Are you ready to join the stampede of Internet pioneers creating their own home-grown sites on the World Wide Web?
Your personal Web site could contain words, pictures, sounds and pointers–called “links” in Net-speak–to other interesting stuff on the Web. Then, anyone with an Internet connection and a Web browser program could read those words, view the pictures, hear the sounds and visit those links.
If you’re running a small business, a Web site is a great way to describe your company, communicate with customers and sell your goods. Having such a Web site is rapidly becoming as necessary as a listing in the Yellow Pages.
So, if you’re persuaded by such arguments, is it time to march out and buy a Web-server computer, add a lot of software, hire a Web programming team, lease an expensive high-speed connection line and start designing Web “pages” that will appear on your site?
Whoa. Let’s simplify that.
If you choose a Web “host,” a business that specializes in handling the technical side of Web sites, you only need to design your pages and keep them up to date.
The host will already have Web-server computers up and running, connected by high-speed lines to the Internet and maintained by Web-site professionals. You should get software from the host for site design and maintenance. Small businesses can often find support for electronic commerce tasks such as monitoring site activity, accepting orders and processing on-line payments. And the host should have backup systems with computers in other geographic locations that will take over if anything interrupts the main servers.
You create your pages, send them to the host, periodically check in to see how they’re doing and you’re in business.
How to choose? After all, there are thousands of hosts. Some have only a few customers, some support tens of thousands of sites at once. Because the Internet doesn’t respect geography, you could use just about any of them.
First off, if you’re putting together a personal, just-for-fun Web site, don’t get sweaty over this decision. If you have Internet service, you probably already have a free Web site waiting for you. Most Internet Service Providers, or ISPs, set aside 2 to 10 megabytes (MB) of space to hold your Web pages.
To put together a personal site limited to words, pictures and a few links, you don’t need any special software. Most recent versions of word processors, “works” programs and graphics packages can save their documents as “HTML” (the standard Web-page format). So you can create the page as if you were going to print it on paper, save it as HTML, and send it to your Web-site space.
If you want to dress up the page more, such as with simple animations and “frames”–dividers that let people scroll through one part of the Web page while leaving another part undisturbed–you should turn to the Web-authoring programs that are built into the Netscape Communicator and Internet Explorer Web browsers. Both of these browsers, including their Web authoring components, are free.
Only if you want yet more depth in your page–perhaps forms that visitors can fill out to order and pay for some product–do you need full-fledged Web authoring software. A Web host may provide these tools. But if you’re creating a page that complex, it’s probably time to get human help in the form of a Web designer or programmer.
One major drawback to working through your current ISP is that you won’t get your own “domain” name. You’ll be something like “www.serviceprovider.com-yourname” rather than “www.yourname.com.”
Still, it’s easy. And, if you’re already paying that $19.95 a month or so for Internet access, you won’t spend anything more.
The only reason to change ISPs, then, is if your pages are really big, perhaps because of copious photos and graphics. Then you may want to lean toward an ISP that offers more free megabytes of server space and easier software. But be careful you don’t give up great access–if you travel, you want lots of local numbers to dial in to, for example–for improved hosting. Not all ISPs are great at both.
If you’re planning a business site that’s only going to be a few pages posted mainly to advertise your existence and services, you still might get by with your ISP. Ask them, though, if you can get your own domain name on the site. Getting your own domain name typically means another $100 fee to Network Solutions Inc., the company that officially grants names. ISPs often forget to mention this additional charge, though they’ll often help you process the application.
If you plan to interact with visitors, however, especially if you plan to sell them something through the Internet, you may need a separate hosting service.
You’re going to want:
– Space: 20 MB to 50 MB or more to hold your pages.
– Data transfer: 1 gigabyte (GB) to 10 GB or more per month that your visitors can suck out of your site.
– Bandwidth: At least two fast T-1 lines or super-fast T-3 lines to the Net. Faster is better if you offer multimedia at your site or have lots of simultaneous visitors. Preferably, the host will lease those fast lines from different “backbones”–
the really fast central trunks from companies such as Sprint and Uunet–in case one of the backbones suffers an interruption.
– Software: Ranging from Web-design tools such as PageMill or FrontPage to “scripting” support that will hold pages together, such as CGI and FrontPage extensions, to multimedia servers such as RealVideo and RealAudio, and administration and e-commerce wares with such standard tools as “shopping card” programs that let people choose and then pay for goods.
– Affordability: Setup is typically $50 to $100 and monthly charges are $20 to $50 and up. More disk space might cost from $1 to $2.50 per month per megabyte, sold in 10 MB or 20 MB chunks. Additional transfer might cost 10 cents per megabyte. Or you could pay a simple $50 or so extra each month for a “deluxe” service that includes doubled space and transfer plus more software, multimedia support and e-commerce tools. Don’t assume higher fees mean better service.
– Security: Passwords and an electronic “firewall” protect your information and dollars.
– Reliability: The more critical your Web site, the more you need it available every minute of every day, the more you’ll want to quiz the host about having a large resources-to-customers ratio so your visitors won’t be rejected by overworked servers, lots of support staff, 24-hour on-site maintenance, multiple backbone connections to the Net, “hot” replacement servers ready to go, “mirrored” servers with copies of your site, uninterruptible power and daily backups.
Watch out for “resellers” that haven’t been around a long time or don’t have their own support staff.
One more thing to look for: Multiple e-mail accounts so you can have sales@yourname.com, support@yourname.com, personnel@yourname.com and so on. Some hosts don’t offer it, and you may not care.
With all that in mind, realizing that you’re going to have to estimate how much space, bandwidth, and hand-holding you’ll need, as well as which e-commerce features will be critical, you could start investigating hosts advertised in your local magazines and newspapers along with national hosts such as Sprynet, IBM, Compuserve, Mindspring, Netcom, and Earthlink.
But I think it’s easier to go to these three sites: “Top Hosts” (www.tophosts.com), “The Ultimate Web Host List” (www.webhostlist.com) and “The List” (thelist.internet.com). They list hundreds of Internet hosts and providers with details on features, pricing, and some tools to search among them.
Make a short list of those that might meet your needs. Visit the hosts’ own Web sites. From there, try some of the client sites they host. Send those current clients e-mail messages asking how they feel about service, support, ease and reliability. You might also ask those same questions of anyone you know with a Web site you like.
Then ask the host you pick for a copy of their service contract. Make sure you can insist on a specified level of service, data on visitors to your site, software tools and backup without locking yourself into a long stay. Include the right to transfer your site and your domain name to another host when and if you choose.
