Trying to find some decent information about web-hosting is a bit like asking victims of a car crash what happened - everyone will have their own particular view thanks to a little thing called vested interest. It’s bloody difficult to get a straight answer on anything and if you do, then you should be extra-cautious as you go forward. What it comes down to is that there are many solutions and if you want to sum it up in one sentence, it would go something like this: “You get what you pay for“.

Now all that’s left is to decide why you want a web-hosting plan and how serious you are about making use of it. You could go for a free hosting plan, with which you get plenty of ads, no scripting or database support and a slow loading speed. As bad as it sounds, this would probably work for complete beginners who want to experiment a bit and will more than likely abandon their sites within a few weeks.

Shared hosting is the serious but non-profit option. It’s ideal for a personal site like this which won’t have big numbers of visitors and which don’t particularly need to be secure. There are tons of different providers out there and finding the right one could prove to be easier said than done. After checking out whats on offer and also getting a satisfied customer’s recommendation I reckon I’ll be going with Bluehost in the near future so I can stop piggybacking on the space that I’m using now! From what I’ve seen, they aren’t so big that you’re just another number and they’re not so small that they might just disappear tomorrow.

Finally, dedicated hosting is for hard-core users who want complete control, reliability and security. That generally means businesses, so unless you’re setting out to build a money-making empire, you’ll probably want the more reasonably priced shared option.

It’s kickoff time, and although this post won’t see the light of day until I have my styles in order, I’m gladly going to re-iterate that if you are reading this blog in Internet Explorer then you are a moron. If on the other hand your chosen browser is Firefox, or even Opera (which I’ve been getting more fond of as each day passes) then welcome and congratulations on not being a moron. Long live the fox!