We Hosting

The process of choosing a web host can seem a daunting task. A quick search on google for web host yields over 6,000,000 results! Who are all these companies? No one really knows. In the market of web hosting there is very little brand recognition, which means the consumer has to do a bit of research to ensure they arrive at a quality web hosting provider.
A web host provider is a company who rents out web space and bandwidth to those who wish to publish a web site. The web host gives its customer an account, which can be used to upload HTML documents, PHP scripts, graphics, and more.
There are many variables that define a hosting service. We have separated this guide into the most important variables to consider. Hosts may not offer all this information up front, so you may have to contact the host via email or phone to get the answers you need. If this is your first time in choosing a web host, then do yourself a favor and peruse through our Web Host Guide.
Corporate web server solutions, personal web sites, and small business e-commerce sites require very different web hosting solutions. A corporation would definitely want a dedicated web server, that is managed 24 hours a day 7 days a week, by a staff of highly trained administrators On the other hand, someone who runs a casual, personal web site may find that a basic free web hosting service is more than enough for them.

When choosing a web host it is very important that you first consider what your needs are. After you have figured out your needs(after reading the Web Host Guide) you will be able to choose the correct host type. Web host types can be narrowed down into the following categories:

* Minimal Shared Hosting - Free, very little features
* Shared Hosting - Most Popular, your web site is located on a server that hosts many other sites.
* Dedicated Server Hosting U- Unmanaged (little to no customer support), server administration is left to the customer.
* Dedicated Server Hosting M- Managed (includes customer support), the administration is *usually* taken care of.

Basic Shared Hosting - Free

For those who are new to web design it makes little sense to pay a monthly fee for a hosting service when you barely know how to create a web site. Choosing a free host is a logical solution for someone who would like to experiment with web design, or maybe host a low-traffic personal site. Free hosting often includes a small amount of storage and bandwidth. Features also tend to be limited, often with no support for PHP, MySQL, multiple email addresses, and poor web statistics.

Bottom line: Free hosting is great to practice your web design, or even host a web site for family and friends. However, free hosting is not a plausible solution for the serious web master or business owner.
Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is the most popular type of web host on the market. Nearly all small businesses, intermediate to large web sites, and professional web sites require only a fraction of the resources of a complete web server. It would be expensive for these sites to all reside on their own server, which makes shared hosting the perfect choice.

Depending on the specific hosting plan, nearly all of a webserver's features should be available: PHP or ASP, MySQL, multiple email address, and a much greater amount of storage and bandwidth than with a free host. The downside to having a shared host is lessened security, due to 10's to 100's of other clients on your server, and usually total email addresses, databases and domains are not unlimited.
Dedicated Servers - Unmanaged

If shared hosting does not give you enough bandwidth, storage, or the features that you require, a dedicated hosting solution may be the right solution for you. With a dedicated server there are no limits on the number of databases and email aliases you can create. Your bandwidth is much greater, with typical dedicated server plans alotting 500-1000GB of bandwidth per month. If extra storage is needed, simply order a new hard drive for your server. The only downside: you must know a great deal about server administration.

Becoming a skilled server administrator requires a great deal of training and computing know how. If you are low on cash and are willing to learn server administration the hard way, prepare for a difficult journey. However, if your budget is large enough, then managed dedicated hosting may be a better solution.
Dedicated Servers - Managed

You have steep requirements for your web site. Shared hosting doesn't work for you, but you do not know how to set up your own web server, nor do you know how to customize it to your needs. You are going to need a lot of assistance to get your server box up and running and you need support when something goes wrong. The solution for you is a managed dedicated solution provider.

Managed hosting is a very specialized market, with a wide range of prices that depend on how much security, reliability, and the level of support you require. When choosing a managed dedicated server provider we recommend that you either get referred to the provider from a trusted associate or do a few hours of research on the web. Whatever you do, do not rush into a long term contract without knowing a fair amount about the service provider.
A domain name defines the base address of your web site(s). Most often a web site's main page is located at the domain name, as is the case with our site, Tizag.com. This is what people first see when they visit your site, and it is what they have to remember if they wish to return. Taking these facts into consideration, it is obvious why you should take great care in choosing a domain.

