Datasheet

Book VIII
Chapter 1
Managing Your
Servers
879
Choosing a Web Host
You can find a number of free hosting services at sites like http://free-
webhosts.com.
Finding a hosting service
When looking for a hosting service, ask yourself these questions:
✦ Does the service have limitations on the types of pages you can host?
Some servers are strictly for personal use, and some allow commercial
sites. Some have bandwidth restrictions and close your site if you draw
too many requests.
✦ How much space are you given? Ordinary Web pages and databases
don’t require a huge amount of space, but if you do a lot of work
with images, audio, and video files, your space needs will increase
dramatically.
✦ Is advertising forced on you? Many free hosting services make money
by forcing advertisements on your pages. This practice can create a
problem because you might not always want to associate your page with
the company being advertised. (A page for a day care center probably
should not have advertisements for dating services, for example.)
✦ Which scripting languages (if any) are supported? Look for PHP support.
✦ Does the host offer prebuilt scripts? Many hosts offer a series of pre-
built and preinstalled scripts. These can often include content manage-
ment systems, message boards, and other extremely useful tools. If you
know that you’re going to need Moodle, for example (a course manage-
ment tool for teachers), you can look for hosting services that have it
built in. (If a tool you want isn’t there, make sure you have FTP access so
you can install it yourself.)
✦ Does the host provide access to a database? Is phpMyAdmin support
provided? How many databases do you get? What is the size limit?
✦ What sort of Control Panel does the service provide? Does it allow
easy access to all the features you need?
✦ What type of file management is used? For example, determine how
you upload files to the system. Most services use browser-based upload-
ing. This system is fine for small projects, but it’s quite inconvenient if
you have a large number of files you want to transfer. Look for FTP sup-
port to handle this.
✦ Does the host have an inactivity policy? Many free hosting services
automatically shut down your site if you don’t do anything with it (usu-
ally after 30 to 90 days of inactivity). Be sure you know about this policy.
✦ Do you have assurances that the server will remain online? Are back-
ups available? What sort of support is available? Note that these ser-
vices are much more likely on a paid server.
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