Ask a Website Design Company

19 March 2012
Naz,

Host with the company you want to build your site with, as I said on your other post in here, take a look at my site, you should find the answers, if not drop me a line.

Dale
www.wpd.me.uk

19 March 2012
Hi Naz,

I would generally recommend finding a hosting company based in the country you want people to find your site in. Usually they will say if they are for example UK based.

From the sounds of it your website is a simple one so you really don't need anything expensive. I would also look at testimonials to see who is getting good feedback.

If you need more help then feel free to email me the ones you are considering for your budget and I'll have a look at them for you.

Kind Regards

N: Alan Fair
P: Managing Director
W: www.contactmultimedia.co.uk
T: 0141 246 5743
M: 07793 544 852
E: alan@cmmc.co.uk

20 March 2012
Hi Naz,

Comp Tek not only offer great website solutions but we also have our own hosting solutions that can be tailored to individual requirements.

I can offer you an unlimited hosting plan including 1x .co.uk or .com domain for £20 per year. The unlimited package would include unlimited bandwidth (truly unlimited and no small print) unlimited storage space and emails along with a huge library of one click install scripts encase you wanted to try and creat your own website.

If you want to know more drop me an email.

Many thanks

Kevin Mason
www.comp-tek.co.uk
info@comp-tek.co.uk
07788 887382

20 March 2012
Hi Naz,

FastVision are really well rated and are a good solution for less experienced people who are just starting out online. This is because their customer service is good, which is important if you are new to this.

There are lots of factors that will determine whether managing the domain yourself (via a web host like FastVision), or putting this in the hands of someone who builds your site (like us or anyone else on WWDC), is the best option for you.

Also, hosting and domain control, while often provided by the same company are separate services:

Hosting - maintaining a server that has your website/email on it (can be done by whoever builds your site)
Domain Control - see below (can be best if you do this yourself).

Essentially there are three main facets to controlling your domain, which in the most basic sense, can be explained as follows:

A records - This points the domain at a server with your website on it
MX records - This points the domain at a server with your email on it
IPS tag - This is what allows a company or you to "control" your domain, renew it, and assign the A/MX records

This is quite a complex thing to get your head around if you are new to all this, but you should try to retain control of your IPS tag, otherwise if you fall out with the company building your site and they control your IPS tag, you can end up with problems in moving to another provider. If you control your IPS tag, you can then point to whichever web host you are working with.

The guys at FastVision will be able to explain how it all works if you give them a call.

Hope this helps,

Ed.

23 March 2012
For cheap hosting use http://www.one.com
For quality hosting http://www.zen.co.uk/

If your not really very server savvy www.123-reg.co.uk is a really simple system which most users find it easy to use

29 March 2012
Definitely let the website creator direct you on this. Depending on how they build the site will determin where the site should be hosted.

Kind regards

7 April 2012
Personally I would recommend www.ukfast.net, however these are not a budget hosting company, but you certainly get what you pay for.

If you are on a tighter budget feel free to get in touch, we have 3 dedicated servers with UKFast so may be able to offer you a spot on one of our servers.

7 April 2012
As it's been mentioned before, look for web hosting that is in the country that's important for your site to be ranked well in search engine results.

This area can be quite confusing depending on what you want to do, but it's best for you to register your own domain with a reputable company that will allow you full control over the domain no matter where your web hosting is.

Beware of some offers giving you a free domain if you signup with their hosting as their terms sometimes lock you into a contract with them and there will be a fee incurred should you with to host with someone else and you need to release your name from them.

There are lots of uk providers and the ones i use for registering domain names are heart internet and freeparking.

Hosting depends on your site, such as if it's going to be bandwidth intensive (not likely), if its going to be a Content Managed site as a database will need to be included in the hosting package, etc. Again for hosting i use heart internet as i have a reseller account with them and their support any time it's been needed has been the best i have ever received from any hosting provider. Have fun.

10 April 2012
Hi Naz

There are a number of hosting company, but as someone mentioned earlier, I would look at where their servers are and try to get one on the country where you want to attract visitors from.

It's also a good idea to use the web design company you want to choose for your website (we offer free web hosting for the first year to all our web design customers, as most probably do to be honest).

One of the things I would also look out for is how long the hosting company has been in the business - this will give you a good indication as to how competent they are to be able to handle technical queries should that ever be necessary; but also as to how reliable they are - you don't want a web host that might not be around in a few months because that would mean you lose your website (and quite possibly emails unless the emails are hosted elsewhere - which is unnecessarily technical I think at this stage).

For domain registrations, I often shop around as you can regularly find vouchers for domain registrars - namecheap, 123-reg, uk2 and other domain registrars are always issuing vouchers (contact me for more details if you want help with that - 0800 4 969 969) - I have found this to be a cheaper option, and isn't too technically daunting either as there is a lot of support available on how to manage the domain when the hosting company is different.

The other advantage of using a larger, more reputable domain registrar is that, they're less likely to go out of business; and therefore you're less likely to worry about getting your web address back (which can be done even if the registrar does go out of business, but again, it can be avoided).

Hope that helps
Farzan

11 April 2012
Dear Mr.Naz,

You need only a basic hosting requirement as per your question. 5/6 page website with normal pages and 1/2 forms will use only less than 10MB space. So buying an unlimited space/bandwidth will cost you high. You need a nice provider with normal price which you can find in your city. But the connectivity and uptime guarantee is most important in your case. Make sure that your domain and hosting registered in your email(Then you will have full control over your domain & hosting). If you are interested you can check our site we offer free hosting with domain registration (Only £7.45/yr).

http://www.securepaynet.net/domains/search.aspx?ci=1775&prog_id=webtrailsid37162

Everything you need to get online - FREE with your domain.
Each and every Web Trails Info Solutions domain name comes with all you need to get online. The cost of your domain registration includes a 5-page website with hosting, spam-free email account, blog, photo album and more - all 100% FREE!

Regards
SKM

4 May 2012
I would recommend Media Temple, I have found them to be the best hosting company I have dealt with and the customer service is amazing.

19 May 2012
Hi Naz,

I'd recommend you to search for a host with a competitive price and 99.9% up time who are an established business. If they are reliable, cheap and have been in business for a decent amount of time - they are an excellent choice.

We use and recommend Lunarpages who have always been superb - providing us with excellent quality hosting.

All the best,

Ally

13 June 2012
Use a company who operates (and ideally locates the servers) in the country you are based, or least where your market is.

Then either choose someone like Heart Interent or 123reg who are big enough to offer either online or telephone support.

If you have chosen your web designer then it makes sense for them to recommend the host (or let them host it) as they will be sure it will run on the hosts systems but make sure the domain registration is made in your name and if you dont use their hosting,make sure the hosting package is also registered in your name and you have the control panel logins.

15 June 2012
You may purchase from us. But all depends on the Hosting and the uptime. We guarantee 100% uptime guarantee. We are handling more than 1000 domains hosted in our servers. If it is a static site then Linux is better and safe. I recommend GoDaddy.com.