Hosting / Domains / Google apps
Hosting
A web site needs to be placed on a server that is permanently connected to the internet and accessible so that visitors can surf your website. Typically this is done by a specialist company, running a large number of servers with high speed connections to the internet, hosting thousands of websites. They will handle the maintenance, management and security of the servers and connections to the internet.
Hosting contracts are often annual contracts and can be paid annually in advance or sometimes quarterly or monthly.
Some of our clients prefer us to buy and manage the hosting on their behalf. Others prefer to organise the hosting account themselves and allow us access to it, to manage their website.
We are happy to work either way.
Domain Name
A good domain name reflects the name of your company or organisation. Domain names are allocated by the domain name registrars on a first-come, first-served basis. Once a domain name has been reserved, it is no longer available.
Next Big Leap is more than happy to help you register your domain name and set up your account.
Be sure to register your domain name.
Google Applications
Google Applications is a service from Google. It features a variety of applications such as Gmail, Google calendar, Google Documents and Google talk.
Businesses can use Gmail for managing company wide e-mails. For the more techy savvy, it has support for both POP and IMAP and can be managed either through their own web mail interface or via a wide range of email clients including Outlook.
Other tools include Google Docs (for collaboratating on files),Google Video (for secure, private video sharing), as well as other features.
