The article below will help
you find a hosting company for your web site. Once
you have found a host, you will need a monitoring
service (see point # 6 in the article).
This is a quick list of what you should
shop for when looking for a web site host:
1. Features. Even if you have
no immediate need to support PHP, a shopping cart, a
CGI bin or other common features, you might suddenly
discover a need for them, so make sure your web host
offers everything.
2. FTP access. If you don't
have FTP access, you will spend a lot more time uploading
files every time there is a little change to be made.
3. Server access. If you have
only FTP access, you will not be able to manage your
files as well, monitor your stats (which can be very
important) and generally have control over your web
site.
4. Usability. How user-friendly
is the control panel to access your files, stats, etc.
on the server?
5. Price. This goes without
saying, but the article here
explains why price should not be your primary consideration.
6. Uptime/downtime. This is
very important if you expect to process sales 24 hours
a day. You want a web host that has reliable 99% uptime,
and you want a good web site monitoring service to ensure
the site, its forms, shopping cart, etc. are functioning
24 hours a day, too.
