The Basic Facts About Business Web HostingThere are a number of hosting options, from free to dedicated servers. Let's spend a few moments and look over the options.
Free Hosting The first and not recommended is free hosting. Remember what they say, there is nothing free. Well it's the truth about this also. Your webpage on a free hosting server may have banner ads from companies that may not compliment your business or page theme. Another common problem is the third level domain (http://yourpagename/theirdomain.com) Now that doesn't look professional as a business. Would you share your business name with some other company on a business card? I'm sure that would be out of the question.
Shared Hosting Shared hosting for the small business is the best way to go. Shared hosting has the server divided up with other websites allowing a lower cost for hosting. In most cases you are allowed more than enough disk space (Usually Between 100-500 Meg) and data transfer per month. The rule of thumb for small business is a minimum of 100 Meg of disk space and 1 gig of transfer.
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0 Setup Fees 6011 26th Avenue N.W. Rochester , MN 55901 U.S.A. Phone: (507) 252-1290
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Miva Merchant Plan
View other plans offered by 0 Setup Fees |
| Plan Details | |
| Plan: | Miva Merchant |
| Plan URL: | |
| Plan Type: | Shared |
| Platform: | Unix or Linux |
| Price Per Month: | 44.95 |
| Price Per Year: | 539.40 |
| Setup Fee: | No Set Up Fee |
| Non-Profit Discount: |  |
| Disk Space (MB): | 500 |
| Extra Disk Space: | $0.06 per MB |
| Bandwidth Allowed: | 8 GB |
| Extra Bandwidth: | $20.00 per GB |
| Backup Frequency: | Daily |
| Account Setup Time: | 4 Hours |
| Minimum Contract: | No minimum |
| Money Back Guarantee: | 30 Day |
| Email Accounts: | 50 |
| Email Autoresponders: | 50 |
| Email Aliases: | |
| Web-Based Email: | |
| Account Features | |
| Databases Supported: | PHP3, MSQL, MySQL, Python |
| Server Component List: | Yes |
| Control Panel: | |
| FTP: | |
| FrontPage® Support: | |
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| Shopping Cart: | |
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| Realtime Credit Card Processing: | |
| SSL: | |
| Adult Content Allowed: | |
| Free Domain Parking: | |
| Free Domain Registration: | |
| Private Servers: | |
| Raw Logs Available: | |
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| Java Virtual Machine: | |
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| Network and Servers | |
| Connection Speed: | OC3 |
| Server Hardware: | Always Cutting Edge |
| Server Software: | Linux Red Hat |
| Sites per Server: | Load Balance Systems - Never more Than 200 |
| Technical Support | |
| Business Hours: | 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM CDT |
| Technical Support Hours: | 24 Hours |
| 24 Hour Technical Support: | |
| Tollfree Technical Support: | |
| Technical Support by Phone: | |
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| Manuals Available: | |
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What Makes For A Good Host?I've had to change web hosts a number of times. In fact, I spent most of this week changing from one host to another. Believe me, it is a major pain, although I have made sure that my site is always ready to move if necessary.
One thing I've become is very aware of the difference between a good host and a bad host. To put it simply (and obviously) a good host makes it easy for you to create and maintain your web site. A bad host gets in the way and makes you angry, unhappy and gives you an ulcer.
The key point to remember when evaluating hosts is the most important quality is responsiveness - of your site and support people. Your site should be up virtually all of the time (unfortunately computer crashes do happen but they should be rare and far between) and it must be fast. In addition, all good hosts react in a timely manner to support issues and questions. You can tell when a host is going bad from the failure of these key areas - unresponsive technical support, slow servers or constant downtime.
This article is intended as a kind of checklist - what is essential, essential if you need it, optional and not important at all? Look it over, then when you go to find a good host pull out the article and make sure it measures up.
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