Enterprise Mastermind

Choosing an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to host your website can be a daunting task. I remember being faced with the same dilemma myself many years ago when I first got acquainted with the World Wide Web.

These posts are not here to point you at any specific ISP, different ISPs have setups that might better suit your individual circumstances so that would be an impossible task. Instead I intend to give you a set of ‘would be nice to haves’ and give explanations of services you will see listed when looking at hosting packages. Then, when you come to choose someone to park a domain name or host your site with, you will at least be armed with some knowledge and a checklist with which to make the task so much easier.

So without further ado:

1. Web Space

Usually measured in MB (Megabytes). This is the hard drive space that your website data will take up on the hosting server. The amount needed depends upon the size of your site, for a medium size site (10-50 pages) you will need no more than 100MB. For a full blown e-commerce site look for at least 250MB of storage. If the ISP is tempting you with 500MB or even unlimited space, don’t let this influence your decision – you will likely never need it.

2. Bandwidth (also called Traffic)

Usually measured in GB (1000MB) per month. This is the amount of data that is allowed to travel between your webspace and the internet. If the amount of data exceeds your limit you are usually charged per MB extra. Look for 1.5GB or more to start off with. If your website does look like its taking off and you are nearing your limit you can always upgrade your package.

3. Domain names

A lot of hosting packages let you have included domain names for free. Look for one that lets you have at least one free domain for the life of your package but will let you register and add unlimited domains (add-on domains) whenever you like. Also check that you can add sub-domains to your account.

4. Email

Email accounts are an essential part of online business and all decent hosting companies will offer a good amount of email addresses (POP3 or IMAP) as part of the package. Make sure that you can set up a ‘catch all’ account that allows ‘unknown@yourdomain.com’ to reach your inbox and an autoresponder that allows you to automatically reply to a senders email with a pre-formatted message. Also look out for the ability to access the same email accounts via the web. Web based email can be extremely useful if you are out of the country and can only get to an internet cafe or on the move and need to access your email quickly from your laptop. Virus protection and spam filters are also good things to have access to.

5. Database and PHP Scripting support

If you want to run an ecommerce site or maybe a blog, you will need what is called a MySQL Database and PHP scripting support. Look for packages with more than one database if possible and make sure that you can access the database easily via a web based PHPMyAdmin control panel in order to make essential backups and tweak your database tables. (See 6. Control Panel in Part 2)

Coming soon – Choosing an ISP for hosting and what to look for – Part 2