Choosing a Webhosting

[boron]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~HOW TO CHOOSE AND TEST WEBHOSTING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Quick trial: You've found a site which opens fast. Go in dnsstuff.com and put the domain (bare domain.com without http,www and any slash) in "Reverse DNS Lookup" field. In most cases you'll got the URL of the Hosting company. Now you can contact them (most have quick contact forms) and ask few questions. From speed/quality of their answer you can get the first idea about their support. For other first hand info visit some Hosting forum.

1. What SPACE/BANDWITH and FEATURES you'll need?

An average forum or blog page size is ~100KB. 1GB of space is thus enough for 10,000 forum/blog pages. Large images can be 1MB of size. Autocad image file can be over 50MB. One our long video takes over 700MB.

10,000 visits/month of a 100KB page will use 1GB/month of bandwith.

Most of hostings are Linux/Unix based, this has no effect on what operating system you use. Windows hosting is required only for MS SQL databases and .ASP.
Each script (image hosting, blog script, shopping cart...) requires one mySQL (or other) database. PHP scripts (phpLD directory, phpBB forum) will need PHP support. Some scripts requires latest PHP and mySQL versions. With Fantastico script installer (http://netenberg.com/fantastico_scripts.php) you can upload and install Word Press blog script (or ~50 others) in two minutes.
Control panels: (http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=532401) cPanel, WHM, Plesk, DirectAdmin, H-Sphere, HELM, Ensim...
You will need FTP account for uploading files, few mail accounts for let's say support @ site.com , sales@ site.com... probably Website statistic (AWstats, Webalizer...), maybe password protected directories...

Most of hosting features explained here (http://skynethosting.net/linux-web-hosting.htm) (move mouse over a feature). *I'm not promoting this particular host.


2. PRICES:
Free and cheap (under $2) hostings are very unreliable. $4-5/month is the lower limit to get a decent host by my opinion. If you're not 100% sure about the host, choose monthly payment. Most of hostings offer 30 days money back guarantee.


3. Hosting server should be LOCATED in the area where you're expecting most visitors from, since distance server-visitor affects web site's loading time. If your visitors will be mostly from Asia, choose server in Europe or Asia. Sites hosted on US servers can load 10+ seconds for a Chineese visitor. Hostingspeeds.com (http://www.hostingspeeds.com/index.php?act=hcompanies&show=all&order=overall) shows the fastest servers in the world, you can narrow search to each continent though.


4. HOSTING TYPES

Most SHARED hostings cost $5-10, you can get up to 10-20GB of space and over 100GB of bandwith. 1TB (1,000GB) of bandwith is not realistic for shared hosting, you won't get it even if it is promissed in a hosting plan. Some shared hostings provide MULTIPLE DOMAIN hosting - you can host from 2 to "unlimited" sites, usually about 10. All come with separate cPanel, you get all within a prices mentioned. Unlimited subdomains, addon domains (one of your own main domains pointing to a particular subdomain) or parked domains are often offered.

RESELLER hosting - you can use multiple accounts yourself or you re-sell them. You can expect about 20% from each "your" customer spent. Each particular reseller account is or it is not on a separate class-C IP, so you have to ask hosting owner about that.
With VIRTUAL PRIVATE HOSTING (VPS) you host your site(s) on a same server together with other users, but all accounts are totaly separated with VPS software, so all users don't steal computer resources one from another.
At DEDICATED hosting you rent the whole server, you can upload operating systems and any programs/scripts you want. Prices start at ~$100/month. AVOID cheap dedicated hosting!
COLOCATING hosting means you buy your own physic server and you place it in one datacenter in your area. Hosting company will provide you connection and server managment, hardware and software is up to you. On a long term basis this can be cheaper then dedicated hosting.


