The WebDev Buzz

Many web hosting companies, at the beginning, are supportive, helpful, and dependable. But just when the website is up and running, and when the orders start to come in, something goes terribly wrong. The website cannot be accessed because the server is down. Worse, the web host cannot be contacted. Emails stay unanswered for several days and the phone is manned by someone who cannot even distinguish an FTP from RAM.

The situation is utterly maddening. At best, it leaves the website owner in a limbo. At worst, a client slips away (and will unlikely come back) because the server goes down while he is in the middle of placing an order.

This is just one example of a nightmare that a person may go through when he makes the mistake of signing up with a bad web host. Some web hosts are simply technically incapable of supporting many clients. But there are other web hosts who do worse. Some meddle with the files of their clients. Some remove add-ons and upgrades without asking permission from the clients. Some claim to fix the web files after they have messed with it. And some simply don’t deliver the services that they advertise.

How will a website owner avoid a bad web host and find one which will provide the services he needs? There is no sure way to avoid bad web hosts. But a website owner can increase his chances of signing up with the right web host when he does the following:

1. Don’t rely on review and raves about web hosts. These are just part of their advertising and does not truly reflect on the web hosts’ services.
2. To find good web hosts, ask people who also have business websites. These people are in the position to know which web hosts are reliable and which are undependable.
3. If a web host offer extremely low rates, ask which services they can offer and which services they cannot perform. For example, cheap web hosts do not have the resources to transfer existing websites into their own server.
4. Research the uptime percentage of web host. By the word “research”, this means that the web host should not be asked directly about this information. All web hosts will claim that they have high uptime, such as 99.99%. To research, one must go to web hosting forums where one will find people who have had experiences of some web hosting companies. The information from these people is more reliable.
5. Ask for references. Good web hosts will be eager to provide some information about their satisfied clients. If a web host claims that all information about their clients is private, it could mean that their present clients are not pleased.
6. Find out how fast they will respond to problems. A person may send an email asking about a particular service of the web host. If the web host responds within 24 hours, such may be taken as a good sign. But not always. The web host may be merely trying to impress a prospect.

All the suggestions above can help a website owner avoid web hosts that will only bring problems to his Internet business.