web site

[dawney32]

Hi
I have recently designed a new website for my employers business.
It is written in HTML and looks ok for a standard designer like me...no flash or fancy stuff.
My question is how do i choose a web hoster (if that is the correct term), what should i look for...i know i want something cheap with maybe 2 email addresses and access to be able to change the site whenever i want.
I wanna be able to put this site on the internet whith the web address www.myemployersbuisness.co uk.....(name of site being the business name).
I think i can upload using ftp but anything else is new to me.
Your reccomendations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[Statica]

There are 2 things that you need to get this project running
1- A Domain registrar
While this could be any registrar out there, it is recommended that you look for a registrar that is accredited by ICANN. While cost should be an important factor for you to search for a registrar, it should not be the only factor. The registrar should be reliable (remember you will most likely be doing an online transaction), and should have a functional control panel to administer your domain name. While the setup is relatively the same for any domain name, various registrars have various degrees of ease with which you can perform the configuration.
Things to look out for -
Some web hosting companies also provide complimentary domain name registration, this may be a good deal - IF you are assured that you own the domain name in question. Some registrars also have a habit of quoting a ridiculous low price for the first year and then decides to gouge you when it comes time for a renewal.
2- A web host
Yes, price is a good criterion for selecting a host, but it should be one that allows you to weed out from a short list - you need to look at features to create the short list. Some things that you should be looking for:
a) Space available to you - it doesnt matter if you want 1 email address or 500, the important thing is to look at the space. Dont count the space you need by the size of the HTML files you created, leave room for scaling up. Know the overage charges for going about the space provided
b) Bandwidth available to you, make sure it is something that you can work with; dont go with a hosting package if you go over your bandwidth limit if 3 people visit the site
c) Speed of the hosting company's connection to the internet. Read the hosts description of how fast the server's connection to the internet is. The general rule of thumb is that the faster the connection, the pricier the host will be, so you need to find a good match of speed vs price. Remember that if your company's website is slow to get to, people will start looking away to your competition that can deliver the information they need without issues. Speed is also to be looked at "locally" as well. Say you find two hosts with identical connection speeds and relatively identical prices - except one is in Australia and one in the UK where you think that most of your visitors will be coming from. Its reasonable to assume that for a person with a browser locally, they will have a slightly better and more reliable access to your website if your host is reasonably local. Redundancy is another thing you should check for in the connection.
d) Uptime guarantees - if you have a site that "has to be up" then you should look into something with a high uptime guarantee. Of course, these guarantees come with a higher price than a host that guarantees nothing
e) server architecture - this is relatively important; choosing servers on reliable platforms and hardware will ensure that your site will be up more often than not. For example, a server running off IDE drives (yes there are those that offer it) will not be as reliable as those that run on SCSI/RAID arrays. The OS is also important, but is more a function of your preference. If it's just basic HTML, either NT or UNIX is the same, but if you end up using more advanced features on your website like shopping carts, databases, the choice of OS will be determined by what you've coded up in.
f) Add-ons are good, like webhosts running spamfilters, a good control panel, choices in databases, subdomains, email autoresponders, webmail, backups, SSH, SSL etc etc - depends on what you want
g) Technical support - look for reviews on how good the host's tech support is, take a glance at their tech.support forums to see how active it is (the more active a host's tech forum is the greater the # of clients they have, which means they are probably not a fly-by-night operation that could close down too soon. A lot of activity doest necessarily mean that there are lots of people with problems, it might mean that they have requests, comments, discussions etc)
h) Be aware if your hosting company is a reseller and not a hosting company. A lot of hosting companies offer reseller plans, which allow people to buy space and bandwidth from them in bulk, and then resell it to individuals like yourself - often at prices that are cheaper than what the real host would offer. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something you need to check on - which means that you need to look at the efficiency of the real host and the reseller, and what their contracts are : for example if Company A sells reseller packages that state "any problems you're on your own" - stay away from it.

These are just some of what I can think of, the choices are difficult because this is for a company site - if it were for a personal site, a lot of these factors just wouldn't matter.

What I recommend usually is the same as what I use: godaddy.com for a registrar and hostmatters.com for a host

HTH

[dawney32]

Thanks for the info ....certainly a lot to think about and i'll take my time .
Just 1 last thing though....could anyone reccomend an english register or hoster, as i live and work in the uk and my employers business is only national.
thanks again

[Statica]

http://www.internic.net/origin.html for a list of registrars by geographic location. Scroll down to the appropriate country.

[WhatsThisBoxFor?]

I personally use OneandOne.co.uk for my website, and find them very reasonable. They are probably not the cheapest, or the best but I have never found my site to be down. I think all their packages have unlimited ftp access, and plently of email addresses. I know on my package I get on top of the email spam filtering (with varying levels), 10 email virus scanners and various other features (ie webmail).

Other people will probably have cheaper/better hosts but they are the ones I have found to suit my needs.