Choosing A Web Host | PCMech Insider

Choosing A Web Host

One of the prerequisites for having your own website is having a place to PUT your website. This is what a web host is. It is simply a computer which has been set up to deliver content to Internet visitors on request. Choosing a web host can be a daunting task – especially if you are new to all of this. Even seasoned website veterans can find themselves having a difficult time differentiating between hosts because of the similarity between them and the fact that almost all of them say the same thing. In this lesson, we will go through the basics of what a web host will offer you and lead you through the terminology. I’ll also give you a big list of things to watch for when shopping for a home for your website.

Web Hosting Terminology

Most web host packages boast the same features in differing levels. Here is a basic rundown:

Web space or storage. This is simply the amount of space on the hard drive of the server that your host will let you use. To determine how much you need, you need to look at what your site will encompass. Websites are typically very small in file size. Even a site consisting of 100 pages, each having multiple images, will probably take up only a few hundred megabytes. Even the most basic hosting packages will provide several gigabytes of storage and this should be enough for most needs. If you later want to do more involved things with your website, it is possible you’ll need additional space.
Monthly Transfer Volume. This refers to the amount of actual transfer going from your hosting account out to the Internet. To illustrate this, think about a server with a single 1 MB file on it. That 1 MB file will count towards your total storage capacity. However, if 100 people come to your site and download that 1MB file, that is 100MB of actual transfer. The more monthly transfer your hosting account allows for, the more traffic your site can accommodate before your host will begin to charge you additional fees for increased bandwidth (bandwidth refers to the transfer of data).
# of FTP Accounts. When you connect to your hosting account with an FTP program, you must log in via a username and password. This is your FTP account. You will obviously require at least one for yourself. Additional FTP accounts would be for additional people who you want to be able to log into your account with a different username and password.
# of E-Mail Accounts. Most web hosts will offer you a huge number of email accounts. It is nothign for them to offer it, and they are well aware that you’ll never use that many. Do not be surprised to see a $3/month hosting plan offering 500+ email accounts. They are counting on the fact that big numbers will make it seem like a bargain.
CGI, PHP, Perl, etc. These are programming languages that you can use on your website if enabled. We will discuss more about this later, however these programming languages allow you, with the proper skills, to introduce interactivity to your site by installing or programming scripts such as forms, forums, blog software, etc. Without ability to run such scripts, you will be limited to HTML and images on your site.
MySQL Databases. MySQL is the most common type of database offered by web hosts. Again, ability to use MySQL on your hosting account means you will be able to run scripts on your site such as forums, blogs, etc. If you know you’re going to want to do this down the road, pay attention to the number of databases the host will allow. Some will limit you to as little as 1 database. The more you are allowed, the more you can do without the complexity of trying to run multiple pieces of software on one database.

Evaluation of Hosts

If you try to judge web hosts only by what they say on their website, you will be confused. First of all, most of them say the same thing. Secondly, it is not unheard of for web hosts to stretch the truth. There are many reputable web hosts out there. There are also people running hosting companies out of their garage and trying to pass off as a large company.

The absolute best way to shop for web hosting is to read the reviews. Look around online and read what people are saying about particular web hosts. Here are some sites you can check out:

Also, be sure to search Google for any host you are evaluating. This is a great way to get user reviews.

Some Things to Watch Out For

As mentioned earlier, one of the complicated things about searching for a good web host is that you can’t always trust what they say on their website. The reputable hosts are trustworthy. However, there is very little stopping a guy with a server in his bedroom from putting up a nice looking website that makes him look like a huge company. Here are some things that you may see on their website:

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.
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.
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.

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.

A Recommendation

I have been using Pair Networks for some time now and feel completely comfortable recommending them. They are a reputable host. I am not making any kickbacks my recommending Pair Networks. I am just one of their happy customers. They’re not the cheapest out there, but they are good.