What to look for in Web hosting Plan

A Web hosting plan is the ability to provide the support for hosting a web site, which resides on to a server and can be viewed online via means of the Internet. Each company has their own type of web hosting plan it could be a cheap hosting plans or they could charge their client higher according to their equipment or technology they use. The one who provides these web-hosting services is a known as a web host and web call that company as a web hosting company.

Elements in Web Hosting Plan

To get to know hosting plans you must know about the key elements or the key words used by the web host so that you would be able to compare these web hosting plans. Therefore, let me describe a few of these elements.

•  Disk Space: This is the same as the space on your own PC's hard drive. Web Hosts will allocate a certain amount of space to your website, usually in Megabytes (MB) or gigabytes (GB). This determines how much you can store on your site.

•  Bandwidth: Bandwidth is the amount of data that can be retrieved from your site within the bandwidth period. The bandwidth period is the length of time before your bandwidth gets reset once again, usually about a month. Bandwidth is measured in MB and GB, like disk space. Always find out the consequences of exceeding your allocated bandwidth before you purchase a hosting package.

•  Domain Name: The domain name is your personal identifier on the Internet. This is what gets typed into a web browser's address bar to reach your site. Some hosting companies will offer a domain for free, while others will have the facilities to provide one for a minimal cost.

•  SQL (MySQL, SQL Server etc.): Structured Query Language. This is the language used to interact with databases. Chances are that if you don't know about it when you start looking for web hosting, you're not going to need to know about it for at least a little while longer.

•  HTTP: Hyper Text Transfer Protocol. Basically, how the Internet works. It is the protocol governing the transfer of web pages from one place to another.

•  HTML: Hyper Text Markup Language. This is (usually) what you'll be using to make your website, whether directly or indirectly. Don't be scared by the name, the 'language' is very easy to learn.

•  FTP: File Transfer Protocol. This is a method for sending pages and files from your home PC to a server. It is quite simple to use and your host will provide login information if this is the method that they use for file access. Typing "FTP://" into My Computer on a windows box allows you to use FTP as if your server were a regular windows folder.

•  POP3: This is a common email 'post box' system. It is use to store emails for retrieval.

•  SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. A common protocol used to send emails.