Finding the Right Web Host
If you are new to the whole host your own website concept, whether it is for making money online or just sharing information with your family and friends, choosing a web host can prove to be a daunting task. By now, you have probably already done many searches on the Internet for any number of synonyms for “affordable web hosting” and assuming you have done this many times already, you have also noticed that when you are comparing providers that some have a seemingly endless list of goodies associated with their hosting plans while others have almost nothing.
There is a perfectly good explanation for this, and it is in fact quite simple. You see, almost every web hosting provider offers what they call extras, but in reality these are in fact just part of the normal service. For example, if you are looking at provider A which is offering their services for $3.00 a month while provider B is offering theirs for only $2.00 a month, the question you are asking yourself is how can provider B be offering 10 times as much extras for a dollar less. Chances are that both are running the latest release of Linux?s Apache Web Server along with PHP since practically every Content Management System or CMS conforms to this type of server.
With this Apache Server and PHP you have a 99% chance that Curl will also be included. What is Curl and why does the $3.00 a month service list while the $2.00 a month does not? Well that?s simple; Curl is the code that allows the much need Captchas that are included with most CMS to prevent Spam. Also the $2.00 a month service is saving money which it is passing on to you, by having a smaller web page which uses less bandwidth than the provider that lists all of these “extras”.
Of course my biggest suggestion to anyone starting out is to simply look at the requirements that the CMS you chose for your website, and compare that with the hosting providers, and by all means, ask lots of questions. A good hosting provider will be more than happy to answer any question you may have about their services. Chances are, if the provider does not answer within a timely manner, they may not be the best solution to your needs.