A powerful and a reliable web host is a major requirement whether you are running an online business, sharing opinions with other people on your website or providing some kind of important information on the web. But the task of finding a good and reputed web hosting service provider is vary daunting and arduous as there are simply too many web hosting providers currently plying in the market. So what are the things that need to be looked at before choosing a web host? Let us find out.

Web Hosting Provider’s connection to the Internet

This is one the most important consideration. The quality of a host’s connection to the internet determines your site’s speed and accessibility. A large number of connection options are available for web hosting companies and a faster and higher bandwidth connection is generally considered to be a good connection.

Connection listing on the basis of increasing bandwidth and quality from left to right are given below:

T-1 or DS1, T-2 or DS2, T-3 or DS3, OC-1, OC-3 or STM-1, OC-12, OC-24, OC-48, OC-192, OC-256

Server Speed of Web Host

Another factor that needs to be taken care of is the speed of the servers on which your website is going to be hosted. Although server speed does not matter much when compared to bandwidth and connections, it is still significant. If too many sites are hosted on the same server the server may get bogged down and simultaneously reduce the accessibility of your site. A simple way to check server speed is by using a technique called pinging.

CPU speeds are also very important if your site hosts a lot audio, video, high level animation or graphics as rendering these requires large computing power and memory. A site’s transmission can get lowered considerably if the CPU is not powerful enough.

Security

While selecting a web host one thing that needs to be kept in mind is the security of the data that is going to be stored on the server. Protecting a site’s data from unwanted attacks and intrusions is very important. It is very important that a hosting company has a very detailed security protocol. It is essential that your host provides protection against DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service Attacks) and various other hacks.

Software Configuration

The software installed on the server also has a direct impact on a site. Most commonly used server software platforms are Windows and LINUX. It is very important that the host be decided after taking into account which software platform would best suit the needs of the website. Add on software components are offered by all web hosts and it is necessary that a webhost is chosen after taking a look at all software components and add-ons offered by the host.

Customer Service/Help Line

Customer service is one aspect that should never be neglected. It is preferable to choose a web hosting service that provides a 24 hour toll free helpline for its customers. Sometimes web hosts provide dedicated customer help lines to those people who are using a dedicated hosting plan.

Reliability and Uptime

Most of the webs hosting companies guarantee 99.9% uptime. Uptime is the amount of time your website is online and accessible to the people via the internet. Also try to find out if a web host provides backup services to back up your site before choosing it. This would surely be helpful in case of a server crash or an attack on your website.