The domain name for a web site should be permanent and easy to remember. If a web site was changing its domain name every year, how would its visitors find it when it moved? Also, it is not easy for a visitor to remember a domain name that is not easily spoken outloud, such as www.saf4azk.com. There are a few important items to consider when choosing a domain name:

* Use existing words - If possible use a combination of english words for your domain name, like squirrels-are-great.com, but try to keep the total domain from becoming too long.
* Make up a unique name - If you create a unique name like Lycos or Tizag, you will have a greater chance of getting a shorter domain name.
* Domain Extensions or Types - There are many domain suffixes to choose from for a given name, i.e. .com, .net, .org, .nu, .us, etc. We will talk more about the domain endings later.

An excellent web site to register your domain at is Go Daddy. There you will be able to search for available domain names, as well as register them for a reasonable price.
Domain Types

After you have chosen a name, there are many different types of extensions to choose from. Say you chose "mysite" as your name, you then have the option of registering mysite.com, mysite.net, mysite.org, mysite.us, mysite.biz, mysite.cc, and many more lesser known extensions. Below is a referrence of the correct usage of certain extensions, however people tend to follow these guidelines less and less with each passing year.

* .com - Stands for company/commercial, but it can pretty much be used for any web site.
* .net - Stands for network and is usually used for a network of sites.
* .org - Stands for organization and is supposed to be for non-profit entities.
* .us, .nu, .co.uk, - Are country specific domain extensions that may require the register to be a citizen of the given country.
* .biz, .info - These and other like them are domain types that have been added because there are barely any short and intelligible domain addresses left to register.

If you are trying to decide the right type for you, just follow this rule of thumb: In the United States try to get a .com or .net. In other countries, if you cannot get the .com, then using your country's domain extension is a viable solution.
Registering a Domain

If you would like to register your domain, head over to Go Daddy or search google for a domain registrar. In the past some domain registering services would charge as much as $35 a year, like register.com, but competition from other firms has driven down prices to around $8-$15. These prices make it much easier and cheaper for companies and individuals to secure all domain extensions that include their name.
Buying Existing & Expired Domain

Sometimes it is not easy to come up with a domain name and it may be easier to just buy an existing domain from a willing seller. The value of a domain name can vary greatly and if you expect to pay more than $50 for a domain, we suggest spending some time researching the actual worth of the domain to see how lucrative the purchase really is. A good starting place for buying and selling names is Domain Name Forums.

A cheaper, yet harder way to get a decent domain name, is to check out the list of expired domain names. These are domains that people have registered more than a year ago and had opted out of renewing their ownership. What does this mean to you? Well it means these domains are now available to the public and you can head over to DotDNR (choose Expired Domains) to begin your search of this potential gold mine.
DNS Information

DNS stands for Domain Name System. When someone types in your domain name, www.example.com, your browser will ask the Domain Name System to find the IP that hosts your site. After you have registered a domain name you will have to input the IP address for your server before your domain name will function properly. Many domain registrars will ask you for the IP during registration, while others will require you go in and manually enter the information after they have been paid.

here are very few reasons to host yourself these days. Web servers are faster than ever, prices are down, and the majority of internet sites use such a small portion of a web server's resources that a large number of web sites can be hosted by a single server without any negative side effects. However, if you are thinking about hosting yourself, you should first see if you meet any/all of the following requirements:

* You are technologically savvy individual.
* Understand the basic issues in securing a server.
* You have access to a broadband internet connection for the server.
* Have a large amount of time to allocate for this project.
* Excellent problem solving skills.

