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Web Buyer's Guide

Whether you're buying web hosting from us or from elsewhere, we're determined that you get the best value for your money. That's why we provide this guide or glossary to all the features we offer and what they mean in practice for your business. If you need additional advice, get in touch at the bottom of the page and we'll be happy to help free of charge.

Web space Every file you upload for use on your web site takes up space on the server. The more space you have, the bigger your web site can be. If you intend to use lots of high-resolution photographs or to provide sound or video files to your visitors, you will require high disk space so look for a package that offers this. If you're like most users however, you will only have HTML and smaller image files on your site, so a lower web space package will be all you need. 100 MB of space would allow you to have a few hundred pages with a significant number of low-resolution images and no sound or video files.

Bandwidth and data transfer In order to keep your site connected to the Internet, your web hosting company must pay charges to the providers of the connections. These are calculated depending on the quantity of information which is passed from the servers to the outside world (including your web site's visitors). For this reason, your hosting account will have a limited amount of data transfer (or bandwidth) associated with it each month and the more you require, the higher the price you will pay. Just like web space, the amount of bandwidth you need depends on the kind of site you run. If the files are larger, the bandwidth required to send them to the visitors' computers will be higher. Also keep in mind the number of visitors to your site each month. If you have thousands of visitors, your bandwidth will need to be higher than if you have only a few hundred. Beware of companies who offer "unlimited" data transfer. They usually mention a limit in the small print and often do not specify exactly what that limit is! You will come across phrases like, "We reserve the right to suspend access to the services if, in our judgment, the user's monthly data transfer causes an excessive drain on resources." The key thing to remember is this: when you see unlimited bandwidth offered, be very cautious - all hosting companies have to pay for it and it's unlikely that they would give unlimited quantities of it to you for no extra charge.

Domain parking This feature is sometimes called "domain pointing" and refers to having multiple domain names pointing to your site. If your main web site address is www.yourdomain.com, you could also point www.yourdomain.co.uk or www.yourdomain.org at the same site so that when they type those addresses, they will go to the same site. The higher the number of domain pointers or parked domains that your host allows, the higher the number of domains you can direct to your web site - it's as easy as that!

Sub-domains If your host allows sub-domains, this means that you can set up addresses like http://subdomain1.mydomain.com or http://subdomain2.mydomain.com which will point to folders in your account. For example, if you have a section of your site for special offers, you could set up http://specials.mywebsite.com. All good web hosts will provide this feature on their accounts. It's up to you whether you think you will need sub-domains or not and you should think about how many you will need before signing up for a package.

FTP accounts FTP is the main method for uploading pages, images and other files to your web site. If you are trying to run a professional web site of any kind, FTP access is essential. Some hosting companies, ourselves included, will allow multiple FTP accounts on some packages. These might be used in conjunction with sub-domains so that you can allocate web space to other members of your organization. For example, John Smith could have his own FTP account with a separate user name and password so that he could host his own personal site at http://johnsmith.yourcompany.com.

Email accounts or mailboxes These can be allocated to each person in your organization. Competent hosts will offer lots of these to users of higher packages so that everyone in your company can have their own address and mailbox which keeps their emails separate from everyone else's. The other benefit of having mailboxes in your hosting account is that all your staff will have addresses at your domain name: j.mcdonald@yourname.com, bob.davies@yourname.com, etc. - this enhances the professional image of your business.

Email forwarders These are addresses like support@yourcompany.com or info@yourcompany.com which are set up at your domain name. Unlike mailboxes, they do not store the emails they receive - they merely forward them to another account. If you wanted, you could receive mail at your business address and forward it to your home email account. Alternatively, you could receive mail to an address like staff@company.com and forward it to all your staff.

Web mail If you have ever had a Hotmail or Yahoo! Mail account, you will know what web mail is about. This allows you to check your email from any computer in the world using a web browser rather than an email client like Outlook Express or Eudora.

Auto-responders If you wish to send an automated reply to emails received at one of your addresses, this is what an auto-responder does. You set up the address for which it should operate and provide the automated message that the user should receive when they email you. You can then reply to the message in person at a later time if required. These are especially useful for times when you are on holiday or away from your computer for prolonged periods.

