In this first lesson let's talk a
little about what web hosting is, what
features you should look and how to
choose a reliable hosting
company.

One way to understand what a web
hosting is might be to think of a web
host as another computer that has a
great deal of space. This is not
merely another computer like you use
at home or in your office. It is a
specialized type of computer that acts
as a hub to quickly connect to
other computers.

Customers pay a web host to put their
websites on their servers, which
allows their websites to be displayed
online whenever someone types
in their URL or clicks on a link.

There are many different web hosting
companies to choose from
online,
with prices and services ranging from,
free, a few dollars a month to
hundreds of dollars a month.

When it comes to choosing a good web
host there are a few important
things to consider.

Like good technical support. This is
probably one of the most important
factors to consider, because if your
websites aren't working for some
reason, whether it's a server problem
or some kind of other glitch, you
will end up losing visitors and
customers.

Your web host's technical support will
be where you need to turn for
help, so you want them to be fast and
reliable!

Here is a tip:

Test the tech support before signing
up with a company so you can see
how fast they respond and what the
experience is like. Most hosting
companies have a link to their
technical support on their home
page, so click on it, ask them a
question and see what happens. If they
don't have a support link you should
avoid them all together!

Another thing to check is how loaded
their servers are. This is
especially important for a shared
hosting account, since there will
other sites on the same server as yours.
The best way to do this is by
looking at customer reviews and
searching online to see if there are
any customer complaints.

It is important to keep this in mind
when choosing a hosting service
because some companies will put
several hundred websites on a
single server, which can cause
problems for you in the long run.

For instance your website's
performance could be slow, or go down
frequently. It could also lead to your
website being blacklisted by search
engines like Google because of "guilt
by association" if any of the other
sites on hosted on the same are doing
something they shouldn't be, like
spamming or black hat SEO.

You'll also have to decide what type
of hosting account you will need.
There are different types to choose
from including; shared, VPS,
dedicated, etc. Some hosting companies
only offer shared hosting,
while others have a range of plans
available. A company with multiple
levels of account is often the better
choice, because you can upgrade
to a higher level account as your
sites grow, without having to move you
site to a different hosting service.

Finally, you'll want to check the
specifications of the hosting account.
This includes things like storage
space, bandwidth limits, control
panels
and other technical details. So that
you can be sure you're getting
enough storage, bandwidth and so on to
run your websites effectively.

The process of selecting a web host
for your website can be quite
confusing for many people. As I
mentioned earlier, there are countless
hosting providers on the Internet to
choose from. In fact, if you do a
search for 'web hosting', you will see
hundreds of pages of results (if not
more).

When you start your search you should
simplify the process of selecting
your website host as much as possible.
The best way to do this is to
visit sites that offer reviews and
rate several web hosting companies.
These reviews can be very helpful in
determining which host will work
best for your website.

source: http://www.teachmehosting.t15.org/

This is well thought.

Good for you to check this out!