If you believe this pretty much describes you, then hosting your own server may be a reasonable solution. However, if you do not meet these requirements, we suggest that you skim through this information and continue on with Web Host guide. Chances are setting up your own server would only be an unnecessary headache.
Server Requirements

There are many things to consider when setting up your own web server. We have a compiled a short list of a few key items:

* A computer that can be dedicated as a web server, not as a personal computer.
* An NIC (Network Interface Card) and a broadband connection. A high upload rate is of the utmost importance.
* A computer that will be enough to keep up with server requests. Processor intensive web sites will require a higher quality PC than a web site that only has a few static HTML pages.
* Installed copy of the Linux OS. Though any OS can serve a web site, Linux is one of the most popular server OSes and is becoming an industry standard.
* An ISP or Internet Connection that supports web traffic. Many ISPs will not allow users to run a web server unless they pay an additional fee. Contact your ISP for more details

Most of those items should be easy enough, except for the Linux OS. It is possible to serve a web site using the Windows operating system, but many more security issues need to be addressed than with the Linux OS. If you would like to learn more about linux, read a Beginner's Tutorial to get your feet wet.
Windows Hosting Information

If you have chosen to stay with windows to host your web site, please take a look at these tutorials on how to set up a Windows-based web server.

* Windows Web Server - A steb-by-step process of building a windows web server.
* Windows 2003 - A great resource for setting up a Windows 2003 based server.

The most important part of getting a windows server ready is to ensure that IIS/PWS (different name for different versions of Windows) is installed. Without installing this you will not be able to serve web documents to the public. If you are using Windows ME or XP Home Edition there is not a safe way to install IIS/PWS to your system. You will either have to use a different OS or install a different version of Windows.

* XP Pro - XP Pro IIS Installation Guide.
* Windows 98 - Windows 98 PWS Installation Guide.

Linux Hosting Information

There are many flavors of Linux to choose from. The most popular are RedHat, Slackware, and Debian. If you are new to Linux, do not worry. Many web sites are out there that will teach you all the need-to-know information to get started with linux. Here are a few helpful web sites:

* Debian Server Walkthrough - A step-by-step guide to set up a secure, reliable Debian Linux server.
* Slackware Server Walkthrough - A step-by-step guide to set up a secure, reliable Slackware Linux server.
* New2Unix - A compiled FAQ for newbies to Linux.
* YoLinux.com - The best resource for anything linux related.

There is a huge community that supports linux and most are more than happy to answer your questions, provided that you have done a little research prior to asking your question. If you have any problems with getting linux to run, the place to ask your questions is at Linux Questions.
When searching for the right web host you will be assaulted with huge lists of features that the host provides. Many of these items are not important and should be included by default in even the most basic of hosting plans. However, there are a few features that you should pay close attention to.
Domains

Most web hosts will give the option to either register a domain name at the time of signup or let you bring your own domain name. Additionaly, check to see how many domain names are supported for an account. If you later choose to own another domain name, it would be nice to be able to add it to an existing plan without having to pay an addional charge.
Sub Domains

A sub domain is what appears between the "http://www" and the domain name. For example say example.com has a sub domain "ex" then the address would be "http://www.ex.example.com". Sub domains do not place a burden on the web server, yet many hosting plans will limit the number of sub domains allowed per account.
Databases

Forums, calendars, customer orders, and many other items use databases to function. If you plan on having multiple of these items on a server be sure that the plan you sign up for provides a sufficient number of databases.

The most common database for a web server is MySQL, which is a free open-source database system. MSSQL, PostgreSQL and GNU SQL are also popular SQL servers.
PHP Version

PHP has gone through many revisions, especially in the past year. Be sure that the PHP on the server is up to date, otherwise PHP scripts may not function properly. PHP is currently in the late stages of 4.x and will soon be moving on to version 5.x.
Hot Link Protection

Hot Link Protection allows you to prevent other persons from linking directly to media files located on your web server. When someone tries to link directly to your image it will deny the request, preventing them from using up your bandwidth. This is particularly useful for web sites that host a large quantity of media files. Visitors on your site will still be able to view the media as usual.
FTP Access

There are two basic types of FTP access to a web server. First is the password protected FTP that is common for webmasters to utilize for managing their web files. Though some web hosts may provide a web interface to upload files without having to use an FTP program, not having direct FTP access to your web files can be burdersome at times.

