Q: I'm a freelance writer, so I don't sell products, per say, but would like to be able to have a PayPal button so I can get deposits, and other payments. A shopping cart would just be silly. Can Yahoo do that?

A: Yes, Yahoo can do that. Yahoo Web Hosting in fact has the most intuitive PayPal-based shopping cart builder out there, as well as the easiest to use web hosting for beginners. It also has some of the highest scores in our independent uptime and response time testing, which means it’s a very reliable service. It includes some of the best features, including an easy-to-use WYSIWYG and easy to organize widgets.

To compare other web hosting services and their e-commerce services, check out our web hosting reviews here.

A:  Among all of the web hosts we review, there are a number of services we recommend for beginners and those looking for a more simple option. We recommend Yahoo! Small Business web hosting for those  who are less tech-saavy. It has an intuitive PayPal shopping cart builder, easy-to-use control panel, and great customer support. Get it for 35% off the monthly price and have a free domain for life. If you want true site design (what you see is what you get), Lunarpages is another affordable and simple service that includes the easily installable osCommerce, CubeCart and Zen Cart Shopping Carts as an alternative to paypal. 1&1 web hosting is another great option that includes intuitive 12-page site building – use the different pages for each of your works!  It also offers a very full-featured website creator and integrated blogging platform.

Read more about the best web hosts for beginners, and if you want to compare all of our web hosting services, click here! 

Q. If I purchase a new domain name from Hostmonster, will I be able to transfer it should I decide to use another hosting company? If so, is there a transfer charge?

A. When you purchase a new domain name from Hostmonster, the web hosting company assumes you'll be hosting with it for at least a little while. That's why Hostmonster offers your domain for life. We gave Hostmonster five stars in our tests, and it offers one of the cheapest monthly rates out there. But if you decide to go with another company later on, Hostmonster doesn't leverage a charge to transfer. Any setup fees will come from your new web hosting company.

Q: How many email addresses are inluded in the listed hosting price for most of these sites? Back in the day, when this all started, the number of email addresses allowed for free (included in the price) and the number of web pages were the two "biggies"?

A: Good question. This is not something we put in our reviews because most of them offer far more email addresses than anyone is likely to need. Many web hosts (Hostmonster, BlueHost, Hostgator) offer "unlimited" email addresses, because it really costs them so little. Yahoo! offers you 1,000, and 1&1 offers 600. It tends to only be micro-hosting packages like GoDaddy's Economy Website Tonight that offer 1 email address.

Number of web pages is rarely a consideration, since most offer unlimited storage. Some of the site builders have page limits, something we usually mention in our reviews.

"Password Protect Directories" is offered by web hosts that use cPanel for site administration. The cPanel solution is so ubiquitous we only really mention in a review when a web host doesn't use it (Hostgator, Bluehost, and Hostmonster, all have it). "Password Protect Directories" is found in the "Security" section of cPanel.

You will be asked where the directory is located, and then you will be shown a list of directories. A directory is a folder that your html documents (which make up your web pages) reside in. Choose the directory you want to password protect and you'll see a screen like this:

cPanel Password Protect Security Screen

Enter that info, and you're golden. You can now move files into that directory and only those with the correct login info will have access. Of course, your security is only as good as the passwords that you choose.

Q: Does Yahoo! Small Business web hosting allow add-on domains?

A: Yes they do. I just got off the phone with the helpful sales reps at Yahoo! Small Business web hosting to verify. You'll only pay extra for the domain registration, which is currently running at $9.95 for the first term. The price goes up to $34.95 per year, which is a little high. Buying multiple years locks you in at $9.95:

1-year term: $9.95

2-year term: $19.90

3-year term: $29.85

5-year term: $49.75

After term expires: $34.95/year

Q: What mistakes should a person choosing a web host avoid? What are the benefits?

A: When selecting a web host, the biggest mistake anyone can make is choosing a web host that doesn't suit their needs. Price is an important consideration for most people, but features and technical performance should be taken into account as well. For instance, if you plan on building your site using the web host's own site builder, you should be sure the site builder is well rated. You should also be aware that some web hosts are more reliable than others (something called "up time"). Also, some web hosts handle data better than others, so if you want your web host to handle large graphic files, look for one that does well in data download tests (lower numbers are better).

Fortunately, we cover all these things in our two web host comparison charts, and in our reviews. The web hosting report card covers all the areas described above, while our main web hosting comparison chart goes over price and plan features. The reviews give a good indication of the overall customer experience.

There are many extras that web hosts provide including domain privacy, free domain registration, money-back guarantees. Some offer free virus scans, back-ups, and multiple domain registrations.

