How to Choose a Web Hosting Service! (By Tracy Perrin)
1. Support.
Is there really anybody there? Send them a question by email and see how long they take to respond. You want to know if they'll be there when you need them. Some offer 24-hour support and a few will respond quickly. Speedy customer service is rare and indicates a superior service. I think that this is the single most important consideration. Also, check out the quality of their online documentation.
2. Server performance.
You want a server that is reliable and fast. There is a free tool available that allows you to evaluate this before making a decision! NetMechanic.com will measure the speed of access for all facets of access (network speed, DNS lookup, connect time, download time, and absence of timeouts). The "download time" statistic is the most important single item to compare. Collect your list of candidate hosting services and run side-by-side tests of all the candidates. Sample during peak and non-peak times for optimal comparison.
3. Are they familiar with the application you plan to use?
If you're planning to use a particular application that requires special setup parameters (such as Online Merchant, a popular online store), make sure your potential host is familiar with the application. Otherwise you may find yourself spending a great deal of time trying to figure out how to configure it - perhaps never succeeding!
4. Traffic allowance.
Compare your traffic allowances. Some services give you a small limit on the amount of material that can be downloaded from your site each month and charge you large amounts when that limit is exceeded. Some offer huge traffic allowances (several thousand MB/month, where 1,000 MB = 1 GB) for the same price as others that limit you to a few hundred MB/month. Sure you probably need less than a hundred MB/month now, but why put yourself in a position where you have to move when your traffic takes off? Plan ahead and allow for growth.
5. Space.
How much space do you expect to eventually want for your web site? Planning ahead can save you lots of money later. If you expect to grow, look for a place that offers sites of 100 MB or more. Some services offer 500 MB sites for less money than others that offer only 30 MB.
6. Features.
Consider what features you want to simplify development of your web site. -Do you want access to a cgi-bin so that you can install your own scripts? -Do you want many scripts pre-installed and pre- configured? -Do you want to be able to use Microsoft's FrontPage? -Do you want autoresponders for email processing? -Do you want email aliases (automatic forwarding) so you don't need to check email in more than one place?
7. Guarantee.
With so many hosting services to choose from, why not choose one that offers a guarantee? Services that offer a moneyback guarantee are confident that you'll be delighted with their service.
8. Cost.
Look for hidden costs when comparing price. -Do they expect you to pay for a long term in advance to get a good price? Choose one that doesn't bait you with a low price that's only available if you make a long-term commitment. -Will they handle the registration of your domain for free? -If you're transferring an existing domain, will they submit the domain change to InterNIC for free? Choosing an excellent service to host your web site doesn't have to require luck. Knowing what to look for makes selection simple. Good luck with your marketing and God Bless
วันศุกร์ที่ 3 สิงหาคม พ.ศ. 2550
Web Host Ethics (By Richard Lowe)
Web Host Ethics (By Richard Lowe)
Okay, I've had to change web hosts half a dozen times in the last year and I've noticed a pattern. It's a very clear and simple pattern, actually a series of behaviors on the part of web hosting companies.
These behaviors cause these companies to lose customers and gain poor reputations. To sum it all up in a single word: ethics. Web hosts need to act ethically. As long as they are ethical towards their business and customers, they thrive. When they become unethical, they will fail. What are web hosting company ethics? This is a code which all hosting companies need to follow if they want to stay in business for the long term.
The most important goal is up-time - Almost anything can be forgiven as long as sites are up and running, as close to 100% of the time as possible. Every feature provided by a hosting company needs to be working and working properly. A small amount of downtime (an hour or two in a month long period) is acceptable, but more than that is not.
Every time I've had to change web hosts, this was the base reason. Unexplained and unexpected downtime. Oh, there were many excuses and many reasons which I'm sure were perfectly valid. But the basic reason why I create and maintain a web site is so people can see it - and they cannot see it if the site is down. To make it even worse, sites which are down for a significant length of time have side effects.
Webrings owners often check for broken rings using automated code - down sites will trigger suspensions and even deletions. Search engines tend to drop sites which are down too often or for too long a period of time. And, of course, visitors may remove your site from their bookmarks, thinking you have closed it or moved on.
The second most important goal is performance - I understand that you want to jam as many sites on a single server as you can. This is how you maximize your profits. Please understand that all of the web sites which you host must perform well.
So don't overload your servers. Stay in communication - We all know that things happen. Sometimes servers do crash and once in a while they require maintenance. Let your customers know about important events. If you are concerned that they might consider it spam, give your customers the option to receive updates if they desire.