Anonymous FTP is the other type of FTP access. You can post files to a publicly accessible directory and users may directly connect to your server with anonymous FTP to access these files. No password is required for this type of FTP access.

Note: Depending on the plan's specifications, file transfers over FTP may or may not count against your allotted monthly bandwidth.
For a webmaster, bandwidth is the measurement of data that is sent from your web host's server down to the visitors computer. If you have a lot of visitors and they all download large files from you, then you will need a great amount of bandwidth. Many webmasters do not plan for the future and inadvertently have their web sites shut down in the middle of the month because their web site was much more popular than they ever expected. To preven this from happening to you, carefully measure your bandwidth usage and plan ahead!

How Much Bandwidth?

The main difference between the basic and expensive plan of any hosting provider is the differece in the amount of bandwidth per month. Most hosts will define the bandwidth amount in GB (Gigabytes; 1 GB = 1,000 MB). Below is an easy way to calculate the amount of bandwidth you will need for a month.

* Total = visits a day * page views per visit * average page size * 30 (number of days a month)

Example for a site with 1000 visits a day, 4 page views per visit, and a page size of 45KB (kilobyte):

* 1000 * 4 * 45KB * 30 = 4,500,000KB = 4,500 MB = 4.5 GB

This web site would require a plan with a minimum of 4.5 GB of bandwidth a month. However, to allow for growth, it would be wise to choose a plan with excess bandwidth, in case there is an unusually large amount of visitors in a month.
Dedicated Lines

Some hosting options, more common with dedicated server plans, come with a dedicated connection of some speed. Generally these dedicated lines vary from 256kb/s (kilobits per second) all the way up to 100Mb/s (megabits per second). These options are great for web sites with a steady stream of traffic, with very little need for burst bandwidth. Burst bandwidth is just the term used when a site is sending data at an unusually high rate compared to its normal rate. If you have a dedicated line, as opposed to a certain amount of GB a month, your site will not be able to handle high bandwidth peaks.

Below is a table of how much bandwidth(in GB) you would be able to squeeze out of a dedicated line, in ideal conditions, over a one month period. Note: chances are you will not get peak speeds, and we have included a Real World amount that will probably be closer to the GB you will actually get.
Dedicated Line Optimal GB/Month Real World GB/Month
256Kb/s 82 GB ~75 GB
512Kb/s 165 GB ~130 GB
1Mb/s 324 GB ~270 GB
10Mb/s 3,240 GB ~2,700 GB
100Mb/s 32,400 GB ~27,000 GB

control panel is an interface to allow quick and easy access to a wide variety of features your host supports. Many control panels are now a GUI (graphical user interface) that grants access to email management, web site statistics, database administration, server load viewing, and more. There are a variety of control panels, but we will focus on the big three: CPanel, Ensim, and Plesk. Nearly all shared hosting services will come with one of these control panels installed.

CPanel

CPanel is the most popular control panel solution on the market. Nearly all web hosts are currently using this control panel, except for those hosts that do not want to pay the expensive price tag. CPanel allows the web host to easily customize the features/programs that appear. Additionaly, CPanel has a skinning feature, that many hosts prefer, to customize the look of the panel.

If you are looking for a user-friendly control panel, look no further then CPanel. However, if you do not have much money to spend, chances are you can find a better deal on web hosting if you choose a host that has one of the cheaper control panels, like Ensim and Plesk. It should also be noted that with the extra features included in CPanel, there tends to a few more bugs than with the other two control panels.
Ensim

Ensim is geared towards those webmasters on a tighter budget. If you do get a host that uses Ensim control panel, be sure to check that the cost is less than a comparable host with CPanel. Ensim also has a history of containing less bugs than Cpanel, however the interface is not as user-friendly as CPanel's.
Plesk

Plesk is another budgest solution for webmasters to try out. Plesk has a history of being very stable. This is good if you have important information that requires above standard stability. However, the downside to the Plesk control panel is that it has a severe lack in features compared to the other control panels. If you are thinking of selecting a host that uses either Ensim or Plesk, be sure you do your homework and check up on the company's track record.

