Choosing a Web Host? Where do you Start?

[SeoGuy]

There are many customers looking for a new host who where not very happy with the service their old host provided.

Unlimited this, unlimited that
Just stop and think for a minute: have you ever found anything to be without limits?
Unlimited cash, unlimited fuel, unlimited time? Really? Probably not.
But you will find some webhosts who offer you unlimited space or unlimited bandwidth.
Are webhosts the big exception? No!
What is the pitfall? The host offers unlimited bandwidth but somewhere in the contract or in his terms of service he will state that your account will be terminated if your bandwidth goes over a certain amount. Sometimes this amount is told but most of the times you will not even be able to get an answer to this question.
What 'unlimited' usually means is that they think you won't go over a certain amount of bandwidth - and if you do they will loose money and shut you down. Even if the host claims that he owns his own Network Operation Center (and most don't) and has sooo much bandwidth - with some sites he will loose money and go out of business - sooner or later.

Too much for too less
If you need an account with much bandwidth (>20 GB traffic per month) be aware of hosts that offer this very cheap. It's very common to offer someone a 40 GB account and to expect that the customer never really will need that much. As soon as you use too much of your transfer your account is suspended and your site offline!

Ability to grow
If your website becomes successfull you will need a host which allows you to grow. Is the host only able to provide very small accounts? If yes maybe you will be on search for a new host sooner than you thought. Ask if he can provide accounts with more than 30 GB bandwidth per month or even dedicated servers.

Domain registration
If you register your domains through your host be sure that you actually own the domain - if you leave your host you want to take your domain with you. Do a WHOIS search and look at the "Administrative Contact". Is it you?

Hardware
Some hosts keep prices low by using cheap hardware for their servers or by overloading their servers. Does your host use quality hardware and fast but expensive SCSI drives? Is enough RAM is installed? How many accounts are on a single server?

Professional host - or not?
Last, but not least: every host will claim to be professional - but will he back his words with a 30 days unconditional money back guarantee?
And if you are not satisfied with the service the host provide after a few months, is it easy to leave? Does he speak clear words about billing, termination and his terms of service?

Remember: If it looks too good to be true then it probably is!

Good luck!

[TWD-Tony]

This guy speaks words of wisdom!


Some of the tactics used by some webhosting companies are very dubious indeed - I'll try and explain a few of them if anyone is interested?

UNLIMITED BANDWIDTH:

There is NO such thing! For a start the hosting company doesn't own the bandwidth, the Datacenter doesn't own the bandwidth - the network provider owns the datapipe to / from the Datacenter and it costs per Mb/sec for data transfer - even the owner of the datacenter cannot give bandwidth away so the poor old host has no chance!

SO how can they claim unlimited?

a>They "oversell" - ie, they pay for 1000Gb / Month for server "A" - they then sell accounts that total "1500GB / Month" on that server - they are gambling that their clients never use anything like the bandwidth that they have paid for - hence they are selling the same bandwidth twice!

b>They cap the speed at which the data can be transfered so you pay for "1000Gb / Month" but can only physically use "800Gb" of it, even if the server was maxed 24/7 !!!!!

They are a "kiddie" host.

"Kiddie" hosts have given the hosting business a VERY bad name in recent times - the average kid has the knowledge and the equipment to easily setup a hosting business, you can USUALLY tell them (but not always) by the templatemonster style website and the silly spelling mistakes on their website, to be honest - all you need to be a webhost is a re-seller hosting package and a paypal account
These hosts are not only obviously "out of the office" from 9-3:30 but if anything goes wrong and you loose inportant data or this kid disappears with your money then you can do very little about it, if the kid is in the US for example then they are legally below the age to enter into contracts so they cannot be sued for a breach of one!

A good host will be a registered company, and be able to give you references to clients so that you can ask around and see exactly what their service is like, don't get me wrong - there are a few decent "cheap" hosts - but generally "cheap" isn't considered very good.
I for example own several sub-companies that specialise in different hosting markets - some of my plans on the business hosting site may seem OTT - but my clients have been blown away by the support, on the cheaper side of the business I do what I can when I can.... YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR

[Tipster]

Why dont you buy a reseller package yourself and give yourself whatever bandwidth ect you need. (As long as you buy a reseller package from a reputable source)

If you have several sites then wouldnt this work out cheaper?

Also you can also upgrade yourself to a better package at no extra cost per site, if your site grows and expands (which hopefully it will )

[TWD-Tony]

If you own a few websites or have one big website then a reseller package is ideal - BUT be warned that if your websites are all hosted on ONE server then you run the risk of all your websites going down (and lack of all email) should there be a problem.

[SeoGuy]

Yeah - So when you do get a reseller you will have it placed on one box. If you get several different packages you can request for them to be placed on different servers.


SeoGuy

[TWD-Tony]

Originally Posted by SeoGuy

Yeah - So when you do get a reseller you will have it placed on one box. If you get several different packages you can request for them to be placed on different servers.


SeoGuy

Or even better - get reseller accounts from different companies so that the servers are in different DC's ( and even countries)

[LEEnoble]

Don't go with the likes of One & One or Web Fusion, they may be big but they have horrible support and out dated hardware/software like on thier Linux hosting where they tend to concentrate on the Windows asp.net platform more.