What Makes For A Good Host?

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I've had to change web hosts a number of times.
In fact, I spent most ofthis week changing from one host to another. Believe me, it is a major ...
I have made sure that my site is always rea I've had to change web hosts a number of times. In fact, I spent most ofthis week changing from one host to another.
Believe me, it is a major pain,although I have made sure that my site is always ready to move if necessary.One thing I've become is very aware of the difference between a good hostand a bad host. To put it simply (and obviously) a good host makes it easyfor you to create and maintain your web site.
A bad host gets in the way andmakes you angry, unhappy and gives you an ulcer.The key point to remember when evaluating hosts is the most importantquality is responsiveness - of your site and support people. Your siteshould be up virtually all of the time (unfortunately computer crashes dohappen but they should be rare and far between) and it must be fast.
Inaddition, all good hosts react in a timely manner to support issues andquestions. You can tell when a host is going bad from the failure of thesekey areas - unresponsive technical support, slow servers or constantdowntime.This article is intended as a kind of checklist - what is essential,essential if you need it, optional and not important at all? Look it over,then when you go to find a good host pull out the article and make sure itmeasures up.Essential QualitiesThere are a few attributes which are common to all good hosts.Reasonable support - This is something you won't know until you've startedusing a web host and hopefully you will not need much support.
However, whenyou have a question, concern or problem, it's essential that the you have away to contact the support staff. Just as important is the handling of theissue needs to be fast and efficient.
I wouldn't insist on a phone number,but an email or form interface with quick responses is essential.Even if you don't have any particular reason to contact support, it's a goodidea to send off a message occasionally just to see if they are on the ball.Access to control panel - You should not use a host unless it gives youaccess to a well defined control panel. What does this do for you? It allowsyou to control the features of your web site (account) from your webbrowser.
For example, using the menu you should be able to upload files,protect directories, add autoresponders and so on.Excellent automation - This is perhaps one of the more important features ofa good host. Automation.
You should be able to access everything you wantfrom a well designed menu and do virtually anything without involving ahuman being.Control of creating protected directories - Sometimes it doesn't seemimportant, but sooner or later you will almost certainly want to create aprotected directory. This is a directory (or folder) on your web site whichrequires a username and password.
Any good web host will allow you to dothis directly from your account menu.Error pages - I would not host my site anywhere I could not create my own401, 403 and 404 errors pages. I like the idea of letting visitors know in anice way when there is a problem.
The better hosts allow these files to bemaintained from the control panel, although some simply allow you to edityour .htaccess file directly. Reasonable performance - A web site must load quickly.
It's hard enough toget page sizes down to the point where they load reasonably quickly withoutyour web host slowing things down. Domain Parking - It's incredible useful to be able to park a domain on yourweb site.
This can be useful for having several closely related domain names(internet-tips.net and internet-secrets.net for exmaple) as well as to justreserve domains for future use. A good host should be able to allow you todo this for at least a dozen domain names.Good stuff to have if you need itTelnet access - Being able to access your site from Telnet (command line) isuseful to me, but most webmasters will never need this function.
This isespecially true if functions such as CRONTAB (scheduling tasks) can be donethrough the control panel.Custom CGI scripts - If you are paying for a host, then you should make sureyou can install your own CGI scripts. This is not important, of course, ifyou don't plan on including any of your own scripts.PERL Support - If you use PERL routines, then this is essential.
Again, thisis not absolutely necessary if you are not using PERL.SSI Support - Server Side Includes are a very nice way to make it easy tomake changes to your web pages. Again, you either need it or you don't.PHP Support - PHP is a great server-side scripting language (far superior toASP).
If you can get it on a host (and most paid hosts support PHP) then youare doing well.MySQL Support - MySQL is database tool. This allows you to get input fromvisitors, store it on your web site and allow your visitors to retrieve itlater.Unlimited autoresponders - I think most web hosts offer unlimitedautoresponders with the feeling that they will not be used much.
They alwaysseem surprised to find that I've used them at all. Autoresponders are agreat way to automate your web site, so it's a good idea to get them.
Ifyour host doesn't offer them and you wind up needing them, then you willneed to purchase them from somewhere else.Direct access to server logs - You can get along without accessing serverlogs, but it sure makes it easier to tell how you site is doing. Upload from the control panel in addition to FTP access - I almost alwaysuse FTP access to upload (and download) files from my site.
However, thereodd occasions when I've used the control panel upload. Not essential, butnice to be able to use once in a while.SSL Support - This is needed if you want to run secure web pages from yoursite.Subdomains - A subdomain is a domain in the format of subdomain.domain.
Forexample, wallpapers.internet-tips.net is a subdomain. These are very usefulfor separating functional areas of your site.
A good web host will allow youto have as many of these on your site as you want. FrontPage Support - Well, if you use FrontPage then you will obviously needto be able to upload pages.
Personally, I would just as soon use FTP, asit's usually faster and better, even when using FrontPage for sitedevelopment.Not incredibly useful to most peopleWeb hosts like to say these things are important, but in reality they aremostly bells and whistles.Search engine submission - All web hosts will boast in their promotionalmaterials that they will submit your site for you to the search engines. Youshould be doing this anyway, so it's not incredibly useful that a host willdo it for you.BGMAILBOX and everyone.net support - These can be nice services, but theyreally are not necessary for most people.
I think the main reason why Iwould want these in a host is simply to know they are available.PERL modules - A few hosts will install PERL modules for you. This is a wayto extend the functionality of PERL, and it's not very useful to mostwebmasters.
However, if you do find a host which will let you do this, thenyou can be sure you can do almost anything. Article Tags: Good Host, Control Panel Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .