Without further ado, the ten
question to ask your Web host:
1. How long has the Web host been
in business?
2. Does the Web host own its data
center?
3. How many upstream Internet providers
does the Web host have?
4. Does the Web host monitor its
customers’ sites twenty-four
hours per day? How?
5. Does the Web host provide 24/7/365
phone and email support?
6. What levels of redundancy does
the Web host’s architecture
provide?
7. Does the Web host automatically
backup customer web sites in case
of data loss? How often?
8. What is the Web host’s
billing policy?
9. Does the Web host provide the
features that you need for your
web site?
10. Does the Web host have the products
and services to handle your growth?
The length of time that a host has
been in business can be related
to their ability to provide a quality,
reliable product. If your host can
satisfy its customers, then those
customers are likely to stick with
the host’s service. Therefore,
stay in business. There are, of
course, situations where this is
not applicable or becomes a bit
hazy. Be sure to also inquire about
whether a host has recently been
involved in a merger, acquired what
was once a well-known brand name,
or launched a new brand. If any
of these apply, then delve deeper
into the story behind what has happened
and determine whether quality resources
are still with the company.
• Complete a domain name “whois”
lookup on the Web host: http://www.internic.net/whois.html.
Type in the Web host’s domain
name and determine what year the
domain was registered. If only registered
in the recent past, ask the host
about it. If the domain name was
recently registered this is not
necessarily a red flag. Simply inquire
with the host about it. They may
have recently launched an affinity-based
brand to cater to your market.
• Type the host’s name
into a search engine and check out
the results that you get, other
than those from the host itself.
You may run across reviews, interviews,
or industry articles about the host.
A data center is the foundation
from which all products and services
are built upon. If your host owns
its own data center, then they are
likely quite entrenched in the hosting
business. They also have an experienced
staff and knowledge base from which
to draw from when supporting your
web site and building new products.
In other words, if a host owns its
own facility, then it controls more
of the variables that can make or
break your web presence.
Your web site performance is not
just a measure of your web server's
speed. The ability of your Web host
to route traffic through the cleanest
Internet connections is also of
great importance. It is crucial
that your provider have multiple
connections to the Internet. Accidental
fiber cuts in construction or telecom
work and data center equipment failure
can cause your site to go offline
for an extended amount of time.
This can be avoided if your Web
host has other connections to the
Internet that will reroute traffic
that would have normally been carried
on the failed circuit. Yes, this
means your host must also have extra
capacity on hand to handle normal
traffic levels when one connection
is lost; which is another area where
a host can attempt to cut cost.
This is much like when driving your
car, there are several streets that
you can take to get to your desired
destination. Sometimes you will
encounter construction or an accident
that will require you to take an
alternative street. Well, the Internet
works the same way. There are several
routes that traffic can take to
a destination. Your host should
be able to choose the cleanest,
or most efficient, route to your
web site visitor. In fact, your
host should be able to continually
tune these routes to find the best
path to your visitors. Another way
to achieve this is by minimizing
the number of different networks
traffic will pass through before
reaching its destination. It is
extremely important for your host
to have direct connections to networks
that have lots of eyeballs. In other
words, your web site will be served
better if your Web host is using
connections with networks that facilitate
Internet access to large volumes
of subscribers.
There are a couple of factors that
can influence the answer to this
question. Does the host own its
own data center? If not, then they
are physically removed from their
servers and likely paying a co-location
company to provide monitoring for
them. When another company controls
the environmental systems that provide
the home for the host, one can argue
that you’ve created another
potential point of failure; that
being the communication of an issue
from the data center to the Web
host. That point of failure can
increase the latency between an
issue and its resolution, resulting
in increased downtime for your web
site. Second, if your Web host has
an issue with its own infrastructure,
then there may be travel time associated
with their engineers getting to
the data center to resolve it or,
once again, increased latency by
trying to remotely resolve an issue.
You might be surprised at how many
Webhosting don’t provide 24/7/365
support. The industry’s hosts
run the gamut from only email support
to providing phone and email support
24 hours per day and 365 days per
year. The best way to eliminate
not having support when you need
it, is to choose a host that can
assist you whenever you need it.
When an idea wakes you from a slumber
at 3 A.M., it’s nice to have
your host on the other end of the
phone to discuss it. When your site
malfunctions due to a programming
glitch the night before your store
is to open, it’s wonderful
to have your Web host on the phone
to decipher the issue with you.
When your cat accidentally deletes
some important files, know that
your host is there to help recover
them. Also make sure that your host
is providing support over the major
holidays. Many Webhosting will close
their support center, decrease their
support to only email, or send their
support team home with a pager to
be called in case of emergency.
