There are a few things you should consider when choosing a virtual hosting service. First, if you aren't familiar with the term "virtual hosting service" --- a host is a computer (a server) that is permanently connected to the internet. It is the computer that you will upload the pages of your site to so that they can be viewed by everyone on the Internet who browses to your domain address. The host will "host your site" so that it can be enjoyed by all 24 hours a day 365 days a year.

If you --- are without the technical expertise to run your own server, --- don't have the financial resources and good access location to get good bandwidth connection to a backbone or a dedicated ISP account with extremely high uptime capability, --- or don't have the time to run and maintain a personal host server (such as us) --- then you will want to get a virtual host service. A GOOD virtual hosting service will generally charge by the month.

The virtual host you choose, and the "hosting package" you choose
MUST have servers fast enough to handle the load of your site and everyone else's site that might be "hosted" by the server.

In addition, you should know a bit about their "Data Pipe" or connection that they pay for to connect their servers to the internet. Hosts lease expensive high speed connections like T-1 and T-3 lines from the phone company or other companies. They need to have a "wide enough pipe" to handle the load (bandwidth) of all the sites they host. If they don't, then your viewers will get network delays causing the pages of your site to load slowly or not at all.

How much room or space in megabytes you are provided for your site can vary amongst hosts. Each host usually offers more than one "plan" so that they can provide you what you need. Be sure you choose a plan that offers the amount of space you need. Most sites take up very little room and space is usually not a problem. Sites with lots of programs, files, graphics, sounds, and video to be downloaded may require more room than is often offered in some of the lower cost plans offered by some hosts. Usually more space can be purchased from a virtual host at anytime it is needed.

If you have your own ISP (internet service provider) you probably already have a small amount of space provided to you to create a simple web site. This is usually given to you for free for signing up with the ISP. So why pay more to sign up with a host? The free space provided by your ISP is usually not recommended for anything except building very simple vanity-type sites. This is because they do not offer the advanced features that a hosting service offers. Advanced features like shopping carts services.

Here are examples of services normally offered (at varying prices) by virtual host providers:

Examples (services provided by GOOD Virtual Host Providers)
• 24/7 access to your account
• FREE Shopping Cart
• E-commerce Capabilities
• Your Own FTP Directory
• Free SSL Secure Server
• Microsoft FrontPage 98 extensions
• Detailed Web usage statistics
• 90 Day money back guarantee
• Account "Control Panel"
• Unlimited Free Technical Support
• Live Audio/Video Capabilities

E-mail Services
• Unlimited master POP3 account (example@your.com)
• Unlimited e-mail forwarding to a default address
• E-mail autoresponders

CGI Script Capabilities
• Your own cgi-bin directory
• Perl, C Perl script checker utility
• FREE guestbook script
• FREE chat
• FREE Search Engine
• FREE Visitor Follower
• FREE counter
• FREE form-to-email script
• FREE Unlimited submission to 8 famous search engines FREE CGI and Java Libraries

World Class Technology
• Customized Apache Web server software
• Multiple T3
• connections on diverse backbones
• Cisco routers using BGP4 protocol
• Multi-homed central office provisioning
• Daily tape back-ups
• UPS power back-up,
• diesel back-up generator
• 24/7 network monitoring
• 99.9% guaranteed uptime!

Here are a few virtual hosting services worth checking into that offer most, if not all, of the above services:

1. Hosting.com - excellent e-commerce packages.

2. ThinkHost Web Hosting - from $14.99/month.

3. VenerNet Hosting - Some excellent packages to choose from.