of connection etc.
