Labs

UK2.net's Linux-based Home package is one of the cheapest in this round-up but it still comes with a free domain registered for two years. There's also no startup fee, so the price quoted is exactly what you pay. You get 3GB of web space and a 100GB monthly bandwidth limit, both of which are generous even compared with more expensive packages. You can assign up to 10 subdomains and redirect other domains to them, which means you can in effect host 11 websites using this package.

Uploading your website is easy. You can use FTP, the comprehensive online file manager included with the cPanel interface or the webdisk utility, which allows you to drag

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and drop files directly from your computer to your web space account. Whether you're a novice or an expert, cPanel is an easy and effective interface for managing your web space, although UK2 has yet to integrate email management in cPanel. If you have any trouble with either the cPanel system or the basics of web management, a useful selection of help videos can guide you through the basics.

Email facilities are more limited. With only five accounts available, this isn't the best package for a large or expanding organisation.

Like most cPanel-based web-hosting products, UK2.net's Home package includes Fantastico, which gives you direct access to a huge range of web applications. Each will occupy one of your SQL database slots, though, so you are limited to a single application with the Home package, while the more advanced Business account, which costs £6.85 a month, provides five SQL database slots as well as a whopping 15GB of web space and a 750GB bandwidth limit. There's also a range of basic CGI scripts and support for Perl and PHP.

UK2.net's Home package is inexpensive but offers great data capacity, an excellent administrative interface and useful tools. It is one of the better packages in this round-up.