1&1 HOSTING
When choosing a good website hosting provider there are a number of issues
that need to be taken to consideration . Netfaqs have tried out a number
of webhosts - 123reg , Donhosting Fasthosts and Lycos hosting , all offer
top hosting facilities , but 1&1 came no1 for overal usefulness and
scalability
What we particularly liked , and why we settled for 1&1
for our network of sites :
Multiple domains - you would normally have to buy a
reseller which can be expensive and difficult to maintain but 1&1
allows you to easily add as many domain names as you like to your account
(each mapped to a directory under the root path). This in itself can save
you a fortune when you scale up - and is ideal for newbie websites as
well as website developers.
Cost of domains - these are better than 9 out of 10
others we tested , particulatly good .co.uk and .org.uk but even .com
are better than some US hosts .
Web Stats - the 1&1 console allows you to view graphical
reports from your log stats , and keeps a historical record , so you can
easily see trends in UVs / pages visited and keywords used . If you are
doing SEO (seach engine optimisation) the graphs are invaluable , and
are also useful if you later need to sell your site ,as they provide graphical
information of metrics that are accepted by most website selling sites
including SEDO .
Scripting - you can choose PHP on Linux servers or ASP
on windows servers , and muliple MYSQL DBs are available , so there is
everything for the newbie or advanced developer alike to get to grips
with . Building an advanced site with logging , membership database and
newsletter functionality , or perhaps your own forum is no problem .
0800 Phoneline Help - With the professional hosting
package you can get 24 hour freephone hosting help from highly qualified
1&1 staff .
Free Software - Even the home package for under a fiver
a month comes with £400 worth of free software - with everything
you need to get started - from ftp uploading utilies to WYSIWYG website
editors , aswell as standalone desktop utilities the console has some
very useful pre installed applications - Chat software - forum - scripts
- and much more .
Professional Options - Need cron jobs to automatically
run tasks on your server at preset times of the day?- no problem just
upgrade to the professional package . Need ecommerce ? try their eshops
- just add your products and sell online no problem - no coding required
- and with the ready made templates your online store is ready to go out
of the box . Need a dedicated server ? You probably won't need one as
their shared servers are able to cope with the most demanding websites
, but this option is available (and they even offer a managed dedicated
server as a half way house if you don't want to get your hands too dirty
with installing and configuring your server).
Newbie Webmaster Stuff - There are 3 very useful things
that come to mind if you are starting out (1) Web graphics - they have
a large library of good quality graphics that are licenced to use in your
websites - why spend £s when you can use the 1&1 royalty free
graphics archive , and more importantly not run into copyright issues
...(2) Flash site builder - create a complete flash site is now easy ,
flash sites look really cool and the flash animations , and high quality
photographs can make your websites really stand out from the crowd , without
all the hassle of web designing . (3) Site builder - this utility can
be used to build good looking html sites - so you have a good range of
ready made templates for the best of both worlds . Of course many professionals
will want to create totally bespoke sites , but these templates are as
good as those designed by web studios charging 4 figures for their websites
!
Further Help And Advice
NetFaqs Forums
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