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If you have found this article, it is more than likely you have been bamboozled by the sheer number of web hosting choices available. There are probably thousands of different packages out there right now......But which one should you choose?
Well, the answer is quite simple, but I'll get to that in a minute. If you haven't already done so, the very first thing to do is to decide on a domain name. This could be your family name or a made up word, anachronisms or other letters, if you have a business or other organisation it could (or maybe should) be the name of your company. This is an important choice as it will be the primary identifier for your site. As there are so many web sites now, it is possible your first choice has already been taken, but don't worry, there are many different domain extensions available, so if (yourname).com is taken you could have (yourname).co.uk or .net or .org or .biz etc etc etc. Remember to be a bit creative, if you want to use your surname, www.Johnson.com for example, and it has gone try adding your first name or initial to it (www.BrianJohnson.com)and search again, there are many combinations you could use.
Paste this URL into the address bar of your browser to see if your name is available: http://www.netmechanics.co.uk/hp/
OK, so now you have a name, what type of site do you need or want?
If you are what is called a home user, and just want to place family information and pictures for friends and family, you really only need a basic package. This should cost no more than £3 - £5 per month, and for this you would expect to get at least 500MB or more of Web Space for your files and pictures. You will normally have a fairly low level of traffic, generically called bandwidth, or people viewing your site, so as long as you have around 5GB of bandwidth per month available, that should be fine. But go for more if it is available cheaply, it is always better to get as much bandwidth in the main package price as possible, as it is a little more expensive if your site exceeds your allotted monthly limit. Also try to get a free site building tool, these walk you through the process of creating your web pages with easy to use templates and will save you a lot of time if you don't have the knowledge or time to learn HTML, JavaScript and PHP coding!
A good example would be the Basic hosting package that NetMechanics offer at £2.95 per month
If you have your own business and would like a web presence, somewhere your prospective clients can find out more about your company, but don't need to sell any actual products from your web site, then depending on whether or not you will need additional tools such a statistical analysis of your web visitors or more advanced functionality like an online database of information, you might opt for the Basic package mentioned above or go for a little more resource if you expected higher levels of traffic or needed a database, or a password protected area. You might also want a contact form so a CGI bin for running the scripts, or programs, that make these work will be needed. Many providers will give you a selection of scripts from which to choose, offering functionality from a simple guest book to a customer support ticket solution!
In these cases the next level of hosting is required, Our Bronze or Silver web hosting packages have many extra features like site builders and cgi scripts and applications all included in the cost. Importantly, they allow more bandwidth, more mailboxes and databases. The final choice would come down to the actual functionality you need and the amount of traffic you expect your site to attract.
If your site is very graphical in nature, you expect high levels of traffic, you have lots of employees who need mailboxes, and you wish to trade directly from the web site then you really are better off going for our Gold package, this is the full Monty of Web Hosing, it should have everything you need from a Web Hosting package and includes traffic analysis tools amongst the many included extras (Please visit http://www.netmechanics.co.uk/hp/ for more info) Our Gold Web Hosting Package is among the most full featured and best value packages available.
I hope this article has helped to clarify the subject a little; you will probably still have questions, so feel free to visit our site at http://www.netmechanics.co.uk/hp/ where you will find more information. There is a contact page there so you can ask questions, or simply send an email to us at nminfo@netmechanics.co.uk
Thanks for reading Gary Jeffery - NetMechanics Ltd
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