Website Hosting

Keeping Websites Online 24/7

Websites need to be accessible to their visitors at all times. Reliable website hosting is an absolute necessity. The last thing website owners want is their website to go offline, and then struggle to know how to resolve the problem.

Website hosting requirements vary from website to website. However, most websites need at least:

• Storage for the website files

• PHP and MySQL

• An SSL certificate to encrypt data

• SFTP or SSH access for file transfers

• Sufficient memory and processor speed to serve the website efficiently

Beyond this each website might have specific requirements. And in general, busier websites require more resources.

Managed Website Hosting

Regular tasks such as adding new websites, creating email accounts or resetting passwords are tasks that we undertake on behalf of our clients. To ensure the smooth running of our website hosting platform we use a ‘managed service’. This means that the server is proactively monitored by expert technicians who are available to respond to any problems that arise.

A managed server offers peace of mind to the website owners who use the service. They can be confident that their website is in safe hands.

At Hello Technology we’re also happy to develop websites which are hosted on other platforms. However, if you have a problem with your website and would like us to look into it we will require access to your hosting control panel. This being the case, many of our clients choose to host their website with us.

Domain Name Renewal

Integral to the smooth running of websites is domain name renewal. We regularly register domain names on behalf of our clients. Whether you choose a .co.uk, .com, .org.uk or some other extension, we offer domain name management which many of our clients are pleased to make use of.

Domain names need renewing regularly, generally for a year or two at a time. If a domain is not renewed the website (and any associated email accounts) can go offline. This is very disruptive. For peace of mind most of our clients ask us to register their domain names on their behalf.

DNS Management

DNS stands for Domain Name System. Every domain name registered has a number of settings associated with it. These settings determine things like where email and website traffic is routed to. The DNS settings also help with things like preventing the deliver of spam email, and connecting the domain with other services such as Google Search Console.

Most of our clients are not familiar with managing their own DNS settings and so we recommend that we look after their domain names for this reason. Sometimes DNS settings need changing in response to a change in email or website hosting setup, and it’s simply more convenient for us to manage the DNS directly in order that these changes be made promptly and correctly.

Uptime Monitoring

A website’s ‘uptime’ is the amount of time it is available to visitors. In an ideal world this would be 100%, but sometimes technical problems can arise which take a website offline temporarily. For those that wish to be informed we can setup uptime monitoring, which alerts either us or our customer if their website becomes unavailable for any reason.

This is not necessary in general, as our managed website hosting is proactively monitored. However, some clients appreciate the peace of mind of knowing that their site is being monitored individually and we are happy to facilitate this.

Off-Site Backups and Disaster Recovery

As part of our website hosting service, every website is backed up on an hourly basis. This backup is to an ‘off-site’ storage facility, which means that if the worst happens websites and email accounts can be easily brought back online.

Backups can also be used to restore earlier versions of a website or email account if a less catastrophic problem arises. We are always happy to facilitate backup restoration on behalf of our clients, if required.

Supported by Expert Technicians

Occasionally we are faced with a problem which we cannot resolve ourselves. When this happens we are able to communicate with expert technicians on behalf of our clients. These technicians are available 24/7 to respond to support requests. Their support is invaluable and ensures that we are able to troubleshoot and resolve any problem promptly.

cPanel Access

For more advanced clients and those who want more control over their hosting, email accounts, databases and so on we can provide access via cPanel. cPanel is a widely used website hosting management system. It provides an easy to use interface, enabling our customers to manage various aspects of their hosting setup. Our priority is always to keep things as secure as possible, and so we only provide cPanel website hosting access on request.