As I have mentioned in previous posts, as a side gig I manage web servers for a couple of hosting providers. As part of the job, sometimes I have to deal with situations which really make me scratch my head. I am not talking about end users here, rather “methodology” of some web hosting providers. In no way, shape or form am I claiming or implying to know better than anyone else on the subject of web hosting. That said, I do know enough to recognize a situation I would consider less than ethical when it comes making claims on hosting resources and capabilities to end users.

First of all, I want to make sure it is understood not all web hosts use underhanded tactics, as most are likely to be totally honest, and I am not singling out any hosting provider (not going to name names). This article is just to inform you of what does indeed happen. All the of situations below I have either heard personally through web hosts themselves, from one of my clients (remember, my clients are not end users, rather hosting providers themselves) or from a source I would consider extremely reliable.

Enough with the disclaimers, here we go:

Get Your Own Dedicated Server

This seemingly attractive offer is appealing to both people who are “in the know” as well as a typical customer seeking hosting. Why pay for shared hosting (where many sites are hosted on a single server) when you can have your own server for just a bit more a month? Especially when you get top of the line hardware. Be careful, because while it is true you are getting your own dedicated server, you might not be getting your own dedicated box.

A server, (very) simply put, is a combination of hardware and software (operating system plus applications) working together in order to support lots of end users. Traditionally, this means you have a single box with a server OS loaded, however through the magic of virtualization, a single box can run any number of virtual servers. In other words, a single hardware box can run several independent operating systems at the same time (so if one OS crashes, you can reboot it without effecting any of the other virtual servers running on the machine). What this means to you, is the “dedicated server” could simply be one of 8 (or insert any other number) virtual servers all running from a single hardware box sharing the resources advertised. When the dual quad-core processor with 8 GB of memory is split 8 ways, it doesn’t run quite as fast.

Our Data Center Is Top Notch

This claim can be the most deceptive of all. While data center has an understood meaning, it is by no means definitive. Just about anything can be construed to be a data center when you are listing bullet points on a web page. By simply stretching or omitting certain truths and throwing up a stock image of a row of rack-mounted servers I could make my home office sound like a data center:

• Cisco router and firewall (I have a Linksys - a division of Cisco - home router with a built in firewall).
• 100 mb backbone (all my equipment and NICs are 100 mb capable), but you would probably see gigabit backbone instead.
• Backup power supply (pick any consumer level battery backup).
• Climate controlled environment (we have heating and air conditioning).
• [insert a stock photo of row of server racks here which I paid $20 for the rights to use.]

Granted this is a very absurd example, but you get the idea of how easy it is to stretch the truth.

A simple example is one of my clients, when they decided to get into the hosting business, moved several sites from their previous hosting provider whose “data center” was an air conditioned closet in a garage. Of course, the hosting provider touted their Cisco routers and firewalls, but this doesn’t mean anything when a transformer down the street blows or a tree falls on their power line. The deceptive part is the hosting provider was 100% accurate with their claims of having a data center with all the big name equipment in a “dedicated” location. Unfortunately, data center can be so loosely interpreted that you never know exactly what you are going to get.

Avoid The “Free” Domain Registration With Hosting Package

If there is nothing else you take from this article, remember this: Never let your hosting provider register your domain name for you as part of a hosting deal. Often times you can purchase a hosting package which includes free domain name registration and renewal as long as you remain a customer. While this may seem appealing, it is the worst thing you can do because your hosting provider, not you, owns the domain. This may not sound like a big deal, but as soon as you want to move hosting providers, guess who controls your domain? Not you. Worse yet, there is absolutely nothing you can do to get control over your domain unless the current owner (the hosting provider) transfers it to you.

You can find a myriad of horror stories about people wanting to move to a different hosting provider and their domain being held hostage because of this. To make sure this doesn’t happen to you, register your domain separately from purchasing a hosting package.

Award Winning Customer Service

You would be hard pressed to find a host which does not have award winning customer service, so you can pretty much ignore this claim. For the most part, you will get documentation available online as well as email support (some may offer phone support, but realistically email is your best bet). A web host’s tech support is, most likely, a single person and their email inbox, at least this is what my experience has shown.

Typically, every host uses standard FTP as a way to give you access to your web site contents or will offer a master control panel of some sort as a way to manage any additional services you purchased, such as database, blog and forum administration. You might end up using tech support a couple of times, but by no means should this greatly influence your decision. For the most part whatever tech support you get will be able to help you with any problems you have.

Do Not Transfer Your Domain To Your Host

If a host asks you to do this, it should be considered a warning sign. In order for a hosting provider to serve your web site, all that needs to be done is a simple name server redirect. If a host says they need you to transfer your domain to them in order to host your web site, they are lying.