Email is the lifeline for communication between a web site's visitors and the web site's owner(s). Finding an appropriate set of email features on a given host plan should not be a problem, as most of the features we will discuss are an industry standard. Nevertheless, if email will be an important factor for your web site you should still keep your eye on email features.
Email Aliases

An email alias is simply the name associated with an email address. For example Bob works at www.example.com and his email alias is bob, so his email address is bob@example.com. Personal web site owners may get by with only a single email alias, while large corporations may require hundreds to thousands of email aliases for all of its employees. Check to see that the plan offers a sufficient quantity of aliases.
Email Redirects

When someone is fired from a company or multiple sectors of a web site are condensed down into one, it would be nice to combine the old email addresses into one as well. However, customers and friends may have already saved the old and outdated address(es), so many web hosts allow for you to set up email redirects that will forward any mail to an outdated address to a functioning address of your choice.
Spam Protection

There are a countless number of spam spiders that are tirelessly crawling the web looking for email addresses to add to their hit list. If a web site posts their email address on their web site they will receive spam without a question. To combat this spam many hosts come with anti-spam software that protects your inbox to some extent. If a web host does not have a spam filter or anti-spam software, we recommend that you continue your search for a quality hosting provider.
Spam Facilitation

Nearly all web hosts have a zero tolerance for individuals who wish to use their server's resources to send out massive amounts of spam. If you are a spammer and are looking for a web host, we know that finding a web host to fit your needs is darn near impossible. Instead we suggest you get a normal host and create a beautiful web site, with amazing content, and earn a living that way.
Web Host - Statistics

Knowing the who, what, where, and how about your visitors is extremely useful for getting an idea of your user base. More specifically: * Who - By using someone's IP address it is possible to know where a web surfer is geographically located.
* What - What pages did the surfer view on your web site?
* Where - Was the surfer referred from another site, search engine? Do they have your site bookmarked?
* How - How long was the surfer on your site?

All this information and more can be provided to you without troubling your visitor, i.e. no cookies need to be placed onto the visitor's computer to gather this data. With a decent statistics program you will be able to find out how many people have bookmarked your site, how long the average visit is, what are your site's most popular pages.
Stastistic Terminology

There is not much use to a detailed traffic analysis report if the terms mentioned are not understood by the reader. Below we have a glossary of web statistic vocabulary to make your web analysis reports more informative:

* Uniques/Unique Visits - The number of unique visitors you had for the given time period. Example: if there was only a single person who visited your web site, and visited 1,000 seperate times in a day, the unique visits would just be one. The uniqueness is dependent on the IP address of the visitor.
* Visits - The total visits, ignoring uniqueness, that a web site recieves in a given time period. Using the same example as above, the total visits would be 1,000 for the day.
* Page Views - Each time a web page is loaded it is referred to as a page view.
* Hits - Every server request is counted as a hit, so if you have a web page with 15 images, then there will be multiple(15+) hits per page view.
* Direct Address & Bookmarks - This amount refers to the people who accessed your web site through their bookmarks or typed in your URL manually.
* Referrer & Referral URL - The web address where the visitor followed a link to reach your web site. This is a great way to find web sites that have linked to your content!

Popular Statistics Programs

There are many reliable statistics programs available, ranging from the most basic to a complete suite geared towards businesses. Below is a list of popular statistic programs that meet various needs.

