To complete our mini-series on web hosting companies, we are today looking at the companies that have fulfilled our requirements.

We have used a number of different web hosting companies over the years. The following is a list of the web hosting companies that we feel would meet the requirements of most websites.

We have based our list on the information that we have looked at over the mini series of web hosting.

These include:
Price, Diskspace, Bandwidth, Support services and where are the servers based.

Prices correct at time of this article.

To find out more about any of these hosting companies click on the name of the company, most of them provide more than one hosting package. The ones listed on the list are the entry level packages.

In web related magazines it is common to find long lists of hosting companies than we have presented above, all trying to attract your attention.
As we compiled our list we also considered where the servers are actually based, not the fact that the company have offices in the UK.

On many SEO commentaries there is a consensus of opinion that if a person refines their search results by clicking "pages from the UK" then servers based outside of the UK may not be listed as high.

This has a potential knock on effect that your site may be then listed in "local searches" from the country that your server is in fact based in.
Therefore  we have focused specifically on those companies that openly declare that their servers are in the UK.

Continuing our mini-series about web hosting, this time we are looking at two key features of your web hosting plan, bandwidth and disk space.

Let’s explain these key features in more detail and provide examples to help you decide the usage you could require and the implications of skimping on either of these features.

Bandwidth

This is more commonly described as monthly data transfer and is the amount of data transferred to or from your website or server each month.

When trying to choose a web hosting company and looking at the figures quoted for bandwidth, you will notice that some companies say “unlimited bandwidth”.
Some also give an amount say 500Mb. These figures also include your emails, ftp and other applications you may use.

Although when you read “unlimited bandwidth” you might think, “…Wow, that would be great!” but it would be  impossible to have as they don’t mean unlimited in the right meaning of the word.
What the web hosting companies take into account is that most web hosting accounts don’t use anywhere near their data allowance. So there would be an excess of bandwidth if it was needed, but there is always a limit that is not well specified. It would be worth looking at the terms of the hosting package to see how the company would enforce the policy.

An example of how the monthly data transfer works for a website page is shown below:

Each web page on your website is 20 KB and the page also has two images of 10 KB.
That means every visitor to the page will download 40KB of data.

If five hundred people download these files in a month, your monthly data transfer would be 19MB (40KB * 500) / 1024) for that one page, obviously your website would have more than one page. (In this calculation the figure 1024Kb is equal to 1Mb).

Say your website has 10 pages but only 100 people look at those pages each month. Then the monthly data transfer would be: (40KB*100) /1024) *9 = 35Mb.
So, the larger the files, the higher the data transfer usage when it is downloaded and the more traffic to your site, the more data transfer you will use. This example only has 2 images and text on the page but if you had more images, larger images then the amount would be different.
With that example in mind, you can reduce your usage. This can be achieved by decreasing the number and size of images, reducing the resolution of images, removing large downloads e.g. music and video files, removing background music and generally decreasing the amount of data which is being downloaded (maybe unnecessarily)
in each visit.

If by chance you use up your bandwidth, you may find that your website is offline without you realising it. This could then cause loss of position in Search Engines or simply inconvenience. Although, most companies would offer you the chance to pay for the excess without having to upgrade your package.

Web space (disk space)
This is the amount of data you can store on the hard disk of the web server. Every web hosting package comes with a certain amount of space. Although now as in the case of bandwidth some companies are offering “unlimited disk space”. Other companies still offer a set amount of disk space and they can be quite different depending on your hosting company.
The amount of disk space needed depends on what sort of website you have. Unless you have really large files (eg downloadable music or video), which take up the most room on a server then most people would be fine with a lower limit on the web space.
An example of how to calculate the disk space for the more common website is shown here:
Each web page of a website can be up to 45Kb. This figure does not include any images you have on that page. Depending on the size and amount of images on the web page, you would have to multiply it by 3 or 4 times.

So after looking at these figures if you are looking at hosting package with either 500mb or 1Gb, would you ever utilize all the space provided by your web host?