For example, suppose you own “yippie.com” and you want “XYZ Hosting” to host your web site. XYZ Hosting will have their own DNS servers (aka “name servers”) which control the IP routing (for lack of a better word) for domains they host. So what needs to happen, is XYZ Hosting’s name servers need to control the routing of your domain, yippie.com. You can easily accomplish this by going to your domain registrar’s control panel and pointing your DNS name server entries to be XYZ Hosting’s name server DNS entries (usually, these are something like: ns1.xyzhosting.com and ns2.xyzhosting.com). This gives XYZ Hosting’s DNS servers control over the routing of your domain, but you still fully own and control yippie.com. This way, if you later decide you no longer want to use XYZ Hosting in favor of ABC Hosting, a simple yippie.com name server entry change in your domain registrar’s control panel is all that is needed.

If you were to transfer your domain to the hosting provider, you are essentially giving them ownership of the domain (i.e. it is no longer yours) and… well, re-read the above pitfall.

Other Things To Be Aware Of

• Unlimited Bandwidth and Storage: These (or substitute extremely high numbers in place of unlimited) are very common bullet points. Don’t get me wrong, it is great to have this available, but is very misleading. Simply put, probably 99.9% of all web sites will not exceed 100 MB of storage or go over 500 MB of bandwidth for an entire year, and that is being generous. Hosts know this, so they advertise ridiculously high numbers to make their hosting package seem more appealing. Just in case though, you will probably find a clause in the host’s terms of service (TOS) agreement which prevents you from running a file download site on their servers which all but assures you will never come close to any imposed limit. Much like tech support claims, bandwidth and storage should not greatly influence your decision.
• Less Than $5 Per Month Hosting: As the adage goes… you always get what you pay for. Putting it bluntly, if you are paying $3 per month for hosting, you are only going to get $3 worth. Hosts can do many things to limit web sites on these plans, such as (but not limited to) capped memory and CPU resources. For example, a restriction might be that your site can only use up to 5% of the CPU at any one time, even if there are more resources available on the system. Doing this allows the host to squeeze an extremely large number of web sites on a single machine. Most of the time, this will not be advertised (for obvious reasons), and a lot of hosts may not even impose these restrictions. Depending on your web site, it may not even matter unless you are utilizing scripts (PHP, ASP, etc.) to generate your pages.
• 99.99% Up-Time Guarantee: Another bullet point you will be hard pressed not to find. If you do the math, 99.99% up-time means the server is only unavailable 4 minutes and 22 seconds per month (53 minutes an entire year). This would mean the servers are virtually never rebooted or have system maintenance performed on them, unless they have some sort of redundant clustering system going (which I would not count on except for very high end hosting providers). Additionally, if you read the fine print on some of the hosting providers web sites regarding this, you have to detail the specific dates and times when the servers were unavailable and for how long in order to make a claim. What do you get for this trouble? Usually one month of free service. In other words it isn’t worth your time. Ignore this claim as any web hosting provider is going to keep their systems operational as much as possible while balancing system maintenance.
• 100% Free Hosting: For the most part, I think a lot of these have died down, but if a host offers a free hosting package with “no strings attached” be very wary. Bandwidth isn’t free, in fact, it’s pretty expensive in a data center so I have a hard time believing anyone can cover their overhead giving away something which costs them money while having no vehicle to recoup their cost. Make sure you read the fine print in any agreement claiming this as most likely there are ads embedded somewhere in your site, or the hosting package is so limited that it is virtually worthless.

How To Find A Good Host

I am not trying to scare you away from hosting providers, as, again, more times than not you will not have a problem with whomever you decide to go with. If you are looking for a provider, here is a quick list of pointers which may help you out:

• Do not purchase your domain as part of a hosting package. I know I elaborated on this above, but it is worth mentioning again.
• Avoid “too good to be true” bargain hosts (cheapest) as well as the rip off hosts (most expensive). Narrow down your candidates to those priced in the middle somewhere.
• Shared hosting is ideal for 99% of web sites. Unless you have some very special needs, shared hosting is going to be the best bang for your buck.
• Do your homework on the host. Google whomever you are considering. If there is an overwhelming number of people complaining about them, mark that host off your list.
• If tech support is a concern of yours, send a question to their tech support team and see how fast and accurate their response is.
• Do not sign a long term contract. Go month to month with any new host. It might cost you a few more dollars in the short term, but can really save you in the event you choose a dud.

I certainly hope this article has been informative, and if not, entertaining. If I have missed anything, please feel free to comment below as I am sure there are many more tactics going on behind the scenes.