Web hosting is the act of renting space on servers to ‘host’ a website. As well as space for your site, web hosts, like NSDesign, also provide full internet connectivity. In short, it’s the internet equivalent of renting shop space.

Hosting comes at the very end of your web design process and is the final step to getting your site live on the internet. Personal web pages and small, simple constructions can be hosted from home through various methods, most of which are free, but require your page to carry advertising.

Complex sites, or those who require a professional advertising-free approach, will need to link up with a web hosting provider. So what questions do you need to ask when choosing a provider?

•    What is the average downtime per month? Downtime is when your website, for whatever reason, is unavailable. Most providers aim to average 99.5% uptime per month, this means a loss of 45 minutes each month.

•    Is there 24 hour technical support? Unexpected downtime can occur when it is least welcome, so you need to know you can speak to somebody quickly and easily to ensure the issue is resolved with minimum impact on your business.

•     What type of hosting is it? Dedicated hosting allows you to retain full control over your server, whereas managed hosting allows the provider to retain administrative functions. There are several other types of hosting, and a good web host should be able to take you through the options to find the one that is right for you.

If you’re looking for a home for your website, then speak to NSDesign for flexible web hosting packages that use the latest Linux technology.

Tags: host a website, nsdesign, web host, web hosting

This entry was posted on Friday, July 23rd, 2010 at 8:39 am and is filed under Domains and Web Hosting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.