A reliable web hosting company’s role is to maintain its hardware, software and operating environment for all its customers, allowing them to focus on running their online business.

The web hosting company will show their commitment to this objective by providing first class technical support. Customer Support should always be a major consideration for any business before choosing the web hosting company for your website.

Making sure that you can rely on their technical support is very important, because otherwise who are you going to call when things go wrong? Ideally, it would your web hosting company’s technical support staff. It is therefore the task of your webmaster or yourself to determine the expertise of your chosen host before making the final decision of hosting your web sites with them. But remember in the real world, finding knowledgeable Customer Support can be hard if not almost impossible.

Before choosing your web host, put their technical support to the test! This is always a good way of assess their general response to new and existing customers.

Many web hosting companies say they offer technical support 24 hours a day, 365 days a year and although this may be true! You will find that certain times of the day or weekends may be limited to email only support. Although this is not necessarily a bad thing, it is a good thing to be aware of before making you commitment.

When testing the web hosting company’s support start by asking them when he/she is usually available whether or not evening and weekend support is available by telephone or just email. Also ask the member of their Customer Support how long they have been working for the company; you might also like to ask them how long the company has been in operation or the size of the business.

Do you get put on hold often? Some web hosting companies have a first line support team to answer call and emails to be passed onto someone who is more qualified in the company. Although, this is no necessarily a problem, it is worthwhile knowing as in some cases this can delay response time to your enquiry and can get somewhat annoying if the people you are dealing with does not fully understand the problem you are experiencing. This time of support setup can also mean that it has been outsourced, so it is worthwhile asking them a few direct questions before making any commitment to hosting your website with the new web hosting company.

You could also ask the support technician if they provide an online ‘knowledge base’ and / or ‘technical support’ If the web host does, then make sure to inspect its support documentation to determine whether they suit your needs.

Lastly before making your chose of next Web hosting company you should also check whether they truly offer 24-hour support by e-mailing or calling. From this test you will have a good idea of the type of technical support you can expect as one of their customers and whether it is reliable or questionable.
Remember your website is as much a part of your business as the office you sit in and for that reason getting timely, useful and support you can trust can mean a great difference to your website when you need it most!

In this day and age, everyone wants to get something for nothing. Even if your parents told you that it was impossible, it is not when it comes to web hosting. You can get quality web hosting for free.

First, you will want to check with your internet provide. Many service providers will offer you free websites along with several free email accounts to use as you please. But beware of this deal a free website from an internet service provider may have certain restrictions. Make sure that they do not offer you a clumsy URL or a limited amount of space that you cannot use.

There are free web hosting services all over the internet as well. Companies such as Geocities and FreeWebs will offer you a certain amount of space as well as a certain amount of features to work with your website. Domain names are often offered through these sites as well, but be warned that choosing your own domain name will still cost you money.

If you are looking for a website strictly for personal use, you can utilize the social networking tools of sites such as Facebook and MySpace. These sites let you customize a personal profile for public or private sharing. But if you are trying to create a professional site to promote your business or create an online resume, you will want to stick with a professional looking site from a free or paid web hosting company.

If you are looking for the easiest way to setup a free website, you can often find templates that are offered by the web hosting service you choose. HTML Templates are a fast and effective way in which to launch your new site with limited or no experience. They are also very useful for small to medium size business and they help to project a professional and well thought out look and feel for you site and for your important potential customer who visit your site. But remember that many times people will be able to tell that you are using a free web hosting service, so make sure this is something that you really want.

An alternative option for businesses unsure where to start, could be to take advantage of offers from ISP/Web Hosting Companies who offer 30 Day Trial Web Hosting Plans. This give the business a professional web hosting plan, time to try the ISP/Web Hosting Companies’ services but most importantly does not tie them into any contract before making a final decision.

Transferring a domain name away from fasthosts to your new ISP/Registar is usually a fairly simply process. Below you will find a simple step by step domain name transfer guide to help you with your transfer from Fasthosts.

