Quick Guide to Web Hosting...   Hosting involves sending a web page file via file transfer protocol (FTP) to a server.  Most web servers are accessible by buying 'web space' from a web hosting company. Hosting your site is a simple enough technical exercise.. yet your decisions regarding which hosting provider to use, technical software options and where to host your site, all indirectly affect web site accessibility and ultimately search engine rankings.    The general rule for choosing your hosting company is that you get what you pay for.  Quality hosting is a critical to ensure your target market can actually access your site without it falling over every other day. Before 'pointing' your DNS settings to a new hosting shared server package, you must think through your technical requirements such as operating system support for database, online applications and scripts, stats, email access and the level of telephone support offered by the hosting company.   There are many different types of hosting for your website.  The main types are as follows; Shared Hosting is the most popular low cost option.  Shared hosting involves literally sharing hard disk space on a hosting companies internet server.  Generally, the lower the hosting cost the more downtime your site will experience over a long period of time.  With Dedicated Server Hosting the user pays the hosting provider to allocate a physically separate server with it own network functions, security firewall, custom software configuration and higher bandwidth.  The user rents the use of the server and does not own it.  This is generally the most secure, reliable and consequently expensive method of hosting a website. Free ISP Web Hosting - many Internet Service Providers (ISP's) offer free hosting which can be used to host small personal websites.  They are not usually suitable for professional business website as the service is often not supported by 24x7 technical support and provides virtual shared access and not a dedicated IP address (suitable for website to differentiate themselves in the eyes of a search engine).  With a Managed Hosting Service the provider provides the user remote access to a server to upload website data to.  The physical server operating system remained controlled and owned by the hosting provider, whose engineers manage the server farm.    It is preferable to host your website in the country you are targeting to sell products and services in. For instance, some UK based hosting companies may simply resell shared hosting space from USA data centres. The perception when you visit the resellers '.co.uk' website (with the UK telephone number) is that the reseller must have UK servers - always remember to check of the DNS settings of the hosting company before you commit to a contract. Search engines use the primary and secondary DNS / Internet protocol (IP) settings of a hosted site (which is a public information) as a ranking factor in the search results. If the hosting company offers the option for a dedicated IP that is also worth investing in... this will reduce the risk of a search engines penalizing your site.....  If your website IP is the same as a gambling or adult site sharing the same server your website is hosted on, your site may be unfairly banned by a search engine.   Most hosting providers provide a range of supported operating system including Windows, Linux or Unix.  Each operating system restricts the software application development platforms available in each environment; these include ASP.net, PHP and Java.  In addition, there are usually the following hosting applications that will allow you to manager your hosting account and set it up in the way ion you want:- Email Accounts (POP3)  - this creates email accounts using Outlook, Eudora, Outlook Express or Windows Mail.   Email forwarding accounts deal with email sent to this domain, however instead of storing the emails ready for you to download like POP3 email accounts, email forwarders will automatically forward all email received to a different email address. FTP - (File Transfer Protocol) accounts allows you to securely upload and manage files to your web space from your PC.  You can setup FTP accounts to only access certain folders in your storage space and to have restricted access such as the ability to only read the contents of the folder. Sub Domains  - you may want http://subdomain.yourmain-doman.com types names to separate your site our for geographic interest groups. DNS Zone Editor - this allows you to set 'A Records' and 'MX Records' (if you are using an email server from a 3rd party email provider. Database Manager - this allow to you create a name of a new database and set up users to connect to it MIME Types - Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) is an email standard to configure. Custom Error Pages  - if a page fails to display a custom message replaces the blank screen shown by browsers. Statistics - show or hide and view  feedback for a domain. Advanced Domain Options File Manager - The file manager provides the ability to manage your account files directly through your web browser. ODBC DSNs - ODBC DSNs provide the ability to connect to databases using a common name rather than complex connection strings. SSL - SSL allows you to have an area of your website that can be secured in order to protect your users' information. Web Site Settings - Enable/Disable support for functions like ASP, ASP.NET, Perl, PHP and Coldfusion. Advanced Domain Options - some additional features to help you manage your domain