Hosting & Email Accounts

Every website needs a home. That home is a computer called a server. Hosting varies wildly in price from free to hundreds of pounds a month, depending on requirements. The main factors affecting hosting costs are these:

• Amount of space needed.
• Amount of bandwidth needed: depends how many visits you get to your site.
• Whether or not you need a database lying underneath the site. In order to have a website which you can easily adjust yourself you will need a database.
• Speed at which the server dishes up the web pages. Faster = more expensive.

I can host the site and the database for you for a low monthly cost. This is the quickest and simplest way to get your site up and running. For a small business site this monthly fee is currently £14. This includes 2GB of web space and a database to run your site - hosted on a shared server with a very low number of users. You'll find this option very quick compared to normal shared hosting. If you are anticipating higher amounts of traffic (for example a large, popular school site or a social network) then we can negotiate hosting fees. If you anticipate using more space than 2GB, this can also be negotiated at any time. I must reserve the right to re-negotiate hosting terms if you are lucky enough to have a site that becomes very popular and attracts lots of traffic.

If I design a website for you I can usually work with your own host but I will need to check with them that what they offer fulfils some basic requirements. However, I prefer to use hosting companies which I have already worked with and know will provide a reliable service and support structure.

If you are a school and wish to retain the .sch.uk web address you will need to host with South West Grid for Learning. SWGfL charge more than I would for a similar service (their advance hosting package costs £65 per quarter) but they are the official company for the South West that can use the .sch.uk address. If you are happy to change to a .co.uk or .org type web address I can host your school site for you.

The best thing to do is to have a conversation with me about the advantages and disadvantages of the different options.

Email Accounts

If you choose to host with me I can provide email accounts that have your web address. For example, if you use the address: www.oursite.co.uk I could provide you with email addresses such as director@oursite.co.uk, peter@oursite.co.uk or rachel.davis@oursite.co.uk for a small charge. Current prices are:

• Single email address £2.50 per month
• Five email addresses £10 per month

Each address comes with its own control panel, which includes:

• ability to change passwords
• set up spam filters via the 'MailProtect' service
• set up auto-reply services
• webmail login
• instructions for setting up on popular email programs, including Apple Mail, iPhone Mail, Thunderbird, Entourage and Outlook 02, 03 and 07

Please note: emails will stored within your 2GB of web space. For email that also acts as a storage facility we may need to negotiate a separately funded email facility.