ISP Is Probably the Best Home for Your Web Site
Once you’ve made up your mind to set up a Web site for your business, one of your most important decisions is where to house it.
One option is to get your own server. With the right software, just about any PC or Mac can be used to host a Web site. Or you can buy a dedicated Web server from Encanto Networks (https://www.encanto.com) or Whistle Communications (https://www.whistle.com) for as little as $1,000.
I won’t go into detail about these servers in today’s column. In addition to buying the server, you also have to connect it to the Internet, which means either installing a high-speed line in your office or “co-locating” the server at the office of an Internet service provider that will provide the connection for you. Either way, it involves regular fees and maintenance costs or hassles.
For most small businesses, the best option is to house your site at an ISP. Most ISPs will provide space on one of their servers. You still have to design and maintain the site, but they take care of all the hardware, server software and connectivity issues, which can save you a lot of headaches.
If you later discover you need your own server, you can always move your site. No matter what an ISP may tell you, your site, all your data and your domain name belong to you, not to the ISP.
If your business has an ISP account that you use to send and receive e-mail and surf the Web, you may already have some space you can use to house your Web site. Your best bet is to contact your ISP or check its Web site for information about hosting.
Most ISPs provide some hosting service at no extra cost, but there usually are limitations and “gotchas.” Typically these include a limitation on how many megabytes of data you can have on your site or how many megabytes of data visitors can download from your site.
Some basic plans do not allow you to have your own unique domain name if you use their basic plan. EarthLink, for example, offers subscribers (who pay $19.95 a month for basic dial-up service) a free Web site, but the site can’t have more than 6mb of data and you’re limited in the amount of data users can download from your site. What’s more, you don’t get your own unique domain name. Instead of being https://www.yourcompany.com, your Web address would be https://home.earthlink.net~yourcompany.
Like many ISPs, EarthLink offers a business starter site for $19.95 a month plus a $25 start-up fee. With it, you get a unique domain name, 10mb of storage space on their server and up to 500mb a month of traffic. If your site expands, you pay more. An additional 10mb of storage space costs you $10 plus $2.50 a month. You’ll pay $5.63 if you need an additional 25mb. If your traffic exceeds 500mb, you’ll pay $10 plus $22 a month for an extra gigabyte.
Although EarthLink doesn’t charge you to set up a site with a unique domain name, you must still pay Network Solutions (https://www.netsol.com) or other Internet domain registrars a fee to register and maintain your domain name. That costs $70 for two years and $35 for each additional year.
The EarthLink starter site price doesn’t include the cost of Internet access. EarthLink charges $19.95 a month for dial-up access and about $45 a month for high-speed cable access in the limited areas where it is available.
EarthLink also provides support for Microsoft FrontPage, which is a relatively easy-to-use Web site creation program that comes with some versions of Microsoft Office. FrontPage enables you to create and edit Web pages, manage your site and take advantage of additional bells and whistles built into the software.
You don’t need special FrontPage support to use the program to create and edit Web pages, but you do need it to take advantage of the FrontPage extensions that are built into the program. These include a search tool, a counter that tracks the number of visitors, the ability to use online forms and databases and other scripts that can help automate your Web page.
Brentwood-based Compwebtech.com ([310] 235-1930) offers one of the most affordable Web hosting packages around. For $99 a year, small businesses get 25mb of space, a gigabyte of data transfer per month and the ability to have their own unique domain name. For $1,500 to $5,000, for example, the company will develop an online store that a small business can use to sell products and accept credit card payments.
The company will also do Web design and create “shopping carts” for businesses that want to sell and accept credit cards over the Web. Shopping carts and other e-commerce services cost extra.
Before settling on a company to host your site, it’s a good idea to talk with your current ISP, but don’t stop there. Unless it makes economic sense, there’s no reason to host your site with the same company that provides your service. There is no big advantage to having your site-hosting company nearby as long as you can access their server via the Internet, which is what this is all about.
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Lawrence J. Magid can be reached at larry.magid@latimes.com. His Web site is at https://www.larrysworld.com. On AOL, use keyword “LarryMagid.”