I had one host (Hostrocket) which performed, in my opinion, one of the most hostile acts that I have ever seen against a paying customer. I had a CGI script on my site which logged each 404 error in a text file. Normally this script was harmless and used little CPU. Unfortunately, with the new breed of worms striking the internet, 404 errors went way up and the script began using large amounts of processor.
One day I tried to reach my site and didn't get my friendly front page. I got a "forbidden" error. I freaked out and sent off a quick email to the web host support group. I didn't receive a response. Not a word (and it was only early afternoon).
I sent another, then another. Nothing. Finally, 18 frantic hours later, I received a note that my site was closed down because of the script. The number of four letter words that spewed from my mouth that day would have turned a street girl's face red. I was so angry - not because they closed my site, but because these idiots (again, Hostrocket) didn't tell me what they had done.
Because of that, I wasted almost an entire day trying to figure out what was wrong What I would have done had I been the technical person in their company is simple. Just disable the script and send off an email to the web site owner explaining why and telling him not to do it again. If the owner ran the script again, then shut down the site (and, of course, send another email). Needless to say, I regained access to my site, copied my databases to my hard drive, then switched web hosts. Within two days I had moved my site to another, much better hosting service (and, of course, I deleted the offending script).
Don't test on your production servers - I know you want to upgrade your Apache to the newest version or install the new control panel right away, but please don't immediately install anything on your production servers. Believe me, your customers don't care about any of this - they want working sites. Saying "everything is going slow because we upgraded" is not acceptable - the host should know ALL side effects of any upgrades from actual testing long before any change, however, small, is made to a production system.
Free hosting companies seem to have a bad habit of using production systems as test beds. This is one of the strong downsides to using free hosts - they really don't care if your site is up or not, as long as the advertisements are displayed. Acknowledge your trouble tickets - One web hosting company that I was with for quite a long time was Addr.com. These guys had easily the best support so far.
What stands out in my mind is every single message that I sent got acknowledged by a human being. The sequence was as follows: I would send a trouble ticket and get an automated response. A short time later, I got a note that the ticket was handled. I always respond with a "thank you", because I've been a support person before and I understand the power of getting thanked. Addr.com even responded to the thank you with a "you are welcome" message!
Do what you say you are going to do - I was with a hosting company called Bizland for over a year. They were good most of the time except for (a) excessive downtime, and (b) they didn't deliver on their promises. They kept saying CGI will be released in April, then May, then June. Finally, I decided I could not wait anymore (and also concluded the host was down too much) so I moved my site.
To contrast, another hosting company (hostrocket again), had a nasty habit of just closing tickets. I'd send in a question and get an answer, then ask another question as follow-up. I would never get a response, then check to see that the ticket was marked "closed".
This is not the way to keep a customer happy. Actually read your trouble tickets - I write very clearly in trouble tickets, precisely because I've been a support person and I know exactly what is needed. I'm constantly surprised at how many times web host support people simply don't read the ticket and thus do the wrong thing. One particularly glaring example was a ticket which I sent in which said to set up a certain domain with bigmailbox.
The support person (from Hostrocket) changed the MX record for an entirely different domain, in spite of my message clearly stating "change it for domain xyz".
This caused my site to lose email capability for two days until they eventually figured out what they messed up. Most importantly, remember where you get your money from - This message is for all web hosting companies everywhere.
Your money comes from those people called webmasters. Free hosting companies get their money indirectly via the content provided by webmasters. With paid hosts the relationship is direct and to the point - money is paid by webmasters.
If you annoy your customers or don't provide service, then you will find yourselves out of business. And in these days of a looming recession, good customers are gold. Keep them happy and your company will prosper.
About the author: Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.
Okay, I've had to change web hosts half a dozen times in the last year and I've noticed a pattern. It's a very clear and simple pattern, actually a series of behaviors on the part of web hosting companies.
These behaviors cause these companies to lose customers and gain poor reputations. To sum it all up in a single word: ethics. Web hosts need to act ethically. As long as they are ethical towards their business and customers, they thrive. When they become unethical, they will fail. What are web hosting company ethics? This is a code which all hosting companies need to follow if they want to stay in business for the long term.
The most important goal is up-time - Almost anything can be forgiven as long as sites are up and running, as close to 100% of the time as possible. Every feature provided by a hosting company needs to be working and working properly. A small amount of downtime (an hour or two in a month long period) is acceptable, but more than that is not.
