Your next step is to decide who will host your web pages. Your ISP may provide you with a limited amount of space for a web site. However, there are several things you must consider before deciding to place your web site there.
If you want a very basic web site, with very few of the bells and whistles, you can even get a free web site! The drawback is that you will be limited. Think about how big you want your site to grow to be. Think about the fact that if you want a page counter or any other visitor tracking you will want CGI access. It is possible to include an inaccurate page counter at your site without CGI access, but it is going to be inaccurate. I suggest you read through the following host qualities, and if you still want a free web site, check out GeoCities or Angelfire.
How much space does a host provide you on their web servers? How much does extra space cost? Many ISPs will give you 2 to 10 Meg of space on their servers for free (if you have a regular account with them). They often charge $1.00 to $5.00 per month for every extra megabyte.
How much traffic does a host allow you? Hosts generally set a limit of 100 Meg (0.1 Gig) to 2.5 Gig (2,500 Meg) per month. How much do they charge you for extra traffic? They often charge $30 to $250 each month for each additional gigabyte of traffic. The company that used to host Adventure Living (TIAC) had a 1 Gig limit on traffic. The company that currently hosts Adventure Living (2K Web Services) does not have any set bandwidth limit. Instead they provide a virtual server capable of handling around 30,000 hits per day.
This was a major concern of mine when I decided to move Adventure Living. I knew that I was approaching the 1 Gig limit. I also knew that traffic spikes are very common. For example, when Microsoft reviewed Adventure Living in their Best of the Web section, my traffic more than doubled for six days (the duration of that review). When WebTV listed Adventure Living in the Spotlight section of their homepage, my traffic was multiplied by ten! Big Yellow listed a review of Adventure Living on their site for an entire summer. Things like this can easily spike the traffic of a web site over any set limit.
I wanted to make sure that I would not run into high, unexpected fees. So I chose a host that would not penalize me for high traffic. Of course, that also meant my regular monthly fees were higher. Fortunately, they also provide better service and more options to go along with the higher cost.
If you would like your web site to be viewable by any browser, it is important that you have access to the lowest end. The best way I've found to do that is to use the Lynx browser on a Unix machine. This can be accomplished fairly easily by making sure that your host will provide you a shell account on one of their machines. That means, you will be able to use a telnet client to run software, specifically Lynx, on their Unix machine.
If you intend to write or use prewritten software (CGI, server side includes) in C, C++, PERL, etc., you will absolutely need a shell account to install them, test them, etc. Even if you just want a simple counter, your best bet is to make sure they allow you access via a shell account.
Will you have access to a cgi-bin directory? If you want to include CGI scripts, you will either need access to a cgi-bin directory, or your host will need to set up your server to allow CGI scripts in any directory. Ask any potential host if they allow that.
Do they support server side includes? Server side includes are an easier way to accomplish most of the tasks CGI can accomplish. Most of the tasks server side includes accomplish are also possible via CGI. If your host does not provide this capability, it's not the end of the world.
Do you want your own domain name? At first, I didn't know that I wanted my own domain name. My URL used to be:
http://www.tiac.net/users/carl/
When I first wanted to move to a new host, I realized that meant all those web sites that linked to me would no longer have links to my site. It also meant that all those people who bookmarked my web site would no longer have my web site in their "Favorite Sites" list! I ended up putting up with a lot of crap from my host because I didn't want to lose all those links and bookmarks. When I finally decided I had to move the site, I also decided not to let that ever happen again. I registered the domain "adventureliving.com". Now my URL is:
http://www.adventureliving.com/
It's easier to remember, it's more professional, and most important it is permanent. Now no matter how many times I move from host to host, my visitors will never know the difference.
If you want your own domain name, you are going to need either a virtual server or a virtual host. Many companies who provide virtual hosts mistakenly refer to them as virtual servers. The difference is simple. A virtual host is just like a regular web account except it has a domain name. A virtual server has all the capabilities of a virtual host plus it allows you to modify the configuration files and access the log files. Basically it's as though you had your own dedicated server, you can do anything with it.
Most companies that provide virtual servers will take care of the configuration and so forth until you decide you want deal with that. You do not have to worry about all that stuff unless you feel like it. This provides you all the ease of a virtual host while still allowing you the power of a virtual server when you need it.
There is a web site out their called The Ultimate Web Host List that compares the features and benefits of many, many hosting companies. This is a good place to start your search for a decent hosting company.
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Copyright © 1995-1998 Carl P. E. dos Santos All rights reserved |
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