Articles
In this section we try to provide useful articles that will help webmasters find their way in the webhosting market. Any contributions are welcome, so please feel free to submit your own article.
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- If you wish to contribute and have your article published on NosHosts, please do not hesitate and send your materials to articles@noshosts.com
Choosing a webhost
There are many web hosting companies around the web, some good ones, some bad. This article will help you distinguish the good ones from the bad ones and decide which one is perfect for you.
Operating system. Generally hosting providers are divided in Windows and Linux hosting. Depending on how your website is built, you need to decide whether to search for a windows type hosting or stick with linux. If your website needs ASP or a windows oriented database server, you will definitely need windows hosting. Otherwise, linux hosting is the one for you. It supports almost all open source technologies such as php, cgi, perl, mysql. If your website has html pages only and does not require a scripting language or a database, linux is still the better choice for you since it usually offers better performance than windows.
Features. Once you have decided whether to go with linux or windows, the next step is to look at the plan features. It is important to make sure that your package will meet your requirements and satisfy your website's specific needs. Generally you need to stay alert for the following:
- disk space
- monthly bandwidth
- number of domains allowed to host
- databases
- scripting languages supported (asp, php, perl, python, ssi)
- cron jobs allowed?
- e-mail accounts
- backups. How often and whether the new backup replaces the old one.
Price. This is what most customers look at first. Unfortunately this is the last factor that indicates whether it is a good service or not. Many webhosts oversell their services dramatically, which let's them offer extremely cheap, even ridiculous prices. But stay alert - cheaper is not better. Finding a good host with fair prices is the best thing to do. This ensures that you will get a reliable service that will last for years. And finally, don't forget to check the agreement period, billing cycles and discounts when prepaying for 1 or 2 years.
Support. Customer service is another important aspect that is often forgotten until it's too late. Be sure to check the response time of your desired hosting company before you decide to sign up. Almost all hosting companies claim to provide 24/7 support, but only a few actually back it up. Look for the available support options - phone, ticketing, skype, e-mail. Most customers require that their hosting company has phone support, but often is a trouble getting real answers over the phone, so some companies avoid offering phone support but stick with ticketing systems instead with amazing response times and thoroughly answered questions. This saves time and nerves for both the company and the customers.
Reputation. Look for any customer reviews. What do they say. Check to see what people already using this company do think. Another indication of a good hosting company is marketing. Do they advertise on many websites - if yes, this is a good indication this is a reliable host. Also, check the backgrounds. Do a whois on the domain name to see since when does this company exist. If it's a fresh one, you should probably reconsider the risk of hosting with a "newbie". Reliable hosting companies over the internet have been established 5-8 years ago.
Uptime. It is true that no hosting provider can ofer a true 100% uptime. Most hosting companies guarantee 99.9%, which is standard. However, it's another story if they actually keep it. That's why it's a good idea to look for a 3rd party report on this hosting company to see the actual uptime. Also, it is the monitoring period that is very important when speaking of uptime. Monitoring periods should be no more than 5 minutes. Otherwise the monitoring party will not detect downtimes of about 5 minutes, which will make the uptime stats worthless.
There are many web hosting companies around the web, some good ones, some bad. This article will help you distinguish the good ones from the bad ones and decide which one is perfect for you.
Operating system. Generally hosting providers are divided in Windows and Linux hosting. Depending on how your website is built, you need to decide whether to search for a windows type hosting or stick with linux. If your website needs ASP or a windows oriented database server, you will definitely need windows hosting. Otherwise, linux hosting is the one for you. It supports almost all open source technologies such as php, cgi, perl, mysql. If your website has html pages only and does not require a scripting language or a database, linux is still the better choice for you since it usually offers better performance than windows.
Features. Once you have decided whether to go with linux or windows, the next step is to look at the plan features. It is important to make sure that your package will meet your requirements and satisfy your website's specific needs. Generally you need to stay alert for the following:
- disk space
- monthly bandwidth
- number of domains allowed to host
- databases
- scripting languages supported (asp, php, perl, python, ssi)
- cron jobs allowed?
- e-mail accounts
- backups. How often and whether the new backup replaces the old one.
Price. This is what most customers look at first. Unfortunately this is the last factor that indicates whether it is a good service or not. Many webhosts oversell their services dramatically, which let's them offer extremely cheap, even ridiculous prices. But stay alert - cheaper is not better. Finding a good host with fair prices is the best thing to do. This ensures that you will get a reliable service that will last for years. And finally, don't forget to check the agreement period, billing cycles and discounts when prepaying for 1 or 2 years.
Support. Customer service is another important aspect that is often forgotten until it's too late. Be sure to check the response time of your desired hosting company before you decide to sign up. Almost all hosting companies claim to provide 24/7 support, but only a few actually back it up. Look for the available support options - phone, ticketing, skype, e-mail. Most customers require that their hosting company has phone support, but often is a trouble getting real answers over the phone, so some companies avoid offering phone support but stick with ticketing systems instead with amazing response times and thoroughly answered questions. This saves time and nerves for both the company and the customers.
Reputation. Look for any customer reviews. What do they say. Check to see what people already using this company do think. Another indication of a good hosting company is marketing. Do they advertise on many websites - if yes, this is a good indication this is a reliable host. Also, check the backgrounds. Do a whois on the domain name to see since when does this company exist. If it's a fresh one, you should probably reconsider the risk of hosting with a "newbie". Reliable hosting companies over the internet have been established 5-8 years ago.
Uptime. It is true that no hosting provider can ofer a true 100% uptime. Most hosting companies guarantee 99.9%, which is standard. However, it's another story if they actually keep it. That's why it's a good idea to look for a 3rd party report on this hosting company to see the actual uptime. Also, it is the monitoring period that is very important when speaking of uptime. Monitoring periods should be no more than 5 minutes. Otherwise the monitoring party will not detect downtimes of about 5 minutes, which will make the uptime stats worthless.
