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Web Hosting Links
The major alternative to contracting with a service provider is to be your own web host. Experts say this is expensive, technically challenging and a security risk. At minimum, you need to pay for a server computer and software, a dedicated Internet connection and a domain. Check these articles to learn more about the process:
"Become Your Own Web Host in 75 Steps" --http://www.publisheraid.com/hosting/Become+Your+Own+Web+Host+in+75+Steps.html
"How Do I Host My Own Web Site at Home?" --http://www.boutell.com/newfaq/creating/hostmyown.html
"Web Host - Host Yourself!" -- http://www.tizag.com/webhost/host_yourself.php
"Why Can't You Host Your Own Web Site?" -- http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/internet-web-hosting/714-1.html
The basic alternative to choosing a web hosting service is to use your ISP as a free host, as discussed above. This is unsuitable, and probably not allowed by your ISP, for any commercial venture. It may be suitable for a professional services website, although having your own domain (not an option with ISP hosts) is more professional and credible. ISP hosts are ideal for learning how to manage a website, family-oriented sites, basic hobby sites and for other sites, if being indexed by search engines is not important to you.
Go Daddy is the most controversial company in this industry. Go Daddy always generates a buzz with its racy Super Bowl commercials. The controversial business practices of Go Daddy and other host services have barely garnered the interest of the mainstream media or consumer organizations. Those practices are discussed in this report and our related report about domain registration.
The following websites are the best resources for information and advice about Web hosting:
PC World article, "Consumer Watch: Find a Good Home for Your Home Page" by Anne Kandra: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,124771-page,1-c,webservices/article.html
WHIR (Web Host Industry Review) is a magazine and website with everything you need to know to select a host (except reviews): http://www.thewhir.com/
Netcraft is a fine source for industry news and information: http://news.netcraft.com/
Web Hosters has useful articles including "How Your Hosting Affects Your User Traffic," "Why You Should Own Your Own Domain," "Why You Shouldn't Become a Web Host," and "Web Hosting Company Survey Reveals What Customers Want": http://webhosting.devshed.com/
FindMyHosting has a wizard to help you select a company along with many useful articles. Customer reviews were disabled at the time of our visit: http://www.findmyhosting.com/
HostAdFree.org offers a Directory of Free Hosting Providers. These sites have limitations, but they do not place ads on your Web pages: http://www.hostadfree.org/
"Choosing a Blog Platform" by Darren Rowse is a comprehensive guide for beginners: http://www.problogger.net/archives/2006/02/15/choosing-a-blog-platform/.
Macworld article from October 2005, "The best blogging tools for the Mac": http://www.macworld.com/2005/10/features/betterblog/index.php.
Web Hosting Forum is one of the better forums: http://www.webhostingtalk.com/forumdisplay.php?s=aa8768ada1bc5ddbd96e0578584cffce&f=1.
WHReviews.com has many good articles, but the reviews on the site mostly consist of user comments collected from other websites: http://whreviews.com/
Uptime Monitoring by Best Hosting shows uptime statistics for many services: http://uptime.besthostratings.com/webhosts-uptime.php
Enterprise Networks & Servers article, "Nine Things to Know Before Selecting the Web Host for Your Business," by Chris Kivlehan: http://enterprisenetworksandservers.com/monthly/art.php?868
Entrepreneur.com article, "And Now, Your Host" by Mark Henricks: http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/businessstartupsmagazine/2000/june/27826.html
HostLibrary.com's �Finding a Host� section has many articles: http://www.hostlibrary.com/taxonomy/term/62/9
How to Start Your Own Blog: http://www.ofzenandcomputing.com/zanswers/390
eCommerce FAQs from the U.S. Small Business Administration: http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/manage/technology/SERV_ECOMFAQS.html
Web Marketing Today has many articles about e-commerce: http://www.wilsonweb.com/
ECommerce-Guide.com article, "Starting Your Own E-Business" by James Maguire: http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/building/article.php/3549761
Linda Roeder, about.com guide to personal Web pages, offers many articles dealing with specific subjects: http://personalweb.about.com/
Deborah Ng, about.com guide to Web logs, article, "Top 8 Tips for Beginning Bloggers": http://weblogs.about.com/od/bloggingbasics/tp/howtoblog.htm
Jupitermedia has a wizard that lets you find Web hosts based on features: http://webhosts.thelist.com
General Web host services
50Webs.com: http://www.50webs.com/
BlueHost.com: http://www.bluehost.com/
HostGator: http://www.hostgator.com/
Infinology: http://smartconsumers.infinology.com/products.htm
IX Web Hosting: http://www.ixwebhosting.com/index.php/v2/pages.dspmain
Lunarpages: http://www.lunarpages.com/
Netfirms: http://www.netfirms.com/
PolurNET: http://www.polurnet.com/
StartLogic: http://startlogic.com/
TypePad: http://www.typepad.com/
Webstrike Solutions: http://www.webstrikesolutions.com/index.html
Yahoo! Small Business: http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/
Blog host services
Google Blogger: http://www.blogger.com/start
Microsoft Windows Live Spaces: http://spaces.live.com/
TypePad: http://www.typepad.com/
WordPress.com: http://wordpress.com/
Yahoo! 360: http://360.yahoo.com/login.html?.done=http%3A%2F%2F360.yahoo.com%2F&.src=360