* Webalizer - It is one of the most basic of the statistic programs available, yet it is fully functional. Graphical and numerical data is displayed for monthly, daily, and hourly time spans. Additionally, you can keep track of your top referrers and the popular search terms that lead people to your site.
* AWStats - AWStats improves on Webalizer by adding additional features coupled with a more professional interface. Added featres: track unique visitors, improved search engine monitoring, visit duration, and more. AWStats is one of the best free statistics program available.
* Urchin - Urchin proves a comprehensive web analytic suite for those who need the most detailed information about web site traffic and visitor behavior. Such detailed information comes at a steep price (a license approaches the $1,000 mark) that makes this product aimed at companies and individuals with a substantial budget.

Web Host - Uptime

Uptime refers to how often a site is available or responsive to web requests. The internet never sleeps, which means your web site needs to be up every second of every hour of every... you get the idea. A visitor could be arriving at your site's home page at any time of the day, so a web host with a high uptime percentage is critical.
Advertised Uptime

Nearly all web hosts will advertise and guarantee a "99.9%" or higher uptime percentage. However, these guarantees are about as trustworthy as a used car salesman, not very! If a host has a history of a great uptime performance they will post a history of their uptime performance, monitored by a 3rd party, such as Alertra or InternetSeer.

Additionally, web hosts that operates on a redundant network (more than one data line to the internet) will be more reliable than a web host that is running only a single data line.
Monitor Server Uptime

If you have already signed up for a web host you can use a 3rd party to constantly monitor your site's uptime and be instantly notified by email if your web site ever becomes unresponsive. InternetSeer provides a free monitoring system that will check your web site every 60 minutes. If your web site needs to be monitored more closely, both Alertra or InternetSeer have pay for monitoring plans that are very thorough.
Web Host - Backup

Your server's hard drive crashed. A hacker compromised your account and deleted all your files. Your web host disappeared with your money and your data.

These catastrophic events happen without warning, and without discretion. If you are not prepared for the worst, your hard work might be lost forever. That is why it is of the utmost importance that you keep regular backups of your data. Do not worry, there are a variety of backup options to pick and choose from.
Backup Schedules

Depending on the type of site that you run, you will need to choose a backup option that fits your needs. If you run a forum, news site, or any other site with current information you will want a daily backup, at the very least.

However, if you operate a simple personal page, that has not changed in over a year, keeping a backup of your most recent changes will suffice. A good rule of thumb for the casual webmaster is to do a complete backup every week or so.
Manual Backups

The simplest way to backup your data is to download every file that exists on your account. This can be done with a simple FTP program by copying your main folder to your local hard drive.

A good backup practice is to create a "Web Backup" folder on your computer, with a sub-folder that states the date and time the backup was created. This way, if your host removes your account, or you somehow lose some or all of your files, you can choose a new host and upload your web site in its entirity. The downside to this backup option is the heavy usage of your monthly bandwidth, as you must download all your data each time you do a backup.

Note: downloading the main folder will not download the database on your server, you will have to ask your provider on the specifics about database backups
Automated Backups

Web hosts may or may not offer an automated backup solution. For those that do they usually follow one of the following backups plans, with higher costs associated with more frequent backups:

* daily
* every other day
* weekly
* monthly backups

As we stated before, depending on what type of web site you run, choose the best backup schedule for your needs.
Incremental vs Full Backups

There are two classifcations of backups: incremental and full.

* Incremental Backup- The backups controller compares the existing backup to the data that you wish to backup. If it is an exact match between the two, then no additional files will be backed up. However, if you have added or edited any file, these files will be updated in the backup, thus the incremental name.
* Full Backup - All files are written to the backup, even if they already exist in the most current backup.

Web Host - Ecommerce

If you are thinking of starting an ecommerce web site, stepping through this Web Host Guide is critical. If you have read through this guide, start to finish, and follow the advice we have offered, you will be well on your way to choosing a quality host. Ecommerce is a much different business then the world has ever known. It is fast paced and those who cannot keep up are left behind. There are many reasons ecommerce sites fail, but hopefully the information here will help you avoid those issues that are under your control.
ree Hosting? Never!

