Unlimited bandwidth and web space
In web hosting industry, the adage "you get what you pay
for" is almost universally applicable. Do not fall for
hosts offering unlimited allowances, as there is no
unlimited bandwidth, nor unlimited web space. Host's pay
for each GB of bandwidth themselves. Hard drives also
aren't free, so how can they say it's unlimited? They
simply are performing false advertising in order to
attract customers.
The average website doesn't
use more than 1GB of bandwidth per month; the customer
is happy as he bought something "unlimited" and the host
gets a new customer, which won't cost them any more than
$1-2 USD per month. But imagine what would happen if I
had a website, burning much more bandwidth than an
average site does, and I signed up with a hosting
company offering unlimited traffic? The host would
simply suspend my account and tell me, that it was using
too much bandwidth. There even are companies which offer
unlimited bandwidth and have a statement on their terms
of service, explaining that unlimited bandwidth means
40GB, for example.
Will you really own your
domain name? - When you buy a domain name together
with a website hosting package, make sure the host will
register the domain name under your name. It usually
should be written in their FAQ, but, if there is no such
information, simply contact them. This will also give
you an opportunity to check how fast their customer
support team replies to inquiries. If the hosting
company registers domains under someone else's name, you
may have problems switching hosting providers later. If
you were in such situation, you would have to file for a
Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which costs
much more than both domain name and web hosting service
together.
Control Panel - For ease of
maintenance, a feature called a Control Panel is a
necessity; this tool will normally allow for regular
maintenance, be it email mailbox additions/deletions,
password resets, web additions, web count reports,
statistics and so on. If the site is for any sort of
business, this is an absolute must. The most popular web
hosting management software currently available is
cPanel. It's a next-generation web hosting control panel
system that allows you to manage your domain through a
web interface. The idea is to transfer as much of the
control of managing your web site to you; you have the
ability to manage all aspects of e-mail, files, backup,
FTP, CGI scripts, and web site statistics.
Value-added services - Hosting companies
offer different value-added services in order to set
themselves apart from the competition. Of course, these
are an advantage, but a common mistake customers make is
choosing a host just because it offers many value-added
services which won't be used anyway. Some of the really
useful features are:
1. Auto-installer
script – Auto-installers will save you time if you are
going to install a forum, image gallery, content
management system, etc. Installation procedures on an
auto-installer script take seconds and can be performed
by novices without the need of doing difficult tasks
usually associated with installations.
2.
Online website builder - It lets you design a website in
a few minutes without having any creation software and
knowledge. One very powerful website builder on the
market is Site Studio; this editor allows for ease of
use, full control of color schemes and themes, one-click
publishing, and an array of templates to use.
The last tip - In this article, I've
mentioned only a few warning signs which are worth
considering. You should know yourself that price and
allocations aren't as important as the quality of
service; if the budget is absolutely limited, then the
price can be a valid criterion, but otherwise it
shouldn’t receive much credence. By going through this
article and asking questions, you can narrow down the
list of web hosts to the point where a good, sound
decision can be easily made.
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