With all the companies out there offering website hosting and internet access, how do you choose one?
First, some terminology:
An ISP is an internet Service Provider ? this is what gets you onto the internet, whether by satellite, cable, fiber optic cable, DSL, or some other technology. Having an ISP account doesn?t necessarily ?mean you have a place to host your website ? but it might. What you?re looking for in an ISP is good customer support, fast connections, and good reliability.
A Web ?Hosting company provides a machine where you can upload your web site and connect it to the internet. Some ISPs offer packages which include web hosting, some don?t. You?ll typically get a control panel where you can login and manage your slice of the server where your files reside; this includes installing software (most offer easy tools to help with this), uploading files, connecting your files to the internet by managing your domain names (like www.mygreatsite.com). What you?re looking for in web hosting is pretty much the same as for your ISP: good customer service, fast connections, and good reliability (you don?t want your spiffy website to be out of commission for days because your Web Host?s servers are out of commission).
A Domain Registrar will register your domain names?with the powers-that-be. Typically, you sign up for yearly registration which can be renewed automatically, or manually. Again, many Web Hosting companies offer domain registration as a service. What you want to look for in a domain registrar is ease of use and good customer service.
Is it better to find one company that does it all for you? Not necessarily. My ISP, Web Host, and Domain Registrar are three separate companies. This makes it easier if you decide to change ISP, Web Host, or Domain Registrar but some prefer the convenience of doing it all in one place. Your ISP will be limited by what?s available in your area; be sure to research and read customer reviews before signing up with someone. To find a good web host or domain registrar, you can google ?best web hosting 20xx? or ?best domain registrar 201xx? where xx is the last two digits of the current year.
My recommendations for most small businesses: talk to others in your area and research online to find the best ISP in your area (I?m with Comcast); Bluehost is an excellent affordable hosting company (disclaimer: I?m a Bluehost affiliate), but there are many others out there; and I find NameCheap to be a great place to register and manage your domains. I would steer you away from GoDaddy, because in my experience their support is indifferent at best, and their website is difficult to use for someone who isn?t a tech guru.
You may also hear the terms Virtual Private Server (VPS), cloud servers, and managed dedicated server, and wonder if you should be considering them. With these sorts of hosting, you have a whole server to yourself; with shared hosting like Bluehost, there will be other websites running on your server. Most small to mid-sized businesses don?t need to consider these for their hosting needs. If you have huge amounts of site visitors, are hosting a lot of big streaming video files, or want complete control over your server, you might consider these ? otherwise, shared hosting like Bluehost will be fine for your needs. Also be aware that having your own server (virtual or physical) typically means more technical fiddling and tweaking (even if the server?s managed), so if you don?t want to deal with that sort of thing, you would be better served by shared server hosting. These options also are much more expensive than shared hosting, so be sure you know that?s what you need before you sign a contract.
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Source: http://high-tech-coach.com/2012/09/02/choosing-a-website-host/
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