If you are running a web site on a free host you had better rethink your business plan. If you do not have the 10 or so dollars a month to pay for a reliable web host, then it would be much better to wait and save up the money. Launching your business on such an unreliable service as "free hosting" would discredit your business and irritate your visitors. Some pitfalls of freehosting:

* Pop ups - Many "free" hosts will contain pop up advertisements for their own site every time someone visits your site. Instead of people focusing on your product, they are immediatly distracted by this ad!
* Unreliable - Free hosting subscribers are at the bottom of the pecking order when it comes to customer support, bandwidth, and server resources.
* Cancelled - You may discover one morning that your web site is not loading, only to find out later that your hosting service has been discontinued. Free hosts reserve the right to remove you at any time.
* No Domain - Many free hosting services do not give you a unique domain. Visitors will have no domain name to associate with your site and will instead have to remember an unreasonably long url, such as: http://www.example.com/freeService/YourSite/index.html, which is simply horrendous.

Shopping Carts

Shopping carts, as seen on Amazon.com and numerous other ecommerce web sites, are the key way to allow visitors to purchase items. Usually these programs are written in PHP, ASP, or CGI, which are all server side scripting languages. Installing these programs onto your web space is often as simple as a couple of clicks. Many hosts offer pre-configured shopping carts that can be installed through the control panel.

If you do not know much about installing scripts, be sure you choose a host that offers a quality shopping cart installation. On the other hand, if you are not afraid to configure your own shopping cart, check out HotScripts.com to find one that fits your needs.
Web Host - Research

Many variables should be considered when selecting a web host. Does the host provide the right features, databases, price, etc? The quality of a web host can make the difference between a lifetime web visitor for your web site and an annoyed first timer who will never return.
If the web host has a slow connection to the internet or a poor uptime percentage, then a web surfer would experience a boringly long delay waiting for the pages to load. In the worst case, they may simply get an Error 404 page not found! Nevertheless, there are a few steps that can be taken to find that great host and to help avoid web hosting lemons.
Quantity Research

Before you even begin to consider locking in and purchasing a web host, be sure to visit a number of random web hosts. This will allow you to get a feel for pricing standards and understand what features go with what price. Be sure to pay attention to the following:

* Price per GB of bandwidth
* Price per GB of storage
* Number of databases
* Number of domains and sub-domains allowed per account
* Standard features - FTP access, Email features, hot link protection, etc.

After getting an idea for the standards pricing for these key items move on to quality research.
Quality Research

Now that you understand what features and prices are offered by certain hosts, how do you decide if these particular hosts are of exceptional quality? Ideally, you would have several recommendations from friends and associates that you could pick from.

However, if this is not the case, then you will have to research yourself. This step is extremely difficult because many web sites earn a huge commission by offering excellent reviews for certain hosts.

However, there are a collection of web host review sites that may be of use. Tizag.com is currently working on an impartial list of hosting providers and if you think that is a good deal, please tell us! Write to us on our Contact Form and let us know that you would be interested in our recommendations.
Server Latency

Hosts may advertise "lightning fast speeds" and "99.999%" uptime, but you can check for yourself how fast their servers are by doing a simple "ping" against their server. A ping sends a small packet of data and calculates the time it takes to get a response from the server. Ideally, you would ping a web site that you know is hosted by the company, to test the host's actual performance. To ping a web host on Windows XP just follow these instructions:

1. Click Start
2. Select Run
3. Type "cmd" (without the quotes) and click OK
4. In the command prompt type: ping www.sitenamehere.com
5. You may also ping the IP address, for example: ping 127.0.0.1

The ping will then be executed four times (default value) and a small report of average, minimum, and maximum respone times will be displayed. Note: if you are constantly getting a "time out" message, even though you can access the web site via a web browser, the server may have pinging disabled.
Conclusion

We hope you found this guide useful and will tell others about it. Take care and watch out for those hosting lemons!