The Importance Of Understanding The Support Offered By Your Web Hosting Provider Before Making Any D

By Author: Amy Armitage
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Web hosting providers offer a wide variety of support and plans that enable your web site to run smoothly and function normally. Of course, each one offers features that others may not and also provides different pricing for its services.

In order for a web host to give you the best possible service, it is a good idea to make sure that your site works well on the host server. It is ideal to work with your web designer first before choosing the host, since the designer knows which applications and operating systems work best with those of the host. The designer may - as part of his or her services - shop around wisely and choose the host for you. Of course, be sure that the service contract term lengths are short in case you are unhappy, and confirm that the price is reasonable for you and your business.

Take a look below at the kind of good support services that any web host should make available to you when you sign up with them.

A big one is memory storage space. Some websites are more sophisticated than others and require more space to stay active on. Some low-cost service plans may start with about a ...
... 100MB of storage, but it doesn't cost much anymore to get an account with unlimited storage. This is not an area where hosts are competing much anymore, given how cheap storage media has become.

A lot of hosts provide about a half dozen e-mail accounts initially. The host will enable you to utilize your browser to process all e-mail, besides allowing your e-mail application passage to it through the POP and IMAP protocols. Like with public e-mail accounts, hosts can offer such things as e-mail aliases, auto-responders and much more to keep the flow of e-mails going.

Every month, a host provider allows a certain amount of information to be transferred between users of your site and the server. Most offer at least several gigabytes (GB) of transfer information, or "bandwidth" - sort of like a fixed number of minutes used on a cell phone plan.

Then there's what is known as web statistics. These are tools that help you figure out what has transpired at and through your website, like numbers of visitors, which pages were looked at, which links clicked on, etc. The host will allow you to review your log files easily. The host can provide you a software service that actually helps you analyze all of these important statistics, too, when online.

Let's say that you run your business from your website - as do many people in this day and age - and you need to communicate regularly with a number of clients by sending mailers, etc. A good host should be able to provide you a list service so that you can manage newsletters or other crucial information and broadcast it to a large number of people in just a few steps, without it being treated like spam or being blocked.

An important support service that a host should provide is the maintenance of your database. In fact, you need to make sure that the database you use is supported by the host. Depending on the type of server, such as Windows, you may pay no fee, or a nominal one for, say, SQL.

Hosting and registration of your domain name is something to think about also. Some hosts charge as little as $10 a years for this, others as much as $35. Be certain that you have direct access to the host and that you are the name assigned to it so that you are not beholden to a web designer or other person who has left the business.

While your web designer can provide you a good shopping cart for your website, the host can also provide this service. Some hosts provide shopping cart software. In addition to working well with high-volume web traffic and long sales item databases, it is important that the shopping cart software support the particular payment processor that you work with.

A really big question that you have to ask (and have answered, of course) is what happens when the host's power goes out or the server's hard drive takes a nosedive. The host should be backing up your site regularly. Of course, you should have you a complete set of up-to-date site files, too. When your business depends on being visible and active, you absolutely need to back up the site to keep customer data and order information in - well - order.

There are many hosting companies available to provide service, and the pricing and service packages vary as much as the technology - which is to say quite a bit. While it is good to save money, nothing in this world is free, so you have to shop with your thinking cap on.

In the end, it is best to listen to recommendations from friends and other firms that have a good hosting company. Like any service, the tone and type of attitude that hosts exhibit in response to your initial inquiry will let you know how they'll respond down the line after you subscribe to their services.
About Author:
Amy Armitage is the head of Business Development for Lunarpages. Lunarpages provides quality web hosting from their US-based hosting facility. They offer a wide-range of services from linux virtual private servers and managed solutions to shared and reseller hosting plans. Visit online for more information.