What to look for in a web host:

[TheDon1]

Hi, pleased to meet u all, this is my first post of this forum!
thanks heaps for reading and please help if u can!

my uncle is a real estate agent who wants to start his own company, and he wants a very basic web-page, he doesnt want any databasing capabilities or fancy graphics!

so, first things first, i need a web-host.

Secondly, i want to use his web-space to work on my own projects,
including web-databasing / php / and cool scripts.

so, i been looking around at all these different hosts who have many different features;
And i am wondering which ones are actually important?

for example
Dedicated IP Address - does that matter?
What exactly IS a DOMAIN NAME?

what i want to know is;
What features DO I DEFINATELY need?

i dont want to get skrewed over by some horrible web-host because i was a newbie.
so if someone could give some advice, that would be great, thx heaps!

[captainmedia]

Using a cheap web host is total chance. They might offer great services one month and mess up your site the next. A dedicated IP address is usually important in SEO. Some SEO experts don't agree with that. However, I think every little edge helps.

Regards, Drew
Captain Media

[Wired]

my uncle is a real estate agent who wants to start his own company, and he wants a very basic web-page, he doesnt want any databasing capabilities or fancy graphics!

so, first things first, i need a web-host.

Secondly, i want to use his web-space to work on my own projects,
including web-databasing / php / and cool scripts.

so, i been looking around at all these different hosts who have many different features;
And i am wondering which ones are actually important?

Dedicated IP Address - does that matter?
What exactly IS a DOMAIN NAME?

what i want to know is;
What features DO I DEFINATELY need?

If he doesn't need a database or anything, any host would do. Personally, I'd recommend hostingmatters.com. WDF has their hosting through them, as do I. Their tech support is awesome.

A domain name is what you type in the address bar.
e.g. www.webdesignforums.net

[filburt1]

If he doesn't need a database or anything, any host would do. Personally, I'd recommend hostingmatters.com. WDF has their hosting through them, as do I. Their tech support is awesome.

As a neutral comment, their tech support has been much slower recently. However, historically it has been excellent--and the issue with which they are currently helping me probably wouldn't be a feature on most other hosts, anyway.

[Wired]

I contacted them at 12:15 AM Tuesday via email, got a response 16 minutes later.

[Talkfreelance]

Ok, you're going to need a reasonable amount of webspace (500mb or more should be fine). You will also need bandwidth (the amount of data that can be transfered from your site) I would say 1-5gb should be ideal.

If you plan on using scripts and such, php4/5 is a must and mysql (database) is essential. 10 or so e-mails will be required for your uncles real estate business, I wouldn't bother with any optional extras!

A website/URL is the address to your site www.yoursite.com, you buy these yearly for around $6-10, varies from site to site.

[filburt1]

Extending on that, remember to check if your MySQL database space is part of your disk space, or separate. Databases can grow quite large, and if they count against your quota, quite expensive.

[lester lachcik]

lester(leszek) lachcik "Host well and prosper!"

By your design, first and second requirement, you must have PHP and 'data-databasing' capabilities to accomplish your twofold goal. If you only needed a very basic web-page to accommodate your uncle's real estate business promo you would only require a reliable host offering an affordable package. such a package would include the following: a "OK" storage space and bandwidth traffic, free setup, domain name registration (preferably free), html - xhtml and css handling, e-mail features, your website statistics, hosting security, web design tools to painlessly assemble you website together, and of course a build-in FTP feature to transfer your files to the hosting server once your site is complete.

On the other hand, if you would like to use your uncle's web-space to work on your projects that include web 'data-basing', php and other cool scripts you would need a much more comprehensive hosting package. Such a comprehensive package would include the following features: price (under $5 us/month), storage space (10Gb or so), bandwith traffic (100-200GB per month), domain registration ($10-$20 per year), a CGI bin, a static IP address, email accounts (5000), auto responders (5000), fail forwarders (5000), SMTP and POP3, web mail, basic spam protection, web statistics, standard web security, FTP access, script languages (PHP, Perl, Python, JSP), database features (MySql and SQL2000 Server), as well as commerce website capabilities with working shopping cart and SSL (Secure Socket Layer) feature.

By all means, you would want to see user testimonials to make sure that the hosting service is a reliable one. Better yet, talk to someone you know who already has a web hosting package-friends, neighbours, teachers or clergy. There is always someone around who is ready and more than willing to share their expertise.

Hope this helps. Cheers!

lester (leszek) lachcik :ichatangel:

[seanmiller]

If you want to share the space for your own projects you may wish to consider buying a reseller account or VPS (Virtual Private Server)... neither cost a fortune but would allow you to host multiple domains as things move forward. It would also enable you to increase your uncle's space quota and bandwidth as the site grew...

The major difference between reseller/VPS is that with the latter you tend to get less support on the actual hosting, so you may be better off sticking with reseller if you don't want to have to learn the concepts of how to run a server.

Sean