In web world countless number of web hosting services are available some of them are free web hosting and rest of them are paid. In this market, availability is not a problem but the problem is to choose one of the best services among the countless number of services.
The user who is new in this web hosting and is not having enough experience does not want to pay more for this service, that’s why he/she goes for the free hosting. After some time when user gets familiar with the hosting he/she came to know about the worth of the paid hosting services as he/she suffers a lot by the free hosting.
Free hosting has only one advantage that is the saving of money, rest is only and only disadvantages, such as it does not provide satisfactory services. Many times it happens that the user gets encountered with the statement “The page cannot be displayed” while surfing the net. User suffers through this problem in case of free hosting. One can not make his/her business successful with the free hosting. If the user really wants to make his/her business successful then he/she should shift to the paid hosting.
Free hosting service is totally an unreliable service. This service does not need any particular reason to shut down the user’s site. User’s site gets down any time and he/she will suffer afterwards as everything will get suffer like his/her hard work, web site, traffic, search engine positioning, customers etc.
Some other disadvantages of free hosting services
As we have already discussed about the problems one can suffer by free hosting service. Here are some more.
1. Free hosting services are not interested in their user’s business.
2. Free hosts don’t care that how much hard work their user has done to design his/her web site and to create a steady stream of traffic rather they only care for their own profit and their business, That’s why hosts display their banner ads on every site they host. Pop up ads are not only irritating, but also they make the user’s site appear to be unprofessional.
3. Other problem is that many Search Engines will not allow free host URLs to be listed.
If any user is serious for his/her business and want to be successful, then he/she definitely needs his/her own domain name. Having one’s own domain name is not a luxury where as it is a necessity. If any user is having free hosting services then it shows that the user is least serious for his/her business. Having one’s own domain name is as important as having a professional looking web site.
Selection of one’s own Web Page Host
When user is going to select a professional web host, then the first step he/she needs to take is to collect the total information about that company, such as its background. User should also interact with the customers of the company and ask them if they’ve been satisfied with their service.
Following are the questions users should take of before going for any of the company:
1. What is the quantity of customers they are serving?
2. What is the percentage of their uptime?
3. Do they need advance payment?
4. Amount of setup fees they charge?
5. What kind of customer support they provide?
6. Does fast connections are offered by them?
7. Are they offering shopping cart software or not?
8. Will they upgrade free of charge?
The prices of web hosting are not fixed where as they varies a lot. We know very well that Web hosting services are free as well as paid, it all depends on the user that what kind of service he/she is choosing. While selecting one’s host, it is necessary to make sure that one is exactly getting what he/she is paying for. One should also keep in mind that lower monthly rate will not benefit in case one’s site is down or is slow or its customer service is bad.
How to select a host?
It is really a difficult and important task of selecting a professional web host. Therefore it is important that one gets prepared in advance and should make a list of the things that he/she actually requires. That list normally includes:
1. One’s own domain name
2.One’s own True POP email account
3.access to fast, low overhead or Multi-T3
4.one’s own unrestricted cgi-bin
5.In order to have secure transactions, access to SSL Encryption.
6. Java, C, C++, Tcl support
7.Autoresponders
8.htaccess Password Protection for one’s files or directories
9.Minimum1 GIGABYTE (1024 MB) of Daily Transfer
10.Design of the site i.e. using Netscape or other HTML editing software
11.icrosoft FrontPage (98) Server Extensions for those utilizing FrontPage
12.Unlimited free access to one’s server through Telnet/FTP
13.Online invoices, account tracking, and payment history so as to enable one to check one’s account balance, monthly invoices, past payments, etc.
14.Complete daily server backup
15. Easy access to one’s log files
16. Visitor’s statistics to one’s site
For personal web site, free web hosts are of great help. However it is not at all recommended for business site. If one is really serious about his/her business and wants to launch his Internet presence, then he/she should think and act wisely.
