Features

It is worth considering what other features should be available on your web host. Some of the following may come as standard as part of the operating system or the web server software, whilst others will need to be installed and set-up separately:

• Mail server: The server must support email for the site, especially if mail is also being routed via the same domain name. If this is the case, then it will need to be able to handle incoming and outgoing mail, user mailboxes and any associated features such as email re-direction.
• FTP: The uploading (or downloading) of web pages to your site or any other components, will be carried out using file transfer protocol (FTP). This is undertaken via the FTP server software on the system. A variant of FTP is Anonymous FTP whereby visitors to the site, without passwords, can download files you might want to make available to the public. The server administrator can apply limits to the amount of data and the number of simultaneous users accessing the FTP directories.
• Telnet: Only advanced administrators should use Telnet, which allows access directly to the files on the server and provides the ability to modify parts of the system. This is a vital component and should be installed, but care needs to be taken to ensure that it is done so with very restricted and secure access.
• FrontPage Extensions: If your web site is being developed in Microsoft’s FrontPage software, then there are enhancements available which are unique to FrontPage. However, to make use of this, the "FrontPage Server Extensions" must be installed and enabled on the server. Most servers now have this as standard, and ISPs make this available as a default part of their service.