All of these decreases can create
latency if your web site goes offline.
And, holidays are often days which
persons will spend time on the Internet
after they’ve completed all
of their social plans. Matter of
fact, word-of-mouth business is
one of the most effective means
to customer acquisition. When people
get together, they exchange ideas.
Failures that cause your site to
lose connection can happen. Therefore,
it's crucial to find a provider
whose hosting architecture provides
the least-risk of failure. Redundancy
is necessary. Single points of failure
are very bad, but many hosts attempt
to cut costs by risking single points
of failure. Ask your Web host about
their redundancy in server architecture
(web, email, and DNS servers), load-balancing,
and file storage.
A web server is the hardware and
software combination that serves
requested web pages, files, or other
information. Servers answer requests
from web browsers to provide information
from web sites, email, and databases.
They then send that information
to the requesting browser. Load
balancing divides the amount of
work that a server has to do between
multiple servers, which also adds
redundancy, so that more work gets
done in the same amount of time
and, in general, all web sites requests
within the network get served faster.
The load balancers stay in constant
contact with the servers to determine
how busy they are and/or if one
of them has failed. It may sound
like a no-brainer, but having your
site connected to the Internet is
the whole reason for having a web
site and a load-balanced, redundant
network is vital to that endeavor.
Has your email server ever been
down? Redundancy is also vital for
email and DNS servers. A Domain
Name System (DNS) server translates
requests to locate a web site. As
you can imagine, keeping email and
DNS servers online is a mission-critical
task for a Web host. For file storage,
seek a host that uses a reliable
storage solution with multiple auto-fail
over and hot-swappable drives to
ensure continuous delivery of your
web site.
Backing up web sites should be a
routine part of your Web host’s
operation. Backup is the activity
of copying files or databases so
that they will be preserved in case
of equipment failure or any other
catastrophe.
Look for a Web host that provides
a money-back guarantee. This will
allow you to try out the host’s
service. Should you find that the
service is sub-par in site performance,
reliability, or lacking the features
that you seek, the ability to request
your money back, within the parameters
of the guarantee, is priceless and
liable to save you from later trouble.
It is always a good to idea to inquire
about the Web host’s cancellation
procedures. There are many out there
who require you to send them an
email or make a phone call to cancel,
which can extend the time frame
to cancellation. A host who is confident
in their service will have a cancellation
form or online avenue within their
control panel. Now, they will likely
also have a retention program, so
don’t be surprised when they
call or email you to ask why you
are leaving. After all, your feedback
helps them to evaluate their service.
Sometimes people choose a host because
it has the exact feature set that
they need, but later find that feature
set means nothing when access to
those features is unreliable. Make
sure that a host has your desired
features and is also reliable. To
make sure that the host you are
evaluating has everything you need,
use the following list:
• A domain name, but be sure
to look for hidden registration
fees or renewal fees
• An ample amount of versatile
email accounts including web-based,
POP3, and IMAP
• Email spam filtering and
virus protection are a must these
days, unless you are providing this
on your own
• Enough disk space to meet
your site’s needs
• Monthly bandwidth allotments
that will cover your traffic and
the ability to increase that allotment
based on your site’s success
• Site building tools such
as extensions for FrontPage or other
online/downloadable site building
programs
• Ease of upload to your site
via FTP or other means
• Access to a robust traffic
analysis program or the raw logs
for you to process yourself
• Programming languages, including
CGI, PHP, MIVA (if needed)
• Ecommerce shopping cart
alternatives
• Database capability, dependant
upon your application preference
You might be surprised how many
sites that once started for fun
or as a hobby have grown into some
of the most popular sites on the
Internet. Hence, you never know
when you’ll outgrow your current
product or service and need to move
up the ladder to the next rung.
Make sure that your Web host can
meet your anticipated growth, not
only within the product range of
shared hosting, but should you ever
need a dedicated server or co-location
solution, your host is there to
discuss and provide the best solution.
Do your homework by using the above
questions as a template and you
will likely save yourself some major
headaches down the road. If you’ve
gathered information about multiple
hosts, you can now compare apples
to apples and decide on the best
host for your needs. Hopefully,
the work that you’ve done
will avoid forcing you to use your
gut, but rather make an informed
decision based on the facts. Perhaps,
the best piece advice that you will
find in any article or forum about
choosing a host is, if something
seems too good to be true, then
it probably is.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the author:
Bob Roth is a Marketing Consultant
and the Director of Marketing for
SimpleNet.com Web hosting. He has
worked for some of the most influential
and successful companies in the
world. Distribution of this article
allowed by linking back to http://www.simplenet.com/jump/articles
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