Round Table
Services - Web Host Provider
The computer or server where your website will live is called a host.
Your website needs to be accessible 24 hours a day, every day and to as
many people as possible. That means the host has to have this same level of
availability. The options are to achieve this are:
- Free web host
- Web host reseller
- Internet service provider
- Web host provider
Costs can be zero to £100 or several hundred pounds a year depending on the
features required. Payment options include monthly payments or a one off
payment which buys a years service. A one off annual payment is usually
slightly cheaper.
If you are using Microsoft FrontPage to build your web site ensure
that the provider has FrontPage Extensions installed on their server.
Many of FrontPage's features will not work without this software on the
web server. Some provider's make an additional charge for installation.
It is prudent to check that a provider supports your web creation
software before committing to an agreement.
Free Web Host Provider
The dominant advantage of a free web host provider is the fact that
it is free. This is the most affordable web host however there are disadvantages. The free
web site host isn't making
money from the web hosting service. This type of provider will typically
offer a small amount of web space, charge for additional features and
you may be obliged to carry the providers advertising on your website.
Web Host Reseller
A web host reseller could be an affiliate to a web host provider or
perhaps a web design company. In either case the reseller doesn't
directly own or operate the service but resells a web host provider's
service. As usual, check out the service that is on offer in terms
of features and cost.
Internet Service Provider
You already have internet access via you internet service provider. A
small amount of free web space often comes with that service but there
will be a fee to pay when the free space is exceeded. If you are
planning to use FrontPage to build your site it is possible that the ISP
does not have FrontPage's server side extensions installed. In general a
service provided by an ISP is not suitable for a large site, sites which
process data or e-commerce.
Web Host Features
Web hosting is the core the web host provider business. A good host
provider will have a service underpinned by a professional operation.
Good customer support, resilient connections to the internet, multiple
servers, security firewall, regular server backups, environmental
control and backup electricity generators
are some of the indicators of a good web host provider.
Various packages are offered which are aimed at all sectors of the
market starting with the personal website through to fully blown
e-commerce solutions. Features vary from provider to provider and by package but could include:
It is surprising how little money is required to get started. A
reasonably featured "entry level" or "home" web
hosting package will get a home based internet business internet
presence for between £50 and £100 a year. As you develop the website
and need more web space and features then upgrade to the next level
package when it is appropriate.
What Does it Look Like?
You have made an agreement with a web-hosting
provider. What exactly are you getting for your money? Basically, you
are letting a chunk of someone’s hard disk and hiring a service
where a computer, a web server, deals with requests from a web
surfer’s PC and sends the web pages asked for. Think about the chunk
of hard disk as an extension to your own PC’s resources. It’s just
how you access and manage that resource that is slightly different.
Your web will live on the web host’s web server.
Let’s take a look at what the hard disk space on the web server
looks like. Essentially, it is organised in a similar way to your
PC’s hard disk in that it consists of files and folders. On your PC
the root folder is called C:\. The root folder of your web server will
be called something like ftp.yoursite.com\home where yoursite.com is
the name of your website. Other folders will be present when you first
login. There will be a folder called "logs" and another
called "public_html". Website statistics are kept in
"logs". Your web pages and images will live in "public_html".
You have three main tools for accessing and managing your web space.
The first of these is already there on your PC, the web browser.
Secondly, you will probably have something called a control panel
which is a service provided by the web host provider. The last is a
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) program. This is rather like Windows
Explorer but is optimised to manage files on a remote computer.
The control panel resides on the web server and accessible from your
web browser. It is used to copy, cut, move and delete files and
folders. It can also create folders and assign permissions to files
and folders. Depending on the type of hosting service signed up for
the control panel can provide access to many other features. These may
include changing passwords, configuring or reading email, managing
mailing lists and auto-responders plus many others.
Your provider will have given you a username and password on signing
up. The password will probably be sent insecurely via email. Ensure
that changing the password is the first task carried following the
initial login to your control panel.
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