In most cases the disk space offered in a hosting package includes the space of databases and email accounts so bear this in mind if the disk space is less than 50MB. If your website has a Content Management System you’ll probably be required to use databases. These databases can use a reasonable amount of diskspace, a hosting plan that skimps too much on the disk space can be a false economy in the long term.

We recommend that you purchase a hosting plan that has a little extra space than you think you may use at the outset. Whilst you can usually purchase additional disk space it could be better to have a little extra capacity on your site.

If you are at all worried about how much disk space you need, then try and choose a host that  allows account upgrades. Then you will be able to get more disk space and/or bandwidth if or when you need it. Thus saving you the hassle of changing hosts.

Next time, we will look at the web hosting companies that have fulfilled our requirements.

Continuing our mini-series about web hosting, this time we are looking at the basic requirements to consider when choosing a website hosting package.
As a minimum requirement in our opinion, your hosting company should provide you the ability to perform several basic functions. Beware that they don’t limit you to controlling your email or billing and nothing more.
Firstly, let us look at some of the basic requirements we think you should be provided with as part of your hosting package.

Control Panel
Your hosting package should have a control panel that allows you to perform updates and amendments to your website.
Sadly many hosting companies claim to have a control panel that in reality is little more than a place to update email accounts, access and read your email online and alter your billing details.
A competent hosting company should in reality offer you much more. You may not think you’ll want to use all these features now, however as your business develops you may change your mind.

Email accounts.
Some hosts will let you have control over your email accounts, others will do all the set up for you. Being able to change the accounts yourself is easier than you think.
It is also quicker than having to raise a tech support request, each time you wanted to change a setting on your email accounts.
It is also worth checking how many email accounts you can have on your hosting package. Some hosting companies have restrictions on the number of accounts or maximum size of mail boxes. Whilst many of us may not send or receive large volumes of email you wouldn’t want to find the size of your email box restrictive so you potentially are unable to receive an important business email.

Parked domains
Many hosting plans do not allow more than one domain name (your www. website address) to be situated on the same hosting plan. Being able to add additional ” parked domains ” or web addresses  on your hosting plan is a good idea. If not now then in the future you may decide to have different domain names pointing to the same website.

File Manager
In many ways a file manager is one of the most important things (email aside) that you should have on your hosting plan. A file manager gives you the ability to upload or add things to your website, create folders, delete items on your hosting space or move things to alternative locations.
Having access to a file manager is also worth having especially if you don’t have a FTP program on your computer, which allows you a direct connection from your PC to you hosting plan.

There are other features that are beneficial to have. These will depend on what need you have for them on your website.
Other features include:

PHP module
PHP is a special code that runs on the web hosting plan. It allows you to offer lots of extra functionality. Unless you’re skilled in computer programming or purchase pre-made software you’ll probably need someone else to write any php code you require for you. Having a PHP module installed on your hosting plan is worthwhile but  is not always standard on your hosting package.

MySQL databases
Databases are used in so many different websites, they control things from a simple list of email addresses through to entire shop product lists , website content and much more. Having databases also means that you could have a Content Management System (CMS) on your website. Using a CMS would give you the ability to update your website yourself. Be aware that databases are sometimes limited on certain hosting packages.

PHP my admin
PHP MyAdmin is a really effective way for your web designer or developer to access your MySQL databases. Why pay your web designer to install this software when many hosting companies offer it as standard ?  phpMyAdmin also allows you to backup your databases and also to export them to a Excel document for easy reading or transfer of the data.

When choosing your web hosting package, it is always best to look at what’s included rather than just looking at the price.

Next time we’ll look at two key features of your web hosting plan bandwidth and disk space. We’ll explain these key features in more detail and provide examples to help you decide the usage you could require and the implications of skimping on either of these features.

We had previously stated that we were going to be looking at what you need from your hosting plan, how to select the best one for you to prevent your website being blocked as you have used all your “air time” for that month. However, we have altered the order of the articles that make up this mini series as we have come across too many of these
‘real life’ situations.

In the second part of our mini series about web hosting (click here to read first part), we are going to look at web site names or domain names to give its correct term.
Domain names can be bought on their own or together with a new hosting plan.

