A Halloween Host Story: Host Hunting on the Net Part 2

(return to Part 1)

CGI Access

This usually refers to UNIX Shell scripts, but also includes PERL. If you have
any doubts here, check out our PERL & CGI Primer.

Chat Software

Chat Software is not needed too often on a small personal site. This is another
one where you probably already know what you need if you need it. If you are
intending to create a chat capability you might want to research that first, and
then find a service that can accommodate your solution.

Credit Card Processing

If you are going to doing some e-commerce and need credit card processing,
chances are that you will get your software interfaces from your processing
company. There may be some hosting service providers, however, who are set up
with a processing company to help you painlessly establish your on-line merchant
processing capability. If this is something you think you would need, add it to
your list.

Database Support

This may be very important. If you need a database backend, support is
essential. You will need support for the specific database system you intend to
use, for example, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Access, Oracle, etc. There are
frequently special requirements of the host system that only the system
administrator can set up.

Email Support

If you intend to use CGI scripts or other mechanisms to send email from within
your web pages you will need your host service to provide support for the method
you intend to use. Note that the email capabilities you see in FrontPage can be
configured to use pretty much any SMPT (mail) server and that "off the shelf"

PERL and CGI scripts frequently assume that sendmail (a UNIX based mail server)
is available on the system where the script is running. You need to check these
details carefully.

Email AutoResponder

An autoresponder is a mechanism that automatically sends out a reply when mail
is received at a specific address. This could be an acknowledgement of the
receipt of an inquiry, or a boilerplate informational message or other similar
email response.

FrontPage Extensions

This is obviously essential if you intend to use the facilities of FrontPage or
any other program designed to use the FrontPage extensions. Note that the fact
that you use FrontPage to create pages does not necessarily mean that the host
must have the server extensions in place. That depends on the features that you
have used or intend to use. For more about FrontPage,
click here.

Traffic Logs

Logs keep a record of visitors to your site. There are various formats for log
files, each retaining slightly different bits of information about your
visitors. This item would be closely associated with the next item, and it is
the features there that are probably most important to you. All you need to know
here would be that the log contains enough data to enable the reporting that you
are looking for. If you intend to use your own analysis and reporting software,
then you would need to ensure that these logs retain all the elements you would
be looking for.

Traffic Analysis Reports

If you want to know how many visitors you have had to your site and obtain
demographic information related to those visitors. If you find a host that
provides everything else you want but is lacking this feature, you can also
solve the problem by the use of third party services —
check this out.

There are other things that you will want to keep your eyes on. For example, the
type of internet connection the host is using is important. Ideally it should be
big (a single T1 is not considered "big" anymore!) and redundant (meaning that
there is more than one path from the host to the internet). If you don’t have
Domain Name Service (DNS) from anywhere else you will need your host to provide
that also.

By now you should have your checklist in hand. Now go to
The List of Web Hosts. 
The List includes all the beter service providers in its database and lets you
search according to your needs. Your best bets will be found under either
Personal Hosts or Business Hosts. When you look under these headings you will
see check boxes that you can use along with your check list to search The List’s
database. You may still come up with quite a few providers to choose from, but
your list will have been culled from the thousands of service providers out
there, thereby saving you from a great deal of aggravation.

Learning to use resources such as The List is key to making the net work for
you. Shop around the globe in a matter of moments and get yourself a ghoul deal
— er, a good deal!