What Features To Look For When Applying For Good Hosting Plan

By: Richard Clement

When looking for a host, it will be useful to obtain as much information as possible about the web hosting company itself and the services they offer. These pre-sales questions are a way to check several things about the web hosting company. You can obtain detailed information about the services they offer - the web hosting plans they have, the features included there, etc.
These days hosting plans on the web are getting very competitive and features of each plan are comparatively the same among web hosting providers. Whether novice or expert, you can find some useful information in this article to learn about some of the considerations to look at when you choose a web hosting service.
In this article I will not talk about things like space ,traffic and prices since there are plenty of related articles nowadays rolling around the net. My goal will be to clarify some of the most important features you have to look for when choosing your web hosting provider.
The following are 10 basic features that can be found in a Unix/Linux hosting plans that every serious hosting provider should offer you.

• Control Panel - This is where you manage your hosting account. In the context of web hosting it is an on-line application that give us the user ability to control many aspects of his web hosting account including, but not limited to: creating mailboxes, setup email forwarding, uploading and editing files, creating sub domains, park additional domains, automated installing of ready to use scripts and programs, managing databases, setup shopping carts. You need to check what exactly is included in a given control panel with the web hosting company you have chosen to go with.Some hosts use a third party control panel like cPanel or Plesk. Others use an inhouse developed control panel.The moment you signup for a hosting package, you must be provided with a CP to manage your webspace.
• POP3 email accounts & aliases - yourname@yourdomain.com is an example POP3 email. POP3 is an electronic mail protocol used to retrieve messages stored on an Internet/intranet e-mail server. Whenever a client wants to check for messages it connects to its Internet Service Provider's e-mail server and uses POP3 to login to its mailbox and download its messages.
• FTP Accounts & Virtual FTP - This is where you upload your files, delete them, update them. This again comes along with the CP. Make sure you have handful of FTP sub-accounts also to provide your clients/users password protected directories. This is very much useful wherein your clients / users can use the FTP to upload /download files from particular password protected folder of your website.
• Backup - Most of the Hosts take Automated Backups. But users do not take much care on this while choosing the hosting plan. This feature is as essential as any other in this list.
• Web Statistics - Analysis is of your website visitors plays a important role in the success of your website. Say, your website has been launched and you get 50 unique visitors or more than 500 visitors per day. Whatever the case may be, you can view the report using Statistics Application that run in the server backend. A popular web statistic software is Webalizer.
• PHP & Mysql Support - PHP is a scripting language that is especially suited for Web development and can be embedded into HTML. PHP is mainly focused on server-side scripting, so you can do anything any other CGI program can do, such as collect form data, generate dynamic page content, or send and receive cookies. MySQL is a true multi-user, multi-threaded SQL database server. MySQL is fast and flexible enough to allow you to store logs and pictures in it. Its main goals are speed, robustness, and ease of use.All the Linux Plans support PHP & Mysql. Make sure you get this free of charge when you buy the hosting plan. Few hosting providers offer good of MySQL Database Support & PhpMyAdmin.
• Webmail & SMTP - A web based email program. Most web hosting companies do provide webmail access to their customers. Often it comes with addressbook, rich text editor, spelling checker, and all the features of any other email program offers. Email becomes key part in your life once you launch the website. Check if the hosts provide with Webmail to check your mails thru a web based interface such as Squirrelmail or Horde. Checking email will be faster if you download the mails thru email clients such as Eudora or Outlook Express. Only if SMTP or IMAP support is enabled you can use this option. All our recommended hosts has this feature.
• SPAM Filter - No email user is free from a spam attack. It is the Email equivalent of junk mail. It is becoming one of the biggest problems in the Internet today.Hence you need to have spam filters installed on the server where your website resides.
• HTTPS (SSL) access to your hosting account. SSL is used for secure communication between the user browser and the server. The information is encrypted and secure. SSL is usually used for eCommerce sites and sites that require submission of other sensible information like usernames and passwords. To have an SSL on your site you can use the shared SSL certificate provided by your hosting company or you can purchase an SSL certificate for your site and ask the host to install it.
• Shell (telnet or SSH) access to your account. SSH is used for secure access to your account. SSH is usually offered on Unix hosting plans. You can zip, unzip files, change permissions of files, run certain programs on the server.
• Sub-domains for creating sub-sections to your site without having to use directories in URLs
• Shopping Cart - A shopping cart is a piece of software that acts as an online store's catalog and ordering process.

These are the most common features of a good web hosting plan. A reputable web hosting provider should offer you at least these ones in his hosting plans. There are some more additions you can get from a good provider. For more info on that topic you can visit my site www.itstandard.net and get what you need. Author Bio
Richard Clement is an online publisher dedicated in helping online users in various categories. He is an online marketing specialist and owner of ItStandard.Net hosting company.For more info visit his site http://www.itstandard.net
Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

************************

HB Prime Network Marketing : http://www.hbprime.in

Bhavesh Shah, Executive Affiliate at SFI Marketing Group.