Uk Domain Name Transfer (.co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, .ltd.uk)

Fasthosts domain management and tansfers are done through UKREG, go to: http://www.ukeg.com

1. To transfer a Fasthosts domain away from UKreg, you’ll first need to check if it was initially registered at UKreg or if it was transferred into UKreg from elsewhere.
2. Click on the ‘Members Login’ link at the top of the page.
3. Go to UKreg and select ‘Configure Domains’.
4. Select the domain you’d like to move and choose ‘Change IPS Tag’.
5. The IPS tag for (your new ISP) enter it here.
6. If the domain was transferred into UKreg you must also send a fax, on headed notepaper or company letterhead if registered to your company, to UKreg providing the following information:

The new IPS tag name
The username and password for your UKreg account
The domain name

The support fax number for UKreg is 0870 888 3555.
Next, go to will need to contact you new ISP to complete the transfer.

gTLD Domain Name Transfer (.com, .net, .org, .info, .biz)

Go to: http://www.ukreg.com

1. Log into your UKreg account.
2. Select ‘Configure Your Domains’ in the middle of the page.
3. Select the domain you wish to unlock by clicking on the domain registration link.
4. Click on ‘Change your renewal settings’
5. Click ‘Transfer options’. This does not apply to .eu domains.
6. Click ‘Unlock (yourdomainname) now’.
7. Update your contact details, making sure the email address you use is active.
8. Copy the Auth Code details.

You will now need to contact new ISP to complete the transfer. Some ISP’s will complete the transfer request on your behalf and some have a domain management system where you can do the transfer yourself.

When transferring a gTLD domain name from one Registry to another, one year registration will be added to your domain name automatically. For this reason some ISP’s/Registrar’s charge for transfers and some don’t! so make sure before you check before you start the process.

Transfers usually take between 3-7 days depending on the Registry. However, this should not effect any services provided by your ISP during the transfer process.

Please note: If you have not requested the transfer within 7 days Fasthosts/UKREG automatically reinstate the Registar-Lock on your domain name.

When people think about web hosting, they don’t usually think of it as a landlord-tenant agreement, but it is very similar. The web hosting service provides a home for your site, and you maintain your website in order to continue to be successful. And if you have ever has a bad landlord before, then you can relate to those who are stuck with a bad web hosting service.

In order to get the best web hosting services on the internet, you will want to be familiar with the different types of hosting and the range of costs. First, there are three different types of web hosting: private, shared, and dedicated. Private is a web host provide that will give a separate server to each site, avoiding slowdowns. A shared web host provides a single server to a number of different websites. And a dedicated web host means that you get a private server as well as the entire disk to yourself.

The way to choose which hosting service is right for is to think about how you want your site to appear on the internet. The less you have to share with other websites, the faster your pages will load. You will also want to do a little investigating on the company’s reliability for customer service before you shell out the money for them to host your website.

In order to get a good deal on the price, you will want to find a web hosting service that offers a flat rate for the services you require. If you don’t, you could end up paying hundreds of extra pounds, euros or dollars for the additional bandwidth that you used. Remember that 2 GB is the standard amount of bandwidth that a website will need per month. If you can find a web hosting service that meets all of these needs, then it will be time to move in.

There are many web hosting providers that now offer large bandwidth allowances, so there is no need to get locked in with a provider that will be charging you extra where other providers are offering it as standard. Also make sure that they provide a 30 day money back guarantee or in some cases the provider may even offer a 30 day trial offer of their web hosting service. This is especially useful as not only do you not need to pay out before you sign up for a full service but you get to try out the company’s customer service levels.

There is nothing like the feeling of running your own business. You are in control and you can relate directly to your customers. This is made even simpler with ecommerce websites. Now all you have to do is make sure that the customers are happy and coming back for more.

If you sell a product or a service, you will want to have shopping cart capabilities on your website. This will help customers buy more than one product at a time, and it can also help customers figure out shipping and handling costs before they choose to buy. The more options you give your customers, the better chance that they will stay your customers and coming back for more.

So, if you are selling merchandise on an ecommerce website, you will want to consider using a shopping cart like osCommerce Shopping Cart, CubeCart, Zen Cart or Agora Shopping Cart. Falcoda Internet has these shopping carts available for auto installations with the Ecommerce Hosting Plan.

Next you will need to choose a payment processing service tool such as PayPal or WorldPay. This is a payment processing service that you can set up in order to offer your customers and easier way to buy from your website. The PayPal account is free to set up, and you are only charged a small percentage for every transactions. And since you only have to pay when you make a transaction, there are no monthly fees to handle. This is the most cost effective way to please your customers. The WorldPay option, although has a setup fee and ongoing monthly charge has a number of benefits, mainly that if you already have your own merchant number for credit and debit card payment, WorldPay will allow you to use this along with their service to process payments online.

With this type of merchant account, you can now have ‘But It Now’ buttons anywhere you choose on your website, or you can set up an entire webpage dedicating to the purchasing of your products. Both PayPal and WorldPay offer help and advice of how to add the ‘Buy it Now’ style buttons or carts to your website. It is up to you, and your site design with determine what route you want to go with that.

Make sure that you are giving your customers what they need. Just like people in a real store, they probably want to buy more than they can carry at one time, so give them a shopping cart to make life a little easier.