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Best Web Hosting for SOHO
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Web hosting for small businesses and personal web sites guide
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How to find best hosting for your web site? |
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You have decided to build a web site for your business: restaurant, shop, dental office, affiliate site, or just for fun. You are looking for hosting service (a space on some Internet server where your Web site will be placed and can be accessed by others through the Internet).
What main Hosting Features should you understand? |
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1. Platform |
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Windows or Linux?
You only need Windows-based hosting if you plan to use Microsoft-specific applications, such as ASP, ASP.Net, Coldfusion, MSSQL Server, or MS Access databases.
If you do not need any of these Microsoft-specific applications - or if you don't even know what they are, then the better choice will be to host your website on a Linux platform.
In fact, the majority of all websites on the Internet are hosted on the Linux platform. |
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2. Domain Name |
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Domain Name is your site name (www.DomainName.com=www.yoursitename.com). Domain names are human-friendly identifiers that point to the IP addresses of resources on the internet. Web sites represent one such resource. Domain names have to be unique, and must be registered through a registrar in order to be used. The best way to register a Domain Name is with your Hosting company. A lot of Hosting companies offer you a free Domain Name registration with a hosting plan. In case you will cancel your hosting account, the Domain Name becomes paid but is not lost. If the Domain Name is not free, it can cost ~$10-$20 per year. |
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3. Dedicated IP |
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IP addresses are unique identifiers that allow your website to be found on the internet. Dedicated IP address means that each domain (web site) has its own IP. An alternative is a Shared IP where multiple domains are assigned to a single IP. A Dedicated IP is necessary to use for SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates, as well as a variety of other functions. SSL is used to transfer sensitive information such as credit card numbers. For example, e-commerce found on online stores use SSL . If Dedicated IP is not a free, it can cost you extra $20 per year. |
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4. Data Transfer (bandwidth) |
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The amount of data, per month, that you can move to (upload) and from (download) the host server. When web site visitors view web pages, pages are downloading from the server. 1 GB of data transfer ~40,000 page views. |
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5. Database Support |
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Needed for e-commerce, forums, blogs, or your own data. |
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6. Other |
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A lot of features are available on different web hosting services. So, if you are looking for something specific, just be sure that the particular hosting supports it.
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