Every time I've had to change web hosts, this was the base reason. Unexplained and unexpected downtime. Oh, there were many excuses and many reasons which I'm sure were perfectly valid. But the basic reason why I create and maintain a web site is so people can see it - and they cannot see it if the site is down. To make it even worse, sites which are down for a significant length of time have side effects.
Webrings owners often check for broken rings using automated code - down sites will trigger suspensions and even deletions. Search engines tend to drop sites which are down too often or for too long a period of time. And, of course, visitors may remove your site from their bookmarks, thinking you have closed it or moved on.
The second most important goal is performance - I understand that you want to jam as many sites on a single server as you can. This is how you maximize your profits. Please understand that all of the web sites which you host must perform well.
So don't overload your servers. Stay in communication - We all know that things happen. Sometimes servers do crash and once in a while they require maintenance. Let your customers know about important events. If you are concerned that they might consider it spam, give your customers the option to receive updates if they desire.
I had one host (Hostrocket) which performed, in my opinion, one of the most hostile acts that I have ever seen against a paying customer. I had a CGI script on my site which logged each 404 error in a text file. Normally this script was harmless and used little CPU. Unfortunately, with the new breed of worms striking the internet, 404 errors went way up and the script began using large amounts of processor.
One day I tried to reach my site and didn't get my friendly front page. I got a "forbidden" error. I freaked out and sent off a quick email to the web host support group. I didn't receive a response. Not a word (and it was only early afternoon).
I sent another, then another. Nothing. Finally, 18 frantic hours later, I received a note that my site was closed down because of the script. The number of four letter words that spewed from my mouth that day would have turned a street girl's face red. I was so angry - not because they closed my site, but because these idiots (again, Hostrocket) didn't tell me what they had done.
Because of that, I wasted almost an entire day trying to figure out what was wrong What I would have done had I been the technical person in their company is simple. Just disable the script and send off an email to the web site owner explaining why and telling him not to do it again. If the owner ran the script again, then shut down the site (and, of course, send another email). Needless to say, I regained access to my site, copied my databases to my hard drive, then switched web hosts. Within two days I had moved my site to another, much better hosting service (and, of course, I deleted the offending script).
Don't test on your production servers - I know you want to upgrade your Apache to the newest version or install the new control panel right away, but please don't immediately install anything on your production servers. Believe me, your customers don't care about any of this - they want working sites. Saying "everything is going slow because we upgraded" is not acceptable - the host should know ALL side effects of any upgrades from actual testing long before any change, however, small, is made to a production system.
Free hosting companies seem to have a bad habit of using production systems as test beds. This is one of the strong downsides to using free hosts - they really don't care if your site is up or not, as long as the advertisements are displayed. Acknowledge your trouble tickets - One web hosting company that I was with for quite a long time was Addr.com. These guys had easily the best support so far.
What stands out in my mind is every single message that I sent got acknowledged by a human being. The sequence was as follows: I would send a trouble ticket and get an automated response. A short time later, I got a note that the ticket was handled. I always respond with a "thank you", because I've been a support person before and I understand the power of getting thanked. Addr.com even responded to the thank you with a "you are welcome" message!
Do what you say you are going to do - I was with a hosting company called Bizland for over a year. They were good most of the time except for (a) excessive downtime, and (b) they didn't deliver on their promises. They kept saying CGI will be released in April, then May, then June. Finally, I decided I could not wait anymore (and also concluded the host was down too much) so I moved my site.
To contrast, another hosting company (hostrocket again), had a nasty habit of just closing tickets. I'd send in a question and get an answer, then ask another question as follow-up. I would never get a response, then check to see that the ticket was marked "closed".
This is not the way to keep a customer happy. Actually read your trouble tickets - I write very clearly in trouble tickets, precisely because I've been a support person and I know exactly what is needed. I'm constantly surprised at how many times web host support people simply don't read the ticket and thus do the wrong thing. One particularly glaring example was a ticket which I sent in which said to set up a certain domain with bigmailbox.
The support person (from Hostrocket) changed the MX record for an entirely different domain, in spite of my message clearly stating "change it for domain xyz".
This caused my site to lose email capability for two days until they eventually figured out what they messed up. Most importantly, remember where you get your money from - This message is for all web hosting companies everywhere.
Your money comes from those people called webmasters. Free hosting companies get their money indirectly via the content provided by webmasters. With paid hosts the relationship is direct and to the point - money is paid by webmasters.
If you annoy your customers or don't provide service, then you will find yourselves out of business. And in these days of a looming recession, good customers are gold. Keep them happy and your company will prosper.
