2. Setting Up a Hosting Account

The next stage after registering a domain name is setting up a hosting account. Hosting providers run web servers that allow you to put your web page up on the Internet and make it accessible to others. There are many hosting providers out there, but how can you choose the one that's best for you?

First, determine how much space you think your website will need. Most personal websites will rarely be more than 5 - 10 megabytes, unless they are hosting large image files, software downloads or MP3's. A company site on the other hand, can take significantly more space, especially if there are a large number of pages to host. A conservative estimate for a web page is probably around 200 kilobytes per page. i.e. if your website is going to include 15 pages, then it will most likely be less than 3 megabytes, unless as mentioned before you are hosting large files for download there.

A word on price... Don't get ripped off on web hosting! To say that prices range for web hosting is a vast understatement. There are identical hosting plans available out there that range in price by over 2000%. For example, for a 20 megabyte hosting plan, you can probably pay anywhere from $8 per month to $35 per month depending on your provider. The difference in price is generally related to the guaranteed uptime and reliability of the provider. However, most hosting companies offer a respectable guarantee of "uptime" (amount of time that their servers are guaranteed to be online). Whether you require 99% uptime or 99.9999% uptime is something that you will need to determine based on the importance of your website. Many companies are willing to pay a premium price for hosting because they are not willing to compromise the tiniest bit of uptime, or customer support. Another factor to consider is the bandwidth that the hosting provider includes with their plan. Bandwidth is the amount of traffic that has visited your site. To determine how much bandwidth you will require estimate how many people will visit your site per month and multiply it by the size of your entire website, then add another 20% just in case.

Namesonic does not offer hosting directly, but we refer our customers to Thinkhost, a company that offers complete hosting services at a reasonable price.

Technical information: Once you sign up with a hosting plan, your hosting company will provide you with name server information that you can then apply to your domain name. If you are a Namesonic customer, you can update your name server information to match that of your hosting company by logging into your control panel or by emailing dns@namesonic.com. If your domain is registered with another registrar, then you must contact that registrar to modify your dns information.

Choosing between domain forwarding and hosting - As an alternative to hosting, many people choose to forward their domain to an existing page (one that is usually hosted at a free provider such as FortuneCity or Geocities). This option can save you a fair amount of money if you do not think that you require "true" hosting. Here are some examples of what is included with most hosting plans that you will probably not receive with a community site / free provider:

1. one or more pop email accounts - Most hosting companies, even in their most basic packages, offer email accounts. This means that you can set up yourname@yourdomain.com and use it to send and receive email.

2. complete management of your files and folders - Many free providers will restrict certain file types, or may not let you upload directly to your web page. With a hosting plan, you will have more freedom over your web account.

3. size - If you plan on building a site of significant size, ie you will be hosting large files for others to download, whether they are audio / video clips, or large images, or other types of files, you will probably want to go the route of having your own hosting plan. Generally you will not receive very much webspace with free website providers.

4. scalability - If your site is likely to grow over time, then going with a hosting plan may be a wise idea. This way, when you need more space, upgrading your plan is seamless and will not involve new setup fees and name server modifications.

5. uptime - When you are paying for hosting, there is a high standard of service set by the industry. Generally you will be guaranteed a high percentage of uptime (sometimes more than 99.9%). This provides a lot of security that your website and email will be working almost 100% of the time.

6. no ad banners - When you pay for your webhosting you will not be forced to display ad banners or pop up windows on your website. Free hosting providers primarily pay for their hosting servive by placing banners on their customers websites. For personal sites this may not be too big of a problem, however for a business site this will tend to make it look unprofessional.