Hosting Domain and e-mail services

A domain is used as you web address and as the main part of your email address.
There are several good reasons why you should have a domain name for your business:

1. The domain will remain with you even if you move from one ISP to another
2. Your email address will remain unchanged even if you move from one ISP to another
3. Once you have managed to get your site listed with search engines, if you use the web address given out with free hosting packages, you will lose your listing whenever you change your ISP. With a domain name, since the address remains with you, you would not lose your listing.
4. A domain conveys a more professional image

We sell several types of domains:

• ".co.uk" domains are the most common for UK businesses.
• ".org.uk" are domains for UK organisations.
• ".com" domain name are used for international commercial sites.
• ".org" domains are for international organisations.
• ".info" a new type of domains for information sites.
• ".biz" domains for businesses in general
• ".net" domains are for companies trading in Internet goods and services.

Domain Names have a variety of basic rules:

1. Use only letters, numbers, or hyphen ("-").
2. Cannot begin or end with a hyphen.
3. .com, .net, .org and .info domain names cannot exceed 67 characters total.
4. .info and .biz must have at least 3 characters not including .info or .biz.
5. Other domain names cannot exceed 22 characters, not including the extension.
6. Domain names are not case sensitive.
7. Domain names cannot include spaces.

No two people or businesses can share the same domain name so you would need to check that the domain of your choice is available
Knowing what you would like your site to do for you, its content and design, is the first step. Now you need to think about how to actually publish your site on the Internet.

In order for a web site to be available for browsing, it needs to be placed on a server - a computer and software that 'serves' web pages to anyone accessing the Internet. This is what is called 'web hosting', where a host - such as ourselves - gives you some space on a server to publish your site. Once on the server, your site will be accessed using the web address allocated to it. This can be your own domain or an address given by the Internet Service Provider (ISP).
There are several hosting solutions available to you:

1. Most ISP provide free space. Although this has the advantage of not costing you anything, some limitations will apply which may become a problem as you develop your web presence. For example, you will not generally be able to add scripts to your site, such as a statistics package (to know how many people visit your site), a shopping cart or a feedback form. Some ISP's also plaster their ads over your site which can be very annoying and makes it look unprofessional. With a free ISP you will also end up with a web address like http://www.myispname.co.uk/myusername/ which cannot be transferred to another ISP should you decide to move your account to another Internet company. Your email address would be something like yourname@yourispname.co.uk and would be lost if you move to another ISP.   Free space is usually fine for personal pages, but not always best for business sites.

  We offer a fully managed hosting service. This is best for business sites. Our packages cover a wide range of needs and will allow your site to grow and evolve. The addition of scripts is possible and a free domain name (http://www.yourbusinessname.co.uk) is provided so that you have a more professional presence. Email addresses are also included, using your domain. This domain and email addresses will not be lost should you decide to move to another provider which means that your search engines' listing doesn't have to be changed.