Tips On Finding A Web Host
By Alexander Stomanec, Mon Dec 26th
Most of the people haven`t spent a lot of time considering whatthey want their web host to be like. Here are some criticalthings you should know about finding a web host that will saveyou time and headaches down the road so you can spend your timeenjoying the finer things in life rather than worrying about webhosting.
1) Cost Issues
Free hosting: There are 3 things to consider when looking atfree hosting. The first is can you accept not having your owndomain name, i.e. if the website ishttp://WebHostName.com/YourSiteName instead ofhttp://YourSiteName is that going to bother you? Second, can youaccept the web host advertising on your web page? Third, thereare a lot of free web hosts out there that will promise you yourown domain name and no advertising but when you read the fineprint what they are offering is a free trial offer. Free reallyis free but make sure you find out the terms free hostingservice is being offered on.
Shared/Dedicated hosting: Here are a few important cost factorsyou should check on before you sign with a host. Find out ifyour host offers a money back guarantee and what their refundpolicies are, whether there is a requirement to sign up for aminimum period and if your package is scalable. That is, if yoursite grows will you be able to expand the amount of bandwidth,disk drive space, and email accounts that you are using at areasonable price. If you are locked in to a year contract with ahost and you start running over your transfer limit you canreally get killed on over-run charges. Watch out for unlimitedbandwidth or space offers. The bandwidth offers usually comewith an escalating price scale and the space offers usuallydon't include file types like .jpg and .gif files and otherlarge media file types. Sure, it's unlimited, as long as you'reonly storing text!
2) Customer Service
It's a good idea to find out about a web host's customer servicebefore you sign with them. Make sure they offer 24-7 phonesupport if you need it. Test their email support as well beforeyou sign up to see what kind of response time they give youcompared with what their advertising says. This is a good way totest a web host's integrity as well. If they promise emailresponse within 1 hour and you wait 3 days to hear back fromthem you can bet their 100% uptime guarantee isn't any goodeither.
3) Registering a domain name
A host should offer the ability to register domain names foryou. Ideally your web host will be an ICANN certified domainregistrar or be able to tell you which domain registrar theyuse. Make sure your name, not the host company's name, is listedas the administrative contact with InterNIC for your domainname. This way you can transfer your domain name to another hostmore easily. If your host doesn't provide you with the servicesthey promise and you withhold payment they can hold on to yourdomain name when you try to transfer it. If the company goes outof business you may also run into problems trying to move yourdomain name if you aren't the one registered with InterNIC.
4) Security
Ask the web host about your security if you plan to be involvedin ecommerce. Their security should be multi-layered to protectyou from today's hackers. With DNS poisoning, cross-sitescripting, URL hijacking, spam, phishing, and DDoS attacks toworry about they should be able to tell you what they will do toprotect you from the network side although it's not the webhost's job to make sure the code on your site is secure.
5) Long term contract
Many web hosts offer a much reduced monthly rate if you sign along-term contract with
