Tips on choosing a good web host

[arunpattnaik]

Hi guys,

I suggest you to pay attention to the following details while choosing the right host for you.

1. Uptime - Look for atleast 98% uptime. People seldom come back to down sites.
2. Don't settle for low bandwidth. Look for at least 100 GB+ deal. You'll lose precious traffic if your site doesnt load at all!
3. Take care of your budget. Prefer hosting services which give you credit limits for payments.
   
4. BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP! Choose the ones which provide daily, or at least monthly backups for you entire site (including databases).
5. Look for active support. I personally prefer hosts which provide live support feature. But you might settle down for a support forum. But i wont recommend you to go for hosting options just with support tickets.
6. Double check their hosting platform. If your pages are in php, go for linux hosting (relatively cheaper), or if you're into asp , .net pages, go for windows hosting packages.
7. Make sure they offer web based site management - instead of just FTP. Make sure they offer Java, statistical reporting, real audio, real video, mail list management, and a search engine. If you use Microsoft's Front Page, make sure they offer Front Page extensions.

Hope it helps. Good luck.

Cheers!

[DanielEZPZ]

Some of your points don't make any sense.

1. 98% of uptime is too low. Anything less than 99.9% in a month is too much.
2. If you have a 2mb website, 100GB bandwidth isn't going to be a necessity.
5. Some of the most successful hosts don't offer phone support and only provide ticket support. As long as its managed well, its fine.
7. a search engine? What???

[arunpattnaik]

daniel,

thanks for paying such close attention. I'll be glad to explain the points you've doubts on.

1. An "at least" is ALWAYS an "at least". i believe you know what i mean. I've seen people who dont even care for uptime at all! They are just flattered by the technical jargon like bandwidth, ssl, ftp, fantastico bla bla bla.
2. Well I would like to disagree on this part. What if your 2 mb website (2 mb?? u gotta be kidding me) gets a few million hits every month? If you're thinking about changing servers "after" getting famous, just cut that idea. It's never advisable to change your site from server to server. And why not to be prepared from the beginning?
5. Well, it's a matter of personal preference to be honest. I would never want to wait for several hours for an answer by the support ticket staff. And if you've more questions, wait for another few hours!! Why not just grab a host with live chat system and get your service right away?
7. YES, a search engine. For your information, some of the hosts, including my previous one , i wont name them obviously, DO NOT allow search engine scripts like google custom search or ajax search in their servers. And eventually your blog posts are pretty much a task to find.

Hope i've clarified your doubts :-)

[babadorie]

98% of uptime is not too low in my opinion. There is no true guarantee in uptime. A NOC can have frequent DOS attack which may keep sites down for hours if not days. It may have router problem and so on. What I look at is how frequently my site goes down. If It goes down say once every 2 to 3 months, that is great.
Just my 2 cents!

[Talks_44]

sorry but i am not agree with your points..

[babadorie]

You do not have to agree with me. This is a forum and you are entitle to your view but that's my view. Everyone sees things differently.