5. HOSTING REVIEWS (make a favourite hosts list)

http://News.netcraft.com/
http://Besthostratings.com/searchplans.php
http://Webhostingstuff.com
http://Webhostmagazine.com
http://Findmyhosting.com
http://Hostsearch.com/
http://WHREVIEWS.com/


6. TEST CHOOSEN HOSTS:

http://Dnsstuff.com Use "DNS lookup" test to check possible server errors. Avoid hosts with red alerts. Yellow alerts are nothing special and are common.
http://Alertra.com Put the URL of hostings Home page and check how fast sites load from US, Europe, China. Good loading time is about 1 second, but 4 seconds from China is still good if the server is in US.

---

If confused, check some BIG WEBHOSTING FORUM to ask for hosting experience, theory, reviews, offers (big forums search: big-boards.com).

Other tests, reviewing sites or other ways how to find a god host highly appreciated.

[Mystic]

One of the most important thing is support. How good is the support system. How long do they take to respond. What are the ways you can seek support?
These must find ou the answer to these questions before choosing a host, especially if you are going for dedicated hosting/vps.

[boron]

I will edit my article a little and emphasize a need for good support. You can find a great host with a great features and all tests go through smoothly, but support - you can check it with:
- contacting a host and asking few questions even if you are not their customer. By speed and quality of their response you get the first feeling.
- asking on forums
- looking in Google: "this-hosting review"

[igauresh]

Is there any indian webhosting provider that is on par with the service of foreign webhosting services. I have had ppl asking something like 4000 to 5000 rupees (equivalent to 100 dollars approx) for a year of hosting. And ppl are even paying that much amount without knowing that cheaper and better options exist.
However I havent heard of any native indian service so if there is one pls let me know as they can provide better and cheaper rates.

[boron]

For finding local hosts list the most convenient site I've found so far is hostingspeeds.com.

Hostings in Asia (http://www.hostingspeeds.com/index.php?act=continent&continent=3) arranged by tested Hosting speed.

India's (http://www.hostingspeeds.com/index.php?act=hcompanies&search=true&q=India) hosting menu is here, hm, test speeds were not made as I see.

But you can just have a quick look in their hosting plans and then copy-paste URLs of their URLs in http://alertra.com to get an idea how fast the site hosted with them will open in variuous parts of the world. By my experience this test is quite comparable with live tests I've done asking my online mates to open a site.

[Submerge]

I agree, support is my number one issue. I use media catch, they have great support. Usually all my problems are fixed within a day.

[Arthur07]

I've used surpass hosting (http://www.surpasshosting.com/) since early February.

It's pretty cool -- i got my whole years hosting for only $1 (it was a special offer though). I haven't had any downtime, well not as far as a i know. Tech support is pretty cool as well.

[boron]

I've opened a new thread for reviews of web hosting companies (http://publisherforums.com/showthread.php?t=999).

[Mystic]

The cost of servers is quite high in India. So, Indians hosts would be more expensive.

[jhnrang]

Hey Mate
I have few questions for you:)

If I host my cheap hosting and I get good service --almost 99.99% uptime--do I still need to go for a costlier hosting--to make everything safe?

Besides --I get some FREE hosting offers and I accept that. Recently I have been offered to host my new web directory (http://www.bestinternetresource.info --free) from one of my mate on DP --and I have been hosting my sites with his hosting company that is located in the US --and getting good service. Do I change? I get most of my visitors from US, India and EU. So where should I locate my host?
Thanks for your answer.:)

[boron]

So where should I locate my host?

I've found these two ways very informative:

1. Put your site in Help thread here and ask members here to open a site to tell you loading time. It's important to know:
- where they are clicked from (US, Europe...)
- their connection type
So, if site opens fast in US and Europe, no need to change.

2. Alertra.com gives you automated answer about hosting server response time. You get results from China, Europe, US.

[jhnrang]

Ok---I'll test my hosting infos with that site but I am not very comfortable to open a help thread.

[boron]

... not very comfortable to open a help thread.

MSN, PMs, mails...to people you know can do the job.