You must have worked very hard in creating your website, so don’t let the work go in vain by adopting half-hearted efforts in getting the website online. You have three options to choose from in this regard. First, you can host the site directly on your computer, second is hosting it on a server, and the third option is to get a third-party host it. The first two alternatives are mostly used in practice and are good for people with a fast internet connection, and even for sites that are inclined towards businesses. Monitoring regularly is required for the maintenance of the web server in this case.

Opting for a web hosting company would be a great option to fall back on. The web hosts host your website on their server and you are given access to it via FTP for the purpose of uploading files on your website. Web hosting services are available for free, for a fee, and also a dedicated web hosting.

You need a huge cost to go for a dedicated web hosting and is mainly suitable for websites which is expected to have a good number of hits. The web host company hosts your website on their server, while using their connection.

Then comes the two other options - free web hosting and paid web hosting. It is very normal if a question comes into your mind as to why anyone would pay for a service which he can get for free. There are many advantages which accrue to a paid web hosting.

Some free hosts do not place their banner on your website, yet in most cases the services are not good enough. Some free web hosts have brilliant features but the tech-support is unreliable! For a small site, or if you are just venturing into this field go for a free web-host in the initial stages.

As far as the free web-hosting is concerned, they lack in the aspect of reliability notwithstanding having some brilliant features. Honestly speaking, their service is not up to the mark, although, there are some free hosts who do not put their banner on your website. You can consider these options if you have a small site or you are a beginner in this field. The web-hosts provide you with certain features and a list of such features is given below. This is not certainly an extensive list. Let me put it in this manner that in order to get your site hosted, you are expected to know about certain terms.

URL/ Address- If you have a domain name, it’s all right. Otherwise, you are in need of having a URL address. This is very important.

Space- as a web page most sites require very little space, and 5MB is adequate for a small site, which will take over a hundred pages. Most of the times graphics take up about 35KB of space, but if it is a graphics intensive site, or one featuring downloads, then you will need around 15-20MB. Unlimited space though offered by many web-hosts is not required as such.

Bandwidth/Transfer: This is calculated monthly, and is based on the total number of files which are transferred from your site in the month. This is where unlimited bandwidth kind of helps, since you need at least 1GB space per month for a normal website.

CGI-BIN- this is required when you run interactive scripts like guest-books, counters etc. These sites can be remotely hosted while they carry the banners from the site that presents them.

SSI- a special function feature, which lets you maneuver the server to include something on your page. It could be anything like simple text or CGI generated code etc.

My SQL/PHP/ASP Support- A database format like these is of immense importance in order to keep a database on your site. Interestingly enough, some key sites are generated by ASP.

Technical Support: Free hosts do not provide such a good technical support as paid hosts do. As you might know, monitoring the websites is constantly required, and upon encountering any problem, you might need technical support from the host, so this bit is an important aspect of a web host.

E- mail- It is always wise to have a POP3 mail service as it lets you receive any message from your web-host before they send it to you. Actually, it is very common to have such mails provided you have a domain name.

FrontPage Extensions- If you have Microsoft Frontpage for modifying your website, you need such extensions. Front page items are also possible to be had in your site.

SSL/Secure Server- It gives you the advantage of having secure ordering facilities as far as your website is concerned.

Statistics/ Log Files- this section provides you with information about your users, like what files have been downloaded and which of the pages have been accessed.

FTP Accounts: Users get the option of downloading files by logging into an area of your website with anonymous FTP. Basically, File Transfer Protocol [FTP] allows you to upload files on your server.

About Paid-hosting: most free web-hosting can be upgraded to ad-free hosting for a minimal monthly fee and usually with better technical support. So you can search out a better web-host and dump those unwanted advertisements. It usually costs $5 to $75 per month, as compared to the dedicated servers which cost around $150 per month.

If you are paying your web-host you must enquire about certain things like, a list of the sites hosted by them. You could get in touch with some of these sites and verify the web-host details from the site-owners. And do ask about the technical support they are willing to provide you with as it the most important service they can render.

Thoroughly read the terms and conditions outlined by them. Some of the free web hosts claim to own the copyrights of our webpage which restricts you from publicizing your own website. So take care of all these issues before you sign the agreement and pay hem the amount.