How to Find a Hosting Company

There are thousands of web hosting companies on the Internet so how do you choose the right one for your site?

Everyone who uses the Internet has an ISP (Internet Service provider) who provides the connection to the Internet. Your ISP will probably provide you with free web space so what is wrong with using this? It all depends on your web site, if it is a basic web site and you are not expecting a lot of traffic then free web space is OK. The problem arises when you want a little bit more.

Free Web Space

Almost all free web space providers only give you a limited service, (what do you expect, its free!).

They can not guarantee up time, so your web site might be off the air for long periods of time, They have limited band width so if you get a lot of visitors some may not be able to connect to your site, even worst if you exceed your bandwidth limit your web site may be shut down altogether.

You can not use your own domain name so you have to use a redirection service which does not help your search engine ranking. They do not support server side scripts. (You can not use cgi or FrontPage extensions) Support is only via email and probably takes a few days to get a reply. If you are thinking about building an online store, you�ll need a secure server to enable secure online credit card processing. Most free hosts don�t support secure web servers.

So if you are serious about your web site then it is worth paying $60 - $100 per year for professional web hosting service.