Questions To Ask a Hosting Company Before You Start
There are several types of hosting. Among them are:
Free hosting
Free sites are for people who's sites are small and do not
expect much traffic. Personal sites about your family or
hobbies are perfect for free web site hosts. I do not recommend
this for any business, promoting or selling a product, or
expect a lot of traffic. Usually you cannot use a domain
name for your site. You must use a domain and site path
provided by the company.
Virtual (or shared) hosting
A web server which shares its resources with multiple users.
It's another way of saying that multiple web sites share
the resources of one server. If you do not need your own
web server (i.e. your own server class computer), you will
use a virtual server to host your web site.
Dedicated hosting
A more expensive type of account in which the web hosting
company provides you with an entire hosting setup including
your own server hardware that only you can use. This usually
means a much faster loading time for your site because the
entire computer is "dedicated" to running the
server software. This is different from most other hosting
accounts in which your web site will share space on a server
with many other web sites, called a virtual server. A dedicated
server makes sense for web sites that require higher availability
and higher data transfer rates.
Collocation hosting
Collocation hosting offers the same benefits as dedicated
hosting, except you provide the server. I only recommend
this plan if you can gain physical access to the server,
or have special server requirements. If you are located
in New York and the server is in Seattle, it would be difficult,
and expensive, for you to replace a hard drive. You can
have the hosting provider repair problems, but at a premium
cost.
Questions To Ask a Hosting Company Before You Start
1. How long have you been in business? Are you incorporated?
Do you have your own Merchant Account?
Varies These are questions geared at stability and long
term continuation of web hosting service. These questions
are important as you don't want to sign up for a web host
who will disappear in one day.
2. How many customers do you serve per server?
Depending on the Web hosting plan or the Web hosting company
the server that your hosted on might be a little more packed
than you might think. A responsible Web hosting company
will not overstuff the servers they own or collocate. Most
of the time, sharing a server with several different companies
is not a bad thing though. However, you do need to ask your
Web hosting company about the numbers. If you are shopping
around for Web hosting, you need to ask each company about
the client per server ratio. Go with the company that fits
your other needs, and has the least amount of clients per
Web hosting server.
3. Do you allow SMTP POP3 email to be sent and received
from mydomain.com?
You should get the answer: Yes
Some hosting companies force you to send SMTP POP3 email
from isp.yourdomain.com rather than yourdomain.com. They
do this because they claim 1) it keeps the servers fast.
However, a dedicated SMTP POP3 server won't have any problems
2) it minimizes spam (however, spammers can still use technical
tools for spamming from their account - so it really doesn't
minimize spam). The biggest problem is that some Internet
Service Providers won't allow the use of isp.yourdomain.com.
It probably wouldn't make for a good day if you discover
you had to change ISPs just to send email via your domain.
4. If I go over the monthly allotted bandwidth, what are
the charges for each gig?
You should get the answer: $0 to $2 a gig
Watch this one as we have seen hosts indicate "purchase
additional bandwidth for $0.1 per MB." That translates
into $100 per gig.
5. Do you have any upgrades for each account, and if so,
what are the costs?
Varies Most web hosts publish this information along with
each hosting plan. It's good to ask if you can't find this
information.
Other issues
- The lame web host companies usually lack professional
"look and feel" in their emails, some even taking
days to respond. Worse yet, you may find some that won't
reply, forcing you to have to send another email. It pays
to find out any problems in advance
- The established web host companies reply to your email
within 12 hours, if not by then, you should have at least
received a courtesy email to let you know they are reviewing
your questions.
- Keep in mind that there's much more to hosting than
gigabytes and HTML, as without the professional support
you need, your online business will suffer the consequences.
- Look for an established Privacy Statement and Terms
of Service. A web host without a Privacy Statement or Terms
of Service is usually a red flag for you since it is very
important for all web sites to establish this information
to their visitors. While it can be boring to read this material,
you may be in for a surprise to later find out extra charges
that your site could unexpectedly incur. Know what to expect.
When in doubt, ask.
- Ask for names of two to three similar users and check
with them regarding their experience.
Back
to Tips Page |