Q: I have never designed a website. Is Host Monster easy for a beginner to set up a basic site? How many web pages are available for its basic plan?

A: Hostmonster is ok for beginners, but there are other options which are easier. We would suggest you take a look at our web hosting report card. In particular, you'll probably want to look at two columns: the user level (look for "beginner"), and the site builder ratings, if you're looking to build your own site online (look for "excellent"). We found Yahoo! to be the best site for beginners. Between its intuitive control panel, great customer service, and easy site builder, it's a great option. 1&1 is also rather good, and it's cheaper too. While we rated GoDaddy rather low for more advanced users, it is good for very basic site construction, and might be worth a look. Hostmonster and Bluehost once included a great site builder called Page Wizard, which was very easy to use, but it's no longer offered by them.

As to your question about available pages, Hostmonster (and most others) offer "unlimited" storage space, so you could theoretically have a million pages. Some site builders do limit you to a certain number of template pages, and we try to point those out in the reviews.

Q: My wife established a domain name a few years ago.  She has since passed away and the group no longer exists.  I want to discontinue the domain name. According to the nice lady at YAHOO!, the domain name was established through DSTR Acquisitions. I didn't see this name listed on the domain name provider list (an earlier page on this site).  How do I go about the discontinuation of a domain name?

A: Fortunately, you won't need to do anything. The domain will expire when the registration period is up. At that point, it may disappear or someone may buy it (unfortunately, there's nothing that can be done about that). To find out when the domain expires, just use a who-is lookup like the one at Register.com. You'll find a field that says "Expiration Date." You will also find other registration info, including a Registrant Contact email address and phone number which may be helpful.

It's more involved if the domain was purchased with auto-renewal, because then it never expires (as long as the registrar can keep charging a credit card for the fees). The Registrant should be able to tell you if it's set up to auto-renew. In general, we would caution anyone who's contacting a domain registrar they haven't regularly done business with not to give them any sensitive, personal information.

Q: What web hosting provider would you recommend for a website that has a lot of video uploading/downloading or something similar to video conferencing?

For a media intensive site, we would probably recommend Lunarpages. As our web hosting report card shows, Lunarpages has exhibited very fast download times as well as consistently speedy server response times. Bluehost and Hostmonster are also very good, and a bit cheaper, though their server response time is not quite as high (though when you're talking about fractions of a second, it's not that significant). Those should be fine for video uploading and downloading, provided that you're not running a massive video distribution service.

We never tested any sort of web-enabled video conferencing with web hosting, so it's hard to give you advice on that. We did test several video conferencing solutions when we tested online meeting software, but these are not made to run from a website.

Q: I want to own my website address-my time is near for renewal with my hosting company but I don't feel comfortable with them paying for it. Can I own my own name and still have it hosted?

A: This is an interesting question, because it brings up the question of just who owns a domain. We talk about "domain ownership" and "buying a domain" but the truth is, no one ever owns their domain. Not even Yahoo! or Google. Which is to say that domain registration is always a yearly expenditure. It's a bit like paying your annual car registration fees (and if you don't pay your car registration, the DMV will eventually haul your car away). Your web host is either a licensed domain registrar or they work with someone who is.

But you shouldn't worry about your web hosting company "owning" your domain if you signed up for web hosting under a free-registration-for-life plan. The web host has registered the domain in your name, just as if you'd registered the domain without them. You're only eligible for free registration as long as you host with the company. But they won't continue to if you're no longer a customer; payment responsibility will revert back to you (and it's up to you to transfer it to a new web host or registrar).

Now, I'm sure they wouldn't mind at all if you called up and said you wanted to pay instead. You'd save them $30.00 or so per year. But it's probably more trouble than it's worth, for them and for you. The most important thing is to not let your registration lapse. We should also say that it's always possible that some web host does things a little differently, but this is how it works with most of them.

Q: I purchased Webhostingpad.com's (WHP)3yr hosting plan for a godaddy registered domain and a few months later I asked WHP about domain registration if they continue to host the domain.

On 4 Dec 2009 Webhostingpad.com emailed me:

"We provide free domain registration/transfer for one year. You have to renew the domain from second year by paying $14.95/year."

The review here states they offer free lifetime registration renewals. Please check on this, thanks.

A: I was very surprised to read this. I did some follow-up, and you're right, the free domain registration for Web Hosting Pad is for one year only. We're very sorry the information in our review and compare chart proved to be incorrect. While we do our best to provide up-to-date, accurate information on the products we review, we can't completely guarantee against discrepancies from either data entry errors or changes in service.

