Creative Design Studio Hosting FAQ

What is web site hosting?

Once your web site has been created it needs to be hosted on a web server in order to make it available on the Internet. Hosting involves housing, serving and maintaining files so that visitors are able to view the content of the web site.

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own web site accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center.

How to go about choosing A Web Host

To run a web site for your business, you'll need a good web hosting service. You may have got a little bit of free web space with your Internet connection, but most of the time the amount of free space you receive is far too little, especially if your web site will require lots of digital photos, videos or other large multimedia files.

The most basic web sites have static pages of information which is great if your site has nothing that needs updating. Dynamic sites, however, provide a way for you to update your own site or interact with visitors, an e-commerce site for example.

If your site is to become dynamic in the near future, the hosting package you buy now should be fully equipped with the necessary tools to become an updatable or e-commerce site.

If you have a domain that you want to host on an Internet Service Provider’s (ISP) personal web space, you'll usually have to forward your domain to the pages on your ISP's server. This means when someone goes to your page it will appear as normal; however, when someone hovers over a link, your web browser will show a location such as http://yourlogin123.isp.co.uk. Very unprofessional. This is why you ideally need a web host that will also manage your domain.

The other advantage of having your domain hosted and managed by the same company means it is so much easier for you. You'll know exactly where everything is, how it is managed, and if anything needs changing it only requires one phone call.

If having a fast loading site is a high priority, there are a couple of things to consider. Sometimes, a slow web site is the fault of the site creator, but some people think the problem is between the web hosts and the Internet. Very rarely is this the case. Most large web hosting companies have very fast connections; however, your connection will be shared with lots of other customers. This unfortunately means that the cheaper the service, the lower your priority will be.

Having more efficient HTML coding, optimised images or rewriting page generating scripts can help speed up your site. This is where not only having one single company deal with your domain and hosting comes in handy, but also having the same company work on the design for you.

Your web site is the public face of your business, so the hosting solution selected must be able to provide a fast, secure and reliable service.

The key factors to consider include:

the site functionality - the range of features it offers, the ways in which it presents content to the user, and how the content is kept fresh and updated
the performance of the site - the speed at which it loads pages and responds to user requests
the reliability of the site - how high the availability of the site is and how frequently it suffers from down time

Functionality

The functionality of a web site is largely dependent upon the software used. Unless you have in-house expertise, you will probably need advice and that is where we come in!

Performance

Your web site will need a fast connection to the Internet. This is determined by the bandwidth - the amount of data that can be transmitted and received by an Internet connection. If your connection is not fast enough, users will only be able to access your web pages slowly - particularly if many users are trying to access your site at the same time.

The web site will require a dedicated web server, and the power of this will also be a factor in the performance of the site. You must also consider processor speed and the disk space needed for the web site to operate effectively.

Reliability

Your web site should be available 24 hours a day - you will need to maintain and support it. The more you rely on your web site, the less you can afford to wait until the following morning until you fix critical problems.

Security is an ongoing concern on the Internet, so any solution you opt for should demonstrate that it is secure and able to withstand hackers, fraudsters and denial-of-service attacks.