About the author: Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.
Is Your Web Host A Paddle Boat Or A Cruise Ship? (By Mike Jones)
Is Your Web Host A Paddle Boat Or A Cruise Ship? (By Mike Jones)
A paddle boat is great for fun on a day off! But would you consider taking it to the open sea? A cruise ship on the other hand is ideally suited for pampering its guests with every facility imaginable for the vacation of your dreams! Applying this analogy to web hosting can help you make a wise decision if you are currently 1) new to internet business and looking for that first web host, or 2) up and running but thinking the time has come to upgrade to a higher level. Web hosts fall generally into 3 categories. They are: 1) Free Services 2) Budget Hosts (under $20-25 per month) 3) Full Service ($25+ per month) Let's take a look at each category.
1. Free Services
If you want to run a home page for personal interest for family and friends, great! If you want to ease into the internet cautiously, great. Tripod.com offer a good free service with reasonable support. Or check out: http://zap.to/1freewebpage/ for a good listing of what's available. In short, if you merely want to paddle around, have a little fun, gain some experience, these services are fine. For serious business however you really need your own domain name, not someone else's. Tripod takes the edge off by allowing your name to come first in the URL, e.g. http://yourname.tripod.com Having said that, you can't get away from the fact that your credibility as a business takes a hit when clients see this kind of domain name.
2. Budget Hosts
You get what you pay for, generally. Many may knock the value of budget hosts. If you are running a serious business, then probably this kind of package would not give enough stability or features. Consider the following first-hand nightmare experience: "One popular low-cost host left my entire site dead for over a week while I scrambled frantically to save my business. Heck, I couldn't even reach anyone or get them to return my plea for help. When the dust settled, they had lost the backups of my entire site and I was left to fend for myself." - Ken (Internet Marketing Challenge) On the other hand, you may find my experience helpful in your decision making. I am running a resource site at present containing information pages and some doorway pages. I don't sell from my site. I don't need a secure ordering page. For my purpose in running this particular domain, a budget host is fine.
However, I ran a check on it some months back using the free service at http://hostwatcher.com . I was shocked to see how many times the server was down, or there was a very long load time for my pages. I wrote and complained. The reply came back that ownership of the host had changed and a better service was promised. Recently I checked again and found the company now has a 99% up time - a vast improvement. I was on the verge of changing my host but I now find the service is very good for what I need. Read a more in depth report on this here on my website: http://www.vitalstop.com/cheapwebhosting.htm
3. Full Service
If your business is taking off and you need 24 hour full support with all the "bells and whistles" then this is the way to go. If your internet business is your main stay then you need a "cruise ship" company who are going to give you professional top of the line facilities and service. See if there are good shopping cart facilities so you can easily set up your online store.
Managing your post office and autoresponders should also be easy through a friendly interface with good web hosts. Look for 24 hour technical support and immediate response to customer needs. Some even have a troubleshooting crackforce which can give a response usually within an hour or two.
This is the kind of service you can expect from a top line professional web host. If your site is really beginning to make money, can you afford any less? Choosing a web host or changing a web host is one of those decisions which will have a massive impact on your business. Use the 3 category test above and decide where you are going! Then decide whether to jump into a paddle boat or book yourself a ticket on a cruise ship for a happy trouble free experience.
A paddle boat is great for fun on a day off! But would you consider taking it to the open sea? A cruise ship on the other hand is ideally suited for pampering its guests with every facility imaginable for the vacation of your dreams! Applying this analogy to web hosting can help you make a wise decision if you are currently 1) new to internet business and looking for that first web host, or 2) up and running but thinking the time has come to upgrade to a higher level. Web hosts fall generally into 3 categories. They are: 1) Free Services 2) Budget Hosts (under $20-25 per month) 3) Full Service ($25+ per month) Let's take a look at each category.
1. Free Services
If you want to run a home page for personal interest for family and friends, great! If you want to ease into the internet cautiously, great. Tripod.com offer a good free service with reasonable support. Or check out: http://zap.to/1freewebpage/ for a good listing of what's available. In short, if you merely want to paddle around, have a little fun, gain some experience, these services are fine. For serious business however you really need your own domain name, not someone else's. Tripod takes the edge off by allowing your name to come first in the URL, e.g. http://yourname.tripod.com Having said that, you can't get away from the fact that your credibility as a business takes a hit when clients see this kind of domain name.
