- Publishing with a commercial Web Hosting Provider (WHP).

- Publishing with one of the free services such as Yahoo, Geocities or Tripod. This method provides little security and low level support, however you may wish to live with this and access the free domain name and publishing service. Advertising banners and/or pop-up windows will be attached to your site, these are generally unobtrusive.

- Publishing on the host space provided by your ISP, this method provides little support and low level publishing services.

The hosting process is where you store your web-site pages so that your clients can access your web-site using your new domain name that has been delegated to this host.

Web hosting companies take the collection of web pages that make up your web-site and store them on computers called web servers. Internet users can then connect to the web pages through these servers.

Many Internet Service Providers (ISPs) provide free web hosting in return for placing advertising on your site, but when you're building a site for your business you'll need a professional (paid) service. One of the drawbacks of free hosting is that you can't use your own domain name and there are not many features available. Other hosting options are the use of server space allocated as part of your ISP registered account, this space is generally around 5 to 10 Meg. This option also has drawbacks in the area of support and services.

Your web-site may need e-commerce capabilities if you have goods or services to sell. You may also have scripting or database requirements if your site needs to store and sort information. Free or ISP host services rarely provide this level of sophistication and their servers do not have the space to accommodate these features.

Finding a hosting provider is a lot like finding business premises. You need to find the right combination of services and facilities for your business, at the right price. It is important to follow the advice of your web designer, they have the experience and the technical knowledge required to match a host with the requirements of your web-site.

Our Recommendation for Web Site Hosting Services