Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
3.
What management tools are available?
You'll want to choose a web host
that has sufficient manageability in terms of what you can do with the account.
Some hosts might prefer that you contact them each time you need to set up a
new domain, database, or anything else for that matter. Others might fully
automate the process through a control panel. I tend to prefer the latter, since
the former is usually always available. My current host even allows me to
cancel domains or my entire account online, saving me an awkward phone call
if I should ever decide to leave.
4.
What happens if I outgrow my plan?
It's possible that after a few years you'll
need access to greater features or more resources. Following, in our
discussion of Dreamhost, we note that it offers certain features to “scale” or
“upgrade” your package. If you're concerned about the future, you might
investigate or ask prospective hosts how hard it would be for you to switch
plans or upgrade. If they say you'd have to set everything over again, you
might want to find a host that would migrate everything for you or simply
upgrade you without any changes necessary.
5.
Do I have shell and/or CRON access?
This last one is a bit technical, but can
be important if you're doing some kinds of development work. Shell access, or
a shell account, refers to the ability for you as the client to log into your host's
server interactively. Normally through a service called SSH, a shell account lets
you run commands directly on the server, like a command prompt or terminal
window on your computer allows now. CRON is a special software package on
the server that lets you schedule commands to be run later or periodically. This
might be really useful to you if you create an application that needs to
periodically check on itself—say an application that sends out e-mails to your
users. Every 20 or 30 minutes you might need to run a script automatically to
check whether there is any e-mail to send. CRON access lets you do this.
However, CRON can also be abused, which is why some web hosts do not
allow you to use it, or allow you to log into the server interactively at all.
In addition to the preceding guidelines, one can also consult review websites when
deciding what host to choose. Beware though: Some of the reviews on those sites that
are overly glowing or overly negative might not be indicative of the actual service.And at
the end of the day, we will always trust the recommendations of people we know have
truly used a service over that of a sketchy review, which is why we will quickly take a
second to go over some of the hosting providers that we have used or worked within the
past to give you a good jumping-off point in your quest to find one that is perfect for
you.
Please note that the following sections discuss features that many hosts offer, and the
specific hosts we mention are simply ones we've used personally. While we're obviously
happy with the services, we'd never assume they're right for everyone. Take what you
read in the following paragraphs, consider your options and price range, and find the
host that is right for you!
