Choosing a Hosting Service

Where you host your web site can be as important as the content you provide. There are literally thousands of companies which offer hosting services, i.e., your web site is installed on one of their servers, and the content, and any business activity, is delivered to your users from that server. Most businesses do not install, manage and maintain their own web servers, but rely on these hosting companies to provide this function.

Your ISP (the company that provides you with your internet connection) probably offers a minimal hosting service as part of your monthly fee. These are rarely suitable for business sites, because they don't offer the programming or high-speed connection features required to run an effective business site. These services are usually targeted at the personal web site market, where users display family pictures or journals.

If you expect to generate real business opportunity with your web site, then your hosting service must provide high-speed (T3 - 45MB/sec) connections to the Internet, substantial user disk space (5 GB), server-based programming (CGI and/or Java), database (MySQL), File Transfer Protocol (FTP) service, multiple email accounts with aliasing, virtual hosting, log file access (to analyze your traffic sources and user flow) and 24x7 support. PCV Software can help you make this important decision.