2. Budget Hosts
You get what you pay for, generally. Many may knock the value of budget hosts. If you are running a serious business, then probably this kind of package would not give enough stability or features. Consider the following first-hand nightmare experience: "One popular low-cost host left my entire site dead for over a week while I scrambled frantically to save my business. Heck, I couldn't even reach anyone or get them to return my plea for help. When the dust settled, they had lost the backups of my entire site and I was left to fend for myself." - Ken (Internet Marketing Challenge) On the other hand, you may find my experience helpful in your decision making. I am running a resource site at present containing information pages and some doorway pages. I don't sell from my site. I don't need a secure ordering page. For my purpose in running this particular domain, a budget host is fine.
However, I ran a check on it some months back using the free service at http://hostwatcher.com . I was shocked to see how many times the server was down, or there was a very long load time for my pages. I wrote and complained. The reply came back that ownership of the host had changed and a better service was promised. Recently I checked again and found the company now has a 99% up time - a vast improvement. I was on the verge of changing my host but I now find the service is very good for what I need. Read a more in depth report on this here on my website: http://www.vitalstop.com/cheapwebhosting.htm
3. Full Service
If your business is taking off and you need 24 hour full support with all the "bells and whistles" then this is the way to go. If your internet business is your main stay then you need a "cruise ship" company who are going to give you professional top of the line facilities and service. See if there are good shopping cart facilities so you can easily set up your online store.
Managing your post office and autoresponders should also be easy through a friendly interface with good web hosts. Look for 24 hour technical support and immediate response to customer needs. Some even have a troubleshooting crackforce which can give a response usually within an hour or two.
This is the kind of service you can expect from a top line professional web host. If your site is really beginning to make money, can you afford any less? Choosing a web host or changing a web host is one of those decisions which will have a massive impact on your business. Use the 3 category test above and decide where you are going! Then decide whether to jump into a paddle boat or book yourself a ticket on a cruise ship for a happy trouble free experience.
How to Select a Webhost that Fits Your Needs (By Marc Goldman)
How to Select a Webhost that Fits Your Needs By Marc Goldman
Whether you're considering starting a website or you have one and want to possibly move it, this article can help you decide what the best webhost means to you. To begin, every website is hosted on only 3 platforms: Unix, Windows NT, Macintosh Very few sites are hosted on a MAC server, so the majority of webhosts use Unix or NT. For these reasons we will focus on only those 2 platforms. Unix and NT both offer various options and have different abilities.
Your choice of which platform to use depends on what applications you want your site to run and the amount of control you want to have over your site.
Unix
Unix is the oldest and one of the most widely used operating systems. It is the basis of the internet and most webservers originally ran on a version of Unix. Unix is know as a multitasking operating system which means that it can run many applications at the same time without them affecting each other. This is very important when you consider that hundreds of websites, running thousands of CGI scripts, all receiving thousands of hits could be running on one
webserver.
Why Use It?:
It's reliable Ability to host many websites on the same machine. Almost all CGI scripts run better on Unix. Programming flexibility. Much more administrative control. With Unix, webmasters can really tweak their websites (assuming they know what they are doing) to run at optimal levels. Developers can run CGI scripts and create applications specific to their needs.
Down Sides: Is case sensitive. It is not an easy operating system to learn. Must use telnet or Ftp to make changes.
Windows NT NT is a relative newcomer to the webhosting game but it is fast gaining a large share of the business. NT was built to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft's web authoring tool, Frontpage. As such, it is often the perfect solution for newcomers who do not want to learn HTML or CGI programming or deal with the day to day hassles of administering a webserver.
Up Sides: Can use Microsoft Frontpage to publish your website as opposed to using Ftp or telnet. Can use Cold Fusion. Somewhat easier to administer (especially for the average webmaster). Is not case sensitive. If you do not plan on learning the in's and out's of the web and administering your site, NT is probably your tool of choice.
Down Sides: Provides poorer security than Unix. Because of the security issues, the hosting provider will usually institute tighter security measures. Cannot run all CGI scripts although this is changing. Your needs as the webmaster and your visitors needs will determine the type of webhost and the platform you need. Once you have done some more research into what platform you need, stop by an independent website like: http://www.tophosts.com and choose one of the top 25 hosts to fulfill your needs.
Some issues to consider while pondering which host to choose:
1.Uptime: This is probably the most critical piece of information you need to know to make an informed decision. How often a server goes down means lost business and lost sales and no one needs that. Our webhost is up 99.9% of the time as compared to the first one we had which was more like 25% of the time.
