1. Selecting a Web Hosting Service
LESSON 4
Module 8: Web Publishing and Maintenance
Selecting a Web Hosting Service

2. Lesson Overview
What criteria should be used in selecting a Web hosting service?
In this lesson, you will learn:
To establish criteria for selecting a Web hosting service
Lesson 4 Overview

3. Guiding Questions How will you move your Web site onto the Internet?
Where will it be hosted?
Use the guiding questions as a class starter, allowing the students time to answer the questions in their journals. Discuss students’ answers to the questions.

4. How Do You Choose a Web Hosting Service?
A Web hosting service is a business or organization that stores the files of your Web site and makes it available to the Internet.
Types:
Free service
Fee-based service
Discuss the idea of a Web hosting service. All Web sites on the Internet have a Web hosting service. If you are not able to provide your own service, then you must choose a free or fee-based service.

5. What Should You Consider When Choosing a Web Hosting Service?
Space – How much file space are you allotted on the Web hosting server?
Advertising – Does the service place advertising on your site?
Reliability – What level of reliability do you expect from the service?
File types – What file types did you use in your Web site? What file types are you allowed to upload to the service?
Uploading files– Some services make it easier to upload your work than others. How skilled are you? How much assistance will you need?
Traffic – How much traffic do you expect on your Web site? Does the service place restrictions on the amount of traffic?
Redundancy – How important is it to you that you can perform a similar task in multiple ways?
When selecting a Web hosting service, you should consider the following criteria: space, advertising, reliability, types of files the service allows you to upload, the process for uploading your work, the amount of traffic to your site, and redundancy.

6. How Much Space Do You Need? Consider:
The current size of your Web site files
Space for future expansion of the site
Free hosting services typically limit the space allocation
Discuss space issues. How large is your Web site? A Web hosting service, such as a free service, might limit the amount of space you can use on the service. Is the amount of space allotted to you enough for your future expansion plans?

7. Do You Want Advertising on Your Web Site?
Free services generate money through advertising
Free services may require advertising be placed on your site
It is possible to generate your own revenue from your site
Discuss advertising issues. Remember, if you are using a free service, someone is paying for the space. Free services might require that you allow them to place advertising on your Web site to pay for the space that you use. You might want to use a fee-based service and try using other means to pay for the site. Methods to pay for your site will be discussed in a later lesson.

8. What Level of Reliability Do You Expect From a Web Hosting Service?
Speed at which sites load
Reliable availability to visitors
Remember that free services may have a lower reliability rate than fee-based services.
Discuss the reliability of the service. Look at the speed at which the service loads current Web sites stored on it. Do they load quicker or slower than you expected? Find out how often the service is unavailable due to various issues. What is your expectation of the service in respect to reliability? How important to you is it that your site is always up and running? Keep in mind, free services usually have a lower reliability rate than fee-based services.

9. What File Types Does the Service Allow You to Upload?
Some services only allow HTML files
Some require the use of a template
Discuss the process for uploading work to the service. Some services will only allow designers to upload HTML files. What type of file have you created with your Web site? Other services, such as free services, require you to use their own template to create a Web site.

10. How Are Files Uploaded to the Hosting Server?
the files to the service?
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)?
Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV)?
Which will work best for you?
Discuss how files are uploaded to the service. Some services require you to the files to them and they transfer them to the host site. Other services offer File Transfer Protocol (FTP) so you can upload files at anytime. A second method of uploading files is called Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV). The designer needs to choose which system will work best for their needs.

11. How Much Traffic Do You Predict to Your Site?
Some hosting services limit the amount of bandwidth available.
How much bandwidth are you predicting you will need?
Does the service you are considering provide the bandwidth you need?
Discuss the amount of traffic expected on the site. Some Web hosting services limit the amount of bandwidth in a defined time frame. If this is the case with a hosting service you are considering, how much traffic do you predict the site will have? Does the hosting service provide enough bandwidth for the amount of traffic you are predicting?

12. Assignment Learn more about Web hosting services
How to Choose a Web Host
Key Factors in Selecting a Web Host
Search for a Web hosting service that best fits your needs. Use the “Selecting a Web Host” worksheet (File S.8.4.WS_Hosting) to guide your research.
Students use the listed Web sites to research the task of selecting a Web hosting service. They will use this information to search for a Web hosting service that best fits their needs. They will use the “Choosing a Web Hosting” worksheet (File S.8.4.WS_Hosting) to guide their research.