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Putting your ideas, dreams, family home
page or business online is pretty exciting. You`re opening up a dimension of
your life to the entire world. It`s pretty typical that when someone creates
their first, or any, website they know a lot about what they want the site to
look like, the content they will have and who their target audience is.
However, not many people, if any, have
spent a lot of time considering what they want their web host to be like, and so
it should be. Here are 10 critical things you should know about finding a web
host that will save you time and headaches down the road so you can spend your
time enjoying the finer things in life rather than worrying about web hosting.
1) Cost Issues
Free hosting: There are
3 things to consider when looking at free hosting. The first is can you accept
not having your own domain name, i.e. if the website is
http://WebHostName.com/YourSiteName instead of http://YourSiteName is that going
to bother you? Second, can you accept the web host advertising on your web page?
Third, there are a lot of free web hosts out there that will promise you your
own domain name and no advertising but when you read the fine print what they
are offering is a free trial offer. Free really is free but make sure you find
out the terms free hosting service is being offered on.
Shared/Dedicated
hosting: Here are a few important cost factors you should check on before
you sign with a host. Find out if your host offers a money back guarantee and
what their refund policies are, whether there is a requirement to sign up for a
minimum period and if your package is scalable. That is, if your site grows will
you be able to expand the amount of bandwidth, disk drive space, and email
accounts that you are using at a reasonable price. If you are locked in to a
year contract with a host and you start running over your transfer limit you can
really get killed on over-run charges. Watch out for unlimited bandwidth or
space offers. The bandwidth offers usually come with an escalating price scale
and the space offers usually don`t include file types like .jpg and .gif files
and other large media file types. Sure, it`s unlimited, as long as you`re only
storing text!
2) Reputation
Read up on your host before you
choose one. Read the Reviews on HostSearch.com
and see what other customers are saying about them.
Double check and see what the folks
on a good web hosting forum like DiscussHosting.com have to say about them.
Then triple check and run a search for
their name on Google and check in the groups listings. If you check on another
web hosting directory or look only at the awards they`ve won on their web site
be careful because many times web hosts will pay for this as a form of
advertising.
3) Customer Service
It`s a good idea to find out about a web
host`s customer service before you sign with them. Make sure they offer 24-7
phone support if you need it. Test their email support as well before you sign
up to see what kind of response time they give you compared with what their
advertising says. This is a good way to test a web host`s integrity as well. If
they promise email response within 1 hour and you wait 3 days to hear back from
them you can bet their 100% uptime guarantee isn`t any good either.
If your web site is truly critical you may
want to find out where the data center is just in case you can`t contact anyone
by phone or email. If it`s in your city you can drive over there and get some
answers if you need to but if your web host is off-shoring in Sri Lanka it`s not
quite so easy. "Bill, grab your bags, we`re sending you to Columbo to reboot the
server. And don`t worry about the Tamil Tigers, they just signed a cease-fire
with the government."
4) Registering a domain
name
A host should offer the ability to
register domain names for you. Ideally your web host will be an ICANN certified
domain registrar or be able to tell you which domain registrar they use. Make
sure your name, not the host company`s name, is listed as the administrative
contact with InterNIC for your domain name. This way you can transfer your
domain name to another host more easily. If your host doesn`t provide you with
the services they promise and you withhold payment they can hold on to your
domain name when you try to transfer it. If the company goes out of business you
may also run into problems trying to move your domain name if you aren`t the one
registered with InterNIC.
5) Why is my site so
SLOW?!?
Find out if your host allows adult hosting
if you go with a shared server solution and make sure you aren`t sharing a
server with one of these sites. If you are on a server with an adult site it
will hog your bandwidth. Also ask how many sites you will be sharing the server
with.
6) Security
Ask the web host about your security if
you plan to be involved in ecommerce. Their security should be multi-layered to
protect you from today`s hackers. With DNS poisoning, cross-site scripting, URL
hijacking, spam, phishing, and DDoS attacks to worry about they should be able
to tell you what they will do to protect you from the network side although it`s
not the web host`s job to make sure the code on your site is secure.
7) Long term contract
Many web hosts offer a much reduced
monthly rate if you sign a long-term contract with them. You are better off
signing a short term contract and upgrading before you make a long term
commitment. If you sign a long-term deal and come to find out the host is
frequently down you will need to buy out the remainder of the contract before
they`ll let you switch to another host. It`s better to take a test-drive and buy
the long term deal only once you`re satisfied with your host`s service.
8) Server access
Make sure to check out what kind of server
access you`ll have and how you will be controlling your site. If you have a
web-driven control panel it may not allow you to do everything you need if you
are running a complex site or conversely if you just want a simple site with
low/no hassle then virtual access to the server and an FTP account may require
more technical research than you care to do to get your site going.
9) Figuring out how much Bandwidth you
will need
Before you sign on with a new host run
some numbers on what bandwidth and other services are going to cost you. The key
here is planning ahead and making sure your agreement with your hosting provider
is flexible enough to allow you to expand in terms of space, email and
especially bandwidth.
As a rough index to figuring out how much
bandwidth you`ll need use 10 gigs of monthly bandwidth per 500 daily users you
expect.
Check out how much bandwidth or speed will
cost and think about how much it will cost if your site really takes off. Flat
monthly rates are better than usage rates. If you suddenly get an influx of
users because of a new product, advertising campaign, or sudden coincidental
flood of Google searchers and your usage exceeds your bandwidth usage agreement
you may be in for a nasty shock when you get your hosting bill. You may not
think you will ever exceed the limit but you may be surprised at what can cause
a spike in traffic on your site, for example, HostSearch.com did an interview
with GoDaddy.com and we got a huge influx of hits from Google users searching
for the GoDaddy girl, Nikki Capelli, after she appeared in GoDaddy`s Super Bowl
ad.
10) How well is your web host
connected?
How fast your host`s servers are and how
fast your site will be depends in part on the connection your web host has with
the Internet. Many web hosting companies buy their connections from large
backbone providers like UUNET. At the very least, they should have T3 lines.
You should ask them how they are connected
if speed will be a factor for you. They will tell you something like, "We are
using T-1/OC-3 lines." i.e., Web hosting companies typically connect to the
Internet through "T" (Transmission), "OC" (Optical Carrier),
and/or "DS" (Digital Signal) lines. Many smaller web hosts still use T1`s
to connect your site to the world at a rate of 1.544 megabits per second. The
biggest and fastest hosts use redundant, multiple OC3 (155.52 Mbps) lines to
offer their clients the bandwidth they need for multiple user sessions on their
site(s).
The best web hosts today use redundant
lines to ensure that customers` sites remain up and active, even if their
primary Internet connections are temporarily unavailable. It`s a good idea to
check which hosts offer backup connections fast enough to maintain your site`s
performance in case of a primary line failure.
Of course, as with everything, you pay
more for premium service. If you are looking for the cheapest possible solution
you may want to make sure your web host DOESN`T have 24-7 phone support, OC3
lines, or the latest hardware in their data-center.
By following these tips you should end up
with a reputable, quality, web host and a hassle-free hosting experience. Good
luck.
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