June 18th, 2008 | by admin | as Web Hosting

If you’ve decided to get out there on the world wide web and start your very own website or blog, the first thing that has to be taken care of is finding a reliable web host. This chore might seem extremely straight forward, although, it’s not quite as easy as picking a new pair of stylish pants at your local retailer. Bellow you will find a list of helpful tips for choosing a good web hosting company.

Bandwidth

Most people will tell you that the more bandwidth (transfer) you have the better. This might even sound like a reasonable proposition, but if you take the time to think about it carefully, having unlimited bandwidth is a blessing in disguise. Web hosting companies know perfectly well what their clients are looking for, and nothing gets inexperienced users salivating uncontrollably like unlimited or exceedingly generous bandwidth limits. What you should know right from the beginning is that bandwidth costs money, a lot of money for that matter, so deciding on a plan advertising unlimited bandwidth for only $5 per month is asking for trouble. Web host offering such bargains are usually the first to throttle bandwidth once a client stars consuming recourses at a lofty pace. For most users 10 G monthly bandwidth is more than they will ever use.

Storage space

To a certain extent, storage space is more important than large amounts of bandwidth. The reason for this is simple. Most sites created nowadays are what we call dynamic sites, in other words, sites that are constantly being updated with new content. As time passes, you might find that space becomes increasingly limited because of all the content that has been added over the years. When you acquire hosting, most hosts offer around 5 G storage space with their cheapest package and anywhere between 300 g to unlimited space when choosing a premium plan.

Databases

Just to give you an idea, in order to install a blog, forum, content management system (CMS), image gallery or online store, you need a database. If your site will have a few of the functionalities mentioned above, the odds are you will need one database for each individual script. When comparing hosting packages make sure they include at least 10 MySQL databases.

Easy script installers

Easy script installers or site builders provide a convenient solution for those that are to some extent computer illiterate. Installing a script can be complicated especially if you don’t know how to create databases, configure scripts or simply find it confusing to understand all those technical terms used by computer geeks. Easy script installers or site builders only require a few clicks to install a fully functioning site.

Other important features

In technical terms, the only other thing you should worry about is language support for PHP, Perl, Java, Python CGI and ColdFusion. This information is usually provided on the web host’s site since it is essential if you wish to install a complicated script or media rich site.