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So, you’re looking to build
a web site or so fed up with your current web host
that you are desperate to transfer your site elsewhere? |
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You may not even be aware of your current
host’s vulnerabilities in an industry where each week
there is news about a host going down for one reason
or another. Your first problem is narrowing the thousands
of choices down to a few that you can research further.
Seek friends or associates that have a web site and
ask for their advice. Visit one of the many forums about
web hosting, ask the members for advice or search threads
from those that have asked before you. Once you’ve located
a few hosts to research, the ten questions below will
take you a long way towards making an informed decision.
You may be able to find many of the answers to these
questions on the hosts’ web sites, but always feel free
to call the host and quiz them about their operations.
The quality of the answers and degree of professionalism
you get from a potential host often transfers to the
type of support you’ll receive once you become a customer.
Without further ado, the ten question to ask your web
host:
- How long has the web host been in business?
- Does the web host own its data center?
- How many upstream Internet providers does the web
host have?
- Does the web host monitor its customers’ sites
twenty-four hours per day? How?
- Does the web host provide 24/7/365 phone and email
support?
- What levels of redundancy does the web host’s architecture
provide?
- Does the web host automatically backup customer
web sites in case of data loss? How often?
- What is the web host’s billing policy?
- Does the web host provide the features that you
need for your web site?
- Does the web host have the products and services
to handle your growth?
1. How long has the web host been in business?
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.
2. Does the web host own its data center?
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.
3. How many upstream Internet providers does
the web host have?
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.
4. Does the web host monitor its customers’
sites twenty-four hours per day? How?
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.
5. Does the web host provide 24/7/365 toll
free phone and email support?
You might be surprised at how many web hosts 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 web hosts 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.
6. What levels of redundancy does the web host
provide?
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.
7. Does the web host automatically backup customer
web sites in case of data loss? How often?
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.
8. What is the web host’s billing policy?
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.
9. Does the web host provide the features that
you need for your web site?
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
10. Does the web host have the products and
services to handle your growth?
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 former employee of broadcast.com
and Yahoo!. He is currently the Director of Marketing
for industry icon SimpleNet.com
Web Hosting. He can be contacted at marketing@simplenet.com.
Distribution of this article allowed by linking back
to http://www.simplenet.com/jump/articles. |
