Saturday, June 4, 2011

Find Hosting for Your Forum

By William MacMahon


Selecting the right host for the forum can be a difficult time selecting the perfect host for you online forum, many adverts would indicate they provide the best service but do they? Quite often a host provides good service at first only for things to become poor. This may come from servers being sold to too many people, quality of service becoming poorer or having to wait a while for answers. These occurrences can cause a person to look for a new hosting provider.

The way to avoid this predicament is to get quality information and to know the basics about web hosting clearly. This guide will attempt to take you through the paces so that choosing the right web host for your forum becomes an easy proposition for you.

The Basics of Web Hosting

An online presence has never been more important and this makes having the right web host vital as a poor choice can ruin some sites. There are many reasons that will impact on your choice such as selling items on your site, having an individual site or passing data efficiently amongst work colleagues around the globe. Making the right choice is very important and price and value can't be your only choices, you need to evaluate quality and links and connections too.

Hopefully, you now know some basics but and you can follow techniques and tips to help you find the perfect host for you.

The following is a list of companies who provide a web host service that will aid your forum. All of these firms have forums and are viewed as firms that operate well with regards to price and cost.

Forums can be found on these web host firms

1. Hostgator - www.hostgator.com

2. Hostpapa - www.hostpapa.com

3. Powweb - www.powweb.com

4. Hostpapa - www.hostpapa.com

5. ServerPronto - www.serverpronto.com

6. Powweb - www.powweb.com

7. ServerPronto - www.serverpronto.com

8. Bluehost - www.bluehost.com

Having a list of these companies is one thing, choosing which one to go with is another. You would ask questions based on your own needs and requirements. For instance, how much space is required or how much bandwidth would require.

If you want to host a forum, you will need round about 50 GB bandwidth per month and on average, 10 GB of space to store items. These figures are a general example and the needs of your website may differ. If the website you run does not have many images, you may not need a lot of space. However, if your site had a large number of graphics, the opposite would be the case. The host you choose should be able to provide you with information about what you require.

Aim for stability

It is not a good experience to move your website from host to host. This can cause downtime and a number of detrimental effects to your business. This is why stability is vital. Finding a reliable and established host is a must. Ensure you do a lot of research and know the industry well. If something seems not right, then leave it alone.

The fee

Cost is the important cost for many folk and it will vary due to bandwidth and storage needs. The packages for hosting will usually combine these groups:

Hosting that is shared

Shared Hosting

Having a virtual server that is private to you

The size of your budget and forum will impact on your choice.

Some of these options are discussed in more depth here:

Hosting that is shared- This is where the web host owns the server and lets many sites rent space from it. This is the cheap option for many sites but it can have an impact on the quality of the forum as so many sites battle for the same power. This could lead to poor performance from your site.

Shared Hosting - The host owns the server and rents the service out to many people. This is the cheapest option but quality can suffer if too many people make demands on the server. This can see sites running slowly or note that are out a lot of the time.

Having a virtual server that is private to you - Like a merge of the two above ideas and although a VPS may be shared, its resources are separated that provides a dedicated resource to each individual site, providing the better elements of both options.

Service

Service should always be a key issue in choosing which host to work with. A reliable hosting service will always offer reliable service and strong technical support. Many people prefer to work with a popular host but this may have drawbacks. A popular host will have many clients and this may make a huge drain on their time or server. If the host has too many customers, your website may be slow through no fault of your

Always find out what level of support is on offer from your host. Perhaps you can find existing or previous clients for an opinion on the firm. The following questions may help you make a better choice.

Will they provide a speedy solution to problems?

Can they offer quality solutions?

Can you reach technicians by phone?

Are holiday periods and out-of-work hours catered for?

Do they respond quickly be email?

Is fixing problems a priority or do they offer excuses as to why they have not offered a solution?

Positive answers to these questions would indicate a good firm to choose.

The final word

As already said, it is not easy to find a good host for your site .It is important to remember that choosing a host can be as difficult as choosing a partner in life and if both end badly, it can be costly. By studying your options and learning about the industry, you may find you are able to make the best choice.




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