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Basic web hosting advice
Here are some tips to help you walk through the web hosting
minefield.
You get what you pay for - don't expect a free website hosting
service to do anything special for you. Any serious webmaster
should purchase his web hosting as that is the only way to
get reliable, fast website hosting and good customer service.
Remember, free web hosts usually make their money from advertising,
which means that you are not the customer.
Just because you pay for web hosting does not mean you have
to pay through the nose. Companies offer inexpensive solutions
for under £5 a month.
Always keep a backup of your site. Keep your own backups of
your site on your own hard drive. This way you are prepared
for any kind of disaster that befalls your web hosting company.
In addition, it is impossible for your site to be held hostage.
Get what you need for the money you spend. Look at reliability,
performance and customer service, as well as features that
you might need such as CGI and .htaccess. Price is important,
but the amounts are low enough (less than a good meal out)
that it's simply not that critical. How hard do you have to
think about spending £5 a month?
Spend time checking out a web host. Purchase a single month
of hosting and monitor it before it is live. This allows you
to determine, before you buy a longer-term contract, if the
host is stable and performs well.
Don't put up with poor service. There are loads of web hosts.
If service deteriorates, then find a new host. Don't waste
a lot of time trying to fix the old web host's problems as
they are probably not going to get any better.
Always use your own web domain names. This way if you need
to move to another web host later on all you have to do is
move the web domain names to the new location.
Make sure you control your web domain and don't let the host
set themselves as the administrator. Either purchase the web
domain name yourself directly from one of the web domain registrar's,
or make sure the website host registers it in your name.
Save your documentation and keep all emails and letters in
a safe place. You may need these later if things go bad and
they do! This can be critical if your host incorrectly bills
your account (it happens - especially for bandwidth), deletes
your files or has other problems.
Don't get involved in spamming. Web hosts don't like it because
they may face legal issues. Also, be sure all of your mailing
lists are double opt-in (when a visitor signs up for your
mailing list you send an email back to him which he must respond
to before he will be added) and keep detailed records of additions
and subtractions.
Read and understand the terms and conditions and do not violate
the requirements.
Always pay your web host by credit card. You have far more
options in case of disputes with credit cards than any other
payment methods.
Don't believe claims that sound too good to be true - they
are!
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