Internet marketer, advertiser & publisher. Online business owner & internet business consultant.

Legitimate Work At Home Jobs & Opportunities.

http://www.onlinehomesuccess.com/

Book Domain & Hosting : http://www.domininindia.in

Become Domain & Hosting Reseller : http://resellerindia.biz

Purchase Top Notch Antivirus. Complete Security to your PC Against All Internet Threats :

http://www.antivirusdownload.biz 

......................................................

Go Daddy Bulk Domain Registration

What Features To Look For When Applying For Good Hosting Plan

Web Hosting Features

By: Carl Madison

Finding a Web hosting provider seems like a difficult job. You think you've found a provider, but then another one offers some Web hosting features a little different than the first provider. So you have to decide what to do. Many of the features you won't even use. A Web host provider will add alot of features to your package to make it enticing. Instead of talking about all the features, I will discuss which ones are important. If you have a simple website, you can combine these features with a cheap web hosting package and be okay. Below are the most important features.

1. Disk Space
One of the biggest concerns you may have is how much disk space(also disk storage or web space) you may need. It all depends on how your website is created. First, let me tell you that Web host providers will show you disk space they provide you in either GB(gigabyte) or MB(megabyte). 1 GB equals 1024 MBs. A website with text only can get by with about 20 megabytes. However, if you add graphics and videos, you will need more disk space. The more things you add to your website, the more disk space you will need.

2. Bandwidth
Bandwidth(or data transfer) is the amount of information your website can deliver to visitors that surf your site. When someone surfs your website or downloads anything from your site, they are using bandwidth. A Web hosting provider usually gives you a month to month supply of bandwidth. If you are planning on having a website with few visitors, then the minimum bandwidth allowed by your provider(between 1GB and 5GBs) should be enough.
Here is some information you need to know when you are calculating bandwidth:
1024 Byte = 1 Kilobyte (KB); 1024 Kilobyte(KB) = 1 Megabyte(MB) ; 1024 Megabyte = 1 Gigabyte(GB)
Note: Some Web host providers don't calculate bytes in 1024's. They instead use 1000 to make it easier. This is something to remember if your calculations are a little different than the providers. You should ask your provider if you want to know which number they use.

3. FTP
FTP(File Transfer Protocol) is a method of transferring files from one computer to another. This gives you the ability to upload your website to your Web hosting provider. In addition, it makes life easier because you can copy lots of files at one time.

4. Customer Service
Technical Support is very important. You should find a company that gives you 24/7 customer service. You may have some issues with your website that need to get taken care of right away. The longer the wait, the more potential visitors to your website you could be losing.

5. Email Services
You definitely want to have email access so you won't have to give your personal email address to visitors of your website. You should get a few email addresses to use for different reasons.

6. Site Statistics
Site Statistics are important because you can keep track of how many people are visiting your website. Therefore, you can know how well your site is doing. In addition, you will be able to determine how much bandwidth is being used.

7. Reliability
If you find a cheap web hosting plan, it doesn't mean you can't rely on them. Furthermore, you should have a provider you can count on to keep your website up and running. Most web host can guarantee your site will be up and running 99.9% of the time. If you come across a web host that guarantees less uptime, I wouldn't recommend you use their services.

Conclusion
These seven features, in my opinion, are features you should have for a basic website. Now if you are planning on doing more than putting basic information on your site, then you should look at other features that may pertain with what you are going to do. For example, if you're going to run programs on your website, then you will need to look into the different types of scripts(PHP, CGI, PERL, SSI, etc....). Another example is if you are doing business online then you want to have security on your site like SSL. As I said earlier, there are alot of features that come with your web host package, but most of them you won't need. If you need more than the seven listed above, chances are you already know what you need because you will have built your website around those features. These seven are for a person who wants to put a basic website together, with information about their business. Now all you need to do is find an affordable web hosting provider to go with these features and you are on your way.
Author Bio
Carl Madison is an established author for www.hostdata101.com
Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content

***************

..............................

HB Prime Network Marketing : http://www.hbprime.in

Bhavesh Shah, Executive Affiliate at SFI Marketing Group.

Internet marketer, advertiser & publisher. Online business owner & internet business consultant.

Legitimate Work At Home Jobs & Opportunities.

http://www.onlinehomesuccess.com/

Book Domain & Hosting : http://www.domininindia.in

Become Domain & Hosting Reseller : http://resellerindia.biz

Purchase Top Notch Antivirus. Complete Security to your PC Against All Internet Threats :

http://www.antivirusdownload.biz

Web Hosting Features