Website Plan (Continued)

How to Select A Hosting Service - Requirements

What Are Your Requirements?
Before you select a hosting company you must be able to define your disk space and bandwidth requirements.

What Are Your Disk Space Requirements?

Disk space refers to storage space storage space allocated you. Your disk space can be used for all web or database related files including HTML, databases, graphics, CGI programs etc.

• One rule of thumb is 10 pages of text will require 1 Mb of disk space, and 5 graphics will require 1 Mb of disk space.
• The average Website will require only a few megabytes of disk space, the basic 25 Mb offered by most Web host companies should be more than sufficient.
• If needed, you can always obtain additional disk space for a small fee.

What Are Your Data Transfer (Bandwidth) Requirements?

Data Transfer (bandwidth) is the term used to measure the amount of data being transferred from your web space. This does not directly relate to the number of 'Hits' a web site receives. One hit to a web page that is 100 kb in size uses the same amount of bandwidth as 100 hits to a 1 kb page.

• Data transfer really depends on what is on your Website. Sites containing graphics require more bandwidth than text-based Websites.
• Audio and video files require a very large data transfer allowance.
• Most sites use less than 500 Mb per month, which is ½ Gb (Gigabyte).
• Unless you are offering software or MP3 downloads or are just extremely popular, you shouldn't have to worry too much about bandwidth.
• As a minimum, select an option that provides at least 2000 MB data transfer.
• If you are concerned about data transfer, select a company that offers unlimited transfer.

Do You Need System CGI Support?

System CGI access allows you to take advantage of simple programs that have been pre-installed on the server. System CGI allows you to copy and paste code and take advantage of what system administrators have already installed.

Do You Need Private CGI-BIN?

A CGI-BIN allows for the executing of custom programs which you might find on the Internet or programs you might design yourself.

Do You Need Microsoft FrontPage Support?

If you are using (or plan to use) Microsoft's FrontPage, you will need a Webhost company that supports FrontPage's server extensions.

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