Mailing lists Mailing lists allow you to send emails to multiple people at the same time. They are provided with many hosting accounts but are best used for internal mail only. We strongly recommend the use of dedicated third-party services for your email newsletters and mass advertising mailings. Such services will be much more reliable and legally safer to implement under Data Protection legislation.

PHP PHP is a scripting language which can be used to run programs like shopping carts, forums, guest books, order forms, user login systems and much more. Combined with MySQL databases, you can run your whole site from a database. PHP is a basic requirement for e-commerce sites or information portals.

MySQL MySQL is a database system which can be accessed via PHP and other scripting and programming languages. Many web site applications like forums and shopping carts (to name a few) will make use of MySQL. If you are running a large information portal or plan to use any of these applications, you will need one or more MySQL databases.

CGI CGI or Common Gateway Interface is the ability to run applications on the web server using a visitor's browser. As an alternative to PHP, it can be used to power shopping carts, forums and other programs. Some hosts will offer pre-installed CGI applications which can be enabled using a control panel. These might include visitor counters, guest books and other features. If they are not offered as part of the control panel however, many free scripts are available online and these can be installed very easily after some practice.

Server-side includes If enabled, these allow you to include one file within another. This is useful for navigation menus or other items which appear on every page of your web site. Instead of having to modify multiple pages on a regular basis, you can just update one file and that modification will be reflected in all pages.

Control panel All good web hosting companies will allow you access to an online control panel where you can carry out day-to-day tasks associated with your web site. These will include setting up or deleting email addresses, forwarders, databases, auto-responders and other items as well as monitoring the bandwidth and disk space available on your account.

Statistics To improve your site, it's useful to have access to the number of visitors to each page, which country they came from, how long they stayed, how they found your site etc. Make sure you find a hosting account which offers full online access to monitor your site's crucial statistics.

Shared secure server (SSL) Visitors sometimes need to submit personal or private information to web sites and they will be much more confident doing this via a secure server. While you may not wish to pay for a secure server certificate of your own, many web hosting companies will run a shared secure server at their own domain name for the use of all their customers. If you need this, it's important to make sure it's available before opening your account.

Password protection of directories This allows you to limit access to certain areas of your web site, which you may deem to be members-only or perhaps staff-only. Make sure you find a host that supports this if you think you will need it, but don't be prepared to pay the earth for it. It should be implemented as part of your hosting account - not an additional extortionate monthly or annual charge.

Customized error pages If you try to find a page on a web site and it no longer exists, it can be very off-putting to get a bland default error message. Instead, with this feature, you can set up your own error pages so that when something goes wrong, your visitors don't leave - they go back to your other pages or contact you to ask where the page has been moved to. This is a much more professional solution.

FrontPage extensions If you are setting up your web site using the popular Microsoft FrontPage package, you will find that, for best results, you should use FrontPage extensions on your hosting account. Check that these are available to you without any extra cost before you agree to sign up for a hosting package. Beware of some hosts who charge extra for small features like this when they should be available as a normal integrated part of your account.

Cron jobs These are a feature of servers which run Unix or Linux operating systems. They allow a script to be run automatically at regular intervals and they can be set up to run any scripts that you design at your designated times. Some people use cron jobs to backup their most important files every night. Others create automated scripts to empty their databases of unwanted entries. The possibilities are endless, but this feature is most appropriate for advanced users only.

Server logs access If you want to run a program that you've obtained separately to analyze your web site visitors or if you would just like to check up on any errors that your site is generating, you will need access to your raw server log files. These can be very helpful in problem-solving and spotting broken links on your site, so it's always a good idea to check if they're available.

DNS control Advanced users will often look for this feature which can be very powerful. For example, DNS access will allow you to send all mails to your domain name to one server while routing web site visitors to another server. This is important if you wish to make use of external email facilities while hosting your web site with your existing web host, but there are other uses too.

Setup fees Many hosting companies will sting users with high setup fees. While it does take a little time to set up an account and carry out administrative duties associated with it, bear in mind that many hosts don't have setup fees full stop - these are the hosts you should keep in the front of your mind! If you'd like more advice, whether buying from us or elsewhere, do get in touch. All about our servers View hosting packages available

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