Your ISP

Most of those companies who provide dial-up access to the Internet also provide hosting, either free, as part of your dial-up account, paid or both. However their main business is dial-up access and they may not be the best choice as hosts. Evaluate what they offer but be sure to compare it with others before jumping in.

Specialist Hosting Companies

These are the most common, and often the best, choice. Most people will need 'virtual hosting', that is a small allocation of space on a server over which they have control, and there are many providers specializing in this market.

In general specialist companies will have good expertise in dealing with small site owners and will offer a ready made range of plans to suit various types of site.

Because there are so many hosting companies out there you will find that most entry-level hosting plans are very competitively priced. Be sure that you check out the higher spec plans also in case you need them in the future and beware of opting for the cheapest available plan, it may turn out to be a very expensive one if you are endlessly hanging on the phone calling a barely existent support service.

Resellers

Resellers buy a relatively large amount of space from a hosting company, partition it up and sell it on to end users. Quite often you will find that resellers, due to the deals they get on space, can offer a cheaper rate for server space than the actual host company do.

Resellers can be a good or a bad choice depending both on their choice of host in the first place and on the level of support they offer to you as an end user. Sometimes a reseller, who is likely to have fewer sites to manage than a large hosting company, can offer more personal support and assistance, particularly to beginners, than a larger company could. Others are just in it for the quick buck and provide little or no support.

Dedicated Server Hosting

If your site is very large you may wish to consider a dedicated server. In this case you buy or rent the entire server and pay for technical management and support. Some regular hosting companies offer this service; others specialize in provision of this type of service only. This is a relatively expensive option and will need careful research.

Do it Yourself Hosting

Many people are attracted by the idea of owning and managing their own server, sometimes with the idea that this will save money. Unless you have considerable expertise in server management this is usually not a great idea. Acquiring a server is only the beginning, you will need a trunk line connection to the internet if you are going to serve any more that a very few users and will probably find that maintaining the server is almost a full time job. Unless you really know what you are doing abandon this plan now!

One thing to bear in mind is that the location of your host is not critical and there is no need to confine your search to those in your locality or even in your country. The nature of the Internet means that a web owner in Australia can host a site on a server in the USA with the intention of providing information to users in Japan. And nobody needs to make more than a local call!

Part III- Evaluating Hosting Providers >>