What Features Do You Require?

As you may now understand, not all web hosting services are created equally. There are many things to consider, but the good news is that no matter what your requirements are, there is a web hosting company or web hosting package out there to meet those requirements. Here are some common features that you might want to look at:

The Control Panel: As stated earlier, the most common type of control panel used is Cpanel, but it is only available for Linux servers. Each of the different control panels has different features of their own. For example, Cpanel also includes a feature called Fantastico, which makes installing things such as blogs, content management systems, forums, productivity applications, and more as easy as filling out a short form and clicking a button.

FTP:  Most web hosting packages will allow you to upload and download files in a web based atmosphere, however you might prefer to use FTP for this (file transfer protocol) as it usually gives you greater control of how the files are uploaded. Not all web hosts provide FTP access.

Email: Obviously, you want a web hosting solution that offers email – and unlimited email accounts is preferable. This makes it possible to set up email addresses such as yourname@yourdomain.com , Service@yourdomain.com , etc. The email may be web based only, but the preferred email option is POP3, which means that you can set it up in your favorite email client, such as Microsoft Outlook. You may also want the ability to offer free email accounts to your visitors.

Backup Services: As you probably know, backing up your site is essential. You may have copies of your web pages on your own system, and your own personal backups, but what about your databases? Forums, mailing lists, and even blogs use databases, and you want a web hosting company that backs up this information on a regular basis. Not all web hosting companies offer this service – believe it or not.

Database Support: Again, many other features will require the use of a database. These features may include forums, mailing lists, blogs, directories, and more. Unlimited databases are preferred. The most common type of database used on the web is MySQL, but your web host may also support Microsoft Access databases as well.

PHP Support: PHP is embedded HTML that is server side. It is essentially a scripting language that is very useful for numerous things. While most now offer PHP support, there are still web hosting companies that are living in the dark ages and do not offer such support.

SSL Support: If you will be selling things from your site, or collecting any information that may be sensitive from your visitors, you will require SSL support to ensure that the information being transmitted isn’t intercepted by hackers or unsavory software applications that hackers use. Make sure that this is offered. Also note that an SSL encrypted page starts with https:// instead of just http://.

Statistics: While there are many stand-alone web statistic applications that you can use by just pasting a little code into your pages, you will most likely want a web hosting account that offers statistics. Awstats are the best, but you may also want to be able to get raw access log files as well.

Sub-Domain Support: This means two different things in the web hosting world. First, it means that you can have multiple domains (preferably unlimited) on the server – all for one price. The second thing that it means is that you can create and use sub domains, such as subdoman.domain.com. You may also want to check for domain parking support, where you can park domains that you are not currently using.

.htaccess: Not all web hosting companies give you access to the .htaccess file. Sometimes, you may have a reason for editing this file. Make sure that you will be able to access it and edit it.

eCommerce Capabilities: Is there shopping cart software available for you to use on your account? If you need eCommerce for your site, and this isn’t available through the web hosting company, you will have to purchase your own and install it – which can be painful and expensive.

File Size and Type Limitations: Many shared hosting accounts have a limitation on the size of the files that you upload. If you plan to upload large video files or software packages for your visitors, this can be a problem. Some will also not allow you to upload certain types of files, such as .exe files. Know what you require, and find out what is and is not allowed.

SSH Access: SSH access typically means that you can access your site and your control panel via Telnet. Not many people still use this method, but some prefer it. If you are one of those people, make sure that it is available. Telenet typically offers a more secure way of transferring and working with files on your server.

Security and Spam Filtering: How vulnerable is the web hosting servers to DOS attacks? What about spam filtering? Is the range of domains that the web host servers use blocked by spam filters? This is common if the web hosting service is notorious for hosting spammers. It’s a good idea to read reviews of the hosting service. Ask around in web hosting forums, or do a search in your favorite search engine for complaints about your Web hosts name. Don’t open yourself up to attack or accusation simply because you were not informed.

Password Protection: You may want or need the ability to password protect certain directories on your server. The web hosting account must be set up to handle this, or it can be very complicated. Even if you don’t need password protection now, you may at some point, so this is an important feature to have.

Custom Error Pages: Not all web hosting companies offer you the option of having your own customized error pages, instead only using ugly pages, or pages that do nothing more than promote their own service. You definitely want the ability to create your own custom error pages. These are the pages that visitors see if they are trying to access a page on your site that doesn’t exist, or that no longer exists.

FrontPage Extensions: If you plan to use Microsoft FrontPage, you will need Microsoft FrontPage extensions installed on your server. This should be something that the web host provider handles. Not all web hosting companies offer Front Page Extensions support. It is vital that you make sure that they do, and that you request that those extensions be installed when your account is set up. Note that sometimes, FrontPage Extensions count against your disk space.

Community Support: Will you have the ability to set up chat rooms or forums? Forums are almost always allowed, but chat rooms are often banned from the service because of the bandwidth that they require. Good web hosts not only allow chat and forums, but also have chat and forum applications ready to install at the click of a button inside your control panel.

Website Builder: If you are new to building web sites, you may want to find a web host that offers a built in site builder. Many web hosting companies are making this option available now, often at no extra cost. These applications are usually quite good, and very easy to use – and you won’t need any HTML knowledge. Some services don’t offer a website builder, but will offer free templates that you can use and customize, although this typically requires HTML knowledge.

CGI Capabilities: Many scripts will require the use of a CGI-bin. Some web hosts don’t allow access to a CGI-bin, and others won’t even provide a CGI-bin. In almost all cases, it is best to have a CGI-bin, as well as access to it. While CGI and Perl have mostly been replaced with PHP and ASP, there are still many applications that will require a CGI-bin.

Streaming Audio and Video: If you plan to use streaming audio or video on your website, this must be something that your web host is capable of handling. Make sure that they have support for multimedia such as this. Note that if you are linking to a video or audio file that is not on your server, you don’t have a need for streaming audio and video support. This only pertains to video and audio that will be directly uploaded to and accessed from your site.

Mailing Lists: Many people use commercial autoresponders for their mailing lists, but some people want more control, and require a web hosting service that offers mailing lists – unlimited mailing lists are preferable. By hosting your own mailing list, you simply have more control over those lists. However, typically creating and managing mailing lists in this manner is much more complicated than using a commercial autoresponder.

Multi Language Support: If your site will cater to different countries, obviously it needs to be available in different languages. This means that your web hosting service must have multi language support. Note that multi-language support does not mean that your site will instantly be translated to a different language. It means that if the end user is using a system or application that can translate to a different language, the host will allow such a system or application to do this on the user’s machine. Multi-language support also means that you have the option of creating your entire site in a language other than English, including file names.

Redirection Services: If you are redirecting, this means that when someone types in a URL or clicks on a link, they are taken to that page, but then whisked right away to another page or site. Often, depending on how fast the redirection occurs, they never even see the page that they originally went to, and often fail to notice that they’ve even been redirected to a different page.

Other possible features that you may want to consider include private name servers, a billing system, Ruby on Rails, Python, Cron, Curl, GD, Image manipulation applications, extra ASP hosting if the server doesn’t allow it, email aliases, autoresponders (not to be confused with mailing lists), mail forwarding, web based mail, hot link protection, the ability to ban IP addresses, customer support desks, guest books, portals, counters, the ability to easily create and implement forms, and more.

This is not a list of all possible features that could be offered or available. To make such a list may be virtually impossible, since there are so many applications that can be installed on a server it would probably be impossible to even know of all of them.

If you require something different, you will need to check with the web hosting company to be sure that it is offered as a part of the package. In some cases, some features are offered separate from the package, meaning that there is an additional cost for those features or services.