I found the same error on some other web hosting review sites. That may indicate that the offer has changed, or that it wasn't terribly clear on Web Hosting Pad's site. Still, the three-year plan ($1.99 per month, or $71.64 for the year) is a pretty good deal, and the free domain privacy is a big savings (you can pay up to $10 annually for that with other hosts).

We've updated our information, and while we know this is disappointing, we hope you will continue to visit NextAdvisor.com.

Q: I have a free website with webs.com and I haven't had any traffic at all in 5 or 6 months!  I want to get a domain name but I don't know whether to cancel my website and make another one with someone else or what.  They are wanting $99.95 a year to free domain and the price is for the enhanced premium package.  I think this is high compared to other companies.  Where is webs.com ranked?  Is this a bad deal?  What is your suggestion on what I shoul do?

A: That's a big decision. There are tremendous benefits to having your own domain name (though that alone won't guarantee traffic). We did a little research on webs.com to see how it might compare to the products we've reviewed. It's a little frustrating, because they don't give a complete rundown on what they offer for $99.95 a year (even finding out the price was not easy, until we'd signed up for their free account).

Unfortunately, you don't get that much more for your $99.95: The ads go away, you get 5 email addresses, and your own domain. There are storage limitations, though at 1000GB it's not a real limitation. The 30-item limitation on your web store could be. Strictly by the numbers, you'd do better with just about any web host we've reviewed.

Webs.com comes closest to Yahoo! Small Business hosting in terms of ease-of-use, though Yahoo! is a much more scalable solution and has far fewer limitations. While your first year is cheaper with Yahoo! ($89.55), your second year will cost more ($120.00). You get a far better bargain with a multi-year plan from FatCow or HostMonster (which charge around $4.00 per month), but there's a slightly higher learning curve. Lunarpages has a great site builder, and is fairly easy to use (though not as user-friendly as Yahoo! Small Business) though it too gets a little expensive after the first year. Depending on your needs, GoDaddy could even be a good option for you.

No, we don't know what the name means (but for that matter we don't know what a HostPapa or a WebHostingPad is either), but they have one compelling offer: two years for the price of one. With one year coming in at $4.99, that's like paying only $2.50 per month for two years. Plus, you get two free domain registrations, meaning you can score a .com and a .org version of your site for one price (assuming they're both available). And domain privacy, that's free too.

In our review, we loved the user interface, the shopping cart creator, and the site builder. We had some reservations about the quality of the out-source support and it didn't rank up there with our performance champs (upload and download speed were good, but not great on large files). But it is the most affordable web host you're likely to find, as long as your comfortable with a two-year commitment.

Check out our web hosting ratings and reviews to see how 1&1 stacks up against the competition, or click here to get started with 1&1.

Sure, most of us have given a purposefully incorrect piece of personal information to someone when we feel it doesn't matter (just why does the Pottery Barn need my zipcode, anyway?). But there are times when it does matter (i.e., every April 15th when the Government wants to know your real income). If you lie to the IRS you can go to jail. What if you lie to the people who collect whois info? And who is asking for that whois info anyway?

Contrary to popular belief, the Internet is not a lawless land. Not entirely. All domain registration is governed by ICANN, the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. One of their big jobs is governing the creation of tld's (top level domains) such as .org, .com, .biz. Here's what they say about themselves:

"It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet's unique identifiers."

Part of that "keeping the Internet secure" involves an interest in domains being registered to real people at real places. Whois info is used to keep people accountable for their websites. Even if you've privatized your whois info, law enforcement can go to your web host with a subpoena to get that information.

Truth be told, there's nothing stopping anyone from lying on their registration info. If someone's going to illegally distribute pirated copies of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price, they're probably going to lie. So, why shouldn't you, the honest and upstanding website owner, lie and hold onto the $10 per year you're paying your web host for domain privacy?

Besides that it's just "the right thing to do" (whatever that's worth in this day and age), it does go against ICANN's rules and can have consequences. Now, ICANN isn't out knocking on doors and taking away domains when no one answers. But violators can be reported, and in such cases they can lose their domains. If someone wants your domain, and they find out that you're reporting false whois info, they may report you. Also, since ICANN requires your domain registrar to collect the correct info, your web host probably requires it too. Putting down the incorrect information probably violates your terms of service with them.

Now, the web is full of stories of people who have been successfully lying about their domain registration for years. But keeping your whois info up-to-date (and private) is probably the best way to stay out of entanglements. It at least keeps you on the right side of the ICANN policies, keeping you in a good position if your domain is ever under dispute.

Check out our web hosting reviews for more on domain costs, web hosting, registrations, and domain privacy.