|
|
|
|
What you
should know before choosing a Web
Host...
Some
must read tips about the hosting industry,
and how to avoid being taken for a
ride!
1. Scam Plans
If it sounds too good to be
true it usually is! All Hosting Firms have
the same basic limitations when it comes
to server resources and system
specifications. There is no magic server
that has a never ending supply of ram and
cpu. If a host claims to give unlimited or
unusually high amounts of web space or
bandwidth, DO NOT JOIN THEM. The
thing to remember is that the average web
site uses about 50 Mb web space and less
then 1Gb bandwidth a month. So what
hosting companies do is - they lie! They
make up scam packages apparently offering
unlimited web space with 10Gb of monthly
bandwidth, or even unmetered bandwidth for
around ten or twenty pounds a year. They
are playing the numbers game.... Only one
or two of every 100 people that subscribe
to such a package are going to use the 10
Gb bandwidth, or an amount of bandwidth
which costs the web host more than they
charged their customer for this package.
So what do they do? They terminate the
sites that use this much bandwidth,
saying, "Your site is using too many
resources." They aren't lying about the
resource usage, it's the truth! Most
people don't realise that bandwidth and
web space used have nothing to do with the
server resources being used. Resource
usage has to do with the amount of cpu and
ram a site uses. When a customer uses his
allocated 10Gb bandwidth quota as
advertised, he is told his account has
been terminated because his site is using
up most of the servers' cpu and ram,
although in reality, his site was
terminated because it was using nearly
10Gb of bandwidth.
2. Never Pay Yearly
Another thing you'll notice
is that most of these incredible scam
packages force you to pay for a year up
front to get the good pricing. Why would a
hosting company care if you pay monthly or
yearly? After all, if you are satisfied
with their service, you're going to employ
their services for much longer then a
year. High merchant fees aren't really an
issue too, so why? It's because most have
horrible support, slow servers, or even
tons of downtime. If you were paying month
to month you're not going to put up with
it, but if you paid for a year up front
what are you going to do. You won't get
your money back so you have no choice but
to stay with them. PAY MONTHLY!
However, we do offer one budget package
which is offered with a yearly payment
option only, because it is senseless to
set up a monthly direct debit to collect
90 pence. Our other packages have yearly
and monthly prices listed on our site
mainly because some people prefer to pay
yearly; unlike most of other web hosts,
our yearly prices are NOT discounted. We
couldn't care less if you paid us monthly
or yearly as people generally remain with
a host they are happy with.
3. Domain Name Tips
Do not join a host that
includes a free domain name with their
hosting package, and never purchase your
domain name from a hosting provider,
unless you are positive they will register
YOU as the domain owner. (We do, many
don't) If you have not been registered as
the legitimate domain owner by a web host,
they could blackmail you into staying with
them because you couldn't take the domain
to another host as you are not the
registered owner. You will not be able to
prove it is your domain by
proving you paid for it - if your name is
not listed as the registrant in a whois
lookup, then the domain is not yours!
4. A few more tests to
check out how legit a web host
is
How long have they been
around? We began hosting when we
registered X9.NET on 18-Jul-1998 (That's
11 years ago!) 1998 was also the
year we became an accredited Nominet
registrar for .UK domains, first
with the tag GOHOT and later with the tag
X9INTERNET. And both tags are current to
this day. To check out other web hosts, do
a whois lookup
on their domain name. Then look for the
creation date of the domain name. If the
domain name was created less then 2 years
ago, it's more of a risk to join that web
host. They could be a great host, but
considering more then 95% of new hosts go
out of business within the first 2 years,
that really isn't something you should be
taking a chance on. It's now too easy to
become a web host. All someone has to do
is purchase our reseller package and
bingo! - he or she is a web host. Sure,
the hosting may be good, but that doesn't
mean good support is being offered, nor
does it mean our reseller-hosting bill is
paid on time.
5. Uptime
If a hosting company claims
100% uptime all the time, they are lying.
All servers need to be rebooted every now
and then for security and software
updates. X9 follows the sun clock when
scheduling maintenance, for example, UK
maintenance is carried out between 02.00
and 04.00 GMT if required, and maintenance
on US servers is carried out between 07.00
and 09.00 GMT, again, only if required.
This is not a nightly routine. Average
downtime is around 5 minutes.
We only guarantee a 99.9%
uptime because we are being realistic.
Please note that our uptime guarantee does
not cover hardware failure, system crashes
caused by ambitious users and acts of God,
including earthquake & flooding, as
well as downtime caused by terrorist or
war action.
|
|
|
