Here are some web hosting options to consider. There are advantages to each option.

There is free web hosting but you will need an easy to remember domain name which free hosts usually don’t offer and you want FTP uploading of your files which may be hard to find for free. There are other ways to upload your files but FTP is easy and powerful.

These types of hosting, the free or the ones for a few dollars a month are called shared hosting. This type of hosting is affordable but the drawback is other sites are sharing the same computer in the web host’s warehouse as yours. If any of the other sites have a coding problem they can take down the computer along with your site until it gets fixed by the hosting service, until then your closed down.

If you go with the purchase of a shared hosting plan make sure they have a money back period especially if you sign a one year contract or longer. If your site is down a lot or it loads too slow because too many sites are jammed on one computer or some other reason you can get a refund and get out of the contract.

During the refund period or until you are confident they are good don’t open any software they send you, this may bind you to the contract if you break the software seal(s). Use some other software until you feel comfortable with the service or the refund period expires.

You will also need to research bandwidth. When a visitor comes to your site, clicks or downloads anything it takes bandwidth. If you go over the allotted bandwidth the web host gives you, they may shut down the site until you can pay more or the next billing month comes up or they may automatically bill you, depending on their policy. Bandwidth amount given is usually massive or even unlimited depending on the package and web host but it is something you must know about.

It is worth putting in a search for ‘free web hosting’ in your favorite search engine to see what is available because the market is always changing. You will need to find out why it is free, they may want to put some type of ad on your site but that may be okay for what you are interested in doing depending on what the ad is. There may also be very limited bandwidth or the ways to build your site only can be done with templates that may not fit your project.

Another possibility is being your own host if you have access to a static and not dynamic IP address with high speed internet and a decent computer you can dedicate only to your site(s). Sometimes this is only available to a commercial location but this depends on your available high speed internet carriers.

Dial up will probably be too slow for this, it really must be high speed for a fast loading web page with traffic. Dial up may be okay to learn on and if the traffic to your site is light or is a hobby for fun.

You can register your domain name address yourself at the registering banner above and point it to your own server. For instructions how to set it up search ‘host my own domain’ there are some good tutorials.

The benefit is if there is a problem with your site from the host end you fix it yourself because your website is located on your computer at the static IP address in your office or home and also you can upgrade your own hardware. You do not have to rely on the technical department of a web host to fix any problem.

Web host companies can have good customer service or bad depending on who works there at any given time. Hosts have been known to be good but employee or management changes may happen and now they won’t help you fix your site like you need it.

Another benefit of hosting yourself is you will learn highly sought after webmaster skills and the hosting software to run it is free, running a search for ‘free hosting software’ will bring up options. The drawbacks are you must know a lot, it will take extra time, must bulletproof the site from hackers, and a static IP address usually costs more.

Another option is dedicated hosting which can be managed or non-managed. Dedicated hosting means a hosting service gives you a computer just for your site(s) and nobody else’s sites will be on it. Managed means they will help you setup and deal with problems but this is the most expensive of all the options.

Non-managed is less expensive but you must load and do all software manipulation and fix any coding problems, hacker, script or other problems. If you get stuck on a problem they usually have an hourly rate charge for a pro to help you. This is very similar to doing your own hosting above with the benefit of learning a highly sought after skill but with the hosting service dealing with all hardware problems, upgrading, and keeping up the network.

Glenn Heitkoetter
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