Frequently Asked Questions - What Is Web Hosting?


What is web hosting? Why do I need it?

Adapted from Wikipedia.org:

Web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service that allows individuals and organizations to provide their own websites accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own (or lease) for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center.

From Us:

We pay monthly fees to lease servers from different telecom companies that provide Internet connectivity. We pro-rate that fee to each customer which is the individual web hosting and account service fee.

I have my own web host, why do I need to pay for web hosting?

If you have your own web host, it actually is more work for us. We have to make sure that server based scripts like page counters, email contact us forms, databases, and shopping carts work on your host. And if they don't work right, we have to spend time calling your host to make it work. Oftentimes your web host won't work with us, or just ignore our requests, which comes back to you. So we normally do not work on accounts where customers bring their own hosting for the benefit of both of us.

    Some questions to ask your web host:
  1. What kind of server are they running? If it isn't a Linux server, can we request one?
  2. What is the path for Perl? (i.e. /usr/bin/perl)
  3. What is the path to sendmail? (i.e. /usr/lib/sendmail)
  4. What is the path to date? (i.e. /bin/date)
  5. What is the absolute path of the site? (i.e. /home/sites/site99/web/)
  6. Do you support both FTP access and SSH access?
  7. Do you support SSI - Server Side Includes?
  8. Do you have a shared cgi-bin directory with shared scripts? Does each site have their own as well?
  9. How much space is available?
  10. How much bandwidth is allocated?

For those case by case exceptions where we do use the client's existing web host, we still charge an account service fee (equal to the web hosting fee) because it's actually more work for us. Examples of where we do use client's hosts include you having custom e-mail which is already managed by your web host, or if your existing site attracts tons of spam or appears to be highly trafficked.

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