Website Information Simplified - webbilia.com

Choosing the right hosting service for a web project can be an arduous task even for a tech savvy owner. Your first step is to list the features the site will provide and assess the technologies necessary to accomplish those tasks. Wait to consider costs until you’ve completed this needs analysis.

Bandwidth - If you anticipate high traffic, expect large file downloads, have extensive use of graphics you will need to consider a high bandwidth account. Efficient design will lower your bandwidth requirements.

Disk Space - Smaller sites will easily get by on 20mb. Again files sizes and graphics play a large part in determining these needs. If you have a project accumulating images over time such as a photo log you may accumulate 200mb in a year. Multi-media sites with audio or video files could easily require twice that amount.

Server Environment - The most popular server software is the open source Apache. Next is Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS). This becomes important if plan a dynamic site. The PHP scripting language is installed by default with Apache. IIS will be your choice if working with Microsoft’s Active Server Pages (ASP). If you are working with a developer you should consult them about this choice. There are site building and blogging tools that allow dynamic sites without development knowledge. A few will be mentioned below. Lastly, if you handle online payments or sensitive data you’ll need Secure Sockets Layer ( SSL) for encrypting information passing between the your server and a visitor’s web browser.

Control Panel - Popular choices include Plesk and cPanel. Both provide excellent site management features essential to beginner and expert alike. These utilities provide a graphical user interface for a variety of function including file management, ftp access, managing mail accounts, database management, backing up and restoring data, and working with scripts.

Complementary Scripts - packages like Fantastico include an array of scripts for blogs, portals/CMS, customers support, forums, shopping carts, image galleries and mailing lists. Among the are the content management / blogging scripts Drupal and WordPress. Both are excellent php scripting based packages you would spend thousands having your programmer duplicate. They require php be installed as well as a database, usually MySQL.

Dedicated or Shared Hosting - Most small business sites will get by with a shared hosting account. The cost differences are substantial. Shared hosting accounts can be found with all the features mentioned above for around $20 per month or less depending on the storage, email accounts, processor speeds, memory and the like. Dedicated servers are primarily for operations wanting to install their own applications and run in excess of $200 a month. If you are told what you want to do requires a dedicated server be sure to run your plan by another host.

Now you can compare pricing. Before committing be sure to check the web for comments on the company you select. Have Fun! [wb_4]