Getting Started
March 22, 2006
So you’ve got a great idea for a website, e-business, you need some space for your photos, or maybe you’d like to go beyond the limitations of your ISP or your free host - great!
What is it going to do?
The first thing to do is establish what you want you want on your website; a blog, gallery, forums, guestbook, host downloads the possibilities are endless. What you have on your website will be an important factor in choosing a host; if you want forums, an image gallery, guestbook or other piece of software you’ll need php support and MySQL databases. If you want to check your emails with Microsoft Outlook you’ll need a host which offers POP3 and so on.
Tip: All good hosts now-a-days offer all of these and more, but you need to be careful to make sure they are included in the price and are not just optional extras that you’ll have to cough up for.
How much do you need?
You’ll need to keep this in mind when you start to look at the plans hosts offer, if you’re just going to have images and text you probably won’t need more than a few hundred megabytes of disk space, but if your aiming to offer downloads you’ll need more data transfer (more often referred to as bandwidth) - this is simply the amount of data your account sends and receives, if someone downloads a 5Mb file from your account that uses 5Mb of your bandwidth allowance.
As a guide a typical webpage might be 50Kb big, so you could host over 2000 pages on 100Mb of diskspace!
Bandwidth is a little trickier to calculate as it depends on the number of visitors you get, it’s always best to buy a bit more than you think you’ll need in case your website is a runaway success or you receive an unexpected surge in visitors. Bandwidth is measured in Gigabytes (1024 Megabytes) and for small sites 10Gb is usually plenty.
As mentioned earlier if you plan on running scripts such as forums, galleries or guestbooks you’ll need MySQL databases - a database is where the script stores all the information such as posts and members. As a general guide you’ll need one database per script.
How much help will you need?
It’s only logical that if you’re completely new to something you’re likely to need more help with it than an expert, so it’s important to choose a host that offers support that is sympathetic to your needs and skill level.
Some hosts will only help you as far as ensuring all their services are operating normally and use very technical terms, whilst others (such as Valcato Hosting) will help you setup scripts, emails, even your computer in a friendly manner using a level of tech-speak that you are familiar with.
How will you get the help?
99% of hosts use email or a ticket system as the primary means of helping customers, indeed a ticket system is ideal as it provides a record of all communications and allows different staff to help you. However it can sometimes be slow if you forget to check for emails, so many of the better hosts offer alternatives such as live chat (similar Instant Messaging) or telephone.
The latter are also reassuring as it is nice to know that there’s a person looking after your website and not just a mysterious emailer, but that’s covered later on.
Tip: Look for a host that will help you via your preferred medium. If you like using the phone, choose a host that offers telephone support.
Cost
You might expect to find cost the first and most important point in choosing a host, but it isn’t. If you choose a bargain basement plan instead of one that accommodates you and your needs you might find that there’s no one to help you, your website is inaccessible half the time, or you’ve run out of space.
On this basis it’s often best to pay a bit more in order to ensure you get what you need, but don’t cross the low-price hosts off your list just yet, many can provide all the support you need without burning a hole in your bank balance.
Tip: A cheap host isn’t necessarily a bad host, conversely an expensive host isn’t always a good host.
Next: Finding hosts