When you consider buying a domain name and hosting for your website, most people will look at different web hosting companies. Most offer you a package deal with a free domain name. Generally these can save you some money.

However if you are already in possession of your chosen domain name, please read on as the next few minutes could be vital for the long term future of your business web site.

Not too long ago it was common practice for Internet Service Providers ( or now your broadband company) to register your new domain name on your behalf. The thing that they didn’t tell you was that they registered your domain name in their personal name. Therefore they became the legal registrant (or owner) of your domain name. This resulted in many companies large and small, finding out that they weren’t the legal registant (owner) of their domain name.

Sadly these days this practise still continues – we recommend that if you find this is the case with your domain name, you contact your provider prior to your contract expiring to request that they update the register at their expense.

The other problem that is quite common these days is when you Internet Service Provider or Broadband company have registered the domain names for you in their name and then cease trading. This can also leave you in an awkard place but this can usually be resolved with a little effort and quite a lot of patience!

Secondly if you set your company up as a partnership it is worth checking out who owns the domain names.
If the domain names are registered to one of the partners and for any reason your partnership changes or breaks up then this could also become a problem. If you find you aren’t the legal registrant then you would need to contact whoever is and ask them to transfer over to you. This will cost you time and usually admin fees, so it is worth keeping an eye on it when registering the name in the first place. We advise companies to ensure that individuals who own the domain names sign them over to the company so that when they leave or retire the company automatically assumes ownership of the name.

We strongly recommend that if you are not totally sure that you own or are the legal registrant of your .co.uk domain name then you can check who owns your domain name by going to a Whois website, this lists who the legal registrant is.
If you find yourself in this situation don’t despair. Nominet is the holder of the register of .co.uk and uk.com domain names. They can help you resolve issues with your domain name registrations.

If you are going to be purchasing a new domain name it is vital to enter your details correctly, so they appear in the WhoIs register.
This register of who own each domain name is managed by different organisations. For example Nominet mange all the ".co.uk or uk.com" domain names.
Therefore if you have issues or disputes over one of these types of domain name you can seek assitance from Nominet.
Details of other organisations who co-ordinate registries can be found online but are beyond the scope of this article.

If you find yourself unsure if you own your domain name or not and are unable to check it out, we’ll be happy to provide you a free check.

In our next part we’ll be looking at what you need from your hosting plan and how to select the best one for you to prevent your website being blocked as you have used all your "air time" for that month.

Many companies seem to focus either on price or on service – whilst I’m sure all would argue that they offer both a good price and excellent service.

In this mini series we are going to look over and under the ‘bonnet’ of the hosting package and show you how to look a bit further than the neon sign on the home page that advertises “quality hosting at £2.99 per month”.

We will look at the packages, consider the support offered by the hosting companies support department, also if the core services they offer are good enough or will possibly leave you wishing you had not used their web hosting services – if disaster happens.

Lastly we will publish a list of some of those companies we feel offer a reasonable (or better) level of service.

This first part briefly covers support with regard to site backups and assistance.

As a website owner you may even wish periodically to backup your website and databases as a precaution.

To do this you would require access to an FTP client and also something like phpMyAdmin or a SQL / MySQL admin tool. If you are not very technically minded – you may wish to ask for help or assistance from the tech support department. This is where you may have wished that you checked when they are actually working.

If you need to do this over a weekend and they only work Monday through to Friday
9am – 6pm this may be of little use to you. Even if the company answers support tickets by email – sometimes there is no substitute for a live chat or telephone call.

Have you considered what will happen if your website crashes ?

If part or all of a web server crashes over a weekend, the hosting company will usually have someone around to restore the service. However if for some reason if it is only your website that crashes,  you may find that you are left waiting for 36 – 48 hours without assistance.

We recommend that you take your time to  some research and consider if your potential new hosting company offers live chat or telephone support. You may end up paying slightly more for your hosting plan from companies that offer a better level of support, but that may be £15 or £20 well spent.

In our next part we’ll be looking at what you need from your hosting plan and how to select the best one for you to prevent your website being blocked as you have used all your “air time” for that month.