If you reread the last part of our previous article on how to get a domain name so you can start with your own website, you will remember you will need to connect your domain name with a server to make your website available to the world.

How to get a server to carry out this connection? There are two ways to achieve this: One is by setting up a computer as a web server at your home or office and keeping it permanently online, taking care of the security and maintenance yourself (or asking us to do it for you, as it is one of our specialities). The other one, and by far the most popular, is by paying someone else for doing it for you. This is called hiring a web hosting service.

InTechCenter recommendation is to hire a web hosting service unless your business is too large, too private (e.g. you will have lots of personal identifiable information on your databases) or too popular. In those cases, an own web server is almost a must.

Anyway, as most business people start with small projects and grow gradually, let’s speak about web hosting first.

Types of web hosting service

All in all, there are three types of hosting service: private, shared and dedicated; and three kinds of technologies for them: shared, virtual and, more recently, cloud hosting. In addition, with some providers you can choose between having them to manage the server or to leave that up to you, called managed and unmanaged service, respectively. This creates a range of hosting services where to choose from; but don’t worry. We are going to make it piece of cake for you:

Shared hosting

This one is the classic and oldest way to publish a website. In short, you share computer space with other website owners and share the resources the computer offers. Pros? It’s the cheapest and it works. Cons? You depend to an extent on other users’ behaviours. For example, if other user of your server sends spam and the server gets blocked by other mailing services because of the spam he sent, your own e-mails could be affected as well. If the website of any of the other users is having lots of traffic and using most of the server resources, your website might suffer the consequences and slow down at your visitors’ computers too. Shared hosting is still very usable, but let us be honest and tell you that you should try to limit its use to sites which are not your main source of business, like your blog.

Virtual private server, or VPS

This one is like the evolution of shared hosting. Instead of just sharing a full hard disk and computing resources among many users, the server is subdivided via software in many small mini-hard disks called partitions and you get one for your own. Pros? You can mostly do with it whatever you want on your space, including installing your own operating system, your favourite server technologies and just not install what you know you won’t use. It’s a great way to set up your site with what you consider best for your needs. Speed is also way better and more stable compared to a shared hosting. Cons? Especially in unmanaged virtual private server services, the policy is “you break it, you fix it”. You do need someone to keep an eye on the server’s functioning and to take care of security and performance updates for you. Managed virtual private server services solve this to an extent, but at a cost.

Still, virtual private servers are a quite reliable option for fast, reliable and affordable hosting these days, and here at the office we can help you set it up with what is best for you without complications.

Cloud hosting

The difference with cloud hosting is that you store your information in one computer, but the system uses a bunch of computers to send it to your users. That way, if “anything happens” to one of the servers (for example, it has too much traffic in a moment or the managers are carrying out updates on it), the hosting service automatically takes a second server to submit your information to the user who is asking for it. Pros? It is more reliable than other hosting services. It does not depend on one computer only, so information transmission rarely is slowed down. Cons? It is not exactly cheap, increasing your costs.

There are shared and VPS cloud services on the market, so consider both options available.

Your own server

A dedicated server is the option I left last because it might be the one with most benefits for you. A hosting service might be good or even great, but every time you use one of those you are granting your hosting company staff permission to nose around on your files. OK, I cannot and will not state every hosting company out there does it, but why give them the chance if you can avoid it?

Pros: With a dedicated server you have a full computer just for you, your files, your websites, your businesses, your mailing lists, your everything. You control it all. The likeability of suffering security problems because “someone forgot something” or a server was hacked are rare. You can also take care of taking all the necessary security measures for your business both online and not. They are ideal for those who manage information of many clients, many transactions or sensitive information like credit card numbers of clients. They are also easier to set up, as the configuration is basically done once. After that, you just upgrade the software now and then. Cons: You need to keep your server on all the time, increasing your electricity bill. Most people can live with that.

What you get when you hire a server

Regardless of any hosting service or server you choose, you will usually receive two things after hiring the service:

• your name servers information
• your control panel log in information

You use your name servers information to link your domain name to your hosting account. Once this information replicates all over the Internet, your website (and e-mails and everything else) become publicly available on the Internet. If you remember the messenger example on our previous article about domain names and their connection to servers, the server replication is like having your 24/7 receptionist sit down so she can start telling every user asking for your site where it is.

Once that happens, you can log in to your control panel and set up your corporate e-mails and publish your website. We will explain you more about corporate e-mails. In the meantime, you just need to know the most popular control panel these days is Cpanel, although it is not the only one. Those who prefer something less “nice” but as powerful might be also happy with DirectAdmin or Webmin, just to mention two of the dozens of options available.

How do you change your domain name servers so they will point to your hosting account? That’s easy. First, you log in to your domain name control panel and look for the “manage domain name servers” option (this name may change depending on your registrar’s configuration panel). Once you find the option, you replace the old name servers information with the one your hosting provider is giving you for your account. You click on save, wait for a few hours, and then you are ready to go.

If you want someone with experience to handle both the hosting set up and the domain name server configuration for you, you can count on our professional team to take care of it.

Next in the list: Now that you have your domain name and server set up, why don’t we go to the next step and set up your e-mail accounts? The next article will speak about it.