What's
in a Web Hosting Plan?
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Web designers, buy a single plan and sub-divide your storage space into
multiple domains .... one for each website you develop. It's like running
a web hosting business on a shoe-string budget. Starting as low as $2.45/month.
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here for details.
While hosting
companies vary greatly in the options they offer to web developers, a
number of standard features can be found in virtually all hosting plans.
Web space, e-mail capabilities, access to a CGI-Bin, FTP, Bandwidth and
account maintenance via web control panel are the most common features
among all reliable web hosts.
Web Space
Server space is basically the amount of hard drive space made available
to the developer for publishing his files on-line. Developers opting for
their own server will obviously have more server space than those who
select to share space on a server with others.
Most developers can estimate their required server space with some simple
math. A developer must first estimate the file size for their average
web page. The file size of a basic page with limited graphics often runs
around 20 kb. Files heavy with graphics can run upwards of 50 kb. To calculate
the amount of space a site will need, a developer will multiply the number
of pages in the site by the average file size of the site's pages (Kling,
2001). For example, a site with 40 pages of moderately sized pages (30
kb) would require 1.2 MB of server space.
Server hard drive space is relatively inexpensive for the hosting company.
Developers should not be swayed by offers of hundreds of megabytes of
server space for a single account.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth is a measure of how much data the server serves (McFedries,
1999). It is the lifeblood of the Internet and should be accorded the
appropriate consideration (Putting the Focus on Bandwidth, 2001).
It’s important to consider how much bandwidth you will need. Suppose
a company put a 2500 MB per month limit on your account. Now suppose that
your site is exactly 1 MB. To reach your limit, 2500 visitors would have
to visit your site and view everything on it.
A company's advertising of unlimited bandwidth is misleading according
to Burnham (2001). While the allowable bandwidth may seem endless, there
is a physical limit to any server and thus a limit to the bandwidth.
E-mail Services
Another nice option is a number of free POP3 accounts. This means you
are given an email address at your domain such as myname@example.com.
Hosting sites vary on how they charge for POP3 accounts. They may charge
for each POP account, look for free POP offers.
CGI-Bin
Thesedays, almost all paid hosting services come with your own CGI-Bin
to run various scripts.
FTP
It allows you to upload your files on the web server.
Advanced Features
Server-side functionality including SSI, JavaScripting, Active Scripting,
and PHP capabilities are among the added features Burnham recommends
for more advanced sites. User logs and error tracking along with daily
site back-ups are also important components of a quality hosting solution.
Control Panel
Some hosts
give a special administrative page to each of their clients. This enables
the client to adjust certain attributes and check the status on certain
parts of their account without having to contact their host.
Upgrading Choices
This is
important if you plan on your site growing overtime. Hosting sites tend
to offer packaged deals that include specific limits. These are nice
if you know how much of a particular resources you require for your
site. It is important however to see what types of charges a site might
add if you exceed your limit on these resources.
Price
Price is not necessarily a factor on performance, however. You may find
a site that charges $2 a month that is just as good if not better than
a $20 a month site. This links back to the web hosting industry analysis
section. A hosting firm that is just starting out might need to build
a client base and if you join at the right time you might obtain an
excellent rate.
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