Hosting
This is an important part of any website. For a website to be available to the general
public it must be hosted on a computer connected to the Internet 24 hours a days
7 days a week every day of the year. This therefore means that wherever you chose
to host your website there are a number of important factors to take into consideration.
GT Web Design Ltd will help you with all aspects of these decisions as part of the web site package.
A good quality hosting company will garantee a certain amount of up time (time your
website will be accesible). This is controlled by having a number of machines so
that if one of their servers has a problem it automatically links you to an alternative
server so that you do not lose any access.
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This can be an important thing to consider. Many of the cheaper hosting companies
are in the US because the price of most things is that much lower but it can come
at a cost, especially of you are looking for a lot of downloads such as showing
a selection of photos as you will see a slow download.
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Some hosting packages have a limit on the amount of data that can be trasmitted
from their server, this is not often a problem unless you will be dealing in either
high numbers of visitors or have items on your website that use high bandwith such
as photos or video.
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As with anything cost is a factor, hosting is normally a monthly charge although
this can be paid in a yearly value and potentially save a bit of money for pre-paying.
The amount you pay will be determined by the level of hosting you require but we
will help with recommendations.
Cheap is often cheap for a reason and so not a good measure to use.
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As with any electronic item you want to ensure that you have support from your hosting
company, again location could effect this as if hosted in the US you must think
of time difference. Soem hosting comanes offer 24/7 support by phone where as some
is email support only and complicated problems can be painful by email.
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If you are going to manage your own basic functions such as emails, database support
or other functions controlled through the hosting company then it is of great benefit
if they have a very user friendly interface for you to be able to control your hosting
package and options.
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Hosting companies often offer extra items to their customers such as web site statistics
or other resources and these can be very useful or used as an incentive to invest
further once you see the benefit of the item.
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