Want to know about web-hosting services?
Whether you want to design a website or set up email accounts for your business, there are two things that you need:
- A domain name
- Web hosting
in this non-technical guide, we are going to cover Web hosting services.
- What is web hosting?
- What do I look for in a good hosting plan?
- What is shared hosting?
- Can I host my website on my own computer?
- Next steps and setting up your hosting service.
What is web hosting?
Hosting is when you are allocated disk space to store your website files (images, text, code, etc) and your emails.
Your websites and emails are hosted on what is called a server. These are special computers that have the technologies needed for your website to be viewed on your website. Every website you have ever been to is hosted on a server.
A Web hosting company is a company that provides hosting services. Reelnet Multimedia offers web hosting services to suit every need.
What do I look for in a good hosting plan?
A good hosting plan offers a good balance in the following things.
- Cost. With the advent of technology, there is really no need to be paying extremely high monthly fees for hosting. If you have a regular website and are not expecting hundreds of thousands of visitors per month you can expect to pay between $20-$150 per year. Check out Reelnet Multimedia’s affordable hosting prices here.
Pro-tip: Make sure to check the price of annual renewals before you sign up for a hosting service. Some providers will charge you $2 for hosting and then charge $50 per year for renewals. So when you see a hosting plan for as low as $2 and there is an Asterix next to it, be sure to read the small print because that is the true cost of hosting.
- Email. Some hosting providers don’t provide email with their hosting plans i.e they will only host your website but not your emails. So always check whether your hosting fee includes emails or not. If the hosting plan includes emails it is good to find out how many email addresses they allow. All our hosting packages include email hosting.
Pro-tip: Remember it is more professional to have an email address like: name@yourcompany.com or name@yourcompany.ofzim.com rather than something like yourcompany@gmail.com
- Disk space. Your hosting provider should provide decent disk space for both your website and your email. On the other hand, if you run a small business you don’t really need 100gig of email space. But if you are a large organization that deals with heavy files and has hundreds of employees then you may need to sign up for a hosting plan with more disk space. For large businesses, we offer a hosting service with unlimited disk space for emails.
Pro-tip: Be careful of ‘cheap’ hosting services that have very little disk space for your emails
- Security. Your hosting provider should make security a top priority especially if you are dealing with sensitive information. Your hosting provider should provide SSL certificates. SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer and provides an extra layer of security between your server and the client’s browser. An SSL certificate is a must for every website, but it is a non-negotiable necessity if you sell online and accept payments online because your users will be entering their card details. We offer a free SSL certificate with ALL our hosting plans.
Pro-tip: If your website does not have an ssl certificate, Google Chrome will warn anyone who tries to access your site that the site is not secure. This may deter potential clients away from your website.
- Uptime and speed. You want your website (and emails) to be always up and running because you want your clients to be able to access them at any time. You need a hosting service where the server is not always going offline.
Pro-tip: There are many other things that affect the speed of your website. Having heavy images and videos can also slow down the load-time of your website even if you have a fast hosting service.
What is shared hosting?
Shared hosting means that your website is hosted together with other websites on the same server. Shared hosting is affordable, easy, and great for individuals, small or large businesses that don’t expect hundreds of thousands of users to visit their site. Reelnet Multimedia offers shared hosting. However, if you want a traffic-heavy website e.g a streaming site, then contact us and we will come up with a solution that works for you.
Pro-tip: the reason why we can offer great rates is that we have shared hosting services. Shared hosting doesn’t slow down your website (unless you opt for those who offer free hosting)
Can I host my website on my own computer?
Theoretically, yes. You can host your own website. But there are some technical limitations to be aware of:
- Your computer needs to have WWW server software installed. WWW server software allows people to access the files of your website on your computer. (But be careful because allowing anyone on the internet to access your computer can open up a whole can of worms)
- Your ISP has given you enough bandwidth to run websites from your computer. Most home connections cannot handle web server requests and this can cause your website to load slowly.
- Hosting your website on your computer means your computer has to stay on and connected ALL THE TIME. Every time you switch it on or restart it, your website will go offline.
So it is better to host your website with a web hosting service provider who has all the resources to host your website and emails.
Next steps and setting up your hosting service.
After getting a domain name and selecting a hosting plan, it is now time to design your website. ReelNet Multimedia will help you set up your business online, from selecting a domain name, choosing a hosting plan, and designing your website.
Get in touch with us at info@reelnet.video, or call +263 781 276 513 or +263 775 804 796