Choosing A Web Host

Q We want to set up a basic website for our business so that new customers can find us on the Internet and contact us about our products.

For the time being, we don't need anything dynamic such as an online shop or updatable catalogue, although that is something we may like to have in the future. We are willing to spend a bit more money now, so that the static site will be ready to switch to an e-commerce site when the time comes with no problems.

What we need now is a fast site with a good domain name. Are there any advantages to using the same company for domain services and web hosting? I'd like to be able to choose a web hosting company before we choose a domain name. Any suggestions?

A To run a website for your business, you'll need a good web hosting service. You may have got a little bit of free web space with your Internet connection. Forget it. Most of the time the amount of free space you receive is far too little, especially if your website will require lots of digital photos, videos or other large multimedia files.

The most basic websites have static pages of information which is great if your site has nothing that needs updating. Dynamic sites, however, provide a way for you to update your own site or interact with visitors, an e-commerce site for example.
If your site is to become dynamic in the near future, the hosting package you buy now should be fully equipped with the necessary tools to become an updatable or e-commerce site. This is, like you say, to prevent any future problems.

If you have a domain that you want to host on an ISP's personal web space, you'll usually have to forward your domain to the pages on your ISP's server. This means when someone goes to www.yoursite.com, your page will appear as normal. Fine. However, when someone hovers over a link, your web browser will show a location such as http://yourlogin123.isp.co.uk. Very unprofessional. This is why you ideally need a web host that will also manage your domain.

The other advantage of having your domain hosted and managed by the same company means it is so much easier for you. You'll know exactly where everything is, how it is managed, and if anything needs changing it only requires one phone call.

If having a fast loading site is a high priority, there are a couple of things to consider.
Sometimes, a slow website is the fault of the site creator, but some people think the problem is between the web hosts and the Internet. Very rarely is this the case. Most large web hosting companies have very fast connections. However, your connection will be shared with lots of other customers. This unfortunately means that the cheaper the service, the lower your priority will be.

Having more efficient HTML coding, optimised images or rewriting page generating scripts can help speed up your site. This is where not only having one single company deal with your domain and hosting comes in handy, but also having the same company work on the design for you.

By having your web domain looked after and your website hosted with deadeasy.net, it could prove very time efficient. Also, by having your site designed by parconception, deadeasy.net will give you a huge discount on your hosting price which could end up being as little as £5 + VAT per month. This also includes the all important statistics page which means you can see how many people have visited different areas of your website.

Domain name, hosting, FTP access, statistics page, web design and more all under one roof, with the capabilities of setting up an e-commerce site, yes, there are advantages to using the same company.