- Frequent questions and answers

- How to choose an appropriate lodging

- Which requirements should acomplish the service

- Example of an ideal lodging

- Advices.

Congratulations! After a long meditation,you finally

have decided to start your own business in Internet.

But now, arises the complicated task of choosing a

Web server to put up your pages in Internet.

To select a company that houses your web site is of vital

importance for the good operation and the performance

of your business.

There are thousands of services with proposals and very different rates…

for that reason, I have decided to create this list of frequent questions

that might serve you you as guide for the election

* Question:

I am not completely sure of what means “web host.”

Can you explain it to me?

* * Answer:

A web host” (also called ” hosting “, lodging web”

or web server”) it´s a company that offers you space in its

server to house the pages that will compose your web site.

This server is active 24 hours, the 365 days of the year.

When an Internet user, from any part of the world,

tipee your web address (URL) (www.yourname.com), the

web server will show your site.

* Question:

It is true that web servers costs a lot of money

monthly?

* * Answer:

Because of the great increment of this kind of companies in these

last times,prices have diminished considerably.

Those are very variable, either in quality,prices,as in services included.

Depending on the space (in mb) needed to house the

pages and on the traffic or “wereableness ” that your visitors give to the

servant (data transfer),prices fluctuate among $5 and $30,U.S dollars or Euros.

However, I should emphasize that some Latin American servants

have quite lower prices and in national currency

* Question:

I have considered to set up my web site in a free internet servant, but I distrust a little in the quality of those services.

Can you guide me?

* * Answer:

NEVER house your site,neither put your business in hands of a

free servant!

These companies just don´t care on your business and what could

to happen to it… they only take care and are interested in the publicists

that place publicity in their pages.

The reasons why you shouldn´t trust on free servants

(or at very low cost) are countless. All them are highly harmful for any business,

even to the point of losing your company,reputation and all your work.

Having a business online set in a free server destroys

the credibility and confidence that visitors need to have

to carry out the purchase… because they know how to distinguish between one

server and other… and they think that if your business cannot confront a

monthly expense of $5 or $10, your business, your professionalism and the

quality of your products is not reliable.

* Question:

I been looking for a while some hosting company and

I am overloaded of data.I don´t know what to choose: - (

Can you indicate me what should I look for in a good service?

* * Answer:

To select a good and reliable hosting company can be

an arduous job.

I give you here some considerations to keep in mind:

Quick connections: I mean the time that takes to access to your pages.

The server should have a back-up system to protect your

pages

It should have also a system for your site keep

operating if there was, for example, an electric power cut.

It shouldn´t charge you in advance.

It shouldn´t obligate you to long term contracts

It shouldn´t charge you for ” setup ” or ” configuration “

It has to offer you their managerial data (the names of the assistant,

company name, commercial address, telephone, etc.)

It should give you technician support 24 hours, the 7 days of the week,

by phone and e-mail (check it before hiring it…

because it´s not useful a technical support that delays 2 days in solving

an operative inconvenience).

It should provide complete statistics about the visitors of your place.

It should offer you free access to a sure server so

you can protect sales data online.

It should grant you email accounts and self answers without limits

of quantity nor size of messages edition.

It should have control panel where yourself can create e-mails accounts,

see statistical,self answers, etc.

It should have technologies such as:FrontPage Extensions,

Pearl, own CGI, PHP, etc.

An advice:

request them references of lodjed sites at the moment

and contact them.

Another advice:

you can hire services of a national company or

foreigner… because that is shadowy.

Although my recommendation is that you choose some of your area of

residence to facilitate the payments and the phone communications

with the technical support.

* * typical example of a lodging web service: * *

1)Create your own domain web (www.domain.com) or transfer your existent domain.

2)From 50 to 250 megabytes of space in disk (depending on your needs)

3) At least 10 Gigabytes of monthly transfer of data (data transfer)

4) Unlimited accounts of POP email and SMTP (name@yoursite.com)

5) Unlimited self answers

6)Unlimited email alias

7) Your own ” CGI-BIN ” without limits

Access to SSL (sure pages for the transactions)

9) MySQL (database), Pear, Frontpage Extensions

10) Directories protected with password

11) Unlimited access to your site via FTP or TELNET

12) Unlimited access to the complete statistics.

13) Technician supports without limit,by telephone or e-mail the 24 hours

14)Server available 99,9% of the time

15)Anti-virus and anti-spam configurable filters.

When time get´s to select a servant, it could happen that they

have similar services, but prices fluctuate between $5. - and $15. - monthly.

In that case, you should pay attention to the technical support,

overcharges for excesses in

data transfer or the different restrictions of the servant.

I have noticed that some companies of this type offer

unlimited data transfer and that´s not true.

And then the surprises for extra charges or penalties appear”!!

It is supposed that they should collaborate with us and not punish us

because our business it´s doing well!!! (Be careful with this)

I especially recommend you, to read the section of” terms and

condition” that almost all have, and that you check that the

technicial support responds, for example,a phone call a

Saturday at dawn.