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Now that you’ve probably just spent hundreds of hours and possibly even thousands of dollars to build your web presence, one of the most important decisions you’ll make next is where to host your website. Choosing a Platform It may be true that Unix tends to be more reliable than NT, but it is even more true that any server when overloaded with sometimes 250+ web sites, like most web hosting companies do, will not be as stable as you need it to be. Don’t expect your site to incur 100% availability if you are on a shared virtual server. There are too many things that can go wrong when 250 different sites are competing for the same resources. If your web host doesn’t publish how many sites they put on a single server, find out from them, they shouldn't have anything to hide. By the way, 255 sites is the maximum that Windows NT will allow per server, and most web hosts take full advantage of that for their lower end solutions. Web
sites running on NT/Windows 2000: *Rapid application development
with scripting languages such as ASP or Cold Fusion. Web sites running UNIX/LINUX: *Scripting languages such as PERL, PHP or any CGI applications. *If you only need email or a static site, use Unix/Linux, it's cheaper. *Tends to be more reliable then NT in a shared hosting environment. Web
site running on a dedicated server: *If Uptime, user experience,
branding, and site performance are a main concern. Narrowing the Selection: Price – Its true here like most things, you get what you pay for. Don’t expect enterprise class uptime for 20 bucks a month, even if they guarantee it. Options – Don’t skimp on your options, if you need extra email address, get them. Some options are a "must have" depending on your websites functionality. Site traffic reporting tools are extremely useful also. Support – Most of the top web-hosting providers have 24/7 support. Make certain that your host has a toll free number for support. Waiting for someone to email you back when your site is down and you’re losing business is no fun. Expect
to Pay: $10-15 Basic email, static site, and 25-50 Megs of space.
$25-30 Added features like scripting support, Windows NT, basic
databases, site reporting, and SSL. $50-150 Will add advanced
database support, e-Commerce, and shopping carts. Monitor Your Site: Your newly created web presence needs to be up and running 24/7 in order to be effective. Most top-notch web hosts offer money back guarantees if your site is up for less than 99% of the time. That is considerable when: An avg. uptime of 99.9% is 10 minutes of downtime per week. An avg. uptime of 99% is 1 ½ hours of downtime per week. An avg. uptime of 98% is 3 ¼ hours of downtime per week. An avg. uptime of 95% is 8 ½ hours of downtime per week. This is downtime where your business has effectively closed its doors to potential customers. It is recommended you take advantage of web-based site monitoring services. This will allow for accountability between you and your provider. The fact is, you can’t be there checking to make sure your site's up at 3am everyday, but a good web site monitoring service will email or even page you when your sites down at anytime with diagnostic data to help pinpoint the problem. In the end, these services can potentially save you money or even justify you switching providers completely. About
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