2.Bandwidth Usage: Some hosts actually charge you for the amount of traffic you get once you pass a certain percentage. Why on earth would you want to be charged for that? Our webhost offers us unmetered traffic at no extra cost (this is what you should look for).
3.Server Space: Look for hosts that give 50-500 mg of space. As the technology changes sites will take up more space. You should try to get as much as you can right now even if you don't use it all.
4.CGI Access: This is critical. You need the ability to use CGI and especially custom CGI. If a host doesn't offer it, run screaming!
5.MSQL; Real Audio; Real Video; Cold Fusion: This is the future of the web and in particular web marketing. Make sure a host offers support for these applications even if you don't presently have a use for them. You will be glad that you spent your time doing this research before you jump in and choose a host or switch to a host that provides you with nothing but problems. You deserve the best, go for it.
Whether you're considering starting a website or you have one and want to possibly move it, this article can help you decide what the best webhost means to you. To begin, every website is hosted on only 3 platforms: Unix, Windows NT, Macintosh Very few sites are hosted on a MAC server, so the majority of webhosts use Unix or NT. For these reasons we will focus on only those 2 platforms. Unix and NT both offer various options and have different abilities.
Your choice of which platform to use depends on what applications you want your site to run and the amount of control you want to have over your site.
Unix
Unix is the oldest and one of the most widely used operating systems. It is the basis of the internet and most webservers originally ran on a version of Unix. Unix is know as a multitasking operating system which means that it can run many applications at the same time without them affecting each other. This is very important when you consider that hundreds of websites, running thousands of CGI scripts, all receiving thousands of hits could be running on one
webserver.
Why Use It?:
It's reliable Ability to host many websites on the same machine. Almost all CGI scripts run better on Unix. Programming flexibility. Much more administrative control. With Unix, webmasters can really tweak their websites (assuming they know what they are doing) to run at optimal levels. Developers can run CGI scripts and create applications specific to their needs.
Down Sides: Is case sensitive. It is not an easy operating system to learn. Must use telnet or Ftp to make changes.
Windows NT NT is a relative newcomer to the webhosting game but it is fast gaining a large share of the business. NT was built to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft's web authoring tool, Frontpage. As such, it is often the perfect solution for newcomers who do not want to learn HTML or CGI programming or deal with the day to day hassles of administering a webserver.
Up Sides: Can use Microsoft Frontpage to publish your website as opposed to using Ftp or telnet. Can use Cold Fusion. Somewhat easier to administer (especially for the average webmaster). Is not case sensitive. If you do not plan on learning the in's and out's of the web and administering your site, NT is probably your tool of choice.
Down Sides: Provides poorer security than Unix. Because of the security issues, the hosting provider will usually institute tighter security measures. Cannot run all CGI scripts although this is changing. Your needs as the webmaster and your visitors needs will determine the type of webhost and the platform you need. Once you have done some more research into what platform you need, stop by an independent website like: http://www.tophosts.com and choose one of the top 25 hosts to fulfill your needs.
Some issues to consider while pondering which host to choose:
1.Uptime: This is probably the most critical piece of information you need to know to make an informed decision. How often a server goes down means lost business and lost sales and no one needs that. Our webhost is up 99.9% of the time as compared to the first one we had which was more like 25% of the time.
2.Bandwidth Usage: Some hosts actually charge you for the amount of traffic you get once you pass a certain percentage. Why on earth would you want to be charged for that? Our webhost offers us unmetered traffic at no extra cost (this is what you should look for).
3.Server Space: Look for hosts that give 50-500 mg of space. As the technology changes sites will take up more space. You should try to get as much as you can right now even if you don't use it all.
4.CGI Access: This is critical. You need the ability to use CGI and especially custom CGI. If a host doesn't offer it, run screaming!
5.MSQL; Real Audio; Real Video; Cold Fusion: This is the future of the web and in particular web marketing. Make sure a host offers support for these applications even if you don't presently have a use for them. You will be glad that you spent your time doing this research before you jump in and choose a host or switch to a host that provides you with nothing but problems. You deserve the best, go for it.
Web Host Ethics
Web Host Ethics
Okay, I've had to change web hosts half a dozen times in the last year and I've noticed a pattern. It's a very clear and simple pattern, actually a series of behaviors on the part of web hosting companies. These behaviors cause these companies to lose customers and gain poor reputations.
Okay, I've had to change web hosts half a dozen times in the last year and I've noticed a pattern. It's a very clear and simple pattern, actually a series of behaviors on the part of web hosting companies. These behaviors cause these companies to lose customers and gain poor reputations.
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