Free web hosts are great for hosting a personal web site, but not recommended for a business site.

If you are serious about establishing your internet presence - this article gives some checklists of features to demand from your web host.

When selecting a professional web host your first consideration should be the company. Check out their background. Talk to some of their customers and ask them if they've been satisfied with their service.

- How many customers do they serve?
- What is their uptime percentage?
- Do they require you to make payments in advance?
- Do they charge set up fees?
- How is their customer support? Test them.
- Do they offer fast connections?
- Do they offer shopping cart software to process your orders?
- Can you upgrade free of charge?

Web hosting prices vary greatly. When selecting your host, make sure you're getting exactly what you're paying for. Keep in mind, a lower monthly rate will not benefit you if your site is down a lot, slow, or customer service is poor.

Basic Criteria for selecting a host

Selecting a professional web host is a very important decision. Make sure you do your homework and insure the host you select offers exactly what you need.

- Your own domain name (www.yourname.com)
- Your own True POP email account - name@yourdomain.com
- Fast, low overhead, Multi-T3 access
- Your own unrestricted cgi-bin
- Access to SSL Encryption for secure transactions
- Java, C, C++, Tcl support
- Autoresponders
- htaccess Password Protection for your files
- At least 1 GIGABYTE (1024 MB) of Daily Transfer
- Design (and upload to) your site using Netscape or other HTML editing software
- Microsoft Frontpage (98) Server Extensions for those utilizing Frontpage
- Unlimited free access to your server via Telnet/FTP
- Online invoices, account tracking, and payment history to enable you to check your account balance, monthly invoices, past payments, etc.
- Complete daily server backup
- Easy access to your log files
- Statistics on visits to your site

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